Namjoo hates this part the most. Saying goodbye to her mother.

At first, she enjoyed the time alone she got at home. But eventually it got lonely to the point  where she practically was over at either Bomi or Eunji’s house every night. Thankfully, Bomi’s dad was like a second father to her so he never minded her company. Also Eunji’s mom made the best food and would invite her over for dinner frequently, anyway.

But it was never the same as having a rare meal cooked by her mother. She misses her more and more each time she leaves.

“I will call you as soon as I land in China, okay?” Namjoo’s mother assures her, pulling her into a tight hug. Her tone softens, but Namjoo is still able to make out her voice in the crowded airport, “Don’t be too upset.”

Namjoo nods sorrowfully, but she knows in her heart she can’t help the way she feels. She holds onto to the warmth of her mother’s embrace for a few more seconds before letting go.

With a pitiful wave, Namjoo watches as her mother walks through the gate and out of her sight. To avoid any tears falling, her attention flickers up to the ceiling. She can’t show up to school with puffy, red eyes.

This morning, like any other time her mother has come home, she woke up extra early to see her off at the airport before school. During times like this, she has to get out of her comfort zone and ride a bus and taxi since the airport is fairly far from her house.

So after she hails a cab, she tells the driver the address of her house. Bomi and Eunji were planning on picking her up since they knew she couldn’t be alone with her thoughts during times like this.

When she reaches home, she has less than half an hour before her first class begins. Bomi’s car is already parked in her driveway but no one is inside. Squinting her eyes, she makes her way into her house.

Almost instantly as she steps through the threshold, two voices arguing enter her ears trailing through the house from the kitchen. Namjoo slams the front door shut and her two friends immediately cease their friendly conversation.

Eunji is the first to reveal herself, walking out of the kitchen with a piece of toast hanging out of . She raises her hand in greeting, “Hey, you’re back.”

“Yeah, I am,” she nods but her voice hints at sarcasm. She crosses her arms and tilts her head. “How the hell did you guys get inside?”

“The door was unlocked!” Bomi shouts, her voice muffled due to her head being in the fridge. Namjoo looks at Eunji for confirmation but her friend can’t hide her eye roll fast enough. She can almost hear her cursing out Bomi for her unreasonable explanation.

Reluctantly the shorter girl exposes herself, “Bomi bet me $20 that I couldn’t climb up to your window and sneak into the house, so naturally I took that as a challenge.”

Namjoo rolls her eyes at her ridiculous friends, “Why am I not surprised?”

“Yah, it’s your fault for never locking your window,” Bomi unnecessarily lectures strolling out of the kitchen, an apple in her hand, “let this be a lesson to you.”

“Whatever, unnie,” Namjoo replies glancing at her phone, “we’re gonna be late.”

Looking at the clock on the wall, Bomi’s eyes widen at the time. “!” she loudly whispers and hastily runs out the front door. Eunji laughs and pulls Namjoo along to follow the eldest.

Just as she closes the door to the backseat, Bomi rashly reverses out of her driveway and speeds off to the school. Namjoo groans when her head smacks against the window after the older girl makes a sharp turn.

In the front, Eunji’s casually gripping onto the handle above the door. They were both used to Bomi’s driving by now but sometimes it’s easy to forget how reckless she can be.

The make it inside the school with only minutes to spare. But because their first class is history, they have to first run to their lockers and grab their books.

“Okay, we meet up in front of the class,” Eunji plans grasping her two friends’ hands in the nearly empty hallway. “No matter what, we all take the punishment together.”

“Ready, set,” Namjoo pauses for effect, “go!”

Spinning in three different directions, they all hurry to their own lockers. Inevitably, they were going to be late to the first lesson. Whose fault it was did not matter. What matters is that no one gets left behind. (Namjoo always got pinches from her unnies for the overdramatic vow she proclaimed, but they agreed anyway.)

The bell rings just as Namjoo closes her locker door. She whines to herself, preparing for the detention they were all bound to receive.

Bomi’s already waiting outside the classroom when she gets there and Eunji’s close behind. They shove Eunji in front of them, considering she was the best speaker out of them.

She opens the door and all eyes immediately focus on the three girls. The history teacher is mid-sentence judging by her open mouth, but she shuts it to glare at them. “So nice of you three to join us.”

“Our apologies, ma’am, we actually have a very good reason for why we’re late,” Eunji begins, then she turns around and nudges Namjoo, who was right behind her, to save her from saying something ridiculous.

Ignoring the quiet laughs around the room, Namjoo subtly glares at the other girl’s back but smiles innocently when the teacher’s attention shifts to her, “Um, well, we had to drop Bomi unnie’s, uh, guinea pig...off at the vet!”

Eunji slowly twists around and frowns at her; a ‘that’s what you came up with?!’ expression written across her face. The youngest girl shrugs and elbows Bomi who has yet to speak up.

Coughing at the sudden regard, the oldest gathers herself then nods somberly, “Yeah, he had to get his vaccination.”

“But then, traffic got crazy on the way here so-”

“Will you three just sit down and accept your afterschool detention?” the history teacher interrupts with a tired sigh, pointing them to their seats. Another round of giggles escape some students’ mouths in the class.

The trio all pause then simultaneously say “yes, ma’am” before sheepishly trudging to their respective seats.

Namjoo takes her seat next to Hayoung who’s hiding her smile behind her hand. She pouts when the taller girl whispers, “Guinea pig, seriously?”

She shrugs, “I was under pressure.”

“You , now we have detention because of you,” Bomi whisper yells at her from diagonally, scowling non-threateningly. Namjoo turns around, appalled at the accusation.

“We agreed to not play the blame game!” she replies similarly. Hayoung laughs more visibly this time, shaking her head.

“Not when-” Bomi was cut off once again by the teacher who didn’t bother to turn around from the board.

“Miss Yoon, would you like to make that detention a double?” She raises her hand to effortlessly scribble down more notes on the chalkboard, unbothered.

“N-no, ma’am,” Bomi stutters and Chorong face palms, “sorry.”

Namjoo snickers and faces the front again, flashing Hayoung a mischievous grin. The younger chuckles, amused by her new friends.

A few hours later, the bell rings for lunch. Hayoung rises from her seat and meets up with Naeun, Chorong, and Eunji (who decided to join them for today) to head to the cafeteria. Before leaving the classroom, she glances at Namjoo who’s still sitting in her seat.

Last week, she was too afraid to ask the other girl if they could eat lunch together. She didn’t want to seem clingy. However, Eunji spilled that Namjoo never eats in the cafeteria while chewing on her sandwich at one point. She wonders if she stayed in the room during lunch alone.

Bomi frequently either had lunch detention or sat with her taekwondo friends, though recently she’s been showing up at their table more. Today, she stays behind with Namjoo.

After leaving the lunch line, Hayoung sets her tray down across from Naeun. Next to her, Eunji playfully feeds her causing the youngest to roll her eyes and fake gag. "Can’t you guys do that somewhere else? And by that I mean not where I’m trying to eat?"

They ignore her, as expected. She sighs loudly as Chorong joins them, also making a face at the disgusting couple, “Gross.”

Hayoung is about to throw a piece of spinach at them when Bomi shows up, shoving herself in between the two. Eunji smacks her and Naeun groans, annoyed with the interruption.

“Sorry, guys, but I think it was getting a little too provocative for my girl, Park Chorong, over there,” she lazily points at the girl next to Hayoung. Chorong, for the second time that day, face palms. Hayoung snickers, deciding she can get used to Bomi despite how annoying she can be.

She excuses herself, announcing she needs to head to the restroom. After finishing her business, Hayoung trails back to the cafeteria. On the way there she passes the library and through a window spots a familiar hunched over figure.

She makes a detour and heads inside the large room. Circling around the few bookshelves near the entrance, she shortly locates Namjoo quietly munching on a shrimp snack. There’s a book laid out on the table in front of her, as well as the rest of her lunch and she has her earbuds in.

Hayoung comes into her view but she doesn’t look up from whatever she’s reading. To avoid scaring the older girl, she waves her hand to get her attention. Namjoo’s eyebrows furrow then her eyes flicker upwards, landing on Hayoung’s figure. “Hayoung?”

Feeling a bit awkward, she waves again, “Hey, mind if I join you?”

Namjoo smiles sweetly and gestures to the seat across from her. She places a bookmark in the book she was reading before dropping it on her bag.

Hayoung takes the offered seat. She shakes her head when Namjoo holds out her bag of shrimp snacks for her. “I just ate.”

“How’s your mom?” She asks after. Namjoo’s smile drops the slightest bit at the question before reforming itself.

She puts her food away before answering, “She’s good. I dropped her off at the airport this morning.”

Hayoung observes her as her eyes fill with faint sorrow. She cannot begin to fathom how hard it must be to stay alone and it saddens Hayoung that there’s nothing she can do to help.

“This is gonna sound stupid but,” Namjoo smiles at her words, “are you okay?”

The older girl nods still smiling a bit. Her eyes briefly connect to Hayoung’s before looking down at her fiddling thumbs, “It’s not stupid but yeah, I’m okay.”

“So, what were you reading?” She questions in an attempt to change the subject. She peeks at the book lying on Namjoo’s bag on the ground. It’s a thick novel and by the looks of the bookmark, it seems the girl has gotten through half of it already.

“Oh,” she exclaims, grabbing the book again, “it’s ‘The Kite Runner’. One of my favorite english novels of all time.”

Namjoo’s mood picks up and she’s speaking enthusiastically, “My mom bought it for me a few years ago while she was in the States, and I’ve read it twice before. It centers around the betrayal of trust and living with that guilt.”

“Interesting,” Hayoung grins. “Sounds like I might have to read it sometime.”

(If Naeun or Chorong heard her just now they’d be pointing and laughing in her face at just the idea of Hayoung picking up something other than a gaming controller, and a book nonetheless.)

“You’ll love it, Hayoung-ah,” she claps excitedly, “You can borrow my copy if you want?”

Hayoung’s eyes widen, just what has she gotten herself into? Technically, she’s never actually finished a book. Her reports for school were done via summaries on the internet and the books stacked in her room were more for decoration (as once said by Naeun) than reading. And now suddenly, she’s willing to read and finish a book for Namjoo?

“That'd be great, unnie,” she tries not to stutter, “I’ll just use it once you’re done.”

Namjoo laughs, pulling out the bookmark. Then she slides the book over to the younger girl. “Here, like I said, I’ve read it twice already.”

The bell rings before Hayoung can say anything in return and she had no choice but to grab the book off the table. As Namjoo gathers her things, she pouts down at the deep green cover. She might possibly read the chapter summaries online later, but in the back of her mind she knows she’ll be sitting down and flipping through the pages like Namjoo expects.

They walk out together. However, before they can exit the library doors, Hayoung runs straight into a slightly taller figure. She falls back but doesn’t make impact with the floor since Namjoo’s behind her, holding her up. Looking up at the person she bumped into, she makes eye contact with the girl she’s been avoiding thinking about since Friday.

Lee Sojin.

The taller girl’s eyes expand as she takes in Hayoung. This can’t be happening, Hayoung thinks fearfully, not right now.

And as if the situation couldn’t get any worse, Sojin opens .

“Hayoung…”

-----

Ooooh, what’s Hayoung gonna do? And what’s Namjoo’s reaction throughout all this?

Hopefully you guys are finding it easy to make connections. If not, it’ll make sense soon.

Also sidenote, I really love writing vocal line’s friendship because they're hilarious. (Plus, did you notice that reference I made back to 2013 Apink when they made fun of Hayoung for having books but not reading any of them?)

Thank you for reading!!