Chapter 6

1+1=?

I may say, I’m quite satisfied with who my group mates turned out. However, when I glanced at Chaeyoung, I noticed that she didn’t look as contented as I am. Could it be that she doesn’t want me as her group mate since she’s getting sick of me already? I hope not.

The teacher told us that the presentation will be on Friday and Monday since we only have two meetings per week. The first three groups on Friday, while the remaining two on Monday. 

Since we’re the second to the last group, we’ve got some time to spare. The task isn’t that hard anyways.

“It’s already break time, let’s go?” Chaeyoung smiled at me, and now my thoughts about her not wanting me as her group mate are now gone. She pulled me with her out the classroom before anybody can even go out. I see, someone’s hungry.

“Oh. Wait.” I stopped, making Chaeyoung stop as well and look over me. “I was going to sign up for the art club. You can go ahead.” 

“I’ll just come with you. You probably don’t know where it is.” Without second thoughts, she held my hand once again and lead the way to where I was supposed to sign. What am I going to do without Chaeyoung? I would probably look like a lost kid wandering around the campus if it hadn’t been for her.

Now that I’ve think of it, I probably shouldn’t rely on her too much. I really shouldn’t get too attached. 

To my surprise, or rather disappointment, the room designated for the arts club is at the basement of the building. It was clean, there were two huge glass windows (sort of) with the fields as the view, there were cabinets for the art materials, and several chairs and easels as well, but there’s no fresh air! The windows that I thought weren’t exactly windows, they were just plain glass walls. How terrible. But I still love art so…

“You seem a bit hesitant?” Chaeyoung’s voice rang through my ears, making me flinch but I just stared at her. 

“If it’s something you like, then just go for it. Don’t think about it, just go for it.” That seemed to have encouraged me as I slowly walked to the girl by the table and took the pen and wrote my name on the member’s list.

The student facilitator told me that they will send a message to me about the schedule of the club. I thanked her, and Chaeyoung and I went to the cafeteria to eat. 

“Hi, _____.” A deep masculine voice greeted me just as Chaeyoung and I entered the cafeteria. 

“Hi Ethan.” I greeted back and he gave me a million watt smile. God he’s hot.

Ethan was going to say something but got interrupted by Chaeyoung’s loud coughing. Does she have a cold or something? 

“Oh, Miss president. Nice to see you.” He smiled at Chaeyoung, but she just rolled her eyes and faced me. “I’m hungry, let’s go?” She asked, but she didn’t really wait for my reply as she already pulled me with her, not giving me a chance to say goodbye to Ethan. 

Okay. Chaeyoung is acting out of character today. First, she keeps on pulling me, and second, she rolled her eyes at Ethan. There’s definitely something wrong. Perhaps she’s on her period?

We saw Wendy waving her hand to us, pointing at the chairs. She already bought her food and was in the middle of eating.

We’ve decided to start preparing for our presentation today during lunch time. Of course, after all of us have already eaten. 

Chaeyoung and I didn’t eat lunch together due to her Student body president duties, which is why I was thinking of skipping lunch, but then Ethan called me over to his table. His friends weren’t with him, which is quite surprising, considering that he’s always with them.

“Why aren’t you with Rosé or Lisa?” He asked once we settled our food on the table. 

“They’re busy. How about you?” Although I don’t really know where Lisa is. I tried to look for her around the cafeteria but she wasn’t here.

“They’re training. They said they would skip lunch, but I couldn’t, so…” He laughed, his dimple showing. 

We talked for a while and over all, he’s a cool guy. I can tell that he’s not the arrogant playboy type of guy, which is very common when you’re in the football team, but he’s actually nice and easy to talk to. He was able to make me talk comfortably when I consider myself usually quite reserved.

I had to meet up with my group mates by 12 o’clock at the library so I cut our conversation short and said my goodbye. 

To my surprise, when I came to the library my group mates were already there. I actually thought that I’ll be the first one.

Were they planning without me? Ha!

I went over to them and they didn’t seem to notice me since they were too engrossed with planning without me. So much for excluding me.

“—- I just want to be clear with all of you.” Jennie had her arms crossed and she was looking at every person on the table, more like glaring.

Jisoo raised and eyebrow, facing Jennie. “Well what if I tell you that I like——“ She closed once she saw me standing by the table. The others took notice of my existence as well and had their eyes wide. Caught in the act of starting the task without me. Ha!

“Oh _____. You’re already here.” Chaeyoung smiled at me, making my slight annoyance disappear. 

They were all looking at me and I notice, why are they not sitting beside each other? There was an empty seat in between Lisa and chaeyoung, and another empty seat between Jisoo and Jennie. Don’t tell me they’re not in good terms with each other.

“Sit here.” Jennie patted the seat next to her, generously offering me a seat. 

But then Lisa tugged my arm. “No, sit here.” 

What’s with them? Is the sitting arrangement really that important?

I just took the seat between Lisa and Chaeyoung since I was already standing behind that chair. It requires too much energy for me to walk to the other side of the table and sit there. I’m a sloth disguised as a human. And plus, it’ll be tiring to sit next to Jennie.

“You were discussing already?” 

Lisa laughed in a very odd way. “Yeah.”

“About what?” I twirled my pen. 

“Oh about how I told you that I like you and that they should back off.” Jennie shrugged but her eyes were glaring at each and every one, except me.

“Back off? You’re the only one that likes me, why should they back off?” I placed down my pen and raise an eyebrow on her. Sometimes I feel like there’s something that everybody knows except me. Would no one enlighten me?

“Trust me princess, you wouldn’t want to know.” What Jennie said caused my three other group mates to react violently. 

“Why are you calling her princess?!” Jisoo slammed the table in front of Jennie, earning a stern look from the librarian. She’s going to get us banned from here.

“She’s not your princess!” Lisa leaned in, in a threatening way. 

Are they really fighting over the ‘princess’ name calling of Jennie? I mean, I get that I don’t look like a princess, but I’m offended right now. I’m not that bad myself.

“Let’s just focus on the project please.” Chaeyoung broke the argument. Thankfully someone sensible!

“Chaeng’s right.” I nodded and looked over at Chaeyoung’s notebook.

A scoff rang in my ears, which made me look up from the notebook. “Chaeng? Ha! When did the two of you get so close?” Jennie rolled her eyes.

“Since the first day.” Chaeyoung said, her eyes focused on her notebook. She was writing down the things that we needed to do. She’s very responsible indeed.

“_____. You have to call me by my nickname too.” Jennie demanded like a little girl.

“What’s your nickname?” Maybe if I call her by her nickname she’ll stop with arguing about everything and with everyone.

“Deceitful flirt.” Jisoo intervened, causing Lisa to snicker. They both raised their hands for a high-five but stopped midway and glared at each other. Seriously, what’s with the glaring?

Jennie clenched her jaw. “You brat—-“ 

“So who’s going to be the leader?” Lisa asked, cutting Jennie off from cursing, and stopping what it looked like a fight about to start.

We looked at each other, waiting for someone to volunteer.

“I can take the lead.” Chaeyoung finally spoke up. Actually, I knew that she will volunteer. I mean, she’s the student body president after all.

“Let’s divide the group. For now, three will gather information about the ten business men while the other two will search for their philosophies.” She took the lead in a very president like manner. I think it’s very hot professional.

“_____ and I will search for their philosophies.” Lisa volunteered, raising her hand as if we were in a classroom. Cute.

“That’s unfair!” Jennie and Jisoo whined at the same time, making them look at each other and scoff.

Chaeyoung sighed beside me and shook her head. “Let’s just decide through Black and white.” See? She’s born to be a leader.

We placed our hand in the middle of the table and Chaeyoung counted to three.

1

2

3

I decided to go with black (the palm facing down).

“I knew it! We’re meant to be!” Jennie smirked and ran her fingers through her hair. 

Jisoo groaned and had her arms crossed. “Why can’t we just do it all together? Do we really have to split the group?” 

“I think it’s faster this way.” I shrugged which earned sighs from the others. It’s true though.

Chaeyoung sighed as well, which confused me since she’s the one who suggested it. “Let’s get on with it.” She said and opened her laptop. 

Jennie and I went to the other end of the table ‘cause she said that it’ll be distracting. It’s actually better than having her picking up a fight with Jisoo and Lisa. The three of them doesn’t seem friendly with each other.

Thumbs up for me for not bringing my laptop. Thankfully, Jennie had hers with her so I just sat beside her and let her do the half of the business men and I’ll do the other half after she finished.

“I think this part is good.” I saw a sentence that looked quotable and easy to explain and pointed at it. “What do you think?” I turned around and asked Jennie who looked a bit surprised and frozen, but then she composed herself and placed a grin on her face. 

“You know, you shouldn’t lean in too close to me. It’s bad for my heart.” She whispered in my ear, sending shivers all over me. She should really stop doing that. 

I leaned back on my chair and cleared my throat. I didn’t even notice that I was leaning at her earlier. I was just reading and pointing at the laptop…

Today is my first day of training with the basketball team. I’m feeling really pumped up and excited that I can play again. It’s been a couple of months already since my last game, which we won of course. 

Chaeyoung insisted that she wanted to come with me, which left me no choice but to let her. She was using her small voice and pout! I’m sure no one could resist that!

Mia gave me a jersey, a royal blue shirt with a couple of white stripes and the logo of the school at the centre. I wasn’t really up to wearing jerseys during practices, so I talked to Mia about letting me wear my dri-fit shirt. It actually almost matched the school’s colour since my shirt is dark blue. Close enough. Mia let me and said that it’s not really a big deal even though all of them were wearing the jersey.

I went to the locker room to change. No one was actually there so I took off my shirt and tied my hair into a pony tail. 

“Why is——“ A loud voice startled me, making me freeze for a second. Jennie had open and was openly staring at me, at my stomach, specifically. Yeah I know, I’m quite fit. I quickly wore my shirt and saw her turn away for a second. 

Jennie cleared and continued what she was saying while I stuff my clothes at my bag. 

“Why is Rosé at the bleachers?” She had her arms on her hips and didn’t look pleased at all.

“She just came to