The next morning, Yerin left for school early to meet her friends to catch them up about the girl from yesterday. As she walked, she distracted herself from SinB with thoughts of graduating this year. The best part of graduating was that she’d be graduating Sowon, but that was also simultaneously the worst because that would mean they’d be leaving behind Eunha, Yuju, and Umji. While she and Sowon were third years, Eunha and Yuju were second years, and poor Umji was by herself as a first year. Although poor wasn’t a great descriptor for Umji when she was teasing Sowon and Yerin for being old and nineteen while she joked she was at her prime as a seventeen year-old.

“Yerin-unnie!”

As she approached the bleachers, it was Yuju standing up and waving to her while Eunha and Sowon lounged and waved a bit more lazily. Yerin waved back and hurried her steps to reach them.

“Good morning,” Yerin greeted and everyone replied in kind. “Where’s Umji-yah?”

“The principal asked her to show a new student around,” Sowon explained, “but never mind about that. Tell us about that girl from yesterday! You told me you didn’t want to say anything until everyone was here.”

“Not everyone is here though,” Yerin cheekily pointed out, making Sowon huff. “You can wait for lunch.”

“At least tell us if she’s cute,” Eunha piped up. “Sowon-unnie wouldn’t shut up about how pretty she is.” This was followed with an eye roll that had Sowon sputtering and everyone else giggling.

“I only mentioned it twice!” Sowon protested.

Eunha ignored it though and instead said, “Shhh, let Yerin-unnie talk.”

Yerin tried to laugh off the question, but everyone continued to stare at her intently until she was blushing wildly. “Yah,” Yerin whined, “so what if she was basically a goddess walking on Earth?”

Her comment immediately made the girls burst into squeals.

“I’ve never heard unnie talk about a girl like that,” Yuju grinned.

Eunha nodded excitedly. “It’s always, ‘she’s cute enough for me to date her for a few weeks’.”

Before the girls could talk some more, the bell rang and Yerin ran away to class before her friends could badger her some more. Unfortunately, she only escaped two, since Sowon and her had the same class. Yerin stubbornly ignored all attempts of Sowon’s to get her talk, willing herself to just wait until lunch. It was very difficult because Sowon turned out to have an endless flow of questions for her. What’s her name? How old is she? Was she nice? Did she seem interested? Was she going to see her again?

Just when Yerin was about to snap from Sowon’s pestering, the bell for lunch rang. Sighing in relief, Yerin put away her things and grabbed her lunchbox. She waited for Sowon outside their classroom before they both made their way to Yuju and Eunha’s classroom where they normally ate lunch.  

Upon seeing them, Eunha giggled until her eyes teared up. “How much did you annoy Yerin-unnie, Sowon-unnie?”

Sowon shrugged sheepishly and gave Yerin a side-hug to apologize. Yerin accepted it graciously and hugged back.

“So what are we doing outside your classroom?” Yerin asked.

“Umji-yah texted me and asked us to eat in her classroom today, since she’s with the new student,” Yuju explained.

“Oh, right! Did Umji-yah tell you anything about her?” Sowon asked.

Yuju nodded excitedly. “Her name is Hwang Eunbi-”

“Another Eunbi!” Eunha exclaimed with a laugh, causing the rest of them to laugh too. “It's a good thing I decided to go by Eunha a few years ago.”

“Right, so Umji-yah said she's super cool and does dance at a studio a few blocks away from here,” Yuju continued. “I think Umji-yah is really excited to have a close friend in her year.”

“Then let's go meet this other Eunbi,” Yerin joked.

The girls made their way to the hall where the first year classrooms were. On their way, they were stopped a few times by some other students saying hi, but it became worse once they got to the first year hall. The girls weren't popular per say, but they were well-known for their achievements. Sowon was on the volleyball team, Eunha in choir, Yuju on the track team, and Yerin an award-winning artist. It wasn't uncommon for them to get swarmed by first years, boys and girls alike who wanted the chance to talk to them, whether it be to confess or to ask for an in with their respective activities.

After what felt like an immense struggle, the girls made it to Umji’s classroom where just a few students were sitting to have lunch. A few rows back, Yerin spotted Umji in her usual seat talking to… It couldn't be.

“Umji-yah!” Sowon shouted, just like how she did yesterday to Yerin in the cafe.

Recognizing the voice, SinB looked up in surprise and locked eyes with Yerin. The former let out an incredulous, breathless laugh while Yerin stared in shock.

Yuju noticed her friend’s odd behavior and elbowed Yerin to let her know they were walking. As they made their way over to the two first years, Sowon caught Yerin’s eye, and Yerin knew Sowon had recognized SinB.

“Come sit!” Umji smiled. “SinB-ssi, this Sowon-unnie, Yerin-unnie, Eunha-unnie, and Yuju-unnie. Everyone, this is Hwang Eunbi-ssi, who prefers to go by SinB-ssi.”

Yerin found herself sitting next to SinB, but judging by Sowon’s smirk that was intentional. She half-listened to introductions, too busy trying not to freak out that SinB was the new transfer student.  What were the odds? She remembered SinB saying she’d just moved here but still.

“Yerin-unnie.”

Yerin jumped as a warm hand laid itself on her knee. Wide-eyed, she turned to SinB, who the hand belonged to and who had been the one to call her name in such a melodic way. Yerin spotted a smirk tugging at the corner of SinB’s lips and felt herself flush.

“W-what were you saying, SinB-ssi?” Yerin stammered. She flushed even deeper when she realized all of her friends were staring at her too. “Sorry, I spaced out.”

SinB smiled and squeezed Yerin’s knee before pulling away. “It’s okay. We were just talking about meeting up after school.”

“Sounds good! I don’t work today, so where do you guys want to go?”

“We were thinking about picking up some snacks and going to the park,” Umji replied.

“Sounds perfect,” Yerin nodded, though her eyes were on SinB.

The rest of lunch passed with relative ease. After warming up to her a bit, Yerin was able to hold a conversation with SinB without sounding like an idiot. When they weren’t talking with the other girls, the two of them chatted more about themselves, basically continuing their conversation from yesterday. Every once in awhile, Yerin would blush when SinB got too close or when SinB’s voice got a little too low and gravelly. What caught Yerin’s interest though was that sometimes after she blushed, she saw SinB smile in satisfaction. Was she doing this on purpose? If she was, did this mean she was into Yerin, or was she just messing around with her?

At the end of lunch, Yerin was no closer to figuring out SinB’s intentions. Everyone said bye to each other as usual, but when Yerin said bye to SinB, the younger bit her lip and winked. Yerin nearly fainted as she stumbled backwards into Eunha, who caught her and gave her a weird look. Yerin gave a quick apology and waved to SinB, avoiding eye contact. This time Yerin was positive SinB laughed at her.

As soon as the older girls walked out of the classroom, Yuju proclaimed, “I like her! She’s funny and teases the hell out of Sowon-unnie.”

“Tom and Jerry!” Eunha laughed.

Sowon joking scowled and said, “Yah! She’s a little brat… but she’s also pretty cool when she isn’t being a complete bully to me.” She glanced at Yerin. “What do you think of your cafe girl, Yerin-ah?”

Eunha and Yuju came to a complete stop as they yelled in unison, “SinB-ssi is cafe girl?!”

“Shhhhh!” Yerin pushed them to start walking again, eyes darting around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. When she was satisfied with her privacy, Yerin admitted, “Yeah, she’s cafe girl.”

“I approve,” Eunha nodded slowly, as if giving her sacred blessing. “I get why Sowon was gushing over how cute she was.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Sowon whined.

The two continued to bicker, and Yerin savored the chance to not be interrogated.