Joohyun swore she almost cried when her music teacher announced that all students had to do an individual performance for their final examination. She wasn't good at these type of things at all. Especially performing in front of a group of students who Joohyun didn't like, and she was pretty sure they didn't like her either. 

"M- Mrs Jung?.." Joohyun stuttered as she made her way to the teacher's desk after class ended. The middle aged lady looked up from her computer and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "Yes Joohyun?" She raised her eyebrows. 

The girl kept shifting her weight from one leg to another, constantly rocking back and forth. She was as nervous as a mouse, and the fact that Mrs Jung was a strict teacher didn't help at all. Joohyun tapped her fingers repeatedly, calming herself with the rhythmic sounds coming from the light taps on her thigh. "I- I'm not.. not g- good at performing- by myself." She looks away from her teacher, fearing that she may get scolded. 

"But Joohyun, you know that this takes up thirty percent of your final grade and is compulsory right?" 

Joohyun squeezed her eyes shut for a second and tried to process whatever her teacher had said. She nodded sadly. "Mrs Jung I c- can't.. do thi- perform alone." Her vision started becoming blurry from her tears and Joohyun tilts her head back downwards to express her sadness. 

Her teacher shook her head. "I'm sorry Joohyun, I'm afraid it wouldn't be fair to the whole class if I let you pair up with somebody else..."

"O- okay.. okay..." Joohyun whimpered, bringing her shaky hand up to wipe her tears. Mrs Jung herself looked sorry for her, but still stuck to her words in the end. The girl was about to leave the classroom when she heard someone call out to her. "Hey baechu, wait up!" Joohyun stopped walking but still had her head down. 

Seulgi finally caught up with her and frowned when she saw her girlfriend crying. "Princess, who made you cry? Tell me, and I'll smack their butts for you." She pretended to punch the air, but Joohyun just shook her head. That made Seulgi slowly cup Joohyun's face and use her thumbs to wipe her tears away. She knew Joohyun didn't feel like talking right now, so forcing her wouldn't help. 

"You wanna go home?" Seulgi asked softly. 

She received a light nod in response. So with that, they started their journey back home to Joohyun's house. She decided she'd ask Joohyun about it when they reached. During the bus ride home, Joohyun fell asleep with her head on Seulgi's shoulder. 

Seulgi felt the corner of her lips curve into a warm smile. She held onto Joohyun's hands and rubbed them to keep them warm. 

-

Seulgi sat down beside Joohyun on the girl's bed. Joohyun had been awfully quiet and refused to speak to Seulgi at all since they left school. Seulgi did sort of overhear what Joohyun and Mrs Jung was talking about though, so she kinda knew why her girlfriend was upset. "You can talk to me when you're ready." Seulgi flashed the shorter girl a smile which sadly, she didn't get back. 

Joohyun twiddled her fingers around her blanket, clenching and unclenching her palms while she did. It finally clicked in Seulgi's head about what was going on. She had heard from Wendy just a few days ago that Joohyun could become non verbal when she was upset or frustrated at times. So perhaps she was just having one of those episodes at the moment. "Don't feel like talking?" Joohyun looked up from her hands and nodded. 

She kept mum for quite a long time, only rocking back and forth on the bed to calm herself. Seulgi noticed that Joohyun seemed to be getting angry. She kept clenching her hands and breathing with a lot of force, occasionally turning to look at Seulgi to see if she was noticing. Almost like she wanted attention. "Joohyun, you can tell me why you're upset, if it makes you feel better. I'll listen." Seulgi said softly, patting the spot on the bed beside her to tell Joohyun to move closer. 

The girl quickly did so and buried her head into Seulgi's shoulder. Not wanting Joohyun to injure herself, Seulgi lightly held onto the girl's clenched hands and slowly opened them up. Joohyun let out a whine and kicked her legs. "Angry." She frowned. 

"Why are you angry, baby?" The use of endearment made Joohyun calm down a little. She liked hearing Seulgi call her those because it made her heart feel warm. "P- performance.. no partner.. S- scared." Joohyun looked up with teary eyes at Seulgi. She looked like she was about to have a meltdown any second and Seulgi definitely did not want that to happen. 

The taller girl caressed Joohyun's hair, knowing it was another thing that she liked her to do. "We'll talk to Mrs Jung together, okay?" She smiled softly at her girlfriend, but that only fueled her anger more. Joohyun whined louder and shook her head. "No! She already said no.." Feeling extremely defeated, her tears dripped down her cheeks one by one. Joohyun seriously didn't like the idea of having an individual music performance.

She felt Seulgi cup her cheeks in her warm palms. "You're crying so much today, princess.." Seulgi received a sob from Joohyun in response. "Don't worry, I'll talk to her. You won't have to perform alone." 

Joohyun didn't believe that it'd work but she just kept quiet and rested her head on Seulgi's chest as the taller girl patted her back. She just wante