Taeyeon rested her head on the desk and let her arms dangle loosely at the sides. Her hair was dishevelled, uniform scruffy, eyes glazed over. Now that Jessica was out of the picture, how was she going to approach Tiffany?

Two girls, one tall and the other significantly shorter, burst into the classroom carrying a stretcher, yelling at people to get out of their way.

The shorter girl swept Taeyeon up in her arms and carefully laid her on the stretcher. Taeyeon stared blankly up at the ceiling, mumbling something about her last 50 dollars.

The tall girl fished out a child’s play stethoscope from her backpack and placed it on Taeyeon’s chest, nodding thoughtfully as she spoke,

“Yup, this is critical alright. Dr. Lee, what’s your prognosis?”

The shorter girl glanced briefly at Taeyeon, shaking her head before turning to look at her tall friend and said grimly,

“It’s definitely a heart condition.”

“Ah. And what kind of treatment would you suggest for her disease?”

A mischievous smile spread across the shorter girl’s face as she scrambled to her feet. “I know just the right cure.” The taller girl clapped her hands in glee as her short friend rushed out of the classroom with a new sense of purpose.

When she returned, she was carrying a bucket of ice cubes.

“Behold the ice cube shower treatment to numb your pain away!”

She and Sooyoung were getting ready to empty the bucket on Taeyeon when the older girl sprang up quickly, hands shielding her face as she screamed angrily,

“Yah! What kind of stupid ‘cure’ is this?”

“Uhh, the kind that worked?” Sooyoung pointed out.

“Oh.” Taeyeon managed, finding herself agreeing to her friends. “So I guess, thanks?”

“Ugh, this .” Sunny put her ice bucket aside and folded her arms, unsatisfied. “You let us pour ice cubes onto your face the last time some girl broke your heart!”

“That was yesterday and it’s the same girl.” Taeyeon said, and then it fully hit how pathetic she really was. Oh.

“No offense, but Tiffany Hwang is totally out of your league.” Sooyoung said with a shrug. “She’s a solid 8 and you’re a 3.5. Go figure.”

Taeyeon stared at Sooyoung, pure hatred spewing from her hazel eyes.

“ you.”

Sooyoung put an arm around Taeyeon’s shoulder and continued to speak, ignoring Taeyeon’s deathly gaze.

“Did you forget she’s the President of the Student Committee, former cheer captain, and Vice President of the Celibacy Club?”

Taeyeon raised an eyebrow, wondering where Sooyoung was going with this. 

“But I’m top of my class for three years in a row now.”

“Taeyeon.” Sooyoung sighed and gently patted the top of Taeyeon’s head. “That is not y at all. Don’t ever tell Tiffany that, okay?”

//

Jessica's POV

Before you jump to conclusions, I’m not heartless, okay? There’s only so I much I could do to help that kid because her crush happens to be my best friend.

Wrapped in a towel, I walked to my wardrobe to grab my pyjamas. Tiffany was lying on her tummy on my bed typing away on her pink laptop, textbooks strewn across the bed, which was obviously being used as a table. 

As I was slipping into my favourite Pororo pjs, one that no one knew about except Tiffany, I noticed the tiny white and blue box at the bottom right of Tiffany’s screen.

“Who you chatting with?” I was curious, Tiffany didn’t have a habit of chatting with random people on a study night. Yes, this was one of our study nights. She studies, I call it a night.

Without turning to look at me, Tiffany replied flatly, “Uhh, Mr Kim.”

I choked at her reply. “Mr. Kim as in our Math teacher, Mr Kim?”

Tiffany turned around to look at me like I had just asked her the stupidest question in the world.

“What? I needed help with my homework and he was online.”

I plopped myself on the bed next to Tiffany and picked up a magazine.

“You do know he has a habit of dropping his pens in front of girls and making them bend over to pick it up for him?”

“That’s just a stupid old rumour.” Tiffany rolled her eyes at me and then sighed loudly. “Also, it’s not like I had a choice. This weird girl at school wouldn’t stop talking to me in Mr. Jang’s class. He made us stand outside the classroom throughout the entire lesson!”

I felt the colour drained from my face. , I have to tell her the truth. Tiffany continued to ramble about Taeyeon and I found myself cutting her off.

“Tiffany, I have something to confess…” I said, knowing that I can’t