“How should I put this? I like it. It's very good... but it's crap,” Cha Eunwoo gave a slice of thought.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to claw his smug expression right off his lazy face. I didn’t. I wasn’t crazy. Even if this was high school, there were some serious repercussions with leaving a group member debilitated.

I wish I was crazy.

I tried smiling as if his comment didn’t affect me. My fist tightened over the folder I was holding. I had a desire to smash it into his smiling face.

“This is really stupid Hafsa,” he said, still wearing that fake smile.

Can’t be stupider than your lousy pronunciation of my name.

“I think it’s fine Eunwoo,” Lisa defended.

Finally, someone who appreciates me!

I wanted to hug Lisa there and then. I could always count on my best friend for having my back. She might not be perfect but at least I have a comrade.

“There’s nothing wrong with it. All we need to do now is draw,” I pressured.

Eunwoo shook his head, scrunching his nose as he did.

I will punch a hole through your face, you lazy jerk face.

He turned his sloth-like face towards Lisa and smiled goofily, trying to win her over. She darted her gaze away from him. I almost rolled my eyes when I saw this. I had a feeling that Lisa has a soft spot for him. We haven’t talked about it because she knows I hate him but I keep getting this feeling, like an itch that won’t go away.

I need to tell her she can do better than Cha Eunwoo. He sells talismans, potions and spells online. I caught him in the computer room the other day.

Eunwoo isn’t done critiquing. “Dude, just look at it! There's nothing interesting, no bloodsuckers, no mutant dogs, no cases of insanity or zombies.” He sighed, removed his lensless glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose trying to figure out the rest of his argument.

“If it were me, I’d never pick it up,” Eunwoo rested his case.

You’ve never read a day in your life, of course you wouldn’t pick it up.

“That’s just you, Lisa likes it, don’t you? So let’s go ahead with it. All that’s left is for you to draw.”

I passed the entire folder filled with the story to Lisa. She would take it from here. She said she would. I was glad to have her on this team or else I’d be left with all the group work.

“The name is dumb. I don’t like it. We should change it.”

I smiled curtly. Eunwoo always had an opinion. If he ever bothered doing some work I’d take some of his ideas but he’s not contributing. He liked to tear my work with his spiteful tongue. I wouldn’t have it anymore. I was done.

“Do you have any suggestions?” I asked.

Probably not.

“Well, no, but we need to change it. ‘Light, Sun of the World’ is so lame. Don’t you think so too, Lisa?”

He was trying to collude with her because he didn’t like me. He’s hated me ever since I caught him selling weird stuff online in the computer rooms.

“How about ‘The Wishing Stone?’” Lisa suggested. “I think it goes well with the plot.”

“Why do we need to change it? Do you think my titles boring?” My voice came out higher than usual.

Lisa pressed her lips together. I could hear her debating in her head. She was trying to let me down easy and was searching for the right words.

“A little bit.”

She agrees with Eunwoo.

“All right then. We’ll go with that.”

I felt betrayed. Lisa and I always had the same opinion on stuff. Except now.

I’m annoyed.

Eunwoo raised his head narcissistically as if he’d won something over me. The meeting was over now.

Of course he’s the first to leave.

I leaned against my locker. I was allowed to sulk when my life’s enemy is trying to win over my friend. If only I could store my feelings somewhere, I wanted to scream a typhoon into Eunwoo’s locker and leave it there to settle. Once he opened his locker my screams would swallow him whole.

I’m not boring.

“Are you okay?” Lisa nudged me.

I nodded, sighing. There wasn’t much I could do I was outnumbered. I was an advocate of democracy. I wasn’t going to push for something no one else wanted. This wasn’t a group assignment, everyone has a say, except…

I did the hardest part. Now they’ll probably work on the fun bit together and leave me like an outsider.

“Do you think I should have added vampires, werewolves, psychopaths and zombies too?”

Lisa shrugged. “It’s just an assignment. It doesn’t matter as long as we enjoy it right?”

She always saw the positive stuff. Lisa didn’t care much for English or Art or any other subject really. She was more focused on auditioning for entertainment companies. Only she and I knew that she was a trainee.

“So, I’m not being bossy or anything?” There, I said it. There was a rumor in our class that I was getting way too tyrannical with this project.

I’m not a dictator, it’s you two that aren’t putting in enough work.

“A little bit? Honestly, it’s not that bad. I don’t mind it, like, we need a leader or we won’t get anything done, right?”

“That’s not what Cha Eunwoo thinks.”

“Don’t mind him. He’s just mad his ideas didn’t get accepted.”

The groan that had been sitting in the pit of my stomach finally escaped. My chest felt lighter. “He wants all his ideas in but don’t you remember when we first started? He doesn’t know what he wants. He just likes to dismiss everything I do.”

“Yeah, that’s why I think this story’s fine.”

Liar.

Lisa liked romance. She would have loved the idea of a forbidden love. I couldn’t write that. I would die from the boredom. I could picture it now, a human dating something be it a werewolf, a vampire or even Satan. The idea was revolting.

The main idea for this project was mine. Neither Eunwoo nor Lisa were happy about it, I knew. However, I couldn’t care less about what Eunwoo thought because he wasn’t going to contribute other than putting down my opinions. Lisa just said the story was fine even if she wasn’t thrilled she was okay with everything.

“Um… Hafsa, I think I might need your help with the drawings.”

I stared at her as if she were an alien.

“Your creatures are kind of hard to follow and I don’t want to mess them up so you’ll have to show me what they’re meant to look like.”

“No problem.”

Big problem.

I knew where this was going and I didn’t like it. Was I going to get stuck doing this entire this on my own?

Lisa read the look on my face.

“I won’t make you do everything, I wanna know what everything looks like and-”

T