It all went downhill for Chaewon when Hyejoo got a girlfriend. And it wasn’t in the “intense heartbreak” or “indescribable sadness” way you’re probably thinking. Not even close. If anything Chaewon was furious and fuming with jealousy and she wanted nothing more than to kick Choi Yerim in the face for ruining her chances of confessing and getting together with Hyejoo.

Who allowed Yerim to skip her way over as if she were in a field of flowers and shake Hyejoo’s heart? How could her friend fall for that hyperactive airhead? Chaewon would never understand. Yerim was the complete opposite of Hyejoo and it just didn’t make sense!

“You’re making a mess.”

“I don’t care!” Chaewon roared as she stabbed her food with a fork and made some splatter around her.

She gave Heejin (her best friend) a pointed glare. When she spoke she interrupted her thoughts on different ways to make Yerim disappear and make it look like an accident. Chaewon had asked Heejin to accompany her spying on Hyejoo and Yerim on their date, which was why they were currently sitting inside a small Italian-inspired restaurant. Chaewon’s plan was to hopefully be able to find some dirt she could use against Yerim on this outing of theirs. Maybe if she found her flaws and told Hyejoo about them she could make her open her eyes and see what a big mistake dating her was.

Heejin rolled her eyes and went back to eating her spaghetti as a normal person should and not like she wanted to murder the meatballs like the blonde girl sitting across from her. Chaewon was stabbing the poor things like they had wronged her great great ancestors. Not to say she was wasting perfectly good food. Like if she didn’t want it they could order a box and Heejin could take it to go. But back to the topic at hand, in her opinion, Chaewon was exaggerating. There was absolutely nothing wrong with Yerim. The girl was the personification of the sun with the personality of an angel fallen from heaven. She thought her and Hyejoo looked cute together.

“At least be more quiet if you’re gonna stalk them,” Heejin took a sip of her lemonade and looked away from all the ridiculousness.

Chaewon was no longer focused on Hyejoo and Yerim three tables away from them (who were currently in the middle of feeding each other. Gross! Who did Yerim think she is to kiss away Hyejoo’s crumbs on her lips!?) and instead narrowed her eyes on her same-age friend who was not helping at all. 

“You’re supposed to help me, not judge me.” 

Heejin laughed as if that had been the funniest joke she’d heard all day. “We both know I’m just here for the free food. Thanks by the way.”

At that moment Chaewon found herself a new target. She momentarily forgot about wanting to kill Yerim and thought about killing Heejin first. Never again would she ask for Heejin’s help as it was useless. Still, she would make her come with though.

+ +  x x  # #

Hyejoo moved to town and got transferred to their school in sophomore year. Chaewon was perfectly fine with the way her life was. Who told her to move in the middle of it and cause an earthquake in her heart? Transferring in the middle of high school was tough because most of your friend groups were already established and the whole "trying to fit in" agenda everyone subconsciously has in the back of their mind. But not Hyejoo. Never her.

The first day she left a huge impression for completely violating every single school uniform guideline. Chaewon didn’t think it was possible to get detention so fast on your very first day of school but she found out you apparently could.

Hair neatly tied and not dyed neon colors. 

Her long black hair was let down flowing unruly and it had bright blue tips past her chest.

Uniform tie must always be properly worn around the neck.

Hyejoo had it draped around her shoulders not caring it wasn’t tied.

Only white knee high socks are allowed.

She was wearing black tights that were ripped in various spots along her thighs under her skirt.

Black dress shoes or clean white shoes during gym are the only shoes allowed.

The new girl was proudly sporting her combat boots instead.

No makeup and no nail polish.

Hyejoo’s nails were as dark as her eyeliner.

Skirt length must not be above the knees.

Hyejoo’s skirt was even shorter than the length of her fingertips.

One time she even had the nerve to come to school in sweats, an oversized t-shirt and with a green flannel over, a black beanie and Jordans. The office had a field day and a near heart attack when they saw her dressed as if she was ready to take a hip hop dance class. She was confined to stay in the office for the whole day until classes were over. 

With that she found out Son Hyejoo was a rebel with a cause and her cause was that she didn’t give a about anyone’s opinions and always did whatever she wanted. It was amazing how she had the courage to pull stunts like that not fearing for the consequences that would follow. 

In reality, Hyejoo was one of the softest and sweetest people in school once Chaewon got to know her and she can’t remember the exact moment and day they became friends but it happened in detention (unsurprisingly). She was the teacher's assistant for the teacher assigned on detention watch that semester so by default Chaewon spent a lot of time in detention herself, but not because she did anything wrong. All she did was mainly run errands to the office and take other kids in groups to the bathroom so they wouldn’t be left unsupervised and ditch.

Hyejoo had lunch detention every day, all-day detention at least once a week, and after-school detention if she ever skipped any of her lunch detention days. The only reason she didn’t have Saturday detention was because the teacher was absolutely done with seeing her every day. She always got in trouble for the same three reasons: dress code violations, being late to class or skipping altogether.

The thing was that even though she was always in trouble Hyejoo had good grades. She also didn’t have a bad attitude with any teachers or staff. She was nothing but nice to everyone she met too. Sure at first she seemed quiet and shy but was never mean. Chaewon approached her because she was curious and she never expected them to become such good friends. Chaewon then used the opportunity to convince Hyejoo to stop getting in trouble so much. It worked and now she only skipped occasionally and barely violated the dress code.

“I can’t believe you ditched me at the movies yesterday because Hyejoo asked you to go to the mall with her,” Heejin huffed as she slammed her lunch tray on the table.

Chaewon tried to look innocent. “It was almost over.” 

“It was barely halfway. You paid for both of us and you didn’t even stay.”

“Oh... Well, t-the plot made no sense!” The blonde tried to save herself again.

“Were you even paying attention?” Heejin frowned.

If Chaewon was honest, no. She had no clue what the movie had been about and had no interest to watch it in the first place but Heejin wanted to so she went with. She would do anything for her, even things she didn’t like, of course, that was before Hyejoo sent her a text asking to hang out. Sure it sounds mean to leave her all lone but the movie was making her fall asleep anyways.

Heejin wanted to be furious. She wanted to lash out but this was Chaewon. Her best friend Chaewon who had it bad for the resident bad girl of the school.

“Just say you’re in love and go. Stop making excuses for why you ditched me.” The black-haired girl pouted as she poked around at her salad dejected.

Chaewon’s eyes went wide and without her knowledge, her cheeks began to flare up the color red. “What? That is ridiculous! I am not in—“

“Hey guys,” Hyejoo suddenly sat down at their table, cutting Chaewon off and absolutely making her forget what she was saying.

Her astonished face from seconds ago now looked like a puppy in love and Heejin rolled her eyes at how obvious her vertically challenged friend was. And in major case of denial.

“Hi, Hyejoo. How was class?” Chaewon gave her a smile and was looking at her intently as if honey were about to pour from her eyes. Heejin wanted to gag.

Hyejoo took out her packed lunch and talked as she unwrapped her sandwich. “It was alright. I wasn’t late. This makes it a whole week that I haven’t been marked tardy, a new record.” She took a bite and chewed slowly.

“Oh my gosh, that’s amazing! This is huge! I’m so proud of you Hyejoo!”

It was as if the two had forgotten of Heejin’s existence. Should she leave? It felt like she was imposing on something she shouldn’t even though the two girls weren’t talking about anything out of the ordinary. They were simply having small talk yet their lack of acknowledgment made her feel so small. More coming from Chaewon.

“Thanks Chaewon. I couldn’t have done it without you,” Hyejoo told her once she finished chewing.

Hyejoo then casually leaned her head on Chaewon’s shoulder and the blonde looked like she was about ready to explode. Heejin could practically see her whole body flaming up from the close proximity. She didn’t know what was more ridiculous. The fact that Chaewon was in denial about liking Hyejoo or how the younger girl looked to have completely zero clue that Chaewon had the hots for her. In the end, Heejin decided to grab her tray and finish eating elsewhere, away from the cavity-inducing sight.

+ +  x x  # #

So how did Yerim come in the picture then, you may wonder? Funny story. Once the semester was over, so was Chaewon’s hour of being the detention teacher’s assistant, which meant that the teacher would get a new assistant that came in the form of Choi Yerim. Granted, Hyejoo wasn’t getting detention as much as she used to but she still went maybe once a week rather than every single day. Naturally, just like Chaewon had, Yerim approached Hyejoo and they became friends.

Or so she thought! Chaewon should’ve seen it coming! She should’ve been more alert and looked at the bigger objective that sneaky Tinky Winky had! She planned to steal Hyejoo away from her and keep her all to herself from the beginning! She lured her in with her fake brightness and pseudo positivity and made her fall without even realizing it! It went beyond platonic feelings, it was never about just friends. Hyejoo had fallen for a quack!

“Don’t you think you’re exaggerating?” Heejin shook her head as she tried to finish her worksheet. It was a little hard with Chaewon’s hate-filled rant flooding her ears.

They were currently in math class and Chaewon had gone on another one of her theories about how fake Yerim was and how she “tricked” Hyejoo into falling for her. Again, Chaewon was being delusional and too blinded by the jealousy to see that all of that was a product of her imagination. Heejin knew Yerim, granted not as much or as long as Chaewon, but she knew the girl had no ill intentions. She just happened to like Hyejoo, confess, and Hyejoo liked her back so she accepted. That’s as simple as it gets.

“LISTEN! You don’t understand!” Chaewon slammed her hands on the desk only for the teacher to look at her and glare.

Ready to reach for a detention slip Chaewon managed to save herself before the cranky old lady could click her pen. “Ants! All over my desk! I can’t work like this! A working environment needs to be clean in order to maximize productivity!”

The teacher raised a thin eyebrow at the random outburst but seemed to buy it (or she just didn’t care) and went back to grading papers. Chaewon pretended to wipe her desk from the fake ants and settled down in her seat once she made sure all eyes were not on her any longer. She let out a breath of relief and relaxed in her seat.

Heejin was speechless. Chaewon was so smart and witty but in all the wrong ways. Why couldn’t she just move on from hating Yerim? The girl was innocent.

“You’re going to help me again after school right?” Chaewon whispered to her.

Heejin really didn’t want to. It was wrong to shadow Hyejoo and Yerim without their knowledge but she couldn’t leave the blonde to herself or she would probably snap and do something worse if left unsupervised. Something aimed at the angel that was Yerim and if Chaewon did anything to her Hyejoo would one-hundred percent not react in the best way.

“Where are we going?”

“The amusement park. They planned this since last month.” The girl looked all around her as if someone was spying on them. With them being at the very back of the class no one cared about what they talked about.

“You know I have no money.”

She never did. That’s why she never asked Chaewon to hang out anywhere that was out of her budget, which was anything above $3. It was embarrassing most of the time and all her life she had struggled like this but Chaewon had been one of the only friends that didn't care about her economic status and even went the extra mile of making her feel that she never lacked anything.

Chaewon groaned. “I’ll pay for you again.”

The groan was not annoyed at her lack of money but annoyed at how Heejin still thought her not being able to pay would change her plans. If she was asking her to come it was because she would pay for her. She wanted Heejin to come with her, no matter how much the cost was. 

Heejin looked away with a triumphant smile on her face because she knew this. Chaewon was aware of the fact money was tight with her, but still, she planned all of these expensive outings and paid for her regardless. The blonde had her virtues but she also had her flaws. Chaewon was nice, smart, pretty, sweet but at the same time, she could be so dense, jealous, and mean when it came to the people she fell for.

Only Heejin had seen both the good and the bad sides of Park Chaewon and regardless of it all, her feelings for her never once diminished. How Heejin wished Chaewon would stop pinning over Hyejoo and realize she could give her all her attention and affection in a heartbeat. But Chaewon only saw her as a friend and it would always be that way.

The smile she had gradually morphed into a straight line. Chaewon had finally gone back to her worksheet and while distracted Heejin couldn't take her eyes off her. If one paid remotely any attention they would be able to see the love and longing seeping out from them. It didn't take a genius to realize Jeon Heejin was in love with her best friend. The only person that couldn't see this was Park Chaewon– the girl she liked– herself.

+ +  x x  # #

Not only had Chaewon crossed the line by following Hyejoo and Yerim on their date (again) but to make matters worse the two girls actually saw them. There was no point in hiding things any longer, they couldn't get out of this one. Heejin thought Chaewon would then finally confess what she'd been doing these past weeks and they could hopefully reach an understanding.

Wrong.

So wrong.

She should never underestimate the blonde's quick thinking when she was in a pinch. Imagine the heart attack Heejin felt when Chaewon grasped her hand tightly in hers (rather awkwardly might she add because they're never touchy with each other) and pretended that they were on a date too coincidentally.

Yerim jumped in place. "Oh my God! We can have a double date! It would be so much fun! Please Hyejoo please please please please!" The beaming girl was shaking her girlfriend like a rag doll so she would give in. And who was Hyejoo to deny Yerim of anything when she looked so happy?

"Fine, they can join," her tone didn't sound too pleased though. Mainly because she wanted to spend time with Yerim alone and when Yerim was in a group she liked to give attention to everyone equally. No, she was not jealous! Not at all!

Chaewon showed a big smile but Heejin could read right through it. This was not what she had been expecting at all but at least her secret was still intact. But for how long? And why did she have to play along in Chaewon's game? Heejin should feel happy to be holding Chaewon's hand and for them to be walking around the amusement park on a "date." This had been something she had been dreaming for years, yet when it came down to it it wasn't real.

This wasn't real. Chaewon didn't know of her feelings. Heejin didn't have the guts to confess. Besides, Chaewon liked Hyejoo and she was so fixated that Heejin doesn't know how much longer she would be able to take. Her heart felt so bruised and