“So, there’s a party at Soojin’s house tomorrow. She said I could invite anyone I wanted, anyone wanna tag?” Sooyoung said, looking expectantly to her girl friends.

Jungeun and Hyunjin exchanged a doubtful look. Sooyoung wasn’t even sure Hyejoo heard what she said and Haseul was the only one of the bunch that seemed somewhat excited about the news.

“Vivi and I are definitely going.” She confirmed with a grin.

“For someone that tries to be a good example, you go to a lot of parties, Seul unnie.” Hyunjin observed between bites to her sandwitch.

Haseul liked to portray the classical girl next door facade. Being part of the school’s council and  being remarked as one of the brightest students of the school and all of that good girl bull, when her close friends knew she could go the other way more than she’d ever admit.

“I go where my girl takes me. Whatever I do after that is beyond my control.” Haseul conceded to her friends amusement.

They knew the true Haseul.

“Jungie?” Sooyoung turned to the younger girl who was busy going through the settings on the camera in her hand.

Jungeun snorted “Yeah, a hard pass. I’m never attending a cheerleading party ever again. Nothing good comes from it and I don’t want to repeat whatever stupid I did last time.”

Sooyoung rolled her eyes.

“Stop being dramatic. You got drunk and you threw up, no biggie.” 

Jungeun stared at Sooyoung incredulously. If a look could kill, the dealer would be most certainly dead right now.

“Yeah, no biggie if I’m stuck in a project with the girl I threw up on. No biggie at all.” Jungeun said sarcastically.

“You’re working with Heelin?” Hyunjin asked out of nowhere, intervening in the awkward situation.

“Heejin, and how do you know who she is?” Jungeun turned to look at her, momentarily suprised to know her friend knew Heejin.

“Aeong.” Hyunjin answered with a mouthful of her food. 

Jungeun merely rolled her eyes because ahe knew she wouldn’t get anything from her friend when she enters her aeong mood. Not even worth the try.

“Hyun?” Sooyoung took that as her opportunity to ask.

“Yeah, that’s a no from me too. I don’t like my sister’s friends.”

“Hye?”

“I rather stay home and play my games, too.” Hyejoo answered, not botheting to look from the game on her phone.

“All you do is play games all day, that can’t be healthy. Start living a little, kid.” Haseul complained, giving the younger the brightest smile she could manage as a form of convincing her, but Hyejoo was too immersed on the game to see it.

“Yeah, ‘cause going to a place full of drunk teenagers doing all sort of things is way healthier.” Hyejoo snorted sarcastically.

“Don’t listen to her, last time she said that to me I forgot everything that happened afterwards.” Jungeun complained, taking a bite from an apple Sooyoung had offered her.

“Yeah, I think baby wolf is too young to go to these parties anyway.” Sooyoung said, snatching the apple back from Jungeun’s hands with grin, only to have Jungeun steal the apple back and hold it out of her reach.

“Look how’s talking. You took me to my first party when I was way younger than Hyejoo.” She remembered the older girl, after chewing.

“I don’t remember forcing you to anything, if you decided to go that was all on you, bro.”

“That’s why I’m not doing it again. Anyway, let’s do something at my house, yeah? I don’t think my sister will be there this weekend, so all clear.” Jungeun suggested, turning to look at the two younger girls. 

If neither of them were going to that party, the least they could do was gather so they could also have so fun of their own. Who said the only way to have a good time was through a party?

“Sure, just know upfront I’m taking my laptop.”

“Weirdo.”

“You are.”

“Aeong!”

For the second time on the same month, Jungeun found herself on the same awkward position of standing in front of an unknown address she had on her phone, in one of the poshest neighbours in Seoul.

She decided over the ride there that she didn’t feel like staying sober, so on the walk from the bus stop and said address she indulged herself with a little treat. Enough to make her anxiety decrease and the afternoon more pleasant.

She was glad she did it, because just standing there not knowing what waited for her on the other side of the door was making her feel the weird effects of dejavu, so strong that it made her dizzy to the point she had to hold onto the nearest wall to keep steady, before she pressed the button on the metalic modern intercom and waited.

A few moments later, a voice was heard “Who is it?”

“It’s Kim Jungeun,” she waited, but nothing happened, so she continued “I’m Heejin’s classmate-“

The voice cut her  “Come in.”

At the same moment the wooden door at her left opened and she took that as her cue to start moving. She hold onto the straps of her backpack to reassure herself and stepped in. 

Jungeun closed the door behind her and climbed the few steps that lead to a gigantic frontyard. She hadn’t seen that much green in a residence ever since she left her hometown. The contrast with the concrete jungle that was Seoul was striking. , she’s richie rich...

She walked the remaining length until she reached the house’s main door, where a middle aged woman was waiting for her on the doorstep.

“Hello, ma’am.” She managed to say even though was too dry to say much else.

“I work for the Jeon family, follow me, please.” The woman greeted her “This way.”

She followed the woman inside the house. Or more likely, the mansion.

“You can wait here, I’ll call Miss Heejin over.”

Jungeun was mesmerised with the enormous residence and barely registered what the woman said “Thanks.”

She didn’t move, but that didn’t stop her eyes from roaming around the place. 

It had gigantic ceiling to floor windows that allowed people to have a look on the external part of the house. No dirty on the floor, no apparent dust on the furniture and the whole place was decorated in what she figured must be a minimalist asthetic. Nothing varying from the burnt concrete-ish tons with wooden details. rich people’s into nowdays, she snorted to herself.

There were contemporaneous paintings and sculptures in strategic places, while other wall’s were adorned with a small portion of family photos. She walked closer to the wall so she could get a better look at it. 

From what she observed, she could tell that family consisted of 5 people. The parents and three children, two boys and Heejin. She recognised one of the boy’s faces as a former senior at her school. Why are they all pretty?

The more she looked, the more she felt her eyes drawn to the pictures of Heejin. The girl was in most pictures and Jungeun noticed she was smiling in each one of it. Must be easy being this happy when you’re this rich.

“Hi.” 

Jungeun was took by surprise and turned in a hurry to look at the source of the voice.

“Hi, uh, we d-didn’t agree on a time, so I-I just showed up,” she began rambling once she noticed someone standing next to Heejin “I’m sorry, I should’ve checked before. We can reschedule if you want.”

She could feel her palms starting to ger sweaty and she wasn’t sure she could trust her sight. Maybe getting high wasn’t the smartest choice...

“Not at all.” Heejin said trying to dismiss her worries, before approaching where she was “This is Jiwoo.” She introduced, pointing to her friend.

Jiwoo gave Jungeun a bright smile “Hey.”

“Hi.”

Jungeun kept her eyes on the new girl. She had an odd feeling she knew her from somewhere. And that name...

“I’m leaving, but nice meeting you.” 

“Likewise.” Jungeun replied, her eyes still trained on the retreating figure of the girl. I know her. Where from, where from, whe- , that’s the girl from the mall, the one Soo’s dating...

“See you later tonight, Heekkie.” Jiwoo said from the door.

Yeah that’s definitely her.

“I’ll text you when I’m ready.” Heejin replied, before turning back to her guest “We can take this to my room.“

She motioned to the stairs and they both climbed it until they reached the upper level.

Just like the rest of the house, everything was impeccable and Jungeun felt the need to comment on it “Uh, your house’s very...nice.” What the I’m saying?

Heejin that was walking ahead of her, turned  with a smile “Thanks. Daddy’s kind of an afficionated for architecture, so we move a lot. This house was created by Namgoong, a friend of the family. He’s pretty famous. He used to live here himself, but when he decided to move to Paris, daddy decided we should have it to ourselves so here we are.” She explained.

“Cool.” Jungeun said impressed. It was more than what she wanted to know, but for some reason she liked hearing the excitement in the girl’s voice while explaining it.

Heejin opened the door once they reached the end of the hall and Jungeun was surprised by the size of the room. This is probably bigger than my apartment.

She entered the room, taking all in. The room was white with details of pink spread all over it, different from the rest of the house. It still had the minimalist resemblance, but it also had character, something she guessed was all Heejin’s.

“So, have you thought about what we can do?” Heejin’s voice brought her back to reality. She was sitting in a table in the corner and Jungeun sat down on the chair next to hers.

“If I’m being honest I have no idea of what Mr. Choi’s proposing. I was spacing out during his explanation.” She admited sheepishly, after placing her backpack on the table.

Heejin smiled, already expecting that answer “Basically there’s the science fair coming up and Mr. Choi assigned pairs to work on projects. Like I said, it’s not mandatory but it’ll improve our grade... Luckily it’s up to us what it’ll be about. We have 3 weeks to complete it and he also wants a poster presentation and a report to hand him beforehand. Oh and I thought about also making typed handouts for the people at the fair.”

It took Jungeun more than a moment to register everything the girl had just said “, that’s a lot. Do you have any idea of what we can do?”

Heejin put on her eyeglasses before opening her notebook to look through her notes “Well, since it’s biology related we have plenty of subjects we can explore. Plants, human body, animals... Do you have a preference?”

Jungeun shook her head “Whatever you choose, I’m good with it.”

Heejin smiled at her response “Okay. I’m flattered with your trust in me, but if I’m being honest I’m not the greatest with decisions, so how about we both do some research, then we can talk about each option and then choose the one we like best together?” She suggested instead.

“Sounds good.” Jungeun agreed, taking both her books and notebook from her backpack.

She took a deep breath before opening her book. Biology wasn’t her favourite subject and she had no idea how she got by, being on an AP class of which she barely payed any attention. 

The truth is that her grades on that particular class were hanging by a thread and when the other girl mentioned the opportunity of raising her grades if she participated on that goddamn science fair she knew she had to do it. But now she was starting to regret it.

By what Heejin explained, they had a lot of things to do and so little time. She hadn’t thought about her availability to do it all, since most days than not she was occupied with work and on the  little free time she had, the last thing she wanted was to worry about something related to school.

But she had agreed to work with the girl, even when Heejin offered to do it by herself. And Jungeun was nothing but a woman that stayed true to her word. So she made a mental note to try and do her best to deliver what was asked of her.

For more than an hour, they sat in relative silence, each girl immersed in their own reading. The only noises echoing through the bedroom was the flipping of paper and the occasional buzz from their phones.

On the tenth buzz or so, Jungeun was already feeling boredom take the best of her, along with her attention that was elsewhere but her task, since she kept trying to read the same sentence over and over again without success. 

She decided to open her phone, only to be met with various messages from her friends making plans for later that night. Stupid party. She ignored their messages and went straight to Google, deciding to take a shortcut through their work and find something interesting enough for them to do.

She scrolled through different projects, most of them too easy, which wouldn’t be a good call when she was enrolled in an advanced class and the professor probably expected something better. She also suspected her partner wouldn’t be pleased with any of the options she found, either. For some reason she could see that the girl sitting next to her had the habit of being a perfeccionist, and doing something just for the sake of getting it done probably wasn’t like her.

She was ready to give up on her online search and go back to her books, when her eyes caught the sight of a familiar word on her screen. She stopped scrolling and started reading the project proposition.

She cleared her voice, trying to get her partner’s attention “Uh, do you have any restrictions? Like what we can and can’t say?”

Heejin stopped what she was doing to give Jungeun all of her attention “No, why? What did you find?”

“So, I was looking for ideas online and I came upon one that I think it’s interesting to try it out...I dunno.” 

“Okay?” Heejin said after she realised the older girl wasn’t gonna say much more.

Jungeun looked at her phone, unable to keep eye contact “Uh, it’s about cigarettes and and how the smoke may affect plants growth and stuff...”

She missed the surprised look Heejin made.

“Oh. Alright, we can try that.”

“R-really?”

“Well, do you find it worth doing it?” Jungeun nodded “So I don’t see why not.”

Jungeun smiled, happy that she had convinced the girl so easily “Cool. Thanks.”

“No need to thank me. This project is as much yours as it is mine and I think it’ll be interesting to test it out. I don’t think anyone will do something related. So, how does it work? What do we need?”

Jungeun sent her the link through message so Heejin could also read it.

The project wasn’t difficult, but it was a different approach from what they expected the rest of their class to do.

“Okay. I’ll run it over with Mr. Choi next class just to be sure, then we can get started.” She said after they read all of what they’d need to do “I can purchase whatever we may need and then you can come over to help me set it up and analyse it on the following weeks.” Heejin said, after scribbling down on her notebook everything they’d need.

“Yeah, sure. But you don’t need to pay for all of it, just make a list of all we need then we can split in two.” Jungeun said. For some reason the idea of letting the younger girl pay for everything unsettled her.

“Don’t worry about it, Jungeun. I’ll be happy to.” Heejin smiled, trying to lessen her worries.

“And I’ll be happy if you agree to let me pay for half of it too. Or didn’t you say this project was as much mine as it it yours?” She reminded her.

“Touché.” Heejin laughed “If it’ll make you feel better I’ll buy all of it at once because it’s easier this way, then later we can split the bill, okay?” She suggested.

Jungeun smiled “Thanks.”

“No worries.” Heejin smiled back.

For a few seconds they just stared at each other, neither knowing what to do.

“So, I guess we’re done for today, right?” Jungeun asked awkwardly.

Heejin broke the eye contact “We are, yeah...