After a few moments of hesitation, debating whether to go in or skip class or not with anxiety piling up; Yoojung took a deep breath and opened the door. Slowly, she walked in followed by Nayoung who was followed by Sohye. All of the girls could feel their classmate’s eyes on them; they quietly mumbled a sorry to their teacher and sat in their respective seats which luckily for them were next to each other.

“So girls, I was just explaining that today you’re going to be working in pairs that I’ve specifically picked for you. Yoojung you will be with Doyeon, Nayoung you’re with Jieqiong and Sohye you’re with Mina.” He smiled at the girls. “Now if you could please sit next to your assigned partner I will explain what we’re doing today.”

The girls glanced at each other each of their eyes was filled with anxiety. Slowly they got up and began walking to their assigned seats listening to the mumbles of their fellow classmate’s. Yoojung and Nayoung were greeted by a glare from their partners meanwhile Sohye was greeted by a small smile from Mina, which put the nervous girl at ease a little.

The teacher began explaining to the class what their assignment was although none of the six girls were paying attention, each of their minds had drifted elsewhere. They were all wondering whose parents had called the school and put them into this situation. Yoojung, Nayoung and Sohye were wondering what type of rude remarks they should be expecting; meanwhile Doyeon, Jieqiong and Mina were wondering how they could get the information out of the girls.

“Alright! You may begin!” The girls were all pulled out of their trance when the teacher.

“What are we doing?” Doyeon turned to Yoojung and asked her emotionlessly.

“I don’t know,” Yoojung shrugged as she opened her textbook. “You should’ve listened.”

“We’re meant to be working in a pair, short . So I suggest you tell me what to do,” Doyeon spoke in a low threatening tone of voice which scared Yoojung a little bit.

“Basically, you have to answer the questions on page 88 and then you can continue reading the story and answer the questions on the pages up to 90 if you’re finished,” Yoojung told her. “I guess we have to answer the questions together though.”

Doyeon nodded and opened her textbook turning it to page 88, she her lips before turning to face Yoojung once again. “Hey loser,” Doyeon whispered. Yoojung simply ignored her though and began writing down her answers, this frustrated Doyeon so she tried to get the girls attention again. “Answer me!” She said in a harsh whisper. Still getting ignored however, she began to shake Yoojung’s shoulder which caused the girl to scribble over her notes.

“Are you ing kidding me?” Yoojung snapped. “I was going to let you copy my answers, but you’ve just ruined that for both of us,” she whispered harshly.

Doyeon just chuckled which only irritated the smaller girl. “I don’t care to copy your notes, Yoojung. What I do care about however is who got their parents to call up?”

“I don’t know,” Yoojung answered.

“It must’ve been one of you. You’re supposedly the ones who are getting bullied,” Doyeon pressed. “I want to know who snitched.”

“I honestly don’t know,” Yoojung replied trying to ignore Doyeon’s harsh voice.

“You must know!” Doyeon demanded. “You know what, Yoojung. Even if you don’t tell me, Jieqiong and Mina are questioning your friends anyway. So I’m sure one of them will crack... And by one of them I mean Sohye,” she smirked turning to look at Mina and Sohye. Although, rather than the older girl looking anxious like she had expected; Sohye seemed calm and relaxed.

“Listen stone , you must know who told their parents,” Jieqiong snapped. She watched as Nayoung ignored her and continued working, she didn’t care though; to her the work was pointless. Her main priority of this class was to crack Nayoung and find out who put them in this situation. “Don’t ignore me,” she said through gritted teeth.

“I. Don’t. Know.” Nayoung made sure to punctuate between each word as if she was trying to patronize the Chinese girl. “How do you know it wasn’t one of your friends?” Nayoung decided to ask with hopes that the question would leave Jieqiong thinking.

Unfortunately that wasn’t the case, instead it seemed to make her angrier. “Why the would one of my friends snitch?! We’re not the ones who claim to be getting bulled!” She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Listen, stone face. It’s either you tell me or for the rest of however long we have left working together, I will make it a living Hell for you.”

“It already is a living Hell for me.” Nayoung said before turning back to her work.

Mina had yet to question Sohye about who told their parents; it wasn’t that she wasn’t curious. It was that she could practically feel the anxiety radiating of the girl beside her, and she didn’t want to create more anxiety for the girl or put her into an uncomfortable situation. She could feel Doyeon and Jieqiong’s eyes burning into her head, but she didn’t care. Unlike them she didn’t particularly want to bully the girls, as she didn’t have a problem with any of them. Instead she just hung around with Doyeon and Jieqiong for the status, plus they’d all been friends since middle school.

“Hey Sohye,” she whispered softly. She decided that she should at least try and ask the girl so that she wouldn’t have to lie to her friends.

“Yes?” Sohye gulped nervously. The girl was confused by Mina’s actions, rather than being hostile towards her the girl had been quite nice to her. She hadn’t made one rude remark, she’d smiled at her and now she was talking to her nicely. Sohye felt surprisingly calm.

“Do you know who told their parents?” Mina asked. “I’m not gonna get mad or scream and shout, I just want to know because I want us to get out of this situation.”

Sohye nodded understanding what the girl was saying. “I want to get out of this situation too, Mina. Honestly, I wish I knew who told but I really don’t. I’m sorry,” she sighed.

“It wasn’t you?” Mina questioned.

“No, my parents don’t know anything about my school life minus my grades and Yoojung and Nayoung.” Sohye smiled when she mentioned her friend’s names. Mina noticed this and smiled back.

“I see, and it defiantly wasn’t one of your friends?” Mina pressed however unlike her two friends Mina wasn’t going to try and scare Sohye into telling her. Instead she decided that she’d try to befriend the girl and get her to admit it to her that way. Although, she had a feeling that it would take a long time to get the other girl to open up to her and trust her.

“No, we spoke about it earlier. It really wasn’t us,” Sohye bit her lip and fiddled with her pen, as she tried to calm herself down from getting too nervous. She was a little worried in case Mina turned nasty towards her.

“Oh, alright then.” Mina simply said smiling, before turning back to her work. “Would you rather copy mine or I copy yours? Just we should have the same answers seems as we’re working together.”

“Alright class!” The teacher called, making everyone look up from their textbooks. “It’s time to pack up. Once you’ve finished, you may leave. Doyeon and Yoojung, if you wouldn’t mind staying for a few minutes; I need to talk to you both.”

Slowly the class became smaller and smaller as more and more pupils walked out of the room, eventually leaving only Doyeon and Yoojung behind.

“What’s this about?” Doyeon asked harshly. “I need to get to class.”

“Oh, don’t worry Doyeon.” The teacher smiled. “I’ve told your maths teacher that you’ll be a couple of minutes late already. I just want to see your work please.”

Doyeon frowned. “Why?”                                                                                        

The teacher raised his eyebrow at the girl. “Because Doyeon, I didn’t see you move your pen once. I did however see you pestering Yoojung a lot.” He turned to Yoojung, “I saw your pen moving a lot though. You managed to work despite Doyeon’s none stop talking?”

Yoojung just nodded and pushed her workbook towards the teacher. “That’s everything I’ve done.”

“That’s good,” he nodded. “Unfortunately Yoojung, I need you to stay behind after school to work with Doyeon. I know that it isn’t fair on you however you’re a pair so you need to work together.”

“Are you kidding me?” Doyeon snapped. “I’m not staying after school to work with this loser!”

“Kim Doyeon! That’s enough!” The teacher raised his voice a little. “You are to stay behind and work with Yoojung tonight. Do you understand?”

Not wanting to get into anymore trouble Doyeon just nodded her head. “Yes sir.”

“And Yoojung, is that alright with you?” The teacher smiled.

“Yes,” Yoojung nodded. “That’s okay.”

“Good then you’re free to go,” the teacher ushered them out of his classroom. “I expect the work to be in within the next three days, Doyeon.”

“I understand,” Doyeon smiled weakly as she walked away.

Yoojung sighed. Why did she get put into this situation? She wondered to herself, before wondering the main thing... Who decided to put them in pairs, and why? Something about it just didn’t add up to the small girl and she was determined to find out the truth as to what’s happening.