QOTD: ‘A true warrior knows to target their enemy’s culinary disgusts not their physical weaknesses.’ -Walt Disney

            Yeri had to admit that she felt like somewhat of a double-agent with all the -kissing she did between Wendy and Joy. When she wasn’t buttering up the blonde student council president about how she gave the best advice for surviving classes, she was fawning over the redhead model’s sense of fashion (although Yeri wasn’t going to tell Joy that she overdid it with the decorations on her tie). As a result, the freshman not only had ~connections~ but she also had their complete trust as far as school matters were concerned. That probably meant they’d also trust her with Seulrene’s deepest, darkest secrets, right? There was no way Wendy and Joy didn’t have things to rant about their best friends.

            That meant the next step in her plan was to, as Saeron mentioned, approach the actual people of interest themselves. If Wendy and Joy were the 1-9 pointers on a target, Irene and Seulgi were the bullseyes. And while Yeri wasn’t necessarily shooting her own shot, per se, she definitely was going to have them relive the Aloadae brothers but with a less violent twist—something more along the lines of them being the only ones who can fall in love with each other than kill each other. That’s right. Yeri was mothering Artemis: strong, independent, and successful in her plan. She was going to make Seulrene sail no matter what.

            If she could somehow convince them to let her hang out with them, that is.

            The most obvious flaw sole point of concern in her plan was that they were really busy, between being the likely valedictorians, athletes, and leaders of busy clubs. The other really obvious flaw subsection of that concern was that neither girl really let Yeri stalk her hang out with her outside of classes. It didn’t make sense. They were so friendly in class (although Yeri knew most of it was due to her immense charm), given that the definition of friendly was that they chose solely to interact with Yeri and give her their quiz answers so they didn’t have to talk to each other. Okay, so maybe Yeri was just a middleman of sorts, but they smiled at her and everything, so that had to be a good sign, right? Right. Yeri was universally loved and loved universally except for that annoying @imkite who kept saying ‘suuuuuuure myemim’ on all of her posts (it hadn’t stopped. It still hadn’t stopped).

            So she used this to her advantage and practiced hiding behind poles and so she could prepare for the ultimate challenge of ambushing Irene and Seulgi outside of the three million things they did. It was difficult, because Yeri knew people’s bodies weren’t necessarily made to perfectly fit behind poles, but she did a relatively good job at hiding behind benches (with the exception of her feet), trashcans (with the exception of her obviously peering eyes), and walls.

            “Saeron!”

            Saeron looked at Yeri with dead eyes. Learning art must have taken a toll on the poor girl—she was about as artistically talented as a dried-up worm trying to use an oil medium, so the dark circles under her eyes might not have been dark circles but permanent smudges of charcoal.

            “Why do I have a feeling that whenever I hang out with you, I lose three years of my life?”

            “Oh hush, child. That’s why I feed you multivitamin gummies every Tuesday.”

            “That’s not how this works.”

            Yeri held up her hand to silence her. “Whatever. Not important.”

            Saeron’s left eye twitched.

            “I was wondering,” Yeri continued, “if I could get your opinion on something.”

            “It’s not like I have a choice anyway.” Saeron waved her hand. “Go on.”

            Yeri gave her best friend a pointed stare, which pretty much flew over Saeron’s head given that she was four seconds away from plunging into REM sleep. Nevertheless, Yeri thought that the sacrifices that Saeron made eventually serve her well and continued talking.

            “Do you think that if I gave pretty, framed photos of myself not on my social media to someone, they’d hand over Seulrene’s class schedules?”

            “Honestly, if I were that someone, you’d have to pay me to take your photos.”

            Yeri scowled. “Okay, no. I don’t want your opinion anymore.”

            Saeron shrugged. She didn’t really care.

            “What do you think I should do then?”

            Saeron shrugged again but sighed at the frenzied look in Yeri’s eyes. “Have you tried asking Wendy or Joy?”

            “Wouldn’t that be creepy?”

            “You could just say that you’re trying to send candy grams to the seniors you admire for Valentines.”

            SM High had a tradition of sending people from the choir club to people’s classrooms throughout the day, wherein the candy gram recipient would be seated at the front of the classroom in a chair that the mischievous teachers set up solely for the day and sung to. The fiasco often included lots of hooting and filming from the class, greasy eye contact and gestures from the singers, and tons of embarassment from the victim of the gram. Signing someone up was a simple process: pick your candy basket and song, pay, and fill in the recipient’s name and class schedule so that they may be ambushed whenever. Generally the more popular students were pretty much permanently stationed up front (this was probably true of Irene and Seulgi too), and Yeri hoped that the same would be done for her. Even if her intentions right now were to prioritize getting Seulrene’s class schedules.

            “Saeron, sometimes I wonder why you’re still in school.”

            “Because I’d have nothing to do as an adult if I didn’t study.”

            Okay, Yeri hadn’t really thought of that. She was going to compliment Saeron by telling her that she was too smart to be in school with other high schoolers, but there was logic to her words.

            “I see.” Yeri cleared . “But that sounds fantastic. Although I’ll also have to ask for Wendy and Joy’s schedules too if that’s the case. It’d be weird not too.”

            “Is that the gears spinning in your head that I see?” Saeron’s eyes widened comically. “I don’t think I’ve seen that happen since the spelling bee!”

            The taller girl stopped talking after Yeri’s textbook hit her face.

-------

            “You’re like the three-hundredth person today to hand in a gram for them,” the person working the candy gram table at lunch mentioned. “Although generally most people only send them to one or the other.”

            Yeri nodded absentmindedly, checking that she had enough money in her wallet (a part of her was anxious over the thought that she may have had spent way too much on mascara the other day). Thankfully she did, so she handed over the bills.

            “Who gets more?”

            The guy shrugged. “We don’t really keep track. Plus, we know that the Kang Spikes and Pom Pom Baes will send them in hordes, so we try to finish Irene and Seulgi’s grams in bulk. Especially Irene’s. She can get scary when annoyed.”

            Yeri hummed. She honestly didn’t mind if her gram got buried within the masses, because she was just in it for schedules. Actually having to buy the candy grams was just a consequence of that. Although she did wonder if Irene and Seulgi went home and counted all their candy grams in a typical fit of rival instinct.

            The freshman peered into her wallet. “Can I get two more?”

            “Ooh, a friend? A crush?”