“Yah, Rian, you free?” Nana called as she swung the door open, grinning at her bandmate. Rian looked up, frowning, “Where are you going? Isn’t it after curfew?”

Ailee, standing behind Nana, rolled her eyes, “Oh, c’mon, Rian! Since when did you even pay attention to the rules? Come on, let’s go! JB got the teacher’s keys, he’s driving!”

Haesung, sitting on her bed and revising her math, stiffened at the mention of JB’s name, “You guys are going out with JB?”

Rian shot her a hostile glare, “What do you care? Just do your math.”

Haesung shrunk back. Nana shrugged, “Siwoo’s going too. Hurry up, Rian.” As the two HershE members waited for Rian, Ailee shot her three roommates a glance, “You guys won’t tell the teachers about this, will you?”

Soon-doong shook her head nervously, while Seul just rolled her eyes, huffing, “I couldn’t be bothered to.”

There was a pause as Ailee eyed Haesung, who had been busy making a face at Rian. After an awkward silence, Haesung shrugged, “I’ll…keep that in mind.”

Nana smiled brightly, “Thanks! I’ll pay you guys back someday!” With that, she grabbed Rian and charged out of the room.

Seul gave a ‘che’, turning back to her book, “What a totally hyper woman…” Soon-doong shrugged, “I think Nana-sshi is kind of fun. Well, more fun than Rian and Ailee, at any rate.”

Haesung just sighed deeply, returning to her daydreams of JB.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

JB sighed as he leaned against Jisoo’s car. Siwoo waited beside him, his arms folded, “What’s taking the girls so long? God, I should have gone with them…”

“They’re girls, Siwoo. You know how long they take to put their makeup on and everything. Remember last time when we were trainees? We had half a day off, and they ended up taking half of that time just to get ready.” JB rolled his eyes.

Siwoo chuckled, “Right. And we wasted so much time thanks to them.”

“Are you two talking bad about us behind our backs?” Nana demanded as the three girls emerged from the school. Siwoo shook his head immediately, eyes startled, “Of course not, Nana. Why would we do that? The three of you are so…so perfect!” He laughed nervously.

Nana’s eyes narrowed, “Are you sure?” Siwoo gave a high chuckle, “Sure! You’re um…um…pretty and wonderful and fantastic, why would I…”

JB shook his head, sighing, “You’re digging your own grave, buddy.”

Nana mustered all the strength she had and smacked Siwoo hard, on the head. Siwoo yelped, staring at Nana with a wounded look. The other three idols could only laugh.

JB jingled the keys in his hand, “So where do you guys want to go?”

“I want to go to the nightclub!” Ailee immediately answered, her hand shooting into the air.

Rian pouted, “No! I want to go to the movies!” There was a long pause as Ailee and Rian glared at each other. Then Nana nudged Ailee, “Forget it, Ailee. It’s JB who’s driving, you know. He’ll definitely choose to go to the movies, since it’s what Rian wants.”

JB and Rian both shifted uncomfortably at their friend’s words. There was a brief moment as their gazes flickered to each other, before darting away again. After an uncomfortable silence, Siwoo cleared his throat, “Well, whatever. Let’s just not waste anymore time. Movies, right? What do you guys want to watch!”

“Breaking Dawn!”

“Drag Me To Hell!”

This time, Nana and Rian were the ones glaring at each other. Siwoo rolled his eyes, “You girls really just can’t get along, can you?”

Ailee nudged Nana, “Why in the world would you want to watch a show with so much blood and gore and horror?” Nana frowned, “Hey, I saw the trailer of Drag Me To Hell, all right! It looks awesome!”

JB pushed himself off the car, “C’mon, then. Who’s got shotgun?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Haesung put her head down in her hands, groaning softly. From the moment Rian and her bandmates stepped out of the room, she had been completely unable to focus on her math. Thoughts of Rian and JB acting all cuddly and cute together flashed through her mind, and she groaned again, louder this time, knocking her head several times on the wall.

Seul shot up from where she was trying to sleep, “Yah, Shin Haesung! If you won’t shut up, get out!”

There was a pause. Then Haesung got up with an audible grumble, “Fine!” She strode out of the room, slamming the door behind her. And was startled to run into Yoojin and Ui-Bong, right outside her door. Haesung stared at them, “What do you two want?”

There was an awkward pause, and Ui-Bong coughed softly. Then Yoojin asked, “Is Rian-sshi in?”

Haesung shook her head, “No.”

Yoojin and Ui-Bong exchanged an unreadable look. Softly, Ui-Bong said, “We can look for her tomorrow.” But Yoojin shook his head vehemently, “I want to speak to her now.”

Ui-Bong rolled his eyes.

“I don’t know when she’ll be back. So you might as well come by tomorrow.” Haesung told Yoojin coolly before striding away.

Yoojin swore under his breath; he pressed his temples, hard. He had a pounding headache. Ui-Bong shook his head, “I don’t know why you’re so upset about this.”

Yoojin didn’t reply. His mind flashed back to three years ago, his first year in Kirin Arts School…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jin Yoojin swaggered around the corner, his hands in his pocket, his expression lazy and arrogant. His head was tilted upwards, his eyes half-closed as he walked.

That, as everyone knows, was a sure recipe for disaster.

As he rounded the corner, he crashed hard into someone; he landed flat on his back, while the other guy just staggered back a few steps.

Yoojin bounced to his feet, furious. His anger only grew when he saw who had crashed into him: Jang Woojae.

“Yah, Jang Woojae! Don’t you look where you’re going? You stupid four-eyed bat!” Yoojin yelled, taking a menacing step forward.

Woojae took a nervous step back, pushing his spectacles up, “I..I’m sorry, Yoojin-sshi, I didn’t mean…”

“Who cares what you meant to do! You think just because you’re in the superior class, so you’re so great? I’m gonna teach you a lesson!” He balled up his fists, raising it to hit the shorter boy, who flinched automatically, falling to the ground.

Then a hand wrapped around Yoojin’s hand, pulling him back. He spun around, ready to shout at whoever had stopped him, and was startled to see his girlfriend, Lee Jikyung, glaring at him.

“Stop bullying the other freshmen! I thought I told you that I hate it when you do that, especially when you’re doing it to my classmates!” Jikyung snapped, uncharacteristically angry.

Yoojin blinked, then stuttered, trying to defend himself, “No, Jikyung-ah, you don’t understand-”

But Jikyung just ignored Yoojin. She walked over to Woojae and helped him up gently, “Woojae-sshi, you all right?” When the boy nodded, Jikyung smiled, “All right, let’s get to class then.”

And with that, both just walked back to class together, paying no attention to the seething Yoojin.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yoojin leaned his head back as he sighed. Had that been when it started? Had that been when Rian’s relationship with him began to fragment? She had always hated it when he had been a bully; eventually, he supposed, it just became impossible for her to be with him anymore.

And then he promised himself. He would get her back. No matter what had happened before, no matter what happened in the future, he would get her back from Jang Woojae. 

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Here's the new chapter!

This chapter is actually quite illuminating: it not only displays the friendship between the idols, but it also represents the start of a new arc in the story: Yoojin's now gonna be working hard to beat JB for Rian's heart too.

So Yoojin has actually always hated JB, because he's always been more superior than him. Even back then, JB had been in the superior class, with Yoojin in a inferior class; hence, this just makes their hatred for each other all the more intense. The relationship between Yoojin, JB and Rian just gets more complicated from here: anyone excited for it? :)