Tarian isn’t in a great mood come homeroom on Monday. It might be because she’s under the distinct impression that Yonghwa is upset about her hanging out with Yongguk and Daehyun and the other B.A.P. boys – except that she’s really not hanging out with them and by some strange occurance she always ends up being where they are. Or it might be because she’s feeling a little more homesick. Or maybe it’s because Youngjae, Jongup, and Daehyun are being particularly rowdy this morning despite Mrs. Chae standing at the front of the room, droning on about her subject.

“Hey sugar,” Youngjae croons, leaning across the small gap that separates their two desks. “We’re going to the club again this weekend. You should definitely come with us.”

“No thanks,” Tarian mumbles, voice muffled because she’s currently got her face pressed into her folded arms. “Dancing with you guys is the last thing I want to do with my weekend. And quit calling me ridiculous names.” But she’s said it so many times by now that it lacks the proper conviction.

Across from her, Youngjae pouts. “But you seem to be such a good dancer!” he exclaims. “You were really working it the last night.”

Daehyun snorts from his spot behind Youngjae. “Are you blind? She’s about as coordinated as duck on ice.”

Though Tarian doesn’t like Daehyun on principal, she does sort of have to agree with him there. “I’m pretty sure it wasn’t me you saw dancing,” she assures Youngjae. “I only danced for about point five seconds.”

“Oh, right. That’s when you went to go drink with Yongguk,” Jongup grins from his seat behind her.

“Ms. Pryce,” Mrs. Chae calls, and even though no one in the classroom but the teacher is looking at her, Tarian knows everyone has gone still and silent to better hear what’s taking place at the back of the class. “Do you need detention again today?”

“It won’t do any good, Mrs. Chae,” Youngjae calls out cheerfully. “Jung Eunji will just get her out of detention.”

Mrs. Chae looks both affronted and a little frightened, but after a few agonizing seconds of indecision, she resumes the lesson and seems to pretend like the little disturbance never happened.

Until the bell rang ending first period, however. Then, as she packs up her things to go to her next class, she looks up and says, “Ms. Pryce, I’d like to have a word with you in the hallway, please.”

Ignoring the chorus of “oohs” from Youngjae and Jongup, Tarian drags herself tiredly from her desk and slopes out into the hallway, where the teacher is waiting.

“Yes, Mrs. Chae?” she asks, trying to keep the sullen tone from her voice – she’s not sure she is successful.

Mrs. Chae sighs and, for perhaps the first time since Tarian transferred into her class, regards her student with a certain amount of sympathy. “What’s going on, Tarian?” she asks, for once sounding like a real person instead of a disassociated teacher. “You obviously know that these boys are bad news, and you’re just as obviously not a stupid girl. So why do you hang out with them?”

Tarian feels the injustice of this statement well up inside her. “I don’t hang out with them,” she assures Mrs. Chae through tight lips. “I would never hang out with them. I don’t want to hang out with them.”

Mrs. Chae, however, ignores these vehement protests. “I know what the girls around this school say about those boys,” she continues self-righteously. “That they’re handsome and edgy and whatnot. Those boys aren’t attractive, Tarian. They’re troublemakers and bad news.”

“I don’t think they’re attractive,” Tarian mutters, but she may as well be talking to herself for all the good it does. Mrs. Chae just does not want to listen.

“I see the way you goof off with them in the back of class,” she continues.

“I don’t goof off with them,” Tarian interjects heatedly. “They sit there and bother me. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. You’re the one who made me sit there in the first place.”

But still Mrs. Chae doesn’t want to hear any of her excuses. “Just be smart, Tarian,” she says, in what she probably assumes is a motherly and advice-giving tone. “You’ll stay as far away from those boys as you can if you know what’s good for you.”

“Can you believe that stupid old cow?” Tarian fumes later. It’s just before lunch and she’s walking towards the courtyard with Eunji, backpack slung over her shoulder, lunch in hand. “Telling me who I can and can’t hang out with. I don’t even hang out with them. Who does she think she is? Can’t she mind her own business?”

Eunji, tottering beside her in her heels, hums noncommittally. “She’s got a point, though,” the dark-haired girl says. “They’re not exactly the best people to hang out with.”

“That’s your brother you’re talking about,” Tarian points out, grimacing.

“Step-brother,” Eunji corrects pointedly.

The blonde rolls her eyes. “Whatever. And I’m not hanging out with them anyway. I don’t know why everyone always thinks I am.”

As if in response to her rhetorical question, Jongup and Zelo appear out of nowhere. “Bunny!” Jongup crows, throwing an arm around her. “They say you went to the club this weekend, but I didn’t see you! You’ll have to go again so I can see how hot you look!”

“And you’ll have to dance with me!” Zelo urges, tugging on her arm. “Promise, okay? Promise?”

Tarian shrugs them off; they are most definitely not helping her case. “Go away!” she all but begs. Laughing, Jongup and Zelo head off down the hallway to wherever they are going, the other students pressing themselves against the lockers to make a path.

When Tarian turns back to her best friend, Eunji is giving her a level look from beneath her fringe. “Yeah, you don’t hang out with them. Sure.”

“I don’t,” Tarian presses, inwardly cursing her bad luck. “They just always seem to show up where I am. It’s like they’re psychic stalking me or something.”

They’re almost to the end of the corridor now, the double doors leading out to the courtyard looming ahead of them. “You know what you should do to stop all that mess,” Eunji suggests calmly.

Tarian snorts; she sincerely doubts anything will stop those guys from popping up everywhere. “What’s that?”

“You should date Yonghwa,” Eunji says matter-of-factly.

Tarian falters a step, her eyes automatically seeking said boy’s face out as they step out into the courtyard. He’s sitting under their usual tree with their friends, laughing at something Minhyuk just said. He catches sight of Tarian and Eunji and waves cheerfully.

Tarian swallows. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she mutters. “I don’t want to date someone just to get rid of someone else. That’s not cool.”

Eunji shrugs. “So date him because he’s Yonghwa,” she suggest. “Seriously, Tarian. You’re not going to find a better guy at this school than him. He’s smart and he’s funny and he’s kind. He’s also really good-looking. He’s also one of the only people in school who has the guts to stand up to my idiot brother and his idiot friends. You should go for it.”

Tarian doesn’t say anything, just wrinkles her nose in thought as they join their friends beneath the big tree.