“So you finally said yes?”  Minji’s head is hanging off the side of Chaerin’s bed, her question punctuated by the tug of a candy from her teeth. “Why am I the last to know? As always.” She continues with a pout and Dara digs her toes under the protruding ribs of her best friend. 

“If you’d been at school for the last two days you wouldn’t have been the last to know, the former blue head speaks up. “How long do I have to keep the bleach on my hair? It itches.” She whines and Chaerin sighs and looks up from her book and at the clock.

“You’ve got another forty minutes.” She says and looks at Minji once more. “You were part of the group text, you cannot tell me that you didn’t know.”

Minji sits up and blinks wildly at Chaerin before skeptically reaching for her phone and pulling up her inbox. “Oh….” She says defeated and tosses her phone to the side. “So whatever, you’re going to prom with Jiyong, and absolutely no one saw that one coming.” Her voice is dripping with sarcasm but her features are friendly as she stares at Chaerin, who finally dog-ears the page she’s on and puts her book down.
 
“Okay, so maybe he’s been trying to win me over for a while.” She starts looking between the friends that surround her. “And maybe I just didn’t want to see it alright? He was so annoying, but I guess that’s kind of endearing isn’t it? I don’t know. I don’t know why I said yes, or why my stomach is still telling me that there’s something…. Well my stomach’s upset let’s put it that way.” She groans, as Minji and Dara share somewhat distressed looks. “I don’t know.” She whines.

“You’re stressing yourself out over nothing.” Dara deadpans. “Wanna know what I really think?”

“No.”

“I think that you just want to not like him, you’ve always wanted to not like him. And it’s making you upset that you don’t have something to whine about anymore.”

“What do you mean?” Chaerin leans forward eyeing Dara and the mess of mermaid green on her head.

“What I mean…” Dara starts, locking eyes with her best friend. “Is that you’ve always just decided that you didn’t like Jiyong, even though he made you laugh. Now granted he annoyed you and we all knew that, but I think he annoyed you because he made you laugh. You avoided him like the plague, and now you’ve finally given him the chance you don’t have anyone to be annoyed at. It’s just.. like we’re seniors right? It’s time to stop being childish.”  The two stare at each other for a long moment, until Minji distracts them both by standing and grabbing her toothbrush from her bag.

“I’m not being childish.” Chaerin blinks at Dara, but she knows that the other is right, and if she were a worse person she would kick her out like that tantrum that’s building inside her wants to. 

“You’re just stuck in the past.” Dara tries to calm the storm building in Chaerin.

“I just, always felt like he was a player, everyone likes him, he could have anyone.” Chaerin admits, and she finally realizes why she fought so hard.

“He could, that’s true, half of the school is in love with him, but do you know how many girlfriends he’s had through out high school?” Dara asks and causes Chaerin to pause.
 

“No.”

“Two.” Dara spills, “And he didn’t cheat on either of them.”

“How do you know all this.” Chaerin asks, and picks up her book, trying to distance herself slightly from how serious the conversation has turned.

“You underestimate my popularity.” Dara smirks. “Aside from that, when everyone assumes that you’re just the quiet art kid they talk a lot, because there’s no way you’re listening right? Anyway, all I’m saying is that just because people like someone it doesn’t mean that they’re automatically a bad person, and that if they like you they won’t treat you right.”

Chaerin grumbles, and Dara smirks knowingly to herself before she relaxes back as much as she can with bleach on her head. “You can come back Minji.” Chaerin calls to the hallway, knowing that the other was waiting outside for the fight she was certain was about to erupt.

“Dara’s still alive?” Minji asks, peaking her head into the doorway.

“Still breathing, though these fumes are getting to me.” Dara laughs and pulls her feet closer to her so the younger can sit on the bed.

“Ten more minutes.” Chaerin groans and pushes Dara with her foot. “Go turn on the playstation, I need to kill something.” She laughs, and grins as Dara does what she’s asked and hands the controller to her friend.  The wild screams and panicked giggles last far too late into the night, long past when Dara washes out her hair and Chaerin has finished attempting to play through a fighting game that she borrowed from her sister.

Chaerin is the first to wake up in the morning, rolling over and pawing at her phone on the nightstand.  “What colour baby?”  Chaerin squints at the text from Jiyong in confusion before texting back. “What colour? What do you mean?”  She tosses the phone aside and stretches before heading to the bathroom, returning to another text.  “Your dress, what colour is it?” Chaerin smiles a little at her phone before texting back. “Don’t know yet. Minji Dara and I are getting it today I’ll let you know.”  Jiyong is quick to respond and Chaerin is taken aback at how serious he seems about all of this. “k. Flowers?”  Chaerin sets the phone aside as she thinks, having not had put that much thought into prom herself. “I’ll let you know when I get my dress.” 


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Thank you all for sticking it out this long. I'm sorry that updates have been few and far between and I'll be honest I don't think this chapter isquite up to par. But! I promise things will get better.  Once again, thank you all so much for reading and being patient. <3