Mirae sits in her 1st period classroom, anxiously tapping her pencil against her desk. Her encounter with Jongin this weekend has rather unnerved her.

Jaesun must have scared Jongin, or done something bad to him because of his disorder, she hypothesizes. I just need to figure out what. Then maybe, Jongin can realize that Jaesun’s okay now. And they can be happy and nice to each other again. And throw popcorn at movie screens together.

“Oh my god,” she suddenly hears some guy moan on the other side of the room. “I think I’m in love.”

“I know,” his friend gasps. “I almost passed out right there when I saw her. I had to sprint to the bathroom.”

“She’s, like, really pretty,” another girl laughs to her friend. “She’s basically perfect now, she has the looks to go with her brains.”

“Life is so unfair,” her friend gripes. “Some people have everything.”

Some chick must’ve wore a miniskirt to school, Mirae thinks, rolling her eyes. Suyeon’s going to laugh. Wait, where is Suyeon anyway?

Her question is answered when the door opens and the entire class goes silent. Mirae looks up from her desk.

Her jaw drops.

Suyeon is striding towards her, wearing a tight white shirt tucked into a pair of cuffed booty shorts that make her legs look miles long. Her hair is long and light auburn and flows past her ribs. Suyeon’s eyes are perfectly lined with black eyeliner, and her skin is flawless. Mirae’s jaw drops. She looks like a supermodel.

“Oh my god,” she whispers, gaping at her best friend.

“Hi,” Suyeon smirks.

“Well, well.” Jihae struts over to Suyeon, grinning. “When I told you that you should dress up nicely every day, Suyeon, I didn’t expect you to take it so much to heart.”

“What can I say?” Suyeon replies smoothly. “I guess that look just suits me.”

Jihae an eyebrow. “Touche. You’re the talk of Daegu right now.”

“Thanks.” Suyeon smiles. Jihae looks at her for a few more seconds, and then nods, and approving look on her face.

“Suyeon, why didn’t you tell me about this?” Mirae whispers, grinning. “Were you planning to surprise me, hm?”

Suyeon looks over at the girl coolly. “I wanted to do it for myself.”

“Oh, really?” Mirae’s beam widens, despite the fact that there is a little voice inside her whispering that something is very, very wrong. “That’s awesome. You’ll definitely catch Hoseok’s eye now.”

“I suppose.” Suyeon runs a hand through her hair. “By the way, did get my text about Jongin?”

“Oh, the one about him tutoring Jaemi? Yeah, that totally ! How could Jaemi betray us?” Mirae shakes her head. “Young ones these days.”

That’s all you have to say?, Suyeon thinks, annoyed. She offers Mirae a tepid laugh and turns away. The smile fades off of Mirae’s face.

Suyeon tells herself not to be so standoffish towards Mirae. After all, they are still friends.

So when Jihae approaches her and says, “Hey, wanna have lunch with us?”, she says,  “Sure, if Mirae can come too.”

Mirae stares at Suyeon in shock. Is she really saying yes to eating with the cheerleaders? They were friendly enough with the bet and all, but their vicious reputation precedes them. Mirae feels like she is being carted out to be thrown amidst a pack of hungry lions. And her supposed-to-be-best-friend isn’t really making Mirae feel safe, either.

Maybe Yeonnie’s having a bad day today, she muses. Or maybe she wanted a change? Or she’s trying harder to get Hoseok by acting cooler and being prettier? But she would never give me the cold shoulder just to get a guy. Or would she?

    “Afternoon, girls,” Suyeon says smoothly as she pulls up a chair to the cheerleaders’ table. They eye her curiously, grins on their faces.

    “Hey, Suyeon. I’m really liking the new look.” Hwe Ji giggles. “And by the look of it, half the guys in the school do, too.”

    Suyeon laughs. “Thanks. I feel pretty good.”

    “So why’d you do it?” Su Ah inquires. “I would’ve thought #3 in the class considered herself above such things. Did our makeovers have an effect on you?”

    Suyeon’s eyes dart to Mirae for a second, then look back at Su Ah. “I just felt like I needed a change,” she says, shrugging. “And this can’t hurt our tutoring, right, Mirae?”

    “Yeah.” Mirae forces a smile, and then looks back down at her PB&J sandwich.

    “So where did you go to get your hair done?” Jihae questions.

    “Ooh, I went to the Shangri-la Salon at the mall. Ask for Jinah, she works wonders.” Suyeon chatters animatedly with the cheerleaders for the rest of lunch. Mirae, on the other hand, stays silent. This is so uncomfortable. Is Suyeon doing this on purpose?, Mirae wonders. She itches the palm of her hand uneasily.

Out of the corner of her eye, however, she spots something strange: Hoseok is looking over at Suyeon from his table, an indecipherable look on his face.

    Weird. Why does he look like that?

    The bell rings, and Su Ah chirps, “Ooh, there’s our cue! Hey, you should sit with us tomorrow, too. You’re pretty fun to talk to, Suyeon. Oh, and, uh, you can come too, I guess,” she adds, glancing over at Mirae.

    “Yeah, you too!” Suyeon smiles, and waves goodbye.

    “Well, I should probably get to Chem,” Mirae says uneasily. “I’ll see you later?”

    “Yup, bye!” Suyeon ambles off in the opposite direction to get to her next class. Mirae is left standing alone, looking after the retreating figure of her best friend with a forlorn expression on her face.

    “Hey, Mirae?”

    Mirae twists around. Hoseok is standing behind her, a concerned expression on his face. By the look of it, he saw their entire exchange.

“If you’re going to ask me for Suyeon’s number, don’t,” the girl informs him wearily. “You’re the 3rd person today.”

“I wasn’t planning on doing so,” Hoseok sighs. “I just wanted to ask... is Suyeon okay?”

“How should I know? She’s been ignoring me the whole day!” Mirae snaps. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you. I guess I’m just a little frustrated.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Hoseok says. “It’s just... Suyeon would never do something like this, from what I know. I may be wrong.”

“No, you’re right,” Mirae says earnestly, bobbing her head. “It’s weird. I don’t know what’s happening. I’ll try to ask her later.”

“Thanks. I’ll see you around, Mirae.” Hoseok is about to walk away, when Mirae suddenly asks, “Wait, Hoseok, I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but why are you so concerned about Suyeon?”

Hoseok pauses, and then smiles. “She’s cute. I like her.”

And then he walks away, leaving Mirae to ponder whether he likes Suyeon or he likes Suyeon.

    A few weeks later, Suyeon is tight with the cheerleaders.

    She’s integrated quite smoothly into the cheerleaders’ friend circle, despite not being a cheerleader herself. In the past few days, Suyeon’s had more of a social life than she has had in the past 8 years. From getting mani-pedis to grabbing cappuccinos to having a movie marathon at Hwe Ji’s house, Suyeon finally feels like she is breaking away from Mirae’s shadow.

She still hangs out with her, of course: after reflecting on her actions, Suyeon realizes that she might have overreacted to Mirae not texting her back, and that Mirae might have been busy. But the cheerleaders are cool and Suyeon clicks with them. So she hangs out with them, too.

    I’m in the In Crowd now, she suddenly realizes one day when she’s taking selfies in a mall bathroom with the girls. With the popular people. I’m one of them now. How the hell did this happen again?

    “So who’re you asking to the Halloween Dance?” Aecha, another one of the cheerleaders, teases Suyeon at lunch. “Got your eye on anyone specific?”

    Suyeon blushes, causing the other cheerleaders to exchange telling looks. “I did want to ask someone,” she admits. “Jung Hoseok?”

    “Awww!” Jihae cooes, clapping her hands to . “That’s so cute! You should totally ask him: he’s not taken, and none of us-,” she gestures around the table of cheerleaders, “-has claimed him yet.”

    “He’s never had a girlfriend, either. Oh my god, you two could be each other’s, like, first loves! That is so cute!” Su Ah trills.

    “Do you really think he would want to go with me?” Suyeon frets. “I’m kind of a nerd, and kind of dorky, too-,”

    “Yeon, please.” Hwe Ji rolls her eyes. “You are not dorky anymore.”

    “Be more confident.” Su Ah playfully slaps Suyeon’s arm. “Okay, so here’s the plan. We’ll invite the basketball team to go with us to go catch a movie and get dinner. Sometime during that time, ask Hoseok if he wants to go with you.”

    “Alright.” Suyeon slams her hand down on the table. “I’ll do it.”

    Jihae hip-bumps her. “You go, girl.”