“This is stupid and you know it,” implored the blonde haired girl by the name of Choa. Her eyelashes were flawlessly long and her stare was piercing.

She was the only one of the two girls in sophomore year that Junhee knew the name to. The other one was Choa’s best friend, Jimin.

“Fine,” said Jimin, sticking her nose in the air and sitting up straighter in her seat. They were currently in their homeroom, waiting for the bell to ring. “We’ll ask Junhee when she comes.”

Choa rolled her eyes, and made a face, “You don’t even know if she’d be in our homeroom.”

“Of course, I do,” said Jimin, flicking her hair sarcastically. “I made sure of it.”

Suddenly, there was a ruckus by the door and three boys stepped inside, rowdy and laughing.

Choa groaned, “Ugh, why didn’t you put those pigs in a different homeroom?” She shook her head and turned back to Jimin, trying to ignore the scraping of chairs and snorting.

“Oh, I forgot about them,” Jimin flinched, her short black hair falling over her dark eyes.

“Morning, my ladies,” Baekhyun called over from the other side of the room as he and his friends sat down. Jongin pretended to tip them his invisible hat. Chanyeol merely slumped onto an empty seat at the back and resumed sleeping where he’d left off.

“Go away,” Jimin greeted, her smile was sickeningly sweet.

“By the way,” Baekhyun carried on as if nothing had happened. He leaned his elbows onto his knees in anticipation. “You don’t happen to know which homeroom your little friend is in, do you?”

“What does it have anything to do with you?” Choa remarked, curling her blonde hair with her finger absently. “You better not be tormenting her this year.”

“Ohh,” Jongin in a sharp breath, looking at the pair coyly. “I see somebody’s jealous. Would you two rather we torment you?”

Jimin swatted her hand at them as if they were some annoying insects. “Oh, don’t bother, unless you have a death wish.”

Students came filing in, but still no sign of Junhee. Jimin and Choa looked at each other worriedly, wondering whether they should’ve saved her a seat. Jimin eyed a baby faced boy by the name of Minseok as he deliberately looked away from Jongin and Baekhyun’s direction to sit himself a row behind her. Aren’t they friends? Or are they planning something?

But nothing else happened as Minseok seemed to neatly take a novel out from his bag and resume reading where he had bookmarked. Glancing up to find Jimin looking at him, he blinked and glanced down at his book as if wondering what the cover looked like. He looked up again when he found nothing wrong with his book.

“Um, morning?” he said pleasantly. “Can I help you?”

“Nothing,” Jimin shrugged, turning back to her phone. “It’s a good book by the way.”

“You’ve read it?” he asked, sounding surprised and curious. He leaned forward, as if taking a good look at her for the first time.

Jimin twisted around to him again and raised her eyebrows.

“Yeah. It was kind of boring, actually,” she said. “But then, after I finished it, I kept thinking about it.” She rolled her eyes, “Maybe it was because Junhee kept referring things from it and it stuck.”

Surprisingly, Minseok chuckled.

“She was actually the one who suggested it to me last year,” confessed the boy. “I only borrowed it before I came in. Didn’t get a chance to–”

“Junhee talks to you?” Jimin gawked, as if he wasn’t human.

Minseok blinked and closed his mouth then opened it again. Before he could think of anything to say, their homeroom teacher came in followed by a female student carrying the teacher’s folder. The student dumped the folder on the teacher’s desk as he said something to her. She nodded and turned around to look for a seat.

The only remaining seats were the one beside Chanyeol, who was snoring, and by Minseok. Expectedly, the girl skipped towards the latter option without a second thought, putting her schoolbag onto her desk.

“Hello, Junhee,” Minseok greeted pleasantly.

“Hello, Minseok,” echoed Junhee, opening her bag and rummaging through it.

Jimin blinked.

“You know his name,” Jimin said, looking appalled. Junhee looked up and if she saw something weird about Jimin’s expression, she didn’t react.

“Hello, Jimin,” greeted Junhee and Minseok pretended to go back to reading. “How was holiday?”

“It was–”

“Oh, you’re here,” exclaimed Choa as she spun around in her seat too, taking something out of her bag and dropping it onto Junhee’s desk. “This is for you, I bought it during a holiday trip.”

“Oh thank you,” said Junhee, gingerly taking the wrapped up box. “Was China nice?”

“I didn’t go to China. I went to Japan,” Choa rolled her eyes and continued without stopping. “And anyway, your birthday is far away but I thought I would give you an early present.”

“Oh thank you,” Junhee repeated, looking torn between trying to remember today’s date and her birthdate.

“Third of September, Choi Junhee,” Jimin pointed out, rolling her eyes as if annoyed by the weirdness of her friend.

“That’s my birthday,” said Junhee, looking surprised. Minseok chuckled behind his book.

“Ugh, yes. I was just reminding you in case you forgot yours,” Jimin remarked turning back to the front with a huff.

Suddenly, Choa exclaimed, startling both Minseok and Junhee.

“Oh right! Jimin wants to ask you something,” she said, grinning evilly.

“No! Not now,” Jimin whined in horror, eyes flicking towards Minseok. “Their friend is sitting right here.”

“All the more reason to,” pointed out Choa, “We can ask him too.”

“Choa–”

Choa slapped two photos onto Junhee’s desk and said, “Okay, which one.”

Junhee stared down at the two pictures and frowned. “Um, they’re the same.”

“No, they are not,” Jimin rolled her eyes.

“They are both boys,” Junhee said as if that was obvious. “Why do you want me to pick?”

“Because Jimin fancies both of them so she needs your opinion,” Choa said winsomely, knowing that Minseok