"...And that's it," Haeri finishes miserably. "My big secret."

There's a brief moment of silence in which Haeri thinks Lina is probably pitying her.

Then: "Damn."

It seems to be the only thing Lina can express.

Haeri sighs. "Right?"

"You've made a mess of things, haven't you? No wonder you didn't want to tell me," Lina says thoughtfully. "What, did you think I would stop being your friend or something?"

"No! I mean. I guess... maybe a little," Haeri replies sheepishly. It seems silly in retrospect, but she really had been a little scared that Lina would just ditch her.

Lina fake gags, and in the darkness, Haeri smiles. "I'm glad to see how much faith you have in me. But really, I would never just leave you. Oh Sehun and his buddies? We can totally take them! We've faced worse over the years."

"Have we?" Haeri speculates skeptically. "This one seems to just take the cake, in my opinion."

"I was just trying to make you feel better," Lina laughs. "But we'll be okay, I promise you that."

"Okay," Haeri concedes. "And, Lina?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it," Lina yawns. "Hey, I think I'm really about to fall asleep. So before I do, what time do you want to get up tomorrow? And any requests for breakfast?"

"Any time is fine with me," Haeri replies. "Let's just get up when we wake up. And anything's okay; whatever's easy for your parents to make."

"Okay," Lina answer sleepily. "Good night, Haeri."

"Good night, Lina."

The next day, they don't wake up until eleven, and only then because Lina's mom had come up to check on them and found them still asleep.

"Girls, rise and shine! The day is slipping away while you sleep!"

"Mom," Lina groans. "Not now, please."

Lina's mother laughs and throws open the blinds. Both Haeri and Lina shriek when the light hits their eyes and throw themselves under their sleeping bags.

Job done and humming cheerfully, Lina's mom departs, calling over her shoulder, "Breakfast is ready, by the way! Let's make it brunch, actually. I want you two down here in ten minutes!"

Still tired but lured by the scent of pancakes, Haeri and Lina drag themselves from their bags and trot downstairs to the kitchen table, where Haeri proceeds to watch Lina with amusement as the latter works her way through an entire container of cool whip. Haeri herself adds some cool whip as well but also piles on the strawberries and blueberries; she absolutely loves fruit. After they polish off the pancakes, it turns out Lina's parents have also made them noodles, and they spend another good hour slowly enjoying that while chatting about nothing in particular.

Haeri sits back in her chair and sighs happily, stomach full. It's all too easy to forget that there is school the next day, but once the thought does come to her, she groans in her head and tries to ignore the thought, as well as the queasy feeling that now accompanies any thought of Sehun. Today, she's just going to enjoy herself.

After that, Lina decides that they should make cookies, and they flip through cookbooks for a good hour, picking the yummiest looking pictures, although most of the ones they want to make turn out to be too hard. Finally, they settle on simple snickerdoodles.

It's with a heavy heart that Haeri leaves Lina's house that night with a plateful of cookies, dreading the next day. Lina pats her shoulder as she leaves, seemingly knowing that Haeri is thinking about.

"Hey, remember what we talked about last night," Lina reminds her. "We'll get through it!"

"Yeah, yeah," Haeri smiles. "I'll try to."

And with that, the door's closed and Haeri's on her way home.

The next day Haeri is wracked with nerves. She jumps when anybody resembling Sehun in even the slightest comes near her, and though she knows it's ridiculous, she can't help it. When the day ends and nothing has happened, Haeri is relieved, but can't help wondering at the same time: why hasn't Sehun made his move yet? It's the second week of school already.

Don't complain about it, she tells herself firmly. It's a good thing.

As it's a Monday, Haeri heads off once school's out to Mr. Kim's classroom, where she attends meetings for a club for math enthusiasts. Familiar faces greet her as she walks in, and she makes her way around around the room, saying hi to old friends and welcoming new members. After everyone's settled down, the President, Kim Joonmyun, stands up to make his annual welcome-back speech. Joonmyun is in Hyeri's grade and wears round wire-rimmed glasses that Hyeri doesn't think anybody could pull off.

"Welcome, old members and new. I'm your club President, Kim Joonmyun, but you can just call me Joonmyun. First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone here for attending this first kick-off meeting. We're very excited this year because we see a bunch of potential in the growth of our club and-"

Just as Joonmyun's getting into his speech, the door opens loudly, and everyone turns to see who the latecomer is. Haeri notices the annoyance on Joonmyun's face (he hates tardiness), which rapidly morphs to disbelief and then astonishment. Frowning, Haeri turns to see who the person is, and freezes, shocks running down her spine.

"Am I late? So sorry," drawls the very familiar voice that, in Haeri's opinion, is not at all sorry.

Apparently, Oh Sehun is joining the math club.