Seulgi doesn’t expect her missing phone to bite her in the until it does. 

She doesn’t use it much, to be honest. Sometimes Seungwan pesters her on line or she pesters Seungwan about what an assignment was, but it’s not something that happens frequently enough to be a regular occurrence. Seungwan already knows that Seulgi is terrible about checking her phone anyway so she doesn’t think anyone will be taking things personally.

So she spends the weekend slightly stiff, rubbing ointment on her legs and shoulders, sprawled out in front of the TV in full control of the remote since her brother is off at a MT somewhere by the sea getting plied by alcohol by his seniors, probably.

It’s a petty good set up until she shows up to school again on Monday, fishing the phone out of her desk. (And miraculously, it hasn’t been stolen, but then again Seulgi always keeps it on silent and it was hidden among the wasteland junk yard of personal artefacts that is her desk…)  

Soojung isn’t in yet. Seulgi didn’t see her anywhere on the hill. She wonders if Soojung is still store and took a day off. She hopes sickness isn’t in the question.

Seulgi is really just mostly impressed the battery has held out this long. There are about fifty or so message notifications.

It’s hard to read them all in chronological order without flicking her eyes over the latest message at the bottom of the chat. Seungwan has basically assaulted the poor phone with messages, some of which literally just read ‘spam spam spam’ between snide ‘i can’t believe you left your phone somewhere’ or ‘is your phone buried somewhere in the depths of your blankets?’ comments and emoticons.

Soojung has messaged, though, and only left a few messages. At least some people have manners. She starts there.

Everything hurts and I hate you. 

Out of context, that might be concerning, but it’s probably just about how sore she was after a day of doing…well, basically everything. (She got breaks that day, but that clearly was not enough.)

Then, Sorry. That wasn’t supposed to be sent to you.

Presumably, Seungwan was meant to be at the end of that. 

A few more minutes later. Seriously, everything hurts. It’s like I’m going to die.

A Line sticker of that rabbit curled up in the floor, trembling with one arm outstretched for help.

Half and hour later. You shouldn’t have let me cycle home. You shouldn’t ever let me make life choices. That was a bad life choice. 

Only one more message. 

Asleep? I should probably be too. I’m sure I’ll think it was fun when I stop being in pain. Night. 

It’s nice sentiment. Soojung knows when to stop, which is more than she can really say for Seungwan. She skims over the messages. There are a lot.

Soojung keeps whining about how in pain she is. She’s right when she says it’s my fault, though. For once I have a weekend free! Want to go over to her house and feed her stuff? I’ll bring soup. Or maybe fried chicken? Should we give her healthy stuff or junk? I don’t think she’ll really care as long as we show up with food~~ Kekeke. 

Are you mad at me for making you tired too? Oh, come on, Sseul, it’ll be fun. I promise I remember how to walk to her house from the bus stop. I was paying attention! You sure weren’t, though.

Not up for it? Come on~~ You didn’t even do half as many events as Soojung.

I’ll buy you chicken too. How about it? Chicken, chicken, chicken~

If you ever wake up then I’ll be over at Soojung’s place~

A photo this time, of Soojung’s door. Seulgi remembers as much. Seungwan’s arm sticks into the shot carrying a large white plastic bag. Has Seungwan sent her a whole real-time updated account of her trip to Soojung’s place. What’s even the point of that? The photo is captioned, Made it! Wish me luck!

Seulgi doesn’t pay any more attention to the time stamps for the messages.

A photo of Soojung eating the foot, feet propped up against the table. Her parents don’t seem to be anywhere around. Caption: The Princess feasts.

Soojung’s here all alone with me! You should come and join.

Pay attention to your phone. Pay attention.

Hey! That buzzing! That means something! Maybe you should check it out.

Buzz.

Spam. 

Spam.

Pay attention to your phone.

Do you even have your phone?

Where is your phone right now?

Where are you right now? 

GASP. Has your phone been stolen? Am I talking to a random stranger? Are my texts traceable? What’s happening?

But knowing you, you probably just left it somewhere.

Tut tut. Irresponsible.

Spam.

Spam.

More spam.

Pick up your phone!! 

Another photo. Feeding Soojung sweets. It’s the best. Refreshing to look at. Note to self: set up mukbang? Soojung could be good at it. Always could use some spare cash.

Are minors allowed to do those kinds of streams? My instinct says no. Darn. Dreams quashed.

Soojung fell asleep right after eating. You should be here! It’s seriously cute.

Damn. She should have just taken her phone.

Is it bad if I take picture of her while she’s asleep? It’s not creepy, right? At least, it’s not super creepy right?

I took them. I took them. They’re great. Oh my god I took them.

Am I creepy? I’m creepy. Nooo. 

I deleted them.

I changed my mind. It’s not creepy. I took one more photo.

You know what? I was going to share these with you, but you’re not even here. This is your punishment for not paying attention to me or your phone. What’s the point of even having a phone if you’re not going to do anything with it.

Seungwan could sure be petty.

Soojung woke up! She’s trying to delete the pictures of her being asleep off my phone!

Crisis!

I left Soojung’s house. It was really for the best.

Then it’s just a bunch of spam spam spam, man it’s going to be hilarious when you finally find your phone again.

It’s really not, but Seungwan would surely disagree. Seulgi contends herself with checking up on everything else on her phone. What does SNS have in store?

Apparently, a photo that Seungwan’s taken herself of her and Soojung on a sofa.  Seungwan’s captioned it, taking care of the class hero. 

It’s got more likes than there are members of the class. Of course, there are people who don’t even use this website anymore. (Is Seulgi behind the trends again?) There are some names that are all in English listed down there too. Soojung’s friends from America, maybe? If they’re liking without being able to understand the Korean caption, maybe they’re just really desperate for proof that Soojung is still alive considering how inactive her account is. Seulgi’s English isn’t great, but it’s enough to recognise the words ‘she lives’.

“Boo!” Seungwan stays from behind, a hand covering Seulgi’s eyes. “Guess—”

“Seungwan, let go.”

“Aww.”

Seungwan obliges, swinging around to the front of Seulgi’s desk. “How was your weekend?”

“Relaxing.”

“Hmm?”

The phone question is coming. Seulgi figures she might as well pre-empt it. “I left my phone in my desk, so I had nothing to do this weekend except relax alone at home.”

“You just left you phone at school the whole weekend? Isn’t that kind of dangerous?”

“Well, nothing happened to it,” Seulgi says. “So…”

“Ugh.” Seungwan scoffs, crossing her arms and turning away. “Don’t do stuff like that. It’s terrible. I was in on the weekend anyway so I could have picked it up for you. Delivered it too. I was making house calls all weekend.” She winks. 

“Why were you here on the weekend?”

“Had to hand in some paperwork thinks to confirm expenses for the banners on Sports Day,” Seungwan explains. “Materials don’t buy themselves.”

“Sounds like a pain,” Seulgi says.

“Didn’t have too much cram school this week, anyway,” Seungwan says. “Handing in paperwork is better than that.”

“Did your parents decide to go easy on you?”

“I get rest days every now and then too, you know,” Seungwan says. “My grades have been pretty good lately anyway.”

That must really have meant Seungwan was batting 100s, then. It was more than Seulgi could say about herself. If it’s cutting her some slack with her parents, though, then Seulgi’s happy for her.

“So… House calls,” Seulgi starts. “How was Soojung?”

Seungwan smiles, eyes twinkling and mischievous. “You’re not getting any photos,” she sings, teasing.

“Maybe I actually just care about how Soojung was.”

Seungwan still can’t wipe that smile off her face. She goes, “Soojung is okay. She sure likes sleeping, though. Still, I understand wheres she’s coming from.”

“And you don’t feel the least bit guilty about making her run so much?”

“If she didn’t want to, then she would have said something before the end, wouldn’t she?”

“That’s a little…” Seulgi sighs. She needs to step up her game. Once is manageable, but she foresees some problems in their future if Seungwan keeps going like this and Soojung doesn’t say anything.

Seungwan tilts her head, waiting for the reply. “Hmm?”

“You should reign it in a little.”

“Soojung needs to let it out a little more.”

“It’s not like I disagree with you…”

“Then don’t make it seem like it’s just my fault.”

“I’m not saying it’s your fault. I’m just telling you,” Seulgi says. “Because you’re here. Soojung isn’t here yet.”

With some sort of supernatural sense, Soojung takes that as her cue to appear just in the nick of time. 

Soojung manages to amble into class with a stiff walk that’s not a limp, but does relay the sense of annoyance that’s being projected from her eyes and is, for once, not her unfortunate resting face but actual annoyance, right as the bell manages to chime, just shy of being late. It’s excellent timing, but their homeroom teacher is late too, so it’s not cutting it as close as it really could be.

As the bell goes, everyone scampers into position. Seungwan sends her one sidelong glance as she returns to her seat and Soojung settles into hers. She leads the class in a bow and ‘good morning’ to the teacher and the day begins.

Seulgi’s never really been good at concentrating in class, not since elementary to be honest, but today seems worse than usual, enough to merit it’s own mention.

There’s the usual background noise of pens scribbling against paper and notes being discretely bounced around the room from desk to desk. Seulgi’s hand presses into her cheek, elbow on the desk the only thing that’s keeping her head aloft. Sometimes, and it might just be her imagination, people with tilt their heads back, just a little, as their hands toss crumpled paper notes to each other, eyes glancing over in Soojung’s direction.

Good attention, Seulgi can only hope.

Soojung, of course, is oblivious. It’s one of her more endearing traits.

She wonders if the attention is going to get to Soojung’s head, if the attention will last at all. There’s a bit of buzz going around the school, it seems, and why wouldn’t there be after Soojung’s impressive performance? It hasn’t quite reached the level to spread to other schools so it might as well blow over soon enough.

Soojung doesn’t seem the type, anyway, to let herself get carried away like that. Is she?

At lunch, the three of them rearrange their desks to form a makeshift table in their own little corner of the classroom. It takes Seulgi a second, but then she recognises something is different about the mood of the room. People, splitting off into their little islands of friendship groups, will look up every now and then to look over to them. 

Not them, Seulgi realises pretty soon after that. At Soojung. 

She shifts her chair, trying to look away, turning as much of her back to the rest of the room as she can. It’s all packed lunches today. Seulgi’s mother woke up early to prepare something. Seungwan just has bread from the school store. Soojung is armed with tupperwares stuffed with kimbap. (Good for her.)

Seulgi asks, to Soojung, “How’d you get to school?”

“The train,” Soojung says. “As if I’d ride a bike. I swear, you guys, I’m going to be sore for weeks.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Seungwan teases. “I’m sure it’ll only be one week max.”

“I couldn’t get up this morning.”

“That’s because you stay up all night watching videos online. You told me on Talk.”

“No,” Soojung says, “it’s because everything hurt.”

“You have weird sleeping posture by the way,” Seungwan interjects.

Soojung pouts. “No I don’t.” 

“You kind of do.”

“Anyway,” Soojung interrupts, “I got on the wrong train so I was late.”

“Just take a bus from your place,” Seungwan says. “There’s one that’s practically direct, just near the gates. It’s like a tiny miracle.”

“The bus schedule confuses me. Also, it takes too long.”

“It’s kind of a scenic route, but that’s what’s fun.”

“I didn’t leave the house with headphones. I’d be bored out of my mind.”

“Ooh,” Seungwan coos and jokingly pinches Soojung’s cheek. The other girl swats her hand away and cheeks puffing up, annoyed. “Our poor little Soojungie, having to look outside the window and not have any backing music with it.”

“I fall asleep in cars and buses like that anyway,” Soojung protests. “Especially this early.”

“Are you saying you’d miss the stop because you fell asleep?”

“Probably…”

No, Soojung is the same. Soojung is Soojung as always. The rest of the class is just starting to realise who that really is. Seulgi included.

Author’s note:

This chapter came faster than usual, didn't it? It's a treat for you guys (and also because I felt if I didn't let it go now I'd be stuck in editting hell.)

Soojungie got popular. Well, that’s really just the inevitable. (Is she the only person who’s popular, though?)

Friends usually get along, but it’s not smooth sailing forever at all times. Of course, calm seas don’t breed strong sailors. Have faith in that girlxgirl tag and stay for the ride, please.