“Sorry… Excuse me…”

Haru nudged her way through the densely packed aisle full of people on her bus, her school bag clutched against her chest. Finally freeing herself from the suffocating interior of the bus, she blew out a sigh that caused her bangs to flutter against her slightly damp forehead and put her school bag over her shoulders. Haru hated her morning commute to school. It was during peak hour, which meant that school kids and business-people alike would cram themselves on to her bus like sardines in a tin to try and fit. And now that is was the last month of summer, the conditions were even more unbearable on board. Summer was Haru’s least favourite season.

It was particularly difficult this morning, for Haru hadn’t caught public transport since going on the Japan tour which also meant that she had missed a month of school, as she put all her efforts into preparing for the July assessment in an attempt to perform at her peak to neutralize the fiasco in Tokyo.

Now walking towards the school gates, Haru had forgotten about her unpleasant bus ride as she thought about seeing Hyemi again. She had long begun to feel the separation anxiety after being out of contact with her best friend for so long and despite everything, school was the sole chance for her to meet up with Hyemi.

Haru reached her locker and began to unpack her bag. After collecting her schoolbooks for her first two classes, Haru closed her locker and began making her way down the hallway towards her classroom.

“Is that her?”

Haru made eye contact with two girls who walked past Haru, whispering between themselves. Other students lining the hallways also turned to look at her, their eyes lingering over her curiously. Not thinking twice about the comments or looks, Haru ignored them and continued on her way, walking into her classroom and heading towards her seat in the middle.

There were already many students in their seats, gathered around their friends’ tables and standing near the back having conversations. As Haru put down her books and pulled out her seat, the chattering in the classroom died down significantly. Noticing this, Haru lifted her head to look around the classroom at her classmates.

“She’s back at school, I thought she would have stopped coming by now,” One of the girls in the back was saying to her friends.

“Yeah… Pretty much everyone knows,” Another girl responded.

Haru glanced at the strange looks she was getting and the comments that were unsubtly directed at her, finally starting to feel uncomfortable by the attention she was receiving. As she sat down in her seat awkwardly, trying to ignore the whispering from around her, it suddenly dawned on her. I’ve been discovered. Haru felt panic swelling inside her like a tidal wave as she contemplated her next move: fight or flight. But before she could decide someone pulled opened the classroom door quite violently.

“Hyemi-”

Before Haru could even begin her sentence, her best friend was already at her desk, her hand clasping Haru’s arm, and had begun to drag her out of her seat towards the door.

“Ya, Go Hyemi!” Haru trailed behind Hyemi as she followed her up three flights of stairs towards the rooftop. “You’re not going to tell me what the hell is going on?”

When the two girls had finally made it to the rooftop, Hyemi let go of Haru’s arm and immediately pulled her into a hug. Haru, temporarily forgetting about the issue at hand, wrapped her arms around her best friend as well.

“Ya, you idiot! Do you know how long it’s been?” Hyemi’s face was buried in Haru’s shoulder.

“I’m so sorry Hyemi-ah… I’m really, really sorry… I’ve been up to my eyes in work and problems recently, I’m so sorry,” Haru couldn’t stop herself from blurting out her apology again and again.

The two girls pulled away from each other, still clutching at each other’s arms and began to laugh.

“You haven’t forgotten about your poor old best friend?” Hyemi poked Haru’s forehead.

“How could I? You don’t have anyone else except me!” Haru teased and poked Hyemi back.

“Lies! I have lots of other friends!” Hyemi protested.

“Han Donghoon doesn’t count,” Haru quipped and took a step back just in time to dodge Hyemi’s flying whack.

When the jokes were over, the situation in the classroom finally came back to Haru and she apprehensively asked Hyemi, “Hyemi-ah… Have I been found out?”

Hyemi too, became serious and responded ruefully, “Yeah… Everyone knows that you’re a YG trainee,”

Haru groaned and buried her face into her hands. She pulled at her cheeks in frustration and asked, “How? Was it the photos in Tokyo? Or was it maybe that idiot Donghoon?”

Hyemi shook her head and took Haru’s hand in an effort to comfort her friend, “There are fan taken videos of you online at the YG tour in Japan. People just naturally found the videos and recognized you. You’ve been the talk of the school since then. There was nothing Donghoon or I could do to convince everyone otherwise…”

Haru mentally kicked herself for being so obvious on stage during the concerts. If she had just been less overt, she may have dodged this bullet. She blamed Mino, Bobby and Hanbin. But then realized she initiated the water attacks, causing her to let out another groan, “Damn it. It’s my fault,”

“Haru-ah…” Hyemi looked apologetically at Haru. Suddenly her expression changed, “Wait… What photos in Tokyo?”

Haru looked up at her best friend’s suspicious face and quickly forced herself to smile, “Ay… Nothing important, I was just babbling that’s all!”

Haru walked away from Hyemi’s side and leant against the concrete barrier enclosing the rooftop to look out at the school field in front of her and sighed, “I’m going to have to stop coming to school if I want to avoid messy situations… I’ll have to get a tutor instead.”

Hyemi joined Haru and also sighed, “That’s probably the best decision.”

“This is horrible. It means I’ll literally not be able to see you or contact you at all! School was, as surprising as it sounds, my only escape. And the only way I could see you,” Haru turned to face Hyemi, her tone bleak.

Hyemi however was grinning mischievously at Haru.

Haru straightened up against the barrier and narrowed her eyes curiously at her best friend, “What’s with the Cheshire cat smile?”

“I figured that you’d need to lock yourself up completely in YG’s dungeon after you’ve been discovered,” Hyemi flicked her hair away. “And I am not letting that happen to you. So I prepared something…”

Haru’s eyes rounded as she watched Hyemi reach into her school dress pocket and extend her hand towards her, a mobile phone between her fingers.

“This is my old phone,” Hyemi was still smiling. “Take it. Hide it. That way, we can keep in contact,”

“Hyemi… You know we’re not allowed to have mobiles,” Haru looked at her best friend with uncertainty. “If I get caught-”

“Don’t get caught then! I’m sure they don’t do checks, so just be careful with it,” Hyemi reached forward and pushed the phone into Haru’s hand.

Haru looked down at the iPhone in her hand and then back up at Hyemi. Hyemi was right. The managers never checked for phones after confiscating all them on their first day. If she was able to keep it hidden, she could easily use the phone to keep in contact with Hyemi and even her Dad. She wondered why the other trainees didn’t do this as well.

“You know what?” Haru broke into a grin. “Go Hyemi. You’re a genius.”

Hyemi swished her long wavy hair from side to side dramatically before declaring, “I know.”

The two girls broke into laughter just as the school bell sounded for class to begin.

✼ ✼ ✼

 “Ya! Kim Jiwon! You got it wrong again!”

Haru was sitting in front of the mirror in a dance studio, the keyboard of the computer in her lap, pointing at the boy in front of her who threw his hat on the floor with a yell, feigning anger.

“Do you have to call me using my full name? You’re scary!” Bobby’s protest came out almost like a whine. “No one calls me Kim Jiwon except when I’m about to get my kicked by my Mum,”

Haru broke out into laughter and approached Bobby with her arms outstretched, “Okay, okay. Sorry Jiwonnie! But you got it wrong.”

Bobby pushed Haru away teasingly, still pretending to be wounded by Haru’s scolding before finally saying, “Do the dance with me then, I think I need you there otherwise I keep forgetting where you’re meant to be,”

Instructor Song had told the trainees that for the August assessment, the dance section would be a joint performance with both male and female trainees with a specific couple dance section that only four of the best performing pairs would dance.

“Fine, let’s try it together,” Haru agreed and ran over to the keyboard to hit the space bar.

She got into position beside Bobby as the music played and counting the beats together, they began dancing. This time, Bobby easily made it through the routine without a mistake and even the final move, where Haru had to be lifted, twirled and then land in front of Bobby was accomplished smoothly.

“What the hell! How did you get it so perfect that time?” Haru panted as she went over to pause the rest of the song. She gave Bobby a wary look and asked, “Were you pretending to get it wrong earlier?”

“With you by my side, I can do anything,” Bobby, who had collapsed on the floor, shot Haru a greasy look.

This wasn’t the first time she’d been victimized by Bobby’s cringe-inducing lines but it still made Haru cover her face shamefully and close her eyes.

Bobby laughed at Haru’s reaction and lifted a hand, “Help me up,”

Haru, unsuspectingly walked over and took Bobby’s hand in hers to pull him off the floor but instead found herself tumbling forward as Bobby tugged her towards him. With a cry she landed on top of him as Bobby fell backwards on to the floor.

“Ya! Do you want to die?” Haru tossed the hair in front of her face behind her as she struggled to balance herself on top of Bobby.

Bobby who was smirking playfully, responded nonchalantly, “Haru, I thought you were stronger than that,”

“Kim Jiwon! You’re about to get your kicked by me!” Haru tried to get up but Bobby wrapped his legs around her legs and flipped her over so that she was lying beneath him.

“I’d like to see you try,” His face was dangerously close to Haru’s now, as he looked down at her with the same smirk.

Before Haru could yell at Bobby, scheming to knee him in the stomach, a voice interrupted her.

“Uh hyung… I’m starting to regret coming in without knocking,”

Both Haru and Bobby turned to look towards the door where Jinhwan, Hanbin and Junhoe were standing.

In a flash, Bobby was standing up and Haru followed suit, hurriedly flattening her disheveled hair.

The voice belonged to Junhoe who was eyeing them suspiciously from behind Jinhwan.

“We’re getting lunch in the cafeteria, you guys should come along,” Jinhwan gave Haru and Bobby a smile.

Haru’s eyes connected with Hanbin’s – whose eyebrows were drawn together, his firm stare penetrating Haru’s skull like lasers – but only fo