"Hi! I'm Seulgi, and I want to be…No, no. That's too awkward. Um… Hey there! Seulgi here!… Nope, nope. That's weird. Hey Taehyun, can you make Seunghwan my friend?… I can't say that. Then he'll notice." Seulgi groaned and collapsed on her bed. She had spent a full forty-five minutes talking at herself in the mirror, trying to come up with a good excuse to meet Seunghwan. According to Soojung, it would be best to get along with Seunghwan through Taehyun. However, that would require Seulgi to make Taehyun introduce her to the target.

Are they even friends? Seulgi wondered, thinking about Taehyun and Seunghwan. If she was correct, she didn't see Taehyun with anyone for the past few days. If anything, he was always alone until his eyes caught sight of her. Then, he'd run up to her and start chatting with her as if he had been friends with her for years. It wasn't like she minded, but it was getting a bit bothersome.

She looked up at the ceiling for a long time. She let out a deep sigh, showing to no one that she was feeling distressed. It was difficult to follow Soojung's orders, especially when it required her to step out of her own comfort zone. The popular kids never looked uncomfortable when they were doing their own things. They never looked like they were awkward or misplaced when they made new friends.

Then again, things happen naturally for them. They don't need to put in any effort. They're a lucky bunch of bastards, Seulgi thought. She closed her eyes, then opened them to look at her clock.

With wide eyes, she gasped and sat straight up. She began to fret and ran in circles in her room, trying to find her bag and other necessities.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot! I'm late!" she cried out. Minutes later, she finally found her bag. She stuffed her books and phone into the bag and dashed out of the room, heading straight to school and hoping that she wouldn't need to face any punishment for being late.

/ / / / /

For the classes that had free homeroom, the students gathered and looked out the window, laughing and pointing fingers at people they knew who came late to school. The students who came in late were lined up along the gates with their knees on the ground and their hands up. Two teachers looked at the students with a displeased frown. They waved their sticks up and down while moving their mouths rapidly, scolding the late students. Amongst those students, one of them was Seulgi, who was biting her bottom lip and receiving her punishment as so.

From above, Sehun snickered. He waved at her, trying to catch her attention. He wasn't sure if she was forcing herself to not to look, but he was sure that she noticed him mocking at her. The smiling boy turned to his best friend, who was taking advantage of the self-study session by studying for their upcoming math quiz.

"Jongin, you're going to ace that test. Why are you looking over it?" Sehun asked, groaning. "Don't be a bookworm."

"I'm not," Jongin said, defending himself. "It's just a little review. Don't be so harsh on me, Sehun."

"Sehun has a point, Jongin," Hyeri chirped in, poking Jongin's shoulder. "You're perfectly smart. Why don't you talk to me?"

"I'm listening," Jongin mumbled, flipping a page of his math book.

Hyeri pressed her lips, then covered the page with her hand. Jongin looked at her, a little surprised as she gave him a small frown.

"I can't trust you when you're not looking into my eyes, Jongin," Hyeri said.

"Why? I am listening," Jongin said. "Can I concentrate on reviewing math now?"

Hyeri groaned. "See? You aren't listening!" She turned to Sehun. "Sehun, say something."

Sehun paused. "I'll only help you if you stay out my way."

Her small frown grew bigger. "Sehun, I'm not going to fall for your little tricks."

"All you need to do is back out and I can say something for you," Sehun said, smiling.

Hyeri smiled back. "No, I don't think so. I want to get to the bottom of them myself."

"What are you guys talking about?" asked Jongin, who had been listening to the two. "Are you guys keeping a secret from me?"

"Jongin, I—"

"We aren't," Sehun said quickly. He glared at Hyeri. I knew it. She's bothersome.

"Are you sure? Your face says otherwise," Jongin said.

Hyeri smirked. "Yeah, Sehun. You seem like you're lying."

"Wait, I didn't say that—"

"Shut up, Hyeri," Sehun muttered coldly.

"Sehun? Hyeri? What's going on between the two of you?" Jongin asked, completely baffled. He did not expect his two closest companions to be arguing like this. He knew that the two would make small arguments, but they were always short and playful. However, something seemed to have changed. The atmosphere between them was intense, and neither side showed any signs of backing down.

"Nothing, Jongin," Hyeri said, flashing him a smile. "You know what? I think I'm going to study for math, too."

"I'm going to study math," Sehun said, countering her. He pulled out his textbook and flipped to a random page. "So bye-bye. Don't talk to me."

"Sehun, you're a genius at math. You don't even need to study for it," Hyeri pointed out.

"I can't hear you!" Sehun exclaimed. His eyes were glued to the numbers on the textbook.

Hyeri scoffed. "You're not even studying the right pages!"

Sehun paused, then narrowed his eyes at her. He flipped the pages to the right chapter. 

"I knew that," he said quietly. He looked back down at his textbook, studying for no reason. Hyeri groaned, but she looked down at her own textbook, studying for the math quiz on her own.

Jongin sat between the two awkwardly, trying to figure out what just happened. When he started to realize that they were fighting, his expression fell, showing that he was visibly upset over the two. He quietly hid his face in his book, trying to focus on the numbers and not on the drama.

I hope they reconcile soon. He prayed for a brief moment before clearing out his thoughts.

/ / / / /

Just before second period was about to start, Seulgi finally came inside the classroom. The first period teacher looked up at her and snorted a little.

"Kang Seulgi, please turn in your assignment to me during lunch," the teacher told her. "Also, write an apology note for being late to class."

Seulgi groaned while the teacher walked out to head to her next class. A few of her classmates snickered and giggled, causing her to blush and stare down at the ground. She quickly made her to way back to her desk, not wanting to grab any more attention.

"Why were you so late?" Youngji asked. "You missed the entire first period."

"They made us do fifty laps around the tracks before letting us come in," Youngji murmured. "Can you believe that? Fifty laps? Youngji, I'm exhausted! I have P.E. later today, too!"

"Like I asked, why were you late?" Youngji asked. "You must've had a good reason to be late."

"I spaced out in my room," Seulgi sad. "That's a good reason, right?"

Youngji rolled her eyes. "That's definitely not a good reason. What were you thinking about?"

"Uh…stuff," Seulgi stammered. "Why?"

"Why?" Youngji raised an eyebrow. "I'm just curious, that's all." She paused. "Hey are you busy during the weekend?"

"No. Why?"

Youngji beamed. "You see, there's—" The door opened. The second period teacher came in, stating clearly and loudly for the students to quickly open their books. Youngji bit her bottom lip. "Can I tell you later during lunch? By the way, Jackson has club stuff, so he won't eat lunch with us. We'll finally get some girls-only time, you know?"

"Yeah, sure," Seulgi said, half-paying attention to her. She had her eyes glued to her textbook, trying to find the right pages. Youngji smiled to herself, thinking that Seulgi had been paying complete attention. The two girls kept quiet and flipped their books, not noticing that Soojung was listening to their entire conversation.

She shook her head at Seulgi before looking down at her book, letting out a silent sigh.

/ / / / /

Hours later, the bell for lunch rang. The students quickly cleared their desks and pulled out their lunch box, ready to dig in. Several students rearranged their desks so that they could sit closer with their friends and face each other. Right when Youngji was about to pull her desk closer to Seulgi, an unexpected boy came into their classroom and approached Seulgi's desk first.

"Seulgi!" Taehyun exclaimed, smiling at her.

Seulgi awkwardly smiled back. "Oh, Taehyun. What are you, um, doing here?"

"I thought we could eat lunch together," he said. "I cleared out my schedule just for you."

You don't even have any friends anymore to begin with, Seulgi thought. She glanced behind her shoulders. Soojung gave her a small nod and a look to mention Seunghwan in the conversation. Seulgi nodded back and smiled at Taehyun. "Sure! Do you want to eat here?"

"Here? But there's a lot of people," Taehyun said. "Why don't we eat outside?"

"Alright."

Youngji widened her eyes as she reached into her bag. "Wait, Seulgi—"

"Oh, by the way, are you free this weekend?" Taehyun asked. He pulled out movie tickets from his pocket. "I got some free tickets. There was some kind of event going on where they gave some people three movie tickets. We can hang out and play."

"Three tickets?" Seulgi said, raising an eyebrow.

"I already invited one person. Do you know Seunghwan? She's part of Hyeri's little crew. She's the one who won me these tickets. So it'll just be you, me, and her. Is that okay?" Taehyun asked.

How convenient! The universe really wants me to achieve popularity! Seulgi cried out. She excitedly nodded her head, beaming. "I'd love to go with you and Seunghwan to the theaters! What day?"

"Saturday at two. Can you make it?" he asked.

"Of course!" Seulgi cried out.

"Alright, I'll meet you outside then. You know, where we usually ate," Taehyun said.

"Why don't we go right now together?" she asked, frowning.

"I thought you were talking to this girl," Taehyun said, pointing at Youngji.

"Oh, right! Youngji!" Seulgi turned her head and faced her friend, who flinched. "What were you about to say?"

Youngji bit her bottom lip. She slowly snuck back the three movie tickets she had in her hand. She pressed her lips for a brief moment, but then forced a smile. She shook her head as if it was no big deal.

"Nothing," Youngji said. "You go have fun."

"Oh, okay. Later! Have fun eating lunch with Jackson!" Seulgi exclaimed. 

Youngji swallowed and nodded. "Alright, I will! Bye!"

She watched her best friend leave with Taehyun. She continued to watch the two chat excitedly until they disappeared off outside. Youngji sighed and faced the front of the class. She opened her lunch box and began to eat by herself in silence. She chewed slowly, finding it difficult to swallow her food.

Right when she thought that she would suffer through lunch alone, a desk appeared in front of her. She looked up with wide eyes and saw Soojung taking a seat across from her.

"Mind if I sit here?" Soojung asked. Youngji shook her head. Soojung smiled. "Good."

Soojung sat down at took out her lunch. She began to eat along with Youngji, who kept staring at it. After a moment of silence, Soojung finally looked up at Youngji. She smiled at her, causing Youngji to smile back in uncertainty.

"I saw that you were going to ask Seulgi out to the movie theaters," Soojung said.

Youngji let out a small laugh. "Yeah. I was going to, but she's already going with her other friends…"

"Why didn't you ask Jackson?"

"Well, I wanted to just hang out with her. Besides, Jackson has practice during that time, so he's not available." She pulled out the tickets from her bag. "Looks like I'll have to give this to someone else."

"I'll go," Soojung said. Youngji looked at her. "Take me with you."

"R-Really? I mean, we never really talked," Youngji pointed out.

"It's just watching a small movie," Soojung said. "It's a waste to just give it away when you earned it."

"Take me with you, too."

Soojung scowled while Youngji looked up with even wider eyes. Soojung glared upwards while Youngji dropped her jaws.

"S-S-Sehun?" Youngji stuttered.

"Don't take him, please," Soojung muttered.

"Aw, that's mean," Sehun said, grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you doing here, Sehun? Where's your friend?" Soojung asked, forcing a smile.

"I was looking for Seulgi, but she's not here?"

"She got asked out to eat lunch with some other guy," Soojung said.

"Hm. Pity." Sehun looked back at Youngji. "Anyway, take me with you! You have three tickets, right?"

What's going on? Youngji wondered, confused. Before she had the chance to say anything, the third ticket was swapped away from her hand.

The three looked behind Sehun's shoulder, noticing that Hyeri was being sly and had taken the third ticket by force. Hyeri smiled sweetly while Sehun glared. While Sehun was distracted, Soojung quickly took the other ticket from Youngji's hand. Youngji looked at her own hand, noticing that she was holding one ticket left. She held the ticket close to her chest, as if she was protecting it with her life.

Sehun clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk. Stealing is bad, Hyeri."

"What? I'm invited," Hyeri said. She turned to Youngji and gave her a charming smile. "Right? I can come? If anything, Soojung looked too uncomfortable with the idea of Sehun coming along."

Soojung quickly nodded. "That's right. I don't really like boys."

Hyeri looked back at Sehun. "See?"

"How'd you even know I was here?" he asked.

"I followed you, of course," Hyeri said.

Yep, I was right. She was troublesome indeed, Sehun thought. He clicked his tongue and scowled. "Whatever. It's not something I'm interested in."

He stormed away, knowing that he had lost. Hyeri smirked and turned to Soojung and Youngji.

These two don't look like they would do much harm, but… Her eyes landed on Soojung. I've seen her before somewhere. She probably has to do something with all of this, but I can't act too hasty. It's best for me to observe her quietly for now.

I'm being observed, Soojung noticed. Why?

"S-So, um, let's meet at the theaters, yeah?" Youngji said. trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Hyeri turned to her and nodded.

"Oh, and thank you so much for inviting me! I really wanted to see this movie," Hyeri said, waving the ticket in the air. She waved at them with her other hand. "Bye! See you on…" She glanced at the ticket date. "…Saturday! I'll see you two on Saturday!"

With that, Hyeri left the room. Soojung sighed and turned to Youngji, who was still trying to absorb the situation.

"Don't think too deeply," Soojung said, clearing . "Let's eat, okay?"

Youngji nodded, but continued to feel trouble in the inside as she ate her lunch with Soojung.