Soojung woke up in the morning with a message from Jinri. It seemed like Jinri had sent a mass e-mail regarding a photo she had either taken or received. When Soojung opened the message, her eyes nearly popped out. In the photo, Myungsoo had his arm around Hyeri. Hyeri seemed a bit surprised in the photo, but Myungsoo seemed quite content as he gushed out a warm smile.

What's Myungsoo and Hyeri doing together? she wondered. She remembered what Myungsoo had told Seulgi yesterday, about needing just one more day before she had everything.

Soojung felt the hairs rise on her back. "No way…"

She quickly got up from bed and got dressed, rushing out as soon as she could. Sooyeon, who was already awake and preparing herself to go to work, looked up at Soojung with surprise.

"Soojung, are you okay?" Sooyeon asked.

"I just need to go to school!" Soojung replied.

"Are you busy?"

Soojung scrambled to grab a piece of bread from the bag. "Kind of!"

"So are you not going to make it back in time?"

"What do you mean?"

"Myungsoo is leaving today," Sooyeon told her. Soojung froze. "Did he not tell you?"

Soojung slowly turned. "Today? What time?"

"Around when you end school."

Soojung didn't respond. Instead, she made a fist and stormed out of the room, leaving Sooyeon sighing softly as she drank her morning coffee.

/ / / / /

When Soojung arrived at school, she began to hear people whispering and gossiping. She was hoping that by the time she arrived, she could do something to ease the tension, but it looked like she was too late.

"Did you hear? Hyeri was trying to steal Seulgi's boyfriend."

"How awful!"

"Honestly, Hyeri's been getting on my nerves."

"Did you see how cold she was towards Suzy this morning? They won't even look at each other."

"I feel so bad for Seulgi."

...This is rough, Soojung thought. This is going to be really hard to fix.

Suddenly, she heard a slap echo in the building. Her eyes widened and she followed the sound of the slap. She ran through the hallways, pushing people and desperately trying to catch up the seen. When she looked out the window, she realized that a small crowd was forming near the back of the school, where there weren't any teachers patrolling the area. She quickly ran outside and squeezed herself to see the commotion.

To her surprised, she saw a red hand print on Seulgi's cheek while Hyeri waved her hand, cooling it down from the harsh contact. Hyeri rolled her eyes and heaved an annoyed sigh.

"This is why I don't talk to people like you in the first place," Hyeri murmured.

Wet tears began to form in Seulgi's eyes. "I-I just wanted to know what was going on in the photo… He's my boy—"

"Your boyfriend. I know," Hyeri said rapidly. She glared at Seulgi. "So what? He prefers me over you."

Seulgi's lips trembled. "Why…?"

"You're an eyesore, that's why," Hyeri said coldly. 

Why is she saying all this? This isn't like Hyeri at all, Soojung thought. Why is she going along with Seulgi? She knows that Seulgi is just acting!

"You've been stealing all my friends, so why can't I steal your boyfriend for a change?" Hyeri rolled her eyes towards Jinri, who was standing near Seulgi. "Well, guess I did a good thing of getting rid of one friend. Didn't know that she'd backstab me."

Jinri glared at her, enraged. "Seulgi steal us from you? We all left you because we couldn't stand your attitude! Seulgi did nothing wrong! On the other hand, we can't say the same for you, can we? What kind of person steals someone else's boyfriend?"

"You guys weren't like this before—"

"Because we were terrified of you!" Naeun added. Once again, she began to tear up and shake uncontrollably. She sobbed heavily. "Hyeri, you're honestly the scariest person I've ever met. I never met someone who harbored such hatred against innocent people. You scare me!"

Hyeri scoffed, still keeping an icy persona. She made eye contact with Soojung, who gave her a confused expression.

Why are you doing this? Soojung asked her.

Hyeri only looked back at Seulgi. "Looks like you did a wonderful job of brainwashing all of them. I congratulate you."

"Leave Seulgi alone!" Seunghwan yelled, defending Seulgi. "Honestly, when I was in your group, I never felt like I was treated as a genuine friend. But with Seulgi? I'm grateful that I met Seulgi, even though we're in our final year as students here. She's been the one person who I can rely on." Seunghwan squeezed Seulgi's hand and smiled. "She's my best friend."

Seulgi felt overwhelmed with emotions. There were so many people loving her, so many people doting her—there were so many people defending her.

She wasn't the third wheel of the group anymore. She was the center of all of it.

So this is how popularity feels, Seulgi thought, smiling a bit to herself. "Aw, thank you, Seunghwan. You're my best friend, too."

Soojung looked in the crowd. She saw Youngji with a trouble expression. However, instead of saying anything, Youngji carefully pulled herself out of the crowd with a painful bitter smile.

Poor Youngji, Soojung thought. 

"Whatever," Hyeri said. "Your boyfriend is leaving today anyways."

Seulgi froze. "Wha…?"

"He's dumping you. Didn't you get a text from him?" Hyeri asked. 

Seulgi slowly pulled out her phone. "Was that what he was trying to say…?"

Soojung was the only one who could see the contents of her phone.

There was nothing about a break-up message.

"Pft. Pathetic." Hyeri snickered. "Well, it was fun with him for a while. Too bad he got to attached to me. I think I'll keep him on my side for a while."

"You're awful," Seunghwan whispered.

"What did I ever do to you?" Seulgi managed to ask between her stutters as tears fell from her cheeks.

Hyeri blinked, then broke into an annoyed smirk. "Are you seriously still asking that?"

"Excuse me…Please move…Excuse me…"

A familiar voice caught everyone's attention. People in the crowd moved to the side, forming a path for Jongin to walk through. Jongin looked around, then was surprised to see how much Seulgi had been crying. He paid attention to the red mark on her cheek. Then, he whirled around and frowned at Hyeri, causing her to be a bit startled. She had never seen such an angry expression from him before.

"Did you hit her?" Jongin asked.

"I just snapped her out of attention," Hyeri murmured. If it's Jongin, it's okay. He'll understand that what I'm doing doesn't really reflect me. He knows. I can trust him. After all, he's a good fr—

"Hyeri, I can't believe you!" Jongin cried out. He walked over to Seulgi and grabbed her wrist. Seulgi's heart skipped a beat while Hyeri stared at him with shock. "What are you thinking? This isn't like you!"

Hyeri scowled. She was definitely expecting him to say that, but not in such an aggressive tone. It was like he was being loud and angry on purpose, as if he wanted to show someone in particular that he was angry, that he was siding with Seulgi…

Hyeri's eyes rolled to Soojung. Oh. He's not here to help me out. He's here to impress her.

"Jongin, you don't understand—"

"I think I understand plenty," Jongin fired back. "You've been really rude to Seulgi these days. I kept quiet because I'm your friend, but I don't think that was a good idea." Jongin looked at Seulgi. "I'm sorry for keeping silent, Seulgi. I shouldn't have let things get so out of hand like this."

"…Are you for real, Jongin?" Hyeri asked in an icy tone. She curled her fingers into a tight fist. "Are you really going to do this to me, who's been with you since we're kids?"

"Just because we're childhood friends, doesn't mean that I need to take your side," Jongin said. He gave her a sympathetic look. "You need to understand that what you did was wrong and awful to Seulgi. It wasn't right for you to interfere in her relationship with Myungsoo."

"Jongin, it wasn't like I—" Hyeri stopped herself when she saw Seulgi glare at her a little.

Stick with the act, were the words written in Seulgi's gaze.

Hyeri looked at Jongin desperately. You can't possibly do this to me!

Jongin kept a stern look. You're Lee Hyeri. You'll get through this.

No. No, I can't! Hyeri almost wanted to cry, but she knew that she couldn't. If she started spilling tears, people might think that she was faking tears or that there might something else going on. She couldn't let anyone think or doubt the situation if she wanted to help keep Suzy's secret. He doesn't understand that he's ruining me and himself like this!

"Apologize," Jongin demanded. "That's the least you could do, right?"

Hyeri's lips quivered. Then, she slowly broke into a small smirk. She stared at him with her wide brown eyes, shaking her head.

"After all these years," she murmured, "this is how you decide to treat me."

Jongin flinched. He knew that he wasn't being a good friend right now. He knew that he was screwing Hyeri over at this moment, but he needed to do this. He needed to show Soojung that he would support Seulgi and be there for her friend. He had to hurt Seulgi so that he could have the opportunity to show Soojung his good side. He was confident that once he would start dating Soojung, then he could revert everything back to normal and befriend Hyeri again. Hyeri only needed to suffer for a few days, maybe for a week.

But Hyeri knew that there was no going back.

She knew that everything was over for her.

She slowly stepped back, shaking her head and sneering at the two.

"Now that I take a step back to see the bigger picture, I can see it clearly: you two are perfect for each other," Hyeri whispered. Acting like snakes, pretending to be friends and throwing people away like objects. Ha! I can't believe I didn't see that sooner!

"That's right!" Jinri exclaimed. "These two are perfect for each other!" Jinri stepped in front of Seulgi. "Seulgi, you deserve someone better!"

"You really do," Seunghwan quickly agreed.

"You know, I wouldn't have been able to reveal that Myungsoo was cheating on you with Hyeri if it wasn't for Jongin."

Seulgi acted surprised. "What?"

"The photo that I sent to everyone? Jongin sent that photo to me first!" Jinri exclaimed. Suddenly, she started gushing over Jongin's nonexistent feelings for Seulgi. Jongin widened his eyes, trying to figure out how that got into Jinri's head in the first place. "I'm sure he wanted to tell you that he really liked you, but couldn't because you were dating Myungsoo. He didn't want to hurt you, so he sent me the photo. It's my fault for being nosy and having everything explode like this." 

Seulgi calmed down. "J-Jongin did?"

"Yeah!" Jinri looked at Jongin, who remained speechless. She grinned. "Be honest, you love Seulgi, right?"

Huh? Jongin blinked his eyes. He tried to fake a polite laugh, but he felt his grin crumble.

What was happening?

"I-I don't know," Seulgi said. She looked away, scrunching her eyebrows. "I mean, I just broke up with Myungsoo. It hasn't been long…"

"Nonsense! You deserve happiness!" Seunghwan exclaimed. "There's no one else in this world who deserves happiness!"

"Jongin, step it up! The girl you love is right in front of you!" Jinri shouted, urging him to confess.

What's going on? Jongin wondered. What's happening?

"If it was you and Jongin, I'd definitely support you!" Naeun chirped in, clasping her hands.

"Oh my god! Is this actually happening?" Seunghwan squealed. "Jongin is finally getting himself a girlfriend!"

The crowd started to get excited. They were just about to witness the most popular boy in school get himself his "true love" for the first time. They began to chant, encouraging and hooting him to confess.

Jongin finally found his voice. He cleared his throat and quickly shook his head and hand, darting his eyes across the crowd.

"No, no," Jongin said quickly. "I-I don't like Seulgi like that—"

"See? He doesn't love me," Seulgi said. Her face crumbled once again. The crowd's chants died down. "J-Just like how Myungsoo…doesn't love me anymore…!"

She broke down into tears again. Jongin felt incredibly guilty. He didn't think that he had hurt Seulgi to this extent. He felt like he had committed some kind of crime and was now forced to repent for it.

Jinri nudged at him. "Come on, Jongin. Be honest. Don't hurt Seulgi like this."

What? No! I don't like her! Jongin exclaimed in his head. The one I like is—

He turned around and saw Soojung staring. The two locked eyes with each other, and Jongin recalled Soojung's words from before: 

"I won't forgive anyone who hurts Seulgi."

Oh . I messed up, he realized. Soojung’s words echoed darkly in Jongin’s mind. Rejecting Seulgi right now would make Soojung hate him. Rejecting Seulgi later when they were alone would cause her to cry, which would eventually lead to Soojung discovering the situation and hating him. 

Several thoughts ran through his mind. For the first time in his life, he felt cornered. Opportunities were always given to him and he had always accepted them or rejected them with confidence. 

But now? Was there even a choice for him to take?

Seulgi glanced up and him with teary eyes. Jongin’s lips parted, shaking and feeling weak.

Hyeri! he remembered. If it's Hyeri, she can help me—

By the time he looked up, Hyeri was already long gone with her tarnished reputation. Jongin felt his blood run cold. There was no one else to help him out of his situation.

He had dug his own grave.

He had messed up.

"Jongin?" Seunghwan said, calling for his attention. He could see everyone staring at him, telling him the exact same message: Confess, damn it. Seulgi's crying.

His heart sank. He was troubled. There was no solution. This was it. There was only one option.

"S-Sure. Let's d-date."

Seulgi stopped shaking. She eased herself, her cheeks turning pink.

"I-Is that a confession?" Seulgi asked.

Jongin's shoulders felt heavy. "Y-Yeah. Let's date, Kang Seulgi."

He cautiously approached her and hesitant opened his arms. Then, he enclosed her in an awkward embrace, hugging her and rubbing her back to calm herself down. Seulgi buried her face in Jongin's chest. A few hot tears spilled out as her heart raced, trying to get ahold of herself and of reality.

I did it! Seulgi cried out in her head. I'm dating Jongin!

The entire crowd of students hooted and cheered as Seulgi’s crushed expression turned to a blissful smile of excitement. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheeks, something that she never thought she would have the courage to do. Jongin remained stiff and awkward, and tried to chuckle it off. His eyes were on Soojung, who was gone. Instead, another familiar figure stood exactly where Soojung stood moments ago: Oh Sehun. 

The look Sehun had on his face was incredible. His face was full of defeat, despair, and agony. He looked at his best friend who had betrayed him, who had done something immoral to him. Sehun, who was usually smiling and laughing, was staring at him with eyes burning in bitterness and disgust. 

You don’t even love her, Sehun’s eyes said to Jongin.

Jongin knew what he was trying to say.

The tanned boy only gulped, then wrapped his hands around Seulgi’s waist for a tighter hug.

/ / / / /

"Are you sure you're not going to wait for Soojung to get back? I mean, I told her that you were going to leave after school. I didn't know that you were going to be gone in the morning during her school hours," Sooyeon said.

"Nah. I don't think she'll want to see me," Myungsoo said, wearing his hat. "She's probably going to hate me more."

Sooyeon sighed. "Why do you keep doing this, Myungsoo? You're not a kid anymore."

"It's interesting," he said, chuckling. "When you're young, you think that such trivial things are so important."

"So why don't you just tell them to give up on trivial things?" she asked.

"They don't listen," Myungsoo said. "At that age, who do you listen to? Only those who flatter you."

"You have a very shallow outlook."

"Maybe, but after all, it's not up to me to decide how they live. They make their own decisions. It's just a matter of time until they see the consequences and the outcomes of their actions. You can't live a life without making a few mistakes, even if it means making drastic ones," Myungsoo explained.

"Well, get back safe. Let me know when you come back in this neighborhood again," Sooyeon said.

He nodded and turned.

“Kim Myungsoo, stop right there!”

Myungsoo, who was just about to get in the taxi to head back to his university, stopped. He looked up and stared at Soojung, was running towards the two. Both Myungsoo and Sooyeon were surprised to see Soojung running up to them when she was supposed to be in school. When she stood across the other side of the taxi, she panted, clearly out of breath. 

Sooyeon widened her eyes.

"Soojung! What about school?" Sooyeon cried out. "Don't you dare tell me that you're skipping school right now. Go back and—"

"I need to talk to him!" Soojung yelled, interrupting her sister. Sooyeon clamped shut. Seeing the fire burn in Soojung's eyes meant that it was serious. Sooyeon stood awkwardly in between them. Then, she slowly backed away, allowing Soojung to close the gap.

“I’m…going to head back into the cafe,” Sooyeon said. She turned to Soojung. "Go back to school rather you're done talking to him. I'd rather have you tardy than absent." She turned to Myungsoo. "Bye, Myungsoo."

“Yeah. Bye,” Myungsoo told her.

“See you next time,” Sooyeon replied. She walked back into the café to continue her business.

Myungsoo glanced over at Soojung, who finally caught her breath. Her fingers were rolled into a fist and she couldn’t help but glare at Myungsoo with menacing eyes. Myungsoo casually leaned against the taxi.

"You. Are. Evil," she declared.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” Soojung yelled. “I know that you did it on purpose!”

“Did what?”

“What did you do to Suzy and Hyeri?”

“I didn’t do anything. It was all Seulgi’s doing—“

“Bull! You might’ve not done anything, but you definitely planted an idea inside Seulgi’s head knowing that she was going to do it!” Soojung retorted.

“Ouch. You're making a lot of assumptions.”

“Speak up!”

Myungsoo sighed. “Okay, so I might have hinted at Seulgi to talk to Hyeri instead of Suzy about Suzy’s situation.”

“You told Seulgi to blackmail Hyeri?”

“It’s not really blackmail. Hyeri did it by choice. She could’ve let Seulgi tell the whole school that Suzy was in a secret relationship with their history teacher. Besides, a teacher should be focusing on educating his students, not confiding in a relationship.”

“You know very well that he’s a student teacher and that he was childhood friends with Suzy. You should also know that it was Suzy who initiated the relationship first.”

“I don’t think that justifies anything,” Myungsoo said.

“All they’ve been doing is going out to eat!” Soojung retorted.

“Favoritism isn’t a good characteristic for teachers to show.”

“Kim Myungsoo!”

“What? I got Seulgi a new boyfriend, too. The one she wanted.”

“You treat people like a toy!”

“And you don’t?”

Soojung went silent. She glared at Myungsoo, who smirked.

“It’s not just me who’s at fault. You’re part of this, too.” He looked around. “If anything, it’s just like middle school: Me giving you a way to be popular, and you taking in those advice and going to the extreme with it."

“Stop.”

“But you ended up taking things to far, and eventually the guilt ate you up so much, you came to me, your boyfriend at that time, hoping that I could comfort you and admit that I played a part in this, but I didn't because it wasn't my fau—"

"Stop!" Soojung yelled. She glared at him.

"And that's why now, you've abandoned popularity for a life of solitude—" Myungsoo continued in a low voice. "—because you discovered that popularity doesn't mean that the guy is a prince."

"Don't flatter yourself," she warned him.

"Which is why you keep pushing Jongin away," he said, "because he's popular." He gave her a stern look. "You don't look at Jongin past his popularity. He's a good kid—a much better one than me." He broke into a smirk. "Well, it can't be helped that the one you fell in love with was me." He waved. "Maybe next time, Soojung. Until then, grow up a little."

He slipped into the car and told the taxi to drive away, leaving her dumbfounded and frustrated to deal with the mess he had made for everyone else to clean up.