During lunch time, Soojung found Seulgi swarmed around with her new friends and her newly founded popularity. She was clearly the most popular female student at the moment, and the huge shift in attention seemed to leave her in pure bliss. Soojung scowled when she saw her sitting at the cafeteria table where Hyeri and her group usually sat. That seat used to be occupied by Hyeri, Suzy, Naeun, Jinri and Seunghwan. Soojung could still remember how Seulgi had dumbly walked over to their table earlier in the year and had made a whole fool of herself.

She was so annoyingly embarrassing back then, Soojung thought. Her eyes narrowed when Seulgi, who was sitting at that table with Seunghwan, Taehyun. Naeun and Jinri joined the trio shortly after, keen to forging a new friendship. But that spot still isn't right for her.

She took a deep breath. Then, she began to walk towards the table. The chatting and laughing faded when the five realized that Soojung was approaching them. She stood across from where Seulgi was sitting.

"Let's talk," Soojung said to Seulgi. Seulgi stared at her for a few minutes. "I want to talk in private."

Seulgi continued to stare in silence. Her group of friends stared back at her, watching her, trying to see if there was some kind of cue for them to understand. Soojung grew impatient and began to cross her arms as she scowled at her.

"Kang Seulgi," she said again, "Let's talk. Alone."

"What business do you have with me?" Seulgi finally asked.

"What business do I have with you?" Soojung scoffed. "I have a lot of business with you. If you don't remember, I can recite it out in front of everyone right now—"

"But we're not friends anymore," Seulgi said.

Soojung was thrown off. "Huh?"

"You left me, and now you want me back because I'm popular?" Seulgi scoffed. "Aren't you being too much right now?"

"What the hell are you talking about—"

"You said that I'm 'all on my own,' that you 'don't want any part in this,'" Seulgi reminded her.

The last words she had uttered back at the café with Myungsoo and Seulgi echoed in Soojung's mind. Soojung's eyes grew wide and she dropped her arms to the side, not realizing that she had made a mistake. She had thought that she had at least a string on Seulgi to manipulate her, to show her the right way, but it turned out that she had cut it back then when Seulgi decided to follow Myungsoo blindly.

"T-That… I didn't… I—"

"Well, I don't blame you," Seulgi said. She flipped her hair. "You were once popular yourself. I wouldn't be surprised that you'd want popularity now when you have the connections."

Seunghwan stared at Soojung. "She was popular? Are you serious?"

Seunghwan started laughing and the others followed suit. Soojung felt cold sweat forming on her forehead. Her cheeks felt hot and she couldn't help but look away. She knew that she was getting swept up in Seulgi's act, but she couldn't find a way out. What bothered her the most was that Seulgi was laughing at her.

"You're the worse," Soojung finally uttered out. She turned and stormed away, leaving Seulgi feeling slightly guilty, but not guilty enough for her to think things through.

Jongin came by the Seulgi's desk. The girls made some room for him to sit down. 

"Jongin!" Seulgi exclaimed. She quickly latched onto his arm and squeezed it. "What are you eating for lunch?"

"Cafeteria food. I didn't really want the lunch my chef prepared," Jongin said. He paused, then looked around. "Sehun hasn't been around here, has he?"

"No. I haven't seen him all day, actually," Seulgi said. 

Jongin nodded. "Oh, okay." 

He looked around some more. Seulgi noticed.

"Are you looking for someone?" Seulgi asked cautiously.

"…Soojung. Your friend. Is she, um, not joining us?" Jongin asked. Before Seulgi could answer him, someone roughly grabbed Jongin's shoulder and turned him around.

At first, Jongin was confused, wondering who was treating him so roughly. He felt his heart skip a beat in guilt when he saw Sehun glowering down at him. He seemed breathless and annoyed. He looked at Seulgi, who was startled to see him.

"I need to talk to him," Sehun said sternly.

Seulgi grabbed Jongin's arm tighter. "Wait, he just got here for lu—"

"Let go," Sehun snapped. He was annoyed with how close she was around him. The longer she sat next to him, the more he couldn't stand it. Seulgi, scared, released her grip on Jongin. Jongin looked at her, then back at Sehun, who dragged him away from her.

Once the two boys were alone and far away from the cafeteria, Sehun slammed his fist against the wall and shot Jongin a glare.

"What the hell was that?" Sehun shouted.

"What was what?" Jongin asked innocently.

"That! Since when were you interested in Seulgi?"

Jongin gulped. "Well, she's always interesting—"

"What happened to liking Soojung?"

Jongin couldn't admit that he was just dating Seulgi to impress Soojung. "I mean, feelings change—"

"You never even liked Seulgi to begin with!" Sehun accused him.

"I grew to enjoy her company—"

"Damn it, Jongin! You don't love her!" Sehun yelled. "I do!"

Jongin stared at his best friend with wide eyes. Sehun had never raised his voice in front of him, at least not like this. Sehun genuinely seemed hurt, shocked, scared that he could get so angry. Then, he seemed terribly upset.

"I thought out of anyone, you would know best," he murmured. 

Jongin gulped. "W-Well, I'm sorry you feel like that, but I thought you knew me best, too. You should've seen this coming…"

Sehun stared at him in disbelief. Jongin was clearly trying to save face. He knew that he had done something messed up. He knew that he had hurt Sehun.

But did he want to admit it?

Not at all.

"I mean, yeah, you kissed her, but you did kiss her without permission. If anything, that sounds more messed up," Jongin continued.

Sehun grimaced. "I know, I messed up—"

He stopped himself. He blinked and slowly raised his head.

"How do you know that?" Sehun asked.

Jongin hitched his breath. "I…"

"Did Soojung tell you?" Sehun inquired. When Jongin remained silent, he made a fist. "I can't believe her! I—" He frowned. "No, but she isn't the type to do that. She wouldn't tell you that." He paused, then curiously looked at his best friend. "Did you eavesdrop on me and Soojung that day?"

Jongin felt his heart stop. He looked away and remained silent.

Sehun shook his head slowly. "Jongin, why…" 

He remembered Soojung's last sentence, where she had strangely announced that she would not forgive anyone who hurt Seulgi because she saw Jongin eavesdropping. I didn't know he was listening to the whole conversation.

"I didn't…"

"Wait." Sehun looked at him. "Are you dating Seulgi just because of what Soojung said? That she wouldn't forgive anyone who tried to hurt Seulgi?"

Jongin looked away, guilty. He didn't say a word.

Sehun glared. "I can't believe you!"

"What the hell was I supposed to do, huh?" Jongin snapped back. "I was out of options!"

"You picked a girl over your best friend? Jongin, I can't believe you did that!" Sehun almost pulled out his hair out of frustration. "I can't believe you eavesdropped on me and lied about eavesdropping, too!" 

"And I can't believe that you were meeting up with Soojung behind my back like that!" Jongin shouted.

"We weren't meeting each other because we liked each other or anything!"

"So why did you meet her? You two have a lot of similar hobbies, anyway," Jongin said bitterly.

Sehun bit his tongue. He didn't want to let Jongin know what was going on. He knew Jongin would only feel even more angry finding out that he was just a little chess piece used for their enjoyment. 

Jongin scoffed at Sehun's silence.

"See? You can't say anything either, can you?" Jongin taunted.

"This is different," Sehun insisted.

"I don't think it is," Jongin replied. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to eat lunch with my girlfriend."

He stormed away, leaving Sehun dumbfounded and confused about their impending friendship.

/ / / / /

“Seulgi’s friend?”

The lonely girl looked up and saw Hyeri leaning out the window on the first floor. Her eyes widened in surprise.

“Kang Hyeri?” Youngji called.

Hyeri jumped over the window and sat next to her. “Are you expecting anyone? Is it okay if I sit here?”

“O-Of course,” Youngji said, scooting over for her to sit. It was odd for Youngji to find Hyeri sitting next to her. In her eyes, Hyeri had always been someone untouchable. But now? She was right there, sitting only a few inches way. Feeling a bit awkward, Youngji asked politely, “Um, shouldn’t you be with your friends?”

“We split,” Hyeri said casually. Youngji recalled the event from this morning. Realizing that Hyeri had severed her relationship with her friends, Youngji couldn't help but slightly pity her. “Suzy and I parted on good terms. Naeun is with Jinri, who decided to leave me a while ago. Seunghwan, as you probably know, joined Seulgi’s group. I think Naeun and Jinri are going to join Seulgi's group soon, though.” She turned to Youngji. “So why aren’t you with Seulgi?”

“We…naturally started to walk on different paths,” Youngji said slowly. “We started talking less and things kind of fell apart…”

“What about your boyfriend?”

Youngji seemed genuinely surprised that someone like Hyeri knew that she had a boyfriend. She looked away, a bit embarrassed.

“Oh, I broke up with Jackson months ago,” Youngji said.

“Does Seulgi know about it?”

“I tried to tell her, but she didn’t seem to be interested.”

“So what you’re trying to say is that she didn’t care, right?”

“I guess,” Youngji mumbled.

"I'm sorry about that," Hyeri murmured.

"Oh, don't be sorry! It's my fault for not being too interesting and not trying to fix things with her earlier," Youngji said bashfully.

Hyeri kept quiet, thinking, Seulgi lost a great friend.

“I’m surprised that you didn’t get angry,” Hyeri said, finally taking out her lunch to eat.

“I don’t blame her. I’m pretty sure that she must’ve felt hurt and lonely during the time I was dating Jackson,” Youngji said softly. "I was always worried that she would feel like a third wheel, so I always tried to invite her out so that we can spend some time together. When I felt that Seulgi was being excluded, I realized that I had to break it off with Jackson. He was upset, of course, but he understood where I was coming from. He knew that for me, Seulgi was always number one."

“You should get angry, then. At least once at Seulgi," Hyeri told her. "You should go up to her and go like, 'Hey! I broke up with my boyfriend to maintain our friendship!' or something like that."

“What’s the point of getting angry when she won’t listen?” Youngji asked, laughing.

“You’re too soft,” Hyeri criticized. 

“Maybe,” Youngji said, smiling a little, “but I want Seulgi to walk on her own path. I don’t want to force her to be my friend when she doesn’t want to.”

“Hm. Maybe."

Hyeri and Youngji ate their lunch in silence.

"Do you always eat here by yourself?" Hyeri finally asked.

"Yeah. If I eat alone in class, people tend to stare," Youngji said, blushing. "It's a bit embarrassing to realize that I had so little friends… Sometimes I regret breaking up with Jackson, but I don't think I made the wrong decision."

"Well, you're not eating alone anymore," Hyeri told her. The bell for the end of lunch rang. Hyeri looked up and got up. "I'll meet you here tomorrow?"

Youngji widened her eyes. "Me? Here? For lunch again?"

"Yeah. You're a good person, Youngji. I'd like to be friends with you and eat lunch with you," Hyeri explained.

"Are you sure? With someone like me?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm…not popular," Youngji whispered, embarrassed.

Hyeri laughed out loud. "What? Hey, I'm not popular anymore, too."