Seolhyun and Hyejeong quickly settled into a routine—they would meet outside Hyejeong’s staffroom, troupe off to their secret hideout (no, no one’s going to tell you where it is) and talk about the class bullies. They used to meet every day after school, but that gradually decreased from once every other day, then to just twice a week, as Seolhyun’s tolerance increased (as well as her consciousness that Hyejeong was ultimately a teacher and still needed her afternoons to do teacher-y stuff).

Their meetings were never regular. Sometimes it was just Seolhyun ranting off into blank space about her travails, while Hyejeong was just burying her head in stacks of worksheets to mark. Sometimes she and Hyejeong would just take a bully and take turns insulting him or her until both of them ran out of insults. Soon enough Bae Irene, the smartass cheerleader, was known to them as baechu; Kang Seulgi, the tormentor-in-chief, was reduced to an immature girl lusting for bears. On other occasions it was just Seolhyun collapsing onto Hyejeong’s shoulder, crying, while Hyejeong soothed her down, by smoothing her hair and sharing her own teenage horror stories.

Gradually they became more comfortable—not comfortable in the lovers sense, nor comfortable in the best friends sense. Comfortable as in the as comfortable as you can be with your teacher sense. Sure, there would be occasional touching and all between the two, either from Hyejeong’s comforting, or from spontaneous, random contact between them, but those usually ended in both avoiding each other’s gaze, mumbling hurried apologies and returning to whatever they were discussing prior. As Seolhyun dashed down the school stairs to their usual meeting point—today was one of their agreed days—she smiled to herself at the relationship she had with Hyejeong now. It was comfortable, it was re-assuring. It was nice to have a shoulder to lean on through her troubled school days, yes, but not once did she consider herself a friend or anything more to the conscientious teacher. At class they were distant, in school they were strangers. And Seolhyun preferred it this way—any whisper of her and Hyejeong being even friends, for instance, would likely take both of them down. Forever.

So, as Hyejeong’s figure became ever clearer amidst the backdrop of hurrying students, Seolhyun cursed her weak heart for beating a little faster than it should, and her cheeks for becoming a little rosier than it should, whenever Hyejeong’s inviting, dark orbs gazed right into hers, or when their hands briefly brushed against each other’s, or when Hyejeong’s mouth curled out in that intoxicating, beautiful smile of hers.

“Hey!” greeted Hyejeong, as Seolhyun gradually approached her. “To celebrate the 50th anniversary of our little meetings, and your astounding progress, I have a treat for you today!”

Seolhyun’s eyes widened at the sound of ‘treat’. “Great!” she exclaimed. On examination of the students around her however, she realised that her voice sounded a tad too shrill and too loud. Oh god, this is so embarrassing.

Hyejeong broke into another one of that trademark grins of hers at the sight of Seolhyun’s mortified face. “We’re going on a date!” she announced, having first ascertained that her voice was soft enough to not be misunderstood by the other students.

“A…a date?” Seolhyun asked, stammering, not really sure if that was what she actually heard, or if it was just another symptom of Hyejeong-it is.

“Yea! A date! Between us friends!” Hyejeong exclaimed, excitedly.

“Right…between friends,” Seolhyun repeated, her face visibly deflating.

Hyejeong grinned again, wondering to herself. How can this girl possibly be so cute? “We’re going to go to the amusement park, if you don’t mind. I remember you mentioning once that your parents could never afford to bring you there. So we can not only have fun, but also work on your problems there as well!”

Right. It’s just for therapy. And Ms Shin and I are friends. Just friends.

“Say, Ms Shin,” asked Seolhyun, trying to shake off the gloom of which source she didn’t know, “since we’re friends now, can I call you Hyejeong?”

The taller looked at Seolhyun thoughtfully, before her educational instincts kicked in. “Sure, once we hit 100 sessions without you having a collapse!”

Following that Hyejeong, in casual wear, began striding out of the campus. Seolhyun followed, still in her school uniform, shuffling her feet, though with less energy and certainly less anticipation than what she thought she would possess for her first trip to the amusement park.

-----

“Right…er…your dressing,” began Hyejeong, the moment both of them stepped off the bus. “I can’t be seen with a student, and no way am I seeing you in a skirt on any of those rides.”

Crap. “Well…um,” Seolhyun replied, shifting her legs uneasily, “I don’t really bring casual clothes with me to school. And trust me, my casual clothes are hideous,” she added the last part with a shudder.

Hyejeong shrugged her backpack—she usually didn’t bring one—off her shoulder, reached inside before pulling out a T-shirt and a pair of faded jeans. “Here,” she ed the clothes into Seolhyun’s arms, “those were my backup clothes in case you barfed or something during the roller coaster. So you’d better not barf. It is an order.”

Seolhyun giggled. “Who do you think you are, Ms Shin, to give people orders to not barf? Is this some Descendants of the Sun role pla