Someone fell, comfortably, into Hyejeong’s step as she trudged down the school corridor, and towards her staffroom. Someone with roughly the same height as her, clutching books in her hand, a bag clasped around her sagging shoulders, her legs adorned by a green skirt-----

“Kim Seolhyun!” Hyejeong whispered (as loud as she could) angrily, trying to swat away Seolhyun as if she was an annoying fly. “Go away! The others will see you!”

“Don’t move your arms so vigorously, unnie,” Seolhyun warned playfully, “you’re the one who’s attracting attention.”

Hyejeong growled in frustration. “Do you want everyone in the school to know about us?” Hyejeong responded desperately, trying her best to get that annoying prick off from her.

“Is there anything wrong with that, seongsangnim?” Seolhyun replied fake-coyly, the innocent look on her face annoying the crap out of Hyejeong.

“It means that I can’t teach you anymore, because of conflict of interest,” Hyejeong tried the one last gambit that she had in her book. I mean, yes, right? She assumed that it was part of official policy. Though she swore she never remembered conflict of interest being enshrined within school policy before.

“Then you can resign from your job and be my live-in girlfriend,” Seolhyun replied nonchalantly. Hyejeong, in the meantime, was rapidly varying the pace of her footsteps, only to have Seolhyun match them with ease. She was not to be thrown off so easily.

That’s it, Hyejeong thought. “Kim Seolhyun,” Hyejeong barked, suddenly stopping in the middle of the corridor, and attracting the attention of all the students beside them. “I’m not going to give you an extension just because you decided to play DOTA instead of working on your essay,” she said with (mock) indignance, before striding down the corridor forcefully.

Outsmarted, kid.

---

“Why did you have to be so mean to me just now, Hyejeongie?” Seolhyun whined like a kid as they settled into her sofa, Seolhyun having a can of beer in her hand. Hyejeong had finally allowed Seolhyun to come over after badgering her the entire afternoon, and Seolhyun promptly came, quick as lightning.

“We need to set some ground rules,” Hyejeong murmured, flicking on the TV, with every intention of browsing Netflix for something good that she had yet to watch (though all the good stuff is geo-locked in Korea). Seolhyun hummed along, not really interested in what Hyejeong had to say. Simply being near Hyejeong’s warm body (how was she so warm and fluffy?) was good enough for her.

“Firstly, no coming near me in school,” Hyejeong said definitively. No way in hell was she risking whatever shenanigans Seolhyun was scheming earlier in school again. She was going to leave the school on her own terms, and not because Seolhyun was feeling frisky that day.

“But—” Seolhyun remonstrated, only to be rapidly cut off by Hyejeong.

“No buts. This is non-negotiable,” Hyejeong replied firmly, to which Seolhyun responded by pouting desperately. ­Nu-uh. It’s not going to work today.

“Two, no coming over to my house on weeknights. You’re still a kid. You have school.”

“That’s not fair!” Seolhyun cried out, a droplet of beer spurting out of her can due to her vigorous response. ”How dare you see me as a kid?”

“Aren’t you?” Hyejeong scoffed, turning her attention back to the TV.

“I’m drinking beer now, for god’s sake!” Seolhyun remonstrated frustratedly.

“I drank beer when I was 12!”

“Did you someone else when you were 12 too?” Seolhyun shot back, leaving Hyejeong in stunned silence. “Did you enjoy ing a minor you picked up at the bar, eh?”

“Mo…moving on. Three, no texting me during school hours. We don’t want anyone finding out about our relationship because a teacher happened to be looking over my shoulder when you text me. Also, delete our chat history every night,” Hyejeong supplemented.

“You serious?” Seolhyun replied, deadpanned. “Are we even dating, with these kinds of rules in place?”

“Idol couples are under far more restrictions than us,” Hyejeong remonstrated, “at least we have the weekends, right?”

“Next thing, you’re going to say that we can’t go out in public during weekends because a student might see us,” Seolhyun growled underneath her breath.

“Actually,” Hyejeong added, hearing every word of what Seolhyun just said, “that’s a pretty good idea!”

“You wouldn’t dare!” Seolhyun replied, agape.

“Try me,” came the cool response from the figure across the couch.

After upwards of hundreds of rules (it was only a dozen, but it felt like a million), Hyejeong was finally done with her tirade, and slumped back onto the couch, dry.

“Look, because I have to set rules for your immature , my mouth is all fatigued now,” Hyejeong grunted in annoyance. Looking over at Seolhyun, however, all she noticed was Seolhyun’s eyes closed shut, light snoring coming from Seolhyun’s drooling mouth, and the beer can in Seolhyun’s hand in the totally wrong direction.

“KIM SEOLHYUN!” she shrieked. Her poor sofa, stained with the awful, pungent stench of beer. “GET UP!”

10 minutes of screaming later, Hyejeong just gave up, and dragged Seolhyun off to her bed. What was she thinking? It was a school night!

---

“Ughhh,” Seolhyun groaned, as she stretched out her hands lethargically, her eyes groggy, and her head hurting with a slight hangover.

Did I drink last night? , I really shouldn’t drink anymore. But how come I drank? Did I go to the bar? Did I—HANG ON A SEC. WHERE AM I?????

Even through her foggy eyesight, Seolhyun knew that the wallpaper, the oh so fluffy bedsheets and the soft pillow was definitely not hers.

! Did I get wasted and laid last night? SURELY NOT???

“You can stop shrieking now, Kim Seolhyun,” came an oh-so-familiar, feminine voice from outside the bedroom door. Hyejeong?

Hyejeong, from Seolhyun’s silence, surmised that such must have been confused. “You got drunk and slept on my bed last night,” Hyejeong supplemented, a mug of coffee in her hands, and her back aching like crazy. Sleeping on the couch is never a good idea. Sleeping on your own couch, in your own house, is just ridiculous. She should’ve left Seolhyun on the couch, and she knew it.

“O