Nayeon startedly wakes up when her alarm blares in her ears, groaning to the impeding doom that is waking up on a saturday morning.

 

She turns around in her bed, mentally raying ‘waking up’ out of her list of tasks to do. The early morning sunlights pierces through her bland curtains to bathe her in what she deems to be the perfect athmosphere to sleep in.

 

When she tries to sit up to grab her phone, her muscles ache in soreness and she lets her body fall back on mattress.

 

“Ugh-- What the hell…” She mutters under her breath when she finally catches the offending device, shutting it down in one violent swipe.

She’d love to express her anger with, maybe, throwing it, (Nayeon is a drama queen) but that thing costs way too much for her to do that.

 

So she just begrundingly stands up and makes her way to the bathroom, grumbling incoherent words in between stiffled yawns.

 

When she walks down the flight of stairs and stumbles in the kitchen, she meets her parents eyes. And while her father looks still half asleep, her mother bears a look that carries too many bad vibes for Nayeon to start describing it right now. Plus, she just woke up and now she feels a strong will of going back to her bed.

 

“Not even a ‘good morning’?” She asks as she makes her way toward the fridge, retriving her favorite bottle of juice. It’s something called a weird name that she doesn’t dare to pronounce. Really, it’s so weird that it tastes pretty chemical, but Nayeon likes it.

 

“Good morning, honey.” Her father grumbles and he passes by to ruffle her hair while her mother sips on her cup of coffee For a second, he nearly trips over his own feet, and Nayeon knows she got the morning crankiness from her father.

 

“Are you still angry about yesterday?” She silently asks as she goes to sit down in front of her mother.

 

The latter looks up from her cup.

 

“Well you came home at ten p.m.yersterday,” A pause. “I know it’s summer but you usually come home after your study sessions.”

 

“Hm…” Nayeon doesn’t bother with a proper reply, and her father rounds the door with his cereal bar to leave the kitchen. She knows that her mother is about to give her a ‘reasonable scolding’. It’s the scolding that comes after the angry one, to make her understand why there was an angry one in the first place, which she had to bear through yesterday night.

 

Her parents are often way too protective. Hell, she’s nearly eighteen.

People her age go out to drink and smoke and… do way nastier stuff that Nayeon still doesn’t really think of.

Really, her mother should be happy. But thinking, she realizes that she did disappear for hours yesterday.

 

“We were deadly worried me and your father, you know that sweetheart?” Her mother cuts her thoughts and she nods.

 

“I know, I’m sorry.”

 

“Hm. Were you with Jihyo yesterday?” She asks Nayeon, who just shifts in her seat.

She doesn’t know if she should tell her parents that she had been getting outrageously close with the “bad girl” of the school. Her parents would definitely freak out.

 

“No, it was another…” She glances up.  “Friend.”

 

She sees from the corner of her eyes how it catches her mother’s attention, who smiles.

 

“Friend?”

 

“Friend.” Nayeon repeats before lifting her cup to her lips.

 

Her mother looks to the living room, where her father probably passed out on the couch.

 

“You know, I met your father when I was your age,”

 

When the words carry up to Nayeon’s ears, her fingers tense around her cup and cuts the flow of juice. She chokes on her drink and her mother just laughs.

 

“Just, to tell you, you know? If it’s a… a candidate? Tell us.” Her mother rambles on about how she and her father really thought that she was busy dating yesterday, and how it wouldn’t be a bad thing if only Nayeon told them where she was so they wouldn’t have to worry.

 

All of this falls on deaf ears at the jet black haired girl coughs the remaining of the juice out of . Flashes of her afternoon with Jungyeon seep into her mind. Cheeks flushed, she slams the cup down on the table.

 

“Mom! What nonsense is that?!” And her mother raises her eyebrows, eyes playfully glinting to her daughter.

 

Nayeon senses the stiffled laugh bulding up her mother’s lips and she stands up, huffing to show her miscontentment.

 

“If you need me, I’ll be in my bedroom.” Add with that, she grabs the juice bottle and a few cereal bars. She’d rather burry herself in the rathole that is her bedroom than endure any further embarassment from her mother.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

The moment Nayeon closes the door, she leaps for her phone.

 

There’s only one way for herself to get out of the anger that she’s feeling. (and frustration, now that her mother put it, she kind of wants... to date Jungyeon,but that’s something she doesn’t want to admit just yet). Her finger finds a precise contact number without her even looking at the screen and she plasters the device on her ear as soon as the call transmits, calming down at the rythmic beeping sounds. When the line picks up, Nayeon wastes no time to start her rant.

 

“Jihyo, you’ll never know what my parents did!” She screams in the device and hears a small “Ow ow ow,” from a pained Jihyo.

 

Then, Jihyo readjusts the phone on the other side and sighs. “Alright Nayeon, please greet me before ing shouting in my ear,”

 

Nayeon waves a hand before she remembers that Jihyo can’t see her. Somehow that angers her ever more. “Anyways! Listen to me, I need to rant a little.”

 

Jihyo hums while Nayeon inhales to go on. “Yesterday I hung out with Jungyeon in the afternoon, I’ll tell you all about it later.  And I, I eventually ended up coming home at ten p.m.”

 

There’s a hiss on the other side and Nayeon knows that Jihyo knows that her parent set her on fire for doing so.

 

But, surprisingly, she doesn’t seem surprised at the fact that she came home this late.

 

“And-- Wait, you’re not surprised I hung out with Jungyeon 'til this late?”

 

“Nah,” She can almost see Jihyo shrug, perks of being bestfriends for half a decade. “You’re too whipped to stay in your usual routine--”

“Shut up.” Nayeon cuts when she feels a blush creep on her now not so pale cheeks. “Anyways, my point is, my mom obviously scolded me. But then, then this morning I woke up and-- You listening?”

 

“Huh? Oh, yeah of course.”

 

“So I woke up this morning, grabbing my bottle of juice and all but then, my mom, who didn’t even greet me, told me that she thought, along with my father, that I was dating!” The end comes a little louder than intended and she hears Jihyo laugh on the other side.

 

“I’d think so too if my oh so well behaved daughter came home at ten p.m on a Friday night.”

 

“Your role is to accuse my parents, not defend them, you’re my bestfriend!” Nayeon exclaims and what ensues is some ruffling sound, and a door closing.

 

“Hell, you’re not even listening.” Nayeon comments, discarding the small groan of protest from Jihyo.

 

“Are you at home?” She asks the younger girl.

 

“Uh… yeah,”

 

As if on cue, Nayeon hears the sound of a honk.

 

“You know, I don’t think home means the street Jihyo.”

 

“Okay," Her bestfriend sighs,"I’m not home, I’m actually going out.”

 

The fact that Jihyo tried to hide something as mundain as this perks Nayeon’s curiosity. Long forgotten is the scene of her mother suspecting her of dating.

 

“Where are you going?” She sits down on her bed, grabbing the nearest candy bar and unconsciously chewing on it.

 

“Is this an interogatory, miss Im?” Jihyo jokes through the phone after a car rushes by, and Nayeon snickers.

 

“I know you enough to get that you’re beating around the bush right now, tell me.”

 

Jihyo coughs in the device, a sign that Nayeon learned to recognize as shyness. Jihyo, shy? Not a common thing.

 

“I’m gonna… study? Yeah, I’m gonna study with a friend.”

 

Nayeon laughs. Jihyo had never been good at lying. “Sure jan,” She snarls at the younger girl.

 

“And who are you going to ‘study’ with?” She emphasizes the word and she’s sure that Jihyo is getting a clear picture of her winking. Her amused gaze flickers to the window. The sky is clear blue, the trees gently rustling under the breeze.

 

It’s too nice of a weather to go studying.

The line goes silent for a second.

 

“Mina.”

 

Now that catches Nayeon off guard. “Mina? As in Myoui Mina?”

 

“Yeah,” Jihyo breathes out and Nayeon’s lips loospsidedly twitch into a cheshire smile.

 

“Pretty girl I introduced you to?”

 

“Hm.” Jihyo hums to agree.

 

“When did you get close to her?”

 

“I… I don’t know.”

 

She cooes in the phone and Jihyo starts screaming something about her being immature and childlish. She just loves ticking the younger, brilliant Jihyo off. For once that she gets to do it.

 

“Is this a date?” She doesn’t keep herself from asking the younger girl, who, this time, wastes no time answering in a booming voice, Nayeon notes.

 

“See? This is why I didn’t want to tell you in the first place!”

 

Nayeon brusts out laughing. “I’m guessing it’s really a date!”

 

“ you Im Nayeon. And no, it isn’t.”

 

And Jihyo scowls when Nayeon cooes some more.

 

“That’s it, I’m hanging up.”

 

“Jihyo I was just--” A familiar beeping greets her ears. “Joking…”

 

“That ,” She whispers as she lets the phone fall on the matress.

 

This is the second time in a month that Jihyo hangs up on her. She did it twice.

 

Blankly staring at the wall, Nayeon thinks, that she and Jihyo make a weird pair, really.

 

She would have never guessed that her and her bestfriend weren’t exactly… straight. Scoffing at the word, she grabs her phone back up in hand. If Jihyo was going to have fun today, so would she.

 

‘Hey mushroom! Did you know that I got scolded bc of you last night?’ She sends a text to Jungyeon, reading it over and over again before biting her lips in anticipation. Ah, love is weird, she thinks.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Nayeon watches as the principle tugs at his tie, focus driven on the sheet of paper in his hand. She’s feeling terrified really, as if the impeding judgement from the principle would change her whole future, when it doesn’t even concern her.

 

She stands in front of him, biting her lips to the point where she squirms in discomfort. Her collar feels way too tight yet again, and it’s blocking her from correctly gulping her nervousness away.

 

Jungyeon suddenly chuckles and Nayeon turns to her, meeting the taller girl’s amused gaze.

 

“Relax squirtle,” The short haired girl whispers, all too aware of Nayeon’s distressed self. Said girl scoffs.

 

“I’m not stressed.” She mockingly glares but the principle coughs in his clenched fist, catching the two girls’ attention again.

 

“I’m… more that surprised.” He starts, and Nayeon gulps when she turns to him again.

 

“Jungyeon’s grades all climbed up to passing, voir pretty good. Ladies, I am impressed.”

 

He finally says, tone light and merry, and Nayeon feels some kind of liberation, like all the work finally payed. It feels like her own success (when really, it isn’t) and unable to resist the temptation, she turns to Jungyeon and hooks her pinky around hers.

 

The short haired girl smiles at her one of those smiles that set the entirity of Nayeon on fire, dimple digging on her chin and teeth raying under the summer light.

 

She feels hot, it’s almost unbearable.

 

“I’m satisfied of you girls’ effort on this. Nayeon, you surpassed my expectations again and made this work.”

 

She smiles to the old man. It feels quite bugging though, because the sweet words are directed to her while, really, Jungyeon is the one who did the work. She wants the whole world to realize that Jungyeon is more than capable, not just her.

 

“T- thank you but…” The old man raises his eyebrows in interest, and she throws a quick glance at Jungyeon. “Jungyeon really worked hard.”

 

Jungyeon shifts her weight from a foot to another.

 

“I did, how about that?” The taller girl snarls at the principle. There’s a playful glint in her eyes, Nayeon notices, and the principle coughs in his fist again.

 

It seems like congratulating Jungyeon is so out of the ordinary that he is having a hard time actually doing it.

 

“I have to admit, you really did a great job at getting your grades up, Jungyeon.” He eventually gives in with knitted brows and the victorious smile that breaks on Jungyeon’s face sends Nayeon in a whole bubble of happiness and delightfulness.

 

She stiffles a laugh when Jungyeon throws in a “See? Wasn’t that hard.” and they both turn around after the principle grumbles their dismissal.

 

They step out of the office, and Nayeon can’t help but compare how different her feelings now are from the last time she stepped out of this place. It seems like a whole other world back then, somehow?

 

She turns to Jungyeon and finds the taller girl smiling at her.

 

"Thank you."

 

Something blares in her mind. ‘Hug her.’, it says, and Nayeon blames it on the heat, blames it on Jungyeon’s perfectly aligned teeth, blames it on her heart but she still wraps her arms around Jungyeon’s neck, feeling the heavy air close in on her.

 

Her heart is frantically beating in her chest, and for a second she is deeply afraid that Jungyeon might hear it. Then, the taller girl loops an arm around Nayeon’s back and she forgets about it.

 

“I’m proud of you,” She whispers in Jungyeon’s collar, feeling the girl’s chest vibrate against her in a short lived laugh.

 

“Hey, squirtle, you’re choking me.” She whispers but Nayeon doesn’t let go yet.

Maybe the moment the principle called her in his office four month ago was the best thing that ever happened to her, for she met the person that makes her experience what she came to understand and name: love.

 

Nayeon glances around in the cafeteria. Holding her tray in a white-knuckled hold in anger. She knows Jackson is waving at her and telling her to come sit with him and his friends.

 

‘No way in ing hell,’ She thinks. So she feigns ingnorance and walks past their table.

 

She perceives a familiar mushroom haircut over the crowd and she marches to the table, plopping down on the chair and slamming her tray beside Jungyeon's. It startles the two girls sitting on the table, who look up at her in surprise.

 

“Oh, hello.” Chaeyoung is polite enough to greet her, while Jungyeon throws her a nasty look.

 

“Hi Chaeyoung!” Nayeon greets back pushing the remaining amount of decentness in the gesture.

 

Jungyeon furrows her eyebrows “No greetin’ for me?”

 

“Uh, hi. Listen,” Nayeon grunts as she turns to the taller girl, ignoring the glare she’s receiving.

 

“Jihyo ditched me for Mina. Can you imagine? For Mina!” Her voice carries out pretty louldy and Jungyeon turns back to her food.

 

“So you came here to rant?” She asks, and Nayeon huffs. She partly did, because she knows Jungyeon lends at least half an ear to what she says. Even though it’s not always the case... Actually, not always at all. She does get ignored sometimes, which is infuriating when it happens. But! That doesn’t stop her from trying. Nayeon was never one to give up anyways.

 

“No, I just wanted to eat lunch with you.” She replies. It takes Jungyeon by surprise, and the girl looks away before Nayeon can even chance analyzing Jungyeon’s expression.

 

“No but, Jihyo has been a horrible bestfriend lately. Like, I know Mina is really pretty and stuff,” And both Jungyeon and Chaeyoung silently nod on the side. “But it’s no reason for her to go full on lovestruck mode and give up on me!”

 

“Jihyo likes Mina?” Jungyeon asks and Nayeon shrugs.

 

“I don’t know.” She replies, and they all fall in a weird yet comfortable silence. It’s the first time for Nayeon to enjoy silence. She usually doesn’t get it often, being friends with Jihyo and all.

 

She watches as Jungyeon stuffs with her sandwich, wincing at the scene. Chaeyoung seems relatively calmer when it comes to food, gently playing with her fork.

 

“Hey hyung,” The tiny girl calls out. “I’ve been reading a book about anti gravity lately.”

 

Hyung? Nayeons blinks as a similar smirk breaks on both girl’s faces. She knows the two are, like, sibling kind of close, but that’s one surprising nickname.

 

“It’s impossible to put down!” Chaeyeoung declares and it takes a second for the two of them to start laughing and hi-fiving each other; and another second for Nayeon to actually process what just happened.

 

“Was that a pun?” She asks, eyes enlarging in disbelief. Jungyeon fervently nods, in a cute way, and she feels like leaving the table right at the moment.

 

“Wasn’t it great? Gravity and all!”

 

Nayeon gulps, probably pushing down the ‘horrid’ and ‘lame’ back in .

 

“That was… something.”

 

“Hyung! Hyung I have another one!”

 

“Shoot away lil’ one,”

 

Chaeyoung shifts on her seat, eyes bouncing from Jungyeon to Nayeon.

 

“Okay so, I noticed that my geometry class is always tired,” The red head looks serious. Nayeon wants to facepalm.

 

“So I wondered why, you know. But then, I thought, it’s because they’re all out of shapes!”

 

Nayeon huffs in surprise. It’s really lame, for a pun. It’s so lame that it sends Jungyeon in a huffing seal-clapping performance.

 

“You seriously liked that one?”

 

“They’re awesome!” Jungyeon squeals and coughs in her fist. “Okay, okay. My turn.”

 

The short haired girl looks up to the ceiling for a second, and emits a small sound when she finds the inspiration.

 

“Ah, got it. So, I like puns, right?” She asks both Nayeon and Chaeyoung. Chaeyoung, who looks a hundred times more invested in this ‘find a pun’ session than her. Damn, where is Jihyo when you need her?

 

“I’d love to tell you a chemistry joke but,” And Jungyeon grins beforehand. “I wouldn’t get any reaction,”

 

Chaeyoung’s laughter carries to Nayeon’s ears while she makes a face at the taller girl.

 

“Really,” She whispers as she stabs the salad in her plate. Rather eat than listen to this mess.

 

“Reaction, got it? Chemistry!” Jungyeon tries to explain it to her, and Nayeon knows where the pun is. It’s just too bad for her to react.

 

“I didn’t know you liked bad puns.” She mutters and Jungyeon pouts.

 

“They aren’t bad!” And Chaeyoung nods on the side. “They’re puns.”

 

Nayeon simply shurgs a shoulder and the taller girl turns back to Chaeyoung. They continue chatting, cracking lame jokes, and Nayeon watches as she snacks on her lunch.

 

It’s surprising. Yet again she discovers another side of Jungyeon. As for herself, Nayeon hates lame puns. Reaction, really? But when she looks at Jungyeon being all happy, her heart swells and borderline aches for more of the girl, even if it meant puns when she’s right there, beside her.

 

Nayeon chuckles at her own thoughts, and the two other girls turn to her with a big smile.

 

“See? You laughed! That was a good one hyung!” Chaeyoung cackles and they high five again. Nayeon watches as Jungyeon laughs freely, eyes bending under her bangs. She doesn’t have the will to tell her that it was lame, again.

 

And, there’s the feeling of love blossoming at the sight so she smiles. She smiles because she can’t help it. Does Jungyeon have any idea of what she does to her, Nayeon believes she doesn’t.

 

“Hyung are you going to eat this?” Chaeyoung asks after she wipes a tear of laugh from her eye, gesturing for the bite of sandwich that remains.

 

“You know I eat everything though?” Jungyeon snickers and for a second, Nayeon wants to interject, to tell her that she’s just a selfish person just for the heck of it. It’s a fact, when one loves, one bullies. And she loves bullying Jungyeon.

 

“Ah hyung,” Chaeyoung  whines before she chances talking. It’s really cute. “Let me have a bite!”

In a groan, Jungyeon hands half of her sandwich.

 

“Seems like food is holy ground to you.” Nayeon snarls to her and Jungyeon shurgs.

 

“It is. I mean in my whole life, I only met one person with the same appetite as me.”

 

“Who?” Nayeon asks and Chaeyoung rolls her eyes so far back that Nayeon finds it painful.

 

“My ex,” Jungyeon laughs.

 

“Really?” Nayeon comments but constricts weirdly. She ignores it.

 

“Yeah, Momo and I once got kicked out of a restaurant. T’was fun.”

 

Chaeyoung distastefully grunts in front of her (‘Disgusting, hyung.’), and Nayeon feels all the muscles of her body tense at the name.

 

Yet another pause, but not like the previous ones. This time, it’s not a good one.

 

“Momo?” Nayeon asks, tone alert and frankly strangled.

 

“Yeah. My ex’s name is Momo.” Jungyeon answers in the most lighthearted tone ever. It sends Nayeon into panic mode.

 

“Hirai Momo?”

 

“Hm,” She nods (and something just strucks her). “Japanese girl. You know her?”

The realization hits Nayeon a little harder than expected. So this was the reason why Momo behaved this strangely whenever they mentionned Jungyeon. Springing up to her feet, she takes her tray in her hands and looks down to Jungyeon.

 

“Sorry I, I need to find Jihyo,” She mutters.

 

Jungyeon watches her with wide eyes, Chaeyoung too.

 

“Your friend is kind of weird.” The smallest comments the moment Nayeon leaves the table, and Jungyeon can only furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: are you cringing yet, because I am *disgusted face* So here you go with Momo, I just had to bc jungmo is a thing ya know

As usual comments are welcomed!