Nayeon doesn’t care when she finds Jihyo talking to Mina about something that seems rather serious. She grabs the shorter girl’s arm and twists her around.

 

“We got a problem.” She declares, staring right in Jihyo’s eyes. “Hi Mina, sorry I’ll borrow Jihyo for a while.” She ignores the confused look on Mina's face, then slides her fingers around Jihyo’s wrist to pull the girl with her toward the corridors.

 

“Nayeon? What’s happening-- Hey!” Jihyo blabbers behind her, looking back at a very confused and a now very much alone Mina.

 

“Listen,” Nayeon pushes Jihyo around one corner, her lower lip tucked under her teeth.

 

“If this is one of your moodswings again--”

“No! Okay so, remember when Jungyeon told us she dated a girl last year?” Jihyo nods.

 

“That girl was Momo!” Her voices echoes in the silent, empty hall and Jihyo stops moving, face contorting into one of surprise and… achievement?

 

“I knew it! Momo is gay as !”

Jihyo fists her open palm like she just achieved an epiphany.

 

“You’re missing the main point here!” Nayeon snaps her fingers in front of Jihyo’s face.

Really, sometimes she wishes for another bestfriend, one that actually stands in the same line of thoughts as her.

 

“Momo! Hirai Momo, our friend!”

 

Jihyo shrugs, and for a second Nayeon thinks that the environnement is propice enough for her to strangle Jihyo without anyone seeing her.

 

“So? What’s your point?”

 

“I-- Don’t you see how Momo looks?” She asks, incrediously. “She’s a ing 21st century asian rendition of Barbie!”

 

That makes Jihyo laugh. “She may look good but she’s a ing 5 year old food junkie, why ask me this now?”

 

Nayeon gazes away from Jihyo’s deciphering eyes. “I- I don’t know… If Jungyeon dated her then…”

 

“Then you think that means her type is Momo-ish kinda girl, stunning, blonde and all; I know you Nayeon.” Jihyo grunts. “I still don’t get why you get this insecure even to this day I mean, look at you.”

 

“But that’s not the same! I’m not, like, the same type of girl at all.”

 

“Eh, seems like bunny Nayeon is really whipped afterall.”

 

“Want me to let Mina know about you case?”

 

“Alright,” Jihyo puts a warning hand on her shoulder, eyes shifting to the right. “Really there’s no need for you to worry. Now lemme go eat my lunch because I’m starving.”

She watches as Jihyo untangles herself from her spot and casually walks back to where they came from, a bounce to her steps.

 

Nayeon huffs. “You just want to get back to your girlfriend!”

 

“Shut up!” Jihyo screams after she rounds the corner and Nayeon lets herself lean on the wall. She feels the headache coming.

 

Ah, how she would have loved to, well, love someone other than Yoo Jungyeon, who turned out to be a bigger headache than expected.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“Let’s take a break,” Nayeon whispers after she sets her pencil beside her book, sliding up her specs with her other hand. Studying for a history test is tiring.

 

Jungyeon lets out a relieved sigh.

 

“I know I’ve done better in school thanks to you but holy this is exhausting,”

 

“Feeling the same here,” Nayeon sighs.

 

When she thinks about it, she’s actually happy to have these study sessions with Jungyeon since the taller girl basically disappears whenever they have classes. These sessions help her see her often.

 

But, really, something has been bothering her, the question making its way back in her mind whenever Jungyeon did as much as stare at her lips when talking.

 

Is Jungyeon just nice, or is she maybe, somewhat, by some miracle, attracted to Nayeon too?

It’s quite a destructive thought to have but, Nayeon can’t really help it. Not when Jungyeon used to date Korea’s Next Top Model Hirai Momo.

 

Hell, Nayeon is the complete opposite of her.

 

Small stature, pale, white skin, plump lips and hair as dark as the dead night.

Momo surely isn’t like that.

 

“Jungyeon,” She calls out before even meaning to.

 

“Hm?”

 

“What’s your… ideal type?” She slowly and painfully asks, voice wavering at the last syllabe. Clearly, Nayeon knows how to make a fool of herself.

 

Jungyeon stares at her for a second too long, which sends her in a full ‘what did I just ask’ question round.

 

“I don’t know,” She ends up saying, a particular glint swimming in her sharp eyes. Nayeon gulps.

 

“I guess… someone funny would do the trick.”

 

‘Damn, Momo is funny. Am I funny? I need to be funny.’

 

“Oh, okay.”

 

Jungyeon smirks. “Surprised? What, expected me to say something like Barbie type of girl?” And Nayeon wonders if she really is as clear as clean water, the type you find in non polluted seas because, it strikes how Jungyeon understands her and borderline knows what she is thinking.

 

“N- No! Not at all I... no.” Nayeon shrugs, discarding the flash of Momo’s blonde hair behind her retines. She tries to act nonchalant, and Jungyeon is nice enough to let her breathe through the embarassment.

 

“Eh, if you say so,” Nayeon wants to argue but Jungyeon cuts her short. “How about you?”

 

“My ideal type? I guess, someone that takes care of me?”

 

“Now that isn’t surprising.” Jungyeon quizically laughs and Nayeon sits up in her seat, flushing bright red in embarassment.

 

“I mean, I tend to forget a lot of things to the point where I, I even get stressed about it so…”

 

Jungyeon smiles a fond smile, one that makes Nayeon suddely feel lightheaded, as if she just uncovered the idillest parts of the stars and the sky. It fills her with hope, but she doesn’t know for what. The kind of smile that Nayeon craves, and as soon as gone, misses. They’re very rare and they usually mean a lot - at least to her - but that’s probably her delusional thoughts and heart tugging at her brain to wreck it up.

 

“That’s cute,” Jungyeon mutters under her breath as she doesn’t break the eyecontact. Nayeon makes a face, to play it cool, to avoid letting anything perspire through her expressions when actually inside, she’s burning; and Jungyeon chuckles.

 

She hides her smile behind her hand. “You're too greasy.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It just irks Nayeon when she sees that Jungyeon still skips class.

 

All of her effort to make the girl understand just how important school falter to nothingness when she sees that the whole classroom is there, except the short haired girl.

 

Nayeon gives it a shot, thinking that the latter is just a little late, as usual. But then, the teacher steps out of the classroom declaring he’s going to get their test papers, and Jungyeon is still not there.

 

“Where’s the chic girl?” Jackson asks her as he turns around.

 

“I don’t know.” Nayeon answers. She fishes her phone from her pocket when an idea lights up her thoughts, hesitantly toying with the screen.

 

Should I call her…?

 

She doesn’t know. They haven’t exactly talked on the phone before, safe from quick conversations. She’s kind of pissed that Jungyeon is skipping, and at the same time she tells herself that she probably shouldn’t.

It’s the girl’s life, not hers.

 

But… Nayeon just wants her to make it, in the end.

 

Then again, Nayeon helped Jungyeon study for that test. So, she has the right to be pissed, right? Since she put in efforts that turned out to be useless.

And because she is involved too. Yes, Nayeon concludes, she will call her before the teacher comes back in the class.

 

Sliding up the phone up to her ear, Nayeon bites her lips as the device rings. Once, twice, and it picks up.

 

“And-- Hello?”

 

“Jungyeon,” She gulps to the heavy thundering in her chest. “W- Where are you?”

 

“Not at school,” The girl chuckles. “Why?”

 

“You’re obviously not at school. You know the test is today right?”

 

“Uh, ye-- Sorry. Yes, why?” Nayeon hears some ruffling and a distinctive, feminine laughter that doesn’t belong to Jungyeon. Is she with someone?

 

“Oh I thought that maybe you would want to be here, maybe take the test?” She asks through insecurity when she hears the giggle again.

 

“Hey I-- will you stop! Sorry Nayeon, can’t today.”

 

“But we studied for it together!”

 

“Sure, but that doesn’t mean I will take it.”

 

Nayeon blinks. Her chest aches.

 

“A- Are you with someone?”

 

“Uh, I am. Anyways, don’t worry ‘bout me Nayeon! I’ll be here next time,”

 

“Do you even know what I’m talking about?”

 

“Of course, school…?”

 

Nayeon sighs in the device but Jungyeon doesn’t say anything about it.

 

“Look, kinda busy here, call me later, ‘kay?”

 

She knew it. She’s bothering Jungyeon.

 

“Nayeon?”

 

“Ah, yes, sure. Bye!”

 

Nayeon frowns the moment the line cuts off, glaring at one random spot on her desk. Jungyeon didn't even say bye.

 

She feels Jihyo tap her shoulder and she turns to the girl.

 

“You okay?”

 

“Yeah,” Nayeon stiffly answers in a smile.

 

The teacher bursts in, scolding the students for being so noisy, nothing out of the ordinary. Jackson eventually gets screamed at since he’s not in his seat.

 

Nayeon sighs yet again, feeling smaller and more useless than she ever had to feel in her seventeen years of living.

 

“Dude, you’re gonna make me cry at first glance. What’s up with the gloomy face?” Jackson snickers when he comes back to his seat, and the teacher screams his name in anger. He sulkily plops down on his seat.

Nayeon is sulking too, but for a complete other reason.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

There’s something telling Nayeon that she might have messed up big time. Jungyeon told her she couldn’t make it for their weekly study session today, messily exhaling the words in between two classes in one of the busiest corridors of the school. Then, the short haired girl didn’t do as much as explain her why for the rest of the day.

 

And now that Nayeon is sitting in the refectory with her friends, she doesn’t find the strength to join the usual merry chattering.

 

If there’s something important to know about Nayeon, it’s her distate for any form of conflict.

She wants to back up whatever act, or word, that might have upset Jungyeon to the point that the short haired girl avoid contact with her.

 

“Ya been lookin’ gloomy for the past three day,” Jackson snaps her away from her thoughts as he nudges her shoulder and wakes her up from her glaring contest,

third round against the spotless fork in her hand.

 

She looks up to the blonde guy in his eyes, this time, twinkling in worry and not mischeviousness per usual. He’s asking her ‘What’s wrong?’ without any word, any question. Just his eyes.

 

Nayeon crunches up her nose. She’s smiles in a forced yet dismissive way, conveying her feelings for silence to the worried boy.

She’d really just go back to glaring at her fork that bother them with, well, herself.

He digs back into his plate, hunching over the thing.

Perks of being friends for nearly three years, she thinks; he understands her well. Or is she too easy to read?

 

Same thing. She sighs with a bitter touch down her tongue.

 

“Hey Nabongs,” Jihyo quirks up, delicately slipping a french fry in . The girl seems to be radiating in contrast to her dark radiations emitting from her heart. She’d probably laugh if she could see herself.

 

“You okay? You’re frowning and I know you’re dead scared of wrinkles so, I’m guessing something’s on your mind?” She waves another fry in the air to add some texture to her speech. Nayeon snorts as the fry bends into two.

 

“I’m okay, really. Just feeling a lil’ down lately. Nothing to stress about.”

 

“Pms-ing?” She whispers behind a cupped hand and Nayeon shakes her head.

Jihyo eats the first half of the broken fry.

 

“How about…” and when Nayeon looks up, she finds Jihyo looking at the left, to the table where Mina is sitting.

 

“How about a sleep over tonight?” The younger girl gazes back to her bestfriend and an immediate, easy smile settles on her face. One that hides something.

 

“Didn’t you have plans with Mina?”

 

“I don’t anymore.”

 

Here “Don’t cancel because of me. Go ahead and use the given opportunity to learn japanese,” She finishes with a wink and Jihyo growls under her breath.

 

“Jihyo’s been learnin’ atarashii daisuki mina-san language?” Jackson turns to them when Jooheon stuffs his mouth with a lettuce wrap, successfully turning into a hamster. Nayeon softly laughs.

 

“Yo I-- I know a thing or two ‘bou--” Jooheon fumbles with the food in his mouth and Jihyo turns to slap his shoulder.

 

“Don’t talk while chewing,” She scolds and the boy swallows (painfully, and Nayeon winces.) to free his tongue faster. She kind of understands how he feels. Jihyo carries an aura with her that puts it a calomny to miss any second of conversation with her.

 

“I know Japanese a little bit, you should’ve asked me,” Jooheon tries to sound casual. Oddly, it reminds her of Jungyeon.

 

He likes her, it’s not secret. Blame it on Jihyo and her killer looks, killer smile, and killer personnality. Boys just want to be with her at all times.

 

“I didn’t know about that,” Jihyo pleasantly smiles. “Hey, you’ll be my substitute teacher!” And Jooheon glares.

 

“Subtitute,”

 

“At least ya have a title squishy boy.” Jackson laughs as he suddenly becomes the target of Jooheon’s murderous attemptd

 

Jihyo turns back to her while the two boys battle it out, eyes twinkling with more mischeviousness than Jackson could ever carry.

 

“So, deal?” Amusement laces in her words and Nayeon smiles, smirks even. Jihyo is impressive.

 

“Sure.” And she feels a little better.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Now that Nayeon is waiting for the bus with Jihyo, a feeling of nostalgia seeps in her. It feels like the ‘old times’, should she say? The time where it was just the two of them, no external interferences. No heart aches.

 

No problem at all, except maybe the grade they’d be getting back then.

 

“Here,” The man stabding in the ice cream booth hands her the vanilla flavoured ice cream.

 

“Thank you!”

 

“It’s been a while since I’ve last seen you two together. Been busy with school?” He asks with a fatherly smile on his face and Nayeon suddenly realized that she missed this.

 

“Yeah, teachers ’re lowkey harassing us with work.” Jihyo shrugs and Nayeon nods as she on her ice cream.

 

Walking toward the bus stop, the sun beats on top of her head but the ice cream makes up for it.

 

“I missed this,” She whispers in the crisp air of a hot summer afternoon, and Jihyo smiles, eyes shining.

 

“You missed the drama too,”

 

“Right? I’m still not over that!” Nayeon whines to her bestfriend. Jihyo chuckles.

 

“You’re lucky there are reruns today.”

 

And Nayeon is filled by some hapiness that Jungyeon isn’t the cause of this time.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

When she thought she’d be completely clueless as to what would happen in the drama, Nayeon didn’t know it was to the point where she’d struggle remembering the names of a truck load of new characters.

 

“Who’s that?” She tugs at Jihyo’s sleeve, the girl a tiny bit too engrossed to answer just yet.

 

“Wait,” Nayeon blinks as the scene changes to an army setting. The main character appears, hair shaved and brows furrowed.

 

“WHY IS HIS HAIR SHAVED!” She gasps, putting a squeezing hand on Jihyo’s shoulder while the girl’s eyes bulge out of their sockets.

 

“Shhh!”

 

“NO BUT I’M LOST--”

 

“LISTEN I’M TRYINA’ FOLLOW THIS RIGHT NOW,”

 

Nayeon whines and sits back in Jihyo’s bed, totally feeling pissed at the girl.

 

“I’ll tell ya’...”

 

“At least finish your sentences Thomas!”

 

“I’ll tell you ‘bout everything later!” And Jihyo flicks her wrist to the side, telling her to shoo away for a minute.

 

Nayeon wonders if glaring at someone’s back head can set them on fire.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

It’s nearly midnight when they both settle on Jihyo’s bed.

 

“Just keep that one lit,” Nayeon gestures to one of the smaller lamps.

 

“Squirtle’s scared of the dark?”

 

“It’s to see your face .”

 

Jihyo chuckles and does as she is told. Now, it feels relaxing, and calm.

The bed dips beside her as Jihyo settles on her right, staring at her profile.

 

“Now Nayeon,” She begins. “How ‘bout you tell me what’s wrong?”

 

Nayeon groans and Jihyo pats her shoulder.

 

“You know, six years of friendship is long and I bear through everything so, quick, unfold your secrets paper.”

 

“Bear through it?” Nayeon playfully glares at her and Jihyo shrugs.

 

“I just,” She stares back down at her hands. Million words swirl in her head. She doesn’t know where to start.

 

“I feel like… Jungyeon is distant these days,” Nayeon whispers, as if afraid of anyone or anything prooving her statement true.

 

She doesn’t want it to be true.

 

Sliding under the covers, she opts to set her temple on Jihyo’s comforting and round shoulder.

 

“How so?”

 

“I called her before the test this week,” She closes her eyes. “It seemed like I bothered her.”

 

“Eh, could be busy?”

 

“And she avoided talking to me for the whole week.”

 

“Hm.” Jihyo hums and Nayeon’s eyebrows furrow above her closed eyelids.

 

“And she cancelled today’s study session.”

 

“Did she tell you why?”

 

“She told me nothing about it.” Nayeon feels the furstration coming. She sits up and opens her eyes to see Jihyo stares in the void in thoughts.

Nayeon isn’t one made for confrontations but, all she wants to do is just that.

All she wants to do is confront Jungyeon to know exactly what was currently going on inside that pretty head of hers. And she decided to do it today.

Did I just call her head pretty? That mushroom...

 

 

Nayeon doesn’t know what it is about that phonecall with Jungyeon that makes her regret, perhaps, the whole ‘study sessions’ thing, or even, to put it simply, her existence as a whole. She’s always been a pretty people-oriented kind of girl -- her mom’s words -- and so, she lived with embarassment as a second name; having to deal with all kind of trials to get the noble title of a ‘friendly figure’.

 

Nayeon herself admits that she is bright. Sometimes too bright, even for her own self.

 

But she deals with it. She puts on a decent smile in front of people and never lets harsh words slip from her heart shaped lips. It always does the trick but if there is one thing she doesn’t know how to deal with, it’s Jungyeon.

Nayeon lived through second hand embarassment, sure. But never through the specific one where she feels stupid by just talking to the detentor of her heart, wanting nothing more than to crawl into a hole and stay there.

 

The walk toward Jungyeon’s table during lunch turns out to be heavier and much more strainful than she expected it to be, and when the short haired girl looks up to meet her eyes, Nayeon’s knees decide it is the right time to buckle together.

The problem with Yoo Jungyeon is that the girl often sways between friendly and downright icing cold with her. And lately, her attitude contradicted too much with the summer weather.

 

“Hey,” Jungyeon greets, low and confident.

 

“Hi! Um, c, can I borrow you for a second?” She asks, definitely not low and confident. Jungyeon turns to Chaeyoung and the tiny girl shrugs.

 

“Sure.” And with that Nayeon gets a silent Jungyeon to follow her toward the courtyard. It’s crazy how her heart is playing tug of war inside her chest.

 

“So? Lunch time’s almost over and I’m still hungry.” Jungyeon declares as soon as they reach the space outside of school beside the pretty white flowers that Nayeon learned to be lillies. Jungyeon’s not looking at her and it’s sad to hear that from the girl, (she hates that she’s just a bother to her) but she’s quick to stop herself from judging. Like Jihyo told her, the girl may be dealing with some stuff that are too personnal for her to mingle in.

 

“S, sorry.” She apologizes. “I just… wanted to know if you’re alright,”

 

Jungyeon crosses her arms and shifts her weight on her left foot. She raises a quizzical brow at her and Nayeon doesn’t like how this reminds her of the time where they weren’t aware of each other’s existence.

 

“You… you were a little cold lately and I was worried something happened to you?”

 

She watches as Jungyeon looks toward the crowd of students playing around in the, courtyard depicting an expression that strangely looks like uncomfort and… inner fighting?

 

“I’m just,” And her gaze flickers to Nayeon’s face for a second. “Coming to terms with some things.”

 

“Okay, um… Tell me if, I… can help you.”

 

Jungyeon surprisingly chuckles.

 

“Why are you stuttering?”

 

“Uh, because, I was scared you were distancing yourself from me.”

 

They stare at each other, Jungyeon’s eyes back to her own, dark and confused. constricts.

 

Nayeon leaves the subtility drip from her words that hang through the air, not specifying that she doesn't want to lose their friendship to make things clear. And she knows Jungyeon caught it.

 

“Scared,” Jungyeon whispers, declares as a statement.

 

“Y, yeah.”

 

“See this is--” Nayeon looks up when Jungyeon promptly stops. “Nevermind. Wanna help me?”

 

Jungyeon’s intense gaze lights up her whole chest, like the first time they met. Nayeon coughs in her balled fist and nods.

 

“Come eat lunch with me.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

By eating lunch together, Nayeon didn’t expect Jungyeon to take her tray of food and settle the both of them on a complete different table, leaving Chaeyoung alone with Tzuyu.

 

She sits down across Jungyeon, who’s silently stabbing her chicken wing with her fork after a while of silence.

 

“Poor thing,” Nayeon lightly jokes, because something in Jungyeon’s eyes scares her, and the short haired girl chuckles as she stops her murder in realization.

 

“Nayeon,” Jungyeon starts, tone serious. “You know I… I like girls, right?” Hushed come Jungyeon’s words and Nayeon nods, again.

 

“I have a single question for you. Can I?”

 

Nayeon notices how Jungyeon’s words are clear and void from any ‘in trend’ abbreviations. That’s when she understands that Jungyeon is a lot more mature than she expected.

 

“Do you?”

 

She blinks.

 

“Do I what?”

 

She blinks again but Jungyeon’s gaze doesn’t waver. “Like girls. Do you?”

 

Nayeon remembers falling from a huge slide once in her childhood. It was traumatizing. The kind of feeling that grabs right at your guts and heart, rendering you mortified and speechless.

That’s how she’s feeling right now.

Jungyeon glares at a bunch of nosy classmates that try to listen in their conversation, making them cower away in intimidation.

 

Nayeon’s watching the scene without watching it at the same time, thinking without really thinking either. She feels so… out if it, out of her own body, and it’s not a pleasing feeling at all. opens. What will she answer to that? That she found girls attractive on some level but that she was head over heels for Jungyeon? No? Yes?

 

She takes too long to answer. “S’okay. I got it,” Jungyeon grins, but the end of her lips is kind of crooked, like she’s forcing it. The bell rings before Nayeon can get something out of her gaping lips and Jungyeon stands up.

 

“What’s the next class again?”

 

“Uh, history.” She mindlessly answers. Her mind works inside, and she can feel the bolts rolling. What did that mean? Why did she ask her this question?

 

Nayeon stands up and hastily grabs her tray to catch up with Jungyeon.

 

“Ugh, history after lunch. How ‘bout skippin--”

 

“Yoo Jungyeon!” Nayeon slaps her shoulder and the taller girl chuckles. She ends up more conflicted than before she talked to Jungyeon, realizing how she didn’t exactly ask what she had in mind.

 

“Aight, let’s go.”

Nayeon keeps throwing glances at Jungyeon’s side profile while they make their way to class, and notices how her eyes lack their usual golden brightness. She probably messed up big time.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: remember to leave me a comment with your thoughts, i heavily feel in need for those to see how the story should move on! it's starting to ease into awkwardness lmao