Today’s the day of the test. The economy test.

Nayeon walks in the corridor toward her class shortly before the bell rings, wanting to get there early.

Maybe she’ll be able to get a proper seat this time; unlike the last test where Jihyo bailed out on her and made her sit right in front of the teacher.

She doesn’t cheat, but man sitting right under the teacher’s nose is awkward. If she remembers well, the teacher even scoffed at some of her answers. Needless to say, she was very perturbed.

She’s walking alone right now, given that Jihyo basically ditched her after she introduced her to Mina, a friend of hers from a different class.

Jihyo is so friendly with anyone that she isn't able to turn down a good conversation and Nayeon knows that she will get back at her bestfriend for leaving her on her own before the test; and that by making her sit at the front too. What a great idea, Nayeon is refengeful like that.

She gently bobs her head to the song blasting through her earbud. Music makes her relax, and she definitely doesn't want to have the test all stressed. Completely relaxed. Chill Nayeon, that’s what people should start calling her.

Along with Girl Crush,but that’s another , very long story.
 

An easy smile settles on her face. The chorus jumps in and she stops herself from dancing in the middle of the corridor along with the catchy music.

She rounds the corner and steps inside the classroom, finding the majority of the class there, waiting for the teacher to arrive.

The usual cheaters are huddled at the back of the classroom, carefully eyeing their surroundings, and she rolls her eyes. If they were a little smarter, they’d choose the middle seats as to not get brought back to the front; yet they try to defy destiny, as always.

Seeing how a lot of her classmates are already sitting there, she realizes it’s actually quite a big test. It will make the majority of their trimestrial grade. Big deal.

“You ready for the test?” Jackson stumbles right beside her, not bothering to look at her in the eyes. He’s scanning the room for a strategic place and Nayeon chuckles at his cute, focused frown. He might be more involved in finding a seat that studying at all.

“You should worry about yourself,”

“Shut up.” He jokes, a small smile tugging at his lips and she shoves him on the shoulder. It makes him take a few steps forward after loosing his balance, and a figure appears behind him.

She locks eyes with a girl for a second, the action sending chills up her arms and back. Jungyeon is standing here, watching Jackson stand back up straight. What was it about the taller girl’s eyes that made her behave so… oddly?

She sees Jungyeon move her lips and Nayeon stares long enough to catch what she mouths.

“Excuse me.”

Ah, she’s blocking the girl from the classroom.

“Ah, yeah. Sorry.” She mutters. Her glasses' frame become the next thing close to her hand as she can’t help but finger them. Under Jungyeon’s gaze, her brain rings something along ‘do something’ and ‘you probably look stupid’.

“Hey!”

Nayeon doesn’t have much time to think when she feels an arm wrap around her shoulders, knuckles scrubbing the top of her head. Jackson is messing with her hair. Except that nobody messes with her hair, not when she takes half an hour to set it correctly in the morning.

“Not my hair!”

A few seconds of struggling and wiggling, she manages to set free while sending a crouching Jackson to his seat (she probably shouldn’t have elbowed him this hard) and she stands back up, feeling everyone’s gaze on her.

She’s used to it, it doesn’t bother her.

Nayeon slides her glasses up her nose.  

No. The only thing that bothers her is Jungyeon’s eyes on her.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

See, what Nayeon probably hates about herself is how she unconsciously cares for people way too much.

Now that the test started, instead of furiously scribbling down on her paper like more than half of the classroom is doing, she’s worrying about something-- someone she doesn’t even know, to say.

‘Focus Nayeon, focus…’ She desperatly tells herself. Her eyes shift from boring holes into the blackboard to her test paper. Yet, her sheet is mostly white.

She reads the essay question for what is probably the hundreth time, she understands it, she knows how to answer. She’s Im Nayeon afterall. But still, this… worry, manages to seep in.

‘Do not… Do not turn around do not--’

She does exactly what she tells herself not to, because she can’t help herself and does it not to check on Jihyo (Jihyo’s sitting at the front row, she got her revenge) but to check on Yoo Jungyeon.

Yes, Yoo Jungyeon.

Who would have thought Nayeon would worry this much about Jungyeon? Not her.

Dozens of questions swirl in her mind, will the girl know how to define the key words of the question? Will she know how to answer, even? Will she know that this essay is actually quite tricky, because the solution isn’t the hardest one but easier actually? Will she manage?

‘God, save yourself Nayeon’ She runs the thought in her mind like it’s an obligation, but her eyes do not leave her. Jungyeon’s scribbling something down the paper and it eases Nayeon a little.

“Im Nayeon,” The economy teacher’s stern voice resonates in the deadly quiet room.

“Face front.” He orders her and she immediatly turns around, ressembling to a deer caught in spotlights. Jihyo is looking at her strangely, and she knows she’ll later on go through something similar to a police interrogation.

Embarassment crawls up her pale neck. Looking back down to her paper, she sighs.

What… what the is she doing?

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The bell rings and everyone takes the chance of the comossion to ask around for answers, but the teacher starts to furiously snatch the papers away, threatening the students here and there.  Nayeon hands her sheet calmy and goes back to gather her belongings.

“How did you do?” Jihyo immediatly rushes to Nayeon’s desk after giving her paper to the teacher. Nayeon smiles to her the usual smile: it went pretty smoothly.

Jihyo nods, twice, and Nayeon knows that she did well too.

“But I won’t forgive you for not saving me a seat beside you!”

Nayeon smirks at her bestfriend, discreetly not listening to any single word she’s saying.

She’s just trying hard not to look at Jungyeon, who’s packing her bag hurriedly.

Now that the test is over, she wants to ask the girl how she did. Hey, Nayeon is kind of responsible of the girl’s grade on this one since she was the one who tutored her studying. It’d be a shame for her to fail it. They did study hard last time.

Well, study hard meaning Jungyeon asking dumb, basic questions and Nayeon worrying even more at the amount of work she’ll have to put in the girl for her to catch up.

“Earth to Nabongs!” Her bestfriend loudly calls beside her and Nayeon’s ears can only ring as a result.

She puts a hand on her temple. “I told you not to scream like this!”

“I wasn’t even screaming!”

“You were, you ing mic!”

“Was nooooot!”

They continue bickering like they always do while they walk toward the door to leave the classroom. Once there, Nayeon bumps shoulder with someone on her way out, turning to meet Jungyeon’s eyes again.

She bumped shoulders with Jungyeon. Ah, what a coincidence.

Jihyo stops talking altogether, which is surprising because the girl never really shuts up. Never.

“Hey,” Jungyeon smiles her way and oh God, will her heart ever stop behaving weirdly?

“H- Hey!”  Nayeon cracks out from her dry lips, running her tongue on them while she watches Jungyeon smiling down to her, shyly.

“How did you do?”

“I think I did well.” There’s obvious contentment in Jungyeon’s voice and Nayeon catches a dimple on her chin when her smile broadens.

That’s enough to rejoice Nayeon.

But Jihyo jumps in the conversation and ruins everything. “Well that’s a first!” She jokes, making Jungyeon turn to her, amusedly.

“Hey, I tried this time. Like you’re a genius yourself.”

The two smile at each other and, wait, have they been talking? How come Nayeon doesn’t know that Jihyo jokes around with Jungyeon?

“I’m glad!” She cheers, and both girls turn to her. She glances at Jungyeon’s eyes.

“Because I really wanted to check on you during the test and-” Nayeon stops from running any further when she feels Jihyo nudge her on her ribs. She glances at her bestfriend, who just sends her a weird look.

When she shifts her eyes to Jungyeon, she finds her staring long and confusedly at her face.

“That’s why you were facing the back?”

There’s a hint of surprise and playfullness in her voice. Oh . , she busted her.

“Well, I…” There’s a pause, but the taller girl is still staring at her. Nayeon’s getting clammy hands.

“I- Have to go! Gotta fetch the… little sister. Jihyo, come on.” She grabs Jihyo’s wrist and pulls her to power walk to the exit. Jihyo weakly protests and Nayeon doesn’t see the look Jungyeon gives the youngest of the three.

Once they round the corner, Nayeon leans on the wall.

“Okay Nabongs, what was that?” Jihyo asks her, breathless, and Nayeon eventally lets go of her wirst.

Truthfully, Nayeon herself doesn’t have a single clue of what happened. The only thing she knows is that she doesn’t like being the target of Jungyeon’s intense eyes. She doesn’t like it because… because she feels…

“I don’t know,” She tells her bestfriend, “But I don’t like it Jihyo, I don’t like it when she stares at me.” Nayeon speaks the truth that is on her mind. If there is really one person that she can trust in this world, it has to be Jihyo.

“Why?”

“Makes me feel weird.”

Frustration invades her whole being, but Jihyo puts a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Her eyes are warm and welcoming, like always. Plastering her back on the wall, Nayeon pouts.

“Alright Squirtle, let’s first go home.”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nayeon jumps on her bed, stuffing her face in her pillow.

She had no idea how second hand embarassment could last this long because she’s still feeling like crawling into a hole and never coming out of it again.

Tthe bed dips on her side and soon enough Jihyo is laying beside her, the girl’s long brown strands tickling her neck.

“Tell me,” She hears her say, “Why did you react so strangely?”

Her voice is soft and reassuring. Kind of like how the principle spoke to her when she entered the office two weeks ago. Nothing good came out of it.

“Well you tell me!” She exclaims as she turns around, back resting on the soft matress under her. They’re both facing the white ceiling, both thinking and brainstorming, she can feel it.

“Tell me what happened then.”

Nayeon is fast to answer. “Nothing happened.”

Which isn’t completely false because really, nothing happened. It’s just her thinking weird thoughts… Nothing new.

“I just don’t like when she looks at me because I get these… weird feelings and--”
 

“Where?”

“Uh?” Nayeon turns to Jihyo. She finds the girl frowning to the ceiling.

“What do you mean where?”

“Where do you get these weird feelings?” Jihyo makes quoting motions around the word weird. Her expression obviously shows that she has an idea of what Nayeon is going through, and that is good news because Nayeon has an idea too, but she just hopes they’re not agreeing on it.

For once, she hopes Jihyo beats her in her arguments.

“I think you might like her.” Jihyo tells her like she just realized it’s not a big deal, without even waiting for her to answer, and Nayeon instantly frowns.

Ouch.

“I- No what the .” SHe sits up, distressed. , there’s no whay she can actually like her. No way. She’s...

Jihyo moves and the bed squeaks a little. The younger girl turns to face her, supporting her chin with her hand.

“You look horrified.” The brunette chuckles. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the case.”

“Listen, you said this sentence twice and nothing good came out of it and- and I do not like her!”

Nayeon jumps up from her bed. What the is going through Jihyo’s head? That is not possible, Jungyeon isn’t… well she is kind of attractive but-- No, Nayeon, no.

‘Self control is the answer’ She tells herself while she rubs her temples, Jihyo laughing at her action.

Her bestfriend is not helping her. The thought of liking Jungyeon alone makes her frown and she doesn’t know what to do about the sudden agitation she is feeling.

When she grunts loudly, Jihyo collapses back on the bed in laughter. Her shoulders shake.

“Non,” Nayeon takes a french accent in the midst of her panick. Her french lessons are starting to pay off.

“Jihyo, have you been smoking pot with Minyoung behind my back lately? You’re not thinking straight.”

“What? No.” The younger girl screams in horror. “Stop trying to change the subject.”

Jihyo waves her hand dismissively. “Do you find Jungyeon attractive?” She asks and Nayeon feels her automatic defense mode switching on.

“No! Stop spitting nonesense already.” Nayeon completely turns away from her bestfriend.

When she does, there’s a silent pause. That’s when she realizes that her heart is beating fast.

Sitting down on her desk chair, she lets her head fall on the desk. While it hurts at first, she sulks through the pain and rejects whatever Jihyo is saying behind her.

“You like her!”

“No, ing, way!”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: Not sure how to feel 'bout that one