Nayeon is walking through the school’s garden again. It’s Friday today, and it’s exceptionally hot for a late spring afternoon. Or early summer? She doesn’t know anymore.

 

All she is doing is walking painfully slow, having no will to reach the library anytime soon. She just doesn’t want to meet Jungyeon, and she doesn’t want to deal with the girl for three hours. She definitely doesn’t have the strength to study, and she doesn’t, oh she doesn’t want Jihyo to about missing the drama anymore. But who is she kidding, of course her bestfriend will do it.

 

Yet here she is, walking toward the library, bag filled with lessons to help Jungyeon with.

 

She sighs.

 

It’s not so much of a bother to tutor someone (even though she’s missing her drama), but it’s more about the person that she is tutoring. To an outsider, it probably seems that she’s making a big deal out of it. But deep inside she feels somewhat... burdened, even though she doesn't exactly know why.

 

In the end, it’s just Jungyeon, and her, thinking too much about the situation. Nayeon has a habit of thinking too deep into dumb things such as right now, thinking too deep into what Jihyo told her last Tuesday.

 

“Chill,” She tells herself as she takes off her glasses to wipe the dust away with her uniform shirt. She has yet to process whatever Jihyo said.

 

A hand falls on her shoulder, and she gets a heavy sense of déjà-vu at the scene. She turns around, and Jungyeon is there beside her with a small smile on her face. Her insides churn.

Though Nayeon can’t really see her clearly because her glasses are still in her hands.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Ah- Hey!” She smiles back and fumbles with her glasses while trying to put them back on hurriedly.

 

What Jihyo told her a few days ago starts ringing her head more than when she was in the shower this morning and it makes her unable to put on her glasses straight.

 

Just thinking about the word straight sends her in a frenzy. She is straight, for all she knows. Ah, there she goes, overthinking again.

 

“Let me help,” Jungyeon steps in front of her, taking the glasses away from her hands. They both stop moving and then, the taller girl slips the spectacles behind her ears, settling them on her nose, ever so gently. When Nayeon blinks, she sees Jungyeon crystal clear standing in front of her. And that's not really a good thing.

 

A blush runs up to her cheeks. She considers fleeing the scene, just running away from here, but then she remembers what happened last week after the exam and… boy, did she make a fool out of herself that day.

 

“T- Thanks.”

 

“No problem.” Jungyeon turns around and continues walking to the library, while Nayeon just stands there, watching her back. What had she comitted in her past life to deserve this?

 

“... Hey! Wait up!” She calls out, Jungyeon does as she asks, and when Nayeon reaches her, she gives her an embarassed smile.

 

“Have you always had these teeth?” The taller girl suddenly asks her, and Nayeon furiously blinks as she covers her smile with a hand.

 

“Ah, I’m not very confident about my smile…”

 

“Why? Jungyeon comments, eyes trailing on said part of Nayeon’s face. "It’s cute.”

 

The latter feels herself burning under the bright sun and she starts walking to hide her embarassed cheeks. Every thought she previously had flies off into the blue sky as they start to chat, about random things (“I remember when you fell down on Jooheon in p.e last year--” “Shut up!”) and it’s oddly comfortable. Sure, she talked to Jungyeon over the past year and this one, but not to this extent. The taller is actually quite friendly and, surprisingly, shy about herself.

So as of now, Nayeon thinks, everything is all good.

 

However the only thing Nayeon has no control over is when Jungyeon looks at her, her organs do weird things. Really weird things… like jumping around and freezing up even when it's above tweny degrees inside the library.

 

But of course, that’s definitely not because she likes her, like Jihyo told her. Definitely not.

 

The young librarian (Yubin, she learned from Dahyun, the detective of the school) comes to greet Jungyeon at their table. Nayeon notices the librarian’s blinding, perfectly aligned teeth.

 

Then , Jungyeon smiles and a chin appears on her chin. Nayeon wonders why she didn’t notice it before, because it’s… really cute. Totally different from her usual blank face.

 

“Nayeon?”

 

“Hm?” She tilts her head up at Jungyeon’s call. The taller girl is staring at her. Blood rushes to her cheeks faster than when Momo grabs near-by food, and that’s just how lightning fast it is.

 

“You okay?” Jungyeon's face remains still but her eyes reflect slight concern.

 

“Sorry, I’m just a little tired.” Nayeon feels guilty, somehow, because she should be less lost in her thoughts and more invested in the books. At least, she should do her work correctly.

 

“It’s fine,” Jungyeon smiles.  “We could always, you know, not stud--”
 

“Nice try, but no.” She cuts her before the taller girl finishes; making Jungyeon groan.   

 

“What do you need help with?”

 

“Uh… No exams any soon right?”

 

“Nope.” Truthfully, Nayeon doesn’t see the point in tutoring Jungyeon at the moment. They’re still relatively early in the year and… maybe they should go over what they did so far this year? Previous tests that Jungyeon failed perharps?

 

“Then… I don’t know, how does one study when there’s no test?”

 

Jungyeon sits back in her chair and Nayeon breaks into a small laugh. Seeing genuine confusion on Jungyeon’s face somehow looks funny, and now that the taller girl is pouting Nayeon tries hard not to show her amusement above silent giggles since they’re in the library.

 

“What? I’m serious!” Jungyeon tops it with a louder voice, making the wrinkled librarian shake an angry finger at them, but they both ignore her.

 

She's suddenly too busy watching how, in the midst of her laughter, Jungyeon’s lips twitch upwards.

 

“Ah, seriously funny.” She unconsciously comments when she starts to calm down, missing Jungyeon’s grin. But she has to admit, even she doesn’t really want to study.

 

“Alright alright, let’s get some work done.”

 

Adjusting her glasses back on place, she pushes the history book toward Jungyeon. The taller girl’s smile falters as soon as she reads the inscription of the object.

 

“Seriously? History? On this hot, beautiful afternoon?” Her arms shoot up to highlight her speech.

 

“Shhh!” The old lady hisses and Jungyeon makes her a face.

Nayeon amusedly stares at her when Jungyeon catches her eyes and yet again breaks into a grin.

 

“Listen, why stay locked in here for four hours when we could, I don’t know, hang out? Or just do something else!”

 

Nayeon’s ears perk up at the words. Hang out? What… Where did that come from?

 

“Hang out?” She asks, incredous, with a higher pitched voice than necessary.

 

“Yeah. Truthfully, I’m curious about you.”

 

Jungyeon's eyes shift to bore into her own and, Nayeon suddenly wonders, where is that discussion going?

 

“Uh, s- sure.” Nayeon answers. " I- I mean there isn't a lot to know about me," She bets her whole inexistent fortune that Jungyeon is probably just teasing her or something, judging from the small smile ardoring her lips. The worst thing is that it is working.

 

“How about,” Jungyeon starts, putting her chin on her palm and looking up in wonder.

 

Nayeon feels that what’s coming isn’t any good. Surely, anything coming from Jungyeon means trouble. Afterall, her fame as troublemaker doesn't come from nothing. She scrunches her nose in apprehension and the taller girl sees it but nevertheless, Jungyeon goes on.

 

“How about we play twenty questions?”

 

Nayeon stares in surprise. What is she, a boy or something? That did the trick, if Jungyeon wanted to catch her off guard or something.

 

“You had it all planned out didn’t you?”

 

“I can’t possibly focus to study and you know it.” Jungyeon nods to herself, convincing Nayeon more than it should.

It’s a fact that today isn’t really a day to study. Jungyeon's grades have been rising a little, ever since she started helping her study; plus, it wouldn’t be bad, right? Harmless questions between two classmates to spend time, as a break; right?

 

“So?” The taller girl urges and, Nayeon sighs and nods in agreement.

 

“I’ll start.” Jungyeon sits up. “So, hm…” She ruffles her short hair in reflexion. It takes a lot of willpower for Nayeon to nervously gulp away the weird thoughts she has out of her system.

 

“Tell me, how many siblings?” That’s it? She thinks. Yoo Jungyeon, out of all people, asks her how many siblings she has? Isn’t twenty questions supposed to be a… risqué game?

 

Nayeon does feels relieved but, really, the girl is actually a lot tamer than what she appears to be.

 

“None,” She answers, eyes running over Jungyeon’s features. Fine and delicate. Nayeon always like fine and delicate things.

 

“Hey but, didn’t you say you had a little sister?” Jungyeon looks sincerly troubled.

 

‘’ Nayeon thinks. She should’ve put more thoughts into what she would answer. Lying has never been her forte as she either gives herself away by smiling too much or saying unnecessary details.

 

Right now, it's both. “Jihyo’s sister, I went to fetch Jihyo’s sister with her!” She lies again, and Jungyeon nods confidently.

 

She feels relieved now that Jungyeon bought her answer.

If there is really someone to blame, it's Jihyo. Her bestfriend left her looking as dumb as a fish back when she said that.

 

“My turn.” She puts a pensive finger on her lips. “My question is,” She purposely places a pause to make things a little more interesting. Or really, she’s just bying time to think becayse Jungyeon is pushing that sharp look on her again and it's destabilizing her.

 

"Oh! I know." She smiles happily, having found something. It's pretty dumb, really, but that's better than nothing at least. "When did you cut your hair?"

 

“Hm… remember when I first cut them last year?” Jungyeon asks but Nayeon doesn’t really-- Oh yeah she remembers. It was cute.

 

“I wanted it shorter actually. So I cut them during summer break." She shrugs, before facing back Nayeon. "Do you like it?”

 

The question catches her off guard, and Nayeon realizes that it's all that Jungyeon has been doing to her lately. Catch her off guard. A strange glint swirls in Jungyeon’s eyes when she meets them.

 

“Is that your second question?” Nayeon asks with faux assurance, when in reality she sits back in her seat to find a comfortable position, because she definitely isn’t.

“Yep.” The taller girl grins.

 

Her heart jumps at the sight, and boy, this is going to be a long afternoon.

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Nayeon her spoon pensively, watching the scenery outside. Everyone is wearing hats and sunglasses as the sun is shining hard.

 

She’s with Jihyo and Momo, the latter too busy hastily her melted ice cream to care about whatever Jihyo is rambling about; letting whines whenever it dripped on the cone.

 

A blur for crowd flashes by the window and Nayeon is happy she’s just sitting here and enjoying her highschool life while it lasts.

 

“And honestly I’d kill to have a lover like in the drama.” Jihyo finishes, finally realizing the most important. “Hey! You guys aren’t even listening!”

 

“Huh?” Momo springs up and Nayeon looks back inside the coffee shop.

 

Usually she would be knee deep interested into drama talks and actors and all that stuff, but it seems like she can’t really focus lately.

 

“Like, Momo? I understand, she’s too gay for her own good.”

 

“Hey!”

 

“- But Nayeon?” Jihyo turns to her with a reproachful look. Her bestfriend frowns at the fact that she let her talk to no one for at least ten minutes.

 

“I’m not that gay! Listen --”

 

“Sorry Jihyo,” Nayeon slaps her palm on Momo’s mouth. What is the point of listening to her trying to defend her lost cause?

 

“I’m a little unfocused lately.” She feels something wet on her palm before she finishes her sentence and it sends chills on her whole back. Grossed out chills.

 

“Ew Moguri! What the hell! Nayeon takes off her hand in a scream. She stares wide eyed at her friend. "Give me a tissue!”

 

Jihyo cackles in front of her while Momo keeps a steady hold on her ice cream, not at all ashamed of what she just did.

The commotion rises attention all around the coffee shop but of course they’re forgiven, because they’re just teenagers.

 

“God this is disgusting.” Nayeon mutters while wiping her hand, glaring when she raises her head to see her friends. On one side, there’s Momo, who looks like she has no business with her anger at all; and on the other, there’s her bestfriend holding back a laugh bubbling up .

She'd love to strangle both, if only it weren't forbidden in the law.

 

 

“You kept me away from eating, I had to do something.”
 

“You pig."

 

Momo yelps. “What did you say?!”

 

“Hey, tone it down will ya,” Jihyo interrupts the exchange with a raised hand before it gets too violent.

It’s actually just Nayeon getting pissed and Momo discarding her for the treat in her plate; like usual.

Momo’s ice cream long gone, the girl shifts to the pastry she ordered. Nayeon suddenly thinks that she should just dump the girl’s face in the plate.

 

“Now, Nayeon.” Jihyo calls her, wiggling her eyebrows.

 

She catches mischeviousness in her eyes. Immediatly, Nayeon otps for making new friends. Calmer, and nicer new friends. Like Mina for example.

 

“Tell me about yesterday.” Her bestfriend spoons a bit of her green tea ice cream.

 

“Yesterday?”

 

“Uh, hello? Didn’t you have a study session?” Nayeon snorts at Jihyo's 'are you dumb' face.

 

She considers not telling them that they played twenty question and chatted a lot more than actually study, since that would bring her in one hell of a mess. In the end, she chooses not to lie, because she'll get busted anyways.

“Me and Jungyeon didn’t really study actually. We talked,” She says and the youngest of them all gasps in surprise at her answer. But before Nayeon could slap her dumb face, she hears a struggling sound coming from her right.

 

They both turns to Momo, who looks like she just got her soul into oblivion.

 

Despite the -her-palm disgusting event, Nayeon still worriedly pats a hand on Momo’s shoulder, despite holding back a laugh. She has to admit that Momo’s face never carried any form of seriousness.

 

“Are you okay?”

 

Jihyo snorts. “Is the food too good to handle?”

 

Momo struggles to chew and swallow whatever the hell that was in , and surprisingly turns to Nayeon with wide eyes.

 

“Jungyeon as in, Yoo Jungyeon?” Panick swirls in the blonde's eyes. Nayeon frowns.

 

“Yeah, she’s in our class.” She blinks in confusion, and Jihyo does the same. “You know her?”

 

“I- No, I just… H- Hey Jihyo are you going to eat this?”

 

“If you touch my plate, I’ll kill you.” Jihyo forgets about the topic as she warns Momo while slapping the girl’s wandering hand back to place. "That's mine."

 

Nayeon chuckles but really, Momo isn’t that great at topic-avoiding. Plus, could she really know Yoo Jungyeon? Momo is in a different highschool, which means it’s unlikely for them to meet and… and... Nayeon is over thinking again.

 

“Nevermind this here.” Jihyo tiredly points to Momo, who counter attacks with a whine.

 

Trust Jihyo to always be excited about random stories, who asks Nayeon to go on and tail her every detail about what happened yesterday.

 

Nayeon scratches her nose embarassingly. Could she really say they played twenty questions though? Because it sounds oddly… out of place.

 

“You played some game didn’t you.”

 

“H- How do you-- I swear Jihyo if you have a mind reading ability you’re not hiding it well!”

 

Jihyo laughs out loud at her remarque. “You’re so easy to figure out Nayeon.”

 

If she isn’t mistaken, Momo nods by her side. So the girl is actually listening to their conversation.

 

“Shut up you both.”

 

“I didn’t say anything.”

 

“Are you picking a fight with me?”

 

“Anyways!” Jihyo slams her palm on the table to get back her friends’ attention.

 

“Nayeon, come on, what did you play?”

 

It's hard, but she somehow manages to muster up the following words away from her lips. Cold sweat breaks on her forehead.

 

“We played 20 questions.” She says as quietly as possible, but still, Jihyo succeeds to, somehow, stumble in her chair and Momo chokes on her food, again.

 

She looked over the others customers of the café with shame. Nayeon is sure that she is getting more than just twenty questions from her friends after this.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“She really asked you that?”

 

After a while of silent listening (filled with some oohs and ahhs) Jihyo finally speaks up and wow, Nayeon managed to make her shut up for more than five minutes.

Momo seems to have dozed off somewhere in between the 5th and the 9th question.

 

The brunette is now in her full i’m-unable-to-reach-too-far-in-thoughts mode so it is be better to leave her alone.

 

“Well yeah, but… that doesn’t mean anything.” Nayeon is convinced. “Right?”

 

“Looks like you want it to mean something~”

 

Nayeon scoffs. “Definitely not!” From the corner of her eyes, Momo rises up from having her head in her arms.

 

“I’m sleepy, I want to go home.” The blonde mutters with a frowny face.

 

Jihyo starts eating her ice cream faster. “Ah, already?”

 

“Hm.” Momo springs up her chair. “Let’s go.”

 

Nayeon stands up, staring at her friend. She has her face down and her bangs cover her eyes. Jihyo frowns at the girl. Is she really that tired?

 

“Alright.” The youngest trudges forward and Momo follows her suit. Nayeon’s the one trailing behind. What could have made Momo feel like going home? Something they said earlier? Nayeon blinks in realization.

She has a hunch, but she just hopes she’s wrong about what she’s thinking.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: Ahhhhh this one is longer than i wanted it to be. Remember to leave a comment about your pov about this! Thanks