They had always been close.

______ and Irene, that is. They'd met in elementary school, where both of them were shy and quiet on the first day, unfamiliar with the other kids.

They had become awkward friends. They were paired together often since none of the other kids-especially the boys-could stand all that awkward silence, but they could, with each other. They spent a lot of time together at school, and even more when they found out they were neighbors.

The school was small, and ______ had quickly become accustomed to the others and opened up, talking to other kids at recess and playing with them.

She never abandoned Irene, however, at least not for long. The two would eat together every day, regardless if ______ ran off later to play with other kids or not. Sometimes, they would spend hours sitting under a tree and just reading beside each other.

It wasn't as if they didn't talk, though. No, Irene warmed up quickly to ______ and they had long conversations about puppies and stuffed animals and fairies and all of the things little seven year old girls talked about. And if they hadn't talked the whole day at school, ______ would go over to Irene's house and they would talk for an uncharacteristically long time.

Slowly, Irene warmed up too, and they talked to other kids and had other friends, but they never left each other's side. They were close to their little circle of friends, but no two girls were closer to each other than they were.

"______?" Irene found her best friend sitting under a tree again, book in hand, completely oblivious to her surroundings.

______ liked fantasy books. They seemed to take her to another world, take her mind off of real life even just for a few hours.

"C'mon, class is almost starting." Irene held out her hand and ______ took it, standing up. She let go as she threw her backpack over her shoulder and hugged her book to her chest.

Their relationship had gotten a little awkward these past few years. ______ couldn't place it, but she was more and more bothered by her friendship. It didn't...feel right.

Maybe it was cause Irene was always the pretty one, the beautiful and shy one that people wanted to get to know because she was mysterious. Her beauty had really shown itself in middle school, and now in high school, she was popular even without being social. ______ on the other hand was the mediocre one. Athletic, but not extremely so. Exceptionally smart, but not the highest grades in the class. Had a great personality and could be social at times, but wasn't popular and liked to be alone occasionally. Cute, but not pretty with her acne scars and the t-shirt-and-jeans fashion sense that she didn't care much about.

Maybe that's why boys kept asking Irene out. And out of sheer politeness and an inability to reject people, Irene had said yes to a few over the years to try it out before they eventually broke up, often since Irene didn't talk much or socialize with boys a lot.

"______? Are you okay? You seem distracted." Irene asked as they walked toward the classrooms, though the bell hadn't rung yet.

______ nodded, but she wasn't, not really. She hadn't talked to Irene a ton since she got her new boyfriend, Park Bogum. He was admittedly very handsome, but ______ didn't like being an awkward third wheel, so she always gave Irene a lot of space when she went out on dates.

She probably hung out with Irene's sister Taeyeon and her girlfriend Tiffany more often than Irene nowadays. The couple waved to her when they saw her in the halls and if ______ went over to Taeyeon and Irene's house while Irene was on a last minute date or had something else she didn't know about(which was rare, except for when Irene had a boyfriend), Taeyeon would invite ______ in and they'd watch a movie or talk about life and Taeyeon would rant about her girlfriend and how much she loved her. ______ would smile and they'd invite Tiffany over and watch another movie.

They talked about Irene a lot too, since something or another would always remind ______ of the older girl and she'd tell Taeyeon and Tiffany a story about how one time at school in elementary school, Irene did something cute, or funny, or showed a side to her that no one except ______ really understood. The couple would smile at her and ruffle her hair and share glances, but ______ never really understood what they seemed to say with their eyes.

______ waved to the two as she and Irene passed them just as the bell rang and Tiffany gave her a random quick hug before hurrying off with her girlfriend.

Irene didn't comment though as they calmly walked into their classroom.

The teacher had the class rankings posted up, and there was a small crowd around the whiteboard among the more competitive or the more borderline ranking kids.

______ and Irene didn't even try. They were only about 160 cm tall, Irene even shorter. They wouldn't be able to see anything anyways.

As expected though, ______ was 4th place and Irene was 9th out of 32 kids.

The two high fived, glad to be in the top ten, though technically a third of the class was. After that, the teacher came in and class started.

At lunch, Bogum came to either Irene to the table where his friends sat or sit with their friends at her and Irene's table. ______ slipped off quickly before Irene could answer, grabbing her lunch and heading outside.

Few of the kids ever ate outside, besides those that could drive and chose to drive to a nearby store instead. ______ climbed into a tree, what she liked to call her tree since she always sat there, and ate her lunch, book in between three branches that held the pages open(it's that discovery that made her choose this tree), and her back against a large branch, eating her lunch alone. She didn't do it often, just when she wanted to avoid people.

Who was she avoiding anyways? She wondered, leaning back against the branch and giving up on reading for a bit.

She suddenly remembered what Taeyeon and Tiffany had said to her a few days ago at one of their movie sessions. Silence had crept over them as the movie ended and unbeknownst to ______, Tiffany was looking at her. ______ let out a long breath, wishing Irene was there. They were watching Harry Potter, one of  ______'s favorite movies, and she had discussed the series at length with Irene when they had first finished the books.

"You like her, don't you?" Tiffany had asked quietly.

"W-what? Who?"

"My sister," Taeyeon said, taking her arm from around her girlfriend so that she could scoot closer to the younger girl.

"N-no...I don't like anybody," ______ insisted. "I'm just...me. Forever alone. And I like it like that." She gave a small smile to the couple.

"______..." Tiffany sighed. "You avoid her when she has a boyfriend. You're best friends but you rarely talk nowadays. You know everything about her, you talk about her all the time, and you have other friends but she's always been the closest." Tiffany left the rest unsaid.

The older girls saw that ______ had a troubled, confused, frown on her face. Did she really like
Irene? Did she really even like girls?

Seeing her difficulty, Taeyeon sighed and pulled ______'s head to lay on her shoulder and the three sat there for a while until ______ fell asleep and Tiffany called first her own, and then ______'s parents to tell them that they'd be staying over at Taeyeon's place.

______ slipped out of Taeyeon's room in the morning before Irene knew ______ was even there.

Since that day, ______ had tried to avoid Irene as much as possible. And now here she was, eating by herself instead of in the cafeteria with their other friends just in case she and Bogum sat there that day. It was easier to think about them if Irene wasn't there to remind her how much she lov-

No, not love, just cared for her.

Because ______ was sure Irene was straight.

And if she had to convince herself that she didn't love Irene for them to stay friends...

Then she would.