"BAE YOO BIN. WHERE WERE YOU?"

Binnie tried to protect herself as her friends started to scold her.

"HYOJUNG THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT," JinE attacked. "IT WAS YOUR TURN TO CHECK ON HER."

"MY FAULT!?" Hyojung said defensively. "I was just-!"

"YOU were just checking on your favorite daughter, Arin!!!" 

Hyojung gasped. Binnie looked over to where Arin sat. Poor Arin had her head tucked away too and only came out of her shell to give Binnie an apologetic look.

"Can you guys just quit it!?" Binnie snapped. The two older friends had paused their bickering and turned to shoot nasty glares at their younger friend. Binnie immediately shrank back. Sighing, Hyojung backed down.

"Alright, alright, I'm sorry, "Hyojung apologized sweetly. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"N-Not in front of the kids!" JinE said blushing, but did nothing to stop her. The two stood wrapped in each others arms, giggling. Binnie wasn't sure which was worse, their overprotective-mom-side or their lovey-dovey-girlfriend side.

Making sure to tread carefully and taking advantage of the happy mood, Binnie inserted casually:

"I'm kinda going out this weekend."

She tried to ignore the fact that her voice grew smaller and smaller. But of course, they picked up every word and even Arin moved to where she sat.

"That's so nice that you actually have plans, sweetie," Hyojung said sympathetically, "But-"

"You're grounded," JinE said firmly. Binnie's head drooped. How would she tell Jiho? During their first class, Jiho actually had the guts to sit next to her. Binnie wondered why she had never been so alert in class before.

"Can't you let her off this once?" Arin asked meekly. The three girls stared at her. Binnie's heart warmed at their youngest trying to save her but she knew it wouldn't work. It could work on lenient daddy Hyojung but not on the strict-as-hell mom JinE.

Binnie watched as Hyojung sweated nervously. She could see the symptoms of wanting to give in. Sweaty palms, check. Shaky eyeballs, check. Lip-biting, check.

"Please, Hyojung!?" Hyojung gasped as Arin held her hand tightly. Hyojung turned to JinE who looked like she would strangle Hyojung a million times over if she decided to make a wrong move. Turning pale, Hyojung tried to avert her eyes from the pleading Arin and stammered:

"G-Gosh, sweetie. You know your mom only wants the best for you both." Binnie felt really bad for Hyojung but was totally hoping that Arin would push through. Arin swiftly changed tactics.

"JinE, ple-"

"Nope, not gonna hear it," JinE said, shaking her head stubbornly.

"Just-"

"NOPE."

Arin dropped her head and Binnie's hopes fell. Arin snapped her head back once more and with the best puppy eyes she could muster she cried:

"MOM, PWEEEEEEEEASE~!!!!" 

Everybody's jaw dropped. Combining aegyo with JinE's favorite name to be called, Arin had successfully delivered a massive blow to JinE's thick, impenetrable walls of strict parenting.

"I-I-" JinE stammered. Having no words she shook her head and decided to just pick Arin up and swing her around, her face full of bliss. For a not-so-tall girl, JinE was quite strong. With one last squeeze, JinE finally released Arin. Coughing once, she calmed down and regained her composure.

"Since you asked so nicely, I'll allow you to give me the full report of Binnie's plan. Collect all the details and submit it to me by sundown. Who is she with? Where is she going? What time until what time? What will they eat? What's her budget? You know, basic stuff," JinE said, with a wave of her hand.

"Basic?" Binnie thought. She felt extremely tired just listening. And where would Arin get all that information?

"Oh and most importantly, Arin..."

Bending down, she whispered in Arin's ear, too soft for Binnie or Hyojung to hear despite their strained ears. Arin nodded seriously. As soon as JinE gave her the go signal, she dashed off to meet the requirements. Following the back that was disappearing quickly, Binnie felt extremely touched by her friend's thoughtfulness. She felt completely at ease. She began to drift off to what would happen this weekend. JinE's voice snapped her back to reality.

"Weekend, right?" JinE hummed. Binnie nodded quickly, not letting her chance to go out be screwed up in any way.

"That's good. We don't have any family activities on weekends. Five days a week is better than two, right Hyejinnie~~?" Hyojung cooed to JinE. JinE blushed once again and pushed her away.

"We've got things to do, so go have your lunch without us," JinE said. "Eat healthy." With one last wave, she and Hyojung were gone.

Binnie liked being alone but she was also anxious of eating by herself, surrounded by other people. Packing up, she decided to just skip lunch. Treading heavily in the corridor, Binnie sighed. Suddenly, she bumped into  someone.

"I-I'm sorry..." Binnie mumbled, surprised. Her eyes widened but she was too afraid to look up.

"Woah, dude!" The familiar voice made Binnie raise her guard up for some reason. Finally daring to look up, she felt overwhelmed as Mimi stood in front of her.

"It's John Cenaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Seunghee hollered. Mimi doubled over with laughter and Seunghee laughed loudly, slapping her knee. Ignoring them, Binnie tried to see who their other companion was. Binnie was a little disappointed to find out it was not Jiho. Not that disappointed. It wasn't like Binnie was looking forward to seeing Jiho or anything. Binnie focused on the new girl.

"You know her?" the unfamiliar girl asked. She was cute and kind of reminded Binnie of that cute pokemon. Poliwag, was it? Yeah, really cute.

"Yeah, it's Jo-" Seunghee began but Binnie immediately cut her off.

"Binnie." The girl seemed used to the two goofballs and their antics so she just focused on Binnie.

"Oh, Binnie? That's interesting..." she trailed off. She seemed to understand something unknown to Binnie which made her curious. But before she could say anything, the girl introduced herself as YooA. Binnie didn't back down though.

"What's interesting?" Binnie asked. She peered curiously at Poliwag, uhm wait no, YooA. YooA merely shook her head.

"Would you like to eat lunch with us?" YooA asked pleasantly.

Binnie thought about it carefully. Where would she be better off? Eating alone or eating with two lunatics and a pretty okay person? Binnie had to think hard. Really hard...

"So Binnie, you're in the same class as Jiho, right?" YooA asked, sitting in front of her.

"Uhm, yeah," Binnie replied weakly. She was stuck sitting next to Seunghee who was making funny expressions at Mimi across the table.

"Although," Binnie continued, "I never really met her until yesterday... or this morning, I guess," Binnie mumbled.

"What do you mean by this morning?" YooA asked, squinting her eyes.

"What?" Binnie blinked.

"Mimi didn't come back to our room this morning so I was wondering... just what was she doing?"

YooA smiled sweetly but Binnie noticed Mimi freeze next to her. Mimi tried opening , probably to stop Binnie, but she just let out a short yelp. Binnie could almost see YooA's hand pinching Mimi under the table.

"We were just-!" Seunghee tried to explain but she just got a face full of YooA's lunch. Binnie stared, wide-eyed.

"Okay, I'll just shut up then," Seunghee mumbled, face still plastered to the plate full of food.

"I'm not safe. THEY'RE ALL CRAZY." Binnie felt a droplets of sweat form on her forehead as YooA continued to smile, staring intently at her. 

"Okay, if I just tell the truth I think we'll all be fine," Binnie thought. She glanced at Mimi who seemed close to tears. Binnie had better explain fast.

"Uhm... you see..." Binnie mumbled.

"Mm?" YooA hummed. "I can't really hear you so could you please speak u-"

"UHM, OKAY SO LIKE I WENT OUT FOR A WALK AT LIKE 3 AM AND THEN SUDDENLY I WAS INSIDE THIS SACK. THERE WAS LOTS OF LAUGHING AND DABBING AND I SOMEHOW GOT TIED TO A CHRISTMAS TREE. LOTS OF BEER BUT IT'S OKAY THE CANS WERE EMPTY AND LIKE THERE WERE . TECHNICALLY IT WAS JUST THE FOUR OF US AND UHM MY NAME IS NOT JOHN CENA." Binnie finished by breathing in deeply and holding it in. She looked like a pufferfish but she didn't really care. She just hoped that explanation was good enough for YooA.

YooA nodded her head, deep in thought. Mimi finally breathed out.

BANG!

Binnie watched, horrified, as YooA slammed Mimi's face on the table. Binnie flinched as she snapped her head up but she just turned to Seunghee.

"Don't bother," Seunghee said, raising her hands up. And with that, she slammed her own face on the table just as hard. YooA then got a hold of Mimi's ears and dragged her up so Seunghee apparently saw that as a go signal and jumped up and placed her ear in YooA's other hand. Once in place she waved goodbye to Binnie. 

"Binnie."

Binnie stood up straight as YooA called her name. It took a lot of willpower not to do a salute as well.

"It was nice meeting you~! I hope we'll get to talk properly next time~" YooA smiled, dragging away the two sorry looking goofballs who were still trying their best to laugh.

Binnie was left all alone on the table with a ton of eyes staring at her and the mess the three had left behind. She plopped down with a sigh.

Was it really okay to hang out with Jiho?