The wail of the bell sounded just as Joohyun turned the corner of Montague Street, where Mondale Secondary stood, towering to it’s students like a prison. Somewhere in her head, Joohyun felt a small voice yelling at her to run so that she’d make the already closing gate, but her legs told her otherwise.

Then waking up for breakfast would have been pointless.

Two minutes later, and probably slower then was necessary, she reached the locked gate and met eye to eye with her classmate and deputy head-prefect. Neither budged for a while.

“You don’t even try anymore, do you?” He eventually frowned at her with a sigh from the other side of the gate, now beginning to fish his gate key from his pocket.

She looked down at his keys and gave a playful smirk. “Do you feel like a prison warden when you do that?”

“No.”

“Pedo, then?” His glare couldn’t have come sooner.

He swung the gate open with quite the force. “Just get in line.”

Joohyun looked to the side to see one other latecomer standing, waiting to be grouped up to be lead to the principle’s office. He must have been a freshman based on how regretful he looked for coming late.

“No, thanks.” She spoke, brushing right past both of them.

“Hey! Hey, Joohyun! Do you really want to get in more trouble?”

“ off, Joonmyun. I know where the principle’s office is.”

Fifteen minutes later, she stood before another frowning man.

“Really? You’re late to my office for being late?”

“I…” She trailed off, dark eyes roaming the room she knew all too well. She bothered a glance to the other latecomers, who looked bored to their skulls, save the freshman from earlier. Clearly, the old man had already given his ‘don’t be late again‘ speech. She returned her gaze to principle Cho. “.. Was in the bathroom; had an emergency. Hey, that award is new. You been to another workshop over the weekend or something?”

She didn’t look, but she could feel the gawks of the other students in the office.

“I don’t have time for this.” Principal Cho shook his head with a heavy sigh, then he turned a stern gaze at the whole group. “You’re all scheduled for detention. If this is your second incident, then tomorrow as well. If its your third, your parents will be called in and you get to visit the Disciplinary Court. And you..” He looked at Joohyun in plain dislike. “Just get to class. All of you. I’m supposed to be praising my top seniors in five minutes, and I have to find my smile.”

The group couldn’t have left sooner.

Joohyun, however, took a seat on one of the blue-covered chairs before the aged man’s desk, looking at him expectantly.

“Get to class, Bae.” He nearly growled.

“But you just said you wanted to praise me.” She responded innocently.

Principal Cho opened his mouth to speak - or shout - before his previous words came back to him. With a frown, he began to search through the papers on his desk, and when he found the desired sheet, he groaned almost painfully.

“You’re a top achiever.”He stated, looking defeated.

“So,” she smiled sweetly, “how was your weekend?

 

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"What?? They're back together again?"

"I keep telling you," Joohyun paused chewing her lunch long enough to scold, ”stop following those rumors on your phone."

The girl sitting beside during their lunch break poutingly placed her phone on the clear-white table.

"You just don't want me finding out you were at that party." She threw her childish accusation.

"Jesus, Sooyoung." Joohyun threw her fork down in exasperation, turning to look the girl in the eye. "I was not at that party! How many times do I have to tell you that? It was Oh Sehun's party, for crying out loud - you know I hate him."

"Then where were you?"

Joohyun sighed, slowly reaching for her fork once more. "Again, I told you. I left your place, went to Sir Smooth for half an hour, and then I went home. Jongin, tell her."

The dark-haired boy sitting opposite the two girls lifted his nose from his phone to nod. "She's good for it. My shift ended at nine that night. Like every night."

With that, he returned his attention to his phone, Joohyun to her lunch, and Sooyoung to her doubts. Eventually the girl exhaled, dropping her chin into her upturned hands.

"Then I guess I'll never know who this mystery girl is."

"Why exactly do you need to know, pray tell." Joohyun cocked an eyebrow the freshman's way.

"Because!" She whined in irritation, as if this knowledge should have been well known. "She kissed Oh Sehun at that party! That's why he and Hyemin broke up. But now they're back together again and I need to know why!"

Joohyun observed her young friend with fleeting interest. Had she been this peppy as a freshman? She doubted it.

Sooyoung's phone beeped it's cute beep, and the girl squealed her cute squeal. It took her three seconds to read the message before it had her squealing again.

"They found someone who might be her!" She raced through her sentence, already busy collecting her bag and leftover lunch. "I'll see you guys later, if not, then know that something happened."

And she was off.

Joohyun raised a hand to scratch the back of her neck. "No matter how many times I tell her how much if a he is, she still runs after Sehun like a fan to her idol."

"It's not rare to dote on the most popular guy in school." Jongin murmured without looking up. "But Joo; you kissed Sehun?"

Joohyun's gaze rose to the cafeteria's ceiling. "Now that I think about it, it could be."

Jongin shook his head. "Be careful; I know you're trying to protect Sooyoung, but eventually she's going to figure out you're lying to her."

"Yeah yeah." She murmured as she began getting up as well.

"By the way," he spoke again as she turned to leave, this time looking up, "Sehun's been trying to talk to you."

"Yeah, I know- wait, how do you know? I thought you two don't talk." 

"We don't. We greet and that's it."

"Well," she shrugged as she began walking away, "now I know why. One kiss and he thinks we're on speaking terms."

"Sometimes a kiss is all you need." He called after her.

She shook her head as she strolled off, choosing not to reply.

We're not living in a Disney movie.

 

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"Joo, we need to talk."

"Like hell we do." Joohyun muttered as she walked past her ex and through the school's parking lot. On a good day, she hated Sehun's guts, but she had just come out of an hour of dead-boring detention, and Sehun was just an insult to her relief of leaving.

"Joohyun," the male began as he sped after her form, his light brown hair blowing in the afternoon breeze, but she turned and cut in before he could finish.

"What the hell, Oh." Although she was way shorter than him, her glare could make anyone feel small. "You think cause we kissed - what, three weeks ago that we're magically ok now?"

A few passing students paused for a second to spare a glance their way, but hardly for a second. It wasn't uncommon to see Oh Sehun and Bar Joohyun throwing curse-filled sentences at each other every other week. This was just part of their usual school drama.

Sehun's expression was nervous at best, which surprised her. For the past few years that led to their senior year, Oh Sehun had been nothing short of the epitome of cool. Nothing phased him, he wanted for nothing as the school laid everything before his feet.

And yet here he was.

But Joohyun didn't care. She'd trained herself to be unphased by the snarky royalty of her student body. Especially Sehun. He was a special kind of idiot, and she dedicated her days to avoid him.

"Joo, please. Just listen to me." He started out slowly, his hands uncharismatically removed from his blazer pockets. "The night at that party-"

"Yeah, I kissed you." Joohyun spat. "I was drunk - I might have kissed Kim Junmyoon even. So don't think it meant anything."

Sehun exhaled, his demeanour becoming less and less poised. 

"Joo, you don't understand, we didn't kiss, we -"

"No, you don't understand, Oh Sehun, that you think you still have the right to call me by my nickname, or my first name even." She fumed.

" it, Joohyun, just listen to me!" The youth finally lost his cool.

"Ohoho, you're using big boy words, I see." She mocked, hands akimbo. "If we didn't kiss - thank the heavens! Cause I don't want to come in 10 feet of you. You make me sick to my stomach."

With that, she turned around and strut off.

It didn't strike her as peculiar though, that two lanes past, her throwing up in a stranger's yard.

 

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"I left some money in the kitchen - go to the doctor."

Joohyun peeked out from behind her bed covers at the disappearing form of her mother, dressed in her work garb. Several minutes tread on and the front door closed, but the teen-ager remained in bed. 

It had been a week since she'd picked up the bug, and every time she thought she was getting better, it got hellishly worse.

She groaned as she swung her arm out, pulling her bedspread back. Being sick was , especially when you had to visit the doctor by yourself, but Joohyun had never had that type of relationship with her mom, where they showed they cared or spent time with each other.

Her father? She never met him.

It had always just been the two of them. There were no other boyfriends, no grandparents or extended family. They'd all left at some point. But her mother had made it clear; that life , and most of the time it only ever got worse. Yeah, it was pessimistic to see things that way, but Joohyun had already felt how cruel things could be.

Eventually, Joohyun crawled from her bed, and almost immediately, her head began spinning. She spent the next fifteen minutes getting better acquainted with the toilet. 

Two dried pieces of toast and a nauseating bus ride later, she walked into the doctors office. It was half-empty, save for the bored receptionist at the front.

While she waited, Joohyun retrieved her phone and ran through her texts. One from Jongin on the task that was due that afternoon, three from Sooyoung asking if she was ok (repeatedly), and two from Sehun asking to meet up. The text even had the word 'please' in it, which surprised her.

Bae: Obsessed much? Wth is so pressing that you wanna talk to me about?

She didn't actually expect an answer.

Oh: I'll make it quick. Just meet me at the end of the day in the school's parking lot. I need to ask you one question and you can move on.

Joohyun puffed a non-commital laugh. She didn't bother responding, planning not to show up at all.

Her appointment came up after half her playlist played through her earphones.

The doctor looked nice enough.

"Alright, Miss.." he looked down at the folder on the white desk before him before returning his polite smile her way, "Bae, what seems to be the problem?"

"Uh, I've been throwing up and stuff." She muttered as her gaze roamed the walls of the dainty office.

"Alright.." The doctor noted down her answer. "Could you define 'and stuff'?"

Joohyun frowned. "Y'know, normal sick stuff."

For the next fifteen minutes, the man then took her through a menial list of symptoms. When he called in his assistant, Joohyun started losing her patience.

"Ok, I know you're just doing your job but can't you just give me a prescription for the nausea and I'll be on my way?"

"Miss Bae, if you would just follow Miss Nam towards the bathroom, please." He spoke as he started adding his notes to the folder, completely ignoring her request. "I'd like to test your urine."

Joohyun didn't take her eyes from the man, her blood turning cold.

"Why do I need a urine test?"

The doctor looked at her for a period of time. There was something in his gaze, a blandness brought over from forcing politeness all the time. Eventually, he slowly asked; "Are you ually active, Miss Bae?"

She narrowed her eyes, her breathing hitched. "Wh- why does that matter? Why do I need a urine test?"

 The man coughed as he began clearing up his desk. "This is just a precaution. As long as you know you're safe, you should have nothing to be worried about."

Something was wrong. Something was definitely wrong. The dizziness in the teenager's head started brewing, and Oh Sehun's worried voice began replaying over and over again.

We didn't kiss.

Quickly, she stood from the gray-padded chair, but quickly wasn't an action her body could take in that moment, because after that, all she could see was black.

 

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