*IT-JI MA!

UNDERWATER SQUAD

YEOJOENHI MOM-EN CA-*

Jeongyeon’s phone is blaring.

Momo stares at the vibrating phone on Jeongyeon’s bedside table, judging the brunette taste in music. Jeongyeon grumbles to silence her alarm clock.

“What kind of alarm was that?”, Momo voices her judgment to Jeongyeon.

“Shut up Princess”, Jeongyeon sit up and rubs her sleepy eyes. She sees Momo finishing brushing her blonde hair in the mirror, “damn … you THAT excited for school?”, she raises her eyebrows at Momo. In return, Momo just politely smiles and leaves the room.

Jeongyeon grudgingly starts her morning school routine. She fixes her tie in the mirror, frustrated unable to get it right she leaves it messily hanging on her neck and grabs her school bag before leaving the room for breakfast. Seungyeon sees her sister stretching her hands over her head and yawning out to go downstairs. She smacks her hand over Jeongyeon’s mouth, “cover your mouth, cover your mouth, COVER YOUR MOUTH”. Jeongyeon startled by the foreign hand over her is finally wide awake. She’s about to get payback to Seungyeon by her hand off , but her older sister is faster. Seungyeon backhands Jeongyeon’s forehead.

“YAH! Aish …”, Jeongyeon rubs her, now, red forehead with her hands, “you are so annoying and YOU tell me to be CIVIL, you’re the barbarian here!” Seungyeon just glares at her as she walks down the stairs to the dining room.

“Good morning Momo”, Seungyeon smiles towards Momo who smiles back towards Seungyeon. Jeongyeon walks in a few seconds after Seungyeon. Only Momo, Seungyeon, and Jeongyeon are present at home, Aya and Chanyoung already left for the airport for their mysterious early flight to Japan. Momo and Jeongyeon ignored each other.

“Momo, would you like a ride to school?”, Seungyeon asks because she knows Momo doesn’t know directions yet to school.

“No it’s okay unnie, thank you. I’m thinking about taking the bus from here, I looked up directions already beforehand. Plus I’ve got my phone if I’m ever lost”, Momo smiles at Seungyeon, who in return is startled by how eager and prepared Momo is.

‘Wow … the complete and total opposite of Jeongyeon’, Seungyeon thought as Momo excuses herself to start her journey to school.

Jeongyeon ignores Momo leaving, she takes her time with her breakfast but she feels Seungyeon staring at her. Jeongyeon looks up to Seungyeon and raises her eyebrows, “take care of her at school okay Jeongyeon?”, Seungyeon asks, more like politely demanding.

Jeongyeon rolls her eyes but answers, “yeah yeah … got it sis-”, she wipes , “got to go, see ya later”, Jeongyeon smirks as she turns to leave the room. Jeongyeon rides her bike to school, as she turns a corner she sees Momo walking down the road. Momo’s hands grabbing the straps of her backpack and eyes wandering each scenery she walks by. Jeongyeon sees passerby smiling at Momo. Jeongyeon pedals faster to pass Momo, she smiles as she passes, but Momo keeps her head high ignoring the cocky Jeongyeon.

Momo finally takes a window seat on the bus. Her eyebrows scrunched as she put her headphones in, she’s worried about meeting new people, making new friends, and the culture shock. ‘Give me strength Papa’, she watches the blue bright sky as the bus rolls to her stop.

“You would think the principal would suggest a friendly student to guide me through these halls”, Momo is irritated she’s thrown in the unknown by herself. She looks aimlessly at the number outside each door for her classroom. “He said class 3-1 … where is-”. 

“Can I help you?”, Momo is startled by a new voice behind her, “wow chill chill”.

Momo bows to the newcomer, “oh I’m sorry! You scared me … um … annyeonghaseyo, I- I’m just looking for cl- class 3-1”.

The newcomer turns out to be JB, he saw her holding a piece of paper and looking like a lost puppy, “OH! It’s just around the corner, walk to the end of the corridor, go to the right, then it’ll be to your right”.

She smiles and bows to JB and left for her class.

JB smirks watching Momo walk with a little more confidence but still could be seen slouching to keep herself safe in a new environment, “well well … hello there”. JB walks to the same classroom Momo is searching, but he took a shortcut arriving before Momo could. “guess what kids?!”, he puts his arm around Chaeyoung, “we’re gonna have fun today”.

Chaeyoung pouts because her drawing is skewed by her oppa, “why?”.

“Oh little cub … you’ll see”, JB answers cryptically. Sehun shakes in excitement. JB is the leader of the group, so when he says they’re going to have fun, he surely has something awesome planned. Jeongyeon not really caring about what JB has to say, just yawns and rubs her ears.

“STUDENTS please sit down at your seats! I have an announcement to make”, Mrs. Fei the homeroom teacher of class 3-1 said as she came in the room. She stands in front of the class and gestures someone outside to come in, “we have a new transfer student-”, Momo walks in with her head down, not wanting yet to make eye contact with any of her classmates, “don’t be shy, please introduce yourself”, Mrs. Fei pats Momo on the back to show she doesn’t need to be afraid.

The classroom erupts to whispers, a common occurrence in any classroom when someone new comes in. Momo hears them, ranging from bad to good, she choose to listen to the whispers that say she’s really pretty. Momo stands next to Mrs. Fei, she gathered up her courage and looks up to her classmates, “annyeonghaseyo, my name is Hirai Momo, I come from Kyoto-Japan … it- it is nice to meet you all-”, she bows, “please take care of me”.

“Yes we will”, JB fist bumps Sehun, who is just as excited as JB is.

Jeongyeon sits behind her two oppa’s with Chaeyoung, she just rolls her eyes at their behavior. She should have guessed when JB said fun he meant Momo.

“All right Momo, you can take a seat next to Kyungsoo”, Mrs. Fei points out an empty seat in the middle of the room. Momo nods and starts her walk down the aisle. Momo’s eyes briefly meet with Jeongyeon but she turns her head immediately away from her.

“PFFTT … she’s sitting next to the nerd”, Nayeon said in a low voice, trying to hold in her laughter. She at the table next to Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon.

Lunch Time

Momo dreads lunchtime, she loves food, but lunchtime for a new student means being thrown in the jungle. She stands at the front of the cafeteria with her tray of food, her eyes frantically search for an empty seat or a friendly face to offer her a seat to eat with them. Momo’s is actually a shy person, so in class she hasn’t made any friends, leaving her now to fend for herself.

Momo’s hand shakes a little, she feels her anxiety spiking until she feels her tray floating away from her. She feels like she’s losing her mind from losing the feeling of her food pulling down on her hands, then she feels a hand pushing her forwards towards a table. Her tray is put down on it.

“Anyong Momo”, JB said as he sat in front of her tray, “sit please”.

Momo looks around the table, she sees her classmates whom she doesn’t know their names yet apart from Jeongyeon. She hesitantly sits down at the table.

JB smiles towards Momo and waits, but whatever he’s waiting didn’t come, “oi Jeongyeon … come on, you usually do the introduction, what gives?”, JB said eyeing Jeongyeon who sit the farthest away leaning on a wall with an uninterested look on her face.

“Not today boss, sleepy. You do it”, Jeongyeon turns her head to look at the nervous Momo. Momo feels standing at the front of the cafeteria is better than sitting with Jeongyeon and her friends, and she has some idea as to why.

“Fine. Momo-chan we-”, JB gestures to everyone at the table, “are ‘The Geochin’-”, Momo’s eyes go wide, she definitely doesn’t like where this is going, “the name’s JB, leader, my right-hand Sehun-”, Sehun waves as he smirks, “babe Nayeon-”, Nayeon makes a disgusting face at JB for calling her babe, “little squirt Chaeyoung-”, Chaeyoung looks up from her sketchbook and waves before returning to doodling again, “and last but not least, big squirt Jeongyeon”, Jeongyeon doesn’t even make eye contact with Momo, she lazily goes back to watch the other students mingle, “and I would like to thank you for coming to our GLORIOUS school and making our lives a lot more … entertaining”, JB finishes by stealing Momo’s apple on her tray.

“Wha- what?”, Momo is nervous being surrounded by a sinister aura on the first day.

Nayeon laughs at Momo’s stuttering, “oh sweetie you’re so cute”, Nayeon slides next to Momo and embraces her with one arm, “it’s going to be fun making your life a living hell, we’re getting a lot less-”, Nayeon thinks of the right word for it, a light bulb goes off and she smirks, “... bodies to stomp to the ground in this school, then YOU came along, what a blessing”, she pats Momo’s cheeks.

JB manically smiles at Momo, “since it’s your first day, we’ll let you rest”, Jeongyeon said before getting up from her seat and walking out the cafeteria, without making eye contact with Momo their whole interaction. Chaeyoung hecticly cleans up her sketchbook to catch up with Jeongyeon. JB smiles as he stands to follow Jeongyeon, Sehun, and Nayeon follows suit.

Momo is left at the table by herself, baffled at what just transpired. ‘What? J- Jeongyeon is a bully?!’, she looks at her half-eaten apple on her tray, *sigh* ‘this is gonna be a long year’.

The first day ends - Jeongmo’s room - 16:00

Momo huffs angrily as she enters the room, throwing her bag on the floor, she sees Jeongyeon playing on her phone on the couch “WE NEED TO TALK!”, Momo yells to the clueless Jeongyeon who just raises an eyebrow at the fuming blonde, “you’re a bully?!”

Jeongyeon nods and goes back to playing on her phone. Momo growls at Jeongyeon nonchalant reply, Momo walks towards Jeongyeon and snatches her phone away from the brunette. “OI, WHAT’S YOUR PROBLEM, PRINCESS?!”, Jeongyeon stands up from her seat, staring down at Momo.

“MY PROBLEM? MY PROBLEM? DO YOU EVEN LISTEN TO YOURSELF?! WHY?! Why are you like this? Can’t you see how much w- people suffer?”, Momo stomps her feet and stares right back at Jeongyeon.

“So? I really don’t see your point. I do it cause it’s fun”, Jeongyeon cr