Lisa released an exasperated sigh and blew her bangs out of habit. She had History class today- which meant that she would be seated next to Rachel, again. She really wanted to avoid her at all cost but when she remembered what they did to her account, she couldn’t help but snicker.

“Guys check this out,” Jisoo called while she continued to scroll down the tab she opened with a smirk. The younger ones immediately stopped what they were doing to see what she was talking about.

Daebak!”Jennie and Lisa exclaimed as they watched the contents spill on the screen.

“Woah, she has a folder solely dedicated to her math professor. Mr. Byun, right? Ah, she’s giving me goosebumps with all the pictures she had taken secretly. She’s like a creepy stalker,” Rosé said and shook her head in disapproval. “Am I considered a bad person if I feel no sympathy for hacking Rachel?” she asked innocently, earning chuckles from the other three.

“Don’t be guilty Chaeng,” Jisoo assured her. “It’s not like we really hacked her sns account and posted her pre-surgery pictures. We just made her think that her laptop was haunted.”

Indeed, Jisoo left Rachel’s pictures alone and chose to mess with her laptop’s system instead. Well, sort of. Since Jennie already had traced the IP address, Jisoo started scanning an open port and moved to banner grabbing. After finding out that Rachel was using an old version of Windows, Jisoo started exploiting the system; she didn’t even have to use brute force because Rachel didn’t use any password for her laptop. She also bugged the webcam and microphone so that they could observe her reactions.

A separate screen opened and they could see Rachel typing in her room. Jisoo began typing ‘Hello Rachel’ on the document she was working with. Rachel didn’t look at the screen but continued on typing anyway.

“Try opening her youtube Jisoo. Maybe some music would catch her attention,” Jennie suggested.

“Ooh! Play that one!” Rosé exclaimed excitedly as she scanned the suggested music when Jisoo typed ‘music used in horror movies’ in the search bar. Instantly, she played the video in full volume, filling Rachel’s room with the creepy tone.

Rachel’s eyes immediately widened and her eyes darted from left to right when she heard the sound. She took a click glance on her monitor and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. “What the… I never opened youtube,” they heard her say. Much to their dismay, she just shrugged it off, immediately closed the window, and went back to her work again.

“Eh, she’s not easily scared,” Lisa commented with a bored expression. “Make her screen flicker Jisoo.”

Jisoo waited until Rachel was reading the document on her monitor before playing with the screen’s brightness. The other girl looked puzzled at the way her laptop was behaving. She began to scan her laptop to check some damages. “Yah! You can’t malfunction now. I have to pass my report tomorrow morning.”

Jennie snickered after hearing Rachel’s dilemma. “What if you erase everything that she has typed? I’m pretty sure she’ll go berserk when everything that she had worked for goes down the drain.”

“Got it.” Jisoo highlighted the whole document and clicked the CTRL+X just as Rachel turned her attention back to the screen.

“What the-?! Damm*t I haven’t saved it yet!” Rachel cursed and punched the table in frustration. But before she could even recover from the recent issue, her laptop began to type.

Hello Rachel! I am your worst nightmare

They hear her gasp. “Finally she has taken the bait. We were running out of tricks for her,” Lisa said while playing with Jisoo’s hair.

“Y- yah! Who are you? Stop bothering me,” Rachel said in a shaky voice to no one in particular. Instead of typing again, Jisoo just made the font size of ‘I am your worst nightmare’ bigger. The girls snickered as they watched her reaction.

“This is not funny!” they heard her shout. “Ghosts are not real. Ghosts are not real,” she repeatedly chanted, as if to convince herself.

Ooh… but seeing you panic is so funny

Rachel paled and cold sweat began to form on her forehead. She began to look around to see if anyone was indeed watching her.

So, I heard you love spreading rumors. Tsk. Young people these days are just so insecure…

Jisoo played the horror music again when Rachel didn’t respond to them and instead closed her eyes and covered her ears.

“Stop it! Whoever you are, leave me alone!” she shouted and furiously pressed the backspace button to erase the message on her screen.

Alright I’ll leave you alone

But…

“But what? Please just tell me what to do for you to stop bothering me,” Rachel pleaded.

I know all your secrets. I’ve been staying in this room before you even came. Clear every rumor you started. Clear every single one. If not, I’ll make sure to come back and make you miserable

“Fine. I’ll do it. Just- never come back,” Rachel said with exhaustion evident in her voice.

Satisfied with the results, Jisoo pressed the CTRL + V in return. Rachel’s face immediately lit up when she saw her work appear again. But before she could even save it, Jennie snatched the mouse from Jisoo’s hands and clicked the ‘Don’t save’ button after she exited the document.

“OMG! You’re so cold-hearted…” Lisa commented with wide eyes. “And I like it!”

The bell rang, indicating the start of the lecture and Lisa’s eyes darted to follow a panting Rachel, scrambling the seat next to her. Rachel looked so haggard with the dark circles around her eyes. Lisa almost felt sorry. Keyword-almost.

Her classmates finally settled down on their seats when Ms. Choi entered the room. She wasted no time in gathering their reports and Lisa soon found herself losing her focus in class. She doesn’t hate History but the subject just didn’t excite her as much as it did to Rosé. She was about to drowse off when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. She quickly turned and much to her surprise, Rachel was looking at her with a sad expression. “I’m sorry Lisa.”

“Sorry for what?” Lisa replied, feigning innocence. She was a bit surprised that Rachel apologized, let alone talked to her about something unrelated to their class. She saw Rachel shook her head and return her attention to the front. Geez, I thought she was going to admit about the rumors already. Lisa shrugged it off and returned her attention back to their teacher too.

After an hour more of trying to distract herself from sleeping, Lisa finally bolted out of class the moment Ms. Choi dismissed them. She weaved her way through the next building where Jisoo was having her class. Jisoo had been pursuing a degree in Architecture while she on the other hand, was studying Business Advertising. Jennie took up Fashion Design while Rosé was studying Mass Communications. The four of them had quite a different path but that didn’t stop them from hanging out during their vacant classes.

“Jisoo! Jichuuuuu!” Lisa shouted as soon as she saw her friend stopped by her locker along the corridor. She quickly dashed towards her friend when the latter turned and waved at her with a bright smile.

“So, how did it go?” Jisoo asked as soon as Lisa reached her.

“Fine I guess. I was surprised when out of nowhere she apologized to me,” Lisa replied.

“She apologized?” Jisoo asked and raised her brow in surprise. “Woah, she must have been so affected by last night’s event.”

Lisa snickered. “I know right? But when I asked her what she was apologizing for, she didn’t reply anymore.”

“Well atleast she felt sorry. I didn’t expect her to really apologize though. I only typed that she needs to clear up the rumors,” Jisoo replied in a hushed tone at the end statement. “Don’t worry, if she messes with any of us again, I won’t hesitate to get back. Besides, I created a backdoor on her system before we had dinner yesterday.”

Lisa slowly clapped and grinned. “Aigoo, our Jisoo always thinks ahead,” she cooed and patted her friend’s hair.

“Well,” Jisoo commented with a smirk and flipped her hair, causing both of them to chuckle at their silliness. “Let’s go before the cafeteria runs out our fave snacks,” she said and hooked her hand on Lisa’s arms as they made their way to the cafeteria.

“Should we go home now or do you guys want to walk around a bit?” Lisa asked her friends as they rested on a bear near the exit of the mall. The four had decided earlier to head over to the mall to buy new supplies they needed- Jisoo with her drafting materials, Jennie with new fabrics and accessories, Rosé and Lisa with their books and usual school stuff.

“Let's eat some bingsu first on the next block. I'm craving for some sweets,”  Rosé suggested.

“Yes food! Let's go!” Jisoo brightly said. “Jendeukki, hurry up,” she ordered and grabbed her friend's stuff when the latter showed no interest in moving again. “Last one to arrive will be paying.”

Jennie groaned and forced herself to get up. She shook her head and raced after the three who were skipping happily on the sidewalk. “Yah wait up!”

They were almost near their destination when Jennie finally  caught up with them. “Seriously, you guys are so fast when it comes to food,” she said in between breaths. 

“Well, it's foo- woah...” Lisa trailed off as her she fixed her gaze on the large screen displayed on the window of what looked like a newly