* you might wanna need to go re-read the last chapter cos its been a long time since I updated lol

Mina’s chest was heaving up and down when she finally reached the door. Her cheeks were red and her long braid was close to becoming ruined because of how fast she ran to arrive before the gates closed. She came to a halt, taking a minute or two to collect the energy that left her body.

From the small window situated on the top left of the wooden door, Mina could see Mr. Go moving around the small desks in the classroom. She could also hear his agonizingly slow and monotonous voice as he spoke, along with the tense atmosphere that ensued with it. The students’ faces were a lot more grim than usual and they were strangely focused on the papers Mr. Go gave, and only then Mina realized that he was distributing their graded test papers.

Mina had to stifle a groan, eyes wide open in shock. She paced around the invisible circle in front of the door, thoughts racing and crashing with each other as each second passes. Mina had two choices: the first one was to skip Mr. Go’s class and wait until the end of the semester to see her grade since the teacher is hard to approach, and the second one was to gather all her courage to knock on the door and play one of her tricks to persuade him into letting her in, that is if he fell for them in the first place.

But before Mina could make a decision, the door flew open revealing a slightly surprised Mr. Go along with the rest of the class. The students tore their eyes from their papers and stared at her, and Mina was so used to that kind of behavior it didn’t bother her anymore. Baekhyun held her gaze for no longer than three seconds before diverting his sight to the ground, and Mina couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. But then again, she wasn’t somebody neither to trust nor to believe; it had always been that way.

“I reckon you did not fall into a sinkhole this time, Miss Kang. Would you care to share with us the reason you came late today?” Mr. Go uttered with his usual frown, glancing down at Mina’s legs to emphasize his point.

The students watched in amusement at the exchange of words, while Mina’s cheeks grew a bit flushed at her teacher’s comment, “Can we talk about this outside of the classroom?”

Mr. Go stared at her with an unreadable expression before nodding and ushering her to the empty hallways. Mina didn’t have an embarrassing excuse planned in mind, but she still wanted to buy some free time for her to calm down and collect herself. Mr. Go was a grey one, but still dangerous none the less.

The teacher fixed his glasses and crossed his arms on his chest, motioning for her to start speaking. It was, apparently, the first time Mr. Go had willingly exited his own class and listened to one of his (late) students’ excuses and Mina wasn’t too surprised it was her; after all, she had always been participating in his discussions when nobody else was and receiving the best grades in his tests.

“I am deeply sorry for being late.” Mina began, not avoiding eye contact with the teacher, “My mother called me at the end of lunch hour, telling me to go home and turn the stove off because she forgot. She was at work, and we live alone so I didn’t have a choice. Again, I apologize for being late.”

Mr. Go stood silent for a couple of minutes, and Mina automatically reached for the toothpick in her blazer pocket to fiddle with it. When Mina thought he was going to leave her hanging, the teacher hummed and opened the door for her to enter.

Mina’s lips collapsed into a satisfied smile as she strolled into the room, textbook in her arms and eyes twinkling with mischief. She made her way to her seat, the one at the front, and then sat with a soft thud.

During class, whenever Mr. Go gave them ten minute problems to solve, she turned around every now and then to see Irene and Baekhyun whispering to each other and giggling. Miss Nam’s words about how she turns around too much to look at Baekhyun resurfaced at the back of her mind, but she brushed it off. Didn’t he say he didn’t like Irene? Mina thought, well he sure doesn’t act like it.

When the bell rang, Mina gathered her things in her bag and was prepared to leave for her next period when Mr. Go called her name. Mina groaned discreetly before making her way to his desk. The teacher scribbled on a small piece of paper before giving it to her, his face hiding any kind of emotion. Mina thanked him, took the paper and exited the classroom.

The hallways weren’t empty, since the students always waited a couple of minutes, chatting with their friends and having meaningless conversations before attending the last class of the day. Mina scanned the crowd before spotting a mop of raven hair between Minseok and Jongdae who were laughing at something he said. Baekhyun met her eyes for the second time that day, choosing to ignore her again.

Mina sighed, deciding that it was best for her to go to class early today. She was passing through a flock of noisy friends when she remembered something. Coming to a halt near a locker, Mina pulled out the paper from her pocket.

Mr. Go had written a very small, unreadable even, the number twenty with a red pen. Mina furrowed her brows, dwelling on what the note could actually mean until it finally hit her. With a grin on her lips, Mina walked to her next class knowing that she didn’t have to wait until the end of the semester to know her grade.

On her way however, Mina collided with somebody, resulting into something shiny falling from her pocket and both of them losing their balance. Mina lifted her head, a hand massaging the curve of her behind in pain, to fall face to face with Bae Irene. She, as well, was wincing in pain before her expression morphed into that of horror when she caught sight of the pocket knife on the ground.

Mina gasped, letting out a string of curses before hurrying to pick up the knife and put it back into her pocket. Irene followed her actions; eyes wide open in disbelief at the weapon that seemed to fall from Mina’s blazer just a second ago. Mina didn’t care to look her in the eye, or explain herself, only letting out a faint ‘sorry’ and bolting to Miss Jung’s class.

Irene couldn’t recover from the incident, dwelling on the reason why Kang Mina would have a pocket knife in her blazer of all people and at school. In the end, she gathered her books before walking to their next class with a puzzled frown painted on her face.

When Mina entered Miss Jung’s class, Baekhyun was already seated at the back and she wondered how he managed to make it before her when he was so immersed in conversations with his friends in the hallway before.

The history period went by as slow as it could go, and when the bell finally rang, the students didn’t lose any time before bolting out of the boring classroom. Mina took her time to leave because she yet had some unfinished business to take care of, and the faster she got it done the less fun the outcome would be.

Mina took long strides in the main hallway, nearing the second to last door where she knew Sehun and his partner were working on their photos for the contest. She knocked on the door three times, waiting for the tall black-haired freshman to come out.

To say he was surprised would be the understatement of the century; his mouth hung open for her to count how many teeth he had, and his eyebrows rose high enough to reach his hairline. It was not every day that Kang Mina, the girl who he had almost fought yesterday, asked for him after school. They were both standing in a secluded space behind a range of lockers, away from any kind of unwanted attention.

After an awkwardly long time of silent stares, Sehun finally spoke, “What do you want from me?”

He was wearing in Kyungbock’s uniform, no wrinkles and no stains. His hair was perfectly brushed and parted to the side, but something about Sehun’s face felt wrong to Mina. It was as if he knew of the storm that was about to happen, and that there was no way of stopping it.

Mina chuckled mockingly, “It seems like you’ve picked up on that quite well, didn’t you?”

Sehun, hearing the affirmation coming out from , stiffened visibly. It finally hit him when he stared long at her small smile: she knew. He let out a shaky breath, not quite believing how she figured it out. He his heels, passing his hand through his locks in a frustrated manner, and breathed in. He didn’t understand; he had tried so hard to cover for Irene and yet there he stood, completely powerless as Kang Mina pinned him down with his secret on her lips.

“I’m here to give you an offer.” Mina spoke again, taking a step closer to the tall freshmen.

He whirled around, his lips dropping into a frown that could only be caused by her. Mina saw despair, shock and resentment thrown all over him and for a second she felt guilty. She shook out of her thoughts, because Oh Sehun was the same who was threatening to punch her in the face yesterday.

“I want none of your filthy offers.” And in a split second, Sehun wiped out everything to show anything but anger in his eyes, aggressiveness already piled up in his clenched fist.

“You either cooperate or the whole school will know how much of a scumbag your dear Irene really is.” Mina threatened, her voice dripping with venom.

Sehun froze, fist still clenched but the fear has already made its way to his eyes. He then nodded grimly, and Mina let out a sigh of satisfaction in response, “Sehun, can you answer this question?”

Sehun perked up immediately, “What is it?”

Mina twirled the end of her braid playfully, “If Irene were to choose between you or Baekhyun, who would she choose? Who does she care about the most out of you two?”

Sehun nibbled on his bottom lip, opened his mouth and then closed it again. After a few other minutes of silence, he mumbled, “I don’t, I don’t really know the answer to that.”

Mina smiled, “Wouldn’t you want to know?” Chuckling to herself, she added, “Of course you want to! Who am I kidding?”

Sehun narrowed his eyes, “Where are you going with this?”

Mina lifted her head to look at him directly, “What I am saying, Sehun, is that you will get the answer to your question today…if you do as I say. Follow my words and you’ll know everything you’ve ever wanted to know, and get Irene all to yourself.”

Sehun couldn’t get himself to say anything and that’s what Mina wanted from the beginning, but then he pulled himself together and asked, “What do I need to do?”

As if on cue, Bae Irene walked in from the other end of the corridor. Sehun whipped his head to look at her small figure as she scribbled down something in her textbook along with her friend Sooyoung. They were laughing as they entered the empty classroom, oblivious that Mina and Sehun who were watching them from afar.

“Are you sure about ditching Minho for me?” Sooyoung pouted, sitting beside Irene, “The poor guy was waiting for half an hour for you to come and you just…left him there.”

Irene didn’t tear her eyes from the textbook in her hands, “Sooyoung, we have more than two weeks to submit our first batch of photos. Don’t make me feel bad, plus, I apologized so it’s okay.”

“That doesn’t mean you can slack! I can’t believe I agreed to help you. I’m really disappointed in –oh, Jongin is calling me.” Sooyoung widened her eyes in surprise, “I gave him my number two months ago, how is he only calling me now? Do you think he’ll ask me out? It better not be tomorrow because I have violin practice.”

Irene gave her friend a faint smile, “It’d be really unfortunate if it was. Now go and take that phone call because I have some really important business I have to take care of, and I need to concentrate.”

Sooyoung smiled back on her way out of the classroom, “Okay I will, I will but crafting a birthday gift for Baekhyun is not an important –Oh hi Jongin, how are you doing?”

Irene let out a long breath when the door closed behind Sooyoung. The cutout of her and Baekhyun standing beside the school gates had already slipped between her fingers, and she found herself looking around the room in fear. Images of Kang Mina holding the pocket knife resurfaced and she found herself nervously picking on her fingernails again. She couldn’t forget about it no matter how much she tried to shake it off. She tried busying herself by preparing Baekhyun’s birthday gift in advance, and even forced Sooyoung to help her with it but to no avail. No amount of light colored pencils and cheerful friends could bring her out of her trance. Maybe she was over thinking, or maybe she didn’t see right.

Irene scoffed, who was she fooling? The metallic shine of the weapon was too noticeable to ignore. Why would Kang Mina have such a thing? She asked herself more than once but the answer remained unclear each time. But Irene knew Mina was dangerous; she wanted everything and she got everything she wanted.

Her thoughts raced until a possibility froze right in front of her eyes. Irene dropped the paper she tried working on, contemplating whether or not Mina could’ve known that it was her who taped the horrendous things on the bulletin board yesterday.

Irene’s hand flew to , worry etched on her face. Seconds passed and she found herself laughing once, then twice. How could she think about such a possibility? She was positive nobody saw her doing it, except for Sehun who helped her make the documents, and if Mina knew then it would’ve been all over the school by now.

Wouldn’t it?

Irene jumped when the door opened and she hurried to grab the pair of scissors and go back to cutting the picture of her and Baekhyun. Sooyoung entered the room, a sheepish smile on her lips and guiltiness oozing out of her eyes.

Irene lifted her head, examined her friend’s face and came to a conclusion, “He asked you to go out now, didn’t he?” To which Sooyoung nodded, “And you said yes?” Sooyoung nodded again while Irene frowned playfully, “Guess I’m the one being ditched right now.”

“I’m really sorry.” Sooyoung ran to Irene and gave her a hug, “It’s just that I didn’t want to miss violin practice and you know the huge crush I had on Jongin since last year. I couldn’t help it. I’m sorry.”

Irene patted her back before pulling out, “It’s okay, and have fun, okay?”

“I will!” Sooyoung shouted before bolting out of the room, leaving Irene all by herself.

Irene went back to cutting the photo, focusing on the way Baekhyun’s eyes crinkled when he grinned and how his blue coat fit her (even if she looked like a chipmunk inside it because of how huge it was). They were standing in front of the school gates, one evening after he had agreed to get ice cream together.

Baekhyun was the first person who approached her since