Chapter 3

Pretending to be somebody you’re not is extremely difficult. Jennie can testify to it. Yes, she was used to having several facades, but this time it’s different. She had to be a completely different person. At first she thought that it would be fairly easy since she’s been doing it since years before, but now that she’s experiencing it, pretending isn’t a piece of cake.

“Alex, can I borrow your phone? I need to message my mom but my phone died.” Jennie glanced at the girl, Mina, standing in front of her desk, and lazily gave her the phone. She wouldn’t have cared if only she didn’t had to go by the rules.

“Umm… It’s locked.” Mina timidly said, handing over the phone to Jennie for her to open. The latter snatched the phone and, with a bored expression, tried to unlock the phone. However, there was a problem: she didn’t know the passcode. Jennie looked around the classroom to see if Alex was there, but unfortunately, she wasn’t.

“ this,” Jennie mumbled under her breath, rolling her eyes before she faced her classmate once again, faking a smile. “How about you ask another classmate of ours to lend their phone?”

Mina scratched her head. “I already asked, but no one’s lending me.”

“You see, I forgot the password, so it’ll be better to ask someone else.” Jennie exhaled deeply, giving her best effort to control her irritability.

“But it’s your phone… How can you forget your password?” Mina asked, which triggered the little demon out of Jennie.

“But it’s your phone, how can you forget to charge it or bring a charger? Look. It’s your responsibility, so don’t burden me.” Closing her eyes, Jennie crossed her arms and leaned back comfortably on her chair, but not until she heard Alex’s voice at the back of her head. 

‘Speak like how I speak. Be polite, no curse words.’  The image of Alex glaring at her made her jolt.

Jennie faked a laugh, letting out a almost-too-sweet smile. “Of course, I’m just kidding.” She covered as she laughs, trying to act nice and kind. “Wait here, I’ll just have to ask someone. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” She stood up from her seat and went out of the classroom to look for Alex. 

“This is why I don’t like being nice. They keep asking for things until all of them are taking advantage of the nice on—— Yah dweeb!” Jennie stopped her grumblings once she saw Alex, who was coming out of the restroom.

“Just where have you been when I needed you?” Jennie exaggerated. “What’s your passcode? Some dumb girl forgot to charge her phone and now she's asking me if she can borrow my phone. I mean, your phone.” Rolling her eyes, she waited for Alex’s answer.

Alex ignored Jennie’s remarks and answered, “010040” 

Jennie was able to open Alex’s phone, into which she immediately typed in the passcode, as to not to forget.

A snicker came out from Jennie’s lips once she locked the phone. “What’s with your password? A binary code? You’re such a dweeb.” She laughed, making fun of Alex who remained unbothered.

“Binary codes doesn’t have a 4.” Alex countered before walking past Jennie, who had open, trying to think of a comeback. 

“I.. I know! Do I look like I’m dumb?!” Jennie caught up with Alex, who was suppressing her smile. 

The two entered their classroom and went to their respective seats. Jennie smiled at Mina and handed her the phone. 

Meanwhile, Alex went back to her seat and got asked by the curious Lisa. “Yah Unnie. Were you with Alex?” Lisa leaned closer, wanting to know why the two came in the classroom at the same time.

“Huh? No, I went to the restroom, and I don’t know where she came from.” Alex answered, focusing her attention back to the notebooks on Jennie’s bag, which are now hers. 

She flipped through the pages of the notebook, and much to her surprise, or not, there was no notes written, only doodles of her teachers and some random drawing of animals. 

Just like how Jennie told Alex, she didn’t take down notes nor listened to the lecture of their teacher. The pen, notebook, and book was tempting her but thankfully, she wasn’t eve, so she didn’t give in to temptation.

The class went through and before Alex knew it, it’s already their first break time of the day. Alex was planning to talk to Jennie but she got pulled by a tall figure instead. 

Lisa placed her long arm around Alex’s shoulders, making the latter stumble. 

“Unnie, what are you going to eat?” Lisa asked, glancing at the shorter one. 

“Umm… I’ll have to see first.” Alex safely answered.

“Seriously?” Lisa laughed, although Alex didn’t get what part of what she said is funny.

Another person joined them on their way to the cafeteria. “Jennie Unnie. How’s the movie I told you to watch?” Rosé asked, her hands tucked on her pockets. 

There’s something about Rosé that Alex made her feel all sorts of different things and assume things based on nothing. Rosé is chic and mostly sticks to herself and her friends, her thick eyeliner made everyone she stares at shiver. However, the way Alex sees it, Rosé’s eyeliner can’t overpower the sparkling eyes of Rosé, as if there’s a kid hiding somewhere inside her. 

“Yah Unnie.” A nudge from Rosé disrupted her from the thoughts which she didn’t know why she had. 

Alex didn’t know what movie Rosé was referring to, so she just made up a plain critique. “Oh. It was good.” 

Rosé only nodded in response, which Alex was thankful of. She would have panicked if the other girl started asking about the characters or certain scenes from the movie.

“Where’s Jisoo by the way?” Alex asked once they’re seated at their usual table. It was a bit uncomfortable for her since Jisoo is the only one she’s quite close with, compared to the other two. She didn’t know anything about the taller once except for some trivial things she heard from the gossips of her classmates.

“Jisoo went out of the campus.” Lisa nonchalantly stated, squinting her eyes to see the cafeteria’s menu for the day.

“What?!” The inner vice president council inside her was unleashed, causing Lisa and Rosé to shoot her a look, their mouth slightly open.

Alex cleared after she realised her mistake. “I was just imitating Alex. That’s what she always say when she hears trouble.” 

Rosé shook her head, her lips tugging up. “Here you go again Unnie. You should really stop giving her a hard time, she’s not as bad as you think.” 

A light shade of pink was painted on Alex’s face, that she almost thank Rosé if she didn’t remember that she was in Jennie’s body.

“There’s no use on telling her that. The more important thing is, what are we going to eat?” Lisa her dry lips, still undecided on what to eat. 

“I’m not going to eat.” Rosé plainly said, causing Lisa to give her a look of disapproval. “Don’t tell me you’re still on a diet. Why would a stick like you go on a diet?” 

A playful glare was directed at Lisa, and before the latter knew it, Rosé was already messing with her hair. “I’m not on a diet!” Rosé said as she laughed evilly, seeing Lisa’s messy hair. 

Pouting, Lisa looked at Alex with her big eyes, “Unnie~ Rosé is abusing me~” 

Alex could only laugh, seeing the tough looking Lisa and Rosé acting like a kid in front of her. It made her think that both of them are like Jisoo, tough cookie on the outside, but a ball of fluff on the inside.

“So what do you want to eat?” Alex asked. 

“Eh. I’m already fed up with the food they sell. There’s no variety!” Lisa crossed her arms grumpily, acting like a kid who’s mom didn’t buy her a toy. Just when Alex was going to stand up to buy, Lisa said, “But since I’m hungry, I have no choice but to eat.” followed by, “But the line’s too long. Never mind. I’ll just eat later at lunch.” 

Rosé chuckled at her friend’s indecisiveness. Lisa always had a hard time making choices, even for the simple ones.

“I’ll just buy for you. What do you want?” Alex offered, thinking of Lisa as her little sister, which she didn’t have. 

“Eh? For real?” If Lisa’s eyes could get any bigger, it did.

Alex nodded, waiting for Lisa to tell what she wants. 

“I want a lasagna.” The toothy grin of Lisa made smile, never had she thought that Lisa could be that cute.

Alex lined up patiently, waiting for her turn, only to be grabbed by her arm and be dragged outside the cafeteria, by Jennie.

Jennie stopped walking and made sure that no one was around them before she asked, “Does any of them find you suspicious?” 

Alex figured that Jennie was referring to her friends. “No. I think I’m doing good. You?”

“That friend of yours kept telling me that I’m acting weird. I really think that I’m not fitted to be a dweeb.” Jennie said as she leaned on the wall.

Alex just sighed before proposing, “You know what? I’ll teach you how to act like me, okay?” 

Jennie nodded in approval. “Well in that case, I should also teach you how to act like me.”

“So firstly, being a Vice president. You’ve probably got the gist of my job already since we’ve had a lot of encounters already,” Alex implicitly stated, referring about the times when she had to stop Jennie from bullying, and at times accompany the latter in serving her disciplinary actions.

“But aren’t vice presidents just substitutes when the president is not around?” Jennie shrugged. Whether Jennie was mocking her position or she’s really oblivious, Alex didn’t know and wasn’t interested in finding out.

“No, vice presidents aid the president since he can’t do all the job alone. That’s what you need to do, and just like how you helped Mina earlier, always help those who are in need.”

“I can’t always help those who are in need. Do I look like wonder woman?” Jennie snorted.

“No, you don’t, but you can be.”

Jennie rolled her eyes at the statement, then she remembered something. “Oh !”

“Language,” Alex reminded, not liking how Jennie always swear.

Jennie pretended not to hear and went on with what she remembered. “There’s this something Irene was asking about yesterday. What was it again?” Jennie continuously snapped her fingers, attempting to speak out the words at the tip of her tongue. “Oh! The proposal thing.”

Closing her eyes, Alex sighed. “I almost forgot about that. Anyway, you have to give me my laptop later so I can finish it by tomorrow. If Irene asks you, say you’re revising it already.”

“Okay, got it dweeb.”

“Can you stop calling me dweeb?” Alex had been letting it slide, but it gets more and more irritating as Jennie keep repeating the word dweeb.

“No can do, dweeb.” 

Je