By the time we got back to my house, Whee In had grown impatient, waiting for an explanation; we’d refused to tell her anything until we were back at my home. As soon as the door clicked shut behind me questions spilled out from the young puppy. “What’s going on? Why won’t you tell me anything? Did something happen? Is something wrong? You said you’d tell me once we got back here so why is no one saying anything?” there was hardly a pause for breath between the insistent questions. Hyejin grabbed her by the shoulders and held her gently while telling her sternly to calm down and that we would explain everything she just had to give us a few minutes.

We made our way into my living room where there was a little bit of mess from last night’s study session, but it was mostly clean otherwise. The younger girls sat down on my sofa while I sat cross-legged on the floor, back against the wall after getting us something to drink. I took a couple of deep breaths before I started to explain: “Wheenie, there’s nothing wrong as such. Not really anyway. Basically this whole situation with the new girl has gone straight to my head: me having a weird dream about her the night before she shows up at school and then she treats me as if we’re friends when we don’t even know each other. I just don’t know how to think or what to feel and it’s messing me up” I took a deep breath and started to wring my hands in my lap. I heard Whee In sigh with relief after I told her what was going on in my head. After a couple of seconds she spoke, her voice warm, gentle and laced with concern.

“Well… do you want to be friends with her?” was all she asked. I looked up into her kind eyes and could see Hyejin grinning at her too.

“I.. I don’t know. I mean.. I guess, maybe… I try to be everyone’s friend” I stuttered, taken back by the simplicity of the question. Hyejin snorted.

“You call breaking your fist on Mr Lee’s son’s cheekbone trying to be his friend? Explain that one to me, Byul,” she laughed

“First of all, that little brat deserved it, and secondly I was trying to make friends with you two when I did that. If you’re going to tell that story at least tell the part where I told him to stop trying to bully you guys out of your lunch money before he took a swing at me. You make me sound like a bully or something” I said almost laughinng. This got both of the other two laughing.

“God! I nearly forgot about that! When he tried to punch you and you just took a step back and asked him if that was all he had and then he told you to see if you could do any better and then you smashed his face into next week! No wonder Mr Lee thinks you’re trouble, you messed up his face pretty good” Whee In was having difficulty breathing due to her laughing fit. “I remember thinking at the time that I’d never seen anything so cool in my whole life and that I wanted to be your friend” I started laughing at Whee In’s recollection of the story- it wasn’t quite like that but her version makes me sound cooler. It definitely sounds better than we both ended up visiting the school nurse and then the hospital, him with a broken cheekbone and me with two broken knuckles.

“I don’t normally agree with violence, but I agree even less with bullying. On a positive note, I got two pretty decent friends out of it” I laughed. “And besides, that was a one off. Apart from that I like to see the best in everyone and make them my friend” I said, reverting the conversation back to its serious origin.

“Oh yeah! Back to that! If you want to be her friend, why don’t you just forget about the dream and move on? Or are you telling me that this dream meant a lot to you?” Whee In wiggled her eyebrows at me and Hyejin just laughed at her

“I’m not saying it meant a lot to me, I’m just saying that it’s definitely a weird coincidence. Don’t you think?” I said frantically trying to get them to see my point.

“Maybe you’d seen her before in the street and then your subconscious just planted her in your dream as a random stranger, but the entire purpose of the dream has an underlying message of something of deeper importance. Maybe you’re stressed about the holidays coming up and going home to see your family again, you know? It’s been eight weeks since you last saw them so maybe you’re worried to go home in case everything’s changed with your absence. Maybe you’re worried about getting too close to people or forming new relationships- speaking of which, when was the last time you were in a relationship? I can’t think of you ever having one. In fact, I don’t think you’ve ever even mentioned having a crush since your gigantic crush on Krystal way back when we met” Hyejin said matter-of-factly, I rolled my eyes at the little dig.

“You know what, I am kinda worried about going home, but not THAT worried. And as for my relationship status, I think being everyone’s number one girl crush is enough for me. AND my GIGANTIC crush on Krystal wasn’t even that big, so stop exaggerating Ahn Hyejin!” This got an explosion of laughter from Whee In.

“Are you kidding, Byul-ah? You may as well have built a shrine for the poor girl!” she said in between laughs. I lowered my eyebrows and stuck my tongue out at her. Once she finished laughing, she returned to her serious face. “I think Hyejin might be right about your brain simply implementing Yongsun as a total stranger, as someone you passed.” After barely a moment of thinking she outburst with “In fact! Maybe you saw her in the café by mine and Hyejin’s place. I’m pretty sure she works there because, now I think about it, I see her there frequently. SO it wouldn’t be impossible that you’d seen her before and substituted her in as a stranger, representing your worries or whatever” My jaw dropped at that statement

“You mean too tell me she lives and works near you guys and no body at school recognised her?!” I heaved a sigh

“Well… not necessarily. I heard from Seulgi, who heard from Mina, who heard from Jungkook who heard from his private school friend, Jimin- remember him? the cute one- that she used to go to the private school on the back of our estate but that she dropped out because she was getting severely bullied or something and then her parents went crazy mad at her and kicked her out and now she works two jobs to pay for her apartment as well as starting at our school” Hyejin explained

“Wow, sounds like she’s had it tough recently. Maybe she could do with some friends like us” I think out loud. We all sighed. Eventually we turned to general chat about anything and everything for a few hours before they decided they needed to go home and do some homework. I showed them out, making them promise to text me when they got home safe.

Author's note: Hey again! I wasn't sure if I would get this update finished before the weekend, but here it is! If you've read the entire story up to now, thank you I truely am grateful, if you've just joined me welcome. This chapter was mostly an impulsive one and I'm sorry that most of it is just filler, honestly I feel like this chapter ends really badly (it's the middle of the night atm and I'm only writing to get rid of my ideas), so I'm sorry for that too. Hopefully some things are beginning to be explained- in my head it makes sense, but that might be because I've got a bigger picture of the storyline. As always, feel free to comment your thoughts towards this and say what you're thinking so far. Thanks again guys, I truely am grateful for your support. Stay happy and healthy and enjoy the rest of the week. <3