“But when you say,

Oh baby, you're my best friend,”

“Then I lose, I lose my common sense,

I'm kind of blue it's the truth.”

 Sana .

Maybe not at flirting mindlessly, but at everything else in the love demographic. But she did at her controlling her temper, and Jihyo wasn’t really having it that morning.

“Change it!”

Jihyo only reclines in her seat, giving her a resigned look. Sana isn’t a morning person but she is a tantrum person— and the former is more than fed up with her.

“Do you have a problem, Sana?” Jihyo spoke sardonically, rubbing her temples and her tired eyes and she returns to writing up their student rota soon after.

“You know I do, Park.” Sana groans and she slams her hands on the table so her full, newly-brewed coffee spills over her work and onto Jihyo’s glasses, a nice touch psychics decides to play on her.

Jihyo exhales deeply, grimacing as the hot coffee bounces off her glasses.

“Go speak to Nayeon if you’re so bothered about it,” She huffs, wiping her glasses with her own shirt, “And don’t tell me you aren’t bothered about it.”

“I’m dealing with you first, head girl.”

Jihyo purses her lips, “How many times do I need to tell you I’m not the head girl?” And she fishes out another clean, A4 piece of paper with the rota already filled in from under her desk and a pin too, “—And no, I don’t have a single influence over Nayeon. Besides, that’s against the rules.”

Jihyo smiles, though Sana can’t see, and she makes her way out the room and to the notice board down the hallway, and the latter’s already following her out of the room hot on Jihyo’s heels.

“We all know everyone listens to you, regardless,” Sana snaps, stopping as they reach the empty notice board, “Last summer, Hyojung was elected head girl, and she still listened to whatever you said. And you were a junior. You’ve had every prefect elected wrapped around your finger since you were a freshman, I don’t know how, but you’ve got Nayeon manipulated like a damn puppet.”

“Okay, hear me out, Minatozaki,” Jihyo pins the piece of paper against the wall and she turns to face Sana, “One, janitor duty isn’t that bad, it’s quite fun actually, calming almost, sweeping the floors quietly, washing the windows— but that’s besides the point,” Jihyo shakes her head, changing her train of thought, “Two, everyone needs to do something. Are you suggesting you lazy about? There’s nothing wrong with being the student janitor, so I don’t see the source of your problems.”

“Are you doing this just because you want to avoid me for every job?” She takes Jihyo’s silver tooth, as a: ‘Yes, I’m controlling Nayeon secretly because I want her to pair me up with anyone but you’ smile.

“You still haven’t answered my question as to why you’re so lenient on changing jobs. I have my arguments, where are yours?” Jihyo knows damn well why Sana’s mad.

Sana lets out a sigh and lands two hands onto the wall, leaning with a tired stupor realising then how awfully weak she was at 5AM (and that she really was not a morning person), so she gives up, “The other column, Jihyo, next to the duty one.”

Jihyo’s fingers trace along the top row before it reaches ‘students’, and sees that Sana’s name is written directly below ‘Hirai Momo’. In the same box. She only laughs as she reads it, and as soon as she meets Sana’s gaze she’s entirely sure she struck a nerve.

“Oh, the wonderful Momo. What’s wrong with her?” Jihyo scorns, tapping her name. Sana can feel her patience tugging at her, but she only grits her teeth and responds with a glare that surely won’t be forgotten.

“You know, you devil.”

“Christ, Sana doesn’t look so happy,” Jeongyeon adds as she watches Sana exit the breakfast buffet hall so early, “What do you think’s up with her this time?”

Mina and Tzuyu both shrug instinctively, as they’re too busy shoving French toast down their throats.

Jeongyeon shoots them both a glare, and Tzuyu’s the first one to speak up (voluntarily) having them choke themselves at the expense of free food, “She’s always moody, though, no?”

Mina nods, stealing the last piece of toast from the middle of the table, “Moody can be a longshot. Pissed might be the better word.”

And it doesn’t take a moment for Jeongyeon to snicker at the remark.

Chaeyoung settles her book down on the table, weighing in on the topic softly, “I’m sure Sana will have the time of her life explaining to us why she didn’t join us for breakfast—but for now,” And her eyes glare at three sitting opposite her, “Can you shut up and eat in peace, without talking crap behind anyone’s back?”

“We’re just suggesting, Chae,” Dahyun replies defensively, taking a seat next to Jeongyeon having heard the whole conversation, “I think my best-friend’s pissed at someone.”

“Well that’s nice, isn’t it?” Nayeon soon arrives only having heard Dahyun’s last line, and she places her plate down next to Tzuyu who’s already eyeing the fresh food, “Sana’s pissed at well, let’s assume one of us. And we all know she’s always pissed at Momo for some odd reason. So, who’s the only one not around except for her?”

The girls exchange glances and Jeongyeon mutters quietly under her breath, “Jihyo.”

“Jesus. Nayeon, did she tell you to do something, again?” Dahyun asks almost instantly and she’s pulls a face that’s more than disgruntled.

“I might’ve…” Nayeon gazes down at the floor and shifts in her seat.

“Put her name next to Momo’s at the expense of your bathroom times? Because I know Jihyo takes five hundred years to shower, God knows what she does in there… I’m surprised she’s not wrinkly—anyway, that’s totally unrelated,” Dahyun pauses and gets back on her train of thought, “Nayeon, you seriously need to pair Momo up with someone else.”

“Why is that a problem?” Jeongyeon’s asks likely to have only started listening when her roommate’s name was mentioned.

Dahyun only lets out a deep sigh, and waves her hand either to say she’s totally done with Jeong or given up, theoretically, it’s both, “Sana hates her, and it’s for some odd, odd reason.” Dahyun adds, and she steals the remaining pancake left on the table.

“I’m not gonna talk to her, Dahyun.”

Dahyun slowly lowers the book that’s covering her face and she rolls her eyes, “I’m not surprised, Sana.”

“You’re a to her.” Jihyo adds.

Sana thumps her chest from almost choking on her snack.

“I mean,” Nayeon continues trying to even out the offence taken as she applies lipstick in the common-room’s many mirrors, “She’s one of the nicest people here and well…look at you, Momo’s less than harmless.”

“I’m a to everyone. I thought it wouldn’t come off as a surprise.” Sana elicits a humourless laugh, though the six girls around her have near-to-nothing expressions on their faces.

“Shocking,” Dahyun whispers as she eyes Momo enter the room, though loud enough for the seven girls now huddling around the table to hear, “Truly, shocking.”

Momo settles down opposite Sana, though it wasn’t a coincidence because no one had purposely sat there.

“I heard everything by the way,” Momo carries the conversation, folding her legs up onto the armchair, though she didn’t look in the slightest bit irked. Well, Nayeon was more than right when saying she was harmless; she wore a peach-coloured sweater, a beanie, slippers… the girls weren’t exactly sure what Sana hates about her, “And I did talk to Jihyo about it.”

Tzuyu, who was aimlessly playing thumb wars with Mina suddenly turns her head at the discussion, Mina following suit. Momo casts her gaze around the room, only chuckling after she saw everyone’s expectant faces, and Sana’s well, uninterested one.

“I said I would do it.”

‘Unbelievable. Jihyo can my metaphoric if she thinks this little façade is going to work.’ Sana sets a glare on Jihyo, who’s too busy eyeing Nayeon, who’s now directing a leering stare at Myoui Mina, who’s snuggling up way too close to the Taiwanese, but Tzuyu doesn’t seem to mind because everything’s platonic for her.

Nayeon’s also glaring at the two too affectionately close to each other next to her, but Sana’s too busy sounding out Momo’s voice to notice.

Momo frowns a little after hearing Jeongyeon’s reaction, “But. She’s. What. Impossible.” She wonders why her friends (minus Sana), have such scathing opinions on her treatment towards her.

“There’s nothing wrong with Sana,” Momo talks as if Sana wasn’t in the room, checking her non-existent notifications and messages to avoid chiming in the conversation, “I don’t know why you guys make a big deal out of it. We’re just cleaning together.”

‘Cleaning together is exactly why I’m vomiting’, Sana thinks to herself.

“You know that Sana isn’t exactly your nicest admirer, though, right?” Dahyun asks, and Sana rolls her neck at the statement.

“I’m not stupid,” Momo responds and she slaps the back of Dahyun’s head, “But there’s always room to,” and she picks up the dictionary next to her on the drawer, tapping a word in the book after flicking through an odd few pages, “Aim…lo…rate.”

“Ameliorate, you mean.” Mina corrects, digging her face in Nayeon’s chest out of laughter.

“What Mina said.”

“She still fully resents you, Momo.” Nayeon bluntly adds though her gaze is fixed on the red-head currently laughing insanely, and Momo shakes her head.

“Optimism is key, no?” Momo says and she looks vacantly at Sana, as if waiting for a response.

The latter only shrugs and returns to avoiding any substantial conversation with her, and Momo isn’t fazed, instead she lets out a light laugh, “Well, improvement, isn’t it?”

“Isn’t it time to get some athleticism in your bones?” Sana jogs, forever cheerful her gym class doesn’t involve Hirai Momo, and they’re probably 30 metres apart right now on the track, “Keep up, dubu!”

“Why are you so happy now? Who even put you in charge of leading the practice? Can’t you exchange mute Sana with this Sana? I’m voting Mina back in charge--” Dahyun complains, though Sana acts like she can’t hear any of it and slaps her hands to her ears.

It’s a gruelling half an hour for Dahyun who, along with Tzuyu, Mina, Jeongyeon, Minky, Eunwoo and Jieqiong, suffers through Sana’s somewhat ty warm-up. But you can’t tell her they all think that.

“Okay ladies,” Sana pants, obviously out of breath, but she’s all too happy now that she’s away from Momo (who’s actually in the higher set of girls doing gym, but again, you can’t tell her that), “We’re gonna attempt this.” Sana’s hands are on her hips and she nods at the hurdles in front of her.

“Are… you crazy?” Jeongyeon asks, in accurate shock and she speaks for all of the girls there, “We’re never gonna get over that.”

“Hurdles are easy, my friend.” Sana says confidently, cracking her fingers, and she ushers everyone into a line to attempt it, without any prior knowledge.

The girls were in the lanes though most of them weren’t paying attention, Mina stares off intro the fields where Nayeon's class is and quite pitifully Tzuyu tries garnering the attention of her, Minky, Jieqiong and Eunwoo are too busy trying to tie their laces. Dahyun and Jeongyeon try restrain Sana from whatever embarrassment she's definitely going to get.

“Ready,”

“Set,”

“Go!”

Sana shouts shrilly, enthusiastically, brashly, though it’s all too perfect that Sana attempts the first jump, keyword: attempts, and in a few seconds, she’s toppling over the hurdle as an ‘oomph’ escapes her lungs.

Jeongyeon’s the first one to run over, well, because, she didn’t even run, and she doesn’t help either, because she’s laughing insanely at the sight of Sana on the floor and her face in a pothole of the track filled with rainwater.

“No one help her, God, this is too funny.” No words seep out of Sana’s mouth as she convinces herself that she is definitely embarrassed out of her mind, and her limbs don’t move an inch out of pride. She’ll lay there for the rest of the day if she has to.  

Sana manages to flip over and all the girls huddle around to see what’s happening.

“Woah,” Dahyun chuckles, and she suppresses a giggle at the sight of it, “Your makeup’s all ruined.”

“Yes, I feel that.” Sana says firmly and Tzuyu helps her up.

“Your face is…”

“Messed up.” Dahyun chortles at the misfortune of her best-friend, pressing her palms to her lips so she doesn’t get hit for laughing again.

“Soaked was the word, but yeah, tell me more.” Sana wipes her face, careful not to make herself look like more of an idiot than she already does, and her patience is tugging harshly when she hears Jeongyeon snigger like she always does, so she quickens her pace to reach the locker rooms faster.

Thankfully, no one else is in there and no one else has to see her ‘messed up’ face.

Well, if Momo counts as ‘no one else’.

‘Christ, is she everywhere I go?’

Sana doesn’t say a word, only gives an uncomfortable smile, and makes her way past the girl who… just took a shower, and to the sinks to wash off dirty water and ruined make up.

“Did you fall?” Momo asks, putting her uniform back on and Sana wonders why she even bothered trying to hold a conversation, and why she’s getting dressed up so early when there’s still a quarter of the lesson left, and why she’s the only one in there with her.

“And?” Sana spits and turns to look at her having washed off the majority of the dirt and water solution off her face, “It’s none of your business.”

Momo’s in shock for a split second, but returns to her resting smile.

“Sorry for asking.” Momo apologises, and it sounds sincerer than any of Sana’s sorry attempts at redeeming herself to anyone.

“Okay then.” She replies, though it’s quite dry and blunt, and Momo can only stay silent.

For the remainder of the hell that Sana was experiencing now, Sana decides to remain in the locker room only because she doesn’t dare step foot on the track every again, not because Momo’s in it. But if it came to avoiding your mood-dropper and your utter embarrassment, Sana’d take the suffering of one person rather than her whole class.

Momo’s done dressing at this moment in time and when she realises Sana’s sitting, quietly for once, without a resting face, she reminds her of their duty they’d have later that night.

“Don’t forget!” Momo cheers, slinging her backpack round her shoulder, which was met with a “Whatever.” from Sana.

‘This girl doesn’t take a hint when I say, I don’t want to goddamn talk to you.’

“Would anyone care to inform me why none of you pointed out I had a very, very, very evident cut across my nose?” Sana demands, coming into the common room with a bandage exactly where she had mentioned moments ago.

“I did try…” Momo says too quietly, though too quiet that only Nayeon hears it and gives a sympathetic smile at her.

“Goodness, you look hilarious.” Jeongyeon buts in, chewing on a piece of gum, and Sana was very close to holding her face still between a clamp and yanking the gum out herself, “Though…” She gulps and sees the implicit rage in the brunette’s eyes, “In our defence,”

“Don’t bring us into this, loser.” Tzuyu says, speaking for Mina and Dahyun, who are both fast asleep on two armchairs respectively.

“Jeong, you totally saw it, why didn’t you tell me?”

The short-haired girl doesn’t have the privilege of cowering behind long hair, so she opts for making a run for it as a very livid Sana chases behind her.

“Does this usually happen?” Momo asks, unfamiliar with it because she never really had a great interaction with the runaway brunette.

“All the time, trust me.” Chaeyoung adds, and returns to drawing the sleeping Dahyun and Mina in front of her.

“Interesting, Kind of. Is Sana always…”

“Pissed?” Tzuyu answers in a half question, half answer tone, and she stands up carefully as to not wake Mina who’s snoozing off in her lap to make another cup of hot chocolate, “I think that’s the word you’re looking for.”

“Sana’s actually incredibly flirty, but of course you weren’t going to see that side of her anytime soon,” Nayeon laughs, though it’s without any humour and her face is almost smug, “Sana says she only flirts with girls that are her type. And with her strong sense of resentment she has towards you, I don’t think in all Sana’s little affability, is being nice written in her book for you.”

“I don’t know how you keep up with her.” Chaeyoung weighs in on the conversation, still scribbling on her notepad.

“Well, when I had saw Jihyo put me with her, I wasn’t all that surprised.”

“Why is that?” Tzuyu asks, and she’s suddenly interested in the chat again after deciding now would be the time to spill some gossip.

Momo exhales deeply, wondering why it was all still a mystery to them.

“Well, I’m best friends with Mina, and well, Jihyo being Jihyo always jumps to conclusions and thinks that we’re more than that. But I wouldn’t sabotage the beautiful companionship she has with Tzuyu,” The last line earns her a glare and she’s lucky Mina was asleep because Tzuyu was more than great at being secretive with her love life, “Anyways, Jihyo seems protective over someone, so, she told Nayeon to pair me with up Sana because she hates me.”

“Just as a sidenote,” Nayeon raises a finger, “I’m not a bad prefect. Jihyo told me if she could decide the rota she’d get me a date with,” Nayeon pauses and in Momo’s eyes it’s far from evident she’s lying because the person she really wants a date with is definitely in the room, “Jeongyeon, and so far, I think I’ve been scammed.”

Chaeyoung only laughs and finally settles down her note pad, and her gaze meets Nayeon’s, “How come I’m so uninformed here? First, I just know now Nayeon wants a date with Jeong, second, Tzuyu’s overly affectionate to Mina, what next, Momo secretly likes Sana?”

That earns a small gasp from Momo who nearly chokes on her drink.

Tzuyu suddenly lets out an ‘oooh’, and quickly diverts her attention off staring at Mina while she’s sleeping and says, “So, do you hate or love Sana?”

“Neither.”

“That’s smart, Tzuyu,” Chaeyoung responds, tapping her pencil against her temple, “That means she li-,”

Momo stretches her arms and purposely knocks Chaeyoung in the face to shut her up, and although it was too obvious in Momo’s head, the girls are too busy laughing at Chaeyoung’s demise to even remember what she was saying. Luckily.

“Don’t you dare.” Momo manages to whisper out of the corner of and Chaeyoung only nods, an easy grin on her face.

“I better get ready,” The awake Japanese faux yawns, “For a janitor job designed for rectification!”

“Oh, you’re awake.” Mina’s sudden opening of her eyes startles the girl, who only beams a smile in response. Mina shuffles up from her position so she sits upright next to her, and rests her head on the taller girl’s shoulder.

“What kind of response is that?” Mina pouts, sinking back into her the chair.

“An excited one, as always.”

The red-head’s gummy smile suddenly appears again and she realises they’re the only two left in the common room.

After a few seconds of telling Tzuyu what her dream was about, Mina has a tight frown on her face as soon as she remembers what she was going to tell the girl before she had fell asleep, “I’ve meaning to tell you. It’s my senior year, and you’re still a sophomore. I think I’ll have to focus on my studies which means less movie nights, and well, worst of all, no sleepovers.”

Tzuyu reciprocates the frown and Mina pulls on the girl’s cheeks, turning it into a wary curve of her lips.

“This doesn’t mean I can’t come in and be your personal vitamin when you’re at cheer practice, I can be as embarrassing and as obvious all you want, and it’s at the expense of a very guilty Mina.”

Tzuyu nods and she shies away from Mina’s hand tucking a loose strand of hair back behind her ear, “Whatever, big baby.”

“You’re the big baby.” Mina jokes and she throws punches at the girl’s arm playfully as if it was a (very soft) punching bag, and Tzuyu can’t help but play along so she grab’s Mina by her shoulders to prevent her from squirming (and she doesn’t), and they both roll off the chair, giggling in the late hours.

“As expected from the high flier.” Mina says and her voice is brittle, only because she’s staring straight into Tzuyu’s eyes and Tzuyu’s staring right back, and that’s the only reasonable option because Tzuyu landed straight on top of Myoui Mina herself; and she doesn’t even mind, as it’s all too wonderful and Tzuyu grips on Mina’s hands better; so she doesn’t move at all, whispering at the end of the two minutes they had spent leering at each other,

“You’re cute, Minari.”

And before Mina couldn’t even speak a breath of thanks, Tzuyu presses her lips against Mina’s, and her chest is beyond the state of butterflies, more than comfortable and warm, because she had been wanting to do this for the past two years.

After the seemingly short make out, Mina finally speaks up to respond, “My best friend definitely needs a girlfriend if she kisses like that.”

Though Mina’s evidently smiling and chuckling, rainbows and unicorns and all that , Tzuyu’s face is more than downcast.

They were lucky Sana and Momo hadn’t started doing their janitor job yet, or else they would’ve been caught fooling around.

And if you could imagine it, you’d probably see Sana explaining why taking things slow is totally an option and that dating is quite gross, and Momo congratulating Mina in every way possible and calmly and friendlily suggesting Tzuyu not hurt Mina in any way.

Of course, that never happened, because one, Mina just best-friend-zoned her, and because two, Sana’s too busy moping about in her dorm room to Dahyun to even consider Mina and Tzuyu dating.

“Sana, I love you, I really do, and I’d do anything to keep whatever annoying happiness you seem to bottle up and explode in one go, but in the name of all things holy, shut up.”

“You were going to say shut the up weren’t you?” Sana suggests, stopping her tantrum walk to either side of the room, which she had been doing for the past five minutes continuously, and she rocks back on forth from her heel to her toe.

“I don’t swear, Sana.”

Sana pushes her hair back over her shoulder flippantly, pretending to not have listened to Dahyun’s white lie (which would have probably upset her mother if she ever found out she did), and she says in a tone Dahyun found quite disgusting, “Well, I’m just going to put out there I never heard you say that, and well, on a note that’s completely related to the conversation and something that you can’t pass up—,”

Dahyun places her phone down on her lap, glaring at Sana from the top of her glasses, “I’m not doing whatever you’re about to say.”

Sana’s in shock for a moment because that girl had definitely accused her before she even let out a breath of her offer, “Come on, Dubs, I bought you lunch yesterday.”

“You did,” And she says in a convincing tone, though she’s Dahyun, she knows how to put up with Sana’s crap, “But you did eat it yourself because your churros, which you ended up not even ordering, never came while I went to the restroom, which is when you ate it— out of habit or whatever excuse you came up with that d