Day 12 - Monday

Early mornings were never Chaeyoung's moments. Especially damn Mondays. She has set alarms for hours with five minute intervals and still find difficulties to even notice the alarm going off. There were days where she would wake up in the height of noon, completely missing all of her morning classes. A parentless home can do that to you.

Waking up in an empty home is horrifying. No one to greet good morning to. No one to say goodbye for the daily routine. No one to welcome you back after your tiring activities.

That's where Jeongyeon comes in. Or at least, before.

Jeongyeon would wake up earlier than her usual waking time just so she could pass by the younger's home and be the alarm that coos (hits) her from deep slumber.

But after Jeongyeon left, her morning solution went with her. She couldn't rely on Jihyo because it was out of her way to school. She couldn't rely on Nayeon neither because she has the same problem as her. (She has parents to rely on waking her at least).

Today is no exception. It took her alarm exactly two hours and twenty five minutes for Chaeyoung to finally acknowledge its presence. Twenty five minutes since first period started.

Groaning, like a disturbed lion in its den, she drags her feet on the side of her bed and takes her time stretching her stiff muscles.

The school staff didn’t mind, or doesn't care more likely, about her at all. All of them took pity on the underage kid who lives alone, granting her exemption from tardiness.

A good chunk of the kids are unsubtly jealous of that right, getting a little bit more of sleep and all. Chaeyoung would gladly give it away in exchange for getting to see her mom again every morning.

She animatedly does her morning ceremony, from brushing her teeth to putting on her uniform and giving her hair a few swipes backwards with her fingers.

Gathering her things for the day is another obstacle she has to cross every morning. She could never seem to memorize what classes she has for the day. Not feeling up for further thinking, she just grabs all the books visible on her desk.

She catches sight of her SLR camera peeking behind her doodle notebooks, unconsciously stopping all her movements. A hand moves slowly towards it, grazing the rim of the lens before retreating.

Maybe next time.

Chaeyoung wears her favorite green hoodie before leaving the front door, tucks her earphones in place, and hops on her skateboard.

The school wasn't that far. An average of fifteen minute walk. But just like her hyung, she enjoys nature's gift, closing her eyes through the ride and accepting the entirety of the wind against her as she kicks her board forward.

Skate boarding was one of the few skills Jeongyeon had taught her before her teens. They would go to school often, side by side, with her skating and a biking Jeongyeon. Most of the time, racing against each other and competing which wheeled contraption was a faster (it was the bicycle).

The school guard catches sight of her nearing and doesn't even bother attempting to send her to the disciplinary office.

Convenient as it may be, she misses being scolded, or being told what's right, or being a ing normal teenager.

She turns the knob to her room casually and heads directly to her seat. Her teacher glances for a second, confirms the presence to be Chaeyoung, and returns to reading a passage from Macbeth since her being late is “completely normal”.

Hm, so Monday's first period is Literature. (She'll surely forget it again when weekend comes.)

This is how Chaeyoung spends most of her morning classes. Either she's sleeping through all the lectures while wearing her full hoodie on, or she fills her books and notes with doodles of varying shapes and creatures. Both, however, are completely ignored by the teachers. Nobody simply cares about her.

She wakes up in the middle of third period when the whole class cracks up at the teacher's spontaneous joke that she completely missed.

She wasn't an outcast or anything. Students still talk to her, but most of the time it was school related and nothing casual. Well, she's partly to blame for not making an effort to befriend anyone.

She leans back on her desk, her left temple carrying the weight of her head and eyes her tall seatmate, unaffected by whatever cracked up the class.

"Why aren't you laughing with them?" Chaeyoung asked just so only the two of them can hear.

"Why are you always asleep?" Her seatmate asks back with only her lips moving.

Answering a question with another question. It was a favorite habit of Jeongyeon whenever she tries to avoid something.

"Chou Tzuyu, at least look in my direction when we finally talk to each other for the first time."

With a lingering sigh, Tzuyu complies and turns her head an exact ninety degrees to her left, because she loves geometry so much, to face her height lacking seatmate. "What do you want from me Son Chaeyoung?"

She's friends with Sana. Maybe you could befriend her and our two groups could hangout.

"Wanna be friends with me?"

Although antisocial, Chaeyoung is a natural when it comes to deducing reactions. Tzuyu's facial features remain a rock. Creepily still. But there was a glow in her eyes that felt like she wanted someone to say those words to her for a very long time.

"Who are you?! Are you bullying our Tzuyu?!" The girl with a pointy nose accused.

That was the most interesting hello Chaeyoung has ever heard. Second only to Nayeon's "can I kiss you?" back when they first met.

Chaeyoung, wanting to skip the awkward stages of being acquaintances, went to lunch with Tzuyu. There are three girls on the table. Two of which are staring at her like they're ready to pounce and the other one seems to be doing the opposite, looking everywhere but her direction, hiding half of her face with her shoulder length hair.

"I'm Tzuyu's seatmate slash new friend."

The one who accused her instantly changed her aura from ready-to-swing-fists hostile to a very happy older sister like some sort of crazy split personality. "Hi! I'm Sana!" Sana, suddenly all hyper, forces Chaeyoung into a hand shake. "You are?" She doesn't even apologize for calling her a bully.

So this is Jeongyeon's neighbor. She could already tell that she's going to be a handful.

"Chaeyoung," she simply said, arms getting numb from the shaking.

"So you're Chaeyoung!" Sana releases her hold on Chaeyoung and claps her palms together. "Jeongyeon told me she basically saved you from life-long boredom."

"Sana," Tzuyu interrupts, "play nice."

"That's first class irony right there coming from you staTzu."

Chaeyoung fails to hold a grin from appearing. The nickname suited Tzuyu's stone cold presence.

"Sit, sit!" Sana scoots over to the edge of the table.

Chaeyoung follows suit, sliding her across the bench parallel to the table with Tzuyu sandwiching her between Sana.

"You're not eating anything?" One of the two girls that was also prepared to raise fists sitting across them asks. "I'm Momo by the way."

"I'm not hungry."

"It's lunch time and you're not hungry?" Momo scrunches up her nose and furrows her brows together. "I don't think we can get along."

"Think of it this way." Sana leans on the table towards Momo. "The next time you have lunch with her and she happens to actually have food with her then all of a sudden she isn't hungry, you get to eat the rest."

With renewed vitality, Momo stands from her seat and sandwiches Chaeyoung's hand between her own, forcing another handshake. "Hi! I'm Momo!" A completely different introduction from earlier. "We should have lunch sometime, just the two of us." That's two of them having some kind of split personalities now. This one triggers when it comes to food. "I can tell we will get along just fine!"

"You should eat more if you want to grow taller." Tzuyu chides in.

"Are we heading straight to the teasing stage of our friendship already?" Chaeyoung faces her, letting go of her second forced hand shake. "I can go with that, Tzubacca."

"At least I don't need to stand on my seat whenever we have to copy notes, midgChaet."

"Awww! That's so cute!" Sana has this sparkle in her eyes that reads I'm so proud Tzuyu finally has a friend. "Tzubacca and the midgChaet."

Chaeyoung has had worse things call her. Midget is at the entrance level. And the way these girls called her that, have no speck of offensiveness at all. Just an innocent tease which is normal between friends.

Normal.

Sana and Momo were laughing at the new combination, Tzuyu was smiling genuinely, which surprised Chaeyoung, but the last girl that has yet to introduce herself has been busying herself with her phone, ignoring the newcomer's welcome.

"Hey," Momo, might be a mind reader, elbows the girl beside her lightly, "don't be rude."

The girl in question hits pause on her app and raises her head to face Chaeyoung. "Mina," she simply says (whispered) before returning to her phone.

"She's just shy." Sana whispers, her lips almost having contact with the shell of Chaeyoung's ear, making the latter flinch away. "Ah sorry! Too close?"

Chaeyoung nods once. "Yeah, um, I don't like being... intimate."

Invasion of personal space frightens her.

Or what's left of it.

This, however, caught the interest of the silent Mina as she casually hid her phone back in her pocket, pretending to be tired of the game she was playing. "How come?"

A hot seat. A process that is inevitable when one suddenly enters the lives of a group of friends. Chaeyoung knew this was a given when she decided to follow Tzuyu to lunch, but when the moment came, it still ambushed her.

She shares eye