JISOO’S POV:

“Jisoo unnie, I think this might work?” Chaeyoung gestured towards a relatively low section of the wall surrounding the school premises, which happened to coincide with a section of the pavement that sloped upward.

“If you help me get onto the wall, I should be able to help you over…” I replied thoughtfully.

Wondering what we had gotten ourselves into? Following our bike outing, we had spent the best part of 3 hours at a karaoke-dining joint, and had gone at least a couple hours beyond the curfew at best. The school was already locked up, hence we had no choice but to resort to ‘breaking and entering’.

After scanning our surroundings to ensure that no one was in the vicinity, I got onto Chaeyoung’s shoulders and she lifted me with consummate ease (boy was she strong), leaving me with only the simplest of manoeuvres to shimmy onto the wall. I reached out with the intention of helping Chaeyoung up, but she was way ahead of me, already hoisting herself over with the minimum of fuss.

“Perks of being tall…” I commented in wonder.

Chaeyoung shook her head, a cheeky grin playing on her lips. “What would you do without me, unnie? You'd be stranded on the streets alone.”

“It wouldn't be the first time…” I grinned sheepishly before recounting the painful night I was thrown out of the house due to having played truant.

“You're one of a kind, unnie,” Chaeyoung managed to gasp in between her peals of laughter.

“At least I've got a partner in crime now,” I threw my arm around her shoulders while she pretended to be disgusted at my behaviour.

“Once a bad influence, always a bad influence.”

“Well, the bad influence has just about saved you from disciplinary action.”

“Oh?”

“I got Gookjoo to mark us as present for attendance-taking, so we're in the clear. But…”

“But?”

“There's a catch, we have to spend the night out here somewhere, since we'll get found out if we enter boarding at this time.”

Chaeyoung’s expression contorted into one of horror. “But...it's so cold...plus look at how we dressed.”

I scanned our bodies quickly and felt a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. T-shirts and shorts were well-suited for the hot afternoon, but were far from ideal if we were going to spend the night in the midst of the freezing night air.

I ran through as many possibilities I could think of in my head. Classrooms? The entire school building was locked up. Sneaking into boarding? We needed to be ninjas to execute such a ploy, surely. “There's no other choice, we're just gonna have to suffer through the night,” I sighed in resignation.

We managed to find a reasonably secluded area where we probably wouldn't be noticed in the morning, a shed where numerous forms of sporting equipment were kept. It was dreadfully cold, but hey, at least we had shelter.

Our ‘goodnights’ had been said long ago, as Chaeyoung claimed to be exhausted from ‘chauffeuring’ me around the river for 2 hours. I didn't quite feel tired, so I continued gazing out through the transparent roof at the night sky, admiring the stars, the constellations which I never really had the chance to properly appreciate in the past.

I heard Chaeyoung repeatedly tossing and turning, though, and it was obvious that she was having trouble falling asleep. It came as little surprise when I heard her soft, sleepy voice. “Jisoo unnie?”

“Hmmm?”

“It's too cold, I can't sleep and I think I'm going to fall sick.”

“Aish, you should have said so earlier instead of suffering in silence, I knew there was something a bit off with you,” I was mostly concerned and somewhat annoyed, “Use my jacket, I'm not cold.”

“But you need it too, unnie…”

I ignored her words and shuffled out of my jacket before tossing it to her. “Wear this and come closer,” I ordered in a no-nonsense voice.

Chaeyoung slipped on my jacket with a guilty look on her face before edging closer to me at a snail's pace. Aish, whatever. Chaeyoung’s eyes widened as I turned in her direction and abruptly wrapped my arms around her.

“Why do you look so surprised, I'm merely applying the invaluable knowledge obtained from biology class. Remember the penguin video?” I snickered as I recalled the conversation earlier in class.

“Kim Jisoo, you'd better wake up, this is a very important video on the mechanisms of animals.”

“But sir, I can experience firsthand the human mechanism of sleeping. Isn't that more meaningful?”

Cue intense rage from Professor Choi and I decided I would be wading in extremely treacherous waters should I push his buttons even further, hence I actually watched the video.

“Oh, right, they huddle together to keep warm. Professor Choi would be really proud of his favorite student here, you know.” Chaeyoung probably meant for her statement to be sarcastic, but her voice was so thickly laced with sleep that it sounded comical, even.

“Go to sleep, I'll keep you warm, you sound really tired.” This was one of the rare times where my protective, motherly instincts kicked in, and I really felt the need to protect Chaeyoung at all costs.

“But I feel like just chatting with you now, unnie…” Chaeyoung pouted as she reciprocated my hug tightly. “Doesn't this feel really romantic? Just the two of us, under the vast, boundless night sky, it feels like a rom-com.”

“Mmmm, and I'm obviously the lead actress.”

“No, I'm---wait...is that a shooting star?” Chaeyoung pointed at a small beam of light gliding across the night sky. “Make a wish, unnie!”

As Chaeyoung closed her eyes and clasped her hands together, presumably in prayer, even though I was far from superstitious and usually a non-believer of these myths, there was something I really wanted to come to fruition.

May Chaeyoung and I be together forever.

PS: Sorry for not updating for a while! I've been pretty busy and I'll try my best to keep the updates going ASAP :)