“Sowon got sick when she saw the petrified body,” Eunha blurted out.

SinB paused, glancing over her shoulder to look at her carefully. She quirked an eyebrow, but when Eunha said nothing else, she continued walking. SinB drummed her fingers against her thigh as she said, “I heard.”

“Yerin didn’t,” Eunha added.

This time SinB didn’t stop walking, but Eunha saw the way her shoulders tensed. SinB didn’t look at her as she repeated, “I heard.”

Eunha sighed and followed SinB and Umji helplessly down the darkened hall. It was well past midnight, probably nearing two in the morning at this point. Eunha had been peacefully sleeping when SinB had prodded her awake and told her that she and Umji were going to snoop around the castle. When Eunha had stared at her incredulously and asked why, SinB had just stared back and said simply, “I’m not going to just lay around while students are being petrified.”

Unable to argue with that, Eunha had dragged herself out of bed to follow her insane best friends around the castle. Umji didn’t seem particularly enthused about walking the dimly lit corridors at this time of night, but just like Eunha, she couldn’t just let SinB do this alone. Sometimes, Eunha wondered if SinB even realized how charismatic she was. While SinB didn’t attempt to appeal to the greater student population, if she wanted to befriend you, it was hard to say no to her smile and persistent attitude.

“I should’ve grabbed my coat,” Eunha mumbled. “The halls are freezing.”

Without even pausing, SinB slipped off her jacket and handed it to her. Eunha eyed her in exasperation for a moment, but when SinB didn’t retract her arm, Eunha reluctantly took the jacket. That was another thing about SinB. Eunha didn’t know if she just cast a Warming Charm on all of her clothes or what, but the other girl was never cold.

“I can feel you thinking,” SinB commented dryly, and Umji snorted in amusement.

Scoffing, Eunha sped up to walk on the other side of SinB. She peered at SinB’s blank face carefully, taking in the bags under her eyes. “Should we really be doing this?” Eunha asked.

“I never said you had to come with me,” SinB sighed.

This time it’s Umji’s turn to scoff as she points out, “Right, and when’s the last time you had a proper night’s rest?”

SinB’s cheeks reddened as she scowled, “I’m fine.”

“Then we’re fine too,” Umji smiled sweetly, a cold warning tone making her words very passive aggressive.

SinB rolled her eyes while Eunha stifled a snicker. Eunha usually didn’t think it was worth hassling SinB because SinB could be so stubborn, but Umji had no qualms with taunting and nagging the other girl. It was fun to watch SinB get snarked at by Umji, a person most people thought of as too quiet and too kind.

Suddenly, SinB stopped and shot her arms shot out, forcing Eunha and Umji to stop too. SinB pursed her lips, eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“Someone’s coming,” SinB said, barely above a whisper. She quickly pushed Eunha and Umji into the shadows before hiding herself as well, hand gripped tightly onto her wand.

Eunha felt Umji trembling beside her, so she grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. Ever so slightly, Umji relaxed, but the both of them remained tense as they stood behind SinB, who stared into the hallway with a stance that clearly said she was ready to attack at the slightly provocation.

“This is your worst idea yet, and you’ve had some pretty stupid ideas.”

Sowon.

Eunha immediately relaxed when she recognized the voice with Umji following her lead seconds later. However, SinB remained stiff.

“You saw the girl.” Ah, that’s Yerin’s voice.

“I did see the girl,” Sowon hissed, “but I know a dangerous idea when I see one.”

“So is this dangerous or stupid?” Yerin snarked.

Eunha could practically see Sowon facepalm as she exclaimed, “It’s both!”

As if taking that as her cue, SinB stepped out of the shadows. Eunha and Umji did so as well, unsurprised to see Sowon and Yerin a few paces way from them. Eunha was surprised to see Yuju with them though. When she glanced at Umji, the other girl looked surprised as well but also upset. She supposed having your crush go on life-threatening treks through the castle could be a bit of an annoyance. At that thought, Eunha’s eyes unwillingly were drawn to Sowon.

Still gorgeous and too tall for her own good. Eunha bit back a sigh as the other trio noticed them.

“Looks I’m not the only one with the dangerous ideas,” Yerin remarked casually, but Eunha saw a shocking amount of longing in her eyes as she stared at SinB. Eunha knew they’d had a fight, but SinB has been mum about the subject of the fight. What had been stranger was the fact that they hadn’t made up, but it must’ve been something bad for Yerin to look like such a kicked puppy. Also, did this mean SinB’s crush wasn’t one-sided like it’d been years before? “Hello, SinB.” Eunha wondered if she imagined the tremor in her voice.

“What are all of you doing out here?” SinB asked, completely ignoring Yerin’s greeting. Ouch, not that Eunha blames her, but she did feel some sympathy as Yerin visibly deflated at the lack of acknowledgement.

“Isn’t that my line?” Sowon retorted, but there’s no heat behind her words.

Eunha caught Sowon’s eye and shot back, “Like you aren’t a prefect out past curfew too?”

Sowon had the decency to look embarrassed, but nonetheless, she plowed on, saying, “At least I’m a prefect.”

“Oh, you’re really going to play the prefect card?” Eunha scoffed.

“Guys,” Yuju cut in, looking highly uncomfortable. “Can we not do this right this second? We’re kind of in the middle of a hallway past curfew where anyone could find us.”

“Yuju has a point,” SinB conceded with a sharp nod. “Let’s cut the bull. What are you doing?”

“Seeing if we could find anything about the person who’s been paralyzing the students,” Yerin admitted, and Eunha barely held back a groan because of course they were out doing the exact same thing as them. Of course.

“We were doing the same,” Umji said when it was clear SinB wasn’t going to reply. “Why don’t we keep looking together?”

“What?” Eunha, SinB, Sowon, and Yerin all said at the same time.

“That’s a great idea,” Yuju said. “It’ll be safer that way.”

Eunha watched Yerin stare at SinB for a long moment before Yerin shrugged and said, “If it’s fine with you, it’s fine with me.”

SinB ignored her once again and turned to Eunha with a raised eyebrow. Eunha bit her lip and thought for a moment. Honestly, Eunha felt terrible about the whole argument with Sowon in the library. Did it still make her mad that Sowon had placed on the blame on SinB? Of course, but Eunha was a big enough person to acknowledge that assuming SinB was at fault for the fight with Yerin wasn’t unprecedented. Still, SinB probably had a good reason.

Then again, Sowon seemed to be suffering from the same dilemma Yerin was. They couldn’t decide if they liked Eunha and SinB despite their house being Slytherin. It was annoying and frustrating. Eunha just wanted them to decide and leave them alone if they decided they weren’t worth it.

But… Eunha glanced at Sowon out of the corner of her eye and sighed. She was getting too soft.

Eunha gave SinB a discrete nod to which SinB sighed as well.

“I guess we’re teaming up,” SinB announced with no amount of enthusiasm.

Umji immediately beelined for Yuju, grabbing her hand and smiling as she whispered something. Yuju’s tension from earlier melted away as she looked at Umji and pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.

Eunha looked away and found Sowon awkwardly shuffling next to her. She quirked an eyebrow at her and turned to see how SinB was faring. Eunha barely managed to hold in her laughter as SinB stared ahead resolutely while Yerin looked at her pitifully. Yerin truly looked like a puppy when she did that. Shaking her head, Eunha caught SinB’s eye and waved for her to go ahead.

With a subtle, annoyed glance to her partner, SinB continued walking down the hall with Yerin trailing after her. Eunha wanted to take the back of the line, but Umji just smiled at her and shooed her to take the middle. Not feeling like arguing with her, Eunha sighed and walked beside Sowon. With a glance over her shoulder to where Umji and Yuju were smiling and holding hands, Eunha was glad at least one of them was enjoying this.

The tension between Eunha and Sowon was stifling, but Eunha refused to be the one to cave. Partially because of her stubborn pride and partially because she wanted Sowon to be the one to apologize.

“Soooooo.”

Also, Sowon would predictably be the one to apologize, so why would Eunha steal her thunder?

“About the library the other day,” Sowon said slowly, obviously stalling, “I didn’t mean to piss you off like that.”

“So you don’t think it was entirely SinB’s fault for her and Yerin’s fight?” Eunha countered.

Sowon frowned and fidgeted, avoiding her eye. “I don’t know… I only really heard Yerin’s side of the story, and not even all of it at that, but can you blame me for siding with my best friend?”

No, Eunha couldn’t, especially when she was siding with her best friend.

“All I want is for you to stop treating SinB like the devil,” Eunha told her.

“I’ll stop it when she stops acting like the devil,” Sowon retorted without any heat.

Eunha sighed and shook her head. “Whatever. It’s not worth fighting over with you.” She felt Sowon look at her and saw out of the corner of her eye that Sowon looked hurt. Eunha wondered if Sowon had taken it as she wasn’t worth it. Eunha sighed again.

Sowon kept looking at her, but Eunha ignored her. Just as Sowon went to say something, Eunha was distracted by something else. Eunha cut off Sowon by covering , eyes glued to the couple in front of them. Yerin appeared to be saying something to SinB, something that had SinB become increasingly tense. Sowon tossed her hand away from , also noticing the growing tension between them.

“I’ve missed you,” Eunha heard Yerin whisper. Uh-oh. Wrong move.

Eunha was already wincing and curled away when SinB blew up.

“You missed me?” SinB repeated in a furious shout. Yuju and Umji stopped abruptly, watching in horror as SinB turned to Yerin in a pure fit of rage and frustration “You accuse me of using you to win the quidditch game, and yet you still have the nerve to tell me you missed me?” SinB snarled.

Then Eunha processed what she said. “Yerin did what?” Eunha hissed. She turned to Sowon, who immediately raised her hands and backed away. “Did you know about this?”

“No!” Sowon denied vehemently. “Yerin wouldn’t talk about it.”

“How dare you!” Eunha snapped at Yerin. “I should—”

Sowon grabbed her arm to hold her back. When Eunha glared at her, Sowon hesitated but maintained her hold.

“You’re so confusing!” Yerin cried, drawing Eunha’s attention back to the other two. Of course, Yerin was so hot-tempered that SinB yelling could only result in her yelling back. “I never know what to do because it’s like you’re always acting!”

“How can I not be this way when whenever I do something nice, you assume it’s some plot of mine?” SinB replies heatedly.

“Because all of you Slytherins are the same!” Yerin growled.

“Stop making generalizations!” SinB exclaimed. “When have you ever had a conversation longer than five minutes with a Slytherin before me?”  Yerin hesitated, so SinB pressed on. “Just a few bad apples just ruins the whole lot, is that it? Need I remind you that your house had Peter ing Pettigrew? A rat so disloyal he left his best friends to die. He was such a terrible person that his wrongdoings are immortalized in our history books. Does that mean the same for the rest of you Gryffindors?”

“Guys,” Umji said, but she went ignored.

“Maybe if you just stopped and thought for a moment about where all your perceptions of me came from, you would realize the problem,” SinB continued.

“Guys,” Umji tried again.

“God, why do you have to make everything between us so hard when it was actually going well?” SinB asked bitterly.

“Guys!” Umji shouted, finally gaining everyone’s attention.  “Someone’s coming.”

At those words, everyone scrambled into the shadows. Eunha tried to ignore the fact that she was pressed up against Sowon, focusing on the fact that Umji was safely tucked away in Yuju’s arms while SinB was stubbornly looking everyone but Yerin, who was mere inches from her face.

“So it’s just a prank?” Eunha heard Ravenclaw’s head of house, Professor Seo, ask.

It was Professor Kim that replied, “Apparently so. Kids these days are much more cruel than they used to be.”

“What of the children who are paralyzed?” Professor Jung questioned.

“We just wait for the prank to wear off,” Professor Kim answered.

Eunha watched with everyone else as the four heads of houses walked by. As they passed, Professor Im spoke up and said, “It’s just a relief that it can’t be the basilisk.”

“That’s the last thing this school needs,” Professor Jung sighed.

The girls waited until the professors had rounded the corner of the hall out of earshot before they dared to leave the safety of the shadows. Eunha and SinB were the first ones to leave, desperate to get away from the Gryffindors.

Eunha dusted off her robes and turned to SinB. “You heard the professors. It’s just a prank. Can we go back to bed now?”

SinB frowned, clearly not accepting the answer, but then her eyes flicked back over to the Gryffindors. After a pause, SinB nodded.

“Umji,” SinB called, “we’ll walk you back to your dorm.”

Yuju looked a bit put out about not being the one to walk Umji back, but she just shrugged and kissed Umji’s cheek as a good-bye.

Umji walked ahead of Eunha and SinB while Eunha and SinB stubbornly ignored the fact that they could feel the Gryffindors’ eyes on them as they left.

A/N: An update to celebrate Gfriend's first concert! I don't know about you, but I'm still dying over it.