Chaeyoung smiles widely as she receives her result slip, cheeks hurting from the constant smiling. Quickly adding up the marks of all three papers; MCQ, Paper 2 and practical, Chaeyoung’s smile widened, if it was even possible. 

35/40, 65/80 and 41/40. 

Wait. 41/40 for that practical which she totally bullted and fretted over? Chaeyoung stared at the yellow cover sheet in a mixture of amazement and gratefulness, but the most evident emotion that bubbled in her gut is pride. Chaeyoung has stressed over this exam for weeks, fretting that she had not studied hard enough to score an A1, and most importantly, be top in her class. Chaeyoung has always kept a good reputation of being the best at practically everything, and she’s been scoring badly for her languages and humanities, and dropped from an A1 to a B4 for e maths. E maths for crying out loud! The one maths she could actually do because her A maths was thrown out of the window. Thankfully, her grades had proved that she was indeed the best in class for Biology and Chemistry, topping the class and getting into the 80-100 percentile in her cohort. 

Chaeyoung gripped her paper in excitement as she reviewed her horrendously well done practical paper, cringing inwardly at her messy and practically illegible handwriting. Chaeyoung is usually extremely calm and collected in the practical practices, but for this exam practical she couldn’t find the duration of the paper written on the board, so she just had to take a leap of faith and do her best. That was until she spotted the excruciatingly small “11.15-12.05” on the board, and by that time, she had only 20 minutes left and a planning question to do. Let’s just say Chaeyoung’s the best in chemistry for a reason because she threw together some steps and scored a whopping 6/7 for that question. 

“How did you do Chae?” 

Chaeyoung turned to face Jennie, her best friend and her constant motivation. Jennie was such a great friend who always managed to cheer Chaeyoung up when she felt inadequate in her grades. 

“Pretty good, thought i’d do better for paper 2 though, wanted a 68 and above out of 80.” Chaeyoung answers, skimming through her paper and pointing out her careless mistakes. 

Jennie chuckles, knowing that Chaeyoung definitely got her A1, because if she scored anything below an 80/100, Chaeyoung would wear a deep frown with a small scowl, glaring at her paper as if it killed her family. The last time that happened was last year’s mid year exams, where Chaeyoung had fallen really sick and was down with a 39 degree Celsius fever but forced herself to come, rendering her absolutely helpless and stuck with her 77/100. 

Jennie stands and moved to Chaeyoung, sharing seats with the strawberry blonde girl, peeking over to snoop at her answers. 

In an hour, the teachers had went through the paper, Jennie linking arms with Chaeyoung and hopping down the stairs, excited for the monday special in the korean stall — kimchi fried rice. Jennie was an expert at making the said dish, but it was nice to simply toss a $2 note and get a steaming hot plate of her favourite food. 

Chaeyoung giggled and tightened her arms around Jennie, sending the girl a cheeky smile. “I’m kinda high now.” 

Jennie laughs, patting the girl’s flushed cheeks, “I can tell, let me guess, your chemistry grades?” 

The countless more giggles and a nod of her head told Jennie her guess was spot on. Chaeyoung grabbed Jennie’s arms and shook her hard, squealing softly in the process. Chaeyoung was probably the most bipolar person Jennie ever met, one second she could be overjoyed and jumping all over the place, and the next second she could be raging at someone for doing something as minor as bumping into her. 

Jennie cursed herself for thinking that when another blonde haired girl who was approaching them accidentally slammed into Chaeyoung, knocking her baby pink bottle off her hands and onto the cold hard concrete floor. 

Chaeyoung squinted at her bottle, eyes turning a shade of steel as she clenched her hand around Jennie’s wrist tightly. Chaeyoung was about to rage when she heard a quick “oh gosh i’m so sorry!” and in a swift move, the girl picked up the bottle and dusted it off before handing it back to Chaeyoung. 

Chaeyoung suppressed her bubbling anger and lifted her head to the perpetrator, anger quickly diminishing when she sees a flushed face with a bright smile despite the girl’s tired pants. Chaeyoung blinked in surprise, hand steadily reaching out to retrieve her bottle, eyes never breaking their steady stream of eye contact. 

“Thanks…” Chaeyoung trailed off as she frowns slightly, before quickly casting the girl a smile. “Sorry, for holding you up, you must be in a rush.” With that comment, the blonde nodded thankfully and rushed up the stairs. 

“Oh my gosh Jen! She’s so cute!” Chaeyoung squealed, only to have herself shushed when it was a little louder than it was supposed to be. 

“Yes I know, but you probably gave yourself away with that awfully loud squeal you let out. I’m surprised you didn’t just jump on her right there and then to be honest.” 

Chaeyoung clicked her tongue in fake annoyance, giving her friend a side eye before dragging her down the stairs to the canteen. 

After that incident with the blonde, Chaeyoung felt that she’s been seeing the said girl more and more often, may it be in joint chemistry classes or interclass P.E competitions, Chaeyoung found the blonde to be a regular face she’d see. 

So in their upcoming interclass frisbee, Chaeyoung just knows she’ll see the girl again. Not like she’d go easy on her or anything though, Chaeyoung keeps herself strictly professional in competitions. Just as the irritatingly loud whistle blast hit them, Chaeyoung let out an angry exhale, turning to look at her team members and accounting for them. 

“Cute girl 3 o’ clock.” 

Chaeyoung reported to the teacher in charge quickly, before whipping her head to the said direction, seeing a familiar blonde with that ever present bright smile. Doing some weird… hand signs to her friends. 

“Some gang work that is.” 

Chaeyoung laughed at her friend’s comment, shoving her playfully in the process. “Shut up and play the game goddamn it.” Jennie giggles, tossing her teammate the frisbee and walking to their court. 

Jennie frowns as their team stands at a side, waiting for the opponent team to get ready. Doing a quick mental count, Jennie sighed in boredom, leaning against Chaeyoung as she spins the green frisbee. “Waiting for one more, ugh i can already tell this game’s gonna be boring, just look at them.” 

Jennie sighs for the upteenth time, tapping her foot in impatience as she clutches onto the frisbee. “Shh.” Chaeyoung gently taps on her th