Heejin could barely keep her eyes open throughout their meal. With dance regionals coming up, band gigs, and on top of that keeping up with assignments and studying for midterms, she rarely got a full eight hours of sleep. Five if she was lucky and maybe catch a twenty minute nap when she took the bus to go home. She was still a second year but eleventh grade was already kicking her .

Jinsol, who was currently sitting next to her at lunch, managed to stick her hand out and stop Heejin's face from collapsing into her lunch tray just in time. Heejin jolted up from the sudden impact on her forehead. A bit disoriented she looked at her surrounding and let out a relieved breath when she locked gazes with the older blonde.

"At this rate you're going to face-plant in class and get kicked out."

Heejin let out a yawn. “Just like you?”

In return Jinsol slapped her face a few times to “help” keep her eyes open, or so she said. It barely worked and Heejin knew it was for the jab she threw at her.

The other girls gave her a worried look of concern but they couldn't do much to help Heejin. They had already reduced their performances thanks to Haseul's help (whatever would they do without their manager), but they still didn't know why Heejin's sleeping schedule hadn't gotten better.

"Tell your girlfriend to stop going dictator during dance practice instead," Heejin snarled.

"Damn girl, chill." Jinsol threw her a fry. "She's just as stressed as you are."

"Sorry," Heejin ruffled her hair in annoyance. "The sleep-deprivation is getting to me. You know what I'll just go and try to catch a power nap before class."

Jungeun gave her a thumbs up. "Don't worry about practice today. We told you, you can just come twice a week instead of every day."

The guitarist shook her head as she shoved all her books in her bag. "Not playing for even a day makes me rusty."

Hyunjin rolled her eyes. "We've been playing since kids. I doubt not playing daily will affect you greatly."

"But–"

"Heejin you need to take it easy." Vivi, who was quiet as a mouse, also joined in.

Well damn it. If even the foreign girl was trying to convince her too then they knew this was serious. She really didn't want to seem like she wasn't putting effort into the band, that's why she was still coming to the music room to practice without fail even though her body was screaming for rest.

In the end, Haseul did something that Heejin couldn't fight against. "All those in favor of Heejin only coming to practice twice a week raise their hand."

Not missing a beat after Haseul's statement, five hands went up in the hair, all except for Heejin's. All the girls then put their hands down and looked back at the tired girl.

"That settles it. You only come Wednesdays and Saturday at Jungeun's." Haseul smiled softly.

Heejin kept mum even though she wanted to protest. Haseul's word was law. With that said she gave them all a quiet goodbye as she left the cafeteria and thought about where she could take her nap in peace. The library? Or perhaps the classroom. It would be a lot more convenient if she went straight to class.

She wasn’t counting with something being at the other side of the door when she opened it to leave. It was a girl who looked to have been in the middle of taking a picture. She let out a loud yelp and almost dropped her camera, thankfully only her bag slipped off her shoulders and hit the ground.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.”

Scurrying like a squirrel, the girl was quick to gather all her things and mumble back an embarrassed apology.

“No it’s okay. My fault for being in front of the door. I’m sorry, are you alright?” The girl was talking but wasn’t looking at her.

Heejin was trying to get a good look of her face but couldn’t with the way her face was looking at the ground. All she could make out was that she had pretty brown hair and cute ears. She had no idea what grade the girl was in or whether she had seen her before.

“Here let me help you.”

“No I got it,” the girl backed off, making Heejin freeze in mid air when she was about to reach for all the papers scattered on the ground.

In the end she just shoved everything back in her bag and ran away. All except for one paper that floated out, which looked to be an insert from the school newspaper. As Heejin picked it up she saw it was an article about nothing interesting in particular, just about how the dance team had qualified for regionals this year once again but their performance had gotten noticeably better thanks to their new dance captain.

Huh. Actually the more Heejin read, the more she noticed the article put a lot of emphasis on Sooyoung. It went so far as to give details on her academic life and all her achievements, as well as a solo shot of her at the bottom from the last dance performance at the school assembly.

Was that girl part of the newspaper club perhaps? And what had she been taking a picture of anyways, Heejin wondered as she looked up and scanned her surroundings. The girl seemed to be pointing her camera at the end of the hall from the left since that’s where the door hit her back.

When Heejin looked to her left, the dots connected in her head. Outside of a classroom stood Sooyoung, engrossed in a book while leaning against the wall, not having noticed any of the commotion meters away from her. She was probably waiting for the bell to ring and that was the class she had to go to next.

Witch the newspaper article in hand and the frantic image of that girl trying to gather all her things together and flee the scene, no doubt she had been taking pictures of Sooyoung. But was Sooyoung aware? Should she say something? But it was none of her business…

Heejin in the end her heel and threw the paper away in a garbage bin nearby. If something like that happened again in front of her then she promised herself she would speak up, but for now, she had just missed five minutes of her power nap and she wasn’t set on losing more time.

Heejin hated to admit it but not having to wake up extra early to make it to the music room to practice was a gift sent from heaven. She could catch up on at least an extra two hours of sleep that may not seem like much but actually made a huge difference. Instead of the usual four hours of sleep, Heejin was at least getting six, which again was still not the ideal, but it was better. Plus she was able to sometimes take 30-minute naps so those helped too.

Right now she was at dance practice. The reason the team was trying so hard was because for this year's district competition they would be having prize money. Granted, it would all go to the school, but money going towards bettering their school never hurt anyone. Finally they would be able to fix the faulty bathroom doors and maybe get new whiteboards for the classrooms.

Sooyoung was really not going easy on them and made them practice like they were actually on stage. She had a hawk's eye it came to observing their performance. She caught anyone in seconds if they were a beat late, forgot the steps, didn't kick high enough, their arms weren't at the right angle, or their face expressions weren't appropriate.

Sooyoung may be strict but one couldn't deny it made them much better than they used to be. Heejin may joke about Sooyoung being a dictator but she couldn't deny she was damn competent at being dance captain. The role fit her to a t, and with the new knowledge of her being Jinsol's girlfriend, she didn't seem as unapproachable and unfriendly as before. Granted, Heejin still kept her distance, but at least she could send Sooyoung a small smile without it looking awkward.

"Good job everyone! Same time, same place Thursday."

Like dominoes, all the girls fell to the floor as soon as Sooyoung said those words. Some (those who had incredible stamina) managed to crawl to the side to reach their water bottles. Heejin could barely lift a finger.

"Hyejoo good job on improving your eye contact." Heejin could hear Sooyoung give separate compliments or advice to every single girl on the team.

Finally the dance captain reached her and Heejin couldn't even open her eyes.

"Heejin, you did great in the intro but your energy is depleting by the end. Make sure to pace yourself so you can go all out for the last song."

Heejin nodded with her eyes closed, still breathing hard and trying to stop her lungs from wanting to collapse on her. With that the younger girl could hear retreating footsteps, which meant that Sooyoung had left her alone and not waited for a verbal response. In less than a minute the sound of footsteps was back and Heejin felt a bit of weight on her stomach.

The Mix&Match guitarist opened her eyes to see Sooyoung holding her pink water flask on her stomach. Sooyoung then helped her sit up and handed her the water, Heejin taking large gulps to quench her thirst.

"Thank you," Heejin let out in a tired breath.

"Just a few more weeks Heejin. Hang in there." The captain gave her a couple pats on the shoulder.

Perhaps Jinsol had mentioned that Heejin was having a bit of a hard time lately with all the school work and school activities piled on her plate. The least Sooyoung could do was be nice and not so awkwardly distant. She had yet to meet all the girls of Mix&Match formally but working on a good impression before then wouldn't hurt her.

"If you're doing this to gain brownie points with Jinsol, you pass." Heejin teased.

Immediately Sooyoung's cheeks went aflame at being found out so easily. "No! I mean... you do seem more exhausted as of late and I just want to make sure you don't collapse." She said honestly. "Please make sure you go straight home and take a nap."

"Yes ma'am." Heejin sent her one last teasing wink before getting up to