Jeongyeon let out a yawn and huffed warm air into her hands. She looked up, taking in the soft blue-gray color of the sky. It was morning but the sun hadn’t quite risen yet.

Reaching both hands back to cradle the nape of her neck, she walked on. She had to get to school early to catch up on a couple of things; being captain of the school’s most successful sports team, class representative, maintaining near perfect grades, and keeping up with her social life didn’t come without a price. With so many things going on, she was bound to fall behind in something at some point. But she didn’t mind waking up so early. There was something about the dawn, and how most of the world seemed to still be asleep, that soothed her.

Speaking of people still being asleep, Jeongyeon turned to look at the two shuffling students behind her. She chuckled softly at the sight of them stumbling along, leaning on each other with their eyes half open.

“Tell me why we’re walking to school at 6 am today? The sun isn’t even up yet,” Dahyun whined, dragging her feet.

Chaeyoung tugged her arm to make sure she kept up their pace, “Jeongyeon has to be at school early today and our parents make us walk together every day. You already know this.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dahyun heaved an exaggerated sigh. “I’m just questioning why I walk with you guys every morning.”

Chaeyoung wrapped herself around Dahyun’s arm, “Because you love me!”

Dahyun smiled. Of course she loved Chaeyoung. The short girl was her best friend, the only person in the entire world she could truly and honestly be herself around.

“And we’ve always walked together,” Chaeyoung added a matter-of-factly.

Dahyun playfully shrugged her off, “Well, if we keep having to walk to school this early, I might have to reconsider our friendship.”

“Shut up,” Chaeyoung slapped her arm and giggled, “I’m your best friend. You would never betray me, let alone unfriend me.”

“You’re right, I wouldn’t.” It was Dahyun’s turn to latch on to Chaeyoung’s arm. She faced forward as they trudged on, observing the older girl in front of them, “Jeongyeon unnie seems pretty happy for it being so early in the morning though.”

“She’s a weirdo and likes to wake up early. A morning person.” Chaeyoung crinkled her nose.

Dahyun laughed at Chaeyoung’s disgusted tone, “Maybe… but she’s kind of been happier than usual. I think it has something to do with-”

“Sana?” Jeongyeon’s voice startled the duo. They looked ahead to see two people waiting by the high school’s entrance waving at them.

Jeongyeon jogged up to the gate to find Sana and Mina, surprise evident on her face. Part of the reason she liked coming to school so early was because there was rarely anyone on campus to bother her before 7:30.

“Sana? Mina? What are you guys doing here?”

“Good morning to you too, Jeongyeonnie,” Sana stepped closer so they were face-to-face. She glanced down at Jeongyeon’s lips and followed the soft curves of her face up to her striking gaze. Their breaths tickled each others’ lips. Jeongyeon blinked then, slightly nodding her head to remind her that Mina was right there. Then Sana saw Chaeyoung and Dahyun come up behind her.

Sana sighed and smiled defeatedly. She was getting too ahead of herself. She greeted the two younger girls with a small wave over Jeongyeon’s shoulder before placing a quick peck on her cheek.

Jeongyeon looked down at the light haired girl empathetically, “Good morning, Sana-ya.” She placed both hands on Sana’s shoulders and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “But, seriously, it’s super early. What are you guys doing here?”

“Sana knew you were coming early today,” Mina answered, giving the blonde a quick side hug. Jeongyeon thought she looked tired; slightly blood shot eyes, faint dark circles, and her voice seemed quieter than usual, kind of empty, hollow. Jeongyeon made a note to ask Sana about it later.

“We brought you breakfast!” Sana held up a plastic bag and a paper coffee cup to hand over to the tall girl, her eyes sparkling, “Best girlfriend ever, right?”

“Yeah,” Jeongyeon chuckled and took the bag and coffee, “Best girlfriend ever.” She kissed the tip of her nose and hurried off, calling behind her, “Thank you! I gotta go but I’ll see you guys at break!”

Sana turned around looking pleased with herself.

Chaeyoung felt something bubble up in her chest. Her brow furrowed and her lips pulled into a taut line when a plastic wrapped chocolate croissant and a small milk carton appeared in front of her face.

“And, of course, I didn’t forget about Chaeyoung-chan!” Sana grinned.

“Chaeyoung-chan?” A blush crawled up the younger girl’s neck and across her cheeks.

Dahyun eyed her as the dimple on her friend’s right cheek made itself known. “She’s that happy about a croissant?” A strange feeling overtook her and she turned to meet Mina’s gaze, a knowing glint in her eyes. Dahyun shifted in place, suddenly feeling self-conscious.

“Yeah! Chaeyoung-chan!” Sana giggled, “It rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? It’s perfect cause it’s cute like you!” She placed the pastry and milk carton in Chaeyoung’s loose grip.

“Cute like me…” Chaeyoung repeated. Her face went blank as she began to blink rapidly, lost in thought.

Dahyun caught on to what was happening before Sana (and, hopefully, Mina) could notice. “What about me?” She frowned dramatically, “No breakfast for Dahyunnie?”

Her distraction was a success. Sana looked at Dahyun sulkily, “I would’ve gotten you something if I had known y-”

“Here, you can have mine,” Mina stepped forward holding out a small plain milk bun.

“Oh no!” Dahyun waved her hands, “It’s yours! I couldn’t take your breakfast away from you!”

A warm smile graced Mina’s face, “It’s okay. I’m not that hungry anyway.” She extended her reach further toward the dark-haired girl, “I can just share with Sana, don’t worry about it.”

Dahyun reached out tentatively, “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

Dahyun took the bun from Mina and looked up to see the older girl’s soft, friendly expression. The corners of Dahyun’s mouth pulled up, her eyes becoming little crescents, as her heart beat faster. “Thank you so much!”

“Aw, Mitang! You’re so nice! Of course, I’ll share with you!” Sana pounced on her best friend.

“Super nice! The nicest!” Dahyun joined in, her voice echoing down the empty street.

Chaeyoung broke out of her trance. She took note of the way Dahyun gripped the bread and how stiff her smile was; Chaeyoung knew she had to do something before the girl started to make things awkward, but when she checked the two older girls' reactions, she was surprised to see that they were looking at Dahyun fondly. "Maybe there's nothing to worry about here...Probably shouldn't risk it though."

“We should probably get to school now. We have a club meeting to prepare for.” Chaeyoung bowed, a grin glued to her face. “Thank you for breakfast!”

“Anytime, Chaeyoung-chan!” Sana winked.

Chaeyoung turned bright pink. She quickly spun around to leave, grabbing Dahyun by the arm to drag her across the street.

Sana and Mina waved after the two middle school students. “That was really nice of you to give Dahyun your breakfast.” Sana talked through her smile. She waited until the two younger girls disappeared within the middle school gates to turn to Mina with a stern expression, “But you still have to eat something.”

“I’m not really hungry right now,” Mina tried to shrug the subject off.

“Mina, I’ve been with you all night and you haven’t eaten anything since like yesterday afternoon, when you told me about…” Sana’s voice trailed off when she saw Mina wince. She knew better than to finish that sentence. Everything was still too new, too fresh.

“I’m just not in the mood to eat, okay?” Mina hoped that Sana would take the hint and drop the matter.

She didn’t. The girl was awfully persistent; Mina gave her that.

Sana shoved a rice ball right up against her best friend’s lips, concern written all over her face, “Please? I know you’re going through a lot right now and all you probably want to do is go home, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and just wallow in a pit of nothingness and eat ice cream straight out of the tub. But you’re here, so will you at least let me take care of you?”

Mina looked into the older girl’s eyes. Despite the worried expression, in them she found a familiar warmth and comfort; in them she found home and how could she say no to that?

She sighed and opened to take a bite of the rice ball pressed against her lips. “Fine,” she chewed, “But admit that the part about the ice cream is what you would want to be doing right now.”

Sana smiled contently, “No, I’d much rather have Minari’s famous cookies.”

“I love you,” Mina took the rice ball into her hands and rested her head on Sana’s shoulder.

“I love you too.”

They stood there a while, Mina taking small bites of rice and Sana occasionally looking over to make sure she was actually eating.

Students began to slowly make their way toward the school and soon the street was filled with uniform clad teenagers. A handful of them whispered to each other when they saw Sana and Mina standing together.

Mina’s eyes scanned the people passing by, “What time does she usually get to school?”

“I dunno, she and Nayeon have been walking together these days.” Sana craned her neck to look down street, “Wait, there she is!” She pointed to a bob-haired girl waving at them.

Mina lifted her head to greet their other best friend when all of a sudden she froze, a throbbing sensation building up in her chest. Trailing behind Momo was Nayeon and… Tears immediately welled up to the brim of Mina's eyes. Without a word, she whirled around and ran into the high school, leaving behind a puzzled Sana. The buzz around the school’s entrance grew louder and people began to point their fingers.

But Sana paid them no mind. She looked back down the street and instantly understood why Mina had run off. Jihyo was walking alongside Momo and Nayeon. The older girl was staring at her. She leaned over to say something to both of her walking companions before whispering directly into Momo’s ear.

Sana cocked her head to the side when she saw Nayeon come running ahead of the others, straight toward her. She smiled, raising her hand to greet her, “Good morning, Na-”

But Nayeon ran right past her, without so much as a glance. Gasps could be heard around them as students watched on.

     "What's going on with those two?"

     "Does this have anything to do with what happened in the cafeteria yesterday?"

“What’s up with her?” Sana questioned as Momo and Jihyo strolled up to the gate.

“Something about finishing up an assignment?” Jihyo answered seemingly just as perplexed. “What about Mina? We saw her run off.”

A flame ignited in the pit of Sana’s stomach at the sound of the shorter girl saying Mina’s name so casually. She had a sudden urge to tell her off for breaking her best friend’s heart but immediately realized that the notion to do so would be ridiculous. She wasn’t being fair; Jihyo had no idea about Mina’s feelings (hell, Sana only found out about them yesterday). But she still couldn’t help feeling at least a little enmity toward the brunette. Sana took a calming breath and tried her best to extinguish the burning in her gut.

“Her stomach was hurting so she went to the nurse’s office.”

“Oh,” Jihyo looked toward the school building with worry, “Hope she’s okay.”

“It’s your fault she’s not.” Sana fitted a smile on her face, masking her contempt.

“So, anyway, good morning! What’s up?”

Momo started bouncing up and down, “Oh my gosh, Jihyo was just telling us about how she got asked out yesterday by Dan-”

Sana’s eyes widened. She shot a sharp look at Momo and cut her off in Japanese.

It looked to be a pretty heated conversation from Jihyo’s perspective as she looked to and fro between the two girls. She could only manage to pick up a few words with her rudimentary knowledge of the Japanese language. She recognized the words for “like” and “tonight” (and, of course, Mina’s name but that was a given).

Speaking of Mina, Jihyo wished she were here now to translate what was going on. She could always count on the soft spoken girl to be on her side and knew that she would never let her feel left out.

“So you better be there,” Sana abruptly switched back to Korean and jabbed Momo’s shoulder with her finger.

The bob-haired girl just waved her off, nodding. Sana walked away with a flip of her hair.

“Wha- Bye, Sana! See you later!” Jihyo tripped over her words as she called out. Sana responded with a dismissive wave. When Jihyo turned back to Momo, she looked deep in thought, rubbing the sore spot her shoulder where Sana had poked her.

“There’s still time before we have to go to home room. Wanna go grab something to eat really quick? I’ll pay if you tell me what that was all about.”

Momo shook her head slightly and looked up to Jihyo, pausing before she spoke, “Sorry, I would but I actually have to be somewhere right now.”

Momo ran off. Jihyo waved after her, eyeing the back of her head. She tapped her chin in suspicion, “What could be so important that she would turn down free food?”

~

“Meet me you-know-where.”

Nayeon’s words echoed in Momo’s head as she walked down the long hallway. She felt bad about leaving Jihyo at the front gate but the hint of anxiety in Nayeon’s voice when she whispered in her ear before running off led Momo to believe that this was an urgent matter.

Plus Momo just didn’t know where she stood with Jihyo at the moment. Earlier this morning, when she found out about Kang Daniel asking her out, Momo had been ecstatic for her friend. But after talking to Sana about Mina’s feelings for Jihyo and how it crushed her best friend to watch it unfold right before her very eyes, Momo wasn’t sure what to feel.

Momo was still buried in her thoughts when she finally reached the bathroom at the end of the hall. She didn’t even have a chance to gasp in surprise when Nayeon pulled her through the door and practically flung herself on her, littering sloppy kisses all over Momo’s lips and cheeks.

“Whoa, it’s still a little early isn’t it?” Momo chuckled awkwardly but the older girl ignored her and pushed her up against the tile wall harder.

“Nayeo-” Momo tried to stop her ministrations but was cut off with another sloppy kiss. “Nayeon, st-”

Nayeon moved downward to on her neck and Momo had to take a deep breath to get her own growing desires under control. She managed to get a grip on Nayeon’s wrists and wrangled her arms to her sides, “Nayeon, stop.”

Momo held her arms down, panting lightly. When she finally looked up at Nayeon’s face, she saw that her eyes were slightly red and puffy, “Wait, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Nayeon huffed, trying to lean forward to latch back on to Momo’s neck, but Momo had her arms pinned.

“But it looks like you were crying.”

“It’s nothing,” She tried to break free from Momo, but her grip was too strong.

“But I-”

Nayeon finally gave up, sighing. “It’s allergies,” she said unconvincingly.

Momo looked her up and down. The older girl was perfectly fine on their walk to school. What could have brought on this sudden change of character? Momo decided to let it slide, not wanting to pry too far.

She finally let go of Nayeon and stepped back, giving her some space, “Hey, so I can’t meet up after school today. Something came up.”

Nayeon massaged her wrists, “Why? What are you doing?”

“I ha