Doyeon managed to get the others to agree to spend their next afternoon off on a whole-band game of basketball, unnies against maknaes. This made for a more or less even matchup: The unnies had Doyeon and Suyeon, the two best players in the group, on their team, but they also had Elly. Elly had many talents, but basketball wasn't one of them. She was halfway decent at defense, but not much good at passing, shooting, or dribbling. And to be honest, most of her defense skills boiled down to a knack for getting in the way. Still, she loved to play, so whenever anyone was getting together a game of basketball, she was always the first to jump in.   This was their third game of the afternoon - unnies had won the first game, maknaes had won the second, and now the maknaes were up ahead, 19 to 18. Rina got the ball, but couldn't get around Doyeon., so she passed to Sei. Sei turned toward the basket and found Elly in her way. Elly knocked the ball out of her hands. Suyeon grabbed the ball before it could go out of bounds, faded back behind the three-point line, and shot. The ball seemed to hang in the air forever before falling suddenly, swishing through the net without touching the rim.   "Yes!" Yoojung jumped up and down, clapping her hands.   "All right everybody," Doyeon called out as she grabbed the ball and tucked it under her arm. "Unnies won the day so we get to shower first. Rina's fixing dinner tonight and has promised to debut her new dish, and since Lua doesn't know better than to bet against the unnies, she'll be taking my turn at doing dishes tonight."   "Hey," Lucy called back, "I once got out of a month of doing chores by betting against the unnies!"   "Against one unnie," Doyeon responded. "Not against all of us."   The good-natured trash-talking continued as the girls gathered up all their stuff and headed back toward the dorm. Sei took Suyeon's hand, interlacing her fingers with the leader's, and gradually slowed down until the two of them were walking alone.   "So tell me something," Sei said, looking over at Suyeon. "That game of basketball you lost to me - did I really beat you that badly, or was there something else going on there?"   Suyeon, covered her face with her free hand, trying to hide her blushing. "You beat me that badly," she admitted, "and there was something else going on there."   "So. . . what? . . . You threw the game so I'd do a makeover on you?" Sei asked.   Suyeon shook her head. "No, I was playing all out," she said, "I just. . . kept getting lost staring at you and next thing you know, you'd scored again."   Sei scoffed. "You were staring at me?"   Suyeon nodded, a faraway look in her eyes as she remembered that day. "Oh yeah. You were hot that day."   "Okay, now I know you're lying to me," Sei said, shaking her head. "I'm cute. On a good day, I can manage to pull off pretty. But I have never, ever been hot."   Suyeon pulled Sei toward her and leaned over to plant a kiss on her cheek. "Then I wish you could see yourself through my eyes," she said, "because I totally think you're hot."   Sei blushed. "It's sweet of you to say you. I still think you're just messing with me, but it's still sweet."   "You don't believe me?" Suyeon challenged her. "Ask any of your girlfriends, they'll tell you the same thing. You may not see it yourself, but you are totally hot."   Sei shook her head. "No way," she said. "I'm not fishing for compliments here, I just know my limits - I'm cute, I'm pretty, I'm not hot."   Suyeon laughed. "If you really believe that, then you won't mind putting a week's chores on the line."   Sei turned around and looked down at her. "What did you have in mind?"   "Ask any - no, ask all your other girlfriends. If any of them says you're not hot, I'll do your chores for a week. But if all 4 say you're hot, you've got to do my chores for the week."   Sei turned this over in her head. "Okay," she said. "But you can't tell them about the bet - if they know there's a bet on, it might skew the results."   "Fair enough," Suyeon said, and they shook on it.   "Oh yeah!" Sei said as she started back up the stairs. "I'm going to enjoy a week of no chores!"   "We'll see," Suyeon said. "Don't go making any firm plans.   ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^   Sei decided to start with Lua. That should be her path to an easy win right there. As Sei's roommate, Lua had seen her at her worst - just woken up, no makeup, struggling with a cold. There was absolutely no way Lua would say she's hot. Especially not while washing dishes, her least favorite chore in the world.   "More dishes, coming in," Sei said, adding a frying pan and a mixing bowl to the plates already in the sink.   "Is that everything?" Lua asked, exasperated, "because I swear Rina must have used every knife we own."   "We only own three knives," Sei responded, leaning on the counter next to the sink.   "Yeah, and she used 'em all." Lua rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, apparently taking care of the itch, but also leaving behind a small blob of bubbles.   "Lua," Sei said, wiping the bubbles off Sei's nose with the dish towel, "tell me something - and I want you to tell me the truth, okay?"   "O---kay," Lua said, looking cautiously at Sei.   "Would you say I'm hot?" Just asking the question made Sei feel so self-conscious.   Lua scoffed. "Duh. Of course. Didn't last night convince you of that?"   Sei shook her head. "No, not like that. Imagine you're not my girlfriend. Just as an imparti