“Joohyun, you know what is expected of the Club for this stock pitch right?” The professor-in-charge, Mr Kim said then upon seeing the troubled expression on the student’s face, she later added, “I am sorry… I know it is your final year and it is really stressful, and I have tried explaining to the Dean that it would not be easy but winning this pitch would really boost the reputation of our finance faculty by a lot.”

“It is okay, I get it, I will put together a few teams. I will make sure that we would not disappoint,” Joohyun said confidently.

Once out of the professor’s office, Joohyun felt the familiar tightening of her chest. Anxiety. She was feeling stressed out again. Squeezing her eyes, she tried to clear her mind from all the sources of her stress. Amongst them, there was the pressure of maintaining her GPA, ensuring that her club performs up to expectation for their competition. The most worrying of all was however, to secure a job upon her graduation.

**

Seungwan knew it was stupid of her to return to school so soon, especially when the doctors had warned her to stay for a few more days for observation since she had suffered from fractures and her lungs had been contused.

Chanyeol, who only got to know about her accident from her crew members had insisted on fetching the girl everywhere, in a car and it was not just any car, it was one of the limousine from the Park’s residence with a driver as a complete package to shame Seungwan for her reckless act. Seungwan, being Seungwan, was powerless to reject it because she knew that Chanyeol knew what had truly caused her plight and would use it to threaten her.

Once in the lecture hall, Joy approached her excitedly. “Seungwan! You’re back in school! Oh my gosh… what happened to you?” Joy looked at Seungwan’s left arm, which was in a sling, with wide open, “d-d-did you really get into an accident?”

Giving Joy a weak smile, Seungwan assured that she was okay. However, Joy could not stop gushing about how a friend of hers had jinxed Seungwan about getting into an accident and that she would scold that particular friend of hers much later. In her mind, Seungwan knew that the friend Joy was referring to must have been Lisa and was already feeling sorry for Lisa who would have to endure Joy’s scolding.

Later, Seungwan was almost mortified to find out that the Club President, Joohyun herself, had been waiting outside their seminar room to have lunch with them. Right after Lisa had told Seungwan about the Club President being upset about Seungwan’s sudden disappearance from school, Seungwan had immediately accessed her school email account and replied the President, explaining her situation. Only a few minutes later, an extremely long and formal reply came from the President and since then, their trail of emails began, each longer than that before.

The President had sounded truly concerned. She had also apologised to Seungwan, admitting that she had thought that Seungwan was not serious about the club when Seungwan did not reply to her emails. At a point of time, during their conversation, Seungwan knew not why but she was nearly tempted to spill the truth to the President about the true cause of her injuries because falling from a flight of stairs sounded really ridiculous.

Now seeing the President in person, Seungwan found her shyness creeping back again.

When Joohyun had first received the email from Seungwan, she did not know why but she was feeling more eager to open the email than usual. Before long, Joohyun had spent a good two hours emailing the girl and it was surprising how Seungwan could have been so good at conversing through emails. The President spotted them immediately because Joy had been waving so enthusiastically that she almost hit a couple of shorter people who were in the way. Next to Joy, was Seungwan, who looked as awkward as the last time Joohyun had remembered except that she looked paler and her left arm was in a sling. Her brows drew together immediately upon that sight and she shuddered to think what might have truly happened. To be honest, Joohyun had not believed that Seungwan had fallen from a flight of stairs and she was truly curious about the real reason for her injury. Was it to do with her… night life?

Then, Joohyun saw that, Joy, amidst her excitement at seeing Joohyun, had completely forgotten about Seungwan’s injury and gave a nudge to the shorter girl. The next thing she saw was Seungwan almost doubling over in pain and Joohyun edged through the crowd of exiting students to where the pair was.

“Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! Seungwan, are you okay? Please tell me you are!” Joy asked in a fluster, not daring to touch the girl for fear of aggravating her injury.

Joohyun reached the pair immediately, remembering where Seungwan said her injuries were, her chest and arm, Joohyun carefully supported the girl by her waist. She found Seungwan already breaking out into cold sweat and was breathing heavily from the pain.

“Seungwan, do you need to go to the sick bay or do we need to alert your doctor?” Joohyun asked calmly which did not reflect the nervousness she was actually feeling when Seungwan had leant her body entirely against her own.

This was odd, Joohyun had never felt her heart hammer so hard in her chest before. It was already odd that she had even made bodily contact with someone. She had not even done that so easily with her closest friend, Seulgi.

Shaking her head, Seungwan tried to speak in between her laboured breaths. “N-No, I will be fine, it’s just my arm, so it should be fine.”

Stabling herself, Seungwan then peeled her body away from Joohyun’s body. Joohyun felt an odd sort of empty feeling when Seungwan moved away and yet the pounding of her heart never ceased.

“You sure you are okay? I am so sorry…” Joy apologised again, her face completely creased up with guilt.

Seungwan nodded and gave them a shy smile. “I am fine.”

“Okay, good then, by the way, in case Joy hasn’t told you yet. We will be having lunch together, are you okay with that, Seungwan?” Joohyun asked.

Surprised by the invitation, Seungwan’s mouth opened slightly before a small smile spread across her face and she nodded happily. Joohyun did not know why but she associated Seungwan with an adorable looking hamster. This was strange but Joohyun had never been fond of animals but perhaps after that association she might start to think otherwise.

“Is it really okay? For me to join you guys for lunch?” Seungwan asked suddenly.

“Of course it is,” Joy replied, “you are one of us now. Besides… oh well… we will let our President tell you more herself later.”

During lunch, Joy, Seungwan, and Joohyun had been eating and finally managed to bring up the discussion of an upcoming stock pitch competition. As if sensing something amiss, Seungwan became ultra alert and sat up straighter than ever. Joohyun was slightly surprised by Seungwan’s intense gaze that was focused on her.

“Well… for this stock pitch, I was thinking of sending in three teams, one of which would be led by me…” Joohyun began.

Even Joy was surprised. “Joohyun! You’re entering? Then you must be getting the best members in our club in your team then. It is a what? Team of three right? Who will you be picking to be in your team? Jaehyun and Doyoung?”

Joohyun hesitated Joy’s suggestion for a whi