Mina stepped back into the classroom to find that free period had already started. She took a seat at her desk and avoided Sana’s curious look. The front half of the class was busy at work while the students sitting in the back half were on their phones and whispering to each other quietly. Their homeroom teacher had left and wouldn’t be back until after a few other subjects that they still had to get through with their other teachers. Mina cleared quietly and gently tugged at her pink tie, which suddenly felt kind of suffocating. She opened up her workbook and textbook and began to do the practice questions that had been assigned to them on the chalkboard. Sana finally tore her eyes away from Mina to continue her work she had doing before the girl had walked back in.

The sliding door slammed open and almost everyone’s eyes shot up to find Momo on the other side. The dark-haired rebel slipped into the classroom while ignoring the whispers from the other students. This was the first time anyone had seen her wearing the entire uniform and properly on top of that. Mina was the only one who did not bother to look up and continued to write into her book. However, she could see Momo out of the corner of her eye and quietly applauded herself in her head for managing to get through to the girl. The whispers from their classmates eventually died down and everyone went back to whatever they had been doing before — homework and gossiping.

Mina didn’t pay mind to the gossip because it never applied to her and most of it was highly exaggerated anyway. She felt a light tap on her shoulder and turned her head to see Sana smiling widely and holding out her notebook. “Should we switch?” She asked sweetly.

“Right, yeah let me just finish up…” Mina quickly scribbled the last part of the solution into her workbook before letting out a breath. She picked up her book and passed it to Sana while grabbing the other girl’s book.

The two best friends always checked each others work to see if their answers were the same and that the work was done correctly. It never took long for the two as they were part of the handful of students who were at the top of the school in terms of academics. Before they knew it, both were done and took back their books. They sat quietly at their desks waiting for the next teacher to show up as they had already completed all the work they possibly could. Sana was eyeing Mina and seemed as though she wanted to ask the girl a question but Mina pretended to be deep in her own thoughts. She knew that Sana was probably going to ask how she got through to Momo but she honestly couldn’t answer the question as she didn’t even know herself.

A bell sounded throughout the school and everyone shuffled into their seats, putting away electronics and workbooks for different subjects while pulling out the appropriate ones for the next. As the door opened, a young woman stepped inside, her arms full with textbooks and notebooks. One of the students at the front of the class quickly hurried to help the teacher out and closed the door while taking a couple of the books off her hand. The teacher quickly balanced herself and thanked the student, receiving a blush from the younger girl. Once the teacher reached the front, the students bowed their heads towards the teacher with a loud greeting. She waved her hand away and began talking.

“Good morning, we have a lot to get through today so let's not waste any time. Hirai Momo! Raise your head.”

“Ah, Mrs. Jung I’m tired just let me be.” Momo groaned, turning her head to face the window, her cheek basically glued to the desk. She had one arm stretched out, hanging lazily off the edge while the other was under her head to support it.

Mrs. Jung simply sighed and shook her head before continuing. Mina paid attention to every word she said throughout the lesson, jotting down the more difficult concepts that she couldn’t absorb quite as fast. At one point, Mrs. Jung put a question up on the board and asked for someone to solve it. She looked past Sana and Mina’s hands to find that every other student was avoiding eye contact and let out her second sigh that day.

“Myoui Mina, then.”

Mina rose from her seat and walked up to the chalkboard, quickly working out and writing in the solution to the equation. When she turned around to go back to her seat, Momo was in the back of the classroom sitting up and staring straight at her. She glanced at the ground uncomfortably before settling back in her seat. Turning slowly, Mina took a quick glance to find Momo was still looking at her. Mina looked back to the front quickly and zoned out for a second. Yelling at Momo earlier was probably a bad idea because now the girl seemed angry and that wouldn’t end well for Mina. Especially seeing as how they would be spending time together alone for the next while.

Mina shook the thought from her head and went back to writing, not noticing the confused look Sana was giving her. Sana looked over her shoulder and saw Momo was looking at Mina’s back, her head resting in her palm as she seemed to be contemplating something. She prayed that whatever had gone down between the two earlier wouldn’t lead to Mina’s doom.

***

Mina sat at the table in the student council room once more, grading the tests in front of her. Other than the girl with her head down on the other end of the table, the room was empty and would be for the next couple of minutes. As soon as classes had finished for the day Mina had rushed over to get a head start on the tests. The stack didn’t seem to get any smaller even though Mina had gone through at least ten tests so far. She picked up the next one to grade and noticed a familiar name written at the top. Quickly, she glanced across the table to find the girl had closed her eyes with her head still down. It was weird. Mina didn’t get how the girl would sleep all day in every class and still have the ability to sleep in the late afternoon as well.

Almost as though she knew what Mina was thinking, the girl raised her head, eyes open, and smiled arrogantly, “Don’t underestimate me, I could sleep till tomorrow if I wanted to.”

Mina scowled and looked back down at the test, grading it faster than the others because most of it was empty. The girl had put no effort into answering more than half of the questions and Mina could tell already that the tutoring sessions would be long and hard.

“You couldn’t even figure out this question? It was the easiest one,” Mina raised the paper and pointed towards one of the questions on the page where the answer box was empty, not including the small drawing of a house. Momo shrugged and avoided answering the girl’s question.

The student council president put the test in the graded pile and just as she went to pick up the next one, the door opened to reveal a group of four girls. They quickly made their way into the classroom and took the same seats that they had sat in this morning. All of them except for Sana eyed Momo curiously. Out of the people in the room only Mina, Momo, and Sana knew about the tutoring sessions that were to be scheduled. However, no one vocally questioned the rebellious girl’s presence. Rather, they looked between Mina and Momo and threw the girl a questioning look. Mina cleared and waved away the question as though to tell them that she would explain later. Momo had put her head back down upon the rest of the council’s arrival and closed her eyes so she missed the silent communication between the council members.

“Okay, so the spring festival is going to be held at the school again this year. We’re going to go the typical route as always but we need to arrange representatives from each class,” Mina took a breath before continuing, “It’ll make the organization easier so we know which class is doing what and where.”

The other girls hummed in agreement and Chaeyoung quickly shot out her hand, “Are we automatically representatives for our classes since we’re already in council?” She asked, waiting for Mina’s answer.

Mina thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly, “As members of council you’ll have enough on your plate so it might be better to get a different representative for your class…”

“Well in that case I already have my class representative! Chou Tzuyu!” Chaeyoung called out, smiling toothily.

Momo’s head shot up and she looked at Chaeyoung incredulously. The other council members looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to say something but she didn’t. The girl simply shrugged and put her head back on the tabl