When Mina walked into class on Monday, she didn’t expect to see Momo sitting in the back with her head down on the desk. Dahyun was beside her as well, scrolling mindlessly through her phone but Mina could tell that the girl wasn’t paying attention to it. She had a dazed look on her face and her eyes were empty as they stared at whatever video was playing on her instagram feed. Turning to look at the rest of the classroom, Mina noticed that Sana must have gone to the bathroom after the meeting because she wasn’t sitting at her desk. Shrugging, Mina walked over to her desk and had just sat down when she heard a chair get pushed back and footsteps headed towards her. She looked up and found Momo standing directly in front of her desk, a hand on each side as she leaned closer to Mina. The latter instinctively moved her head back.

“Do we still have a lesson today?” Momo asked, her tone hushed as if she didn’t want the rest of the class to hear.

This was already impossible because any time the two were seen interacting there were whispers among the entire classroom. Especially after the previous switch up with their uniform blazers. No one was sure about the relationship between the council president and school’s rebel and frankly, everyone was too afraid to ask. Mina was a gentle person but she didn’t get her position by sitting around. Despite the girl’s sweet personality (to most people), she was still strong and elegant in the way she carried herself which made it all the more difficult to approach her. The reason people kept away from Momo on the other hand was quite self explanatory. The girl wasn’t known to be violent but rumours were still rumours.

Mina nodded her head but couldn’t speak because Momo immediately leaned in closer and sighed, “Could we cancel for today? I have some important things to do.”

Mina regarded the girl for a moment before saying, “What important things?”

Momo looked around and everyone who had been watching closely turned away almost like they hadn’t been hanging onto every word that left .

“It’s...there’s just some things I have to do,” Momo said, her tone pleading for Mina to say yes.

The girl shook her head.

“No way. You don’t have a valid reason so I’ll be expecting you this afternoon.” Mina said quietly and then looked down, dismissing Momo.

The other girl looked irritated and stood up straight before calling out to Dahyun, who looked up after a couple seconds, blinking confusedly. Her mind was still clouded with other thoughts and so it took her a few seconds to process that Momo had said her name.

“Let’s go.” Momo turned around and walked out of the classroom, not bothering to wait for Dahyun.

It was unusual for the rest of the class to see Dahyun hesitate for a couple seconds and even weirder for them to see Momo pop her head back in to yell at the girl, “Let’s go.”

Dahyun scrambled to her feet and grabbed all of her notebooks, shoving them in her bag and swinging it over her shoulder. She passed by Mina’s desk on the way out and the girl glanced up at her, and then glanced at Sana’s empty desk before sighing and going back to her textbook. Dahyun pushed open the door to follow after Momo and came face to face with Sana. They stared, and stared until finally Dahyun ducked her head and pushed past the girl. Sana wore a sad smile and sat down at her desk, pulling out her textbook quietly. Mina looked at her but knew better than to bother the girl right now. They usually didn’t have their conversations in public so she thought it would be best to wait until they were alone to talk.

Momo and Dahyun didn’t come back to class for the rest of the day and according to Nayeon, Jeongyeon had also disappeared, presumably with the two. She wasn’t sure if they had left to deal with what Momo deemed more important than their study sessions but Mina was ready to scold her if the girl even tried to keep her waiting.

Thankfully, Momo proved to be at least a little responsible because when Mina walked inside of the council room for the afternoon meeting, Momo was sleeping with her head down in her usual seat. Mina smiled to herself and took her seat, waiting for the others to show up. As it was a Monday, Mina didn’t want to stress the members out too much and gave them a couple tasks to finish before the next day.

“Oh, Chaeyoung,” Mina called out, flipping through some papers as everyone prepared to leave.

The younger girl looked up and smiled, “Yeah?”

“How are the general promotional posters looking so far?” Mina looked up and waited for the girl’s answer.

“We found an artist…” Chaeyoung started hesitantly and then scratched at the back of her head, “The rough copy wasn’t too good so it’s being redrawn but she said it’ll be done by the time we meet up with the representatives again.”

Mina nodded approvingly, “Perfect, make sure to stay on top of that because we need some kind of example to show the class reps,”

Chaeyoung nodded and continued to gather her things. The girls chatted amongst each other quietly, almost as though they were scared to wake up the sleeping Momo. Before anyone could say goodbye to leave, the door slammed open to reveal two boys in uniforms none of the girls seemed to recognize. Mina wasn’t quite sure how they made it into the all girls school without any kind of proper identification. The taller one looked between the girls and smiled mischievously.

“Oh? What do we have here?” He walked towards Mina and his friend trailed behind him, taking in the room’s surroundings.

Mina stared him down despite her shaking hands that she hid behind her back. The girl was quiet and didn’t like serious confrontation, let alone from a stranger she had never met before.

“Do any of you know where we can find a certain Hirai Momo?” The shorter boy asked, while the tall one continued to eye Mina with a strange glint in his eye.

There was a slam and everyone turned to where Momo had previously been sleeping. Her chair was pushed back to the wall behind her and she came to stand up.

“We’ll take this outside,” Momo said through gritted teeth. She walked towards the two boys and gestured to the door with her head.

They shrugged and turned around, waiting for her just outside the door. Momo turned to Mina and mouthed a quick I’ll be back in a second before she followed after the two boys and closed the door, leading them away. The council members turned to Mina, not knowing how to react to whatever just happened.

“Who are they?”

“What school are they from?”

“Why Momo…” Jihyo trailed off, looking around at the girls.

Sana was the only one who remained quiet, sensing Mina’s current anxiety surrounding the whole situation. She stepped towards the girl and slipped her hand around her waist, holding her closely in an attempt to calm her down. Nayeon looked like she wanted to say something but instead held her tongue, also noticing Mina’s condition.

“We should get going...my private lessons start soon,” Nayeon voiced out. The other two nodded and muttered a quiet same here in unison before leaving the room. They gave Mina and Sana quick hugs and head pats on the way out and Jihyo turned back to look at the girls just as Chaeyoung closed the door behind them.

Sana finally let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding in and put her hands on Mina’s cheeks, turning the girl’s head to look at her. “Whatever it is, I’m sure it’s not a big deal, do you want me to wait with you? Until Momo comes back…”

Mina shook her head and slowly peeled Sana’s hands off of her cheeks, holding them tightly in her own. She smiled confidently, “I’ll be fine, you need to go take care of your own stuff, don’t worry,” Mina said, now letting Sana’s hands go.

Her best friend looked at her incredulously, not quite believing the sudden confident tone the girl was using. But she knew she couldn’t argue if Mina wanted to be left alone so she nodded slowly and backed away from the girl to grab her backpack. She glanced at the closed door and then looked back at Mina only to say, “If anything happens, just call me okay? I’ll be nearby for a bit…”

Mina smiled and nodded, sitting down while Sana left the room. She pulled out a notebook from her bag and started writing things down, mainly her to-do list for the week. Once she was satisfied, she crossed off the things she had completed over the weekend or the week before. After a couple of minutes, Mina returned the notebook to her bag and sat comfortably in the seat, leaning forward to rest her head in the palm of her right hand. Her left arm was stretched out in front of her. It wasn’t unusual for Mina to be able to sit in silence for hours at a time because that was usually what she would do if she wasn’t at school or studying. However, this time there was a sort of