“Attention: if anyone wants to tryout for a position in the Math Club, the test is beginning in five minutes.”

The speakers screeched as it finished its announcement.  Chaewon was too shocked to even think about being sensitive to the noise.

So I’m either hallucinating or I’m hallucinating.  There is literally no other explanation.

“I’m sorry, did you say ‘Math Club’?”

Jinsoul smiled, her eye patch moving as her cheeks pressed upwards.

“Yeah.”

There was no way Chaewon was going to take this for an answer.

“Did you sneak any hard drugs into the yogurt drinks we had by any chance?”

Jinsoul looked at Chaewon weirdly.

“Um no… you okay man?”

Chaewon leaned back in her chair, trying to arrange her words in a way that would lead to the least offense but before she had the time to think of a way to suppress her bluntness the tall blonde was already out the door, running to her booth.

Dumb or not, the girl’s committed- GEEZ how is she the Math Club leader? Chaewon flung her fists around in the air in a fit of frustration but got up, making her way out of the glass booth and towards the alleged Math Club.

Since it was the next booth over, Chaewon didn’t have any trouble finding where the rest of Blondes R Us were.

Like her fiery girlfriend’s booth, the Math Club was very organized.  Desks upon desks lined the interactive area and, much to Chaewon’s surprise, almost all of them were filled with students tapping their feet and checking their calculators.

Why are so many people into math?  What is up with this school? Chaewon looked around for the girl with an eye patch and eventually found her, now with a timer in one hand and plastic bag in another.

“Hey foil head!  Over here!” Kim Lip waved Chaewon over with a smile on her face.

As Chaewon walked over she got a couple of looks and honestly she couldn’t tell if it was because she was new or because she had bleach goo and foil in her hair.  It was all up in the air at this point.

“So, how hard is this test?  Everyone seems pretty stressed.”  Chaewon couldn’t even imagine Jinsoul reading a digital clock correctly let alone be the intimidating leader of an popular academic club of all things.

“Well, five minutes into the test, if no one has gotten to the second page Soulie writes one of the answers on the board but doesn’t say which one it is.”

“It also has the possibility of not being fully derived or even rationalized, but they have to guess.” Jinsoul and Kim Lip snickered while Chaewon stared at them, mouth wide open.

I did not understand a single word she said. Chaewon couldn’t admit it out loud though.  It would shrivel the sliver of pride she actually had.

After a couple of seconds of laughing, the two older blondes finally calmed down, prompting Kim Lip to look at the clock above all the booths.

“Soulie, I think you should start.  We promised the little ones dinner if we finished early.”

“Woah, you’re totally right.” Jinsoul balanced the plastic bag full of water on her head and swerved around, getting a megaphone from the table behind her.  As she turned back around to walk to the front of the desks, Kim Lip jumped in front of her in order to create a barrier like a security guard protecting a celebrity.

“Watch out for Jinsoul.  If she falls I’ll rip you to shreds.”

Woah.  Talk about protective.  Chaewon thought as she observed from the corner.

Then Jinsoul decided to join in.

“If Jinsoul dies, I will stomp you out.  Not only will you be denied from the club, but I’ll let every math teacher at Polaris Prep know you are a Jinsoul murderer.”

“Wait what?” Chaewon had no idea what was going on.  Jiwoo had a tendency to talk about herself in the third person, but Jinsoul hadn’t done that yet.  Also there was no way any of these math enthusiasts could even inflict a bruise on the towering, toned blonde.

It worked on the students though.  As Jinsoul walked to the front people were literally sliding their desks out of the way, not even trying to take a chance.

“This school is so weird.” Chaewon shook her head in an attempt to figure out why Jinsoul and Kim Lip were threatening students in the third person.

“it’s her fish.  her fish is jinsoul.” Chaewon felt a soft breath on the back of her neck, along with a slight pulling at her hair.

“Oh, ViVi right?” Chaewon turned around to see the pink haired girl with the same fluffy smile.

“i can’t believe you remembered. no one really remembers me around here except if their in the art club.”  The soft-spoken girl looked down for a blink-and-you-miss-it moment of solemness, but she quickly put her smile back on, swiveling one of the sink stations she was dragging in front of her, gently pushing Chaewon into the welcoming leather seats.

How could anyone forget this wonderful human being?

“Don’t worry, ViVi.  You’re too nice to not remember.”  Chaewon emphasized as, once again, water started running through her scalp.

“... But you know you could’ve just asked me to go to your booth instead of bringing this huge thing across the gym.”

ViVi chuckled as she dried off Chaewon’s hair, grabbing another container of blondeness and brushing it on again, putting new pieces of foil where the old ones used to be.

“i know but i couldn’t find you and i knew you couldn’t hear me if i called you.  the bleach wears out after a bit so i had to put in a new batch. it should be done either after this or another couple of rounds.”  

Chaewon felt something crinkly surround her head, making it warm.

“What is this?”

“well, you left before i could put it on last time, but it’s a shower cap.  it helps speed up the bleaching process.”

Great, now I’ll be plastic head instead of foil head. Chaewon rolled her eyes imagining all the crap Kim Lip was gonna give her but if meant that the goo got out faster, she was all for it.

Speaking of plastic…

“Did you say that Jinsoul’s fish’s name is Jinsoul?  There’s a fish in that bag?”

“yeah.  a rare blue betta.  it’s jinsoul during the week and judi on the weekend.  she wanted some variety.”

“Naming something after yourself is anything but variety.”

ViVi giggled faintly, her shoulders bouncing as her lips curled upwards.

“i know.  she’s very protective of it and actually takes really good care of it.  it’s been alive for four or five years.”

Chaewon finally decided to renounce her ‘Jinsoul is dumb’ conclusion she made before.  Obviously this girl is a little off her rocker, but she’s thriving so I guess it cancels out.

As ViVi finished cleaning up her to-go salon, getting ready to return to her booth, Chaewon had to ask one more question:

“How do you know all of this stuff about Jinsoul?”

“oh well when i was back in hong kong, she got lost from her family while on vacation and wandered into my neighborhood.  she was at my house for a couple of days while my family searched for hers and we got as close as we could for two kids with a gigantic language barrier and no google translate.”

ViVi brushed some of her hair that fell in front of her face, revealing a mellow smile while recalling the memories.

“then, when i moved and ended up here, jinsoul’s family took me in as a thank you since polaris doesn’t have dorms yet.  we don’t talk as much as we used to since we’re each busy with our own stuff, but i’d say we’re basically half siblings. no one really knows that though.”

“That’s so cool.  I would’ve never put two and two together.”

“yeah. jinsoul could though. she’s a genius.  makes me sit with her every night while she calculates the numbers of pi and writes them on the walls of her room.  she’s way past ten thousand.”

Chaewon’s heart couldn’t stop swelling.  There was no other balance for Jinsoul’s multifaceted and chaotic existence then the sweet and simple ViVi.  

“Do you ever make Jinsoul watch you do something?”

“oh no way.  sometimes when i’m sketching she comes over to watch but she tries not to because she knows i get really shy.  i really appreciate it. she almost broke up with kim lip when she found my sketchbook and opened it without permission.  i’m way older than her but i feel like we’re the same age.”

“HEY VIVI!! DO YOU WANNA COME AND ANNOUNCE THE MATH TEST WITH ME?!?” Jinsoul’s shouting was made louder by the megaphone, making the students in the desks in front of her close their ears, including Chaewon.

“no, that’s okay but thanks.” ViVi, knowing how quiet she is, conveyed her message by holding her hands up and waving them while shaking her head.

“OKAY!!  JINSOUL SAYS HI BY THE WAY!! I THINK-” To the rescue of everyone’s eardrums, Kim Lip swiftly ripped the megaphone away from Jinsoul, facing the students.

“You may begin.  You have until the end of the fair.  Go.” Jinsoul pressed the start button on the timer, pouting that the megaphone was taken away, but soon snapped into her leader aura again, putting Jinsoul down on the table and proctoring the test.

Chaewon could feel the intensity of everyone flipping the cover pages and seeing the horror in front of them.  Some students pulled at their hair while others chewed on their pencils. A couple even looked like they were tearing up.

“They haven’t even gotten to question two yet…” The shower capped girl stood in awe about the madness that Jinsoul had created from her own wit.

“yeah, it’s super rough.  i couldn’t even get past the cover page.” ViVi stood beside Chaewon, then shook her head.

“no way i’m watching these poor kids.  i gotta head back anyways. see ya, not gowon.”  ViVi winked as she proceeded to drag her travel salon back across the gym, where Chaewon could see a large line of girls waiting for their second round of color.

With Chaewon not really wanting to watch students be stressed until the fair ended, she decided to look around a little more.  If she was correct, there were a couple more clubs with gold stars on them that she wanted to check out.

“Attention: Rock Band Club’s performance is beginning in a couple minutes so be sure to stop by.”

Chaewon snickered after remembering what Kim Lip said about them.  She decided to steer away from that area of the gym, since really loud noises weren’t up her alley.

Amidst all of the students running around and the laughing and shouting, Chaewon strangely felt at peace.  Like she belonged. Like, as loud and weird and crazy as this school was, she actually was enjoying her first day.  It was a new feeling.

As the short girl was walking, thinking to herself, she felt a pulse run through her.

Then again.

The vibrations were short and frequent but powerful.

Like the watermelons.

But this time it wasn’t the watermelons.  It was an actual beat.

Chaewon could feel her body come to life.  Yujin was the only one who had seen her dance and, though she didn’t think she was that good, her hyper friend would always cheer her on.

Her body wiggled along with the vibrations and she closed her eyes tight, imagining herself in her room, bouncing on her bed with Yujin listening to the latest Oh My Girl album for the millionth time that day.

A smile stretched onto her face as her feet started jumping around at superhuman speed, leaving Chaewon looking like she was getting electrocuted, but that was her style.

Then she heard a couple of claps, along with a snooty chuckle.

“Wow, you have something unique going on there I see.”

.

Chaewon’s eyes refused to open as she tried to guess where the voice was, turning away and walking.

But the girl grabbed her shoulder, spinning her around, making Chaewon’s eyes shoot right open from the fear of falling.

But maybe her eyes shot open for another reason.

This girl was like nothing Chaewon had ever seen: wavy dark brunette hair that ca