(One Year Ago:  Chaewon’s Old Scho--- “HEY ARE YOU OKAY?!?”

“Oh my gosh, Yeojin, this girl is obviously in shock, please tone it down.”

Chaewon rubbed her eyes.  Geez, I can’t even have a proper flashback without someone at this school yelling.

After a couple of rubs, Chaewon jumped.

A pair of what seemed to be twins were up in her face: both with very concerned looks but one with a soft, motherly glance, and the other with a… well Chaewon couldn’t tell really because the girl didn’t waste a second to tug at her hair and face.

“WAHHH, HASEULLLLLLL LOOK AT THIS FACE!!  SHE’S TOO PRETTY TO BE SAD!!” The bean-sized girl pinched Chaewon’s cheeks until they stung, making them bright red.  A new layer of pain tears cleared up the scared girl’s blurry vision, and the age difference of the two, similar looking girls became very clear.  

Well, at least the older looking girl was horrified.

She smacked the (arguably) Jiwoo-volumed girl’s hand away, and took a popsicle out of her, for some reason, insulated fanny pack, pressing it against Chaewon’s numb cheeks.

The girl, armed with a mom sweater over her uniform and ‘WELCOMING COMMITTEE’ sash, had a soft face and smile that made Chaewon comfortable and calm almost immediately.  She had an ethereal presence that was peaceful, like a pure white dove. Her features and aura had Chaewon in a melted warmth, something that had a direct effect on the popsicle, which was now liquifying in it’s wrapper.

The mom-girl quickly frowned at the popsicle, but only for a second, as she could sense Chaewon’s need for comfort, throwing herself like a human sacrifice over pinch-victim, making Chaewon melt even more.

“I am so sorry.  Please ignore the likes of the frog prince over there.  She is a creature from the unknown and I now know that I have made a mistake putting her on the esteemed Welcoming Committee.  Oh, yes,” the nice girl broke the hug in order to make eye contact, “I’m Cho Haseul, and the swamp creature is sometimes called Im Yeojin, but I just call her Pig.  Right, Pig?”

Pig shru-Nope, that sounds like more of a sibling thing-Yeojin shrugged.

“I feel like I shouldn’t give you power with that name, but my mouth just opens whenever it wants.”  

Speaking of sibling thing….

“Are you guys not siblings?”

Both girls laughed.

“If you count second cousins as siblings then yes.  Honestly, we’ve just known each other since the other existed.  Our parents never got the ‘cousins stop talking after thirty’ memo.”

Chaewon couldn’t help but feel warm with this pair… besides the cheek attack of course.  Haseul and Yeojin had a dynamic almost identical to Sooyoung and Jiwoo, the only difference being that the familial pair had a more collectively extroverted vibe, unlike the internal light of the pet name couple.  Chaewon enjoyed being around both.

Haseul caught onto the smile very quickly, softening her hug and sitting back on the grass.

“But actually, are you okay?  You didn’t look like you were doing that great-”

“-Yeah, your eyes were all red like you were crying a lot-WOAH WAS IT LIKE A HEARTBREAK OR TRAUMA OR-”

“IM YEOJIN, I am negative three seconds from taking away your Welcoming Committee Leadership position.  You already got three detentions while serving as hall monitor, I would be very careful from now on.” The younger girl went pink with embarrassment at Haseul’s bountiful roasting.  

Chaewon’s eyes widened.  Yeojin was being annoying with the prodding, but Haseul was defending someone she barely knew.  It reminded her of Yujin.

“Now apologize-”

“-Oh no you don’t have to-”

Yeojin walked up to Chaewon, her eyes full of regret.  To Chaewon’s surprise, for like the three millionth time that day, the younger girl tightly squeezed Chaewon, whispering in her ear.

“Hey, I’m really sorry.  Your business is your business.  I’m just annoying at times. Believe me, some people don’t know that they’re annoying- I do.  I kind of like it too...” The round-lipped girl leaned in closer.

“But I’m also like one more student report away from getting like expelled or something so please don’t put a complaint in the suggestion box or Haseul might disown me.”

Chaewon chuckled.  Who are their parents?  Army sergeants?

“No worries, Yeojin.  I got your back.” The frog girl smiled.  Chaewon could commend her sincerity and maturity for, what she could only assume, was a girl who was barely at a high school level.

Chaewon’s frown disappeared. I should just accept that I’m probably going to die here… on the first day.  Every new person she had encountered so far had put