SHE CAREFULLY SCANS THE ROOM, unheeding to the plethora of eyes focusing on her every move. Her field of view narrows at two empty desk-chairs where window meets the very back wall.

 

Perfect. I can easily nap there unnoticed.

 

“Feel free to take any of those two seats in the back.”

 

The teacher ensures her with a lopsided smile, the “suave” smile dubbed by all of the students in school. At least that’s what her childhood friend Jisoo had told her, amongst all the other things the older girl had claimed to be the best things the new girl needed to know about.

 

Come to think of it, she has not heard from Jisoo since they last hung out yesterday.

 

“Jen?”

 

She slightly jerks at the call but composes herself.

 

“Sorry sir, I was dozing off for a second.”

 

“Oh, you can call me Seungri.”

 

That smile again. Jennie inwardly cringes.  

 

Did he just call me Jen?

 

She adjusts the strap on her shoulder bag and walks along middle aisle, the same amount of eyes remaining on her as she situates herself on the empty chair closest to the window.

 

She thanks Seungri for calling everyone’s attention back towards him as he dims the lights to get an educational documentary movie started.

 

Jennie waits for the first five minutes in to the video.

 

Time for a shut-eye.

 

She slowly crosses her arms and leans on them as soon as they touched the desk surface; the movie’s narratives turning into murmurs by the second.

 

10 minutes passed.

 

“Sorry I’m late.”

 

Jennie shifts slightly at the voice. Nothing else followed right after that other than the movie’s instrumentals playing in the background, the melody slowly lulling her back to slumber.  

 

THUD

 

She cracks an eye open this time, the sudden noise breaking through her sleep completely.

 

Her blurry vision catches something of pink color, a blob at that-- but moving?

 

She wondered if she was still dreaming. Ha, a moving cotton candy.

 

Jennie flutters both eyes open to fix her sight. It wasn’t a dream, and it definitely was not cotton candy but someone’s hair.

 

“Ow... Ow...” The culprit of the noise softly hisses, her side profile showing a scrunched-up expression. Otherwise, the girl had clear skin and nice facial features.

 

Pretty.

 

“What?”

 

Jennie realizes she’d blurted the words out of her head and she shuts her eyes back out of reflex.

 

, she can probably see your eyelashes shaking.

 

She carefully listens, eyes remaining closed, for what the other person could be doing at this moment.

 

She hears a bag of chips being opened, some munching, and soft squiggles on a paper. Perhaps the girl had bought in to her pretense.

 

Jennie drifts back to dreamland.

 

 

 

--♥--

 

 

 

Daydreaming.

 

It shortly detaches one from reality and in turn takes one to a whole new world of fantasy-- mostly of happy thoughts, ambitions, whatever it may be. It’s good for the mind.

 

In a way, the ability is a blessing to have.

 

But of course, nothing in this world comes without a con.

 

“Ow…Ow…”

 

In Rosé’s case, if she was to keep this habit of hers, she was bound to come face to face with death soon enough.

 

 

Some minutes earlier

 

“Joy ugh-“

 

Rosé uses her palm as a barrier between her cheek and Joy’s puckering lips. The brunette sports an offended frown before hooking an arm around her victim’s neck.

 

“Keep playing hard to get, why don’t you?”

 

“Don’t you have a class to catch? It’s literally 30 minutes after…“

 

Rosé’s eyes widen upon realizing.

 

Joy heartily laughs and gives the girl’s behind a small pat.

 

“You might want to run.”

 

“How about you?” Rosé says in gasps, her legs already taking her a good distance away from her previous spot.

 

“I’ll be at the rooftop.” 

 

The runner mouths “are you serious?” and doesn’t bother to scold any further as making it to class was first priority.

 

Rosé roughly catches her breath before entering her last class of the day. She mentally berates herself for being late for the first time, twenty minutes at that.

 

“Sorry I’m late.”

 

The whole room seemed unmindful of her sudden barge-in as some of the students were engaged on the documentary while others are sneakily dozing off behind their books.

 

The young teacher gives her a reassuring nod and gestures for her to take a seat. She quietly walks along the back end and halts beside her targeted spot.  

 

Someone was now occupying the desk next to hers, and she tilts her head to observe the hunched over figure. The room was a bit dark but the screen shone brightly enough to expose a sleeping face.

 

A few strands of hair was covering the girl’s face. Still, the latter looked beautiful (she was getting a little envious) with her shiny black hair sitting on her shoulders.

 

Her eyes traces back to the girl’s bag and noted that the individual was of high class family.

 

Is that Gucci?

 

She takes a look at the girl’s face once more and somehow pictures the girl in a historical Chinese drama acting as a princess, donning a beautiful silk dress complimenting her petite figure as she stands by a pretty cherry blossom tree.

 

THUD

 

An unbelievably sharp pain rings through her leg and she crouches down almost immediately, hand vigorously rubbing at the impacted spot.

 

 

Currently

 

Rosé bites back a string of curse words, her eyes squeezed shut and cheeks puffing naturally as she tries to pacify her throbbing knee.

 

She reminds herself to file a safety complaint later for these dangerously sharp-edged desk chairs.

 

“Pretty.”

 

Rosé stops and mutters a “What?” only to look up and see that the girl had remained as she was when she first saw her. Sound asleep.  

 

I must be hearing things now, and I know why.

 

Already forgetting about her aching knee, she whips out a bag of chips from her book bag and situates herself on the deadly desk-chair. After a few munches she starts to take out her pen and drawing book as well, doodling to her heart’s content.

 

From time to time she’d crane her neck to look at the stranger beside her. It was hard not to be intrigued by the new face.

 

As if on que, some muffled mumbles where seeping out of the sleeping girl’s mouth, and Rosé found the sleep-talking to be precious. She had wondered if the girl was just as sweet when awake. 

 

Not too long, the school’s bell rings, and she shifts her eyes elsewhere as soon as the new girl’s head perks up.

 

“Hey sleepyhead!”  

 

She follows the voice and meets eyes with no other than Jisoo Kim, former captain of the school’s varsity soccer team.

 

Jisoo gives her a slight nod and a smile before walking over to the new girl.

 

Rosé gives the older girl a slight bow in return, her hand coming up to hold her burning ear. She hears the new girl’s voice for the first time, casually conversing with Jisoo.     

 

They seem close.

 

Before she could observe any further, her phone vibrates from under her desk. She takes a peek at the screen and sighs. 

 

Joy_malgeumi: Practice is re-scheduled for today. Hurry up and come to the locker rooms, I’m lonely.

 

 

 

--♥--

 

 

Jennie silently observes the small tinge of pink on the girl’s cheek (the color almost reaching the same shade as her hair) as she greets Jisoo back with a small bow.

 

“We have a situation.”

 

Her attention adverts back to Jisoo who’s now towering over her. Jennie clicks her tongue as she rubs at her sleepy eyes.

 

“Care to explain first why you haven’t been responding to my texts all day?”

 

“What I’m about to tell you will cover that.”  

 

“Alright.”  

 

Jisoo lets out a sigh as she grabs Jennie’s bag.

 

The younger girl gives her a questioning look, and she informs the latter accordingly.

 

“She came knocking on my door this morning, asking for you.”  

 

Jennie knew exactly who it was. There’s only ever one person who was close enough to the both of them on a personal level. One person who knows that the only way to really reach her was through Jisoo.

 

She doesn’t speak as she urges herself off the desk and heads out of the classroom, expecting her friend to follow after.

 

Jisoo lets out another sigh and shakes her head at the ajar door.

 

“I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” Rosé retorts apologetically. She had her phone tucked in her right hand that’s resting on the desk while the other twirls a finger at her hair; a mannerism she inherited when dealing with a certain emotion. In this case, embarrassment.

 

“Don’t worry about it.” Jisoo chuckles. She slings Jennie’s bag on and starts walking towards the door soon after.

 

Her white sneakers stop at the door line separating the classroom floors and the outside. She turns to Rosé with a grin.

 

“You coming out for our first game this Saturday, right?”

 

 

--♥--

 

 

“Jisoo sunbae said that?”

 

Rosé nods quietly.

 

The two sat in silence for a good few seconds, straddling the bench as they face each other. Joy breaks the silence once she saw that the girl had no plans in keeping a conversation going.  

 

“Am I missing something? I was expecting a squealing chipmunk.”

 

“Why would I do that?”

 

“Uh, because JISOO KIM literally just said she wanted to see you this Saturday.”

 

“It wasn’t a personal invite since we are supposed to be there to cheer anyway.”

 

Joy dramatically places a hand on the pink-haired girl’s shoulder.

 

“Trust me. She was absolutely hinting. “

 

“Quit it. I’m no longer the Rosé from a year ago. I don’t make a big deal about everything anymore.”

 

“You woke me up at four in the morning- FOUR, Chaeyoung, just to talk about how Jisoo held the door for you.”

 

Rosé gives her a small glare, but Joy adds on.  

 

“And that was 2 weeks ago.”

 

The girl doesn’t respond in acknowledgement. She distracts herself by reaching for her bag to grab a practice shirt instead. Her eye twitches at Joy’s giggle.

 

Both girls change into their cheer practice wears silently. Joy doesn’t wait though, as she claps her hands upon remembering something in particular.

 

“A pretty popular girl from our rival school transferred here today, Jisoo and her go way back apparently.”

 

Rosé doesn’t say a word but listens; her hands coming up to tie her hair in a ponytail. Her mind slowly goes back to when she first encountered the new girl in her class.

 

"Tea is that she used to date someone who is now a celebrity."

 

"Already gossiping about the new girl, are we Joy?"

 

A husky voice resonated from across the locker room.

 

The gossiper ignores the remark and nudges Rose by the elbow.

 

"She's pretty hot. I can see why she could date someone at that level."

 

"I wouldn't say hot." The owner of the husky voice finally reaches them and drops a duffel bag on the bench across their own.

 

"Finally found your competition, Miss Irene? The Goddess of East Wood High Cheerleading Varsity Team?" Joy grins

 

"That's a pretty long title- but no, shut up. She's more like a cute/pretty girl type, I mean." Irene turns around and unlocks her locker, hiding a small smile slowly creeping up her cheeks. 

 

Rosé realizes that she doesn’t know the girl’s name. And so, she asks.

 

"What's her name?"

 

Joy raises her brow at the latter's sudden interest.

 

She playfully sings the name.

 

"Jennie. Jennie Kim."

 

 

 

 

 

“You came.”

The girl smiles. She straightens her legs to stop the swing from moving. The wind causes her hood to fall off her head, and Jennie quickly walks over to pull it back on for her.

The girl’s smile turns into a grin, and Jennie steps back an inch when she realizes that their faces were close enough for her to feel the girl’s breath. She musters up a few words.

“You really need to stop roaming around on your own like this, Lisa.”