"Will you change it with your fingers?"

 

The classroom was dead silent, as it wasn’t the time for the students to arrive just yet. However, Kim Jungeun stepped inside, her head never being so heavy, as far as a migraine crisis was getting the best of her, to make her way towards her usual spot. She wasn't one to sit in the front row, but wasn’t very likely to sit by the end of the class as well. Her feet dragged her, almost automatically, until she reached the third row by the windows in the left side of the classroom and tossed her bag, on the floor, next to her chair.

 

A loud music fulfilled her ears tenderly, but she was quick to shut it down to focus only in gathering her materials for the class, even if it wasn’t about to start, more or less, in twenty minutes. Her biology teacher wasn’t well known for his punctuality, so you could never be sure. In the end, she best decided to get her music on again when everything was settled on top of her table.

 

“Jungeun-ah! Why did you left in such a hurry?!” Her best friend asked, entering the classroom in her usual clumsy way, literally stumbling at any and every row of classes she passed by, screaming on the top of her lungs as she is used to.

 

That wasn’t making wonders to Jungeun’s headache.

 

“Oh, hi again.” She answered, seeming bothered, because she was (her head was about to explode), taking off her earphones for good this time. “That girl was around, my stomach felt sick out of the sudden.”

 

Her friend, Jiwoo, just shrugged and denied with her head a little after, sparing a playful look at her friend before settling her own things for class.

 

“Okay look, leaving Heejin and your obsession with her aside, now please tell me that you did the homework.”

 

“I always do?” For once, she thought that not arguing about her non-existent obsession with the brunette. Because, well, her head was already in pain. Talking about the girl wouldn’t really help, only if she wanted to make it worse and leave early.

 

She wasn’t one to skip class.

 

“Thank God, please let me borrow it I swear I’ll make it up to you, just please please …” She sighed, as if she would deny her friend’s pleading.

 

“Just take it.” Jungeun laughed, and laughing hurts so her face was all sort of switching. And it was not like she wasn’t used to giver her notes already, but Jiwoo hugged her shortly before eagerly getting her notebook for the answers.

 

“Jiwoo-unnie…” They both heard the not-so-sweet voice calling by the door, as some other students were making their way inside the classroom altogether.

 

“And so, the devil follows.” Jungeun whispered, and Jiwoo couldn’t keep her giggles on and all other sorts of weird faint noises, before getting up as she realized that the girl wasn’t about to enter their classroom anytime soon.

 

“Yes?”

 

Heejin slowly waved at Jungeun’s direction, muffling a hi . Jungeun answered rolling her eyes before laying her back fully in her seat and stretching her arms as she didn’t care. And she would very much like to say that annoyed her, just how much that girl was forcing herself to be seem, but a little smirk grew in her lips before she could shove it off. Heejin didn’t notice, but maybe she felt how much Jungeun kept her eyes on her, or them (her best friend was there , she wasn’t looking to Heejin because she wanted, no ), as she faintly talked with her friend.

 

The conversation didn’t took long, she couldn’t deny the curiosity of being able to see them exchanging smiles and some looks at her own direction, but not being able to hear a thing. They bid their goodbyes, not before Heejin taking just a few more glances towards Jungeun (and did she just bit her lips looking at her?), because too many students were making their way inside and Heejin had to leave for her class as well. When Jiwoo went back to her table, she was all smiley like she heard the best joke in the century.

 

Or she was just extremely happy as always, Jungeun could never tell the difference.

 

“Heejin is so funny, how can you bluntly hate her?”

 

“I don’t blun- whatever her, where did you even learned such a weird sounding word? Don’t answer, I bet you don’t even know what it means. She’s just annoying, okay?”

 

“I swear she’s not.”

 

“Are you friends now or something? What were you guys even talking about?”

 

“Someone is curious, I see.” Jiwoo teased, earning a heavy sigh and a meticulous cold look. She wasn’t bothered by it, though, it was so many years of friendship that she was already used to every single threat Jungeun could try. “I won’t tell.” She answered, sticking out her tongue to her friend and her eyes just so easily turned into crescent moons.

 

“Fine, whatever, just know that I won’t share my chocolates with you today.”

 

“That’s not fair!” Jungeun just flicked her hands in the air. “We weren’t talking about you, don’t worry. She just happens to know that senior I’ve told you about, and, well, she even got me her number.”

 

“Wait, she’s helping you with your crush?”

 

“See? She’s great.”

 

“She’s great at making me want to throw up, that’s it.”

 

“Are you still pressed that she got you that nickname?” That was a trigger, a very dangerous conversation that never failed to stress Jungeun.

 

“Seriously, now?”

 

“It is a cute nickname though and she totally made that up to praise you, I’m sure of that.” Jiwoo couldn’t care less about her life, because going against Jungeun was surely the definition of living in the edge.

 

Jungeun was pretty chill, unless she was mad at something. Then, she wasn’t chill at all and she could literally keep whining for hours straight without the need of air. Even non-close friends feared her, as her looks were kind of intimidating as well. Maybe Jiwoo was the only one to enjoy the walking in eggshells, or she just soon pictured that the only thing Jungeun would ever do was pout and whine for hours. She wouldn’t really stay mad for long and her memory was seriously bad, so she tends to lose her trace of thoughts fast if ignored for enough time.

 

“Can we please stop talking about her? My stomach is sick…”

 

“We can, but there’s other thing…”

 

“What? What have you’ve done?” Jungeun knew something would come to her way, bad news if she was lucky. Even worst news, if it was a normal situation. Or total chaos if she wasn’t lucky at all, most of the times this was the correct option.

 

“I sort of agreed to go out with them this afternoon, as she was about to go watch a movie with Sooyoung…”

 

“And what does this have anything to do with m-…” Jungeun stopped, her eyes frozen on her friend. “Oh no, you didn’t do this.”

 

“There’s no one else to go with me and she doesn’t want to be our third wheel all alone, that she even accepted you going with us.”

 

“ARE YOU CRAZY?”

 

“Miss Kim, is everything fine?” The teacher asked, making his way inside the classroom, as every other student got silent after Jungeun’s scream.

 

“Yes, yes, I’m sorry teacher.” She told him, also dismissing all the other student’s looks towards her. “I’m so gonna kill you Jiwoo.”

 

 

 

 

The laugher was all over their table, at lunch time. Jungeun was trying hard to just finish with her food and go back to her class, as her friends wouldn’t stop teasing her for having a date with the one and only Jeon Heejin. Yerim wasn’t that bad, she was mostly just laughing at any Jinsoul’s quote. And, well, Jinsoul wouldn’t stop dragging her out for it.

 

“It won’t be that bad, right? If you’re going to watch a thriller, you can just kill her and blame the 3D effects no one will know.”

 

Yerim choked on her food.

 

“What?” The younger of the three asked.

 

“We know she’s thinking about it, right? Lippie is always thinking about all the possible ways of killing the girl, I don’t know how she even survived being in the same football team as her.”

 

“Hyunjin-unnie protects her when they’re in different sides, I’ve seen it.”

 

“We’re going to watch a romantic comedy.” Jungeun said, out of the sudden, her friends not even slightly ready to hear her voice after a long time that she was ignoring their jokes. “And can you please stop using that nickname Jinsoul? You know I hate it.”

 

“Are you serious?” Jinsoul asked just before bursting into laughter, tossing her head so hard in the table that, for a brief moment, their friends and the girls from the nearby tables (notice that it was an all girls school) got worried about her. She was fast to recover and go back to laugh so hard at Jungeun’s face, though, seeming completely unbothered by the hit. Yerim started laughing as well. “And no can’t do, this nickname fits you perfectly just like she-who-must-not-be-named once stated.”

 

“Instead of making fun of me, why don’t any of you just come with me so I won’t have to survive an entire afternoon in hell?”

 

“But I thought you wanted to go in a date with Heejin?” Jinsoul teased again.

 

“I’m this close of ditching you both, to get new friends. You guys are totally useless.”

 

“Unnie I’m seriously sorry, okay? I would totally go with you… if I, somehow, wanted to have a really short life.”

 

“That’s my girl.” Jinsoul and Yerim high-fived, Jungeun just snorted loudly because she couldn’t deal with her friends anymore.

 

“You’re siding with Jinsoul? After all the hours I’ve spend helping you in your studies?”

 

“But unnie, no one wants to get dragged between one of your fights with Heejin-unnie, you guys are pretty dense when you’re together.”

 

“That’s mainly her fault, for always annoying me to the bones.”

 

“Sometimes she’s just literally breathing?”

 

“Even her breathing is annoying, the sound of it, I can’t believe I’ll have to spare a whole afternoon trying to not commit either a homicide or suicide.”

 

“Well, good luck on that. I’d rather not have myself involved too, because I just need to see Jiwoo whining all day tomorrow, for how you two totally screwed up her date with Sooyoung. Does Heejin even know that you’re tagging along?”

 

“She knows… and I’ve seen her laughing out loud with Jiwoo, with that devilish grin of hers. I bet she likes having yet another opportunity to pester me. I’m not surviving this afternoon, I just feel it.”

 

“Oh, but what’s the worst that could happen? You two kiss?” Jinsoul asked, of course she did.

 

“I’d rather die, than let her touch me.”

 

 

 

“Can you please stop latching to my arm? This is not funny.” Jungeun complained.

 

“Isn’t that supposed to be a double date? I’m just doing the same as them.” Heejin answered, signaling with her head in their friend’ s direction. Sooyoung and Jiwoo were just some steps ahead of them, lost in their own world, talking about nothing they could comprehend.

 

Jungeun wasn’t sure that they couldn’t understand, because they were either talking really low or Jiwoo was using a language never heard on earth before, and Sooyoung was just pretending that she could understand. Practically, was way safer to assume for the second option. Jungeun has, somewhere, videos and audios stored with weird noises her friend does. A whole lot of them. Jiwoo calls them as merely “communication” , Jungeun wasn’t sure that she knew that communication implied talking and being understood by another fellow human .

 

It took awhile for Jungeun to come back and think about a proper answer to Heejin, as it was never an easy task to talk with the devil.

 

“This is not a double date. I refuse to call it that way, I’m here totally against my will.”

 

“Yes, whatever, but you’re walking so slowly that you can get lost pretty quickly and I won’t be left alone with those two birds.”

 

“Shut up, that’s actually my plan to leave early.” Heejin punched her shoulder, a little lighter than Jungeun thought she would, not that this would keep her from making a little drama.

 

“Do you guys realize that you’re looking more like a couple, than us?” Sooyoung asked, looking back at them.

 

“Urgh, gross.” Heejin scoffed, getting some distance from Jungeun.

 

Not lasting for a long time though.

 

“That’s the worst thing that someone ever told me.” Jungeun said and Heejin just nodded, then they were left in some sort of awkward stare competition. Until they realized that they were indeed staring at each other, and stopped. “And it’s like your first date, but you guys are doing way to good already? You don’t even need me here, right?”

 

“You’re not leaving me alone with those two, stop trying you .”

 

“Hello, language? And never, if you blink for slightly longer I’ll just run away.”

 

“I’m faster than you, can catch up pretty easily.”

 

“That’s… highly unfair, and such an unpleasant truth that I never asked for. Can you please just remain quiet for, like, forever? Am I asking for too much?”

 

“How do you even keep being friends with this person Jiwoo-unnie? I thought that I used to whine a lot, but she just won’t stop.”

 

“Please stop calling me unnie.” The older asked, giggling. “She’ll get sleepy if you pet her hair.”

 

“Don’t you dare.” Jungeun threatened, as soon as she saw Heejin’s left and only free hand getting up to her direction. Her right arm was still latching to Jungeun’s left one, the older must have forgotten or deliberately decided to so she won’t have to keep fighting about it.

 

“She’s also very soft when she’s sleepy, I guarantee.”

 

“Jiwoo! I even come with you and you have to drag me out like that, can you please let me breathe and not uncover all my secrets to this person?”

 

“Sorry Lip-ah!”

 

“And stop using that damn nickname.”

 

“This is the best nickname ever, from the best person ever as well.”

 

“Can we please stop by any bathroom? I seriously need to throw up.”

 

 

 

 

The afternoon was, unexpectedly, better than Jungeun could have imagine. Heejin wasn’t such a terrible company when she was silent, and luckily enough she pretty much got endorsed into eating sweet popcorn (which Jungeun might have payed for, when Jiwoo and Sooyoung weren’t looking) as she had all her attention on the movie.

 

About the movie, it wasn’t really Jungeun’s favorite kind and it would be a waste of money, if her goal was something apart than helping her friend to get the girl she wanted. It was such a good sight, to see how Jiwoo was getting along so well with Sooyoung. Because, as far as she knew, Sooyoung wasn’t that easy to approach. Jinsoul is one of her closest friends, but even for Jungeun, that happens to be around Jinsoul literally every time after or in the break of classes, was hard to get close Sooyoung. They were in the same dance club as well, but they wouldn’t talk there. Sooyoung was pretty intimidating while dancing, for her amazing and powerful skills. Jungeun was suddenly curious about how this girl, Jeon Heejin, was able to be friends with her.

 

“She’s always at the library.”

 

“What?” Jungeun asked, raising her chin that was resting on Heejin’s right shoulder. In her defense, the movie was making her sleepy and she couldn’t rest her head on Jiwoo’s because they couldn’t get four tickets together. So, Sooyoung and Jiwoo were sitting in a row just in front of them. And, so the devil itself seemed better, and comfier (Heejin had broad shoulders, compared to her thin arms, and Jungeun was kind of weak for broad shoulders. They were so good to lay on...), than the stranger by her right side.

 

“Sooyoung, that’s how we met.”

 

“Do you read minds now? There’s seriously not a single place that I can be without your annoying presence?” Jungeun asked, astonished.

 

“Shut up.” Heejin answered, all the while putting Jungeun’s face back to rest at her shoulder. She surely heard her whispering a don’t touch me , but Jungeun rested her head again anyway. “You’ve been looking at them for the entire movie with this weird scrunched face.”

 

“I don’t have a we-… forget it, tell me more.”

 

“I volunteer at the library sometimes, and Sooyoung knows as she is always there. So, she told me about cute notes she found in some books and if it was okay to leave them there. As, you know, the person wasn’t damaging the books was just some post-it notes in them. There was a signature, also, by the name Chuu.”

 

“This is so Jiwoo behavior.” She answered, a side smile gaining space on her lips.

 

“It took us some weeks to discover that was her. I’m pretty sure they started to make some conversations out of these notes, so that’s why they’re able to be this comfortable around each other?”

 

“I was so sure Jiwoo was making up this note conversation history, to ditch me at lunch. But so, you just decided to help them?”

 

“Yes, why not? They look cute.”

 

The conversation was cut there, as Heejin turned her face back to the movie. And maybe the movie wasn’t that bad in the end, but Jungeun couldn’t quite tell because she wasn’t paying that much of attention to it.

 

She wasn’t fully sleeping either, because Heejin’s breath kept making her face going up and down. That’s wasn’t annoying, maybe like endearing? Jungeun caught herself paying attention to it, even though keeping her eyes close so Heejin wouldn’t notice.

 

Heejin wasn’t that bad when she was silent.

 

And not that bad when she was speaking too, by the way.

 

 

 

 

“Thank you so so much for this, I can’t believe you and Heejin actually didn’t killed each other!” Jiwoo said, tossing herself to her friend’s arms and hugging her so strongly that Jungeun couldn’t breathe. “This day was awesome! Sooyoung is so funny, and so kind, I really really really like her so much and…”

 

“I think you can stop there, because I’m sure you’re just going to keep telling me of how much you like her and I think I’ve got it already. And now you know, that I’d literally walk on hell to help you out.”

 

“I’ve seen that you enjoyed Heejin’s company, at least a little bit. Admit it!”

 

“Nope, not at all.”

 

“You ended up linking arms with her.”

 

“She forced me to, it was never my intention in the first place.”

 

“You rested your head on her shoulder.”

 

“That’s something you can’t prove, if I don’t remember I haven’t done it. And where was I supposed to lay my head on? That movie made me sleepy.” Jiwoo just lightly pushed her friend.

 

“Remember that I was taking some pictures with Sooyoung? Of course, I would gather some proofs as well. I just posted one, actually.”

 

“Please tell me you’re joking, you literally have all the school following your Instagram, I don’t want people thinking that I’m even slightly close to her.”

 

“Too bad!” The girl just jumped away from the hug, before Jungeun could catch her.

 

“After everything I’ve done for you, why do you repay me like that?”

 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got you a chocolate bar.”

 

“You owe me at least twenty for today, but one can do for now.” Jungeun said, taking her phone that was in her pockets as it won’t stop busing. Of course, it was Jinsoul showering her with texts probably after seeing her picture with Heejin.

 

Tomorrow would be such a hard day to endure, she could tell.

 

“Do you want to come over?” She asked, when they arrived in front of her house.

 

“I can’t, promised my mom to help her with dinner. See you at school tomorrow?”

 

“Sure, just don’t forget this is a one time only event. Don’t you dare put me in another double date with Jeon Heejin involved.”

 

“Hm? Did you say something? I suddenly can’t hear?” Her friend playfully said, her light brown hair hovering in the wind as she was walking forward. “Today was great, let’s do it again please!”

 

“Never!”

 

 

 

 

 

“Mom, I’m home.” Jungeun said, just as she made her way home.

 

She had spent at least half an hour in front of her house, because Jiwoo suddenly turned back. She was forgetting to give her chocolates and they just started to talk nonsense a little more, before Jiwoo went back literally running to her house when her mom later called.

 

“Oh, hi sweetie, I left your cleaned clothes on your bed. Do you want to eat something before dinner?”

 

“It would be nice, yes.” Jungeun said, bowing to her mother as she made her way to the kitchen. “I’ll just set my things in my room and be right back.”

 

The sun was already setting, when she entered her room, so the first thing was to close the window and turn the lights on. She left her bag on the desk chair, before giving attention to the clothes on her bed. Jungeun was tired for walking all day long, the movie theater wasn’t that close to her house and they went there on foot from the school and then to her house. So, she took a little time to lay down, just putting the clothes aside by her feet and went to check her cellphone.

 

There was, being modest, tons messages from Jinsoul. All of them about her date with Heejin. She ignored all the jokes, just saying that she was tired and the afternoon was like a living hell. It was a lie, she was deep down aware of it, but sh