Mina managed to excuse herself out of the art room before reading the rest of the texts.

She forgot the fact she had given Jeongyeon her number since the performer had never sent her a text until now.

“Sorry for not texting you! My phone had been acting weird so I finally got it checked and fixed earlier.” the texts read.

Mina began typing a reply. “It’s okay, I understand. I’m glad your phone’s fine now.” she answered with her best manners.

To her surprise, she received a text back in less than a minute.

“Thanks! Btw, are you not in class right now? Or are you secretly texting in class for me :P”

She smiled to herself from reading the girl’s joke. “I don’t have a class until 7 PM tonight.”

“Why don’t we hang out ‘til then? I’ve got nothing to do anymore.”

Mina felt her heart skip a beat upon receiving such a sudden invitation; being an extremely introverted person who only had 2 other friends within the school, she wasn’t used to being asked out.

She was afraid that she would be too nervous from the unfamiliarity and ruin the mood to their hang-out, yet she knew that she truly wanted to try it out. Jeongyeon’s personality also gave her a sense of security and warmth, thus she chose to boldy type out her next text.

“Sure. Where should we meet up?”

“Hmm… How about the school gates? I’m almost there already.”

“Okay. I’ll try to get there as soon as I can.”

“Don’t worry, no rush. See you soon, my daughter :)”

Jeongyeon huffed out a lung-full of air loudly as she stuck her phone into her blazer pocket, unable to calm her rapid heartbeat down.

As she arrived at the gates, she recalled the conversation she had with her two friends the moment right after their theatre class ended.

“So she’s the chick, hmmm?” one wriggled her brows as Jeongyeon returned to their side after having a chat with Mina.

“Good choice, good choice. Can’t blame ya for falling for her- Heck, if I had the confidence I’d go for her too.”

“Yah.” Jeongyeon gave her friend a smack on the back, “Stop teasing me already. We were only discussing about the performance, okay?”

“Do you hear this girlie?” the other friend smirked cheekily as she nudged her partner-in-crime, the crime being teasing the hell out of Yoo Jeongyeon, “Acting as if she didn’t like it- Jeongyeon-ah, you should’ve seen your own face.”

“Yeah, it was so obvious that you were flirting with her.” the friend-that-got-smacked agreed, “There’s no use in making excuses. We’ve witnessed everything since you two first met.”

Jeongyeon glanced at both of the girls before letting out a defeated sigh. “Fine, fine. So what if I do have an interest in her-” she paused from the sight of their mischievous grins, “Oh please don’t embarrass me in front of her, guys I swear to God if you do-”

“Chill guuuurl. How mean do you think we are?!” one snapped, “If anything, we’d want to help you get that puss-”

“Watch it.” the star performer hissed, causing the girl to smile sheepishly back.

“Let’s come up with a battle plan. Operation Get-Yoo-Jeongyeon-A-Hot--Babe.”

“That name’s way too freakin’ long. How about Operation Get-Jeongyeon-Laid?”

“Excuse me?!”

“Oops, right. Language. Operation Get-Jeongyeon-Deised.”

“That’s not my point!!!”

“Sometimes, you gotta be bold Jeongyeon, just rock the world. She seems to be the type who’s too shy to make a move first, so you’ll have to it up and do it.”

“Yeah Jeongyeon-ah. Find a way to hang out with her outside of class. There’s no way you can make any progress in this environment.”

“Literally a theatre-full of -blockers here… Wait, does that mean we’re also -blockers by default?”

“We’re the ones helping her out, ! Why would we block when we’re trying to bring her the co- oh wait, we’re all ing girls here. She doesn’t even have a to block.”

“Then… -blockers?”

“That sounds so weird though don’t you think? -blocker. -blocked.”

“-blocker. Yeah that doesn’t sound right at all, ew.”

“How about c*nt-bloc-”

“Can we move on from this topic?!” Jeongyeon shrieked out after she reached her temper limit. “Gosh, why am I even friends with you two…”

“Hey, we’re being serious here!”

“Yeah! We actually want to help you get her heart!”

“I’m thankful for your thoughts, but so far we’ve made no progress other than you two gaining the achievement of sprouting a ton of profanities within a school environment and not getting kicked out!” the Barnum actress ranted in frustration.

“Okay okay, we’ll be serious now.” her friend apologised, “Let’s see… You now have her number, right? Maybe text her when you’re mentally prepared and find out when she’s free. Invite her to ‘hang’ once you do, and start from there.”

“Try to leave the campus too. You’ll get stuck in that schoolmate-zone if you stay here. It’ll seem more like a date if you’re outside too.”

“Gotta start from a friend in order to add that ‘girl’ word at the front.”

Jeongyeon nodded after taking in their words. “But what if I’m never ready? What if I never get the courage to even send that text?”

“Then we’ll ing send it for you.”

And that was what truly happened.

Before Jeongyeon could move a single muscle, her phone was stolen from her back pocket and taken hostage. Her two besties were sick and tired of waiting for her to woman-up, thus they decided to give her a little push.

When she was finally got her phone back, she was already supposed to meet up with Mina, giving her no choice but to go along with the unforeseen plan. Jeongyeon couldn’t even ask for a ‘good luck’ from her friends as they’ve already ran away for the sake of their lives, abandoning her alone to deal with the rest.

As she waited patiently with her gaze stuck to the ground, she heard someone’s footsteps approaching from behind.

“Hello, Jeongyeon-unnie. Sorry if I made you wait a while.”

The voice made her heart increase its pulse as she recognised it instantly.

It was the person she was waiting for.

“H-Hey Mina!” she forced out a smile, trying her best to hide the nervousness away. “Don’t worry, I just got here myself.”

“Really? I saw you standing here all the way from that building though.” Mina pointed, causing Jeongyeon to blush in embarrassment. Mina giggled upon seeing her reaction. “I’m just joking. My eyesight isn’t that great for me to be able to do that.”

Jeongyeon felt less anxious thanks to Mina’s light-hearted teases. She appreciated the dancer’s efforts in reducing the tension within the atmosphere, as she didn’t know if she could last more than 5 minutes if they continued on like that.

“So, are there any specific places you’d like to go?” Jeongyeon asked politely, though she saw Mina shake her head. She took out her phone to check the time. “Hmm… We still have at least 3 hours to spare. How about we go to an arcade? I know one that’s really fun, plus it’s pretty close by.”

Mina was too shy to confess the fact she had never been to an arcade before. Ever since she was little, the loud and flashy appearance of those places repealed the introvert completely.

Although she was anxious about the idea, she was still willing to try out something new- especially when Jeongyeon looked like she really wanted to go.

“Sounds good, unnie.”

The two held simple conversations while they walked on the streets side-by-side. Being the gentlewoman she was, Jeongyeon made sure Mina always walked in the insides of the pavement while occasionally check how she was feeling.

The weather had been progressively getting colder and colder as autumn was coming to an end, thus the performer was worried how Mina seemed to be wearing too little clothing for the weather outside.

As they stopped for the traffic light, Jeongyeon realised Mina was actually trembling slightly from the breeze, making her remove her own blazer.

Without a word, she draped it over Mina’s shoulders which surprised her greatly.

“Ah, it’s okay-” Mina tried to refuse the kind offer, but Jeongyeon had firmly hooked an arm over the dancer’s shoulder’s which held the jacket in place.

“I’d hate myself for letting you catch a cold without doing anything.” Jeongyeon explained with a warm smile, making Mina look at her with gratitude.

“You’re so nice, Jeongyeon-unnie. I guess this is why you’re popular in our school.” the ballerina giggled as she wore the clothing properly.

Jeongyeon found herself blushing from the remark, a little embarrassed. “It’s still weird for me to hear people describe me like that.” she chuckled, “Some treat me like a celebrity even though I’m just an ordinary performance-art student.”

“You would definitely become a star if you auditioned for movies and such. You’re a great actress.” Mina complimented sincerely, increasing Jeongyeon’s shyness.

“You’re too nice Mina, but thank you.” the performer looked away to hide her red face.

Thankfully they had arrived to the arcade, just in time to save Jeongyeon from her overflowing feels. “Oh, we’re here!”

Mina stuck herself close to the girl’s side as they entered the rowdy building; although it was only the afternoons during a weekday, there were quite a few other people within the arcade also, the most of them being delinquent high schoolers.

The dancer saw three of them staring through the corner of her eyes as they searched for their first game to play.

“What do you enjoy playing, Mina-ya?” Jeongyeon yelled through the ruckus.

“I’ll just play whatever you’d like.” Mina tried to reply, yet she found her own voice getting drowned out by the loud music since Jeongyeon was still waiting for her with a soft smile.

She leaned in towards Jeongyeon’s face to make sure she could hear her this time. “I’ll play whatever you want.” her breath tickled the performer’s skin, giving her goose-bumps.

Jeongyeon quickly chose a random game near them so that Mina wouldn’t notice her gay-panicking state. It happened to be the basketball hoop-shooting game.

“How good is your aim?” she asked while swiping her gaming card for them both.

“Decent, I’d say.” Mina replied while tucking a strand of hair behind her ears elegantly. She looked like someone who has never touched a basketball in her life.

“Oh yeah? Shall we compete for a reward?” the older grinned from her own suggestion. “The loser must grant the winner one wish.”

The bet triggered Mina’s competitiveness as she flashed out a smirk. “Sure, sounds good.”

The two pressed their ‘start’ button in unison before they focused on their hoops, both trying their very best to get the higher score.

After many minutes of silence between the duo, they panted exhaustedly from the brief exercise-but-not-really while waiting eagerly for their results.

Jeongyeon was confident in her basketball skills, thus she wasn’t worried about it that much- yet life seemed to be capable of proving her wrong through many different ways.

Mina won their competition by 18 points.

“I won?!” the dancer herself exclaimed in surprise as she had prepared herself for a defeat. Jeongyeon found herself marvelling over the girl’s unpredictableness, enjoying the surprises.

“Dang, who’d knew you were such a baller!” she cheered happily for her schoolmate. “Ah, I need to top up the card before we can play anything else though. Wait for me here, Mina!”

As Mina observed Jeongyeon from afar, she suddenly felt an unwanted touch slithering around her waist.

She saw that it was a hand of one of the high school boys.

“Hey there cutie. Want us to entertain you?” one of the douchebags purred, making Mina automatically frown in disgust. She didn’t care about managing her facial expressions for some gross kids.

“御免なさい, 放っておいてください.”

Mina attempted to throw the boys off by acting as an oblivious foreigner, yet her plan backfired as they seemed even more interested in her.

“Damn, a cute Japanese chick.” another his lips, “You know, it’s like a dream of mine to get a foreign girlfriend.”

“Where did you other friend go, Ms. Japan? We could all go have some fun together.” the final dude commented as he the university student’s face with his filthy hands.

Mina didn’t know what to do anymore, thus she merely braced herself for what’s to come with both of her eyes shut tightly.

All of a sudden, a loud thud could be heard by everyone at the scene.

Mina reopened her eyes and gasped upon seeing one of the f-boys on the ground with a bloodied nose.

The other two took a few steps back as they stared blankly at Jeongyeon who shielded Mina with her whole body as she stood in between.

The performer’s eyes were screaming for murder, and she didn’t hide those thoughts from the boys.

“You laid your hands on her?” she spoke in a low, bone-chilling manner; the calmness in her voice sent shivers down everyone’s spines- even Mina was shocked to witness such a behaviour from the friendly girl.

Jeongyeon glared at the one with the damaged nose as he slowly picked himself up. He still wasn’t giving up his status of being a .

“Did you just throw a punch at me, b*tch?!” he fumed while wiping his blood onto his sleeve as if it made him look cool.

“And you’ll be getting another if you continue, punk.” the older girl taunted, but suddenly she felt Mina tugging her shirt from behind.

“Jeongyeon-unnie… Let’s just go…” she begged with her worried eyes. “Please?”

Of course the performer couldn’t resist her puppy-eyes. Would on Earth could?

She shot a final glare at the high schoolers before gently pushing Mina towards the exit, yet it was Jeongyeon’s turn to experience someone grabbing hold of her.

“You thought I was done with you?” the injured boy growled as the girls watched him raise his fist.

Before the girls could do anything, he threw a violent punch and made contact…

…with a thick, sturdy, university textbook.

“F***CK!!!” the delinquent screamed in pain while his two buddies rushed over to his side, dragging him away to escape in peace.

Jeongyeon became stunned with confusion as it all occurred in a flash.

Her gaze followed the textbook up to the arm that held onto it, before she finally made eye-contact with their mysterious saviour.

“M-Momorin?!” Mina gasped as more question marks popped up from Jeongyeon’s head. Another female revealed herself from behind Momo’s back, giving the two a cheery wave. “Sa-tang too?! What are you guys doing here?!”

“Momo-chan was hungry after class so we left the campus to get some jokbal.” Sana explained, “We were on our way back but just happened to see you two walk in here, so we stalked you inside!”

“Aren’t you glad to have such caring and protective friends, Minari?” Momo hummed while the ballerina’s chin playfully. She then remembered Jeongyeon’s existence who was staring at the three stiffly. “Oh hey- who are you?” she bluntly questioned, making Mina blush from her second-hand embarrassment while Sana gently slapped her on the arm.

“You don’t remember that show we went to during our freshman year? Romeo and Juliet!” Sana tried to hint, “She was Romeo, Romeo!”

“Ahhh!” the light bulb within Momo’s mind finally lit up as she successfully regained her memories. “You were the talk of the town for a while after that, Ms. Romeo.”

“Her name is Yoo Jeongyeon…” Mina finally introduced her new friend as she couldn’t watch on any further. “We met each other in class for a collab.”

The other two Japanese students looked at each other with a pleasantly-surprised expression on their faces.

“Eeeeeeeeeeeh??”