“Hello!”

“My my, it isn’t every day to be visited by a superstar actress.”

“You’re flattering me way too much, Ms. Son.”

“I’m just stating the truth.” the art teacher chuckled gently. “What may I help you with, Barnum?”

“You know about our upcoming performance?” Jeongyeon gasped in awe, “How come?”

“I’m close with your teachers.” the woman revealed with a mischievious expression, “Or maybe I’m just one of your big fans.”

“I’d be honoured.” the musical-theatre student laughed as she did a curtsy, playing along with the teacher. “Oh, and I was wondering whether I could hang out in your classroom for this period. I don’t really have anything much to do.”

“Nothing much to do? Shouldn’t you be practising for the act?” Ms. Son raised her brow skeptically.

“I’d like to take a break from that today. I promise I’ll get right back to it afterwards.”

The art teacher pondered about her request for only a few seconds before flashing another smile at the performance-art major. “I don’t see why I should reject you- unless you’re going to burst into song as my kids try to focus on their work.” she teased with a playful smirk.

“I’m not that big of a theatre nerd, don’t worry.” Jeongyeon immediately laughed out loud. Ms. Son knows how to make a student smile for sure.

“Then very well! Welcome to Art.” the woman hummed as she reached over her desk to grab a sketchbook, aiming it directly at Jeongyeon. “Here, hold onto this just in case you feel like joining in. There should be a few empty easels for you to pick from if you’re interested.”

“Thank you Ms. Son. I’ll make sure to return it with a signature.” Jeongyeon retrieved the book with both hands, sending a playful wink afterwards.

As she made her way to the circle of easels, she finally took notice of the female whom she was here for.

That person was no other than Son Chaeyoung, her love-competitor.

It was pretty easy for Yoo Jeongyeon to obtain information about her new rival.

Her connections were enough for her to learn the oblivious student’s schedule, and with nothing else better to do while she procrastinates from her performance role, Jeongyeon decided to spend a class observing the artist in her natural habitat.

From what she had witnessed a few evenings ago, the performer felt insecure about her chances now with Chaeyoung in the competition; Mina seemed to really enjoy the tiny student’s company based on her facial expression while they talked, and obviously Chaeyoung had fell head over heels for the dancer.

Although Yoo Jeongyeon had never really cared about her love life despite having many admirers, she somehow found herself getting lured by the ballerina’s charms- it was especially shocking for herself to realise her feelings when she had other campus celebrities confess to her in the past, yet she remained unfazed by them.

For once in her university life, she felt butterflies in her stomach caused by reasons other than performing on stage, and the adrenaline was dangerously addicting. She was excited yet nervous about such feelings since she had no clue to know why she was falling for Mina so hard so quickly, yet she was unable to stop herself.

Embracing the unknown and going with the flow, she chose to give it a go, whether if it meant she had to put up a fight for it.

Surprisingly, despite Jeongyeon managing to find out about Chaeyoung’s schedule, she failed to know an important fact about her current situation-

She didn’t know Mina was going to be there as their model.

Jeongyeon chose to boldy take a seat right next to Chaeyoung, who as usual was too intrigued with her own sketchbook to notice her presence.

As more art students arrived for another class of sketching, the special guest found herself gaining some attention; a few artists even mustered up their courage to chat with the performer since she was pretty famous among the students. It was as if a celebrity had came to visit their class for whatever the reason.

Jeongyeon’s easy-going personality helped her become welcomed within the unfamiliar classroom, yet deep inside she was embarrassed and uncomfortable from the unwanted attention she was getting.

She never really liked the thought of herself being a campus celebrity, but all the other students within the university thought otherwise; they viewed her as a famous actress who appreciated the attention she was receiving- not in a negative manner, but just at ease and familiar with the crowd.

While Jeongyeon tried her best to entertain her new fangirls by keeping up with their conversations, a familiar female could be seen entering the room. It was thanks to her appearance that most of the students’ attention were diverted away from the performer, who began to secretly praise the Lord for letting her finally take a break- the partial reason to why she was here in the first place.

All she wanted was to spy on her rival while getting away from her usual musical actress life, yet she never realised she had the ability to still catch people’s attention despite hiding among a smaller group that was not in her field.

The one who barely made it to class in time, Myoui Mina, remained oblivious to all the stares she was now recieving as her gaze stuck firmly onto the floor while she placed her bag at its usual spot. She looked different compared to her usual self, and everyone else instantly noticed.

She wore a light pink sweater and a snow-white, medium-length tutu; her legs were covered by her white and translucent tights while her feet had on pale ballet shoes. Needless to say, her appearance blew the others away as they gawked at her beauty.

Mina finally noticed everyone’s stares the moment she tried to look for her artistic friend- who unsurprisingly was still ignoring everyone else’s existence; it wasn’t easy to make Chaeyoung leave her own little world while she was focusing on her art, thus no one really bothers trying. They actually respect her for being so passionate.

As Mina tried to remain calm despite her nerves begging her escape from the stares, she soon found herself smiling in relief upon spotting another familiar yet unexpected figure within the room. She made eye-contact as the girl was already looking at her also.

“Jeongyeon-unnie?”

“O-Oh hey Mina.” Jeongyeon quickly closed her gaping mouth when the ballerina’s soft voice travelled to her ears, giving her a smile back.

Their greetings instantly resulted in more mutters across the art room as people were becoming curious to how their timid model became an acquaintance of the star performer’s.

Mina managed to ignore the crowd’s gossips as she made her way over to the musical actress’s side, focusing her full attention onto her charming friend. “Did you transfer to this class? What are you doing here?”

“Why, you didn’t want to see my face?” Jeongyeon joked to hide away her shyness, successfully making Mina giggle.

“Not at all. It’s a nice surprise to see you here.”

“Well, I’m simply here avoiding my proper duties.” the performer stated half of the truth, “I wanted to take a quick break from memorising my lines so I asked Ms. Son whether I could hang around here, though I wasn’t expecting you to be here too.” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck shyly.

“Oh, I’m attending this class as their model for their sketches. I don’t actually have the skills to be an art student.” Mina confessed with a gummy-grin, making the older’s heart flutter uncontrollably. Jeongyeon laughed brightly to mask away her nervousness.

“Totally relatable.”

Ms. Son chuckled silently as she observed the two and her other fangirling students, before clapping twice to gain all of their attention for class.

“Hello, my children. As you can see, today we won’t just be focusing on the human figure.” she announced after the school bell rang soundly, “Thanks to our lovely model who agreed to show up in her ballet outfit, you guys have this opportunity to practise your skills on the unique fabric texture. Use your time wisely, and please try not to make Mina-yang shy by drooling at her beauty too much.”

The woman’s words instantly caused the students to laugh from the accuracy while their model’s cheeks resumed to flushing pink in embarrassment.

It was then, Chaeyoung finally left her own artsy world from all the ruckus. Ms. Son seemed to be the only one capable of snapping her out of it.

Late to the party, the short artist’s mouth dropped agape as soon as she saw Mina in her special attire.

Since she never took her eye off from her sketchbook until now, she wasn’t expecting her eyes to be blessed by the sudden heavenly sight.

She also wasn’t expecting to find her rival seated right beside her, who was now staring at her intensely.

“Y-Yoo Jeongyeon?!” Chaeyoung shrieked as she flinched violently. “What are you doing here?!”

The performer’s piercing gaze weakened from witnessing the artist’s fluttered state, finding it pretty amusing to watch. “Just taking a break from practising, that’s all.” she flashed a handsome smile, baffling Chaeyoung even more.

“She’s goddamn attractive- HOW? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO COMPETE WITH HER?!” the shorter girl cursed in her mind, “I’m sorry Momo-unnie, but I don’t think my ‘own charms’ can be any sort of help here…”

Despite feeling discouraged, Chaeyoung mustered up some nerves to greet her friend with the brightest smile she could squeeze out. “M-Mina-unnie!” the short artist called out, making the ballerina look at her.

Mina gave her a gentle smile, her cheeks still warm. “Yes, Chaeyoungie?”

The sight of her in such a flustered state while calling out her name almost gave Chaeyoung a heart attack, while it triggered the other female by their side.

“‘Chaeyoungie’?!” Jeongyeon cried silently to herself, “They’re actually closer than I thought they were…”

The artist just happened to see Jeongyeon’s reaction upon recieving Mina’s affection, making her grin proudly while her confidence grew slightly. She decided to make another move. “You look very pretty in your ballet attire, unnie!”

“Oh, t-thank you.” Mina’s smile instantly turned into a shy one from the sudden compliment. She didn’t realise her face was capable of heating up even more, yet she felt like her body was about to melt from all the compliments and attention she had recieved so far into the class- and the class had just begun.

Not willing to lose without a fight, Jeongyeon decided to put in some effort too. “I’m looking forward to seeing you like this again for our performance, Mina-ya!” she managed to counterattack her rival, making Mina’s poor heart skip a beat. The ballerina felt like she was dying from her friends’ ‘kindness’, while it was Chaeyoung’s turn to panic.

“‘Our performance’? ‘Mina-ya’?!” she bite her lip in frustration, glaring at her tough competitor. “What?!”

The two easily picked up each other’s attacks, resulting the two to now have a stare-down.

Mina could only stare at them in confusion, somewhat stunned by how all her friends knew one another; but before either of the girls could come up with their next move, Ms. Son had abducted Mina from their side to place her in position.

The staring contest was finally put to a halt by the art teacher’s voice, snapping them both out of their agression.

“Alright ladies, your 15 minute starts… now!”

For some reasons, Jeongyeon found herself drawing seriously for the first time in years.

Art was never her forte and she never really had much interest in it, yet here she was, sketching her crush in a class she didn’t even take.

She never realised how competitive she could get until she was triggered by a tiger-cub-looking student, who was also sketching with intense concentration by her side.

Despite the pressure of drawing their mutual crush, the two rivals didn’t miss out on any opportunities to interact with the hard-working model; while the rest sketched on, Jeongyeon stuck out her arm and pretended to measure Mina’s body proportion inaccurately as she counted not-so-quietly. Mina took notice of her silliness and couldn’t help but to giggle slightly, before forcing herself back to being a human statue.

Chaeyoung, who felt threatened by the performer’s moves, followed suit, and before anyone noticed they were both teasing the model. Mina was already shaking a little- not from the soreness of her muscles, but from holding in her laughter thanks to the two weirdos.

After the duo took a break from clowning around, the classroom remained silent with only the sound of diligent working-student’s doing their job. As time ticked by, Jeongyeon noticed her palm covered with graphite smudges due to the disadvantages of being a leftie.

While she wiped her hand clean, she chose to take a quick break and glanced over to her rival. She was fairly surprised by Chaeyoung’s serious expression while the girl drew diligently. She never knew the petite girl could look like that, and it was quite an alluring sight.

Jeongyeon found herself becoming curious about the artist’s work, which made her snuck to Chaeyoung’s side to take a peek at her progress.

Just like Mina’s first reaction upon seeing Chaeyoung’s talent, the performer subconsciously gasped out loud which distracted the artist from her easel.

“Yah, don’t look!” the small artist hissed in embarrassment as she stood up to cover her work. She physically tried to shove the female away, but failed miserably due to her petite figure compared to the tall actress.

“Stay seated!” Jeongyeon nagged with a grin as she easily pushed back, forcing the art student back to her spot.

They looked like two bickering kids.

Mina got to witness their little fight and had to refrain herself from cackling up once again.

As she took a deep breath to calm herself down, she suddenly noticed the fact that Chaeyoung was seated like everyone else; she recalled the girl stating her usual preference of standing while drawing, which made her a little curious to her current behaviour.

But without much thought, the model focused back onto her job while the classroom had its peace restored.

Glancing at the time on her cellphone, Ms. Son kindly reminded her kids about the remaining time before class ends.

As everyone else tried to add their finishing touches to their artworks, Jeongyeon’s playfulness slowly crept back in.

Once again, she got up from her easel to admire Chaeyoung’s artwork; without being caught just yet, she managed to stand by her side and watched her sketch in awe.

“You’re a good artist.” the performer eventually blew her cover since couldn’t help but to marvel sincerely, but before Chaeyoung had the time to even see the cheeky performer’s newly-formed mischievous look on her face, Jeongyeon speedily jabbed her on the sides. Chaeyoung instantly jerked up front her seat from the ticklish touch, though she managed to hold in her scream- not from the surprise, but instead from pain.

Chaeyoung felt intense pain in her ankle after she had accidentally implied force onto from her automatic reflex; she had accidentally twisted it in the morning on her way to her first class, which led to her decision of sitting down for art.

Unfortunately, Jeongyeon couldn’t possibly know about the fact without any sort of explaination prior, and Chaeyoung wasn’t expecting for a playful performer to be attacking her in class. 

After making sure her artwork was safe from any slip-ups from her sudden movement, Chaeyoung shot a death glare at the performer who stuck out her tongue back. They then found themselves flinching together as Ms. Son flicked them both on the foreheads, warning them to not fool around while drawing.

Mina once again had to look away from the sight of the two idiots. She found them equally as adorable and entertaining.

Thankfully, the class ended without any further fights between the two crackheads.

Mina approached them as soon as she was free to move, curious to how both of them did while stretching out her sore limbs.

“Ta-dah?” Jeongyeon showed her poor sketch that had half of the paper covered with smudge marks; she was grinning in embarrassment as she knew how bad it was compared to the true artist beside her, but she chose to reveal it for entertainment purposes.

“It’s pretty good.” Mina still complimented kindly, “Though I guess I became a ghost since I don’t have any legs.” she raised an eyebrow playfully after pointing it out, smiling from her own tease.

“Yaaah, I tried my best with the upper half okay? I ran out of time afterwards.” Jeongyeon pouted while giving her a poke on the arm, “Even if I had the time, you can see I’m not exactly an artist here.”

They both giggled at themselves before turning to face Chaeyoung, thinking that she would also be willing to reveal her work also.

However, instead of seeing the artist bragging about her amazing piece of work, they found Chaeyoung holding onto her leg with her nose scrunched up in pain, causing both Mina and Jeongyeon to become concerned.

“Are you okay, Chaeyoungie?” Mina quickly knelt beside her and placed a hand onto the girl’s knee, rubbing it as a gesture of comfort.

“Yeah, I accidentally jumped using my injured foot, but I should be okay.” the small student revealed briefly, making Jeongyeon gasp audibly in shock.

The performer knew it was because of her childish behaviour earlier on.

“I-I’m sorry! I didn’t know you were hurt!” Jeongyeon covered with both hands, incredibly apologetic.

“Of course you didn’t, silly- unless you were spying on me this morning.” Chaeyoung managed to joke back despite of her discomfort, but Jeongyeon was still too concerned to laugh.

“Do you need to go to the infirmary? I’ll carry you there.” the performer offered, but Chaeyoung shook her head with a small smile.

“It’s fine, I can just rest in my dorm. I’m free for the rest of the day anyways.”

“Are you sure, Chaeyoungie? Shouldn’t you get it checked out just in case?” Mina worried, yet the artist remained persistent with her choice.

“I’m sure it’s nothing serious , don’t worry Mina-unnie.” Chaeyoung patted the dancer’s head gently before pulling herself up with a grunt. “I can always ask my roommate to take care of me. Besides, it’s a perfect excuse for me to get her to do stuff for my lazy-.”

The two older students smiled from Chaeyoung’s light-hearted attitude, though Jeongyeon’s guilt was only growing as time ticked by.

The three girls eventually said their goodbyes before going on their separate ways.

Jeongyeon turned back to look at the limping artist, and despite just saying their farewells, she took out her phone from her pocket to contact one of them.

“Hey, do you know what kind of snacks Son Chaeyoung likes?”

Mina found her phone ring in her bag, fairly surprised to find a text from the girl she was literally with 30 seconds ago.

She subconsciously smiled while reading the message, already understanding where it was caming from. “No, not really. Are you still worried about her injury?” she speedily replied.

“Yeah, I feel super bad.” Jeongyeon answered honestly, “I’m going to go grocery shopping with my friends after school today, and I was thinking of getting her something as an small apology gift.”

Mina giggled softly from witnessing Jeongyeon’s kindness. “That’s really thoughtful of you, but unfortunately I don’t know much about her myself, sorry.”

Jeongyeon frowned to herself, but quickily came up with a plan.

“Well, is it okay if I ask you to act as my spy?”

Mina found Jeongyeon’s determination and her extreme sense of guilt adorable and attractive.

She could’ve never thought the performer was actually incredibly soft due to her powerful image and bold personality.

Her slim fingers hastily tapped another text back. “For what?”

“To find the answer to my question.” the performer directly answered, while the ballerina could sense her competitiveness rising once again.

“Okay. When’s my deadline?”

Jeongyeon pondered for a few seconds. “Hmm… how about 9 PM?”

Mina made a mental note before typing her final reply as she arrived at her next classroom, grinning widely at her screen after sending it out.

“Challenge accepted.”