Krystal the class president had both the look and the brain, with an outgoing personality to boost. She was one of the most popular girls at school, guys lining up just to ask her for one date. She refused them all, for she already had eyes on the school jock. Good girls, oddly, prefer bad guys for real.

With the first term exam coming up fast, every student was competing for the top rank. And Krystal was always on top since freshman year however, she hasn’t been doing so well this year. She was falling behind with only one subject that she hated the most, Chemistry. Instead of seeking help from the professor, Krystal, and a few other classmates turned to Kai for help. Yes, you heard it right. Kai the brainless, the retake one, as per AJ’s knowledge. If there were one subject that he was *above average*, that’d be Chemistry. That explained why they were having a study group on the benches of the basketball court where AJ was napping at that moment.

“Hey you.”

AJ heard someone yelling in the background, being a light sleeper, she cracked open one eye and saw her classmates chatter away with Kai, notes and what seemed like Chemistry book scattering around. She closed her eyes and shuffled her pockets for her earphones, quickly plugging them in before feeling a poke on her forehead.

“Hey. I know you heard me.” She knew that voice. Krystal gently pull her earphones out, forcing AJ to open her eyes completely this time, a bit dumbfounded as her nap was disturbed.

“We are having a study session to prep for Chemistry. Kai offered to help as he knew the material. Would you like to join us?” Krystal kindly offered.

Looking over to the group only to see Kai’s eyebrows knitting, AJ knew better. Shaking her head, she finally was able to plug in her earphones, a soothing melody brought the sleepiness back.

“Nah I’m more in need of a good nap now.”

Even with the earphones in, she could still hear Kai yelling for Krystal to hurry back and how he grumbled about her being arrogant for not *accepting his help*.

Little did he know, the smart cookie named Amber Liu aced the exam that term, snatching his girlfriend’s first rank. Krystal dropped to third place, her Chemistry grade 2 points below AJ’s.

To say Kai was furious was an understatement. He was thrashing about in the gym storage room, throwing balls everywhere while his girlfriend sat by the door with her head down.

“I can’t believe that dyke scored more than you did! She must have cheated in the test! You’ve always been the top student, it doesn’t make sense!” He screamed his lungs out. Gym equipment flying everywhere but he could care less. He tried his best to tutor his girlfriend and they lost to a transferee? 10 weeks into the school year and his girlfriend’s reputation as valedictorian was tarnished?

“I gotta find out myself.” Just as he was about to storm out of the door, Krystal held him back and sobbed. She knew AJ didn’t cheat. She had been paying more than enough attention to the transferee’s effort to see how naturally smart and quick-witted AJ was, despite she was sleeping whenever possible for most part. Unlike Krystal, AJ didn’t have to work as hard to be able to achieve good grades. There simply wasn’t a need for the tomboyish girl to cheat at all. So she held his hand and pulled him down to sit on the floor with her.

“No, don’t do that. Just leave it, I’ll try harder next time.”

The next day at school, news spread like wildfire that the hottest couple in school was caught making out in the storage room. There wasn’t any witness however, the couple was unfortunately taped by a camera the Media department left on by accident in the very same room. Kai was suspended for a week to reflect on his vandalism of the school properties, while Krystal was called to the principal office for a lengthy sermon. With her mother being the former principal, she only received a verbal warning and was made to promise not to repeat the same action ever again. Her homeroom teacher however, was not happy with the results lately as well as her neglected duties of a class president, and threatened to inform her mother about her distractions at school. She understood the intention that they wanted the best for her, yet with all the stress building up, she found herself bawling her eyes out after school behind the big old tree in the basketball court.

Shaking the dry leaves off her training clothes, AJ stopped abruptly when she heard faint sobbing sounds nearby. She had purposely picked an odd time slot no one ever signed up for to practice her free throws and dribbling skills, so to hear a crying person there at that odd hour made her kinda nervous.

Slowly making her way to the source of the noise, she recognized the shoulder-length raven hair and that figure. AJ approached with caution, not wanting to alarm the crying girl.

“Krystal?” She softly called out.

The class president stopped crying for a second to turn to her direction. For the first time, AJ felt her heart tug at the sight of swollen eyes and trembling lips.

Krystal immediately ran into her arms and cried even harder, she could feel her jersey soaked with her tears. If it was a different occasion, she would be grossed out from the amount of tears mixed with saliva, but she held it in and asked the crying mess.

“What’s wrong?”

Krystal choked on her own tears, it took AJ several seconds to comprehend what she was trying to say.

“Th..ey found..out... th..ey.. *sobs* found..out a-and thr-eaten-ed to *sobs* t-tell my m-mom a-a..bout it...”

AJ was fully aware of what she meant. Of course she had heard the news, that was what everyone at school was gossiping about the whole day. Sighing deeply, partly because of her drenched jersey, partly because of the girl before her, she raised her arms and put the girl in an arm-length distance.

“It’s late. I’ll take you home. Your parents must be worried by now.”

She helped Krystal dry her tears using the handkerchief she always kept in her backpack, then took her to the nearest washroom to freshen up. She wanted her to look presentable when they got home, or her parents would freak out seeing their daughter in such state. As the day was heading towards night time, AJ wordlessly placed her jacket on Krystal while they were walking home, startling the latter.

“Y-you don’t have to. Your jersey is wet because of me... I’m sorry by the way... I’ve troubled you enough.”

“I’m used to the cold as I’ve moved around enough times. You on the other hand, don’t seem to be able to handle the cool breeze.”

Krystal was about to fire back about the slight insult but felt her cheeks heat up with the thoughtful intention. They remained silent until they reached Krystal doorstep. Pulling the jacket off her, the class president returned it to AJ.

“I... w-well.. thank you so much for walking me home. And I’m sorry about your jersey, again.”

AJ nodded, her left hand unconsciously reached out to fix the messy top of Krystal’s hair.

“You’re welcome, pres-“

“Soojung.”

“Huh?”

Krystal smiled, her eyes were back to their cheerful brown orbs, and AJ could swear she saw them sparkle for a split second.

“You can call me Soojung. That’s my Korean name. Only my family and a few other people I trust call me that. And... I think I can trust you, AJ.”

“O-okay. Goodnight, S-Soojung.”

Crescent eyes kept smiling at the shaggy-haired one.

“Goodnight, AJ.”

Damn it AJ, why did you have to stutter?