---

“Okay I got everything we need- what the hell?”

As Jinsoul entered Principal Lee’s office with the stuff Lippie and Yerim asked for, she couldn’t recognize where she was:

The whole office was covered in jungle decorations, with inflatable animals and vegetation filling every nook and cranny of the place.

“Jinsoul!!  How do you like it?”

Jinsoul almost jumped as Yerim popped up in front of her with what looked like tiger facepaint.

“I’ll take that.”  Yerim took the cake and decorations as Jinsoul was still speechless.

“Do you think Hyejoo will like it?”

Kim Lip walked towards Jinsoul in regular clothes as she reached for the bikini in Jinsoul’s arms.

But Jinsoul didn’t let her take it.

As much as she would love to see Kim Lip in a bikini in the middle of November, she had to be the bad guy she didn’t want to be a couple hours ago.

“Guys, are you nuts?  This isn’t a school event it’s supposed to be a tiny party.”

Yerim looked at Jinsoul, her eyebrows furrowing.

“You don’t like it?”
    Jinsoul shook her head.

“I do like it.  I love it actually.  You guys put so much effort into it.”

The tall girl took a deep breath.

“But did you really think about Hyejoo when you did this?  If there’s one thing she enjoys the most it’s being in a familiar space.  You made a jungle. How is that familiar?”

Jinsoul could feel the tension rise as no one in the room spoke for a while.

This was the exact thing she didn’t want to happen, she wanted everyone to end up happy, and her friends tried so hard so she felt like crap.

“You’re right.”

Jinsoul was surprised as Kim Lip and Yerim said that at the same time, looking down.

“I just wanted to throw Hyejoo a party she wouldn’t forget.  But you’re right, this wouldn’t make her feel at home…” The youngest girl was close to tears as Kim Lip wrapped her arms around her and gave her a tight squeeze.

“No no Yerim, you didn’t do anything wrong.  We were just thinking of the best party from the wrong perspective.”

The blonde girl looked up at her girlfriend with determination in her eyes.

“Jinsoul, sorry we didn’t listen to you.  But Principal Lee’s gonna be here with Hyejoo any minute.  What do we do to fix the party?”

Jinsoul thought deeply for a second, then got an idea.

“We don’t have to take everything down.  I think it’s a nice set up but let’s make it a little more simple.  Let Yerim be your consultant so that it can be a regular party with jungle essence.  I’ll take care of Hyejoo when she comes. I’ll just give her my gift a little early. And for God’s sake take that makeup off of Yerim and fire the person who did it because it even scared me-”

“HEY I did that-”

“OH WOW LOVE YOU HONEY BYE!!!”  Jinsoul sprinted out the door before her angry girlfriend could say anything else.

Yerim had to hold in a chuckle as Kim Lip gave her a glare.

“It’s on your face not mine.  Now, did I use sharpie or not?”

Yerim’s smile dropped in horror as it was Kim Lip’s time to chuckle.

“No you didn’t unnie.  You did not-”

“I’m just kidding, do you really think I’m that oblivious?”

Yerim shrugged as she put her hands on her hips, surveying the area.

“Before we take this monstrosity off my face-”

“HEY-”

“We gotta make this a Hyejoo-friendly party.”

“How are we gonna do that?  Just take everything down?”

“No.  This still is a party after all.  As the founder of Yerim’s Yodel-tastic Party Service I might have an idea of what to do…”

Kim Lip looked at her watch.

“Well we got less than a couple minutes to do it.  Where do we start?”

Yerim looked around, her gaze stopping at the center of the table.

“I say we start with the cake.”

---

So maybe getting a gift from the heart wasn’t as easy as she expected.

Haseul sighed, the cold air making her shiver.

Yeojin was supposed to be home in half an hour.

“Where did the time go?”

Haseul had visited a couple stores but her heart didn’t get taken by any one of them.

She went to a clothing store, but everything seemed way too adult-like for Yeojin.

She went to a toy store, but everything seemed way too baby-like for Yeojin.

She was going to go to a sports store, but she saw one of the workers getting beat up by some tall girl who was surprisingly calm for exerting so much force on the poor guy, so she sped by the store hoping not to cause any more trouble.

Haseul huffed, looking around.

All the stores were closing because of the cold and how late it was getting.

The only thing that didn’t seem like it was closing down was a cafe a couple stores down.

Maybe my heart would say yes to some cookies and cocoa…

Haseul made her way towards the cafe, shuffling her feet-

Crrackkkk.

Haseul heart stopped as her ears picked up a tiny cry for help.

She quickly bent down looking for glass or something that could’ve made that sound so she could move it out of the way.

Instead she found something she wasn’t expecting.

A tiny snail, no bigger than Haseul’s thumb, was sideways on the ground, now with a crack along the side of its shell.

“Oh no.  I’m so sorry.”

Haseul quickly scooped up the snail, examining the damage.

“Why is a snail like you out and about in the cold?”

The snail was barely responsive, so Haseul figured it was freezing to death.

“Don’t worry, I’ll bring you someplace warm, it’s the least I can do.”

Haseul cupped the snail in her hands and swiftly walked towards the cafe.

---

“So, you have anything planned for today?”

Hyunjin looked at Heejin with hopeful eyes.

“Of course.  Who do you think I am?”

Heejin playfully nudged Hyunjin, but bit her lip.

She was thankful that Hyunjin showed up at the sports store to show that guy a lesson, but they had also met up and hour before they were supposed to, leaving Heejin stumped.

Hyunjin always came through for her.  No matter if it was in gifts or in sweetness, but there wasn’t a time where Heejin was ever disappointed.  And she would be wrecked if Hyunjin was the first to feel that way. On her birthday of all days.

As they strolled down the cold road, Hyunjin linked both of their arms together, smiling at Heejin.

“Even if you didn’t plan anything, this is still the best way I could’ve ever spent today.”

Beads of sweat started to fall down Heejin’s face.

What the heck it’s literally nine degrees why am I sweating?...

Is this what stress feels like?

Heejin hoped that she wouldn’t experience this weird feeling any longer.

But with no plan and a girlfriend who deserved the world, Heejin knew she’d be feeling it for a while.

---

Yujin watched each week of built up allowance slowly dissipate as her tiny friend devoured nugget upon nugget, not even stopping to breathe.

“YAH!!  This was supposed to be the least expensive part of the day, not the most!!”

Chaewon looked up at her annoyed friend with a guilty look in her eye as pieces of chicken nugget fell from .

“Mmpforry.”

“Don’t even talk it’s gross.”

Chaewon swallowed her chicken nugget party going on in before speaking again.

“Sorry.  Do you want one?  I haven’t seen you take one yet.”

“Because if I took one and you ordered more, I’d be living in a cardboard box.” Yujin growled.

Chaewon threw her body over the table, giving Yujin a big hug.

“Thank you so much for today, Yujin.  You always know how to throw a great birthday.”

Yujin couldn’t help but grin at her accomplishment.

“Aw man you’re just too cute to be mad at.”  Yujin gave Chaewon a little head rub as the birthday girl sat back down.

Before Chaewon could finish her Happy Meal, Yujin took Chaewon’s hands in hers, trying to not wince from the fryer grease that coated them.

“What’s up Yujin?  You good?”

Yujin could feel the worry come through Chaewon’s eyes.  It wasn’t frequent when she became sentimental.

“Chaewon, you’re an awesome person and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, okay?  If a specific person was giving you a hard time you’d let me know right? And you know I’d kick their right?”

“Yes, I know.”  Chaewon shrugged.

“Don’t worry about me.  Okay, Yujin? I got you and that’s the only friend I need.  Having multiple friends is overrated.”

Chaewon chuckled but Yujin could see the pain in her eyes and hated it.  That school changed Chaewon and Yujin hated it.

She grabbed Chaewon’s hands tighter.

“Come to Polaris.  Everyone’s so much nicer there.  You’d love it. You really would and-”

“Yujin.”

Chaewon looked straight into Yujin’s eyes, making her stop speaking.

“I’m okay.  Seriously, don’t worry about me.  It’s my freshman year for Pete’s sake I think there’s some room for improvement.”

Chaewon slipped away her hands from Yujin’s, grabbing another chicken nugget.

“I may not be the most popular person but no one’s ever like hit me or anything so it’s okay.”

“Chaewon-”

“Yujin please.”  The younger girl sighed.

“Look, I’ll make a deal with you: the minute someone does something horrible enough to make me… I don’t know- run away during school hours, I’ll leave.  Okay?”

That was a big deal.  Chaewon liked order so there’s no way she would leave campus without permission unless something awful really happened to her.

Yujin accepted this with a sigh as she held out her pinkie finger.

“Okay.  Promise?”

A smaller pinkie wrapped around hers.

“Promise.”

“Don’t forget the stamp.”

The two girls twisted their hands so that their thumbs also touched, sealing the promise.

“Okay.  Since that’s over with, let’s go on to the final part!!”  Yujin couldn’t wait to take Chaewon to the last place since she was probably gonna spend some money there too.

“What is it?”  Chaewon’s eyes glowed.

“The one and only TonyMoly.”

---

Jinsoul ran back from her locker just in time:

Principal Lee and Hyejoo were walking down the hall, making their way to Principal Lee’s office.

“Hey Principal Lee!  Hey Hyejoo!!” Jinsoul waved the pair down before they could get any further.

“Hello Jinsoul.  We were just about to go to my office before Hyejoo goes to check on her watermelons.”  Principal Lee winked at Jinsoul, making her smirk.

“Yes yes, that’s right.” Jinsoul said, panting from her sprint.

“Um, why don’t you go ahead to the office while I talk to Hyejoo for a second.”

Principal Lee shrugged.

“Sure.  See you there, Hyejoo.”

Hyejoo waved to her aunt before looking at Jinsoul.

“You already told me it was a surprise party.  Are you gonna tell me more?”

Jinsoul laughed.  Man this little cub is blunt.

“Well, I wanted to give you your birthday gift earlier than anyone else.”

“Aren’t gifts after the cake?  I read that you open gifts either after cake or at home.”

“This is special treatment.  I’m giving you special birthday treatment, for being such an awesome new addition to the group.  Is that okay?”
    The black haired girl nodded, squeezing Olivia for comfort.