“I-I’m so sorry, please excuse me.”

The dark-haired girl, sporting her personal jet-black leather jacket rather than the school uniform blazer, could only stare on in silence as the stranger hastily stood back up to her feet, fleeing the scene without sparing another glance back. Somehow, she was already yearning for those mesmerising eyes of hers.

To her utter disbelief, however, her best friend just happened to witness the entire ordeal and was already smirking mischievously at her from the distance.

Perhaps it was a poor choice of action to have let her gaze linger, for she could already imagine the childish teases coming her way.

With a low groan, Yoon Bomi finally plucked herself off from the ground as her friend reunited themselves, now brushing the dirt off of her leather piece of clothing as well as letting out an exhausted sigh. “You’re smiling like an absolute idiot, Jung Eunji. Knock it off before I do it for you.”

“Smitten.”

“What’d you say?”

“That’s what your entire face screamed out.”

“Well gee thanks for observing me rather than giving me a helping hand, jackass.”

“You’re welcome, babe.”

Having reciprocatied her moody friend’s death glare with some laughter, the cheeky student decided to temporarily drop her playfulness and kindly patted the remaining specks of dust off of the girl’s jacket. “You alright though? That was actually quite a brutal crash.”

Yoon Bomi couldn’t help but to let out a scoff and swatted her friend’s hand away, instantly gaining an amused smirk back; as anyone could see, her friend was not the best at remaining serious for long. “Oh, so now you’re concerned about me. You just had to throw some jabs at me first, huh.”

“Now now, dear. It’s better than nothing, no?”

“Ugh, whatever- also I’m fine other than my stinging like a motherf*cker.”

“Aww, would you want that chick to come back and kiss your boo-boo away?”

Without missing a beat, Bomi arched her scoff into a ‘smile’, ran a hand through her silky hair, and shoved her middle finger into Eunji’s laughing face.

“Chorong-unnie.”

She gained no response.

“Unnie?”

Once again, she was ignored.

The unresponsive girl seemed to be far too immersed within her own world, though her friend did not have the intention to give up.

Something was obviously very wrong, and Son Naeun was determined to figure out the cause.

She raised a brow slightly before nudging the girl gently on the arm, finally succeeding in snapping her out of her trance. “Unnie… are you alright?”

“H-Huh?”

“I asked if you were alright.”

“I’m… yes.”

“And you really think I’d believe in that?”

Park Chorong was finally capable of flashing out an earnest smile, making her friend mirror the exact same expression. “Am I that easy to read, Naeun-ah?”

The girl’s smile grew from the comment. “As easy as a children’s nursery book, unnie.”

Their brief round of laughter was soon taken over by another wave of silence, the fear within Park Chorong’s eyes lingering stubbornly while Son Naeun continued her observation; the older girl’s trembling pupils didn’t go undetected by her sharp eyes, nor did the fresh wound on her inner left palm.

“You’ve been acting a little off ever since you returned from the office, Chorong-unnie, and you’ve somehow hurt yourself throughout the process.” the younger pointed out directly, “Would you please fill me in on what happened? I’m really worried about you.”

Park Chorong was fairly surprised her friend managed to spot her minor injury, though in reality she knew that nothing could ever go past the girl’s radar undetected; despite of being younger, the observant friend of hers was like a second mother, having the ability to grasp her thoughts with ease and would never fail to be there for her when she’s in need of emotional assistance. Such traits of Naeun’s were all something Chorong was extremely thankful for.

“It’s really nothing serious. You know how my silly brain acts sometimes.”

“Constantly overthinks, creates unnecessary concerns, and won’t let you sleep without reminding you of your most embarrassing memories?”

“Yup… you’ve sure nailed it. 100%.”

The two proceed to stroll along the hallways side by side, both sharing the same sense of dread for their upcoming Phys-Ed class.

They were both ignoring the fact that they’ll be late if they continued to travel at the speed of a tortoise, and Son Naeun distracted themselves even further by breaking their peaceful silence. “… You know, you might be able to release some stress if you talk about your incident out loud.”

“That’s just an excuse for me to open up about what happened and to satisfy your curiosity, isn’t it?” Chorong teased as she repeatedly poked her friend on the arm, triggering the girl to blush uncontrollably. “Remember that this friendship of ours go both ways, Naeun-ah.”

“Sorry… you’ve caught me.” the girl admitted with a sheepish grin, “My curiosity is indeed killing me, so can you please spare me from my misery?”

“Like I’ve said, it’s nothing serious. I merely bumped into someone on my way back.”

“But you looked as if you’ve seen a ghost, unnie.”

“T-That’s because…” Chorong stammered as her face burnt up, cringing internally from the fresh piece of memory that was now replaying within her mind:

Fast-paced footsteps, all because she wanted to reunite with her close friend, her safe space, as soon as possible.

It was a poor idea to walk that closely towards the inner walls, especially so when there was a sharp right turn before her path.

Yet, her eagerness resulted in her to take the risk of danger, and she didn’t even bother with reducing her speed upon taking the turn.

Regretting such a decision as her body fell backwards from the violent crash was by far, too late.

Chorong could only shut her eyes tightly in preparation for the painful impact… which never arrived.

In fact, other than the hand that had instinctively reached out to cushion her fall, the landing caused no harm.

Instead of groaning in agony, she merely yelped out once in shock.

Instead of contacting the cold, hard floor, she experienced warmth.

Instead of laying on the ground by herself, she had arms wrapped protectively around her torso, with swear words travelling out from beneath her body.