“Can’t believe it there are crazy people like her here” SinB comes home and crashes herself on the sofa at their living room “Erghhhhh” She grunts in anger.

“Tch. What now, Hwang Eunbi?” Her cousin, Yuna, who’s used to hearing SinB’s grunts asks as she walks herself towards the latter from the kitchen with 2 cans of soda in hands “Someone keeps on bothering you again?” Yuna tosses a can towards SinB

“What else would it be, Yuna” SinB answers in annoyance and she takes a sip of the soda right after

“I don’t find any problem with the bet she made with her friends, Eunbi”

“Not you too, Yuna. Eunseo said the same thing to me too” SinB smacks her face against the pillow before she lets out a shriek

“Don’t you want to learn how to smile again, Eunbi?” Yuna suddenly sounds serious

“And what good does it brings to me, Yuna?” SinB looks at Yuna deep in her eyes, and if eyes can speaks, you can hear an everlasting pain coming out from it “What’s the purpose of smiling if in the end, it’ll be taken away from me, like it always did in the past”

Going into her room, she goes straight towards the photo frame beside her bed. Just by looking at it, her eyes started to become teary, and as she remembers the memories they made that day, before everything was taken away from her in a split second, drop by drop, tears start to fall, wetting the floor underneath. The moment in the photo, was the very last time SinB knows how to smile.

*****

“Still not accepting my offer?” 

SinB smacks the book she’s reading, loud that causes her to get a few shushed from students around her

“And you, still not giving up?” 

SinB gives a sharp eyes to Sojung

 

“Hey, you two, this is a library, if you wanna get loud and quarrel, go outside” 

The librarian interrupts and reminds them where they are.

 

SinB packs her bag and starts to make her way out, Sojung follows closely behind. 

“Ah right, I forgot to give you this” Sojung shoves a lollipop in front of SinB’s face while walking. 

“No thanks” SinB dodges to her left avoiding Sojung’s offers 

“Where are you going?” Sojung doesn’t give up. Getting the silent treatment from SinB doesn’t stop her from being annoying either “Ah wait, classes, of course” Sojung hits her forehead finding herself a bit dumb for asking such questions “Perfect, I don’t have any classes today, guess I’m going wherever you’re going today then” 

SinB who has been forming a fist with both of her hands suddenly pulls Sojung into a space behind the stairs

“Can you just leave me alone?” 

“No, I can’t” Sojung shakes her head “I mean, I won’t” 

“What good does your bet brings huh?” SinB’s voice raise a little as she tries to control her anger

“You can smile again. Isn’t that a good enough of a reason?”

“No. For others, maybe a yes. But for me, a big time no. I don’t want to learn how to smile again” Her voice tone down again “So please, leave me alone” She begs before she starts to walk away

“Why? What’s wrong with you being able to smile again?” Sojung’s asks SinB that gets the latter to stop from walking away

“It’s none of your business... So please...”

*****

“I know you’re gonna be here” Eunseo can only shakes her head when she finally found SinB who has been missing from her classes today

“So are you gonna come down or do I have to go up there?” 

Not getting any answer nor movements from SinB, Eunseo is regretting her soon to be decision. 

“Right. Why do I even bother asking you such question” She grunts as she makes her way up onto the tree, carefully picking which branch for her to step on.

“How did you find me here?” SinB finally opens when Eunseo sits right next to her 

“With hardship of course. Do you know how sore my neck is??” 

Eunseo voices out her dissatisfaction. Only God knows how many trees she had to look up at just to find SinB’s whereabout.

“You can be dumb sometimes” 

“I’m sorry?”

“This, idiot” SinB takes out her phone from her pocket “You can call me and ask?” 

“Yeahh right. You’re just gonna make fun of me if I did that. So, what happened today?"

Eunseo reveals the reason why she’s there

“Why did you think something happened today?”

“First, you skip your classes. Second, you’re sitting on a tree, Hwang Eunbi. You only did that when you’re bothered by something or I’m guessing, it’s someone today?”

Silence ensues for a seconds before SinB breaks it

“Why can’t people understand when I said I don’t want to learn how to smile again?”

Finding it hard to answer because Eunseo is also one of those people who wants to see her best friend smile again, she returns SinB’s question

“Don’t you want to smile again, Eunbi? It’s been almost a year” 

Hearing that, SinB release a deep sigh 

“You and Yuna are the same. Thought out of all people, you two will understand me the most” SinB replies, seemingly disappointed with the other two whom are the closest to her.

“We do, Eunbi. And out of all people, we know you the most too. That’s why we asked because we know you actually wanted to smile again” Eunseo squeezes SinB’s shoulder a little “You can lie but not to me and Yuna”

*****

Sojung is hanging out with her friends at the cafeteria when someone unexpectedly grabs her wrist and drags her outside without saying a word. A tons of eyes are following their footsteps until the two of them vanish from their eyes.

“That was an entrance” Sojung smiles coyly, she’s surprised at first when SinB suddenly came out of nowhere and drags her out without a proper hi or hello.

“What do you want from me?”

How the table has turned today. It was always SinB who asked that question to Sojung.

“Your bet” SinB bites her lower lips, hard, till it bleeds “You can do it but with one condition” 

With that coy smile not leaving her face, Sojung walks towards SinB, wiping the blood off SinB’s lips with her thumb, she asks “And what is it?”

“One month. You’ve one month to make me smile again. If you fail, please leave me alone, for good”

*****

“Wh-what are you doing here??” SinB raises her voice but in whispery tone when Sojung suddenly appears and takes a sit right next to her in her genetic engineering lecture.

“Err, for the bet I made?” 

“By ditching your classes and joining mine??”

Sojung nods and she ignores SinB for a while, as she takes out her notebook and pen from her bag

“It won’t work, Sojung”

“We’ll see, Eunbi. We’ll see” Sojung winks at the latter before she averts her attention to the professor who just walks in.

 

“Are you guys trying to create a human mutant?” 

Sojung asks SinB on a piece of paper halfway through class. The professor are talking about plasmid recombination or whatever gibberish it is, the only thing Sojung understand is the word mutant. 

“Shut up, Sojung” 

SinB slides back the paper to Sojung with a sharp eyes 

“Should I be concern about this class?”

“Go away”

“But seriously, what are you guys up too? I really can’t understand scientist at all”

“Not gonna entertain you anymore”

Sojung grins reading SinB’s last reply. 

“Not at you saying you won’t entertain me but keeps on replying to my questions, although they aren’t the answer I’m looking for. See you after your class is over, Eunbi”

Sojung slides her last note to SinB before she exited the lecture hall.

*****

“Why is the world so damn cruel erghhhh” SinB barges into Eunseo’s studio without knocking and throws herself on top of the sofa bed.

The latter who is preparing dinner with Yuna exchange gazes for a few seconds before they ditch the kitchen and go straight to the soulless Hwang Eunbi who is mumbling some curses words.

“Had a bad day, Hwang?” 

SinB nods with her eyes close, hands forming a fist

“Screwed up your GE experiment again?”

SinB shakes her head, now punching Eunseo’s pillow.

“Sojung??” Both Eunseo and Yuna guess at the same time

“Ergghhhhh. I fcuking hate her” 

Eunseo takes the pillow away from SinB’s face and asks

“What did she do today?”

“She joint my GE lecture today, pretending like she knew nothing when the truth is, she freaking knows and understands everything. More than me”

 

“You’re joining our lab too?” SinB darts herself to Sojung and pulls Sojung away into the corner as she asks Sojung the question. She couldn’t believe that Sojung is willing to go to this extend just for the bet. At least not for this lab. She knows Sojung won’t be able to survive, the latter don’t understand a thing of what Prof Lee said in the lecture this morning.

“I don’t see a problem of me joining this lab though?” 

There, there. Here comes the smirk on Sojung’s face.

“You and your bet. Can you do it someplace else??”

“No. I can’t. And soon, you will know why” Sojung pushes SinB a bit “Real soon” She whispers into SinB’s ear before she heads to her bench

And just what Sojung expected, that look on SinB’s face is something Sojung won’t be able to forget. 

“Alright class, before we started, let me introduce you all to your two TA’s for the 2nd half of GE lab project. Both are my students whom are very dear to me and they are also the one who initiated the project all of you will be doing for the rest of the semester” Prof Lee’s eyes leer to the back of the lab “You two at the back who are pretending to be the students in this lab, stop it and come here” He says with a smile on his face, a proud one it is.

SinB who has been giving her attention to Prof Lee, averts her gaze towards Prof Lee’s direction. She had to rub her eyes and slaps her face a couple times to make sure she’s not hallucinating, seeing Sojung makes her way up front. 

Turns out, Sojung is her GE’s TA. SinB feels like a fool too when she realizes Sojung is just pretending not understand anything during the lecture this morning. Huh, GE lab can’t be worse than this.

 

Both Eunseo and Yuna couldn’t held in their laughters anymore 

“Yahhhh, Eunbi yaaa, you’re really... haihh”

“You didn’t know that she’s a major in biotechnology?”

“No. I thought she’s a major in art or fashion or whatever that suits her model-like figures”

“Well... You aren’t wrong about that one. She’s indeed majoring in art & design, also working part time as runaway models. But you do know double major exist right?”

“Just consider yourself lucky, Hwang Eunbi. Your 1 month girlfriend is what everyone calls beauty with brain”

*****

A week has passed and Sojung still couldn’t make SinB to smile again. 

Wait. Scratch that.

It’s not like she couldn’t. 

She doesn’t want to. 

But one thing that she’s good at is making SinB annoyed with her thousands times more.

 

“Hey, uh... Can I...”

“Can you what, Eunbi?” Sojung purposely ask although she knows what SinB wants. The orange dye, what else would she needs.

“We ran out of orange dye, can we get a few micro of it?” SinB shows the empty microfuge tube to Sojung

“You can but with one condition”

“Yours or Prof Lee’s?”

“Mine”

If not because they are desperate to get the dye and the other TA couldn’t come today, SinB would’ve already ignored Sojung’s request

“What is it?”

“Lunch with me today at lucy’s?”

“Fine”

Let’s say pretty much Sojung manages to get a week worth of lunch with SinB by making such conditions each time SinB requests for something in lab from Sojung. And SinB’s once used to be peaceful lunch time, being alone, enjoying the bright sometimes gloomy afternoon scenery, changed totally for the whole week. Sometimes SinB wonders, does the bet Sojung made with her friends is to make her smile or to annoy the heck out of her? Because at least to her, it is definitely the latter. 

“Hey, Eunbi! Wait up!” Sojung shouts SinB’s name when she sees the latter walks into their department building.

SinB keeps on walking trying to ignore Sojung’s call, even though she quickens her pace, Sojung is still able to keep up with her.

“Morning” Sojung flashes a smile but SinB continues to pretend she didn’t hear anything 

“Geeez. You’re sooo hard to have a conversation with huh?” 

“Yet you keep on trying” 

“Of course I would, I don’t wanna lose the bet with my friend” 

“Why did I even agree” SinB release a sigh before she makes a turn to enter her lecture hall but Sojung holds her wrist stopping the latter from entering

“What now, Sojung?”

“This” Sojung shoves a brown bag in front of SinB’s face “Got you breakfast from Deli’s bakery”

SinB grabs it because she doesn’t want Sojung to make a scene and then she left without saying thank you

“You’re welcome! See you for lunch, Eunbi!” Sojung raises her voice a bit that gets a couple set of eyes eyeing on them as she waves to SinB with a smile on her face

**

“Erghhh damn it” SinB suddenly hits her lab bench hard

“What? Why? What happened SinB?” Her lab partner asks 

“I forgot to add digestive enzyme in the mix damn it” SinB is mad at herself. She had just wasted an hour of her lab waiting for the reaction to complete when she realizes she didn’t add the most important compound to make the reaction works.

Sojung who has been watching SinB since the beginning couldn’t held in her laughter but she tries to keep it tiny. Yet, SinB still realizes it.

“You know it, didn’t you, Sojung?”

Sojung nods as she covers to hide her smile

“And you didn’t even tell me?”

Another nod from Sojung that gets her a death stare from SinB

“What?” Sojung asks pretending she doesn’t understand what the stare is for

“You could’ve just told me?”

“I know. But that’s not how you learned from your mistake in lab” Sojung slips her tongue out a bit before she goes towards a different lab bench to attend to other students.

**

“If you’re here to stare at me, can you please go someplace else” 

Reading the note SinB slides to her causes Sojung to grin. 

“Who says I’m staring at you? Can’t you see I’m reading?”

Sojung returns the note and she immediately pretend to read a book she randomly grabs from the shelf behinds her. 

She takes a peek towards SinB but soon averts it back to the book in front of her when she sees SinB is staring at her with a look that could kill. 

When SinB doesn’t give her attention to Sojung, the latter puts down her book and continues to stare at SinB. It’s not that she’s trying to be creepy, it’s just, Sojung is trying to understand the Hwang Eunbi underneath the cold girl sitting across her right now.

Getting annoyed by Sojung non stop stares at her, SinB packs up her thing and starts to walk out of the library. It’s better if she does her revision in her own room instead.

As she gets onto the bus, SinB feels glad Sojung doesn’t follow her in as well. But the latter keeps on waving from outside till the bus moves and vanishes from her sight. It's suffocating...

Now you know why SinB thinks the bet Sojung made is to annoy her instead of making her smile again.

*****

Sojung is hanging out with her friends at the atrium when she sees the sight of SinB walking down the stairs. Their eyes somehow met for a few seconds before SinB averts it someplace else, fastens her steps as she ignores the call-out from Sojung. Sojung had to run to catch-up with the younger girl. 

“Did I do something wrong?” Sojung holds SinB’s wrist, forcing the latter to a sudden stop

“No” SinB removes her hand from Sojung’s possessions and she continues to walk away

“Then why are you ignoring me when I called your name just now?” Sojung grabs SinB’s wrist once again

“Because I don’t have to answer it?” SinB gives her answer with a sharp eyes before she walks away again.

“Why are you so cold towards me?” The question that pulls SinB to a stop for the 3rd time “Does seeing my face for the whole week almost everytime annoys you that much?” 

“Yes, Sojung. It does”

*****

“Oh gosh!” Yuna who just arrives at their apartment jumps a little when she sees a figure lying on the sofa as soon as she turns on the light “You’re lucky I didn’t hit you with my baseball stick, Eunbi” Yuna says as she releases a relieve sigh and walks to the fridge. 

She takes out a milk carton and directly drink the milk out of it. Almost chocked herself when SinB replies her “Maybe you should’ve Yuna” 

“What’s gotten into her?” Yuna monologues

She walks towards SinB and lie-down right next to the latter.

“What happened today? Sojung annoyed you too much?”

SinB shakes her head and says 

“The opposite happened” 

“You meant, she didn’t annoy you at all today?”

“Ergh. More like, 4 days since she last talked to me”

Couldn’t believe what she hears and the way SinB reacts to the situation, Yuna quickly places the back of her hand against SinB’s forehead 

“What are you doing?” SinB asks

“Checking if you aren’t feeling well” 

“I’m fine, Yuna” SinB removes Yuna’s hand

“Yeah right. Did you just heard what you say? And have you looked at yourself in the mirror?”

Not wanting to entertain Yuna, SinB covers her face with the sofa pillow 

“Don’t tell me you missed her?”

“No, I don’t” SinB mumbles but clear enough for Yuna to hear

“If you don’t, then why are you acting this way? Aren’t you supposed to feel happy that she stops annoying you?” Yuna removed the pillow from SinB’s face and hugs it.

SinB snatches away the pillow from Yuna and covers her face again

“That’s what I don’t understand with myself, Yuna”

“Guess, you’ve slowly starting to open up for her” 

Hearing that, SinB removes the pillow from her face bit by bit

“Do you think so?”

“Maybe?” Yuna shrugs her shoulders “Just go and see her tomorrow if you missed her that much”

“What??! No way!” SinB hits Yuna with the pillow “Plus I don’t have any reason why I should”

“You do” Yuna chuckles before she gets off the sofa and grabs something from her bag “I found this in the lab today, she might’ve left it there” She passes Sojung’s student ID to SinB before she goes to her room

*****

“Act normal, Eunbi. Act normal. Just be yourself” 

SinB stands in front of the art&design faculty entrance for a while, holding Sojung’s student ID tight in her hand. She bites her lower lips hard till it bleeds again, contemplating whether to walk in or walk away. Suddenly getting a text from Yuna

“You won’t die if you walk into the building, Eunbi” 

SinB turns herself to different corners till she sees Yuna waving at her a few meters away and signals to her to walk into the building.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine. Besides, Sojung’s gonna need her ID” 

SinB keeps on telling herself the same thing along her journey to Sojung’s art studio. After asking a few staff and students there, she finally arrives at Sojung’s studio. Taking a peek from outside, she couldn’t see anyone inside. Only a few canvases lying around on the floor, some on the easels. 

“What are you looking at?” A voice comes from behind that causes SinB to shrieks and jumps a little.

“Cute” Sojung couldn’t covers her smile that gets bigger seeing how SinB reacted to her sudden greeting 

“Looking for me, Hwang Eunbi?” Sojung leans against the wall with her arms crossed 

“Uh- N- No” SinB stutters “I mean- Y- Yes” 

“Huh, this is interesting. Guess you finally realize that you missed me?” She walks towards SinB whose eyes couldn’t lands at hers 

“I came here to return you this” SinB shoves Sojung’s ID in front of the latter’s face before other things happen

“I know” Sojung chuckles “You’re really slow when it comes to things like this” Referring to the plan she made with Yuna yesterday, pretending as if she left her ID in lab when the truth was, she left it with Yuna after hearing from the latter how miserable SinB was the past few days.

“Since you’re here, why don’t you come into my studio. Thought you might like it” Sojung takes her ID and scans it, before pulling SinB inside with her.

“Just be careful of the paints tubs on the floor” Sojung reminds SinB as they walk deeper inside the studio.

“So, do you have any plans this evening?” Sojung asks before her phone beeps signaling a text just comes in

“Nope. Why?” 

“Great. Dinner is on me” Sojung grabs a few paint brushes from her table before she runs up onto the 2nd mini floor “I’ve to settle my painting a bit, you can continue to walk around the studio if you want. Be right back down in an hour” 

***

It has been a while since she last been inside an art studio, yet the smells of the paints still hits her the same way they did in the past. The smell of life. Her soul seems to finally able to breathe being surrounded by different kinds of arts, the smudge of paints on the studio floor, the thousands of different colors brushes showing how beautiful art can be. 

She never knew Sojung is this talented, and to know the latter is also a brainiac in the science field, blows her mind away. SinB loves to paint too, used, I meant, used to. Only as a hobby, not a field she’s planning to pursue. But it’s a hobby she has left behind for almost a year, finding it no longer fun to do or maybe, because she no longer has her muse. 

She finds herself staring at a blank canvas on the easel in the middle of the studio. And without knowing why, step by step, she walks closer and closer towards it and before she knows it, she’s already sitting on the wooden chair right in front of the canvas. She stares at the canvas long, her mind half filled half empty, her gaze speaks thousands of different colors, different brushes , different scenery. Yet she couldn’t find herself to hold the brush that’s screaming her name on the round table right next to her, tubes of paints waiting for her to choose. But when she did hold a brush, she keeps on changing it, from the smaller one to the biggest, from the pointy one to the flats, and she still couldn’t make a decision. First, she choose red color, then she changed it to purple, later island green, to bright orange, before a tube of sky blue comes into her possession, her muse favorite color. Yet the canvas still as white as cottons. 

“You can paint on it if you want. I don’t mind” Sojung’s voice pulls SinB back into the real world.