Yuna trudged back home with her once light school bag weighing her down. It was a tiring day, but Yuna still kept her smile as she greeted her neighbours on the way home. 

“Ah! Lemme help you with that!” Yuna says, scurrying to help her neighbour with their groceries. 

“Thank you.” 

Yuna beams, following the lady back to her house before politely placing down the bags on the front porch. “My shoes are dirty, so I think it’ll be better for me to leave it here.” 

The lady nods as a small smile took its place on her features. “Thank you once more.” 

Yuna’s bag didn’t feel as heavy anymore. 

Pushing open the door, Yuna walked into the silent living room, yawning as she throws her bag onto the floor. Today was a rough day, even though it was only her fourth day in this school. Everyone was nice, but that was the problem. 

Yuna could sense it. 

She could feel the stares piercing through her back when she placed her head on the table, or when she answers a question correctly. 

She could hear the whispered murmurs whenever she greets Chaeryeong, Ryujin and the rest of their clique. 

She could see how everyone was fine with her. 

Maybe fine was an understatement. 

They loved her. 

All except one. 

Yuna noticed them since the first day of her arrival. It wasn’t hard to spot them, really. Clustered at the back of the class, eyes darting around as she greets the rest of her classmates. Their whispers evident to Yuna, the girl also noting how their judging smirks were wiped off once Yuna came to greet them, replaced with fake bright smiles to mirror Yuna’s. 

There was definitely something up with them. 

Yuna just doesn’t know what’s wrong, what they’ll do, or if they’ll even do anything at all. 

Her last thought was answered very shortly in a few days to come, and Yuna will realise how much she needed a certain jet black haired girl to be by her side. 

//

“Yuna!” 

Yuna blinks, not expecting anyone to be here in the wee hours of the morning. 

She came to school an hour earlier today, because she mistook the Monday on the calendar as a Tuesday. Tuesday’s were their late days, where they had to arrive at 8.30, while every other day of the week was a boring ungodly hour of 7.30am. Yuna was fine with waking up, but she realised that even on regular days, it was either she caught the first bus and arrived at 7, or she caught the second bus and arrived at 7.40. As much as Yuna loved taking the buses, she hated the bus 76, it was inconsistent and Yuna had a pride of always being consistent. So 7am it was. 

So let’s just say she has about an hour and a half before the bell rings, and walking through the dim silent corridor made her believe that there was practically no one in school yet. But the chirpy voice that broke her focus definitely told her someone was. 

“Chaeryeong?” 

The girl nodded in the dark, before walking into the better lit classroom, mirroring Yuna’s smile. 

“Why are you here already?”

Yuna chuckles, the morning’s incidents rushing to fill her small mind. “Just careless, i forgot it was a tuesday. What about you?” 

Chaeryeong looks down at her feet shyly, teeth nibbling on her lower lip cautiously as her feet shuffled around. Yuna raised a brow at the girl’s careful actions, and just as she was about to tell the girl that it was absolutely fine if she wanted to drop the topic, Chaeryeong finally spat it out, her whispers barely heard by Yuna. 

“I’m debating if i should pass this to Lia later…” Chaeryeong twirls a card between her slender fingers, the baby pink paper with neat handwriting catching Yuna’s eyes. 

“What’s that for?” 

Yuna swears it was the stupidest question she could’ve asked, seeing how Chaeryeong flushed, cheeks mirroring the shade of her card. It was as if something finally clicked in her mind, her eyes widening comically before she fluttered her arms around. 

“Oh gosh! That’s so cute! And yes, just pass it to her in the morning!” 

“Pass what to who?” 

Both Yuna and Chaeryeong jerked their heads up to the owner, the smaller girl quickly hiding the letter in surprise. 

“Yeji! You scared us, gosh.” Chaeryeong sighs in relief, skipping over to give Yeji a hug. 

Yuna quickly looked down, focusing on her math paper which she barely understood. She knew Yeji, don’t get her wrong, but it wasn’t as if she talked to the girl. All she knew was that the certain cat eyed girl was part of Chaeryeong and Ryujin’s clique, which seemed to be a mass of popular girls, but stayed stagnant at a specific number of people. No one was allowed in, and no one would even think of wanting out. Yeji had this aura around her, which was all happy and sunshine until she steps on stage with her dance crew. Even though Yeji was one of the more approachable ones in their clique, Yuna still preferred to stay away. 

Until today, of course, as Yeji sent a smile, which she obviously replied with one of her own. 

“Yuna! So are you sure I should give it to her?” Chaeryeong asks, her shy smile still plastered on her face. Yuna notices how Yeji raised an eyebrow, eyes drifting to the pink paper Chaeryeong placed on the table. 

“Lia?” 

Chaeryeong’s face reddened at the mere mention of the said girl’s name. “Yeah… I'm still debating if I should tell her my feelings.” Yeji shrugged off her bag before walking towards the duo, pulling out a chair and sitting on it with a soft thump. “Do it Chae, do you even know how long you’ve been harbouring on this?” When Yeji was met with a confused look from Yuna and a guilty look from Chaeryeong, she continued, “A year and a half. Since freshman, you’ve never stopped being mesmerised by your fellow classmate, who everyone knew about because of her outstanding grades.” 

“Besides her looks!” Chaeryeong added instinctively, before reddening further when she realised what she had blabbered out. 

Yuna laughs, before quickly biting down on her tongue when Ryujin entered the class. 

When did she come to school so early?! 

Yuna frowns in confusion, looking around as she realised how fast time ticked by. It was close to 8.10, and the class was already half full as compared to having only the three of them a few seconds ago. 

Chaeryeong leans forward to whisper something in Yuna’s ear, the taller girl flinching at their close proximity. 

She was such a hopeless gay for all the cute girls.  

“I’ll probably embarrass myself passing this letter to Lia, but you should go for yours too. My best friend isn’t all that bad.” 

With that, Chaeryeong scurried to her seat, which was next to Ryujin, to ask for the other girl’s opinion. Yuna’s eyes followed them, still confused by the girl’s sentence before. How did Chaeryeong even know? Yuna was sure she was quite subtle about it, having barely been in this school for a week, she didn’t want to start any rumors which would probably ruin Ryujin’s popularity. But on the other hand, if Chaeryeong liked Lia, what made her think Ryujin wasn’t leaning towards this side too? 

Whatever, this is too much brain power for my single brain cell. 

Yuna groaned, rubbing her eyes as she took out her diary to scribble on her expenses for the last few days, trying her best to ignore the fluttering butterflies in her stomach, knowing a certain someone was sitting diagonally in front of her. It’s been a couple of weeks, building up to a month, but as ironic as it is, although Ryujin had barely spoke a sentence to her, she was the only thing occupying Yuna’s mind. 

Stop it Yuna goddamn it what so good about her huh? 

Just as that thought disappeared, a sultry voice caught her attention, making the girl look up. 

“Can I borrow a minute?” 

Yuna stared wide-eyed at the girl in front of her, the one who has been occupying her thoughts tirelessly. Seeing the confused and shocked expression Yuna was sending her, Ryujin let’s out a sigh before continuing, “I need help for Biology, everyone else is trash and can’t answer my question.” Ryujin presses her palm flat on the table, leaning her weight slightly on it, as if asking for Yuna’s answer. 

“Ye-yeah sure!” 

Ryujin raised her brows as a small grin took its place on her features, spinning around to grab her assessment book, which landed heavily on Yuna’s table, both of them cringing at the loud rattle that emerged. 

Ryujin sends the girl a sheepish smile, embarrassed about the scene she had caused. Yuna mirrors the girl’s embarrassment, turning the assessment book so that she could read it upright. Seeing the two circled questions marked with angry red crosses amidst the calmer clean red ticks, Yuna stifled her laughter. She was like that too; she hated getting questions wrong, especially when she couldn’t understand why she had gotten it wrong. 

Scanning the question, Yuna processes Ryujin’s scribbles first. It was an easy sign; most people who scribble down notes while doing a question are usually more inclined to getting the question right. It’s just like planning out step by step, conquering the question bit by bit. 

Yuna’s eyes twinkled when she finally spots a mistake at the middle sentence, which surprisingly had no underlined words or markings at all. 

Ryujin must have overlooked it. 

“I think you missed out this part,” Yuna says, pointing to the sentence before continuing, “It says that he added the biuret’s test after he added maltase. So the biuret’s solution turned from blue to purple due to the enzymes, which are proteins. The benedict’s solution turned from blue to red precipitate only after the enzyme was added because maltose was broken down into glucose, which is a reducing sugar while maltose isn’t.” 

Ryujin raised a brow in surprise, eyes shimmering with amusement at her mistake. “Damn, can’t believe I missed that, thanks though.” 

Ryujin grabbed her assessment book, before picking up her pencil. Yuna’s heart sank a little, cursing internally at how fast she had solved the girl’s question. She should’ve pretended to analyse it a bit more, so Ryujin would stay next to her a while longer. 

To her surprise, Ryujin took a seat next to her, her heart now picking up its pace. Yuna bit her inner cheek when Ryujin crossed her left leg on her right, leaning towards her right side a little. Yuna had to will herself not to move away from the girl, when Ryujin was practically inches away from her. Yuna reverts her attention back to her own assessment book, having to reread the question thrice because she was too busy being distracted. 

Focus Yuna goddamn it. 

“It’s A, what’s taking you so long.” Ryujin deadpanned next to her, peering over her shoulder. Yuna almost jerked away, but managed to keep her cool in time. “I got distracted,” Yuna continues, feigning ignorance and subtly pulling her chair further from Ryujin. 

“By what, me?” Ryujin laughs at her joke, Yuna hiding her embarrassed blush and laughing along. 

“Sure…” Yuna rolled her eyes playfully, internally celebrating at her successful dodgers of a fatal shot. 

Ryujin opened to say something, only to be interrupted by a raging Chaeryeong running back into the classroom, the other few students in the class simultaneously looking up. Chaeryeong ran in, bangs all slick against her sweaty forehead, the dancer surprisingly out of breath. 

Casting a sheepish smile to her other classmates, Chaeryeong tiptoed to the back of the class where Yuna and Ryujin was, keeping her head down the whole while, refraining her excited giggles from escaping from her lips. 

Reaching the back of the class, Chaeryeong lets out an embarrassing squeal, cautious to keep her volume to a minimum. 

Yuna raised an eyebrow in confusion, Ryujin mimicking her expression. “What’s up?” Yuna asks, trying to gauge Chaeryeong’s expression, but to no avail as the shorter girl held a flushed love struck expression the whole while. 

wait. 

love struck? 

“Lemme guess. Is it about the letter you gave to Lia?” 

At that comment, Chaeryeong’s eyes lit up impossibly brighter, her smile stretching impossibly wider before finally spill