Day 11

“Smile!”

Sakura blinked and turned around at the sound of another person in the school garden. She’d gotten to school early and like usual, she had decided to take the less used path to her classroom, so she didn’t expect to run into anyone there. As she swiveled her body, she heard the sound of a click. There, behind the lends of her phone, stood Minju looking as radiant as ever.

“Sorry, did I surprise you? I was taking some pictures for inspiration,” Minju explained while holding up her phone.

“Oh?” Sakura immediately felt self-conscious of her appearance and moved a hand to her glasses, adjusting them even though they didn’t need adjusting and then to her hair, wondering if it was in place.

“Don’t worry, I won’t show anyone these pictures. I can delete it if you like,” Minju said, smiling, but her eyes seemed a little downcast as she looked at Sakura. She held up her phone where Sakura could see her own startled expression, with her hair twirling around like in the shampoo commercials, except not as silky smooth and the model would not be wearing ugly glasses.

Sakura felt conflicted. On one hand, the idea of Minju staring at her picture and gleaning any sort of inspiration made her feel incredibly happy. On the other hand, she kind of wished the picture was better. “It’s okay if you want to keep it. I’m just not sure you’ll get anything from that.”

Minju’s eyes widened in denial. “You photograph very well, Miyawaki-san. You don’t wear much makeup, but your complexion is so clear.”

“I’m not really used to putting makeup on. My old school didn’t allow it. I was actually surprised this school did.” Sakura looked down, feeling shy as Minju looked at her face intently.

“Mine didn’t either. Luckily, I had a friend who was good at putting it on and taught me. Oh, I know, I could teach you too.” Minju was excited as her smile brightened even more at her idea. “We could come early like today when we both have some free time and I could give you some pointers.”

“I’m not really sure what my schedule’s like…,” Sakura started to say before she realized what she was saying. Why am I sabotaging myself?

“Oh, right you weren’t here on the ceremony day when our old class exchanged numbers. Let’s exchange numbers now and you can let me know when you want to meet up early. And I can send you the picture I just took right now.” Minju looked down at her phone and switched to her list of contacts.

Sakura felt her heart start to beat quickly as she fumbled for her own phone. Somehow, by some miracle, she managed to get Minju’s number without even trying. She must have looked like an idiot to the other girl as she fidgeted and thumbed through her own phone’s controls like a nervous wreck. However, when she looked up, she could see Minju smiling and waiting patiently. “Um, here’s my number.”

“Okay, I’ll send you mine,” Minju said as she entered Sakura’s info.

The sound of a message arriving was pure music to Sakura’s ears as she looked at her phone and received Minju’s text. “I got it. I’ll get back to you about when I’m able to come early.”

“No rush. I’m happy that we finally have each other’s number. There were times when I wanted to talk with you, but I didn’t want to impose.”

“Kim-san, you wanted to talk with me?” Sakura felt that her heart couldn’t take all this excitement all at once.

“I didn’t really realize how much I missed talking with Miyawaki-san. I was really shy my first year and I didn’t really talk with anyone. When you saw that I was reading the same book you were and started talking to me about it, I was really happy. You were always so enthusiastic about the books I recommended to you. I loved hearing how you were finding them while you read them. But now, I really only see you when you go to the library and you’ve already finished the book,” Minju said with a hint of sadness in her voice.

Sakura remembered that time clearly. The two of them were the only girls that weren’t really part of any of the other groups that formed in the class. She had spent many days agonizing about how to approach Minju and had found her chance when she saw the girl reading the same novel she had been during lunch. Timidly, she had reached out to the girl and still remembered the face that was lit up with joy. “Yeah, I missed talking with you too, Kim-sa… Um, Minju-san. Can I call you that?”

“See, I told you that you can still get her number.”

Sakura was still smiling with an idiotic grin when she saw Wonyoung step around a tree. “Ah, sorry, we didn’t see you there. Um, were you here the whole time?”

“Yeah, I was just looking at the flowers when you two got here. I didn’t mean to listen in, but I thought it would ruin the mood if I stepped out,” Wonyoung explained.

“There wasn’t any mood to ruin,” Sakura denied, blushing furiously, before realizing the younger girl was teasing her again. “Anyway, thank you for letting us have a nice chat.”

Wonyoung simply nodded before going back to looking at the flowers. To Sakura, it looked like she was simply staring into space. Her intuition told her that something was wrong with the girl.

“Wonyoung…-chan, are you still hiding from people asking you questions? Or are you getting swamped with stuff?” Sakura asked as she moved to stand beside the taller girl. “You were running around even during lunch hour. People aren’t asking you to do things for them, are they?”

Wonyoung looked over at Sakura and blinked several times before laughing out loud. “Unnie, do you think I’m being bullied?”

“Um, no, I mean, are you?” Sakura asked nervously. She had suspected that the girl was hiding from her tormentors the first day and was running errands for them during her lunch hours.

“No one would dare… I mean, no, I’m not,” Wonyoung laughed so hard that tears formed in her eyes. She wiped them off and gasped for breath. “Thank you, though, Unnie. I needed that.”

“What’s going on then?” Sakura asked, perplexed at how the girl now seemed completely fine.

“I was feeling a little swamped with things. My family has a lot of expectations for me and I was afraid I wasn’t doing a great job at meeting them.” Wonyoung breathed a long sigh before looking at Sakura with a soft smile.

Sakura couldn’t resist the urge to reach out and pat the girl on the head. “Well, you are doing a great job.”

“And how would you know that?” Wonyoung asked in a whiny voice while moving her head back and forth like last time to get Sakura to ruffle her hair a bit.

“You were busy even during lunch last time but still stopped to help me put up a poster. Instead of complaining about being busy, you’re worried about whether you’re doing enough. To me, Wonyoung-chan is being a very good girl and there would be no way I wouldn’t be happy if I was your family,” Sakura said firmly.

Sakura giggled girlishly at Chaeyeon, who giggled back at her. This was the first time that Sakura shared a desk with someone. She had never volunteered to share textbooks when someone forgot theirs’ before as she had always been too shy to put up her hand. However, when Chaeyeon had uncharacteristically said she had forgotten one of her texts, Sakura’s hand shot up immediately to volunteer.

“Stop it, the teacher is going to split us up at this rate,” Chaeyeon whispered.

“Sorry,” Sakura said, but was unable to remove the smile from her face. She had always imagined spending her high school days with her best friend, a spot that never seemed be have a candidate, doing all sorts of activities. Sharing textbooks and passing notes were some of those things.

“Ahem,” the teacher coughed, while looking in Sakura and Chaeyeon’s direction.

Sakura felt a nudge and saw that Chaeyeon had written something on the edge of her notebook. [You didn’t call me using -san today] There was a picture of an Anpanman-like smiling face next to it.

[Is that not good?] Sakura wrote back with a picture of herself as a cat with a large drop of sweat on her forehead. She was just joking and she knew that Chaeyeon would just roll with it.

[We need some boundaries. What if you start calling me Jjaeyeon again?]

Sakura rolled her eyes. She made one mistake one time with her pronunciation and Chaeyeon kept teasing her about it. [If we need boundaries. I would call you Lee-sama like your fanclub does.]

She could feel Chaeyeon holding in a laugh beside her by how much her chair was shaking. Chaeyeon still didn’t really believe that she had a fan club and always thought it was one of Sakura’s jokes. In reality, she really did have a lot of admirers who basically went to every one of the girl’s cheer sessions ever since the first year.

After a while without a reply, she saw Chaeyeon wrote a simple message without any picture adorning it. [Should I?]

The day before, Chaeyeon had mentioned that the center position was up for grabs in her cheer dance club since their ace was in their third year this year. Sakura had automatically and thoughtlessly said that Chaeyeon should go for it. It seemed that it was the spark that the girl had needed to endlessly agonize over joining or not.

Chaeyeon had looked to Sakura again and again yesterday and today for reaffirmation that she should, which Sakura had stalled in giving the girl. Now that the girl was seriously considering it, Sakura felt that Chaeyeon deserved a more well thought out reply and opinion rather than an automatic yes or a deferral suggesting that it was really up to Chaeyeon to decide.

Chaeyeon was extremely humble and never assumed that anyone knew who she was. She would always politely introduce herself whenever she met anyone new in the school. However, there was literally no one in the school who did not know who Lee Chaeyeon was. The school’s cheer dance club was famous and she was famous as one of its star members. Skill-wise there was no problem with Chaeyeon going for the center position.

Sakura knew that Chaeyeon did not like conflict and preferred the club to be a happy environment. From talking with Chaeyeon about the club, Sakura knew that the center position was highly coveted and could cause friendships to break if one member won it over another member. She also knew that Chaeyeon dreamt of being the pillar that supported the team. Sakura had weighed everything in her head and heart before she decided that she could give Chaeyeon a better answer.

[I once dreamt of being an actor, but I never took another step after my first failure. At first, I regretted it every day and wondered what might have been. However, it’s useless to think about what might have been. The next time I have a dream, I will not let it go. I don’t know if that answers anything or not, but that’s how I feel. Sorry.]

Sakura smiled as she watched Chaeyeon leap out of her desk as soon as the lunch bell rang. She could guess where her friend was rushing off to. As she watched Chaeyeon leave the classroom, her eyes fell on Chaewon, who again, sat alone. It looked like she still hadn’t made any friends with anyone in class. Even Hyewon seemed friendlier these days as she always said good morning to Sakura.

As the days went by, it seemed like the rumours surrounding Chaewon escalated. Just today, people saw a bandage on her hand and said that it was from a gang fight over a rival territory. Sakura, however, suspected it was something much less dangerous.

Sakura had spent many days observing the girl in, what some might say, a stalker-like manner. She could see the girl making genuinely softer expressions outside of the scowl that seemed ever present on her face during class time. She could see the girl looking enviously at the different groups of girls in the class. She could see how her way of talking in a terse and snappish way left everyone with the impression that she had a short fuse, when in truth, she was just poor at expressing herself.

At some point, Sakura felt her fear of rejection and humiliation shrink away as it became overpowered by an overwhelming need to see Chaewon’s smiling face again. With that thought in mind, Sakura got up and walked towards Chaewon’s desk.

“Hi, Kim-san,” Sakura said, and she could almost hear gasping and choking from around the room.

One of those gasping and choking people was Chaewon herself as she was in mid-bite of her lunch. “Excuse me?”

Like usual, her glare and tone of voice suggested that she was angry and annoyed, but Sakura hoped that was not the case. “I was just wondering how your hand was. I noticed it was bandaged.” Sakura wanted to roll her eyes as she heard the background noise of gossip speed up.

“It’s okay. Just a scratch. I’m used to it,” Chaewon said, giving the impression that it was a usual occurrence which probably drove the imaginations of the students that remained in the room for lunch. It was time to kill that image.

“Was it Maru-chan again? I’m going to spray him with water when I get back,” Sakura said in a mock angry tone.

“Please, don’t,” Chaewon begged in a pleading tone as her whole expression changed to that of a pouting baby. The transformation was incredible to Sakura who witnessed it up front close and center. “It’s my fault for teasing him and trying to pick him up.”

Sakura found herself unable to say anything as Chaewon’s soulful eyes pierced her straight to her core.

“Miyawaki-san?” Chaewon said softly when Sakura didn’t answer.

“Uh, I was just kidding about spraying him. He’s usually too quick for me anyway. Recently, it seems he’s a little chubbier though. It’s like he’s getting another meal somewhere.”

“I’m sorry. Sometimes, I give him some snacks. I know that I shouldn’t, I’m sorry,” Chaewon’s expression changed again to one of contrition. Every expression she made was exceedingly cute in Sakura’s opinion.

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s okay to give him a treat now and then. Uh, anyway, I should get going to the cafeteria, since I didn’t bring my lunch today.  I just wanted to check on your hand.” Sakura somehow found herself able to stammer out a goodbye before she left the class to regain her composure.

“You saved me, Senpai,” Hitomi said as she took a large bite out of the melon pan that Sakura had bought her. “I usually pack extra food, but I must have forgotten my second bento box.”

“Don’t choke on it,” Sakura admonished while she handed a juice box to Hitomi.

“I won’t. Me and bread have an affinity,” Hitomi said cheekily as she finished off the melon pan in a couple more bites.

“You certainly like your bread,” Sakura said as she ripped open another melon pan package for Hitomi. “Aren’t you working yourself too hard if you usually need two lunch boxes?”

“I don’t think so. And that’s ironic coming from you?” Hitomi said, this time taking the time to savor the second melon pan.

“What do you mean?” Sakura asked defensively.

“Nobody overworked themselves like you did back in middle school. You told me that you couldn’t control anything but yourself. So, you always worked yourself to death even though you weren’t a starter.”

Sakura never thought her formerly meek kohai would ever use her words back against her. Everything the girl said was true. If there was anything that Sakura was bad at, it was moderation. “You’re not wrong. It seems bad of me to question your effort when I am the same way. I was just a little worried. You don’t seem as energetic as you normally do.”

Hitomi was quiet as she finished the second melon pan. When she was done, she looked at Sakura for a moment before turning her head away. “I haven’t really been improving my times. I’ve been wondering if I’ve reached my peak. Maybe I have reached it, maybe I haven’t, I don’t really know. What I do know is that I don’t want to stop trying and working on the only thing I can work on, myself. But it’s just so depressing when there’s nothing to show for it.”

Sakura reached out and held Hitomi’s hands. It made her happy that Hitomi continued to remember and live her words even to this day. “No effort is wasted. You are the person you are today because of all that effort. You said that I inspired you with my hard work, well the same is true for me. When I was unsure of myself in middle school, I went to the track to watch you and my other kohais working towards your dreams. Seeing you improve yourself despite how hard it is made me want to work hard too.”

Hitomi smiled and squeezed Sakura’s hands. “Thanks. That just makes me want to try even harder now. I was losing motivation, but I’m now more motivated then ever.”

“I see,” Sakura said wryly. “Well, just remember that rest is important too. No matter how hard you work, you won’t see results without the proper amount of rest.”

“I do remember a senpai who slept with her eyes open after practice was done,” Hitomi said, eyeing Sakura cheekily.

Sakura clapped happily as soon as Yuri finished playing the piano. “That was so amazing. You’re so amazing.”

“Thank you,” Yuri said, blushing slightly. “You could have joined me. Didn’t you say that you knew that song?”

“Eh, I’m not that confident to sing with you,” Sakura immediately put up her hands.

“You don’t have to be put that much thought into it. Just sing if you feel like it. Don’t worry about how you sound,” Yuri insisted.

“I do like it, but I only hum at home where nobody can see or hear me. You’re a strange one. You’re so sure in your music ability and can sing without worry or embarrassment, but you say you’re too shy to talk people into joining you in the light music club.” Sakura was so amazed by the confidence the young girl displayed that it seemed impossible for the girl to be a shy as she said she was.

“I really am shy. I haven’t even really made any friends in class yet,” Yuri said, her face crumbling as if in sadness. “I had been hoping the light music club would be around and that I might have made friends in that club.”

Sakura remembered how bad her first year had been before she met Eunbi and joined the art club. She hated thinking that Yuri might have to go through the same thing. “Hmm, well, do you have any plans later?”

“No, I don’t usually have cram school when I come here. Why?”

“Well, I was like you in my first year. I found I was able to forget about not having friends by keeping myself busy with art. Do you want to give it a try?” Sakura asked gently, hoping the girl would say yes. She decided that she couldn’t stand by and watch the girl waste her first year like Sakura had done.

“I guess I could. I’m not sure I’m that artistic though,” Yuri said hesitantly, yet, sounding hopeful.

“Other than Eunbi-senpai, we do have one other member. She doesn’t always show up, but if she does, she usually comes later. I hope you don’t mind if she’s there as well.” Sakura was fairly sure that Yujin was going to show up today and was hoping to play matchmaker and have the two girls become friends.

“Are you angry that I used you?” Sakura asked a pouting Yujin who was looking away from her.

Yujin turned around to look at Sakura and shook her head. “No. If you don’t know why I’m upset, then it doesn’t matter.”

Sakura was perplexed by the younger girl’s behaviour. Everything had gone so smoothly. Yuri had been startled when Yujin came barreling into the room with her usual boisterous self. But after an initial wary look, one big smile from Yujin was all that needed for the two girls to start chatting freely. Sakura had known that the two of them were in the same class from her conversation with Nako. She had hoped that the two would hit it off just like she was able to become friends with the two of them.

When Yuri declared that she was finished for the day and excused herself, Sakura had turned to find Yujin in a bad mood. She wracked her brain to try and figure out what happened, but she was completely lost. The only thing that Sakura could think of was that perhaps Yujin had felt used by Sakura to help make Yuri happy. Sakura had blanched at the thought that Yujin might have felt that way after she had told Nako that the art club was a safe place for its members.

Since the Yujin joined the week before she had really only missed one day which surprised Sakura. The girl was curious about everything and would try anything that Sakura suggested whether it was painting or doing origami or sculpting something. If this made the girl stop coming, Sakura felt that it would crush her. Sakura moved to sit beside Yujin who was faking looking busy by doodling on some paper. She put her hands on the taller girl’s shoulders and carefully turned the girl around to look at her again. “Yujin, I won’t know if you don’t tell me. Please, tell me, what’s wrong?”

Yujin looked up with her pout remaining on her face. “You gave her so many compliments. You were saying how well she was doing and giving her hugs for everything she did.

Sakura blinked. Yujin was jealous. “Um, you’re doing great as well.”

“Sure, thanks,” Yujin said, brushing Sakura’s hands off her shoulders to go back to doodling.

Sakura put her hands back on the girl’s shoulders and turned the girl back around more forcefully this time. “No, you are doing great. You’re so good at everything you do. You never need me to explain anything twice. It was hard for me to praise you because I thought it would all go to your head. But you’re right, that’s it’s not fair of me to compliment one member and not the other.”

Yujin looked down again, but this time didn’t turn back around to her doodling. “Actually, I should say sorry. I don’t know what came over me just now. I’m not usually so needy that I need someone to praise every little thing that I do.”

“I think it’s normal to seek validation,” Sakura said, moving her hands from Yujin’s shoulders to hold the girl’s hands. “I feel antsy if I don’t hear someone telling me that I’m doing well too.”

“You don’t always have to stop by the art club after cram school,” Sakura said as she poured a cup of tea for her senpai.

“It’s not really a problem. In fact, I think I need to stop by every so often to recharge my batteries. If I don’t see you and the art club every so often, I don’t know what I’ll do,” Eunbi said, gratefully taking the offered tea.

“What’ll you do when you’re in university?” Sakura asked, shaking her head at Eunbi’s silliness.

“I’m probably going to go somewhere near with my grades. Cram school doesn’t seem to be helping much,” Eunbi said ruefully. “So that means I could still stop by the club and see you.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Sakura asked as she looked worriedly at her senpai.

Wordlessly, Eunbi reached into her bag and brought out some of her mock test scores. Japanese was definitely the worst of them, even though the rest weren’t all that great either.

Sakura winced as she took a look at the scores. “You were pretty close on some of these math ones. I think you just misread this question since the equation looks right.”

“You can understand grade twelve math?” Eunbi asked with an impressed voice.

“Yeah, I read ahead a lot. I once dreamed of being a doctor, so I studied pretty hard. I found that I like studying and it’s kind of a habit now.” Sakura shrugged at Eunbi’s incredulous look.

“You don’t want to be a doctor anymore?” Eunbi was amazing at picking up on topics that Sakura worried over.

“Yes… no. I don’t know really. When I was younger, I had many dreams. Earlier today, I told my friend that I wanted to be an actor before. I also wanted to be an idol and a doctor. In my head, I thought I could be all of them.”

“What happened?” Eunbi asked as she sat down. She tugged at Sakura’s sleeve, urging the girl to sit down beside her.

“Nothing happened. I guess that’s the point. Somewhere along the way, I got scared after I failed the first time doing something I really liked. When my parents asked if I wanted to continue taking acting lessons or music lessons, I said no and that was that. I would have stopped studying too, but I don’t know how to stop; I like it too much.”

“That doesn’t seem like the Sakura I know. When I recruited you last year, you didn’t know anything other than drawing. But you made me teach you everything I knew, and you would spend hours here practicing everything.”

“I hated myself for giving up back then. When I gave up being an actor, I kind of gave up on everything else. I promised myself that I would do everything in my power the next time I found something that I wanted to do. I used to think failing was the worst thing that could happen to me, but I know now that it’s failing to make an effort that scares me the most. When I entered high school, I was still like a lost little lamb. And that’s when you found me.”

Eunbi smiled as she reached over and hugged the girl tightly. “I think we found each other.”

“Senpai, if you don’t mind me saying so, but I could help you study. I don’t mean to make you feel bad or anything.” Sakura closed her eyes as she embraced the older girl. She didn’t want Eunbi to think she was overstepping her bounds as her kohai.

“Why would I feel bad about that?” Eunbi gave Sakura a warm smile when Sakura opened her eyes. “I was too ashamed to ask the cram school teacher to slow down and I was too shy asking my classmates for help when I know they are trying hard too. You’re a life saver.”

Sakura looked at her phone as she walked home in a happy mood. Tomorrow, on the weekend, she’d promised Kwangbae to meet up online. She hadn’t had an all-day gaming session in a long time, and she felt that she was overdue for one.

“Frick!”

Sakura looked up from her phone as she heard a loud curse. She had just passed by the arcade beside the PC Bang that she always went to. The door to the arcade had just opened when a customer had left. As it closed, she could see Hyewon inside with a nasty glare.

Curious, Sakura walked to the arcade and opened the door. She could hear laughter and cheers as a group of boys watched Hyewon and another boy battle it out on the arcade console. She recognized the console as one of the ones which had a laggy joystick. The side that Hyewon happened to be on.

“Mind if I put up a hundred yen coin?” Sakura asked as stepped up to the console and placed a coin on Hyewon’s side of the screen.

The boys looked to see who was speaking and their eyes widened as they looked at Sakura. “Uh, feel free to play on this side. We’re just leaving.” One of the boys said overly politely as the bunch of them all got up and left.”

“Ah, Sakura-san. What happened?” Hyewon asked as the area around them emptied quickly. She could still see the other fighter character standing still on the screen as their player just got up and left.

“Those guys like to pick on people. This arcade console is defective on one side. They always grab the other side,” Sakura explained.

“Why did they leave? They seemed scared of you,” Hyewon said, her glare from earlier was nowhere to be seen as she openly smiled at Sakura.

“I may have beaten them on this side of the console even when it’s broken,” Sakura said, smiling mischievously.

“I didn’t know you played games. I do too, but I usually play PC games at home. I was getting a little bored playing by myself, so I came in here to find something else to do.” Hyewon’s eyes seemed to glow even more amidst the blinking and glowing lights of the arcade.

“I didn’t know you did either,” Sakura said. Even though they had started to exchange small talk this week, the topic of games never seemed to come up.

“Usually PC games like I said. I’m still a newbie when it comes to these arcade games. I was just trying to learn this one when those boys challenged me. Do you think you can show me?” Hyewon fumbled at the controls cutely, showing how inept she was.

“Sure, I don’t mind.” Sakura got on the bench beside Hyewon and reached out to grab the girl’s hand on the control stick while putting her other hand on the girl’s other hand which was pressing the buttons.

“You’re pretty good at this,” Hyewon murmured, turning her head to look at Sakura.

“Welcome,” the cashier said in a husky voice as soon as Sakura entered the convenience store.

“Choi-san?” Sakura choked out as she heard the familiar sounding voice.

“Shh!” Yena frantically put her hand to , signalling Sakura to be quiet. She looked around and then motioned Sakura to come up to the cashier.

“What are you doing here? The school doesn’t allow students to take on a part-time job, you know.” Sakura whispered sharply.

“My boss doesn’t need to know that. I told him it was okay for me to work,” Yena whispered back. She then left for a moment before coming back with a middle-aged man. “So, yeah, my boss said I can take my fifteen right now. Let’s go around the back. He said we can have some of the discounted food items as long as we eat it outside.”

Sakura kept shut as she followed Yena outside towards the back of the store. When they were out of earshot, she exploded on Yena. “Do you know how much trouble you’ll get into if the school finds out?”

“Yeah, I know. Look, I just needed a bit of spending money, okay?” Yena answered in an annoyed voice.

Sakura closed her eyes as she tried to control her breathing. She didn’t know what came over her as she became angrier than she had ever been before. When she opened her eyes again and she looked at her classmate, she came to the answer and it was a surprise to her. She genuinely cared if Yena no longer came to school. She had gotten used to the girl that sat in front of her who seemed to always make her upset. It actually upset her more to imagine that the girl was no longer there. “No, it’s not okay. We’re talking about your very life in school.”

“I didn’t know you cared so much,” Yena mumbled as she looked down. When she looked up again, Sakura could see a sad look that she had never seen on the ever-enthusiastic girl before.

“Well, I do. Even though your taste in game characters is questionable and you never did come to my club, I’ve gotten use to you sitting in front of me. What if I get someone else worse than you?”

“Gee, thanks. Look, I’m not asking for much. I’m just asking you to keep this quiet, okay?” Yena said in almost pleading tone.

“I’m not going to tell on you. Why do you need money and why don’t you ask you parents if you need it so badly?”

“They don’t know I’m working here. They know I signed up for a lot of clubs, so they just think I’m doing that. I don’t want to ask them to give me money. They already work way too hard for me and my brother as it is.”

Sakura was not so naïve that she didn’t know that there were some poorer students that attended their school. She just didn’t expect them to be someone so near her. Her family, while not rich, did well enough that Sakura had never needed to think about money outside of the gaming rig that she wanted.

“Hey, it’s expensive being a student. Since the school is lenient on makeup and accessories, if you want to be part of the crowd, you have to look the part. Cosmetics and jewelry are expensive. Well, I guess you wouldn’t know,” Yena continued, sighing as she pursed her lips as was her habit when she was pensive.

“Ouch. Yeah, I guess I don’t know what it means to be popular,” Sakura said, hurt that Yena would attack her there.

“Argh, I didn’t mean that. I don’t know why, but I can never say the right thing around you,” Yena groaned as she pulled at her hair.

Seeing Yena like that, made Sakura involuntarily giggle which made the other girl glare at her for a moment before she too giggled. “Yeah, I have the same problem of putting my foot in my mouth. Actually, I admire people that can be fashionable. It’s a skill that I don’t have. Even though, my family is okay in terms of money, you look way more stylish than I’ll ever be.”

“You’re not as hopeless as you think,” Yena said with a small smile. “I think your plainer style suits you just fine. And I think it’s cool how it looks like the people that do talk to you don’t care about what you’re wearing or how you pretty your makeup is.”

“I can’t believe she’s graduating,” Nako moaned cutely as she buried her face in a photobook.

“Hmm,” Sakura nodded, barely listening. She’d learned to only listen with half an ear when Nako ranted about this idol or that idol. “Don’t they all graduate eventually?”

“Sure, but I didn’t expect it this soon. She’s not even thirty yet!”

“Thirty’s a bit much to expect an idol to stick around for,” Sakura said as she leaned back from her homework, feeling satisfied that she’d completed everything before the weekend even started.

“But I’m not ready. I spent all of my allowance already. There’s no way I’ll be able to save enough for her final concert,” Nako said as she brought out her wallet and flashed its empty contents at Sakura.

“Well, I could lend you some money until your next allowance,” Sakura said as she reached for her wallet in her purse.

“How can you have so much money as a high school student? I thought our parents gave us the same weekly allowance?” Nako asked, her eyes wide at the money Sakura displayed.

“They do. Both our moms seem to do everything the same. The only things I really only spend my money on are manga books and the PC Bang. Well, I guess even then, I tend to only buy used manga and I’ve been too busy to go the PC Bang recently.”

Nako looked around the room and then back at Sakura. “I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. You still have the same clothes from last year in your closet. Even if something rips, you will just sew it up and wear it again.”

Sakura remembered her conversations with Minju about makeup and Yena about fashion earlier. “Is it really bad that I don’t buy new clothes or get fancier makeup?”

Nako looked thoughtfully at Sakura before shaking her head. “Just go at your own pace, Saku-chan. It’s not really the kind of popularity that I think you want.”

“How about you? You’re pretty fashionable. You always dress nicely outside of school and your makeup is always on point. I trust that you’re making the right friends.” It was the second time today that Sakura was told that it didn’t matter if she was like the other girls.

“I like making friends,” Nako said with a shrug. “Some friends care about appearances. Some don’t. I don’t think there’s such a thing as the ‘right’ kind of friend. But you saying that means that you do think there is a ‘right’ kind of friend.”

Sakura looked at Nako before nodding slowly. “I guess there is a distinction. I don’t want someone to be my friend simply because I look good, but I do want to be friends with people who make me want to look nice for them. Like you. You don’t mind it when we go hang out at the mall together, but recently I’ve noticed that I look more like your aunt than your friend. I want people to know that I match up well with you and you with me.”

Nako blushed and then gave Sakura a teasing look. “That sounds like a confession you know.”

Chaeyeon: Aren’t the girls acting a little different than how they would in real life?

Sakura: What do you mean?

Chaeyeon: Like Chaewon is not so stunted that she can’t make friends. She has lots of friends.

Sakura: Well, she isn’t an idol here, so I can take some artistic license and imagine how she would be different if she never became an idol. And it’s cute.

Chayeon: Eunbi is actually pretty smart no matter how bad her Japanese is.

Sakura: Artistic license. And it’s cute.

Chaeyeon: …

Sakura: …

Chaeyeon: Is that going to be your excuse for everything?

Author’s note:

Feeling excited for Vampire. I can’t wait since it looks like Sakura is the center. But if she doesn’t bite many of the members in the MV, then what is the point?

Let me know what you thought!