♫ Lauren Aquilina - King

“You should not have to rip yourself to pieces to keep others whole.”

- Emma Bleker

A few days had passed since the movies and it was once again time for classes. Minju enter the classroom but was a bit surprised by something that was missing.

I wonder where Chaewon is.

Minju thought to herself as she pulled her seat out and sat down.

She’s usually here before I am. 

What if she’s sick? Or maybe something bad happened again.

Minju began slightly panicking as wild thoughts began invading her mind.

“Maybe I should give her a call.” Minju said to herself as she reached into her bag to pull out her phone.

“You’re going to get that taken away if the teacher catches you with it.” A voice suddenly interrupted her.

Minju shifted her attention to the direction of the voice, which lead her to the seat beside her. Chaewon pulled her chair out and quickly plopped into her seat, placing her head straight onto her desk.

“Are you ok? You’re usually here before I get to school.” Minju whispered, concerned.

Minju was met with silence, but Chaewon slightly gestured her hand to indicate that she was fine.

“Are you still mad at me about what happened over the weekend?” Minju wearly asked, thinking Chaewon was acting more coldly to her because of her lying.

“I said I was sorry and that I'd make it up to you.” She added.

“No.” Chaewon weakly answered, turning her head towards Minju.

Ahhhh…..

Minju thought as she can now see why Chaewon was late.

•~•

“You look like you haven’t slept in like 2 days.” Minju snickered.

“Did the movie scare you so much that it  kept you up?” Minju added.

Minju was teasing the girl during their lunch break. As soon as the bell rang, Chaewon rushed towards the roof, hoping to get as much rest as she could before classes started up again.

“Say whatever you like, but I saw you the whole time during the movie.” Chaewon retorted.

“You were even clinging to me, covering your eyes while screaming and crying. I bet you had to ask your friend to sleep over with you that night too.” Chaewon continued.

“N-No. Your eyes were playing tricks on you! I wasn’t scared at all.” Minju replied, her eyes shifting back and forth as she looked away from Chaewon.

“Whatever makes you feel better I guess.” Chaewon said, waving Minju’s obvious lie away.

“Either way, I’m tired so let me sleep for a bit.” Chaewon said as she closed her eyes and covered her ears with her headphones.

Minju pouted, embarrassed that she couldn’t convince Chaewon otherwise. Minju sighed as she sat next to Chaewon, bored.

Maybe I should leave her alone to sleep for a bit. She does look really tired anyway. 

I’ll go look for Yujin. Maybe I can find out what Hii-chan thought about the outing.

•~•

“Yudingz, where are you at right now?” Minju asked the angel on the other side of the line.

“I’m in the cafeteria right now. They’re serving tteokbokki today!” The younger angel said, all giddy.

“Is Hii-chan with you?” 

“No, she had something she had to do for her cheer team so I’m alone right now.” Yujin answered.

“Oh… I was going to ask her if she enjoyed our outing the other day.” Minju replied.

“Ahh! Wait, that reminds me, I want to talk to you for a bit about Hii-chan. Can you meet me in the cafeteria?” Yujin said.

Minju quickly made her way to the cafeteria. As she walked through the doors, she saw Yujin waving happily at her, along with the pile of dishes from her tteokbokki feast.

“How many did you eat?” Minju asked, gasping upon closer look.

“Oh, stop exaggerating unnie. It’s only 3 dishes.” Yujin pouted, as she sat back down.

“Yudingz, these dishes are like the size of your foot! They’re huge!” Minju exclaimed as she sat down in front of Yujin.

“STAP!” Yujin cried.

“How could you compare the size of something to my feet?! They’re not even that big you know.” She added.

“Whatever you say Bigfoot.” Minju teased.

Yujin scoffed at Minju’s remark, feeling offended.

“You sound just like Chaewon unnie. She’s having such a bad influence on you!” Yujin said.

Minju couldn’t say anything, feeling guilty about her remark. 

“I’m sorry. You know I’m just joking.” Minju said, looking down and sulking.

“It’s fine, just don’t call me that anymore.” Yujin said as she bounced back to her happy self.

“Anyways unnie, I need to talk to you about Hii-chan.” Yujin continued.

Minju was surprised that Yujin had something to say about her human. From when they arrived on Earth until now, Yujin had been keeping quiet about her human and not saying much about what Hii-chan needed help with, or even the fact of who she was helping. It’s only been recently that Yujin had talked to Minju about her human, and she wants to return the favor for helping her with Chaewon, even if it wasn’t much.

“What about Hii-chan?” Minju asked.

“You know how I asked you to help me to get Chaewon unnie to be friends with Hii-chan right?”  Yujin said.

“Yea…”

“Well, on a normal basis, Chaewon unnie is the last person I would help Hii-chan befriend considering her reputation around school....” Yujin continued.

Minju nodded as she can understand why Yujin would feel that way.

“...but there was a reason why Hii-chan is so adamant on Chaewon unnie.” Yujin added, peaking Minju’s interest.

“Why is that?” Minju asked.

(Flashback)

“Hey Yujin….” Hitomi called softly.

“Mmhmm? What’s up Hii-chan?” Yujin asked as she swallowed the last bite of her tteokbokki.

“I’ve seen you hang around Minju sunbae, are you two friends?” Hitomi asked.

“Yea! We’re really good friends. Why do you ask?”

“Does she know Chaewon unnie?” 

“Hmm I guess. They do sit next to each other in class and I’ve seen them hanging around each other more or less before, so maybe.” Yujin replied.

Hitomi became somewhat hesitant to continue, but moved on after taking a deep breath.

“Can you help me befriend her?” Hitomi asked.

“Ehhh?” Yujin said, extremely confused.

“Why her out of everyone here at school? Not to be rude or anything but I’ve heard not so great things about her around here, so I’m kind of bewildered why you want to befriend her.” Yujin added.

Hitomi looked at her fidgeting fingers and bit her lower lip while Yujin waited for a reply.

“Me and Chaewon unnie used to be friends.” 

(End of flashback)

“What?!” Minju exclaimed as she shot up out of her seat, garnering some stares from students nearby.

“Sit down unnie! You’re being too loud.” Yujin said as she pulled the older girl down.

“Why didn’t she say anything about it then? They acted like total strangers when