Something was wrong.

Chaeyeon prided herself on her accurate instincts- which Yuri wholeheartedly disagrees with after the Secret Friend Game their gang decided to do. But that wasn't the point. Something was weird, and it had something to do with Hitomi.

When she first talked to the girl, she exudes the aura of an honor student. She always passed homework on time, was never late to school, and never slept in class. Everyone would agree that she’s way more mature than Yena, who she caught this morning copying some homework. So it is shocking that Hitomi is doing the opposite of that. When she went to the first year’s classroom to see the said girl, head face down on her desk, with light snores that were barely audible. For the past two subjects, according to Nako. 

Definitely wrong.

"Hii-chan?" She called out to her, lightly shaking her awake. "It's lunch time already." 

"Hmm?" Hitomi looked up, her eyes heavy. 

"What's wrong Tomi-ya? Stayed up late?" she asked, concerned.

"Couldn't sleep,” she answered. Hitomi glanced at her watch to see if it was lunch time and grabbed her lunch from her bag, yawning in the process. “Let’s go eat unnie.”

Chaeyeon could tell she was lying but didn't pry. Maybe she just studied harder than usual. Hitomi tends to overwork herself after all. She just hopes that it doesn’t take it too far. 

---

Minju usually brought lunch since she preferred her mother’s cooking over their canteen’s after she found hair in one of their soups. However today was one of those unlucky days wherein she left something important, and that something was her lunch. Because of that she ended up having to join Yena for lunch, much to her dismay. 

“And then she said, “You don’t act like an unnie anyway.” Can you believe her?” Yena has been repeating the story of how Yujin disrespected her for the past week and it was getting tiring. To be fair, she often forgets to add honorifics to their names but she was cute so it was fine. 

“You’ve told that story like, fifteen times already.” Chaewon was waiting for us at the table, her Calculus book in front of her as she tries to solve derivatives. She put down her pen and stretched her arms. “Ugh, this is difficult.”

“That’s what you get for not doing it last night.”

“It’s not like you did anyway,” Minju interjected, “I bet you just asked Yuri for help. You should be ashamed of getting a freshman to do homework for you.” 

“Shut it, Minguri.”

“Hey-”

“Why’d ya not do it anyways? Don't tell me you were chatting with someone all night?" Yena took a seat and leaned forward, her lips curving into a smug grin, "Now, who's the lucky girl?" Chaewon’s ear seemed to turn a bit red when she said that. However it quickly faded and her eyes turned sharp, as if eyeing her prey.

"Says the person who ended up writing I quote, "Yuri's cheeks are the best" instead of Climate Change," Chaewon replies, her face equally smug. This made Yena flustered.

"Yah, Chaewon-ah! I swear if someone finds out-" Yena tries to cover Chaewon’s mouth to prevent her from saying more but a certain cherry blossom was near their table ended up hearing it.

"What's this about Yena and Yuri?"

"Sakura-unnie! You see Yena-"

"Don't tell her!"

There they go again.

Minju proceeded to eat her sandwich as the trio start bickering and teasing each other. The previous conversation did made her think about why Chaewon forgot her homework. The radish did mention doing it early and she usually doesn’t forget. Minju just shrugged and thought that maybe she forgot. People forget after all. 

--

“I can’t believe Chaewon rejected me. They grow up so fast.”

“She isn’t that old…”

Weekends for Hyewon are usually spent gaming or lazing around, but a sudden chat by the oldest of the group cut her lazy weekends short. She didn’t expect to wake up and see a message from Eunbi asking to go to the mall. She thought about rejecting but a few seconds later the said girl sent another message with a picture of her Nintendo Switch-- which was confiscated from her by Ms. Soyou so she didn’t have any idea how Eunbi got it. She swears Eunbi must’ve used her Student Council President card to get it.  

“She never says no when I ask her to hang out,” she says.

“Maybe she had more important things to do.” Like gaming, Hyewon thought. But she’s not brave enough to say it. Eunbi is right though. Being the radish’s favourite unnie, she never rejects any invitation from her. Unless it involves the student council. Helping them usually meant Yena did something wrong again, and she doesn’t want to associate herself with that duck.

“Anyways, we should go. I’ll treat you to some cake after this.” she grabs her hand, causing mind to malfunction and forego any thoughts about cake. Eunbi dragged her towards the nearest shop, starting their shopping spree.

An hour later and they left happy, except for Hyewon who reluctantly agreed to carry all their bags. Ah, the things she does for Eunbi. Her face lit up when she remembered they were having cake after this, reminded by the bakery they were in front of right now. When they entered, they were surprised to see Chaewon and Hitomi seated at a table, chatting happily.

Of course, seeing the person who rejected her invitation outside with someone else, Eunbi wouldn’t let this slide.

“Chaewon-ah! Hitomi!” she yelled. 

Hearing their names, the pair looked up to see the two unnies walking towards them. Hitomi nodded, trying to greet them but sounding muffled from the bread in her cheeks. 

“Eunbi-unnie, Hyewon-unnie! Hello!” she greets, her hand covering as she chews the remaining pastry.

Chaewon was quite startled to see her unnie whom she rejected in front of her, so she ends up stuttering, probably afraid of what is to come next. 

“U-Unnie! What are you doing here?” 

“Just shopping,” which we were supposed to be doing, Eunbi thought, “What are you two doing here?” she interrogates them. Chaewon stood up abruptly, her mind racing to create the perfect excuse as to why she declined Eunbi’s invitation despite being free due to the fact that she is here in the mall with Hitomi but the bread lover spoke up instead.

“I wanted to go here for a long time but I was afraid to go alone so,” she looks at Chaewon, “I asked Chaewon-unnie to accompany me.” After that she sat up and grabbed Eunbi’s hands and gave the cutest smile ever together with a head tilt that’d even make their guidance counselor they call Cheetah melt from her cuteness.

“Is it okay, unnie?” 

Eunbi’s frown suddenly disappeared from her face and was replaced with the smile of a mother who has fallen prey to her child’s charms. “Of course, Tomi-ya! Have fun with Chaewon!” she said, giving Hitomi a head pat. She didn’t forget to glance at Chaewon with a threatening grin.

We gave a goodbyes and left the sweets shop. Eunbi was skipping happily while Hyewon felt slightly less tired since she was able to rest for a minute. The eldest decided to finally go home which made the glutton excited. Finally, she can end this torture. However when the girl was done walking Eunbi to the bus stop and together with the gigantic amount of clothes, she realized that she forgot the most important stop on their trip.

“My cake!”

---

Yujin loves soccer. And basketball. And sports in general. As a kid, she always played tag and other games with the boys, which made her quite tanned down below. In middle school, she joined the soccer team and led their class’ team to the championship during the sports festival. However, once she graduated and became a highschooler, she switched to basketball because she thought that “Shooting three pointers are way cooler than scoring a goal,” or something like that. She ended up becoming the center of the varsity team, the position that shoots the least three pointers, so she decided dunks are cooler.

If there was something she’d love more than sports, it’d be Wonyoung, but if asked she’d zealously deny it. Despite her outgoing demeanor, when it comes to her childhood friend she turns into a huge mess. That is why when Wonyoung told her yesterday that she wanted to watch her practice, she immediately shut her down. The maknae was a lot more stubborn however, so Yujin is currently doing laps as punishment for not focusing enough.

After thirty laps around the gym, the coach ended training and Yujin dropped to lie on the ground. The floor was slippery from her sweat as she pants, tired and sore.

“Yujinnie get up, won’t you?” Chaewon’s crimson hair came into view. The puppy sat up straight and faced the girl properly. “That’s what you get for staring at Wonyoung too much.”

“Shut up, unnie.” 

Chaewon simply laughed at her reply and turned to look at the said girl’s direction, who was now accompanied by the blonde foreign exchange student. Ah, the scene when they first met her was unforgettable to Yujin. When Chaeyeon invited Hitomi and another foreign student who seemed way younger than her (She wasn’t exactly as tall as people her age),the radish fairy was absolutely lovestruck.

When Hitomi introduced herself to Chaewon, she couldn’t answer and just stared at the girl, before snapping to her senses and finally replying, albeit stuttering. Yujin wouldn’t stop teasing her about this for days.

“Oh, your girl is here,”

“She’s-”

Usually the girl would reply with “She’s not mine,” or something along those lines but instead she cut her sentence short and glared at Yujin before going to the two girls, leaving the center alone. She rushed to stand up and join the three before their coach randomly decides to extend training (It happens more often than you think).

“Yujin-unnie! Are you okay?” Wonyoung asked, her features showing slight concern, “You didn’t seem focused at all.” 

“I’m fine Wonyoungie. Was just distracted,” she answers, avoiding the younger girl’s stare. She instead looked at the other two, chatting happily. “I wanna play more, Chaewon!” she called her attention. Chaewon paused their conversation and gave Yujin an apologetic look.

“Sorry, I made plans with Hitomi so…” she trailed off. Yujin felt betrayed. Today wasn’t a good day. “Wonyoung why don’t you stay behind with Yujin?” she suggested.

“Sure! I don’t mind.”

Never mind. Today was a good day for her. A very good one. After Wonyoung decided to stay with Yujin, the other two packed their things and bid their goodbyes. Yujin started to warm up while following the two leave the gym. She didn’t miss how Chaewon moved closer and took hold of Hitomi’s hand before letting go of it to grab something from her bag.

Today is a very good day indeed.

---

She had enough. Yena hates to admit it, but she at Fortnite. The game hasn’t even reached the one minute mark when she died. After losing five games in a row to Sakura of all people, she decided to take a break and scroll through social media. Her phone opens up and shows a few messages from Yuri, who she named My Hamster <3 and a notification regarding a tweet from a few of her friends. And yes, she turns on notifications for her close friends. She wouldn’t miss the chance to make a good joke or tease them about it.

The first thing she did was look at what Yuri sent her, which were just random emojis expressing her love. Her heart fluttered a bit at that. She proceeded to send a few of her own. Their chat was basically filled with just them and a bunch of emojis and gifs. After that she went to twitter to look at the recent tweets from her friends. 

Nothing much was out of the ordinary; Chaeyeon and a snippet of her freestyle choreography with, The parents’ (Eunbi and Hyewon) shopping trip, and shenanigans the others were up to. She tapped Hitomi’s profile, scrolled down, and what she saw shocked her.

Right there, was a photo of Hitomi asleep in her bedroom. Now if it were just that Yena would just think she’s cute and move on. But one, it was tweeted on Hitomi’s account. Two, it was a selfie with Chaewon in it. Finally, the caption was “My cute bbangtomi” which could mean one of two things. It could be a dare from Yujin or me but she has no memory of asking Chaewon to do this and the girl wouldn’t even try. That leads to only one conclusion. 

, I owe Yujin fifty dollars.