“Hyewon-ahhhh!!!”, Wonyoung leaps towards her injured friend from 3 meters away. Her eyes riddled with redness and messy mascara. “A-A-Are you okay??? W-When I heard what happened I just…”

               Hyewon smiles weakly at her, “I’m fine… nothing that bandages can’t fix,”

               “We were so worried! Thank god you’re okay!!!”, Kim Minju proceeds to give Hyewon a tight hug. Her voice is croaky trying to hold back her tears.

               “Um, I did hurt my head and my cheeks are still burning… so yeah, I’m not that okay…”, Hyewon shrugged playfully.

               Minju slaps her friend’s arm softly, “How can you be so happy right now? Tell me, where does it hurt? Your head? Shoulder? Back?”

               “Well… everywhere is hurting! Even my heart!”

               “Kang Hyewon! Stop with the jokes! Oh my, you must be so traumatized…”, Wonyoung lift her face from Hyewon’s shoulder. Her mascara left a stain on Hyewon’s clothes.

               “Nothing a year of therapy can’t fix!”, Hyewon put her thumbs up.

               “Hey!!!”, Minju yells at Hyewon’s inappropriate reactions. She thought that her friend must’ve hit her head pretty hard.

               “Why are you yelling at me? I’m sick here!”, Hyewon protests.

               Minju sits on the bed next to her friend, her hand rubbing Hyewon’s back, “Right, right… sorry, sorry… but no more stupid jokes! So, how are you feeling? When are you gonna file a police report?”

               Hyewon touches her right cheek softly, “I’m fine, I guess. I don’t know when I am going to the police, though… Too much work and right now my body is aching so much…”

               “That’s a no from me, Hyewon! We’ll go to the police tomorrow! Or maybe, tonight!”, Wonyoung says. Minju nodded in agreement.

               “So, how did you survive? Did you see the perpetrator’s face?”, asks Minju.

               Hyewon contemplates. If she told them what had happened, how their most hated senior, Miyawaki Sakura come to her aid, they’re probably going to laugh their off. But again, it was what really happened. “I just know it was a guy, his face was properly covered. He gave me quite a beating… I was close to fainting…”

               “Oh my god, that’s terrible! That’s so scary!!! Did anyone come and help?”

               “… someone did…”

               “Who?”

               Hyewon clears before she continues, “Miyawaki Sakura…”

               Wonyoung and Minju stares at their friend, then exchange glances with each other. “The Miyawaki Sakura? The Pure Chem Miyawaki Sakura???”, Wonyoung says in disbelief. “She’s the one who saved you???”

               “…Yes,”

               “Holy , what???”, exclaimed Minju. “How is she even there? Just by chance???”

               “Chance or not, I guess I kinda owe her one now…”, Hyewon slumps her shoulder.

               Minju taps on her chin, thinking. “Was it really by chance…?”

               Wonyoung looks at her, eyebrows creased, “What do you mean?”

               “What if Sakura was the stalker??? And this is part of her plan???”

               “That’s farfetched… why would she do that?”, Hyewon dismissing Minju’s claim.

               Wonyoung intervenes, “Maybe… just because of you. She hated you! I mean, Hyewon, you do have that special ability…”

               “What ability?”

               “Ability to attract creeps and the scums of the earth!”

               Minju nodded again, she adds, “Yeah… she looks like an evil mastermind. Plus, she is kinda… scary. There’s just something about her, an aura that surrounds her, making her look so despicable… you know what, forget it! It’s just us overthinking things…”

               But it is too late. Minju’s words have stirred a conspiracy theory inside Hyewon’s head. Minju is right, there is something wrong about Miyawaki Sakura. And she, Kang Hyewon will get to the bottom of this!

***

               Sakura’s eyebrows are creased from all the focusing she’s been doing. She taps the back of her pen on the desk. Occasionally, she would glance to her laptop, scrolls for a bit. Her lips moving, silently reading.

               The professor’s assignment is a torture. Apparently, there are very few published works can be used as references for the title. Granted, Sakura was only started to build her literature review last night while stalking Kang Hyewon, but still, the amount of resources available is too damn small. It is not yet reaching 5. It’s only been a day and the pressure build inside her mind is growing enormous. With the new assignment, Kang Hyewon’s problem and her own academic conditions stacked upon each other, Sakura is stressed for the first time.

               Since she can’t focus well while staying in her house with the bed looking so inviting, Sakura forces herself to stay at the faculty’s library. She secretly wonders why she never thought of going to a library before, since the environment here is pretty good. No seniors ting on her behind her back, no juniors gossiping about her, no male gaze upon her body, no jealous female whispers on her fashion choices.

               Very good, this is very good.

               Sakura writes something on her notepad, her hand stops when she smells a familiar fragrance. One that tend to confuse her brain, one that she both love to hate and hate to love. Hermes’ Twilly Eau Poivree.

               Kang Hyewon drag a chair in front of Sakura and take a seat near her, crossing her arm. “Heh,” she scoffs. “Here you are…”

               “Been looking for me?”, Sakura’s voice is cold, she didn’t take away her gaze from her laptop.

               “I did,”

               “Here to thank me? If so, do it properly this time…”

               Sakura can hear a heavy exhale from her visitor. “Be honest…”, Hyewon’s eyes glaring sharp into Sakura, “What were you doing there?”

               “What?”

               “What were you doing in the alley last night?”

               Sakura finally diverts her gaze from her laptop. Despite her straining eyes, her hatred radiated well. “What’s that now?”

               “Don’t play dumb… that alley is not often used by cars. What were you doing there?”

               “Uhh, Miss! I think the words you’re looking for are ‘Thank’ and ‘You’!”

               “Thank you? Why should I thank a stalker???”

               “Stalker???!!!”, her eyes widen, bulging even.

               “Yes. How else would you know about my whereabout last night?”

               Sakura massages her temple, shutting close her eyes. Technically, she was stalking Kang Hyewon. But it was for a very different reason than whatever that is in Hyewon’s mind right now. She should quickly find herself a convincing lie now that Kang Hyewon had her suspicion. “Get off your high horse, I wasn’t there to stalk you. I wasn’t there to stalk anybody!”

               “Oh, really?”, Hyewon says in a sarcastic manner.

               ing Kang Hyewon and her never ending annoying behaviour. “For real!”, Sakura asserts. “I was there to check on a new vacant room!”. It is an impeccable fabrication, thought Sakura. A perfectly reasonable reason for a foreigner to wander around near midnight at an almost isolated street. Yes.

               It was clearly too good since Hyewon seemed to believe it, but then she started to question other things. “Got kicked out? So… even Lee sunbaenim can’t stand you, huh? That’s tough. I mean, she’s basically the nicest of them all and even she can’t stand to have you prancing around…”

               “Oh my god! Can you please just shut it!” Sakura’s voice is harsh although toned down to a whisper. She might be the residence ‘bad girl’, but she still has basic manners. For example, not using loud voice when in a library.

               “Why else would you move out, right?”

               “Mind your own business, please…”

               “Look at you. All sad, pathetic and lonely… Aren’t you tired of being an ? You know it’s not that hard to be nice to others…”

               Sakura rolls her eyes harder than she ever did before, “Yes, yes. I get it. You’re right. Now why don’t you just leave me alone being lonely here,”

               “Aw… droopy face, puppy eyes… are you stressed, Miss?”, Hyewon scrunch her nose mockingly.

               Seeing Hyewon being so, the flame inside her heart blazes even more. Sakura gritted her teeth. In a slightly muffled voice, she says, “No respect for me, huh? What has come to our society?  Moral values truly are a myth nowadays…”

               Hyewon snickers, “Cringe. Nice words coming from YOU… aren’t you the one who is deprived of those? Being a stalker and all…”

               “Goddamn it! I’m not a ing stalker!!!”

               “… Yeah right...”

               Sakura exhales exasperatedly, her lips form an unnoticeable frown. She’s losing herself to this unwarranted guest and she’s hating it. “Why are you even here, bothering me? Don’t you have anything else to do?”

               Hyewon hums. Initially, she was supposed to say thank you but seeing Miyawaki Sakura in person just triggers the ego inside her. Saying thank you right now will bore meaning that she has subjecting herself to a defeat in her fight with this girl. Also, she kept on remembering the conspiracy theory spoken by Minju last night. What if this person really is a dangerous, plotting stalker?

She was about to leave when she notices what Sakura is working on. Hyewon leans her body forward to take a better look at Sakura’s laptop, getting in the way of Sakura’s sight. “Huh…”, Hyewon starts. “Membraneless water filtration… that’s a new tech. You’re working on this?”

               “Duh. Obviously! What else?”

               “You know this is kinda hard, right? Not even us can do this, this is some advanced stuff…”

               “Didn’t asks for your opinion, off already!”

               Hyewon turns her head around to look at Sakura. Their faces are only inches apart, both can feel each other’s breath. In a romantic situation, this would be either very y and seductive or innocently embarrassing. But that didn’t happen here. Both party glaring hard at each other, filled with hatred. “Okay, ! Good luck finding all the essential materials!”

               Sakura mockingly smiles at her and Hyewon returns the favour with the same mockery.

               “Very mature. Go away, head!”

               “Fine! face! It’s not like I wanted to be here anyway!”, Hyewon whips her long, shiny black hair and it hits Sakura’s cheek. Hyewon left while cursing her senior under her breath, already forgetting the reason why she’s there at the first place.

               The older girl gasps in disgust, she then proceeds to take out a fresh tissue from her bag and vigorously wiping the side of her cheek that touches Hyewon’s hair. Sakura’s thought suddenly flashes back to the previous night when Hyewon was attacked. Now that she thinks about it, Hyewon seems to be physically fine. No limping, no bruises on her face despite all the hitting and slapping.

               “That is some next level make-up mastery level…”, Sakura let out a sigh as she starts typing something on the keyboard. Her hands stop, her mind suddenly wanders, “Is she okay, though? Maybe I should’ve asked if she’s okay… I mean, what happened was terrible… She’s wounded, so it must be hurt to walk around right now… putting make-up on a fresh wound sounds even more painful…”

               When Sakura snaps back to reality, she wheezes. “Pfft!!! What the ? Why should I care? Why should I give a damn? Screw her!”

***

               Choi Yena is in her second year of applied mathematics. Aside from her usual curricular activities, Choi Yena often indulges herself in 200 meters competitive running. Given that she is blessed with biological attributes that manage to help her snatching gold medals with little training, it is only logical that Choi Yena has her fair share of fans and haters.

               Recently, there have been a weird development in Yena’s life. A kind of occurrence that she rather not shares even with her closest friends. But something has to be done. In the light of desperation, Yena resorts to asking for help from the campus’ most well-known problem solver, the ever so secretive Miss K.

               She was hesitating, wondering if Miss K would take her problem seriously. However, she was left with no other choice. Yena has dwelled in thinking whether to inform the faculty or the authorities but doing so will only invites unnecessary attention to herself.

               Yena’s hands tremble as she types her messages to Miss K. She’s trembling from the embarrassment of course; she’s not scared or mentally scarred or under any psychological pressure whatsoever.

               Her message reads;

               Dear Miss K,

               I have a problem that I think would require your help to fix. The reason why I come to you is because I’m afraid that everyone would just shove it aside and take it lightly.

               This problem affects only me so far; however, I wouldn’t ignore the possibilities of this very same problem did or soon will happens to other people within the campus. Therefore, I implore you to take a serious look upon this dilemma that I am currently facing.

               Sakura’s eyes blink a few times from reading the message. The first thought that come to her is, “Wow, so formal…”. She wonders who the sender is and what could be the life-threatening problem. Sakura continues to read;

               A week ago, I started to notice a very personal belonging of mine have been disappearing. At first, I thought I have misplaced it somewhere, but that hypothesis soon went bust when I personally saw a figure (I’m not sure whether it was a male or female) went through my locker and ran away as soon as I tried to make a confrontation.

               I believe I have made justification as to request an audience with you in order to discuss this matter even further. I understand that your party would require me to enclose the very name of the said personal belonging, in which to that I must apologize for not being able to comply to such demand. However, I can assure you that this matter is indeed gravely in nature.

               Thank you for your consideration.

               Sincerely, a concerned victim.

               “Huh… Okay…”, Sakura clicks her tongue and chuckles. “I guess I’ll meet this person then…”, as usual, Sakura replied to the email telling the client to meet her in her booth at midnight. “What a weirdly formal email…”

               Later that night, Sakura already arrived at the booth 2 hours prior to the meeting time. She wanted to quickly resumes her homework and assignments. Despite now she is heavily occupied with academic responsibilities and also Kang Hyewon’s problem, Sakura felt that taking on another one, much simpler problem will make take away her attention from the highly exhausting ones.

               It is a weird logic. But it works for her.

               7 minutes before the clock strikes 12, her client arrives. The girl give a secret knock and Sakura returns it. Once again, Sakura turns on her voice modulator. “Hello, Miss…”

               The girl answers back, quite shyly, “H-Hello…”

               “I see that you have come forward with a theft case? I must say it can’t be done without me knowing your name and other personal information as well…”

               “Ah, of course. I’m… Choi Yena. Applied math, year 2.”

               Sakura slips a paper under the partition, “Right, Choi Yena. This is an anonymity agreement. Kindly read it before signing. Then, please proceed to tell me your story, this time don’t forget to include what had been taken…”

               “Ah… okay…”. Yena coughs away the air of awkwardness, “Someone’s been stealing my…”

               “…Your…?”

               “My… uh…”

               Sakura anticipates, her low squeaky voice translated into a low growl by the modulator. “…Yes…?”

               “Someone’s been stealing my… bra…”

               For a moment, Sakura’s consciousness left her body. Her eyes become soulless, mouth slightly agape. She swallows her saliva, in a weak voice she says, “Your… bra… has been… stolen?”

               “Not just one, a lot! And it’s my expensive ones too!”

               “Right, right. Of course.”

               “And those expensive ones are the one that I always wear when training or competing! I need those, very badly!”

               “I’m sure…”

               “I mean, we have a ert running around! And a championship approaching! This is serious!”

               “Yes. I can see that…”

               “Will you help me, Miss K?”

               “… Help you finding your missing brassieres?”

               Yena sighs, “No. Catch the ert!”

               “Uh… Are we not here to find your brassieres?”

               “Man, I knew even you would never take this seriously!”, Yena can’t help but sounding disappointed.

               “No, no. Stealing undergarment is a serious offense… I’m not taking this lightly at all!”, Sakura tries hard to hold back her laughter as she spouts those words. The problem itself isn’t funny, it’s just Sakura thinks about how Yena could’ve just said it straightforwardly in the email.

               “So… you’ll help me???”

               “Yes. But I’ll be needing some additional information about yourself such as the name of your friends, ex-lovers, enemy and stuffs…”

               “Right… and nobody will know about this but us?”

               “You and I both have signed the agreement. I’m bound to the law as much as you do… rest assured…”

***

               Lee Chaeyeon, the student council vice president. A closeted Fujoshi, comes out to Sakura the day she asks for Miss K’s help. Right now, she is actively writing stories and post it on some Korean anime-fanfiction site, in secret. Lately, Chaeyeon has shifted her interest towards the relationship between her friend, Miyawaki Sakura and her proclaimed arch enemy, Kang Hyewon.

               She calls it fate; a divine revelation given to her during the time she’s facing writer’s block. When Sakura come to her and told her about how she accidentally accepted Kang Hyewon’s problem, Chaeyeon knew that this is it! A background for her new story! Now, if only the real one can proceed in her favour, that would be nice.

               Sakura groans loudly from her desk. She lays her head on the top of stacks of paper. When her friend, Lee Chaeyeon, come into the room asking what is going on with her, Sakura can only answers, “ this assignment!!!”

               “Still looking for materials, huh? Oof, that looks harsh…”

               Chaeyeon comes closer to Sakura when she heard her sniffles. Sakura wasn’t crying though, she’s just cold. Sakura turns around, looking at her dear friend, “Why is this happening to me, Chaeyeon?”

               “Uh…”

               “Forget it. Don’t bother to answer.”

               Chaeyeon’s eyes soften at the sight of disheartened Sakura. “What is the title of your project?”

               “Membraneless water filtration using carbon dioxide…”

               “Never heard of it…”

               “Yeah… it’s kinda new,”

               “Are you researching for the application? Is it to be used in treatment plants?”

               Sakura clicks her tongue, “Yeah… I guess so…”

               Chaeyeon eyes wanders for a while, she just got an idea. “Well, maybe you can ask other student to help you…”

               The older girl lifts her head, feeling the sudden sense of motivation rushes through her body, “Do you know anyone that I can ask???”

               “I don’t… but you do…”

               “What do you mean?”

               “I mean, you do share a class with the Environmental students…”

               “Oh no…”

               “… and since your project is kinda relates to the environmental preservation, maybe you can ask them for a little bit of help…”

               “No, no, no…”

               “… and maybe you can fix your broken relationship with your classmates…”

               “No! No, Lee Chaeyeon! I won’t ask help from the Environmental students!”

               “Why???”, Chaeyeon’s voice almost sounding like a whine.

               “I’m not asking for help from Kang Hyewon’s brigade, okay!”

               “… Well, if you can’t ask for help from the brigade, you can always…”

               “Oh my god…”

               “…ask…”

               “Don’t you finish that sentence, Lee Chaeyeon!”

               “… Kang Hyewon herself to help you!”

               “GAH!!!!!!”

               “You’re helping her currently, right? So, consider this her returning the favour…”

               Sakura let out a husky sigh, “Returning what favour? She didn’t even know that I’M helping her… She’ll take this chance to mock me, AGAIN! I’ve told you about the library incident!”

               Chaeyeon moves closer and wrap her arm around Sakura’s shoulder, “Ah, yes… I call that improvement, progress! Congratulations! Finally, this story is moving forward!”

               “What???”

               “I mean, you guys are speaking to each other now! That’s nice!”

               “… Chaeyeon… you really missed the point…”

               The younger girl chuckles, “No… not really… it’s a new exciting chapter in your life. In which the main character, that’s you, find her salvation in the unlikeliest of person! Ah… young love… So sweet, so tragic…”

               “What the hell! Are you seriously doing this right now???”

               Chaeyeon grins widely, “Sorry… Fujoshi’s mind never stops!”

               “Unbelievable…”

               “But seriously though, give it a thought!”, Chaeyeon smiles before she left her friend alone in her room, considering the possibilities lying ahead.

A/N: Fujoshi: Boys Love fan.