Jeongyeon was currently sitting in her seat paying attention to her teacher talking about numbers and variables… she never really understood any of that stuff. She gave a frustrated sigh as she stared at her notes trying to write stuff down. She stopped writing for a moment and stared at the window and closed her eyes.

The softball player gave a small snort as she woke up and looked up to see that the teacher hadn’t noticed that she had been knocked out, but widened her eyes in realization that he had moved on to a completely different topic and was writing a new equation on the board. Jeongyeon looked down at her paper getting ready to write the new notes, but saw that there was another piece paper on her desk with neat and tidy notes of the last topic.

She looked around the room trying to see who had give her the notes, then she looked at the girl next to her, who was side-eyeing her, but quickly looked at the front of the room trying to make it look like she was staring at Jeongyeon. The girl had a nice jawline and the tips of her hair were a purplish tint, and her ears were different sizes, but she seemed like a sweet girl.

The tall girl wanted to give her thanks, but she needed to copy down these notes so she started scribbling down on another piece of paper.

The final bell had rung signaling that the school day had ended. Jeongyeon gave a small sigh in relief ‘Today’s a Friday… I should probably ask the girls if they want to hangout this weekend.’ While the girl was putting her stuff in her bag she saw the notes that she had been copying off of. She picked it up and was about to hand it to the girl, but she saw that she wasn’t in her desk.

Jeongyeon looked up and saw that the girl was already leaving the class room, so the softball player quickly got out of her seat and apologized as she pushed through her classmates. When she was out the classroom she saw the girl already down the hallway and whispered, “How does she move so fast?”

The tall girl pushed through the crowd of students trying to make her way to the unknown girl she thought ‘Why am I even going to this extent of giving her notes back… I can give after the weekend. Whatever I’m already chasing her down.’ She quickly walked down the flight of stairs. Momo saw the girl and waved, “Yo Jeong.”

But the older girl didn’t stop, which made the Japanese girl raise an eyebrow and followed the girl. Jeongyeon was at the entrance and spotted the girl at the main gate and ran down the steps and yelled, “Hey… wait up.”

Heads started turning towards Jeongyeon, but she didn’t care she finally caught up to the girl and placed a hand on her shoulder and was breathing heavily. The purple-tipped hair girl turned around with raised eyebrows. Jeongyeon exhaled as she lifted up a piece of paper, “You… left… your notes.”

The girl stared at the paper for a few moments, then gave a soft smile, “Oh… thanks, but I gave them to you so you could keep them.”

Jeongyeon raised her head and gave a perplexed look, “Huh?”

The girl whispered and had a smirk, “It has my number on it.”

Jeongyeon perked her head up and had a tint of red on her cheeks from the girl’s confession. The girl was beginning to walk away but the tall girl asked, “W-Wait what’s your name?”

“Luda,” she said with a big smile, “Lee Luda”

 Then she walked out of the main gate leaving a speechless Jeongyeon. Momo had finally caught up and slung an arm around the older girl, “Who was that?”

“Some girl in my class,” Jeongyeon said as she looked down on the piece of paper and noticed the numbers on the top right corner… she figured that was Luda’s number.

Nayeon had bid her farewell to her friends and looked around to make sure no one was watching and approached her two younger friends. The oldest girl saw the piece of paper in Jeongyeon’s hand and said, “What you got there Jeong?”

Jeongyeon jumped slightly as she stuffed the paper in her pocket and shook her head, “I-It’s nothing… just some notes.”

Nayeon gave a suspicious nod, while Momo glowered at the older girl and crossed her arms, “I thought we weren’t supposed to interact with kids who aren’t in our grade.”

The sophomore rolled her eyes, “I only said that so things wouldn’t be hard on us three in school, but outside of school we can hang out as much as we want.”

There were two boys walking by and one them said, “Im what are you doing hanging around these kids?”

“Oh… Taeyong,” Nayeon quickly turned around, “They were being annoying… so I had to teach this heads a lesson.”

Momo and Jeongyeon had widened their eyes at what she had just said. Taeyong gave a small smirk and held up a fist bump, which Nayeon gladly hit as she watched the two boys leave the main gate.

The oldest girl gave a small sigh as she looked at her Sophomore friends. Jeongyeon was giving a disappointed look, while Momo was fuming with anger. The Japanese girl seethed, “You broke rule #3 in the pact.”

“The Pact?” Nayeon said in confusion, then sighed in realization with what the girl was talking about, “That stupid thing? Momo we made that when we were kids.”

Momo then pointed an accusing finger at the older girl, “You signed that pact… I signed that pact. Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo… all 8 of us signed that pact.”

“Momo,” Nayeon said in an angry tone, “You’re breaking Rule #4 right now.”

“You started it by cussing,” The freshmen said.

Jeongyeon just stared at her two friends fighting, so she quickly went between them and pushed them apart, “Guys calm down… it’s not the end of the world.”

The softball player looked at Nayeon and said softly, “Apologize to Momo.”

Nayeon just stared at the girl in disbelief, but Jeongyeon was giving a stern gaze so the eldest gave a small sigh and said, “I’m sorry for cursing.”

Jeongyeon then looked at Momo, “Apologize to Nayeon.”

Momo gave a small glare and shook her head. Jeongyeon then gave a scary look, which Momo gave in and whispered, “I’m sorry Nayeon.”

The softball player gave a soft sigh and said, “Come on… it’s the weekend we should have some fun for surviving our first few days of school.”

The tall girl then wrapped Nayeon and Momo under her arms, “Let’s head back to my place… the other girls should be there.”

-

Jeongyeon, Nayeon and Momo were walking into the softball player’s backyard and saw that the rest of the girls were there sitting in the tree house or on the ground. Dahyun was in the tree house and yelled, “Looks like the high schoolers are here.”

Jeongyeon shook her head at the pale girl, while Nayeon went to the outdoor and Momo took a seat on the tire that was swinging on a tree branch. The softball player had grabbed a softball that was on the ground and was tossing it in the air.

Jihyo went up to Jeongyeon and said, “What’s up those two? Seems like they did something that they regret.”

The tall girl stopped tossing the ball and whispered, “They both got into a fight.”

“About?” The eighth grader said with a curious look

“They both broke rules in the Pact,” Jeongyeon said with a worried look.

Jihyo widened her eyes, “R-Really?”

Jeongyeon gave a small nod, while Jihyo took another look at the two girls who were giving guilty looks. Sana noticed that Momo was pulling the rubber out of the tire and had a guilty expression, so the Lacrosse player sat with Momo on the tire and asked, “So how was your first few days of high school?”

“Terrible,” Momo said quickly as she clenched her fists tighter.

That was shocking to hear from the optimistic and carefree girl, so whatever had happened really took a toll on her so Sana gave a small smile, “You want to talk about it?”

Momo looked at Sana, “Would you ever ditch your friends to be socially accepted?”

The younger Japanese girl gave a weird expression, not expecting such a sophisticated question from her older friend, so Sana tried her best with her eighth grade mind, “If you want me to be honest… yeah I would. Not to be socially accepted, but to protect them from what comes ahead when they get into the real world… you get me?”

Momo understood what the girl was saying, but still couldn’t agree, “I just… I can’t get over how someone would ditch their friends to be cool.”

Sana shrugged and leaned onto the rope with her back, “Maybe they want to protect you… who knows.”

Momo gave a small nod, then Dahyun yelled from the treehouse, “Yo Tzuyu’s outside.”

Sana had perked her head to see the younger girl and sure enough there she was with her hair in a pony tail and was carrying a soccer ball under her arms. Dahyun then yelled towards the younger girl, “Tzuyu!”

The said girl then looked at Dahyun, who was waving her hands in the air. The tall girl raised an eyebrow, then went back to kicking her soccer ball into the goal net. Dahyun gave a small pout and looked at Chaeyoung who was sitting on the railing, “She ignored me.”

Chaeyoung gave a small laugh as she drew in her sketchbook, “I would ignore you too if I met you in public.”

Dahyun gave a mocking face towards the shorter girl, then leaned over the railing and said, “Yo Sana… can you get Tzuyu over here?”

Sana furrowed her eyebrows and said, “What makes you think that I’ll be able to bring her over here?”

Dahyun gave a teasing smirk, “Well… I mean she did break your fall yesterday... and you kept staring at her when we were going back ho-“

“Ok,” Sana said quickly as she tried to get the pale girl to shut up, “I’ll go.”

“Thank you Sana Unnie,” Dahyun said in cutesy-mocking tone.

The Japanese girl rolled her eyes as she gave Momo one last smile, before she slowly made her way to the picket-fence and leaned over watching the Taiwanese girl dribble the ball between her feet.

It was mesmerizing on how Tzuyu was able to have good footwork, the way the ball had just glided across her feet and was able to kick it into the goal with perfect ease was amazing… if only Sana was like that with lacrosse. 

Tzuyu was getting the ball out of her net, when she had turned around she saw Sana standing there giving a small wave. The tall girl stood there for a second and noticed the other girls behind her so she just gave a small acknowledging nod.

Sana pouted and said, “Tzuyu you should hang out with us.”

The tall girl shook her head, “I can’t I’m practicing right now.”

The Japanese girl was about to say something, but then the backdoor of Tzuyu’s house had opened revealing a woman who was the spitting-image of Tzuyu and had her hair in a bun and started speaking in a foreign language. Sana looked at the woman and thought ‘That must be Tzuyu’s mother.’

Tzuyu argued back in the same language, but her mother gave a persistent look and spoke back in a stern voice making the younger girl sigh in defeat.

Tzuyu tossed the ball into the net and put her hands in her pocket as she walked over to the picket fence and said to Sana, “This is a one time thing.”

Sana gave the brightest smile as she watched Tzuyu hop over the fence and made her way to the group of girls. Dahyun was the first to react and said, “Wow… you actually got Tzuyu to come here… good job.”

The Japanese girl stuck her tongue out at the pale girl, then Nayeon, Momo and Jeongyeon all eyed the new girl in confusion. Sana gave a small chuckle as she looked at the high schoolers, “This is Tzuyu… she goes to our school.”

Jeongyeon gave a small nod in acknowledgement and said, “I’m Jeongyeon… I’m your next door neighbor.”

Momo then got off the tire and started to circle around the girl with mesmerized eyes, “Wow you are really tall for a middle schooler… what grade are you in?”

“Seventh,” Tzuyu said in a blunt voice.

Momo widened her eyes and looked at Jeongyeon, “Jeez you’re almost as tall as her.”

“That’s Momo,” Sana said as she tried to push the older Japanese girl away

Nayeon then made her way to the seventh grader and gave a smirk, “You’re really pretty for someone who’s in seventh grade… but not as pretty as me.”

The older girl then stuck her hand out for Tzuyu to shake, “I’m Nayeon… I live just a few doors down from your place.”

“Well now that we got introductions out of the way,” Sana said as she could see the mischievous eyes of Nayeon and stopped Tzuyu from shaking her hand, “What should we do?”

“Well,” Dahyun said as she and Chaeyoung were climbing down, “If Tzuyu wants to hang out with us… she should sign the pact.”

Hearing that word made Momo and Nayeon flinch in response, while Jeongyeon sighed in frustration. Jihyo then gave a lopsided smile sensing the awkward air, “I-It’s fine… she doesn’t have to.”

“What?” Dahyun said in disbelief, “We all had that to sign that paper… what makes her the exception?”

Jihyo didn’t know what to say to that, so she just sighed and said, “Alright Dahyun… go get the Pact.”

The pale girl smiled as she climbed up to the treehouse and make a bunch of rustling noises. Jeongyeon yelled in a stern voice, “You better not be messing something up in there.”

In a few seconds Dahyun was holding a very worn down paper that was crumpled and seemed like it had been through a lot. She handed the piece of paper to Tzuyu, who raised an eyebrow and read the title, “The Pact.”

“What is this again?” Tzuyu said holding the piece of paper up for everyone.

Jeongyeon explained, “It was a piece of paper me, Momo and Nayeon had made when were kids back in Elementary school… probably explains the crappy hand writing.”

Tzuyu had begun to read the words allowed, “Rule #1… No talking behind each other’s backs.”

“Rule #2 No drugs,” Tzuyu had to chuckle at that one and said, “Don’t you think that’s a little excessive?”

Momo shrugged, “We’re not trying to take chances.”

The tall girl had continued to read the rules, “Rule #3 No cursing.”

Momo had glared at Nayeon during that rule, which the older girl just stared at anything but at Momo at the moment. Jeongyeon shook her head at the two reminiscing at the memories those three had when making the pact… thinking that life would be great until the end, but clearly not.

“Rule #4 No fighting with each other.”

Nayeon had glared at Momo this time, who glared with the same intensity. Jeongyeon shook her head as she slapped the both of their heads and whispered, “Stopping glaring and listen.”

“Rule #5 Always Stay as friends till the end.”

This is the one rule Jeongyeon wanted Momo and Nayeon to here… the rule that let them stay friends until now. Those three had been friends for a long time and it wasn’t going to end over some stupid fight. Momo gave a soft sigh, while Nayeon had blushed in embarrassment. 

“Lastly,” Tzuyu said in a monotone voice, “Rule #6 Always follow the rules of this pact.”

Then the tall girl looked at the bottom of the page and noticed a few signatures, which Jihyo said, “Those are our signatures. Once you sign it… there’s no turning back.”

Tzuyu looked at the eight girls standing or sitting around staring at her. She had never felt so much pressure in her life, but not the same pressure as the finals for soccer. She shook her head trying to get rid of that memory. 

She looked down at the piece of paper, then gave one last sigh and said, “You got something I can write with?”

All of the girls had stared at her for a few minutes, surprised that blunt and cold girl had her had wanted to join their friend group. Jihyo gave a big smile as she grabbed a pen out of her back pocket and handed it to the girl.

Tzuyu pulled cap off with and started to sign her name on the piece of paper, after handing it to Jihyo everyone had crowded around the girl to see Tzuyu’s signature.

Sana had read aloud the girl’s signature, “Chou… Tzuyu?”

The Japanese girl looked up, “I thought your last name was Kim?”

“That’s my step dad’s last name,” Tzuyu said, “Chou is my real last name and I prefer it the most.”

“Well girls,” Jeongyeon said as she gave the biggest smile, “Looks like we’re celebrating tonight.”

Dahyun and Chaeyoung had tried to get their arms around Tzuyu’s shoulders but they couldn’t reach it so instead they jumped on her, which startled the tall girl as she tried to get the two other seventh graders off of her.

Sana and Mina were sitting on the tire now just giggling at the younger girls. Jeongyeon had walked out of her house holding a bunch of sodas, which Jihyo had gladly grabbed and took a sip out of, “You think Tzuyu was a good addition to our friend group.”

Jeongyeon shrugged, “She seems ok… maybe she’ll open up slowly.”

Jihyo gave a small nod as she continued to watch Tzuyu finally take Chaeyoung and Dahyun off of her and started to ruffle their heads with immense strength with an angry look. The volleyball player gave a small chuckle taking another sip from her soda can, “Yeah… she might be a good addition.”

Jihyo then asked, “Where’s Nayeon and Momo.”

The softball player gave a small shrug, then widened her eyes when she saw Dahyun grab one of her bats and was chasing the tall girl with it, “Dahyun stop… don’t break my bat.”

Jihyo gave a small giggle as she spotted Nayeon and Momo sitting in the tree house watching the sunset.

Nayeon gave a small sigh, “I’m really sorry Momo… I know how much that Pact means to you and I straight up disrespected it.”

Momo gave a small shrug, “It’s fine… I get why you don’t like it… you’re too old for that kind of stuff. We all are… I guess maybe I should grow out of it.”

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Nayeon said staring at the sunset, “I’m not saying that you should abandon that mentality… it’s just,” the older girl looked at Momo with sincere eyes, “I’m trying to protect you and Jeongyeon from the harsh realities of high school.”

“High school is harsh,” Nayeon said, “And I don’t want you two to go through with what I went through,” then looked at the other girls messing around, “and I want you to protect those girls as well.”

Momo gave a small nod as she continued to stare at the sunset, then Nayeon said, “Plus I don’t want to break rule #5 of the pact.”

The Japanese girl gave a small nod as she looked , then without any warning Nayeon had kissed the Japanese girl on the lips, which had shocked Momo, but eventually relaxed into it. Nayeon opened her eyes quickly realizing what she was doing and backing away, “Don’t say a word about this.”

She quickly got up from her spot and tried making her way back to the ladder and bumped into Jeongyeon who noticed her distressed and flustered look, “You good?”

“Y-Yeah,” Nayeon said quickly as she went around the younger girl and climbed down the treehouse.

Jeongyeon walked over to Momo who was sitting there frozen and staring at the sun, “There’s drinks on the table if you want some.”

The Japanese girl had blinked for a few seconds, then gave a weird smile, “Yeah… I-I’ll head down there.”

Momo got up as she walked past the older girl, feeling a weird vibe coming off from the girl. Once Jeongyeon could see that Momo had gone down, she collapsed onto the floor and leaned her back onto the wall of the treehouse and gave a shaky sigh as a tear fell down her cheek.

The softball player had seen the whole thing transpire… Momo and Nayeon kissing was ingrained into her brain. She had never felt so such a twisting pain in her chest, not even when she got hit in the chest by a bat. 

She stared at the sun beginning to disappear behind the horizon… disappearing like her hope for Nayeon liking her back.