Hyewon and Yena clambered up to Chaeyeon’s side as soon as they saw her walking to the corridor of their classroom. Chayeon was confused but dismissed it as just one of her friends’ idiosyncrasies. The two ushered the youngest inside the room, walking by her side as if they were some sort of bodyguards.

“What’s wrong with you two? Why are you so shifty?” asked Chaeyeon as they arrived at their usual seats in the third row beside the air conditioning unit. She noticed that Hyewon took the seat beside her instead of her usual seat to Yena’s right.

“Why are you sitting there?” said Chaeyeon, eyebrows knitted in confusion.

“I need the cold air.” Hyewon shrugged.

“You hate the cold,” Chaeyeon remarked as she eyed the unit, which was blowing cold air directly onto Hyewon’s head.

“It was really hot outside,” explained Hyewon, trying to fight off the shiver that’s threatening to come out.

“You’re being weird—even weirder than you already are.” Chaeyeon gave her a suspecting look as she handed Hyewon her jacket. “Use this when you get cold.”

Hyewon thanked the younger girl and held onto the jacket. She figured she’d just use it later to avoid suspicion. She’s so glad that her friend is so good-natured, which makes her all the more guilty for withholding the truth of why she and Yena are acting like some sort of goons around her.

A few moments have passed and Yena and Hyewon saw Sakura entering their classroom. They saw the Japanese girl look around briefly and then smile faintly when her eyes landed on Chaeyeon. Hyewon and Yena shared an alarmed look over Chaeyeon’s head. It’s a good thing Chaeyeon was busy reviewing her notes to notice the sheer horror in her two friends' faces when they realized that Sakura was on her way to sit on the armchair behind Chaeyeon’s.

Hyewon whipped out her phone and typed a message to Yena that said “We’re so stupid. We should’ve asked Yujin to sit in today so we’d have max security.”

Yena replied, “No use. We can’t ask Yujin to sit in until the sem ends anyway. We just have to accept the beating we’re gonna get when Chaeyeon finds out.”

Hyewon sighed and typed in her reply. “. She’s gonna kill us. At least Sakura isn’t approaching her yet. She seems chill.”

Yena side-eyed Sakura and almost gasped when she noticed that the girl was playing their favorite game on her Switch. She quickly sent a text to Hyewon saying “SHE’S PLAYING AC. Would be totes cool if Chaeyeon dated her. We’ll have a new AC buddy.”

Before Hyewon could reply, their professor arrived. They had a whole discussion about Machiavelli’s The Prince. Eve