Jeongyeon didn’t like this idea from the start – it was bad enough that she had to participate in unpaid labour for two months, but she had to go to school as well, she knows they’ll eventually be told to come along for a service or two, something she was not looking forward too.

‘Well, this is mostly my own fault, I have to deal with the consequences’

She had followed Nayeon in a relatively comfortable silence this whole time, both presumably occupied in their own thoughts – Jeongyeon thought she was interesting – there was something about Nayeon that made her different, maybe it was her pure curiosity of things outside her comfort zone, maybe it was her strong persistence, Jeongyeon doesn’t know.

But what she does know is that it doesn’t matter how interesting Nayeon becomes to her, she can’t get too close to her, Jeongyeon knows she isn’t the type of person Nayeon should be around.

“And here we” Nayeon’s cheerful voice brings Jeongyeon back to reality “It’s nothing special but it gets the job done”

“I can tell” she chuckles in response “The library looks huge”

Nayeon grins widely, and it makes Jeongyeon smile as well. She leads the delinquent to the door with a light skip.

‘She’s too good Jeongyeon, way too good’

The inside was beautiful, shelves upon shelves of literature, textbooks story books encyclopaedias galore, no matter what genre or purpose for reading business or leisure, the library looked like it could cater to all – truly a bookworm’s utopia. 

“You can get lost in here Yoo – so don’t wander too far”

Jeongyeon stops in her tracks, clearly confused “Wander? You’re letting me off the leash?”

“You’re not a dog, and I don’t expect you to want to watch me study”

It was true, watching another person study with nothing to add to it was quite boring in theory, Jeongyeon was thankful she had the option of escaping, hell, if it was anyone else she would have already gone and taken the opportunity to leave.

“I…Well I…I think I should at least know where you’re going to be… if I do decide to venture… that is I might not so – so if I do get lost I have a vague idea of where you’re going to be… if I leave, that is…”

Nayeon laughs, it makes Jeongyeon’s cheeks heat up because Nayeon is obviously laughing at the poor excuse of a sentence that had just left .

“There’s no need to be so polite, you can even leave if you want”

There’s an eyebrow raise “Leave? Why would I do that – and leave you bored in your dull lecture later on, it would rude of me to leave you, for you to go through the day without my comedic genius”

Feeling the church girl’s hand on her shoulder as she pushes her in amusement has become a newfound familiarity to Jeongyeon. She doesn’t like that.

“You’re so weird Yoo, fine come to my table, and if you do decide to venture, you will know where to return to”

Jeongyeon grins.

“Sure thing”

-----------------

Lunch is the only reason Chaeyoung would even think about going to school in the first place, and for all the privilege this dumb private school would wave around in her face she was expecting a gourmet meal.

‘But this…’ she scowls at the plate in front of her ‘this is pig food’

Even the sloppiest burger at the high school was better than this fake fancy food

She took her fork and played with the barley cooked rice, watching the other girls at the table, since Sana was nowhere to be seen Mina had graciously offered to let Chaeyoung sit with her group of friends.

“They’re nice, I promise” is what she said.

Of course it would be much better if Chaeyoung sat alone, but it was an offer and she wasn’t going to reject it.

And they were nice for the most part. Park Chaeyoung aka Rosé was pretty sweet, maybe too sweet but Chaeyoung guesses it comes with the whole church girl thing, then there was Miyawaki Sakura, she had watched her converse with Mina about games for a good while, and Seo Soojin who looked like she could kill you with her stare alone. All in all, quite nice as Mina said

It would be a lot better if they stopped staring at her like devil horns were sprouting from her head though. Well in their case she probably had them already.

“Is there something on my face?” She asked after a while.

Chaeyoung thought her tone was quite polite actually, but the synchronised flinches said otherwise.

“It’s just that, uhm” Rosé trails off with a nervous giggle, and Chaeyoung’s patience was wearing thin.

“Yes, spit it out”

Another nervous giggle, this time accompanied by a twirl of the hair “With Shownu today, was that true? That you kicked him out of his seat”

Chaeyoung furrows her brows

‘News sure spreads fast around here’

“Yeah, I did. What of it?”

There’s hushed whispering and it makes her eyebrow twitch, she looks at Mina for any sort of explanation but she can only shrug and mouth ‘sorry’.

“Shownu’s parents help with school funding, which means he can do what he wants, he can get you in a lot of trouble” Soojin folds her arms

“Okay…And?”

Sakura twiddles with her fingers, avoiding eye contact “So you don’t care, about getting in trouble I mean”

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes “I’m going to ask you a question”

The three nod

“Now you guys think really hard about this, okay. If cared about getting in trouble – if I gave a single – would I be here right now?”

Of course it takes a while for them to decide if it’s even a good idea to answer or not, but they didn’t get the chance too because the man in question was walking up to Chaeyoung right now. He had brought a couple of friends this time, an entourage for sure.

‘I just can’t catch a break here can I?’

“Can I help you?”

Shownu’s face just has livid written all over it.

“I don’t appreciate the way you spoke to me this morning”

“Okay”

“So I’m asking for an apology”

“Let me think. No. Maybe you should just mind your own business next time”

“I beg your--”

Chaeyoung starts laughing, hard. She’s slamming her hand on the table and it makes Shownu even angrier

“What’s so funny?”

“Oh my God… should I say that here? Probably not” She gets up and tucks her chair under the table with a harsh kick, making direct eye contact “I cannot believe you, ‘I beg your pardon’, what a joke”

Now, saying that was probably a bad idea, from Shownu’s body language he would love nothing more than to punch Chaeyoung square in the face right now, of course she’d love to give him the shock of his life but she knows she can’t.

‘If there’s even one major incident, just one, sorry but you’re going to find yourself in the detention centre for a good while Chaeyoung’

“I don’t see how that’s funny in any way”

“It’s funny because you’re such a hypocrite, don’t try and act polite now – you’re the one that said no one needs to be around me – so I have to ask, why the are you here, leave, be gone ”

Chaeyoung goes to sit back down but gets snatched by her arm

“Don’t talk to me like that. I’ll, I’ll--”

“I don’t give a flying who you are or what you do, get your hands off me”

“Or what?”

“You wanna find out pretty boy?”

A gentler, softer hand touches Chaeyoung’s own, separating the two.

“That’s enough you two” Mina’s soft voice was ripping Chaeyoung back to reality “You should sit down Son, your foods getting cold”

She takes up her bag and starts walking out, slamming the door open whilst doing so

“I’m not hungry”

-----------------------

Once again Jihyo is at a crossroads, and once again it’s because of Minatozaki Sana.

She doesn’t want to look like her father’s puppet once more, but did she really want to seem like she was falling right into Sana’s plans. Both options were pretty bad, but she has to pick the lesser of two evils.

“I’m not immersed in someone else’s obsession Minatozaki, this is how I’ve chosen to live my life – there are some things I can do and some things I can’t, even if I miss out on those it will all be worth it in the end”

At least, that’s what her parents always say…

‘Don’t be down Jihyo, that song wasn’t good for you, I don’t want you getting these bad ideas and influences, it will be worth it in the end – now come give mom a hug’

‘Ji-Ji, I know you liked that show, but we can’t have you watching things that are of the devil, this is a spiritual battle don