“Do you know Moki, sunbaenim?”

Joohyun looked a little bit taken aback by the sudden random question, but she shrugged her shoulders nonetheless. "Yeah. The little creature, right?"

Seulgi nodded her head, never taking her eyes away from the lake and Joohyun noticed the faraway look on her face. "Have you ever seen it with your eyes?"

Joohyun didn't say anything and Seulgi finally took her eyes away from the scenery when she noticed Joohyun's eyes on her. She turned her face to her and sent a small smile at Joohyun's questioning look.

"Back at your hometown, or even anywhere?" She continued. Joohyun shook her head no, deciding to just answer the follow-up random questions the younger girl asked out of nowhere.

"No," She answered. "I've only seen it in books."

Seulgi's smile widened at this, the kind that crinkled her eyes as she turned her face back to the lake. "Although dogs and cats sit on my top list of favorite creatures, Moki stays as the number one. They're my favorite animal."

And Joohyun wondered why Seulgi suddenly had the urge to tell her this out of the blue, but she decided not to say anything.

"Would you find it funny if I say that they're one of the reasons why I'm here, attending this academy?" Seulgi said after a beat of silence. Joohyun did not say anything so Seulgi took this as a cue for her to continue.

Her smile twitched.

"When I was a kid, I did something that I'm not proud of. A mistake, an incident that makes me think of myself as a bad person after that. My dad, he had a hard time during my slump." Seulgi let out a small dry chuckle. 

"I don't have the courage and face to play with the kids my age anymore after that incident so I spent most of my time either inside my bedroom or at my house's backyard. It was a very rough time for me, but some time after that, a Moki suddenly came to my house's backyard. It's very cute, she's very pattable! I wish you can see it directly,"

Joohyun unconsciously smiled at Seulgi's excitement. 

"But yeah. What my dad said really helps me and affects me, even until now. She never runs away from me, the Moki, and he said that it means that she knows that I'm not a threat and that really boosts my confidence in myself. That's why in the end, I decided to attend this academy to control my element." 

Seulgi sighed, shooting an apologetic smile to the girl sitting beside her. "I'm sorry, sunbaenim. You came here to see the scenery but here I am blabbering about my life problems."

Joohyun shook her head as she brought her knees together and rested her chin on top of it, eyes staring at the warm light from the sunset hitting the surface of the water. "Don't be sorry. I'm the one who told you that talking about it will help, didn't I?"

A chuckle. "You're right, thanks sunbaenim." 

Seulgi's smile subsided a little bit after a few seconds. "It's just… it's been over a month I'm away from him, and I just miss him, you know? He's the only family that I have and yeah…that day where you caught me shedding a few tears was one of those days where I got emotional thinking about him."

Joohyun let out a hum. "It's okay. I understand. I was just surprised when I caught you in that state."

"Heheh," Seulgi rubbed her nape, a little bit embarrassed as she recollected that day. Joohyun smiled a little at her chuckle.

"How about you, sunbaenim? You're in your second year, do you sometimes miss your parents?"

Maybe it was too fast for her to ask that question, Seulgi instantly thought, because the senior's face suddenly darkened. Her lips turned into a flat, thin line. The small smile that she wore vanished in a mere second.

And maybe she crossed a line with that question because the older girl suddenly stood up from her seat.

"I'm going back to my dorm."

Seulgi should have known better, should have tattooed the fact that she shouldn't bring up anything relating to that topic with Joohyun, especially when they're arguing. And what did she do exactly? She brought it up in the end. Nice job, Seulgi. Really, nice job.

The raven-haired girl hits her head a few times with her closed fist before opening her palm to grip on her hair. Her head hangs low while her elbows rest on top of the table. 

"Dude, are you okay, or should I bring you to a doctor?"

She's too into her thoughts that she didn't realize Jaebum has been staring at her since seconds ago, long enough for him to see all of that but she couldn’t care any less.

Seulgi only replies with a groan, now rubbing her palms onto her face while Jaebum puts the tray of food to the table, putting her portion in front of her. Seulgi peeks from the gap between her fingers before opening the paper bag, muttering her thanks in the process. Her movements are slow, too slow for Jaebum’s standard that his nose scrunches in annoyance.

“Forreal though, what’s up with you? you’ve been acting like this since Saturday.” He says after taking a spoonful of his rice, leg bouncing up and down under the table as he always does. He points his spoon to her face, making a circle-shaped motion with the utensil. “Those panda eyes make a comeback too.”

“Nothing..” Seulgi grumbles, pursing her lips when she realizes there’s one component of food missing from the usual menu. “No kimchi?”

“Already out of stock.”

Seulgi sends him a sharp look, in which Jaebum replies with a disbelieving look. “What? don’t look at me like that when you’re the one who made us both late.”

Seulgi sighs, unwrapping the content of the food packages to her plate. She takes a spoonful of the mincemeat and the rice, brings it to , and then chews on it slowly while her hand rests lazily back to the top of the table, all without breaking her blank stare at Jaebum’s metal tray. 

"Seulgi," Jaebum calls, but the girl doesn't pay him any attention. "Oi."

Seulgi comes out of her train of thoughts when Jaebum snaps his fingers in front of her face. 

"What?"

Jaebum looks at her tentatively as he swallows the food in his mouth. "It's because of what happened on Friday isn't it?"

Seulgi blinks a few times at him before tearing her eyes back down to her plate of food. 

"I messed up last Friday." She confesses after letting out another sigh, finally deciding to talk about it after days of dismissing Jaebum's attempts at talking about what's bothering her.

"Yeah, I figured. I can't hear from afar back then but I can tell that you were being scolded by Joohyun sunbaenim." He nods his head, waving his hand dismissively. "That's totally fine though, you can still win next time so cheer up. You look ugly like this."

Seulgi's lips twitch into a small smile at this, throwing a piece of tissue at him but it isn't long before her face turns into a sad one once more. "No, you don't get it. I said some things that crossed the line and now, things are really awkward between us. I feel awful whenever I recall what I said back then to her."

Jaebum takes another spoonful of his food into his mouth. "Well then, go apologies to her."

"You think I haven't done that?" Seulgi blows a breath out of to move her hair out of her way. "It's not that simple."

"What are you guys talking about?"

Seulgi snaps her head to her back at the familiar voice. Ready to greet the senior when she realizes she comes with a plus one, which is none other than her Water teammate. Seulgi gulps.

"Oh nothing important, just discussing our class's task." Seulgi mentally thanks Jaebum for his smooth safe while on the outside she nods her head to play along. 

"Huh," Yongsun's brow lifts in amusement at what she's hearing. "That's unusual for you guys to talk about anything relating to class."

Seulgi exchanges a look with Jaebum nervously but thankfully, the senior doesn't ponder about it too much. "Eh, anyway. I'm going to skip the lunch break later with you guys today, need to accompany this extra grumpy person beside me-" 

Yongsun lets out a yelp, probably from getting a discreet jab from Joohyun. "And my girlfriend. You know where to find me if y'all ever need me." She continues nonetheless, rubbing her back with her free hand while she uses the other to hold her empty tray of food. 

“What’s up with you guys being late though?”

“Ask her,” Jaebum replies with his mouth full, jutting his chin to Seulgi.

“I’m guessing you woke up late?” Yongsun asks, looking at Seulgi expectantly, while the latter nods her head bashfully, too embarrassed to admit it out loud. “Again?”

“I was knocking on her door for a whole 15 minutes straight.”

“-You mean BANGING on the door?” Seulgi corrects, in which Jaebum only replies with a shrug. Yongsun lets out a laugh at this, shaking her head slightly.

“You know, even I can hear you shouting distinctively from my room. Kinda becomes my daily routine to hear your loud voice every morning.”

"Tell me about it" Seulgi deadpans.

“Hah,” Jaebum lets out a chuckle, his lips tugs into a smirk. “No one ever complains to me ‘bout that.” Seulgi sends him a look. “Except her.”

Yongsun smiles the usual smile she wears before she reaches into her pocket as if she just remembered something. “Oh yeah, I got something for you.” She takes the object from her pocket, revealing a small bottle of pills to Seulgi, and then putting it down on top of the table with a thud.

“It’s vitamin D. I got it from Byul, she takes it whenever she’s having trouble sleeping too so I thought it would come in handy for you. Mayhaps it could help you with your quality of sleep and the-” She pauses, making a circular motion towards her own eyes. “dark circles under your eyes too.”

Seulgi takes it, turning it around to observe the object before nodding her face to the Fire senior. “Thank you, unnie. I think this will help me a lot.”

She looks up to Yongsun to thank her properly but her eyes accidentally fleet to Joohyun's not long after that. The latter immediately breaks their eye contact, even making the extra effort to turn her face away slightly, refusing to look at Seulgi's face and Seulgi swallows the invisible lump in , feeling the familiar tug on her chest from the guilt. 

Yongsun doesn't seem to realize the exchange between them, instead, she only pats the younger one's back at Seulgi's words.

"Yeah no problem, hope it'll help you the least bit. Anyway, I gotta go, our class is about to start." She gestures her head to Joohyun.

"Okay. See you unnie…" Seulgi darts her eyes to Joohyun who's still looking sideways as if whatever she's staring at is the most interesting thing in the world. 

"...and sunbaenim." Her voice grows smaller towards the end but it's still big enough for all of them to hear. Joohyun doesn't reply with anything, let alone spare a glance at her and it's only then that Yongsun picks up the weird air hanging around them. She doesn't have the chance to address it because her best friend's legs already kick to a walk, leaving Yongsun to catch up to her.

Seulgi heaves a deep sigh at the two figures leaving, inserting the small bottle she receives into her pocket as she turns her body again to continue her eating when she catches Jaebum's look.

"I see what you mean by awkward."

Seulgi merely nods her head. 

"Yeah…"

Seulgi never sees Joohyun at the lake again after that.

A couple of days has passed. And still, Seulgi spends her time alone at the lakeside.

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