Chapter synopsis: Chorong tries to cope with the pain but like the mess she currently is, makes bad decisions along the way. Bomi gets drunk as hell at the post-midterms party.

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With her heart in pieces and tears streaming down her cheeks, Chorong carries herself to a room recently getting more and more familiar to her – Eunji’s. When the younger girl opens her door and sees the state Chorong is in, she can only assume what has happened. She immediately pulls Chorong into the room with a hug, closing the door in the process and they stand there for a few minutes. Eunji softly caresses Chorong’s hair and she wants to tell her that it’s okay, but she doesn’t actually know that, so she doesn’t say it. Chorong is sobbing now, and her hands grip onto Eunji’s white t-shirt, her face in the crook of Eunji’s neck, and the latter just stands there, letting Chorong’s tears dampen her shirt. Chorong stays in her room for an hour, give or take, before she splashes cold running water onto her face in Eunji’s bathroom and returns to her room.

The wedge between Chorong and Bomi’s friendship helps the former when Bomi barely looks at Chorong in their room, so she doesn’t notice the pink rims of her round eyes. Chorong doesn’t know how she would lie about that. She washes up and gets into her bed without saying anything, it has become a routine over the past week, moving around their room silently. This will be over soon enough, Chorong tells herself, but she feels her chest tighten under the blanket. It’s a feeling she’ll have to get used to if she’s going to constantly lie to herself, brainwashing her feelings for Bomi to disappear.

They’ve never felt further apart from each other, yet Chorong still feels safe enough to sleep when Bomi turns the lights off later that night. She doesn’t notice it, neither of them do, but both of them share the same sense of security.

//

“So, I’ll see you tonight, right?” Yongsun asks with a smile on her face.

“What’s happening tonight?” Chorong rubs her eyes and frowns slightly.

“The post-midterms party, remember? Byulyi said Bomi’s gonna be there, so I thought you’d be going too.”

Oh.

“Right, yeah, I’ll see you tonight,” Chorong knows that a party where alcohol and Bomi are going to be is definitely not what her emotional state needs, but it sounds enough of a distraction to her and that’s exactly what she wants. She was in the phase right after a breakup where life was all messed up, like her life was in a precious snow globe, and the act of breaking up with Changsub vigorously shook her globe into a wreck. Chorong was going through the phase of emotional instability and possible trail of bad decisions - going to the party possibly being the first one.

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Chorong arrived at the party in hopes that it would distract her from Bomi. Her plan proving itself to be harder than she imagined, what with Naeun clinging onto Bomi the whole time they’ve been in the common room. Chorong grimaces then takes a sip from the red cup she had in hand. She watches Bomi very intentionally stop the spinning bottle in Naeun’s direction and the couple proceeds to make out, earning cheers from the spectators around them. Spin the bottle, what a stupid game. Chorong momentarily remembers the first (and only) time Bomi kissed her. She downs the rest of her drink and feels the vodka burn the back of , almost tearing up from it. Chorong shuts her eyes to get over the brief high, but it only paints the image of their kiss more vividly this time. Was that perhaps the start of her awakening? When Bomi kissed her and she let her thoughts run wild? Chorong’s epiphany is interrupted when a hand lands on her shoulder. She opens her eyes, it’s Eunji.

“I’m exhausted, will you be okay if I leave first?”

“Of course, Meung, what do you take me for?” Chorong chuckles slightly, leaning her back against the wall. Chorong sneezes. Does alcohol make you sneeze? She’ll have to Google that later.

“God bless you! See you when I see you,” Eunji returns the chuckle then she leaves.

Namjoo’s alcohol tolerance is way lower than her hyper character may suggest, so Hayoung had to safely transport her back to their room way earlier (like at most parties), meaning Chorong was left in the party with no friendly supervision – excluding Bomi because that girl was evidently distracted.

Chorong needed a better distraction, stat, and just then, like the heavens heard her, a boy approaches and stands in front of Chorong with a drink in his hand. Her eyes flutter up at him, she recognises Eunkwang, and notices how close he was, the little space between them already saying more than his actual words. The smell of alcohol wafted out from Eunkwang, and Chorong figures this is good enough of a distraction, so she doesn’t push him away like she would’ve if this happened more than a week ago.

“Hey,” Eunkwang starts. His tone of voice suggests that he isn’t that drunk, maybe just tipsy.

“Hey,” she says back, her eyes averting to the ground. This felt... foreign, in a sense. When she was with Changsub, boys didn’t approach her anymore - respectful ones at least. So, being cornered up against a wall at a party like this felt new to the class president. She wasn’t going to reject it though, not when Eunkwang was all she could see in this moment, blocking the line of sight Chorong had of Bomi with Naeun. He must’ve heard that Changsub and her broke up, since he’s in the same class as Changsub.

“I heard you’re single now,” he says. There it is, just as Chorong thought. “You’re here alone?” Eunkwang steps a tiny bit closer, and half of Chorong’s mind thinks it might be a little too close.

This might’ve been the second bad decision.

“Yeah,” Chorong’s voice is small but still heard. She looks down into her empty red cup and subconsciously holds it slightly higher in front of her as if to create some physical barrier between her and Eunkwang. Was she accepting his advances or not? She didn’t know yet, but she hasn’t made an excuse to leave, so she thinks she wants to stay.

A breakup hits differently for different girls. Some get a new hairdo