jungeun had returned to their table, but the senior wasn't there,

"she said she'd go study somewhere. probably the homeroom, why?" haseul asked, she answered with an "nothing, just.. curious," and haseul unknowingly smiles at her sheepish expression

settling on her seat, jungeun grabbed a book titled The Red Tent, one she randomly grabbed when she encountered a group of students she didn't want to interact with in the library, and read through it unattentively.

it seems like the conversation between her best friend and the freshman had not died out one bit from when she left, though both were now on a topic of supernatural beliefs and lores.

connecting her earphones, she played her playlist on shuffle, "all the back and forth getting complicated, running me around got me frustrated," it played as jungeun chuckled at her own music taste. she better stop putting sad break-up songs in her list especially when she haven't even been in a relationship before or anywhere near it.

"they say when you experience love at first sight it means in your past life you were already in love with that person," yerim explained, doing small motions with her hands

"or," hyejoo emphasised, "maybe that person is just really, really pretty that you're maniacally obsessed with their looks," jiwoo gasped piercingly

"hyejoo, you take that back," she commanded, covering yerim's ears

"okay, I take it back," it didn't even sound the slightest bit of sincere, but yerim would forgive her either way

"well, I read that when you instantly like someone it could mean that you were friends before," chaewon interrupted, eyes twinkling with amusement

"i guess that's pretty cool," hyejoo complemented, making yerim and jiwoo dramatically gasp once more

the three started bickering, chaewon not giving a damn when she's literally sandwiched in between them.

slim, big hands suddenly slammed the table, shocking most of the crowd except haseul,

"haseul, i was late for a couple of minutes and you let the kids play?!"

"correction: almost half an hour," the brunette tapped on her wrist watch, glaring at the girl, "and i will not sit here and allow myself be someone's girlfriend's babysitter!"

"i'm not even dating anyone!" she sighed nervously, sitting beside haseul

"right, cuz you both are too dense," she slightly faced jiwoo who seems to be listening to their conversation, the senior smirked

"heh," sooyoung snickered, turning her friend's head away from jiwoo with her index on haseul's cheek, "i guess you'll just have to deal with that,"

while listening, jungeun had come to like the thought of your friends teasing you about the person you like, even if it's too lowkey for jiwoo to notice. she doubt her friend ever will, you know how people with crushes always deny the fact that the person they like likes them back, right? yeah that, it's worse because they were in the same friend group and everyone but them notices..

anyways "okay, that's cute but no." jungeun thought, she doesn't even like anyone. and the idea of her friends teasing her and jinsoul was already too much for her, what more if she really did like someone?

"that wouldn't matter," she thought, because if she finally did like someone she will never tell it to a single soul.