Chapter 1

 

"Chaewonie, look!" Yuri ran ahead of her bestfriend as they walked to school, looking back at her with a wide smile on her face.

 

"Hm?" the short-haired girl stopped to observe her friend, her eyebrows furrowed.

 

"Smiling practise! You think I can make friends if I smile like this?" she widened her smile even further... to the point that it looked way too forced and unnatural.

 

Chaewon smiled, but shook her head as she walked on ahead. "Probably not, Yul." she said, without missing a beat.

 

Chaewon and Yuri have been friends since they were kids - they met in primary school and have been close ever since. Their personalities were polar opposites, but somehow, they balanced each other out.

 

That day, they were to start another chapter of their lives together - their first day of high school.

 

"At least give it some thought before you answer!" Yuri pouted before jogging after Chaewon. "Making friends is important, y'know. We're in high school now."

 

"Maybe so - but you shouldn't force yourself."

 

"I'm not! It's the most important if you want to have a happy three years to come!"

 

"Eh?"

 

"I'd rather die than live a lonely high school life!" Yuri turned towards her, and flailed her arms dramatically - disturbed by the thought of being a loner in school.

 

The short-haired girl looked at her friend with a blank stare. "Then instead of practising smiles, you should think about things to talk about, right?" 

 

"Oh." Yuri paused. "You've got a point. What's trendy right now?"

 

"Oh, I don't know much either, so I can't help you there."

 

"Don't say that. Just-"

 

Mid-conversation, they were interrupted by a flying soccer ball as they walked past a neighbourhood park.

 

And it Yuri right in the face.

 

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"Oh, this is great! We made it!" Yuri exclaimed, excitedly walking into their new school building.

 

"What do you mean 'great'? We barely made it."  Chaewon sighed, exhausted at the extreme brisk-walking that they had to do to get to school in time.

 

"Well, considering what happened back there... I'd consider us not missing the opening ceremony pretty good." 

 

"Mhm, I wonder who put us in this position?"

 

Yuri averted her eyes and chuckled nervously, thinking back at what happened approximately half an hour ago.

 

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"Hey!" Yuri exclaimed in annoyance, putting her bag down and turning towards the direction of the children who didn't even seem to care that they've hit someone with their ball. "Watch it."

 

"Eh? Just kick it back, unnie!" One of the kids nonchalantly replied back, not even bothering to apologise.

 

Yuri could feel herself getting angrier. She took a step towards the kids and-

 

"Hey, she's kind of scary..." 

 

She stopped and saw two girls standing by - they were wearing the same uniform as them and looked about the same age.

 

"This is bad." she thought, scenarios playing in her head of rumours about how scary she was going around. No one wants to befriend a violent girl with anger issues!

 

"Oh... Oh, I was just catching your ball... with my face. Don't worry - I got it!" Instead of getting angry further, Yuri positioned herself so she can kick the ball back to the children.

 

"I used to play a lot in middle school, so you better watch out!" she boasted - hoping that the girls would think she was cool instead. They would probably - if only it weren't a lie. "They wouldn't know, psh." she thought.

 

"This is how a pro does it." She then kicked the ball... and ended up breaking a nearby house's window.

 

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"Just be thankful the people that lived there were nice." Chaewon eyed her best friend, as they reached the floor of their classrooms. "Those boasting lies of yours are gonna get you in trouble one day, y'know..."

 

"Mhm." Yuri looked down to the ground.

 

"Ok, this is me." Chaewon stopped in front of her classroom.

 

"Come on - don't be nervous. You'll be making friends with that smile, right?"

 

"Yes!" Yuri smiled, encouraged by her friend's words.

 

"I'll see you after school, Yul." The short haired girl pat her best friend's head before making her way into her classroom.

 

Yuri released a breath, and started to walk a little further down the hallway.

 

"This is it. The high school life I've always dreamt of." She bit her bottom lip nervously as she stopped by her classroom door.

 

She reached for the door handle and let herself in.

 

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Yuri was upset she wasn't in the same class as Chaewon - everyone in her class were already clumped in small groups, chatting and getting to know each other.

 

She sat awkwardly in her seat in the middle of the classroom, observing the way her classmates were divided.

 

Where would she even fit in? Would her smile even be enough to make friends at this rate?

 

A little while later, she took notice of a brunette girl that sat on the far right of the classroom alone - she had cute charms attached to her school bag.

 

'Maybe I should...'  she thought, looking down at her fingers on her desk. "Hey, your charms-" she started to call out.

 

"Oh my god, Sian!" Another girl walked into the room, towards the brunette. It seemed that they knew each other previously - possibly from middle school.

 

"Jang Gyuri!" The girl - Sian - exclaimed, a wide smile on her face. "It's been a while. How's it going with your girlfriend?"

 

"Oh, I've broken up with her - I'm dating someone new now, and she's amazing. How about you? Are you still dating the same girl from last year - did you get up to anything together during the break?"

 

'Oooh, they have girlfriends.' Yuri thought to herself. Times really were different nowadays.

 

She'd never really thought about relationships or fell in love yet so she wouldn't know - but girls were cute and nice, she'd probably date them too if given the chance at all.

 

"Yeah, I am! She took me somewhere really romantic." Sian boasted with a proud smile on her face as she explained the details. "She's a model, so she can take me to really nice places..."

 

"Mine is a Kpop trainee! She's going to be debuting soon - but she told she wouldn't leave me." Gyuri boasted right back. "So romantic, right? She said she didn't want to succeed without me by her side."

 

There seemed to be a competitive vibe going around between the two that Yuri noticed from the beginning, but she guessed that that was how the friendship between the two worked.

 

She paused.

 

Maybe she should say that she had a boyfriend - she really wasn't sure about her preferences yet at that point so-

 

"Girls are way better than boys, right? I used to date boys before, but being with girls is way better! Girls know exactly what girls want - and they're much more romantic too!"

 

"Totally agree!"

 

-or not. Girlfriend it was.

 

"Really? That's it? You girls get excited over the smallest things." Yuri smirked, a nervous sweat building up through her facade as the desperate lie escaped her lips. She sat confidently with her arms crossed, catching the attention of the other two girls.

 

"My girlfriend used to be a massive bully - she beat people up a lot, but then she softened up because of me..." she started, and the lies just kept pouring out. She never knew how it got to that point, but it did. Maybe it was the desperation - the absolute need to avoid her eventual doom as a loner in high school.

 

She just wanted to fit in; she wanted to make some friends and live an enjoyable three years in high school. That was all that she wanted.

 

She watched as her classmates ate up her lies about her absolutely amazing girlfriend, and she could just feel the weight gradually increasing on her shoulders, and that sinking feeling at the pit of her stomach.

 

This was possibly the biggest lie she'd ever made - how long would she be able to keep it up?  She didn't know. It shouldn't be too difficult finding a girlfriend before her friends start wondering if she was lying, right?

 

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2 months later

 

"Oh, my darling is calling!" Yuri exclaimed, as her phone rung mid-conversation with her friends. She stepped out of the classroom quickly as she answered it and ran to the female's restroom on the floor she was on.

 

"My darling!" she opened the door, and there stood Chaewon with an annoyed look on her face, and her phone to her hear.

 

"My darling?" she questioned with a glare.

 

Yuri then grabbed her bestfriend by the arm and took her into one of the cubicles.

 

"How long are you going to keep up with this lie, Jo Yuri? My phone bill last month skyrocketed because of you." Chaewon sighed and leaned against the door of the cubicle.

 

"Sorry, Chaewonie! I'll pay you back, I promise!"

 

Chaewon shook her head, and tucked her phone back into her skirt pocket. "You don't have a girlfriend. You've never even been on a date - do you even like girls? What are you going to do, Yul?"

 

"All my friends talk about are their girlfriends... I'd be kicked out of the group if they found out I've been lying!"

 

"You don't have anything in common with them. Why force yoursef to be with them?"

 

"I know... but the rest of the group has already grouped up. If they kick me out, I'll have nowhere to go, Chaewonie!" Yuri exclaimed dramatically, tugging onto her best friend's blazer. 

 

"What a pain." Chaewon sighed as she pried the other girl's hands off of her.

 

"Anyway, I just have to see the lie through! If I don't..."

 

Suddenly, they heard the restroom door open, and two familiar voices were heard - the two immediately shut up and listened in.

 

"Yeah, I thought so too... Yuri's girlfriend?" Sian agreed, taking out a lipstick from her pocket and re-touching the tint on her lips.

 

"Makes you wonder what the truth is, doesn't it?"

 

Yuri could feel the bile rise up from her stomach as she heard what her friends were talking about - it seemed that they were already doubting her after all.

 

"Yeah, I've never even seen her before." 

 

"You too?"

 

"I asked her to show me a picture - she says she doesn't have any. She said her girlfriend didn't like her photo getting taken..."

 

"When I ask to meet her, she always changes the subject."

 

"Yeah, it seems more likely."

 

"She's so lying about having a girlfriend."

 

Yuri let out a breath, reaching over to grasp onto Chaewon's blazer again.

 

This time, the short-haired girl didn't pry her best friend's hands away.

 

"Everything she says and does make it so obvious." Gyuri started as she turned off the tap. "Those calls she gets everyday are probably arranged too."

 

"Totally."

 

They heard the restroom door open and then close again, as the two girls went out.

 

Chaewon sighed as she took the hands grasped onto her blazer into hers, squeezing  them gently to comfort her friend. "I guess a lie like that couldn't last long."

 

Yuri was having an internal crisis, all the dreadful scenarios playing through once again in her head. "Not good... They're gonna find out. They'll kick me out - and I'll be alone!"

 

"Calm down, Yul." Chaewon held onto her friend's shoulders to keep her still. "If you really badly need a girlfriend then-" she started, a faint blush on her cheeks.

 

But Yuri knew that she had to do something. She had to do something fast.

 

"I'm sorry, Chaewonie - I have to go!" Yuri interrupted mid-sentence, not even realising what her best friend was trying to say. She needed to think this plan through - she couldn't get caught! She just couldn't.

 

She stepped ran out of the restroom in record time, leaving her best friend baffled and blushing inside the cubicle.

 

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Yuri ended up walking home alone that day - unfortunately, Chaewon had some club activities she had to take care of so she had to stay back a little bit. 

 

She sounded a little nervous on the phone, but Yuri didn't think much of it and thought that she probably was just under a lot of pressure with her school and club work. Chaewon was the overachiever type, after all.

 

'That's