It didn’t take long until Doyeon came back holding a tray with their food and drinks on. She slowly placed it onto the table, and sat opposite Yoojung. Doyeon quickly grabbed her coffee and took a sip; meanwhile Yoojung just stared at her silently.

Despite the fact that Doyeon had bullied her and her friends for years; now that Yoojung was alone with her, the smaller girl couldn’t help but notice how pretty Doyeon really is. Yoojung also felt like she’d seen a different side of Doyeon that day. She wasn’t being rude; she wasn’t making mean comments or calling her names. She’d just bought her a hot chocolate... None of it made sense to Yoojung.

After a few moments, and a few more sips of her coffee; Doyeon broke the silence. “Why are you staring at me?”

Yoojung blinked a couple of times, bobbing up and down with words stuttering out. “I, uh, I didn’t realize... I’m sorry.”

Doyeon chuckled and shook her head. “It’s okay, cutie.” She smirked.

“Why do you keep calling me cute and cutie?” Yoojung asked.

“Do you not like it?” Doyeon smirked, confident that she knew the answer to that.

Yoojung frowned. She wasn’t sure if she liked it or not. Sure, she enjoyed being complimented by a pretty girl but considering it was coming from her long time bully... She wasn’t so sure she could appreciate the compliments as such. The more she thought about it, the more time went away and the more awkward the situation became.

“I don’t know how to answer that,” Yoojung finally responded.

“It’s a yes or no answer,” Doyeon shrugged. Her smirk was well and truly wiped off her face.

Yoojung took a sip of her hot chocolate. “It’s hard to appreciate a compliment from someone who usually calls me a loser.”

Doyeon bit her lip. Now it was her turn to be unsure of what to say. After thinking for a few moments, she spoke. “I understand that, but maybe I want us to start on a clean slate. I thought complimenting you would be the best way to start?” Doyeon sounded uncertain of her words this was instantly noticed by Yoojung.

“Why do you sound so unsure?” Yoojung questioned.

“I’m not unsure. If I didn’t mean it, I wouldn’t have said it.” Doyeon replied shortly.

“Why are you suddenly acting like this now though, Doyeon?” Yoojung pressed. “Now that we’re paired up together, you’ve gone from being an to me to suddenly being nice? Why?”

Doyeon frowned, she had expected Yoojung to fall at her feet after she called her ‘cute,’ she didn’t expect the older girl to start questioning her and her motivates. “Maybe I just want us to get along. If we’re paired up together for however long, then isn’t it best that we get along?”

Yoojung nodded slowly, what Doyeon said did make sense to her. However, she was still suspicious of her and her friend’s motives. “What about your friends? Why aren’t they with Sohye and Nayoung? Surely, you’d want all of us to get along?”

Doyeon shrugged. “I don’t control what Jieqiong and Mina do. It’s up to them whether they want to get along with your friends or not.”

“Are you going to tell them about us coming here today?” Yoojung asked even though she had a feeling that she already knew the answer.

“No, probably not.”

“Why not? Is your ego to big?” Yoojung smirked.

“No.” Doyeon answered although Yoojung was right. The reason why she wouldn’t tell her friends is because she has too much pride to admit that she might actually like the other girl. She knew that if her friends knew that, they’d start bullying her too.

“Mhm, whatever.” Yoojung hummed as she took a bite of her brownie. “Well, thank you for the brownie and hot chocolate anyway.” She smiled trying to lighten the mood a little.

“Yeah, no problem.” Doyeon smiled back.

There it was again. The girls were sat in an awkward silence; neither of them knew what to say to the other. Both of them had several questions for the other on their mind but they were both too afraid to say them out loud; so instead they sat awkwardly looking at each other whilst sipping their drinks and eating their cakes.

“It really wasn’t me or my friends, you know?” Yoojung said out of the blue, breaking the tense silence.

“What?” Doyeon blinked, utterly confused.

“It wasn’t our parents who called the school,” Yoojung clarified. “I just wanted you to know that we’re as confused as you are about this entire situation.”

Doyeon nodded. “Maybe it was a passerby, you know someone saw us being mean to you and decided to do something about it?” Doyeon took a sip of her coffee. “Good on them, they wanted to play super hero and put us in this situation.”

“Is us being in this situation so bad?” Yoojung questioned. “Are you implying that they’re actually a villain for putting us in this situation?”

“Well, no.” Doyeon bit her lip. “Surely, you’d rather work with your friends than with me though. That’s what I meant.”

Yoojung nodded. “I would.”

“Ouch,” Doyeon said sarcastically.

“Well, would you like to be paired with someone who’s called you names for years?” Yoojung glared, not noticing the sarcasm in Doyeon’s voice.

“I was being sarcastic.”

“Whatever,” Yoojung huffed. “I should get going anyway,” she took a last sip of her hot chocolate. “I’ve got to go to Sohye’s house.” Yoojung said as she stood up and put her coat on.

“Yoojung, wait.” Doyeon reached and grabbed her arm gently, tugging at her sleeves to make her turn around to face her. “Please don’t go, not yet.” Doyeon pleaded.

“Why don’t you want me to go? We’ve both finished our drinks and have spoke about everything we want to speak about. We’ll be civil, Doyeon.” Yoojung said shortly.

Doyeon flinched at her words and sighed. “Look, I’m sorry. Okay? I’m sorry for bullying you, and I’m sorry that we’re in this uncomfortable situation. I just want us to get along; I don’t care what my friends think anymore... Because truthfully, Yoojung I’d rather be friends with you.”

Yoojung stood frozen on the spot; she couldn’t believe what Doyeon was saying. Was it genuine? Was it a lie? Was she just trying to get her to give information to her about herself and her friends just so Doyeon could use it against them? All these questions were swirling around Yoojung’s head, she wanted to ask Doyeon them but she decided better of it.

Instead, she turned around and left the cafe. Leaving a very stunned and hurt Doyeon sitting alone.