It was 7am when the sound of Yoojung’s alarm woke her up, usually she’d groan, roll over and go back to sleep; however today, she woke up. Today was different for her. Today was the day that she would put her and her friend’s plan into action, and from today she could talk to Doyeon more without her friend’s getting suspicious.

After everything that Doyeon had said to her yesterday Yoojung was almost certain that her plan would work... Except she didn’t want to befriend Doyeon just because of her and her friend’s plan, after how Doyeon had treated her in the cafe and during the after school lesson Yoojung felt like she had seen another side to her long time bully, a softer side, one which she would like to see more often.

“How was your lesson with the loser?” Jieqiong asked Doyeon with a smirk plastered all over her face.

Doyeon looked at her friend, everything from the previous afternoon came flooding into her head. She knew she couldn’t tell her friends about the cafe or anything she said to Yoojung. She couldn’t risk them turning against her. Finally after a few moments she replied; “ugh, she’s so annoying!” she threw her hands up, as if to prove her point.

“You took a while to text us back though,” Mina commented. “Did you guys run over your time?”

Doyeon shrugged, “maybe I was just too annoyed with her to message back.” Jieqiong laughed at her answer, meanwhile Mina just hummed in response. “Anyway, we’re stuck with them again all day!” Doyeon changed the subject hoping that her friends would forget about Mina’s question.

“Ugh, I know!” Jieqiong groaned. “I’m stuck with that stone !”

This time it was Mina who went quiet which didn’t go unnoticed by Doyeon. “Mina, you’re quiet. Are you enjoying your time with Sohye?” Doyeon asked.

Mina shrugged. “Sohye hardly speaks, so why would I have an issue?”

“Uh, because she’s a loser!” Jieqiong said like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Even if she never speaks she’s still one of them, and one of them is the reason as to why we’re in this damn situation.”

“How do we know it was one of them though?” Doyeon spoke up, causing Mina and Jieqiong to look at her as if she had grown another head. “I mean, what if it was a random bypasser who wanted to play hero? We can’t blame them for something that we’re not sure of.”

“You’re defending them now? Doyeon what is wrong with you?” Jieqiong raked her hand through her hair in frustration. “Honestly, you two have gone soft.” She shook her head and walked away, leaving Doyeon and Mina frozen on the spot.

After a few moments Mina turned to Doyeon, “what really happened with you and Yoojung?”

“Nothing,” Doyeon shrugged. “What’s going on with you and Sohye?”

Mina narrowed her eyes. “Don’t turn this around on me, Doyeon. You were with Yoojung for like two hours and copying her work should only have taken you half an hour.”

“Why does it matter?” Doyeon questioned. “Why does it matter if I spent more time with Yoojung than anticipated?”

“Yoojung, are you still up for doing our plan?” Nayoung asked her friend as they walked to their first class.

“Of course!” Yoojung replied happily, before realizing how happy her tone was. “I mean, yeah. I’ll do anything to stop the bullying,” she corrected herself.

“Are you guys really sure that this is a good idea?” Sohye asked worriedly.

It was first period and the girls were sat in their seats next to their assigned partners. The tension between Nayoung and Jieqiong was thick and full of hatred, the air around Sohye and Mina was calm as neither of them had a problem with the other; meanwhile the air surrounding Doyeon and Yoojung was full of awkwardness and unspoken words. Neither Doyeon nor Yoojung knew what to say to the other after their talk yesterday.

However Yoojung knew that she had made a promise with her friends to try and befriend Doyeon, and a little part of her wanted to see the soft, honest and vulnerable side of Doyeon again; so she decided to strike up a conversation with her.

“Thanks again for the hot chocolate and stuff yesterday,” she smiled.

“Yeah, no problem.” Doyeon answered bluntly.

Yoojung sighed. After everything Doyeon had said to her yesterday about wanting to start on a clean slate, she didn’t expect her to brush her off the way she had done just then. However, Yoojung didn’t give up. Instead she tried to carry on the conversation. “The cafe was nice.”

“Mhm, it was.” Doyeon hummed in response as she wrote down her answers for the questions that the teacher had wrote on the board. “You should do your work, you know. So we don’t have to spend any more time together after school.”

Yoojung blinked. She bit her lip and tried her best not to let her emotions get the better of her. She was hurt by what Doyeon had just said and confused. ‘How can she have gone from calling me cute and taking me to little cafes to saying that she doesn’t want to spend time with me?’ Yoojung thought to herself. “Why did you take me to the cafe if you don’t want to spend time with me after class?” Yoojung questioned.

Doyeon sighed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“There’s no other way you could have meant it though,” Yoojung replied shortly.

“I’m just frustrated by this situation,” Doyeon explained. “I’m not annoyed that we have to work together, I’m just annoyed at how my friends are acting.”

“How are they acting?” Yoojung tilted her head.

“Mina just kept questioning me about yesterday, and Jieqiong is well...” Doyeon thought for a moment trying to figure out an appropriate word to describe her friend.

“A ,” Yoojung completed her sentence.

“Well yes,” Doyeon chuckled. “Though, I guess you must think I’m a too?”

“Not really,” Yoojung hummed. “I think you need to be clearer with people though about what you want. You say one thing to me and then another to your friends, that isn’t fair Doyeon.”

“I don’t want to make the bullying worse,” Doyeon tried to justify herself.

“No, you mean you don’t want to get bullied.” Yoojung said shortly. “You don’t really care about me or my friends, you just care about yourself.”

“That’s not true!” Doyeon sighed. “I do care about other people rather than just myself.”

“I’m sorry,” Yoojung sighed. Suddenly she felt bad for how she had just spoken to Doyeon, after all it’s not like they’re friends or that they know each other that well. “I didn’t mean to say that.”

Doyeon shrugged. “It’s whatever I guess.”

“Can I be the one to ask for a clean slate now?” Yoojung asked.

“Sure,” Doyeon smiled. “Let’s just be friends... But secret friends, I don’t think that either of our friends would be happy if they knew about it.”

Yoojung grinned. “Of course.”

Yoojung then began to write down answers in her work book, smiling to herself because not only had she just basically fulfilled her friends plan. She had also befriended Doyeon which meant she might be able to see her softer side again.

The only issue now was keeping it a secret from her friends.