Before there was Joy, there was Sooyoung, and Sooyoung loved Sungjae. He was the cool older guy who took her on adventures but also protected her from speeding cars as they crossed the street, hand-in-hand. He was tall for his age and had a loud mouth that threatened to call his parents when the neighbourhood bullies so much as glanced in their direction, and Joy thought that it didn’t matter what her parents said—her Sungjae oppa was the ideal man. She truly believed that he was her Prince Charming.

            Wendy was unexpected. She was a pleasant surprise. Whereas Sungjae and Joy were placed neatly next to each other from the moment they could recognize faces, Wendy was the one who dropped from the sky and wriggled her way into their lives. Quite literally.

            The Korean natives became friends by means of their parents, who were college friends and business partners for a reputable mid-sized food distribution company in Korea. The children were often dropped off at each other’s house as the respective parents did the executive duties for the day, so it was safe to say that anyone who met Sungjae and Joy were always presented with a one-plus-one deal that couldn’t quite be turned down, because Joy, until the age of seven, cried whenever someone tried to separate her from her best friend. Sungjae automatically developed a protective instinct for the girl, offering to stay with her until she fell asleep and her parents could take her home, even at a young age.

            The only Canadian member of the trio flew into the country and into their lives when Sungjae was ten and Joy was nine. While Sungjae’s parents treated Joy like their literal daughter, having only a son, Wendy was their goddaughter sent to live with them for a Korean education while her parents saved up enough money overseas for her college expenses to come. Joy had been skeptical to accept her at first, threatened by the presence of another girl who could potentially take her existing best friend away, but nobody in their right mind could possibly hate the optimistic, soft-hearted Korean-Candian.

            They had never been separated since.

            “Oppa!” Joy tugged at Wendy’s arm as they made their way to Sungjae’s room. Sungjae and Wendy were on the second floor, while Sungjae’s parents took the master bedroom on the first floor. “Oppa, we need your help!”

            Sungjae launched himself out of his bedroom, looking at the two twelve year olds with wide, concerned eyes. “What? Who is it? Tell me what to do!”

            Wendy at Joy glanced at each other in surprise at his explosive appearance before bursting out laughing. He saw that they were okay, slumping his shoulders in relief, and beckoned them forward. “You scared me. I thought I had to beat someone up.”

            The Canadian scanned her godbrother from head to toe. “I know you’re tall, but you’re so lanky that you’d probably lose.”

            Sungjae puffed his chest out excessively. “I’ll let you know that no guy in my grade has beat me in arm wrestling!”

            “Yeah, but that doesn’t include all the other boys though,” Joy observed smartly. She then gave a sweet smile to her older best friend. “But I know you’ll protect us.”

            “Dang right,” Sungjae replied, taking care not to swear in front of his friends. “So what did you need me for?”

            “Oh!” Wendy exclaimed. She grabbed his arm and led him into his bedroom with Joy. “Sooyoung has to tell you something.” Both of them turned to Joy as Wendy nudged her.

            Joy nodded and held both their hands. “I’m gonna use an English name from now on.”

            Sungjae raised his eyebrows. “What’s wrong with Park Sooyoung?”

            “Nothing.” Joy tilted her head in thought. “But Wendy uses her English name, and it’d be cool if we all had one.”

            Wendy nodded enthusiastically next to her.

            “But,” Joy continued, “I’m not sure what name I wanna use. So maybe you and Wendy can brainstorm. She and I’ll come up with your name.”

            “Pshh,” Sungjae said, waving his hands. “That’s lame. I don’t need one.”

            “But we need to match!”

            “You two can do that.” He hummed, tapping his finger on his chin. “What would be a good name for Sooyoung?”

            The girls forgot about convincing him as they threw out ideas. Most of them were generic English names: Tiffany, Jessica, Michelle, Sally, Victoria, Ashley, Rachel, Esther, Jenny, Jamie, Julia, Nicole—

            “Okay, no! All of those are too boring.” Sungjae pressed his lips together. “I’ve seen those names too many times whenever someone at the hagwon has to come up with an English name.”

            “Then what do you suggest?”

            “Maybe Krystal?”

            Wendy scrunched up her nose. “My annoying neighbour’s name was Krystal.”

            “Never mind then.”

            Joy pouted. “How do people do this?”

            Wendy gave her a pointed look. “Well, generally, the parents name their children, so people don’t have to worry about this.”

            “Still…”

            “Well,” Sungjae drawled out, “why don’t we choose a name that shows who Sooyoung is?”

            The girls stopped sulking, nodded, and grabbed a piece of paper, rapidly bouncing Joy’s characteristics off each other as Sungjae wrote them down. Most of them were positive things: happy, sweet, smart, observant, pretty, nice. Sungjae held up the paper to scan through the list.

            “Hey, I thought of something.” He paused, looking at each of the expectant girls’ faces. “How about Joy?”

            “Joy?”

            “Yeah, Joy.” Sungjae smiled. “Sooyoung’s so bright and she makes everyone happy, so I think it’s perfect.” He pursed his lips, waiting for his friends’ approval. “What do you guys think?”

            Wendy beamed. “I like it!” She turned to her friend, testing out the name. “Joy. Joy! Joy? Joy!”

            Joy laughed softly at her antics and gave the two of them a thumbs up. “Joy it is!”

            After Sooyoung, there was Joy, and Joy had the two greatest friends one could ever ask for. The godsiblings were bright, positive influences for her, and their presence made Joy worth her namesake. She would keep them forever, she thought, as she watched them banter playfully about making a paper airplane from their list. If the world ever ended, she would pray that these two and all of their parents be by her side, everyone else be damned. Who needed the earth when her friends were her world and her universe.

-------

            “Sooyoung! Seungwan!”

            The girls looked out of Joy’s window as Sungjae jogged down the street toward Joy’s house. The first year high schooler still had his uniform on, his school finishing later than the middle school, so the tie around his neck flapped in the wind as he sped towards them. The sun beat down on his dark hair, making him sweat, and Joy noticed that he was panting heavily when she opened her front door to let him in.

            “Hi, oppa.” They made their way up the stairs. “How’s high school?”

            Sungjae beamed. “It’s really cool! We have longer school time, but the sunbaes are so chill. I can’t wait to be like them.”

            Wendy poked her head out from Joy’s bedroom when she heard their voices. “Hi, oppa.”

            “Hi, Wannie.”

            Wendy crossed her arms. “How many times do we have to tell you? It’s Wendy and Joy. Not Seungwan and Sooyoung.”

            Sungjae set his stuff down in Joy’s room and shrugged. “Everyone else calls you that. I wanna be special.”

            “Everyone else calls you Sungjae.”

            “Yeah, but you guys call me oppa, so it works out.”

            “Ugh, whatever.” Wendy rolled her eyes, puffing up her cheeks, which were still chubby with baby fat. “But you need to tell us about high school!”

            “He was just telling me that all the sunbaes are really cool.”

            “Really?” The girls sat on Joy’s bed as Sungjae sat criss-crossed on the floor. “What are they like?”

            “Well,” Sungjae said, thinking. “They’re taller than me. And they’re really good at soccer.”

            To a sixteen year old boy, that was the coolest one could get. Joy wasn’t sure if that criteria was a reliable indicator for how cool someone was, but she didn’t want to kill his mood.

            She glanced outside as her two friends continued chatting, noticing the sky turn into a vibrant mix of reds and oranges as dinnertime approached quickly. Sungjae and Wendy were great conversationalists, so they could talk for hours on end when placed in the same room and made friends really easily, something that Joy couldn’t quite relate to, because she was just sociable enough to talk to her classmates without feeling awkward. Heck, even with her neighbour, Seulgi, she’d only waved and done introductions; not that it was a problem for Joy, because it seemed like Seulgi was busy hanging out with her own best friend anyway. The two were attached at the hip.

            “I don’t have homework today, so I wanna take you guys somewhere later.”

            Joy turned to look at Sungjae, who looked excited. “Where?”

            Sungjae swayed his body from side to side. “I made a friend whose brother works at a convenience store, and he said that his brother was going to bring and set off some fireworks at the park to celebrate our first day of high school. There’s gonna be food, too.”

            “Oooh, that sounds fun!” Wendy clapped her hands.

            Joy thought it sounded fun too, but she was a bit more skeptical, furrowing her eyebrows in concern. “Are there going to be adults?”

            Sungjae shrugged. “I think he said his brother was old enough.”

            That was enough to convince Joy. “Okay. But don’t tell mom and dad, just in case, because they’ll ground all of us.”

            The godsiblings nodded. Just in time too, because Joy’s mother hollered for them to come down and have dinner, a not so uncommon occurrence when the three best friends were together. Sometimes, it was just the three kids at the house while the parents of said house were working late hours or attending a meeting with other businesspeople, which meant that the trio quickly caught onto cooking simple things for themselves (sacrificing the kitchen several times in the process) and strategically ordering delivery so that they could try several dishes at one time. However, because the three were still quite young, Sungjae and Joy’s parents tried to have them at one of the adult-occupied homes when the other pair was busy.

            “Hurry, the food’s getting cold!”

            “Coming!” the three shouted in sync. It was almost scary how well they matched up; it wasn’t surprising to see two people say the same things at the same time, but when it was three kids doing the same thing almost every day, people were impressed. A perfect trio the gods would envy, they said. Joy secretly agreed.

            Dinner with parents was always a pleasant affair, even if the presence of both parents, much less both pairs of parents, was quite rare. Joy’s mother was the free adult for that day, so she asked the kids how school was, if high school wasn’t too bad for Sungjae, how Wendy and Joy felt now that Sungjae was on a different schedule than them. The trio chirped their answers enthusiastically as they ate their meal, messily mixing the fermented bean paste stew into their rice bowls. Joy picked out all of her onions and placed it into Sungjae’s bowl, while Wendy did the same for the random, uncrushed beans that she found. The older boy accepted them without complaint, distracting Joy’s mother when he saw the spoons moving his way.

            “I’ve got to finish up some paperwork after this, but you kids can head out and play.” Mrs. Park smiled at Sungjae. “Don’t let those two push you around too much.”

            The adults noticed that the gender and small age difference between Sungjae and the girls seemed to put a lot of pressure on him, even at a young age. The boy was sensitive and careful, always taking moments to work out his thoughts as not to hurt his friends’ feelings. Ever since they were little, Sungjae worked hard to be a protective figure without embodying the toxic traits of the teenagers around him who were slowly starting to grasp society’s harsh standards of men having to be a certain way.

Joy too was always aware of Sungjae’s gentleness even when he was fooling around with them—he was always apologizing, double-checking, hesitating, and losing to his younger friends, no matter what the circumstance, while still maintaining the calm leadership traits that she always found admirable. Whenever Wendy’s insecurities about living about from her parents flared up or Joy, with her nearly photographic memory, had trouble trying to erase the image of a scary movie poster from her head, Sungjae was always the one to calm them down and assure them that things would be okay. He was an anchor, attached to an ever-moving, easily detachable rode that brought them on various adventures around their neighbourhood but always a constant in his steadfast presence wherever they went.

On the other hand, Wendy was Joy’s hot air balloon. Borne from the sky and free-spirited, Wendy pushed her friend to explore new sides of herself while still protecting her from the dangers of falling too deep and too hard into one thing. They often snuck around together to pull pranks on Sungjae and Joy always shared a bed with Wendy when they did sleepovers. The girls knew that there was a privilege to being younger and wielded it as a weapon, forcing Sungjae to let them do what they wanted. Yet Wendy always gently reeled Joy back in when things got too far, acting almost as a mother figure who teached Joy the importance of respecting and caring for others.

            “Alright kids, I’ll be in my study, so don’t hesitate to come find me if anything happens.” She pointed to the younger girls. “And listen to your oppa, okay?” They nodded. “Alright, I love you guys. Come home before ten!” With that, she went to do her work.

            “Okay,” Sungjae said, putting on his shoes. “We have about an hour and a half until my friend said we should meet, so let’s hang out at the park.” He let the girls hold onto his arms as they pulled on their shoes. “I vaguely remember seeing the ducks again, so we can stop by the convenience store and get some bread.”

            The sky was a bit darker when they arrived at the park, obscuring the ground in shadows as the trees’ leaves rustled violently in the wind. Joy clung onto Wendy’s arm as they followed Sungjae along the walking trail, shivering slightly from the chilly spring temperatures. Sungjae glanced back at them and saw them shaking, so he separated them before standing in between them and pulling them to his sides, adjusting his uniform jacket so that it partially covered their backs. Seeing that it didn’t do much to help, he ended up taking it off and huddling them under it.

            They saw the ducks and fed them pieces of the bread, squealing when one of them quacked in content. Joy watched as Sungjae ripped off the bread chunks and handed them to his godsister, who threw them as far as she could into the stream. After a while, the older boy checked his watch and whistled, catching their attention.

            “Alright, we have ten minutes. He said we’ll meet at the hill behind the bridge. Come on.”

            The three of them made their way to the promised location, whispering excitedly in anticipation. Wendy clutched onto Sungjae’s arm tightly, asking him if his friend was cute.

            Sungjae shrugged. “I don’t know? He’s a bit smaller than me and has monolids like me.”

            “What’s his name?”

            “Park Jimin.”

            Just on time, a figure called out to Sungjae, waving his hand high in the air. Sungjae let out a shout of recognition and jogged over, quickly telling the boy something before motioning for the girls to join him. Wendy and Joy bounded over, careful not to let the jacket slip from around their shoulders, peering into the dark to see what Sungjae’s friend looked like. He was a rather pleasant-looking fellow, much easier on the eyes than either girl had imagined. Jimin greeted them with a cute smile.

            “Hey! You’re Sungjae’s friends?”

            Joy nodded as Wendy stuck out her hand. “I’m Son Wendy.” Jimin shook her hand.

            “Park Joy.” She copied her friend’s action.

            “It’s great meeting you two,” the boy said. He pointed his thumb at a man setting up the fireworks behind them. “My brother’s getting them ready, so we’ll just wait for a few more people to show up and then it’s showtime!”

            “Showtime!” Sungjae parroted, throwing out jazz hands and making the girls laugh.

Joy quietly nodded along as Sungjae and Wendy talked to Jimin and a few of the other students there, noticing her friends’ faces light up at the social interaction. She noticed the wind was blowing a bit harder now and pulled the jacket tighter around herself, Wendy having left to mingle a while back. A few more people trudged up the hill, and Jimin clapped his hands, calling everyone’s attention.

“All right, everyone! Let’s count down from five!”

            All the kids joined in as Jimin’s older brother lit up the fireworks. At zero, they started to go off, lighting up the sky in vivid bursts of coloured lights, sharply piercing through the uninterrupted night sky. The trio shouted excitedly and clapped, pointing at the various patterns, when suddenly the wind blew harshly and knocked over one of the firecrackers that hadn’t been properly secured. It exploded immediately, shooting backwards into the surprised crowd as they scattered away; Joy was in the innermost part of the crowd and found herself huddling on the ground as the shell stopped going off a hand’s length in front of her crouched body. Sungjae and Wendy were on either side of her, the former covering her head and face into his chest as the latter wrapped her arms around Joy’s torso. A few worried people approached the shivering girl as her two best friends calmed her down, Sungjae endlessly and repeatedly apologizing to Joy without particular reasoning as to what he was sorry for. Jimin’s brother rushed over and double-checked that the shell was dead before apologizing and asking if Joy was alright. Sungjae told him that he’d take care of the two girls before getting up to tell Jimin that he was heading home for the night. Wendy carefully pulled Joy up, the latter still clutching her ears in fear, and fastened the jacket to keep her warm. Sungjae rejoined them and gently led the girls back to the main area of the park, leaning over every so often to make sure his two friends were okay.

            “Oh lord, I’m so sorry guys, if I knew that it was this dangerous, I wouldn’t have brought...I wouldn’t have asked you…”

            Wendy patted her godbrother on the shoulder. “Oppa, it wasn’t your fault. Right, Joy?”

            Joy, who had finally calmed down enough to walk without Wendy’s support, nodded. “Let’s just go home.”

            “Yes, of course.” Sungjae looked anxious. “Do you need me to give you a piggyback ride? Are you okay? How about you, Wendy?”

            Joy gave him a small smile but frowned when she noticed some cuts near his face and then again on Wendy’s hands. “Did you guys get this from the firecracker?”

            “It’s nothing some ointment and bandages won’t be able to fix. Do you want me to call a taxi?”

            “Oppa.”

            “Or you stay here, and I’ll run to the convenience store. Wendy might get scars on her hands.”

            “Oppa.”

            “I’ll be back quick!”

            “Oppa!” Joy shouted as Wendy grabbed Sungjae’s elbow to keep him from running off. He blinked at them, making Joy suspect that he was in even more shock than either girl was. “Let’s just walk home.”

            He obliged but was skittish, glancing at the girls walking with their arms linked with watchful eyes. When they reached Joy’s house, Wendy immediately went to get the first aid kit, checking that Mrs. Park was still working, and sat Sungjae down to treat the cuts on his face.

            “But Seungwan, your hand…”

            Both girls shushed him, so Sungjae sat quietly as Wendy used a cotton swab to dab at his face with ointment, the way they saw so many times in k-dramas. It resulted in her using too much medication, which left globs of the paste to smush rather uncomfortably against Sungjae’s face as Joy clumsily placed bandages over them. She prevented him from going to the mirror after they finished.

            Sungjae quickly fixed up Wendy’s hand too, against the protests of one Park Joy who wanted to help (a smart choice on his part, because Wendy’s treated hand looked to be in better condition than Sungjae’s free-style bandage mache art), and then tried a bunch of things to make sure that neither girl lost her hearing. Satisfied that they could both (clearly) hear his annoying mosquito buzzing sounds to his musical belts (at one point, Joy’s mother told him to quite literally shut up), Sungjae plopped into Joy’s desk chair and let out a deep breath.

            “I’m so sorry guys. Next time we see fireworks, I’ll make sure that it’s a lot safer and done by a professional. I’m an idiot.”

            Wendy shushed him, while Joy bit her lip. “What is it Joy?” the former asked.

            “It’s just…” Joy hesitated. “I don’t think I wanna see fireworks anymore.” She closed her eyes and saw the explosion happen again. “They’re kinda scary now.”

            Wendy nodded in understanding. “That’s okay. That scared me too.” She pulled Joy into a hug and soothingly patted her back, allowing the scared girl to relax in her warmth. “They’re just coloured gunpowder anyway. I can get prettier colours by dying oppa’s hair with Kool-Aid.”

            “Hey!”

            So Joy didn’t find it weird at all when from that point on, neither of her friends took her outside on New Year’s Day or asked the people at the bakery to leave out the complimentary party poppers on any of their birthdays. The godsiblings always placed her first, and Joy couldn’t ask for anything more than that.

-------

            “You guys are gonna love high school! There’s a lot of people to meet, and there’s more transfers than in middle school, so yeah, lots of people to meet.”

            Wendy glanced at Joy, their faces contrasting in expression. Wendy seemed excited at the prospect of getting to talk, but Joy knew that she wasn’t as interested in becoming a high schooler, especially after seeing how much work Sungjae had. Most of the time that he was hanging out with them, he was solving math problems or reading school books, and given his passionate hate for studying, Joy knew that he was only doing all of his work to come off as a good role model to his friends. Wendy often ended up entertaining Joy, complimenting her new taste in clothing and teasing her about being so pretty that she’d steal all the boys from Wendy later on.

            “Since I already know the place, I’ll show you guys to your homeroom and maybe even give you a quick tour. I’ll be on the floor directly below yours, so I’ll come visit you guys during passing periods too.”

            “We’re picking up Joy, right oppa? What time do I have to get up?”

            “Don’t worry, I’ll wake you up on the first day. And yeah, we’ll pick up Joy.”

            Joy mentally sighed in relief. The only other person who she could rely on to walk to school with other than her two friends was her neighbour, and she didn’t feel comfortable third-wheeling with Seulgi and her friend. It didn’t help that Seulgi’s friend was ridiculously gorgeous and intimidated Joy a lot. The poor girl only knew that Joohyun was very quiet and a year older than her, despite having seen her face multiple times. However, the two girls were really close and Seulgi seemed nice (from what little interactions Joy had with her), so Joy didn’t want to judge Joohyun. She’d probably even do the same as Sungjae and pick Seulgi up on her first day.

            What Joy didn’t expect was to see Seulgi and the pretty unnie walking past her from a direction that was definitely not Seulgi’s house.

            Joy had woken up an hour earlier than she normally did, double-checking that she packed everything lest she embarrass herself on the first day of school. Her mother had already gone out to work, so she dug around in the fridge for some yogurt and fruit, packing extra in case her friends didn’t eat, and got ready, taking extra care to make herself look presentable. Joy had grown quite a bit over the past two years, Wendy’s chin coming to her shoulder and her own chin coming to Sungjae’s shoulder, which gave her a nice fit in virtually any type of clothing, even the school uniforms that they had to wear from Monday to Thursdays.

            Checking yet another time that she packed everything, Joy placed the bananas in a bag and headed out, locking the door behind her. She didn’t see her friends yet, so she just lounged around in her front yard to wait for them when she saw Seulgi and her pretty friend coming from further down the block. Joy waved as Seulgi called out to her, the friends waving back.

            “Are you heading to school? Wanna walk with us?”

            Joy saw the look on Joohyun’s face and felt the same. She shook her head. Interrupting the conversation for fifteen minutes between a very quiet, very pretty unnie and her equally pretty best friend who happened to be a neighbour that Joy wasn’t close to sounded like a recipe for getting Joohyun to hate her. Plus her own friends were coming.

            “Wendy and Sungjae oppa are going to pick me up and we’re heading over together.” Joy sat on one of the big rocks in her house’s garden and swung her legs back and forth. “Sungjae oppa is in Joohyun unnie’s grade too, so he said he’ll show us to our homeroom.”

            Joohyun made a face that denoted recognition, but it wasn’t a pleasant expression either. Luckily, Seulgi gave Joy a soft smile and bid her goodbyes before taking her friend with her. Joy pursed her lips and watched the two walk off, chatting excitedly (she was amazed at how Seulgi led the way without even looking at the road, making eye contact with her friend as they talked).

            Sungjae and Wendy arrived a few minutes later, briefly interrupting their chit-chat to greet Joy. Joy hopped off of the rock and hugged both of them before handing them each a banana.

            “Aw, thanks! How did you know we skipped breakfast?”

            Joy shrugged. “If I remember correctly, you rarely wake up in time for breakfast most days.” She and Wendy giggled. “Although I thought you’d eat something since you woke up earlier than usual.”

            Wendy smiled. “Oppa actually wanted to stop by that bakery we like and get us breakfast there, but since you packed for us, I guess we can just head straight to school.”

            Joy gave a thumbs up, and Sungjae slung an arm over each of their shoulders (stooping slightly to the right to accommodate for Wendy’s significantly shorter height) and walked them to school, telling them about all the facilities and teachers who taught first years. Wendy responded enthusiastically as Joy hummed every now and then, more focused on scanning her surroundings than in listening to the conversation. The building soon came into view.

            “Alright kids, so your place is on the third floor. I’ll see you during breaks and save a table for you at lunch. You’ll get to meet all my new friends!”

            Wendy gave a shout of happiness. Joy just nodded.

            They made their way up the stairs, Sungjae leading, and Joy briefly saw Seulgi in another classroom as she made her way to her first year homeroom. Well, it seemed like they wouldn’t be in the same class for their first year of high school.

            “I’ll swing by soon. Be good!” Sungjae gave them a small salute and jogged to the staircase to go to his room. Wendy and Joy gave each other a look and headed in for the homeroom period, looking forward to his visit.

            Much to his promise, their older friend climbed the flight of stairs at least once a day to see them during passing periods, asking how they were adjusting to classes and letting them know that he bumped into Seulgi yet again on his way up. Joy had also noticed that the monolidded girl always went downstairs when the bell rang, probably to meet her friend. It meant that she had more interactions with Joy, who talked to her when they met in the hallways, the taller girl either stretching out her legs, waiting for Wendy to return from the restroom, or meeting up with Sungjae, but it made them a lot closer, dare she say acquaintances. For a while, she didn’t see Seulgi pass by Wendy and Joy’s classroom to visit Joohyun, but it was brief and the routine started up again. Not that it was important to Joy.

            Sungjae always made sure to save two seats at his always crowded table when they ate lunch, something that was only possible because the students had staggered lunches. On days that the lines were longer (and the food not worth it), he went down to the convenience store after he finished his meal and bought something there so the girls wouldn’t have to wait. When the cafeteria did have nice food, he always asked the serving lady for a large serving and stole pieces from his same-grade friends to put on Wendy and Joy’s trays when they sat down with their servings, which they returned ungratefully by giving him all the stuff they didn’t like eating. While he generally warded off his friends’ pressures to play a game of basketball or soccer with them, Sungjae would occasionally give in and give the girls a few bills to get themselves a snack from the convenience store to make up for ditching them. Sometimes they ran into Seulgi buying two banana milks.

            When Sungjae wasn’t with them, Wendy and Joy talked a lot, sometimes being sent out into the hallway for interrupting class. They would glance at each other periodically as they kneeled and held their hands up in the air, giggling and then pulling off straight faces whenever someone walked by. Once, Seulgi saw them on her way to the restroom.

            “Ummm, what are you guys doing here?”

            The two friends glanced at each other. Wendy gave a huge -eating grin. “Making history.”

            “...I see.”

            They burst out laughing after Seulgi gave them a weird expression and left. For a girl who wasn’t in the top thirty in their grade, Seulgi was quite the teacher’s pet, never talking, never acting up. She wouldn’t understand the fun they had.

            “Oh my, Wendy, did you see her face?”

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