QOTD: ‘Sometimes I like to break the fourth wall.’ -Krystal

When Yeri trudged back into her dorm, knee aching from too many long minutes of superman position (and they say planks slow down time), she was surprised to bump into someone coming out of her and Saeron’s room. Confused about who it could be, given that Saeron’s only friend was Yeri and a cardboard cutout that Yeri snatched for her at a random convenience store a good five years ago, Yeri froze in the doorway and peered back at the figure walking away. The person had been facing Saeron to say her farewells before looking forward, so Yeri hadn’t gotten a good look at who it was.

“Who is that?”

“Oh, that’s just an unnie I know from church. She’s been helping me with some music stuff.”

“Music stuff?”

“Yeah. I’m learning how to rap for this fan song I made for Won Bin. I wanna send it to him in time for his birthday.”

Yeri didn’t comment any further, because she didn’t want to trigger anything that would empower Saeron to practice her rap in front of Yeri.

The second surprise came in the form of a very clean room (Yeri’s side included) and a content-looking Saeron. Although any other person would have been grateful, Yeri was a reasonable person; alarms blared in her head at the thought of Saeron putting away her clothes without the proper respects to them (as if Yeri didn’t just leave them all crumpled on the floor). Suddenly forgetting about her bruised knee, Yeri screeched and fell onto it after crumbling to the ground.

“Saeron!”

Saeron raised an eyebrow at Yeri, who was now rolling around in pain: clutching her shin, mouth agape. She was sure that if she commented on the spectacular form of such an image, Yeri would shoot back that it was an artistic visualization of mortality and its expectations of the human body. She opted to laugh instead.

“Don’t laugh! This is just an artistic visualization of mortality and its expectations of the human body!”

To be honest, Saeron didn’t even know what that meant.

“Have you noticed anything about the room while you’re down there?” Saeron asked.

Yeri stopped moving to huff dramatically. “You balled up my clothes and threw them away.”

“I did not throw away your clothes!”

“Aha!” Yeri sat up and pointed her finger at Saeron, internally smirking at her cleverness. “You didn’t deny balling them up!”

“I…what?” Saeron frowned. “What are you trying to say? I can’t hear you from down there.”

Yeri scowled, annoyed that Clark Kent didn’t have to deal with this but she did. They were so similar afterall! Good looks, smart, out to accomplish a mission for the common good…

Anyway, wanting to get her point clearly across, Yeri stood up despite the giant crack that emanated from her knee and crossed her arms across her chest. She was going for mean girl right now. She was unstoppable.

“I can’t believe you ruined all my clothes.”

“I did not ruin your clothes.”

Yeri rolled her eyes, choosing to ignore Saeron to continue her internal monologue. “I spent so much money purchasing all of that, and for what?”

“Correction, you spent your parents’ money, and for Christ’s sake, I didn’t harm your clothes!” Saeron yanked open Yeri’s wardrobe, where a bunch of multicoloured fabrics fell out with a heavy ‘thud.’ “Okay, so I didn’t fold them or anything, but I promise they’re all okay!”

Yeri screamed.

§

It was only halfway through class that Yeri realized she wasn’t sitting in the middle seat. Turning her head minusculely to the left as to pretend that she was not not paying attention (well, she was, she always was, she was just good at multitasking like an absolute queen), Yeri viciously eyed Irene, who was nonchalantly taking notes like she wasn’t sitting within elbow’s reach of her biggest rival in school, and possibly the universe. Also, didn’t they have assigned seating? What could have possibly brought this about?

“And so these kinds of activities can actually affect your hormone levels and stunt growth. Caffeine on the other hand, has been researched extensively enough and found to not have an effect on height in teenagers.” Ms. Kwon scanned the class. “From what I can see, plenty of you need more sleep and exercise!”

Seulgi let out a small snort of laughter. Yeri felt Irene stiffen and then felt the cold aura radiating from her body. Good thing Yeri brought a cardigan. She pulled it tighter around her body.

“So for today’s activity, we’re going to pair up randomly and do some games to determine your fatigue levels and physical body age.” Ms. Kwon pulled up some website on her projector that seemed to randomly generate pairs from a given set of names. “While I run this, does anyone know what microsleep is?”

Two hands shot up like fireworks on Yeri’s left, as expected. It wasn’t really cold anymore, Yeri determined, because the vicious rivalry between Seulrene was scalding.

“Ah, ace students as always,” Ms. Kwon drawled knowingly. She took out a die that was coloured yellow on the odd sides and pink on the even sides. It was something she used solely for situations like this. “You both know the rules.”

Irene and Seulgi nodded glumly but with determination in their eyes, hands still rigidly stretched up into the air, and watched with hawk eyes as Ms. Kwon rolled the die. It bounced about (like when Yeri took a trampoline workout class), spun (like when Yeri tried her hand at aerobic yoga but got caught in the silk), and wobbled precariously (like when Yeri tried figure skating without practicing with a trainer first) before tipping over a corner (like when Yeri often tripped over something she left on the floor) and landing on a three.

A fist pump from Seulgi and a nod from Ms. Kwon, followed by a Google search-adjacent answer that left Yeri wondering if Seulgi was secretly an AI. “Microsleep refers to short periods of sleep lasting for durations shorter than minutes, often triggered by sleep deprivation, sleeping disorders, or medication. Generally, individuals who experience microsleep are unresponsive to certain sensory inputs due to drowsiness.”

“Good, microsleep—”

“Technically,” Irene said, cutting Ms. Kwon off, “microsleep isn’t just experienced by drowsin