QOTD: ‘Don’t think I haven’t seen you peeking at my abs.’ -Seulgi

            “Saeron!” Yeri screamed at the top of her lungs. She blinked up at the ceiling from where she was lying down on her bed before shouting for her friend again. “Kim Saeron!”

            “Jesus Christ, you human microphone, I’m right next to you!” Saeron’s face popped into view and she scowled. “Do you not know how to speak at a normal volume?”

            Yeri stuck out her tongue. “Not my fault that I’ve got amazing breath support. How else do you think I won the talent show back in third grade?”

            Saeron pulled away and relocated herself to sit on Yeri’s bed, legs crossed. “That pink flamingo costume you made me wear while you performed the slowest ballad Girls’ Generation sang,” she calmly mentioned, humming knowingly.

            “Excuse you, Tears is not…” Yeri trailed off, furrowing her eyebrows. “Wait, did you just say that I only won because you were on the stage with me?” She threw up her hands. “You sat in a corner the entire time because you were too embarrassed! It was definitely my amazing skills that got us, no me, first place.”

            Saeron scoffed. “If freshman Yeri is maybe a mediocre singer, then third grade Yeri was a pterodactyl.” She cupped her hands over her ears and took them off a few times before giving Yeri a blank face. “I’m pretty sure that my hearing capacity is only half of what it used to be because I’ve endured so much of your screeching over the years.”

            “The door’s right there, . You can leave if you can’t appreciate my beautiful voice.”

            “No , Sherlock, of course I can’t since you’ve made me go deaf.”

            “I’m about to kick your so you can’t walk either.”

            Saeron threw up her hands, rolling her eyes in tandem. “Ugh, you’re so violent.” She shoved one of Yeri’s bent legs. “What did you need to talk to me about?”

            Yeri nodded, fully appreciative of the fact that Saeron was listening. “I need a new plan.”

            “Did the other one not work?” Saeron tilted her head inquisitively to the side. “I thought it would be pretty foolproof.”

            Yeri scowled. “I tried to pull it off alone, and it failed!” She glared at Saeron. “Thanks to your great help.”

            Saeron pressed her lips together and remained silent. Yeri had a habit of throwing tantrums when things didn’t go her way (which they almost never did, so Yeri’s parents and Saeron had suffered many injustices along the years, although Yeri thought she was being rather fair in her complaints), so right now was not a good time to bring up that Yeri probably failed because she didn’t fully plan out everything like she should have. Yeri herself knew she often rushed into things, but that didn’t mean that she was bad at planning—she was just...forgetful sometimes.

            “Anyway, I need help if I’m gonna pull this off, and we all know that even pilots have co-pilots.”

            Saeron looked strangely at her. “I thought you were sailing a ship, not flying a plane?”

            “Same difference.” Yeri shrugged. “My point remains unchanged.” She pointed at Saeron. “You are going to be my assistant.”

            “Even if you asked nicely, I would have to consider for a very long time, and yet here you are, demanding my involvement.”

            “You act surprised. As if this is a first time thing.”

            Saeron scrunched her nose. “Touche.”

            Yeri sat up and placed her hands on Saeron’s shoulders with a look of determination on her face. She already had some ideas brewing in her head, but it was a completely different approach from her attempt to steal and switch other people’s clothes, and she was going to need as much help as she could get (the only downfall Yeri had was that despite being popular, the only friend Yeri could trust to drag her out of any situation no matter how illegal it was provide unconditional love and support in all her endeavours was her childhood friend, even if Saeron often made a face that seemed like she did not support all her endeavours and generally wanted to put a pillow to Yeri’s face in her sleep).

            “So what do you need me to do?” Saeron asked cautiously, already feeling a bit scared from the maniacally wide grin on Yeri’s face. “Not that my asking you matters, since you’ll force me to do it anyway.”

            Yeri slapped Saeron’s arm. “Are you saying you don’t enjoy going on these cool quests with me?”

            “I’m saying that you’re going to get me arrested someday.”

            “Trust me, it’s completely legal this time.”

            “Anytime I hear the words ‘trust me’ followed by ‘it’s completely legal this time’ or ‘this time it’s different,’ I immediately find that I can’t trust you.”

            “Are you still being petty about that one time I didn’t pick you up at the principal’s house?”

            Saeron flicked Yeri’s forehead. “You abandoned me there after trying to climb through his window to steal his cat!”

            “Ow!” Yeri swatted her friend’s hand away. “You’re gonna give me a pimple with your oily- hands.”

            Saeron grabbed both of Yeri’s cheeks and smeared her palms all over them.

            “, I’ll castrate you!”

            “I don’t even have !”

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            Yeri tapped her fingers as she waited for health to start, Ms. Kwon already having written too many words for her eyes to follow up on the chalkboard. The freshman squinted at something that talked about BAC and gave up when she saw that it was a vocabulary term she’d have to memorize. The two seniors settled next to her (Yeri noticed them rush in at the same time in an attempt to get to class earlier than the other) and nodded to her in acknowledgement. All the same—same routines, same suffocating , until:

            “So...Yeri.” Yeri whipped her head to Irene’s side and raised her eyebrows in surprise. Irene smiled softly at her. “Were you able to talk to your friend about joining cheer?” she asked, emphasizing the last part so that Seulgi could hear. “We’d love to have her on our team, since she’s interested.”

            Yeri felt Seulgi glance their way and stiffened. The last thing she wanted was to get involved in another one of their verbal parries. She quickly turned to Seulgi.

            “Oh, yeah.” She looked at Irene again. “Saeron still isn’t sure about that yet. She was going to see volleyball practice too!”

            Sorry, Saeron. Someone has to be thrown under the bus.

            Seulgi nodded curtly and leaned back a bit to meet Irene’s eyes behind Yeri’s back. “Look at you, getting ahead of yourself again. Tsk.”

            “At least I get ahead of everything, including academics.”

            “You and I have the exact same GPA. And it takes me less effort too.”

            Irene narrowed her eyes, turning her upper body to fully engage in combat. Yeri glanced at the clock on the wall. Jesus, three more minutes until class started. Three more minutes of threatening whispers on either side of her.

            “Don’t lie to me, Kang Seulgi. I’ve seen your bedroom lights on in the wee hours of the morni