During the feast and after she left early to lie down on her bed, only one thing ran through her mind.

Find someone before Hyunjin.

Granted, Heejin knew that Hyunjin was already talking to Choerry based on what she saw today, but it’s not like the two were already dating or official. It would be too soon for them to get together already so Heejin knew she had time. The problem was that Heejin couldn’t just choose some random person. It had to be someone Heejin knew would rile Hyunjin up and maybe if Heejin was lucky, she might end up liking that person way more than she had with Hyunjin.

In terms of someone that Hyunjin would find annoying, it didn't take long for Heejin to think of a name. Even though Heejin knew the person would be effective, it was honestly the last person Heejin wanted to try to date let alone talk to.

As she tries to come up with other people, Yves and Gowon return from the Welcome Back Feast.

"Hey, Heej! Missed ya at dinner," Yves says first as she plops on her bed.

"She's lying. As soon as you left, the first thing she said was 'More food for me!'" Gowon reveals, causing Yves to toss a pillow at her.

Heejin just chuckles at her friends as they go back and forth in arguing and then realizes to take this opportunity to get their help.

"I… I have a question for you two," Heejin begins and the two other Ravenclaws pause their bickering. "I hope I don't regret asking this, but can you both try and set me up with someone?"

"What?!" The pillow Yves was levitating drops onto the ground.

Gowon is stunned still, "As in… to date?"

"Um, kinda?" Heejin affirms.

Yves and Gowon share a look before moving to sit next to Heejin.

"Are you serious? You’ve never asked for our help on this type of thing before," Yves asks warringly.

"And Heej, it's only been a week since…," Gowon cautions.

"I know," Heejin tries to sound strong. "But I need this. I'm not saying I'm trying to get into a new relationship right away. I just want to get back out there and talk to people. Like go on dates here and there and hey, maybe I'll get lucky and find someone that sticks. Find someone who actually wants me like I want them."

Yves and Gowon share another pointed look at each other after hearing Heejin's last sentence; a hint at what happened between Heejin and Hyunjin.

"Okay," Gowon agrees.

"You can count on us!" Yves adds and the three best friends share a hug.

-----

Candidate 1: Han Jisung

Yves is the first to bring someone up the next day. She had met Gryffindor Han Jisung in her Herbology lesson and felt like he could meet Heejin’s standard of physical attractiveness. But to be honest, that was really about it. Yves never really talked to the guy, but due to his looks, she thought Heejin might want to give him a try.

“So, your friend Yves told me that you’re open to dating these days?” Jisung speaks first as the two are sitting next to each other on a bench in the courtyard.

“Is that why you’re here?” Heejin banters with a flirtatious smile.

The boy sits up straight, flattening his robes with a smirk that was quite charming, “Of course. With someone as beautiful as you, I’d regret not taking my shot.”

And that’s how Heejin got back into the dating scene. Granted, Heejin thought his choice of words weren’t the best, but at least he had confidence and was good-looking, two factors that Heejin often looked for in people. After a bit of small talk, the two decide to go get dinner together and it fails to go unnoticed by the other students that they pass by. It’s not everyday that Jeon Heejin heads inside the Great Hall with someone other than her friends. Even with Hyunjin, the two would typically have to meet in the dining area rather than go in together due to conflicting schedules. And so, all eyes turned and the voices hushed as the girl and boy stood side by side at the entrance.

Perfect, Heejin thought. It was clear that practically everyone’s attention had shifted to them and so there was no doubt that Hyunjin would eventually hear about the two of them if she wasn’t already amongst the crowd.

There’s a pause between the two when they look at each other, silently debating which friend group to sit with. Heejin’s about to lead them towards her own, but feels a light grip on her hand. The touch startles her.

“I want to introduce you to my friends,” Jisung explains then leads her towards the other side of the Hall before Heejin could even say anything. She just nods in response, not wanting to cause a scene of objection considering that many eyes were already on them. Just the fact that their hands were touching had already led to another round of conversations.

Turns out, Heejin deciding to follow Jisung’s lead was actually a blessing in disguise. When she looked up after taking a seat, she was taken off guard at who she saw but was soon quickly pleased when met with a puzzling look on Hyunjin’s face across from her.

Heejin looks away before the two could make proper eye contact and hides a smirk knowing that she had for sure caught Hyunjin's attention.

"Hey guys, I'm sure you already know her, but this is Heejin," Jisung introduces her to his friends and even wraps his arm around her. The weight of his arm felt heavy and Heejin had the annoyed urge to shake it off, but she realizes how she could use this to her advantage. Surely, Hyunjin would start to regret her actions once she sees Heejin with someone else in the same position the two were often in whenever they spent time together in public.

And so, she scoots closer to Jisung (to his personal delight) and Heejin gets excited and guesses in glee at what kind of facial expression Hyunjin must be exuding at the moment.

Jealously, perhaps? Maybe even anger? Heejin holds in her laughter at the possible sight of Hyunjin being completely pissed off.

Not wanting to waste a second longer, she finally takes a glance at Hyunjin and in an instant, Heejin's teeth clench and her skirt crumples within her fists.

SHE'S NOT EVEN LOOKING?! When did she stop looking?!? She just went back to talking to her friends- CHOERRY?! WHEN DID SHE GET THERE?!?!

Heejin does her best to keep her irritation at bay and not have it appear on her face. She tries to keep Hyunjin and Choerry from affecting her any further and decides to give more attention to Jisung and his friends.

She doesn't bother to look at Hyunjin again for the rest of the meal. Heejin realizes that there's no point in routinely checking if Hyunjin's looking at her because she comes to the conclusion that no matter how hard Hyunjin may try, stealing a glance at Heejin is simply inevitable.

Right?

-----

Long story short, Jisung only lasts a week.

While Heejin thought her level of self-love was high, it turns out that Jisung loved himself even more.

At first, Heejin enjoyed the fact that he practically showed her off any chance he could get. He introduced her to many people (despite the whole school already knowing who she is) and showered her with compliments during these times. Whenever they were together, he made people pay attention to her if they weren't already. It wasn't super overt or in your face, but he'd make it so that whatever they were doing, it would make some curious to see what was going on.

However, she soon realized that everything he was doing was really for himself. When introducing and complimenting her in front of other people, the way he spoke sounded more like he was boasting about himself.

For example, him saying, "She has a good sense of humor," would turn into meaning that he was a funny guy. Or him saying, "She's so cute when she blushes," would lead into how charming he was.

What would start around her, eventually ended around him.

Now, Heejin could have tolerated it… if only he shared that same amount of engagement with her whenever the two were alone.

But all he would talk about was himself. Sure, he would ask questions to learn more about Heejin, but they typically revolved around whatever he had interest in. Hell, the guy wouldn't even open a door and let her go in first.

And so, he didn't last long.

Heejin let him down gently when she declined to go on an actual date with him. By then, Heejin was smart enough to say that it was 'because of her and not him' or else he probably wouldn't have taken their parting so well.

Yet, his narcissistic tendencies weren't even the worst thing about her time with him. It was the fact that Hyunjin continued to show absolutely no reaction at all just as she did when Heejin and Jisung were first seen together in the Great Hall.

Did she ever even care about me? The Ravenclaw can't help but think.

“Do you mind if I sit here?” Heejin hears while she does her homework. Just like any other day after her charms lesson, she was sitting in the courtyard, nose stuffed into her charms book. Her mind was too locked in to really care about who was talking to her and so she assumed that it was just another random student hoping to be her friend or trying to date her.

“Go for it,” she says casually without raising her head.

“Oh wow. And here I was thinking that you hated me.”

The grip Heejin has on her pencil tightens when she finally takes notice of the arrogance in the person’s tone.

She keeps her head down as she speaks sharply, “Go away, Kim.”

“Aww,” Hyunjin pretends to whine. “Well too bad, you already said yes so deal with it.”

When Hyunjin sits next to her, she drops her pencil and looks at the Slytherin. “Don’t you think I have already dealt with enough of all your bull?”

“Hmm, I’d say no considering that you’re still talking to me instead of running away like you normally do.”

“I don’t run away!” Heejin replies hastily.

“You literally turn on your heels whenever we make eye contact. The only time you didn’t was whenever you were with….,” Hyunjin taps her chin as she comically thinks. “What’s his name?…..,” the Slytherin trails.

She wasn’t even curious enough to find out his name?!?

Getting fed up, Heejin huffs, “His name is Jisung.”

“Ah! Jisung,” Hyunjin realizes. “Yeah, that guy. You only stuck around when he was with you. Speaking of him, where’s he at?”

“Why? Are you getting jealous?” Heejin crosses her arms as she raises an eyebrow with a smirk.

Gotcha, Heejin thinks with satisfaction. Hyunjin may have hidden it well, but clearly the fact that Hyunjin even brought him up meant that she had at least paid enough attention to notice that Heejin and Jisung had spent time together more than once. And now by asking Heejin about where he is, this must mean that Hyunjin realized to take this as an opportunity to win Heejin back.

In a few seconds, Hyunjin will fall to her knees, admit her mistakes and embarrassingly beg for Heejin to take her back-

“Nope,” Hyunjin ends with a pop. “Dude’s a loser. I mean I never really met him, but heard that all he likes to do is talk about himself whenever he could. What a shame. I never…”

Heejin couldn’t believe what she was hearing and what she heard next damn near made her lose it.

“I never thought that you’d fall so far that Jisung is the guy you decide to talk to after me,” Hyunjin clutches her chest, as if to show that she feels bad for Heejin. That she pities her.

“Oh… how the mighty have fallen,” Hyunjin fails to hide a grin that makes Heejin want to do something to wipe it right off. Before she even had the chance, the Slytherin is already standing back up to leave.

“You really think that highly of yourself, huh?” Heejin finally responds, making Hyunjin stop in her tracks. “That you were so great to me that I couldn’t possibly find someone better than you?”

Hyunjin turns around and approaches Heejin until they’re face-to-face.

“Oh, I don’t think that, Jeon. I know that. And you know why? Because you made it a little too obvious that you only talked to the guy to make me jealous. Even now, instead of walking away like you normally do, you kept our conversation going just to find out if I was a teeny tiny bit envious of Jisung, right?” Hyunjin smirks as she starts to walk away again. “So, why get jealous when I know you’re not really into them at all?”

Heejin stands with anger bubbling inside her as the feeling of getting caught red-handed swarms her body. She wants to talk back, say that she liked him, but she knew that would be a lie.

“W-Well, I’m not jealous of all the girls that you’re around either!”

“Careful, Jeon. For a second, it sounded like you can’t keep your eyes off me.”

At a loss for words, she can only watch Hyunjin walk away casually with her hands in her pockets as if their conversation was nothing but normal.

-----

After her infuriating conversation with Hyunjin, Heejin realized that she needed to completely change her game plan. Instead of prioritizing making Hyunjin jealous, she needs to prioritize herself and her own feelings. If she’s interested in someone, she needs to pursue them genuinely and if she just so happens to make Hyunjin jealous, then that would simply be a plus.

Now, did Hyunjin’s notion that ‘if Heejin actually liked someone, then she would probably get jealous’ play a role in Heejin deciding to prioritize her own feelings instead? Maybe.

But at the same time, the conversation really made Heejin reflect on the amount of energy that she has continued to waste on trying to make the Slytherin jealous so now she wanted to focus more on herself. On her happiness and if that includes being in a new relationship, then so be it.

And before she knew it, Gowon introduces Heejin to her.

A/N: Who is this mysterious person Gowon introduces??

Anyways, Ms. Jeon is back in the dating scene and I wonder how it'll go from here. And as referenced in the title, it seems Hyunjin can still "read" Heejin like a book considering that she wasn't the tiniest bit jealous (or was she? Hm...) when she saw Jisung and Heejin because she could tell that Heejin didn't really like the guy at all. Either way, tensions still seem to be rising...

Now I'll admit, this chapter is a bit like a filler hence its somewhat shortness, however things will start ramping up in the next few chapters. This also means that the end is near, but how near I can't say.

Per usual, thank you for reading, let me know what you thought and are y'all hyped to see Loona's Queendom performances?!

P.S. Peep that cover by yours truly ;)

- S (rv_twice5 on twitter)