TIMESKIP 1 MONTH...

Karina walked up to the student council’s room, seeing that Suho was already inside… she poked her head through the door, smiling at the senior before going in.

“Hello, Suho-ssi.”

The red-haired boy smiled, “morning, Karina.”

Karina looked around, “are the other two not here yet?”

Suho shook his head, “nope, but Wendy said she’s at the front of the school. Irene hasn’t answered my text yet, probably on her way here though.”

The younger girl nodded, sitting herself down in front of him as the two waited in silence.

…

…

…

“Karina?”

“Yes?”

“... Have you lost anyone to the Black Mamba? Or well, has anyone close to you been comatosed…”

A sudden news story popped into the girl’s head, and she remembered that some victims passed away due to severe sickness or the inability to keep hospital machines going due to lack of money.

Karina shook her head, “no, the only ones I knew personally were Seulgi and Mark… Have you? I-if you don’t mind saying.”

The senior weakly chuckled, “a few friends… Although Mark and Seulgi were the closest to me.”

Karina nodded slowly, “you were close with Seulgi-unnie?”

Suho nodded, “sort of? We knew each other since we were younger, we had quite a few classes together too.”

“Ah, I see… I’m sorry to hear you lost some friends though…”

He gave her a smile, “it’s fine, thanks though, Karina…”

…

“I hope you never have to feel that loss again though…”

Before Karina could reply, the room’s door opened, revealing Wendy.

“Hello Wendy.” “Hi Wendy-unnie.”

The short Korean smiled and waved, “hey guys.”

“Is Irene not here yet?”

Wendy shook her head, “nope, surprising though, since Yeri and Joy’s already here, and those two are always the last ones out of all of us.”

“Well… let’s wait as long as we can, if it gets past the five-minute mark until school starts, we’ll just not have a meeting today.”

Wendy nodded, “yeah, there’s nothing new that came up anyways.”

The group of three began to talk, but as the clock ticked closer to the school’s starting time, the trio grew worried.

“Has Irene-unnie ever been late to school?”

Wendy shook her head, “no never, and she only missed if she was really really sick…”

She then giggled, “even when she had a sleepover with Seulgi before, she practically dragged that poor bear out of her sleep so they wouldn’t get late.”

They all chuckled at that, but as soon as the moment came, the heaviness resumed.

…

…

…

Suho sighed, “maybe she’s sick, Wendy, do you have any classes with her?”

Wendy hummed in response, “yup, I do, I’ll let you guys know if I see her.”

But as the three began to walk out the room, there was a soft knock. At first they thought it was Irene, but when the door opened, in came a female teacher.

“Oh! Miss Jung!”

The teacher, Miss Jung, smiled at Wendy, nodding at all of them, “hello Seungwan, Suho, Jimin.”

The three bowed in respect, “hello~”

“What brings you here, ma’am?”

The woman’s smile faltered, “I’m sorry to be the one to tell you three this but…”

The students’ expressions fell into frowns as she continued with a sigh, “you all will have to find a new president.”

“W-what?”

Miss Jung sighed once more, “none of the staff know the exact details, but Joohyun has also fallen into a coma yesterday night.”

The three all froze, unable to grip at what they were hearing.

“I-Irene… She- but- she was so safe!”

The teacher gave Wendy a dispirited smile, “I’m sorry Seungwan, I knew you were close with her, you two as well… If I find out more, I’ll tell you three first.”

“Do you know which hospital?”

Miss Jung shook her head, “her parents did not want to disclose that information… That may be different for you three though.”

She gave us all a reassuring smile before turning away, “I’m sorry once again, but I still have hope that things will turn around for the better… I must leave now, though.” 

“Thank you, Miss Jung…”

The teacher nodded, glancing at Karina, “I wish you all good luck and health, you all may come to me for anything.”

She then silently walked out of the room to let the remaining student council ponder their thoughts.

“Irene… got caught too…”

Suho and Karina immediately went up to Wendy to comfort the girl, who lost another one of her close friends in the span of five short weeks…

After a few moments to comfort the female senior, they all pulled away with Suho glancing over to the youngest of them all.

“Well… I don’t want to seem insensitive but… Karina…”

Wendy glanced at the raven-haired girl solemnly, “you were vice-president, which means you’re now president.”

It all crashed down to Karina then.

“I-I’m president?”

Suho nodded, “yes, if we’re going by chain of ‘command’ that is.”

“B-but…”

Wendy gave her a small smile, “age doesn’t matter, and besides, you were going to be president next year when we leave anyways.”

“Well- yeah I know that but- it’s so soon!”

The older girl sighed, “sorry Karina, we all wished it was different…”

Then a ding produced from one of their phones.

Suho glanced at his screen, “sorry, I have to go, my homeroom teacher wants me to come early.”

The two girls nodded, bidding Suho goodbye.

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…

…

“Wendy-unnie… I can’t do this.”

“What do you mean?”

“I-I… I’d be fine with changing during the next school year, but with this sudden change, a lot of pressure suddenly came to me too you know? I know I shouldn’t be complaining right now but I can’t help but feel like I didn’t learn enough to be the president yet. Irene-unnie’s always helped me but… I don’t know if I can do it alone without guidance…”

Karina ruffled her hair in frustration, “I don’t know if I’d be a good president… a good leader…”

She sighed, letting her arms fall to her sides as she stared at the floor.

“... I know as the vice-president, I technically have the same roles and responsibilities as the president… But it’s different in my opinion. I don’t think I can do as well as Irene-unnie did, or the past presidents did… And especially at this time, where the other students are looking up to us the most…”

Wendy rested her hand on Karina’s shoulder, “Karina… No one’s asking you to be like Irene, hell, even Irene didn’t act like the former president. Your leadership skills are amazing. And if it wasn’t for you, we would have never known what the Black Mamba was.”

‘But if it wasn’t for me… Maybe the other three would still be here…’

The junior kept her thought to herself, “but that’s thanks to Irene, I always followed her, I always looked up to her, I-I…”

Karina sighed, stopping her rambling with a quiet “nevermind”.

Wendy squeezed her shoulder, “if you’d like… I can temporarily lead in replace of you… Until you feel like you're ready.”

Karina looked up from her shoes, “you’d do that?”

The blonde gave her a smile, “yes, I will if you want me to, but you’re going to need to do it sooner or later.”

The tall girl nodded, “yeah, I understand that… Are you sure though, unnie?”

Wendy nodded once, “I’m sure… I’ll run it over with Suho when I see him.”

Karina gave Wendy a hug, “thank you so much… I’m sorry for putting this all on you after what happened…” 

Wendy chuckled, patting the girl’s back, “it’s fine Karina, I understand… We’re going to need to start recruiting again soon for next year though…”

They pulled away as the warning bell rang, the younger thanking the older once again.

Wendy turned to leave, only to stop as she opened the door.

She glanced back at the younger girl who still stood in the middle of the room, “oh and, Irene didn’t do anything by herself. She told me that you helped her a lot when she didn’t know what she was doing either. Just letting you know.”

She waved without looking back, “you should get to your class Karina, you only have four minutes.”

Karina stared in surprise at the door, ‘I helped Irene a lot? When???’

She shook her head to clear away her thoughts, quickly going out to head to her classroom. She’d think about all that later, for now… She had to be a normal student…