TW: Mention of someone's passing  

Authour's note: This is essentially a mini story, split into 3 parts. Enjoy reading!
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Minji shakily took her first step.

Her heart thumped audibly in her chest and in her ears.

The familiar building entered her sight like a dusty polaroid picture; black, white and grey in the midst of the supposedly unforgettable memories a single picture could contain. 

She blinks the tears away, blinks the pain away and blinks the memories away, forcing herself through the dented school doors.

Rather thankfully, no one paid a single attention to her, going about their day. Instead they treated her as a foreign object, casting not so subtle glances which were held long enough for Minji to feel more uneasy by the second. Did they know who she was? Was she in the right place? Maybe she should have stayed at home, maybe she should have left the town-

"Minji!" A voice pulls her out of her thoughts, arms suddenly grabbing hers to be pulled into a hug. 

She feels her face land on a shoulder, and generous pats on her back. Jingles of beads rattle next to her side. Minji immediately knew who it was. Hyunjung.

"Jungie..." Minji mumbles, allowing herself to accept the first person back into her life.  

Hyunjung takes her face in her hands. "Oh my god, you're actually back." She whispers, tears shining in her eyes. "How what when where how?"

Minji couldn't help but lightly chuckle at her question, a tear slipping down her right eye. "It's nice to see you again Jungie." Her voice cracked. 

"C'mon, let's talk in the cafeteria. I've been keeping tabs on your schedule since you left and your first lesson's in two hours." Her words touch Minji deeply. Sha was more than glad to know that Hyunjung was by her side all the time.

Hyunjung then links her arm with Minji's, which makes Minji stiffen up. The skinship brought back memories through her mind like a flashback. 

"Minji?"

"Yeah?" She replied, unware that Hyunjung had been updating her with all the latest happenings of their school. Her mind was travelling to one person and she hated that she couldn't control it. 

"I said we now have fixed partners for lab, we aren't allowed to choose partners anymore." 

Minji nodded slowly, taking time to process that information. She didn't even think of bringing textbooks. She had only packed stationery and a couple notebooks. After registering Hyunjung's words, realisation dawned on her. The people sharing lab class with her were people she...knew before her disappearance - excluding a handful. And among that handful, there was one person she did not want to partner up with...

Hyunjung led them to an empty table. Before she could even gush at Minji about the day's menu, she felt Minji stop in her tracks and so she stopped to. She followed her gaze and a whirl of sympathy washes over her.

The cafeteria's naturally buzzing atmosphere became inaudible to her. Gazing ahead, she could only see one thing clearly in that moment. One person, to be more specific. 

Kim Yoohyeon. Her ex-girlfriend.

It didn't take long for the mentioned girl to return her gaze. Minji almost felt her heart breathe at the sight of her, last having seen her post online a couple days ago. To see her again in person was a drastically different feeling. Her eyes doesn't waver from Yoohyeon's, who holds the gaze too, mouth agape in shock. Minji was taken out of it when she was nudged forward. 

A student had ran into her, roughly bumping into her side. Hyunjung was there to catch her, scolding the student that only scattered off without a single apology. Minji would have reacted the same way, but didn't have the energy too. Her eyes dart back to where Yoohyeon was seated but she was gone, her tray left on the table with half-eaten food. Did she want to puke seeing my face? Minji thought to herself, brows furrowing sadly. She glances towards the other people at Yoohyeon's table, recognising her friends. 

Tears get stuck in seeing Yubin, a quiet girl that had always supported her's and Yoohyeon's relationship. She was staring right at her with a unmistakable look in her eyes. Hurt. Minji felt her heart prickle painfully in her chest. Yubin wasn't one who expressed her emotions clearly for other people to see, yet Minji was reading her like an open book from across tables. Bora waved at her, sending her a small smile. Minji could tell she was holding back, she knew Bora was the type to say all thousand words meant to be unspoken between two people. Her girlfriend, Siyeon, nods at Minji, showing no signs of welcome. 

"Minji, let's go." Hyunjung tugs at her sleeves, pulling her to an empty table further away from the busy cafeteria. Her hand squeezes Minji's in comfort.

"Jungie," Minji looks her friend dead in the eye, ready to tell the four words that would explain the 5Ws and 1H. "My mom passed away."

Hyunjung's hands flew to her face, her face contracting to one of crying. Minji's lips trembled, tears threatening to spill from her own eyes. But she willed herself to stay in one piece, reminding herself that she was where she was to make her mother proud.

"Minji I'm so sorry-" Hyunjung threw herself forward to embrace her, harder this time, sobbing into her shoulder.

A week ago, she was the one crying into her brother's shoulder, while he held back his tears for her. She couldn't forget the look on his face, the weight of emotions in his tone as he told her that he loved her. She said it back, glad to have someone to share the burden of sadness with. In that week, her brother's presence was the only presence she felt at ease with.

"She's in a peaceful place now." Minji cited the words her brother told her, weakly rubbing Hyunjung's back as a couple tears run down her face.

Hyunjung didn't comment futher, Minji letting her piece the rest of the puzzle herself.

"Y-you should let me know if you e-ever need to take some time for yourself okay?" Hyunjung said after a moment, a little unclear between sniffles but Minji understood what she meant. 

Minji nodded, her clogged throat lacking clarity to speak. 

"Oh," Hyunjung's phone buzzes in her hand. "The lab seatings are out." She pulls up a screen of it and Minji leaned in to see. 

Her eyes roam to around the screen to find her name. Hyunjung sees her name first and her eyes widen. She was about to tilt the screen away when Minji caught it.

"Oh no." Minji bites her inner cheek. This wasn't how she wanted to start her morning, doing an experiment with someone she had chemistry with but was more importanty her ex. Out of all people to seat her with, her teacher had chosen Yoohyeon.

"Y'know Minji, Yoohyeon never knew." Hyunjung prompts gently, and Minji already knew where she was going with it but her stubborness would never let her take that path. 

"It doesn't matter." Minji shakes her head. She didn't know how to feel, she was numb. Her heart was only briefly assured to see that Yoohyeon was alive and well (without her), but nothing further than that. Or so she thought.

"I'm just saying...even if the reaction isn't complete, you can change the factors to make it complete." Hyunjung threw a slice of humour.

Minji shut her eyes close in annoynace for getting what she meant, and knowing exactly what factors she was hinting at. Communication.

"I don't think either of us are looking to change those factors Jungie." Minji retorted curtly, smirking when Hyunjung holds her hands up in the air defeatedly.

The two hours they had passed by quickly as they caught up with what they had missed from each other's lives. Minji didn't dwell too much on hers in fear of bursting into tears at any given moment, so she distracted herself with Hyunjung's enthusiastic ramble on an upcoming mega-concert she was going to attend and it's artists. 

"Minji you have to go with me! It's going to be a-"

"Trring!! Trring!!" The bell cuts of Hyunjung's ramble at a convenient time, Minji had just had the details of the concert repeated to her about 50 times. 

"Ugh, we'll discuss about this later Min, you know where the lab's at right? Should I walk with you?" Hyunjung offers, knowing what lied ahead could be overwehming for Minji.

"No, I know where to go." Minji put on a half-smile to assure her friend, the audible thumps her heart returning to her conciousness.

"Okay, if you say so." Hyunjung hesitated to leave her side, but Minji pushed her towards the staircase where she had to attend history. "Text me!" She joins the sea of students rushing up the stairs. 

Minji sighs to herself, heading to the lab with heavy footsteps. There, she receives a couple of suprise glances from the students in the room, some waving at her while others ackowledged her with a nod. She waved back and went to her assigned table. A wave of relief washed over her upon seeing that it was empty. The teacher had displayed the arrangement on the screen. She handed Minji a file of worksheets and slipped a word of 'condolences' out before returning to the desk. She swallowed nervously glancing at the empty spot beside her. 

She sat down and read through the practical. It was simple, one just had to make accurate measurements to avoid failure. And remembering Hyunjung's words, the factors surrounding an incomplete reaction may be the cause of her failure today...

"Why can't I change my place? I don't want to sit with her!" A raised voice shocks Minji out of her concentration. Her eyes lift to see Yoohyeon arguing with their teacher. Her heart gnaws in agony knowing that it was her she was talking about. 

"Kim Yoohyeon.You do not raise you voice in school and towards a teacher. Go to your seat, now." THe teacher remained unfazed, as if this was the least effective conversation's she's ever had with students. She's had plenty.

Minji keeps her eyes trained onto the piece of paper in her hands, not moving an inch when she heard a bag drop onto the floor with a thud. The chair screeches and hits the other end of the table, which vibrates at the impact. Minji felt shame wash over her. Yoohyeon didn't want anything to do with her. Does she hate her? 

"Okay class, today we will be mixing..."

Minji paid attention, but was struggling to gain some self-control as she could practically see Yoohyeon through her peripheral vision. She wanted so badly to see her face again. After seconds passed, she dared to turn her head, only to meet Yoohyeon's back. The girl had bent down to get her bag. She quickly turned back around before Yoohyeon could see her.

"I will take part a," Yoohyeon spoke to her when everyone had started the experiment with significantly more relaxation than they did. "You take part b?" She questioned, but it felt more like she left no room for arguement.

To afraid to speak, Minji nodded curtly and got to work. Yoohyeon succesfully stayed out of reach, giving Minji with a cold shoulder. It only reflected the flat tone she spoke to Minji with.

After completing their individual parts, they decided to do part c of the exercise together.

They ended up with an incomplete reaction.

Yoohyeon remained unfazed, writing down her observations on her own piece of her paper whereas sharing one paper was suitable. It only broke Minji even more upon seeing that. She knew why the reaction failed. They hadn't talked about the ratios.

"And so I see some have succeded..." The teacher complimented monotonously. "And some have failed." Her voice took a flat turn.

Minji started packing her things, and so did Yoohyeon who looked ready to sprint out the door once the bell rang.

It rang and Yoohyeon did jet to the door with her long legs but was soon stopped by the teacher.

"Minji, please come here." She called after Minji who had headed for the door.

Minji walked back to the teacher's desk, keeping relatively big distance between her and Yoohyeon, but not too far from the teacher.

The teacher looked between them. Yoohyeon was tapping her foot impatiently, wearing a frown. Minji looked at the ground, fiddling with her hands.

"I don't know what's going on between the two of you, and I don't care, I want the two of you back here tomorrow during break, to redo the experiment." Yoohyeon groaned and Minji sighed quietly to herself, she'd expected that. "There was not single word exchanged while handling the substances and that's where it went wrong." The teacher emphasised pointedly.

She then dissmissed them and Yoohyeon was out the door before Minji could blink. Minji greeted the teacher goodbye before getting on with her day. Maybe she had to talk with Yoohyeon after all...