Naeun found the whole thing stupid. Completely and utterly stupid. She figured Hayoung's friendship with her, Bomi and Chorong would fade eventually. They were all too different from each other to still be stuck together like before. Really, she was surprised it had lasted as long as it did. They had been friends ever since kindergarten and the fact that they were still friends now was kind of shocking.

     It seemed everyone but Bomi knew of Hayoung's real kindness. But there was still the question of why Hayoung had painted herself as a rude, relentless brat. Was it just to please her friends? Or to please everyone else? Naeun just couldn't figure that one out. Naeun knew everything else but that.

     "What? You aren't surprised?" Bomi nearly shouts as she follows Naeun through the kitchen and into the living. After Hayoung's fit, Bomi had rushed over to Naeun's house. Usually, she'd never, she wasn't really that close to Naeun, but Chorong is busy today with a family matter.

     "Yeah," Naeun shrugs slightly, sitting down on the couch softly. She takes a sip of her cola and looks at Bomi. "It wasn't like it was hard to foresee. She is so much nicer than you or me or Chorong. She's just..." She shrugs, "different."

     "You and Chorong both keep saying that." The other girl whines, sitting down next to her friend. "If you think about it though," Bomi looks at Naeun a bit mischievously, "She's not that nice. Several times she's called Nerdjoo an ugly horse—I don't get what's so high and mighty about her." She shakes her head, wrinkling her nose and crossing her arms over her chest. "She better apologize to me tomorrow."

     "Or what?"

     Bomi shrugs.

♡ ♡ ♡

     The apology never comes, though after Hayoung didn't show up for the girls' locker gossip session, Bomi wasn't really expecting her to apologize anymore. It was already starting to spread around the school that Hayoung was the new looser, that she has sunken to the bottom of the barrel. It was great news for some people, Kikwang would finally be able to make her feel bad about never going steady with him. Some people didn't even have a decent enough reason to pick on Hayoung or feel happy about her drop to the lower social class, she was just fresh blood; a new toy everyone was dying to play with.

     Her day was going well, Hayoung hadn't gotten one insult yet, not a single one, even though she had just committed social suicide. She hadn't seen hyde nor hair of Bomi, Chorong or Naeun either, which was good too; she didn't want to see them. But she also hadn't seen Namjoo, which wasn't so good. It was a strange feeling Hayoung got when she thought about the older girl. A flutter in her heart, a breath caught in , a weightlessness in her stomach—a great, strange feeling she couldn't get enough of.

     Hayoung shuts her locker door, holding her books close to her chest, still enjoying that glorious feeling when she sees a flash of short, honey-brown hair in the groups of dark headed students. It's a thought and then a powerful urge; run after her!

     She does just that, pushing through the crowd as she tries to catch up with her. She thinks about shouting her name, but decides it a stupid idea and stays silent besides the quiet mutters of apologies. It doesn't even cross her mind that what she's doing at the moment isn't exactly good for her already ruined reputation. She also seems to forget that if she bumps into the wrong person, she's dead meat. She has no protection anymore.

     Amazingly thoug