Mirae finds Suyeon sitting on a bench on the old pier, her legs dangling over the edge. She is overlooking the placid waters of the Hana Lake. Cries of children playing near the water ring through the air, and the artificial tang of coconut sunscreen ades the air. Mirae smiles. The smell is redolent of the beach, one of her favorite places in the world. She remembers visiting it as a child, squealing with delight at the ocean. It was blue. A Good color.

Mirae’s eyes widen, and she shakes her head. No. There is no such thing as a Good color. Remember what Dr. Yoon said.

Suddenly, she remembers that she forgot to take her OCD medicine. Mirae fishes an orange bottle out of her bag and pops a serotonin pill in .

Then she heads over to Suyeon.

“Is there space for two here?” Mirae asks gently. Suyeon looks up at her friend, and almost immediately lowers her head back down in shame.

“Hi,” Suyeon murmurs. “I’m... I’m sorry I just ran away back there.”

Mirae smiles. “It’s alright. But would you mind telling me what happened?”

Suyeon does not answer for a while. She gazes out at a family having a picnic next to the lake, their jovial laughs and playful teasing.

“Do you remember when we had to make that model of the respiratory system in the 9th grade?” Suyeon asks. “It was for biology. Mrs. Kim was counting it as a major grade.”

Mirae groans. “Oh god, yeah. You made us redo it again, like 3 times. You wanted it to be absolutely perfect.”

Suyeon gives her friend a chagrined smile. “That’s me. I want everything to be perfect, to go right. I want to be the one with the best plan, the best results.”

It is starting to click into place for Mirae. “Ah, I see. So you didn’t expect Jongin and Sehun to do so well?”

“Not really that,” Suyeon responds. “I’m mad at myself because I didn’t think of a better plan than them. I should have formulated a better strategy than them. It’s my fault, honestly. I’m really sorry, Mirae. I swear I’ll-,”

“Suyeon, you just repeated the word ‘I’ about 20 times,” Mirae clucks. She flicks her best friend’s forehead. Typical Suyeon, she thinks. Always blaming herself. Mirae remembers the time when Lee Eunhyuk knocked down a stack of textbooks in Mr. Jung’s class one day, and Suyeon started apologizing profusely for not noticing that the textbooks were sitting at the corner of the desk.

“I think people are like cake,” Mirae speculates, and Suyeon whips her head up to stare at her friend.

“No, seriously,” Mirae giggles, poking her friend’s cheek. “There are hundreds of differents kinds of cakes out there, and they all each have tons of different versions, with different ingredients and cooking times and toppings. Even if you use the same recipe to make a cake, no two cakes will be the same, because you can unconsciously pour a little more flour or add a few more chocolate chips when making them at different times.”

“Where are you going with this?” Suyeon asks confusedly.

“People are the same, too,” Mirae continues. “Everyone has different quirks and habits and traits and characteristics that make them unique. Even if two people are really similar, they’ll have tiny little variations. And you know how different people have different tastes in cake? It’s the same with people; you like some, you hate some.”

Suyeon’s eyebrows pop up, impressed. Leave it to Mirae to parallel cake to human nature. But what does this have to do with this situation?

“What I’m trying to say is that, something about yourself that you think ? Someone else probably thinks it’s completely fine,” Mirae continues. “For example, right now, you think your so-called incompetence is dragging our tutoring business down. That your actions are hurting our business, and you basically . Right?”

“Yeah.”

“But I don’t even think you’re incompetent. I don’t think you , and I don’t think you’ve committed harmful actions, either.” Mirae giggles. “Sorry, hon, but you don’t taste like ‘failure’ and ‘tiness’ to me. And I’m an experienced connoisseur.”

Suyeon wants to cringe so hard at this ridiculous metaphor or simile or whatever the hell this outlandish “cake is life” comparison is. It’s stupid and it doesn’t even really make sense. How does Mirae come up with this ?

But a smile crawls onto Suyeon’s face and she gives her best friend a big bear hug instead. Mirae squeaks and nearly goes toppling off the pier.

“Yo, yo! You’re going to kill me!” Mirae yelps, pushing her friend off of her.

“Thanks, Mirae.”

A soft look slides into Mirae’s eyes as she pats Suyeon on the head. “Hey, Yeonnie?”

“Don’t call me that. But what?”

“I think I have an idea on how to beat the Sunset Tutoring Group.”

Suyeon’s head shoots up. “What?”

Mirae cackles, rubbing her palms together. Suyeon feels a creeping feeling of dread overtaking her senses.

“You know what they say,” Mirae whispers in a sinister voice. “You’ve gotta beat fire with fire.”

The next day at school, Mirae and Suyeon approach a gang of gorgeous, stick-thin, straight-haired girls sitting in the center cafeteria table. Half the eyes in the cafeteria are on them when Mirae taps one of the girls on the shoulder.

“Why are the two smartest girls in the school talking to the cheerleaders?” someone whispers behind their palm. “That’s a total mismatch.”

The girl turns to Suyeon and Mirae. Her fellow cheerleaders stare at them with odd expressions on their perfectly made-up faces.

“Hey, Mirae” the cheerleader says, a little confused. “What’s up?”

Mirae smiles a little nervously. “Hi, Jihae. Um... do you remember when you said you owed me big-time after I tutored you before that Psychology test?”

“Uh, yeah?” Jihae replies, raising her eyebrows.

“Well, Suyeon and I have a massive favor to ask you,” Mirae says, taking a deep breath. She whispers her request into Jihae’s ear. The cheerleader’s eyes light up and she gasps.

“Oh my god!” Jihae exclaims, jumping up. “Are you serious? Why?”

By this point, the entire cafeteria is watching the 3 girls talk. Even Myungjee the cafeteria lady is staring at Mirae, Suyeon, and Jihae, soup ladle hanging in mid-air.

“What is it?” Hwe Ji, another cheerleader, asks Jihae agitatedly. “Tell me!”

When Jihae informs her friend of the girls’ astonishing request, her jaw drops.

“Can I see this?” she pleads. “Holy stains.”

What civilized and appropriate language for one of the most popular girls in school, Suyeon snorts.

“Thanks,” Suyeon utters, leaning backwards away from these crazy cheerleaders. “We appreciate you doing this, Jihae.”

“Oh, my pleasure,” Jihae declares, batting her hand. “I just can’t believe you guys want to do this.”

“What’s going on?” a deep, familiar voice inquires, a voice that makes butterflies and bats and ing bumblebees start flapping around in Suyeon’s stomach.

“Hey, Hoseok,” Suyeon breathes, whirling around to grin up at the tall boy. He is wearing a red baseball cap today, perched on his head at a rakish angle that makes Suyeon want to melt into a puddle of girlish goop. “We- I- well-,”

“It’s a surprise,” Mirae smirks, cutting off her friend.

“We’ll start right after school,” Baek Su Ah, another cheerleader, informs Mirae and Suyeon excitedly. Apparently Jihae has spread Mirae’s request through the hierarchy of the Daegu Cheerleading Squad in the mere 3 seconds that the two girls were talking to Hoseok.

Suyeon notes with a little bit of trepidation that all of the cheerleaders have maniacal, almost demonic looks in their eyes.

And for the millionth time, Suyeon doubts if Mirae knows what the hell she’s getting them into.

A/N: look at Mirae trying to be poetic lolol

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