Disappointed, Wendy laid in her bed, thinking about the conclusion she had come to earlier that day. Of course, she should've seen it coming. A secret admirer? Her? What a joke. She should've known it was Joohyun's doing from the start. Why wouldn't it be? She had warned her, it had been a few months prior to the actual prank, but she had actually warned her. This had to be a joke. A lame prank pulled by Joohyun. One that had successfully found her soft spot. That's probably why it took so long for the prank to be pulled. Joohyun had to observe her first, see what got to her, and she found it. Regrettably so, she really did find it.

Even now, when she was about ninety-five percent sure that she had just discovered the thing she had been keeping herself busy with for the past week and a half had been a joke, she still couldn't stop thinking about it. There was still some doubt, some hope that maybe it wasn't a prank. Was it even hope? She didn't honestly dare ask herself. Was this idea of this anonymous sweet person baring their heart to her really that addictive? Apparently so, because even though she wanted to forget it, just ignore everything that had happened and never speak a word about it again, she still couldn't let it go. 

She figured Joohyun had had her fun by now, she had personally seen Wendy go crazy over her little prank. She probably had a whole, big finale planned out, something Wendy wasn't about to accept. She wanted none of it. No big finale. No to this elaborate prank. No nothing. Wendy would make sure Joohyun knew she wasn't as clever as she thought she was. Wendy would confront her next chance she got and plot her revenge. Maybe that would finally take her mind off of this fictional secret admirer of hers. 

And so, Wendy prepared herself, wanting to end the whole ordeal as soon as possible. She had planned to talk to Joohyun at lunch, ask questions about the issue, possibly force her into revealing some information only the person responsible for the notes could know. The thought of possibly keeping the next note completely hidden and pretending she never got it to prank Joohyun back had been appealing, but she realized the older girl had obviously planned things out in a way that she was usually there when the messages were found. Because of this, she decided to pressure her instead, whether that lead to her leaking information or not, she would confront her. However, it turned out that wasn't going to happen that Wednesday.

"Where's Joohyun?" Wendy asked when she arrived at the benches, only finding Sooyoung there, who shrugged in response though smiling, clearly happy a friend was joining her for lunch.

"Don't know. Didn't get a text either which is kind of weird. Maybe someone kidnapped her." The younger suggested, letting out a chuckle afterwards as the elder frowned.

"Maybe she found out I figured her out and kidnapped herself." The Canadian mumbled, sitting down next to her friend and grabbing her lunch, staring at it as she tried to think of what to do now, that was until her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey guys! Am I too late to join you?" It was Seulgi who had called out from a distance, joining the other two on the benches before she too took out her lunch, immediately starting to eat it.

"Maybe you are. What's wrong, did Soojung dump you?" Sooyoung replied with a grin, earning a light shove and a chuckle from Seulgi, who rolled her eyes before continuing to eat. 

"I wanted to eat lunch with you guys. Be glad your buddy is here, Sooyoung." The eldest of the three commented with a light touch of drama in her voice, of course managing to get the youngest started as well.

"Ah yes, of course I am glad. I knew you'd come back for me. You wouldn't abandon me." Sooyoung responded, attempting to suppress her laughter as she gave Seulgi a dramatic look.

"Speaking of abandoning, Joohyun texted me. Apparently she ditched us for Min." The eldest mentioned, causing Wendy to perk up, her hand squeezing her drink just a bit too hard, something that Seulgi reacted to quickly by snatching it from the slightly younger girl's hand. 

"Whoa, calm down there, champ. No need to kill your drink because Joohyun broke your heart." Sooyoung joked, immediately moving away from Wendy to avoid getting shoved, but the shove never came.

"It's fine. I'll get back at her later. She'll have to meet up with us again at some point." The Canadian spoke in a dark tone, causing the eldest to look at the youngest, who shrugged in response.

____________________________________________________________________________

It had been two days since Joohyun had first bailed out on lunch and she still hadn't shown her face, something that bothered Wendy 'till no end. She wanted this to be done with but she couldn't confront the older girl if she never actually got to speak to her. Perhaps that really was why she wasn't around. Maybe she had found out Wendy knew after all. It could be, since there hadn't been any new notes either. The Canadian had been smart enough to come to school early every morning, staying near her locker in case anyone came to drop anything off, but it never happened. 

Of course, she had considered finding a different way to confront Joohyun. Find a different way to get a hold of the girl to talk about the issue, but she could never find her. Whenever she texted her, all she got was another story about how busy she was with her own schoolwork and helping her friend out. Wendy was almost starting to believe her, that was, until one morning, as she entered the school building, she spotted Joohyun walking not far ahead of her. This was her chance. She had to go for it now.

"Joohyun!" Wendy called out, running after her friend, who halted her pace and turned around, clearly surprised to hear her friend's voice, mostly because it didn't sound too friendly.

"Hey, I've been trying to get a hold of you for a while now!" The Canadian announced as she stopped in front of her slightly taller friend, whose eyes were slightly wider than usual.

"Oh, really? Why? What did I miss?" Joohyun asked, tilting her head to the side, which somehow managed to strike something within Wendy as she thought the girl was trying a bit too hard to appear clueless.

"Oh I don't know. What did you miss?" The younger girl repeated back to the older, who frowned a little at her friend's seemingly passive aggressive behaviour.

"Is... Is something wrong, Wendy? Something up with your secret admirer?" The taller questioned, finally causing the shorter to snap, her fists balling as her cheeks puffed out.

"As if you don't know, Joohyun. You've been avoiding me. Is it because I figured you out?" Wendy snapped at her friend, who stepped back a little in shock, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

"Figured me out? I've been busy helping Min. I thought you knew that." Joohyun excused herself, only managing to make the other more irritated, as she didn't buy whatever act it was Joohyun was putting on.

"I know you did it. I know it was a prank. You had your laugh. You can stop now, because I figured you out." The Canadian spoke accusingly as her friend's confused expression only worsened.

"You think I did it? Because I said it might be a prank?" The older replied, earning a few vigorous nods from the younger, who looked quite pleased with herself.

"You messed up there. Shouldn't have told me that. It made it much too clear that this was all your doing." Wendy said, a victorious grin starting to form on her face.

"Well, if it is a prank, I'm sad to say I can't take credit for it. I don't know why you think it was me. It's not. Sorry to disappoint you." Joohyun retorted, shrugging her shoulders as she continued on her way to class, being followed by the other girl.

"Hey! You think you can just walk away from me? I know it's you! I'll be watching you!" The Canadian threatened, only causing the older girl to chuckle under her breath.

"You have fun with that. You'll see it wasn't me." The taller girl commented as she reached her classroom, giving the shorter a quick wave before she entered it, leaving Wendy standing outside.

"Liar..." She muttered under her breath as she watched Joohyun disappear from her line of sight before turning around and heading to her own class, starting to plan out how to keep an eye on the older girl.

____________________________________________________________________________

When her class ended, Wendy quickly made her way out of her classroom, almost running towards Joohyun's in order to catch the girl before she could leave the room. All the way to the benches, she kept her eyes on her friend, who was kind enough to at least make sure Wendy didn't run into anyone, as she wasn't paying attention to anything but Joohyun. The elder heaved a sigh as she sat down on one of the benches, followed in this action by the girl that had been following her since her last class.

"You know, staring at me isn't going to make your accusations any less false." Joohyun commented as she started eating her lunch, Wendy's gaze remaining locked on her.

"Yeah, and making comments like that won't make me stop watching you. I know it's you, you can stop lying now." The younger said, squinting her eyes slightly at the older.

"Alright, suit yourself. Good luck eating your lunch. Must be hard to eat when you can't look away from me." The taller of the two spoke with a shrug, making the shorter realize she was right.

"It's fine. I'll just wait for the others to get here so they can help me." Wendy replied, noticing someone approaching them in the corner of her eye, though she still refused to take her eyes off of her friend.

"Hey guys. Ah, I see I've missed the first part of your argument?" Sooyoung's voice filled Wendy's ears as the girl sat down next to her, letting out a light chuckle.

"You didn't miss her confession though. That still has to come." The Canadian responded, frowning as she felt her stomach protest, making her mentally curse herself for skipping breakfast earlier that morning in order to be on time for school.

"There's not going to be a confession because it wasn't me. Whoever it is that left those notes, they're still on the loose." Came Joohyun's calm reply as the girl continued eating, something Wendy felt tortured watching.

"Sooyoung. Watch her for me so I can eat." The shortest of the three ordered, earning a snort in response from the tallest as she took her eyes off of Joohyun to look at her lunch.

"Hey! Why didn't you warn me?!" Wendy called out when she looked up again, seeing Joohyun walk away from her, only getting Sooyoung's laughter as response as she jumped up from seat, sprinting after the girl, who took off running.

The two girls ran into the building, Joohyun being chased by Wendy as the two headed towards Wendy's locker, where the shorter finally caught up with the taller, who laughed as Wendy grabbed her wrist. Immediately hearing someone else join in on the laughter, Wendy realized Sooyoung had followed not far behind them, but she didn't care at this point, as she pushed Joohyun against the wall opposite to her locker.

"Listen, I'm serious, it wasn't me. Thank you for the exercise though, I needed that." Joohyun joked, not managing to discourage Wendy, who only pressed against the other girl's shoulders harder.

"Shut up, stop lying! I know it was you, why are you even denying it? Where's your proof?" Wendy continued her accusations, only to be interrupted by her younger friend.

"Uhm... I think this would be her proof." Sooyoung's voice caught her attention, causing her turn around and look at her locker, seeing the owner of the voice holding on to what appeared to be one end of a string of small paper cranes.

"What the...?" Wendy exclaimed, her grip on Joohyun loosening before she completely let go, hurrying towards her locker and quickly opening the door, causing the biggest load of paper creatures yet to fall out onto the floor.

How could this be? How did Joohyun manage to get these into her locker whilst she watched her all day? She had checked her locker at the end of the day, she was absolutely certain they had been put in today, but she didn't know how. It couldn't be that Joohyun put them in there in the morning because Wendy had been with her then too. Whoever put the cranes in must have done it in the morning, which meant it wasn't Joohyun. 

The note. She had to find the note. Wendy ducked down quickly, digging into the pile of folded birds, her fingers wrapping around a bigger piece of paper within the pile before she pulled it out. Another note. The same handwriting.

Wendy Son,

I must apologize for the wait,
I needed time to prepare myself,
For the wait is almost over.
I've decided it's time to stop this secrecy,
To finally speak my heart to you in person.
From now on,
I'll be leaving notes with things I like about you,
But I'm going to have to ask you to be patient.
Please don't try to catch me early on,
I promise before the end of next week,
I will reveal myself and tell you how I feel face-to-face.
Please wait for me just a bit longer,
I'll come to you soon.

- A secret admirer

Wendy's heartbeat sped up as she read over the words, realizing what this meant. She was going to meet them soon. Before the end of next week, she would know who her admirer was. She would know who had been leaving her these messages, who had taken the time to fold all these small paper creatures just for her. Or, she would know who had lead her to believe this at the very least. She wanted to believe it. Whether it was true or not. If this was an illusion that was going to end soon, she wanted to savour it, at least until the end came.

"Joohyun? I'm sorry for accusing you. I was wrong." Wendy spoke in a soft tone, her eyes still stuck to the paper in her hands, she felt a hand on her back, probably belonging to the friend she had accused.

"It's alright. I'll forgive you, as long as you promise to buy me some ice cream after school." Joohyun replied, causing the Canadian to look at her and let out a sigh before nodding.

____________________________________________________________________________

^{author's note:}

Aaaaand I made you all wait for ages again. Sorry about that. I have some things going on in my personal life that have been preventing me from sitting down and writing this so it took longer than usual. However, as you can see, we're nearing the end of this story. Next chapter will most likely be the last. Turns out I was about right with my guess for the chapter count.

Anyhow, I hope you all enjoy this chapter, thank you for reading and have a nice day.