roses // michaeng au

[ DECLARATION ]

Chaeyoung dreaded this trip more than she did a few hours ago. After silently unpacking their bags all the students gathered in the hall.

There it was announced that this trip was to "make them closer to each other", Mr. Park went on about how they as students and teachers and co were family and all that stuff. Chaeyoung found it useless. She wasn't interested in listening.

She hated the fact that after the principal's long ass speech, it was time for ice breaker games. They were split into teams. And just with Chaeyoung's luck, she ended up being in a group full of kids she didn't even know. Except, of course, it just had to be the person she was awkward with.

Mina and her basically avoided each other all throughout the night. Though it would only be a matter of time until Chaeyoung and Mina would be in the same room for the rest of the night, both of them still opted to talk to other people in the group. Chaeyoung even talked to this girl, she was very energetic and sweet. Jiwoo was her name.

After the games (Chaeyoung wouldn't admit it, but she at least enjoyed laughing at people failing miserably at some of them) they all sat down for dinner. They were told to still be within their groups, so Chaeyoung sat beside Jiwoo.

Jiwoo chomped on her food, not really taking the time to swallow before asking Chaeyoung, "whay aunt you wif-"

"Eat your food," Chaeyoung chuckled. The other girl nodded and swallow harshly. "Sorry. Why aren't you with her?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," the other picked up her bowl to sip some of the soup. She tilted her head to where Mina was sitting about three seats away from them. "Her. You and her are in the same friend group, no? I've seen you in school."

Ah, so apparently Jiwoo is observant. Thank goodness everyone was loud, their conversation wouldn't be caught by the Japanese. Chaeyoung scratched her neck, trying to laugh away all the awkwardness she felt, "yeah...we're-"

"did you fight?" it was counter productive, Jiwoo was asking questions but she also kept shooting more questions before Chaeyoung could answer anything. Not like she had a proper answer.

"It's complicated," she flinched when the red haired girl gasped. "do you like her?"

Now how did she figure that out by asking if they fought? Chaeyoung choked on her cherry tomato, cheeks burning up to a similar color as the vegetable. "What? No. Why would I?"

She in fact did like Mina. She has come to terms with herself about it. But it wasn't like she was about to admit it to a girl she just met tonight. They knew each other for a total of 3 hours. Yeah, no way was Chaeyoung admitting it.

Jiwoo rolled her eyes, "complicated is a word used to describe love a lot, you know." Chaeyoung placed her chin on her hand. She tried to play it cool, "really?"

"yeah. It's okay if you don't want to admit it though, just talk it out with her," jiwoo nodded, like she was trying to convince herself. She lowered her gaze, glanced somewhere behind Chaeyoung and mumbled, "if not it'll be both that you lose."

"ah," Chaeyoung tried to find whatever, or whoever, Jiwoo was looking at, even if there were like 50 people in that direction, "I guess you're talking from experience?" the other nodded.

∆

Chaeyoung thought a lot about what Jiwoo said. To some extent she was right. If Chaeyoung finds some way to ruin it before there any closure between her and Mina, she'll end up losing both her friend and crush.