THE TRANSFER STUDENT

Something's Fishy

Jieun raised her eyebrows, nodding. "Fair enough."

Yoojung turned back to Yoongi. "Yoongi! Spill!"

"Fine, fine." Yoongi muttered. "I..."

"You what?"

"I... I saw..."

"Saw what?"

"I saw..." Yoongi paused dramatically. "Nothing."

Yoojung stared at him, her mouth hanging open for a few seconds.

"Nothing, I really saw nothing!" Yoongi exclaimed. "I was asleep. Haha."

"Yoongi, you-" Yoojung raised a hand, about to hit Yoongi, but dropped it dramatically, cupping her face in her hands. "I knew it. I wasn't expecting anything anyway. You never know what's going around you when you're sleeping. And you're like... sleeping 24/7."

"No, I'm not."

"Really, Yoongi?" Yoojung looked at him cynically, raising her eyebrows. "You gonna deny that you literally sleep all the time? Just ask Jieun, she's only been here but she can already vouch for that."

Yoongi and Yoojung turned to look at Jieun.

Jieun laughed awkwardly. "Don't bring me into your argument."

Yoojung scoffed, turning back to Yoongi. "Anyway, I'm right. Unless you can prove me wrong, you sleep 24/7."

Yoongi scrunched his nose. "Must I really?"

Yoojung raised her eyebrows in a challenging manner.

"Um, well..." Yoongi began. "I... oh! I know. I bet I can tell you something no one in class."

Yoojung sighed, rolling her eyes. "What now?"

"Ha." Yoongi smirked. "I bet you even you won't know this."

"Yeah, so what is it?" Yoojung asked nonchalantly.

"Listen carefully..." Yoongi lowered his voice. "Two days ago I saw... Lisa take Jackson's worksheet and stuff it into Minhyun's bag."

"What?!"

~

"Wait, what did you just say?" Yoojung eyes perked up, looking at Yoongi in surprise.

"See? Unbelievable right? Now who's gonna say I sleep all the time when I-"

"No, Yoongi!" Yoojung exclaimed. "Repeat what you said, about the worksheet, what did you say?"

Yoongi scoffed. "I said I saw Lisa put Jackson's worksheet in Minhyun's bag... like two days ago."

Yoojung's eyes grew wider. "Any details? Like what time of the day? How? Why she had the worksheet? Anything?"

Yoongi squinted his eyes, scratching his chin in deep thought. "About the time... I'm not too sure. I think she borrowed the worksheet from Jackson or something? Not too sure about that either. But she definitely shoved it into Minhyun's bag."

Yoojung jotted down everything Yoongi said onto her notebook. "Why? Why would she do that?"

"I don't know, I-"

"That's really suspicious," Yoojung said with a frown, now talking to herself.

"Can I go to sleep now?" Yoongi asked tentatively.

"Jieun, don't you think something is fishy?" Yoojung turned around to look at Jieun, who was looking out of the classroom in a daze.

Yoongi raised an eyebrow, then went to sleep.

"Huh, what?" Jieun snapped back to reality.

"Yoongi said... Lisa put Jackson's worksheet into Minhyun's bag, don't you find something about that really... weird?"

Jieun shook her head. "She probably just put it in by mistake, or something."

"No, Jieun, listen-" Yoojung scribbled on her notebook. "Jackson asked where his worksheet was and Lisa obviously knew, but she didn't say anything. Instead, she asked Ms Ahn to make everyone search their bags." Yoojung looked up and stared at Jieun intently. "Do you know what I'm getting at?"

Jieun raised her eyebrows. "Not exactly. Maybe she just forgot where she put-"

"Urgh, Jieun. Your mind is too pure," Yoojung muttered exasperatedly, scribbling some more on her notebook. "Look - something is really wrong about what she did. No one in the right mind would borrow someone's worksheet and stuff it into someone else's bag and then suggest to search everyone's bags. It's almost as if... she knew the watch was in your bag."

Jieun was listening attentively.

"So..." Yoojung continued. "My guess is that, Lisa stole the watch and put it in your bag. Then she wanted to find an excuse to 'expose' you, which was why she pulled that worksheet trick."

"No, but-" Jieun stammered, obviously appalled about Yoojung's deduction. "Why would she even do that? It's not like I've offended her or anything-"

"Jieun-" Yoojung looked up at Jieun seriously, putting an arm on her shoulder. "Sometimes people get offended without us intending to offend them. Look - did you intend to make all those haters? No. If my deduction is right, Lisa probably hates you more than you even know."

"Wha-"

"Let me handle this, Jieun." Yoojung said seriously. "I think I've got it, this time. If her goal was to get you out of school but that plan failed, she will definitely strike again. And this time, I'll catch her redhanded for sure."

Jieun was stunned. Never would she ever have thought that anyone was capable of doing such a thing to her... no matter how much they hated her. Throwing rotten eggs, playing pranks on her, all that... she could still tolerate. But going to the extent of framing her just to remove her from school? That was... pure evil.

At that moment, Lisa walked into class in a bubbly mood. But then she made eye contact with Jieun... and she froze for a couple of seconds. But she resumed her smile and walked over. "Oh my god! Jieun! I'm so happy to see you! How did you-"

Jieun didn't respond - she just stared at Lisa in disbelief. If it had been her all this while, that meant that the apology she made a while back was fake, the dodgeball incident was purposeful and everything she has said were all lies? Even the smile she was putting on right now... was fake? How could that be?

"I..." Jieun began, but Yoojung noticed Lisa and turned around, after shoving her notebook under her desk.

"Oh, Lisa..." Yoojung stood up, walking in front of Lisa slowly. "You're finally here. Jieun got out of the situation scot-free, can you believe it?" Yoojung stared at Lisa's face, watching her carefully. "Aren't you glad?"

"Me?" Lisa was evidently taken aback by Yoojung's question. But she laughed, smiling sweetly at Jieun. "Of course I'm glad. I'm so glad to see you back, Jieun."

Lisa walked away and took her seat, with Yoojung glaring at her the whole time.

Jieun's mind was blank. She really didn't know what to believe anymore.