Seulgi POV
I walk up to Irene's house. This has now become the norm for me. It's also in my schedule now. Wake up, Go to Irene's, Go to school, Practice, Irene's workplace, and if lucky, a night stroll.
I ring the doorbell and I see Irene open it with a smile.
"Good morning." I said smiling back.
"Wow, you're really going to keep doing this? What if I wake up at 5 am?" She asked.
"I will try my best to wake up then too." She starts to laugh and I just tilt my head in confusion.
"What?"
"Nothing. You're just cute it all." My face turned red immediately and Irene finally got out of her doorway. We both walked towards school.
"So how was your sleep last night?" I felt a little awkward and I think Irene could tell.
"It was good. Why are you acting different today?" She asked me.
"I don't really know." I said. She stops and looks at me.
"How's you and your mother doing? I haven't seen anything for a while and I'm hoping that the problem is fixed." I freeze. It's true that not much has been happening for a while. Every time I get home, I find my mom sleeping on the ground or couch. I'm not complaining though.
"It's going good. We are starting to work things out."
"That's good to hear. I knew I could trust you." She smiles at me and I force a smile back.
I'm sorry Irene. Maybe you shouldn't trust me.
"Are you ready for the test today by the way?" My heart immediately drops. What freaking test?
"Uhh.."
"You forgot didn't you?" She asked while sighing. I nod my head and try to give her my puppy eyes.
"Irene save me please!" She sighs and lends me her notes and I try to memorize everything before we get to school. I did not take my eyes off of the paper and Irene had to direct me around the hall at school and made sure I didn't run into anything.
I almost walked into a wall, but my head bumped into Irene's hand thankfully.
"Pabo." To say that my heart didn't flutter would be a lie. I was supposed to be the one doing this!
We reached our classroom safely and Irene directed me towards our friends. I saw Solar look at me from the corner of my eye and Moonbyul also looking at the book.
"Hey, why you looking at that book?" I heard Irene sigh.
"I'm guessing you forgot about the test too?" Irene asked. Solar just looked at her girlfriend.
"YAH! I told you about it yesterday! Why don't you look at your damn phone?!" Moonbyul receives some hits from Solar and I just try to keep my focus on Irene's notes.
Her handwriting is very pretty too...Seulgi! Focus! Now's not the time! I slap myself again and this time I knew I did it in reality because the whole classroom looked at me wondering if I've lost it. I have lost it at this point.
I hear Moonbyul laughing at me and I could sense Irene staring at me with worried eyes, but I decided to ignore all of that and continued to study.
The bell rang and me and Irene went to our separate seats. I was envious of Moonbyul and Solar since they were seatmates.
The teacher went around the room and passed out the test. To say I was nervous was an understatement. I was terrified. I wasn't prepared at all and everything that I did memorize left me quickly as soon as I saw the paper in front of me.
I went through it and just kept guessing. Nothing helped me and Irene's notes didn't even have some of the stuff in here, but then again, I didn't read through all of her notes. I looked around the room and saw Moonbyul staring at hers without moving and I could tell that she was struggling with it as well.
"Miss Kang?" Everyone in the class looks at me and I just look at the teacher.
"Yes?" The teacher walked up to me.
"You weren't cheating were you?" She gave me a death glare, but I wasn't scared of her glares anymore. No one's death glare is as scary's as Irene's.
"No miss."
"Look at your own paper Kang." She left and I took a quick glance at Irene. She quickly looked away, but I could see a tiny smile appear on her lips. At least I made her happy?
The test ended and so did school. Me and Moonbyul parted ways with Irene and Solar.
"So how was your test today?" I asked.
"I left them all blank." I stared at her in shock.
"Did you really??" She burst into laughter.
"Of course not Seul. I'm not that dumb. I guessed for all of them at least." I sighed in relief.
"At least I'm not the only one who failed this." I said.
"Hey! Maybe I didn't fail. Sometimes I get really lucky with these things."
"Keep telling yourself that." I said while smiling.
Irene POV
"How did your test go Yongsun?"
"It went pretty well. I wonder how it went for Seulgi and Byul though." We both giggle at the thought.
"Seriously though I wonder what Seulgi was doing to get called out like that." Yongsun said.
"She was looking around the room and the teacher thought that she was cheating." I replied. Yongsun gave me smirk.
"How did you know that she was looking around the room?"
"I-I-"
"Is Joohyun turning into a stalker?" I look at Yongsun and she covers her mouth immediately regretting what she just said. I looked at her seriously.
"Don't do that Solar." I immediately turn around and walk away from Yongsun and I don't stop when she calls me.
I enter the girl's lockers room and take a deep breath.
I go out and start to practice.
"Alright ladies, let's start practicing." I could tell that Yongsun was worried about me, but I didn't care. What she did was low.
For the rest of the practice, I didn't talk to Yongsun. Instead I used the anger to help me serve and play. I might have hit the ball too hard at the other team because one of them managed to block my spike but afterwards they went to go get an ice pack for it. I did feel sorry.
I really needed to cool down. I sat down in the bleachers taking a break and I saw Yongsun walk up to me.
"Hey Irene." She looked sad and it made me feel a little bit guilty.
"Solar."
"Can I sit here?"
"Do whatever you want. I'm not in charge of your actions." She sat down next to me and let out a sigh.
"I'm sorry I wasn't thinking. I should have thought before speaking my mind. You just looked so happy."
"Solar, you might be over it, but I'm not. I'm still scared of everything."
"I did get over it, and I still think that you should too. I still think that Seulgi can help with that if you give her a chance to. If you just drop your walls like I did, I'm sure everything will be alright. I'm not letting something in the past effect the present and you shouldn't either."
I understand where she is at and maybe she really is right. Maybe I should drop my walls, but at the same time, I think I already have for Seulgi. Even though I did drop my walls and open up more to Seulgi, the past still is haunting me and is still effecting my present right now.
"Maybe you're right Solar. But still, what you said struck a nerve."
"I could tell, you kind of gave Jennie a bruised arm with that spike. Was that meant for me?" I look down ashamed. I really should let the past be the past. A single word made me lose it.
"I'm sorry Solar."
"I'm sorry too. Does this mean were cool?"
"We're good Yongsun." I whispered in her ear and she got happy again. This is how we know if we are mad at each other or if we forgave each other. It's always been like this since we came to the new school. If we got mad, we would say each other's fake names and if we were forgiven we would say their real names again.
It's been a while since I got mad at her and called her Solar when it was just the two of us and I'm sad that it happened today.
After practice, Yongun texted Moonbyul and told her that we were both going to my coffee shop. Yongsun kept on telling me that we should meet up with them and go together, but I was already late to work. In the end I just sighed and imagined the manager yelling at me or something.
Moonbyul and Seulgi came out and we walked to the shop together. Once we got in, I made eye contact with my manager and went straight towards her.
"Hel-" Before I could finish my sentence she just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose like she was done with me.
"Just take today off with your friends and girlfriend." I was about to say something, but I didn't want to make her mood worse and went to hangout with everyone.
"Hey!" I sat down and they all looked at me like I was crazy.
"What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be working?" Seulgi asked.
"My manager just told me to take the day off. I can tell that she's pissed off at me at this point."
"You do keep asking for five minute breaks to check up on me." Seulgi replied. Yongsun and Moonbyul just sat there listening to our conversation.
"Anywayyy...So Solar, how did you do on your test today?" Moonbyul asked.
"I did pretty good. They put in my grade!"
"REALLY?!" Both Moonbyul and Seulgi shouted. It kind of startled me and made me flinch.
We all pulled out our phones to see what we got. I looked at mine and I got 98/100.
"Solar, what did you get?" I was curious what she got. We were always in a competition ever since we met each other.
"97/100. You?"
"Looks like I win again!" I said smiling at Yongsun. I looked over to Moonbyul and Seulgi and their faces looked dead inside.
"I'm kind of scared to ask, but what did you guys get?" They both looked at me and it kind of freaked me out.
"Not good. That's for sure." Moonbyul replied. Seulgi just nodded along.
"Hey Byul, at least you have someone to compete with on grades." Me and Yongsun giggle at that and both Seulgi and Moonbyul look at each other with fire in their eyes. They both looked so competitive.
"Deal!" They both said. I looked over to Yongsun.
"I think Seulgi might get higher than Moon." I said with a smirk.
"Fine, I think Moon will get higher."
We both shake hands and wait for the announcement of who won.
"I got 40/100." Moonbyul said. My jaw dropped. How do you get something so low?! Can it get even lower?!
"I got...lower." Seulgi said while looking down. My jaw dropped even more.
Yongsun put her hand in front of me and I gave her a penny.
"I'm gonna regret this, but what was your score Seulgi?" I was scared not gonna lie.
"Ummm 10/100?" Me, Yongsun, and Moonbyul stare at Seulgi in surprise.
"I didn't know you could go that low!!" Moonbyul said while laughing.
"You made a new record in this group!" She continued. I just sighed and slapped my forehead.
The shop was closing and Moonbyul and Yongsun left early and it was just me and Seulgi. We haven't really spoken since. I was still confused on how Seulgi got such a bad score.
"You wanna start to head out?" Seulgi asked. I nodded and we made our way to the door. Once we opened the door, it started to rain.
"Did you by chance bring an umbrella?" I asked. Seulgi shook her head no.
"Let's just run for it!" Seulgi said. Before I could respond, She was already running. Before I knew it, we were in front of my house. The rain got even harder and I didn't want Seulgi to stay in the rain and walk back to her own house.
We were both already soaked as well and I didn't want her to catch anything.
"Hey, stay for the night." I said. She just looked shocked.
"No, it's okay." I gave her a glare and she immediately changed her mind.
We got into the house and Yeri came and greeted me and Seulgi.
"Hey, Yeri, I'm really tired right now, so me and Seulgi are going to bed." Yeri nodded and then went back to the TV. My parents weren't home yet and it was already 9. I was exhausted. We both got into my room and closed the door.
I changed into some new clothes and gave Seulgi some clothes that were over sized that I liked to wear.
I lay down in my bed and see Seulgi standing awkwardly in the corner of my room.
"Uhhh, Seulgi? Whatcha doing?" I asked. I was a little creeped out.
"Nothing? Standing?"
"Come here and sleep." I patted on the other side of my bed telling her to sleep with me. She reluctantly agreed and got in bed with me.
The warmth I felt that night felt so nice and comfortable and I felt safe for the first time in my life.