"Seriously? Fighting in the bathroom? What the hell were you guys thinking!"
Y/N muttered all the complaints she had to herself as she quickly patched up both of Chun-young's and Ru-da's injuries.
"Oh I see. APPARENTLY, KISSING EACH OTHER IS NOT ENOUGH HUH? YOU HAD TO SWING YOUR FISTS AT EACH OTHER TOO!"
A few times, she purposely added a little more pressure while dabbing on their wounds to make them wince a little to realize their mistakes. Going out of the infirmary to clean her hands up, Y/N met Dan-I standing right beside the door and asked her whether she was alright, to which she nodded.
"Erm, Dan-I?"
"Y-Yes?"
Fidgeting with her fingers while looking down at them, Y/N dragged Dan-I to a more private area of the school before she leaned against the wall of the hallway.
"I have to ask you about something."
"Sure! Go on..."
Staring into her brown, chocolate eyes to see whether there were any hints of doubt or lies, Y/N coldly asked.
"Are you...really Ham Dan-I?"
"...WHAT?!"
"We are really sorry to interrupt the good atmosphere you two are having. Continue what you were doing."
Slamming the door shut, Y/N smiled at Dan-I who smiled back sweetly as they tried to escape or bleach their eyes from what they had seen. Hurried footsteps were heard right before the door was opened and Chun-young grabbed Dan-I while Ru-da grabbed Y/N.
Dragging the both of them back, all of them quietly took a seat in the infirmary as silence enveloped the room once again.
"Ham Dan-I, L/N Y/N, just what were you guys thinking about just now?"
Coughing and guiltily staring at anywhere but their eyes, Y/N and Dan-I diverted their attention to somewhere else. Sticking his face into their view, Ru-da gave another one of his angelic smiles while explaining what that whole situation was and both girls nodded quickly to show proof that they understood the entire situation. Suddenly, Y/N slammed her hands onto the bed where Chun-young was sitting.
"Yoo Chun-young! What is this photoshoot I just heard about from Dan-I a few minutes ago?!"
Cupping his face with her tiny hands, she was so worried about him that she had no idea how close she got to his face, making his eyes widen and his cheeks turn slightly pink on the spot, causing Dan-I to mentally squeal at this sight while Ru-da had an uncomfortable look evident on his face.
Immediately looking away, Chun-young glared at Ru-da and chased him out of the room, telling him that he had something important to talk about with Y/N and Dan-I. After comforting Dan-I about the March 2nd incident, Chun-young turned to make eye contact with Y/N.
"Y/N, you've said you had modeled for a photoshoot a few times before right?"
Nodding her head slowly, Y/N was not sure about where this conversation was heading.
"Would you like to join me for the photoshoot after school today?"
Y/N's entire body lagged for a few minutes as she kept processing what Chun-young had just asked her.
"A-AH SURE!"
She slapped herself mentally for freaking out.
"I mean, I would love to...It's just that I have some business going on after school today so I may be slightly late to the photoshoot."
"No worries, we can wait."
"...Ah, erm...the truth is, I have no idea how my mother would react if she saw me in another commercial that is not featuring her brand, again."
Chun-young stared at her, encouraging her to continue as she sighed a little.
"My mother used to beat me up if I wasn't representing her brand and went to advertise for other commercials instead. B-But she's back in America now, so I guess I can g-give it a try..."
Patting her head softly, Chun-young spoke up while Dan-I gave her a side-hug.
"We'll protect you from her. From social media. From anywhere. So if you have any problems next time, just count on us. I don't mind if you burdened us one bit. That's what we are here for, right?"
Giving a hint of a tiny smile, Chun-young ruffled her hair lightly while Y/N smiled back at her two friends.
"I still have business to attend to after school though, that isn't an excuse."
"I can wait."
"Sigh..."
"MUAHAHAHA! 40 PEOPLE IS A PIECE OF CAKE! C'MERE IF YOU WANT TO DIE- WARGH, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!"
Wagging at her finger accusingly at Eun-hyung, Ju-in, and Yeo-ryeong who came with all the high rankers of the delinquents.
"Y/N?! What are YOU doing here?"
Yeo-ryeong asked as all of them had a look of confusion on their faces.
"Woo San told me there was a huge fight going down today and that I could join in, but damn! Didn't know you guys were the masterminds of this fight! I haven't had this much fun in so long! Thanks guys!"
Punching a random guy's face without even looking at him, all of them had shivers running down their spine.
"Oh, all of you knew each other already? This is Y/N, rank 0, and is currently the highest ranking delinquent now!"
Rolling up her sleeves and reaching for another ball of bubblegum, she blew another bubble before it exploded while she glared at the current rank 72.
"So where's that son of a bitch that hurt my Dan-I?"
"Wow Yeo-ryeong! You were amazing with that German suplex!"
Clapping her hands in glee, Y/N quickly ran to Eun-hyung's side and tiptoed, softly whispering into his ear.
"They didn't tell me you were the other rank 0."
Glancing at the cheeky girl with a little dash of pink dusted across his cheeks, he quickly put on a smile and looked ahead. Y/N knew that he wanted that to be kept as a secret and respected his privacy, linking his arms with hers as they all walked back home together.
"OH DAMN IT! I FORGOT I HAD A PHOTOSHOOT WITH CHUN-YOUNG LATER ON! OKAY GOODBYE GUYS! LOVE Y'ALLS! LET ME KNOW IF THERE'S ANOTHER FIGHT GOING DOWN!"
All of them smiled and shook their heads while they saw the short female race down the path and dashed back to her own apartment.
Everyone was gathered at Dan-I's house for the moment while Dan-I struggled to find a right time to study with all of them relaxing and playing around at her house.
"Guys...you know there's only a week until midterms, right?"
"And?"
"Don't you guys need to study?"
Pausing to look at Dan-I's face with a dumbfounded expression plastered on her own, Y/N laughed out loud while gluing her eyes back to her phone screen.
"Pfft, you're so funny Dan-I!"
Giving a deadpanned expression, Dan-I still couldn't believe how Y/N could score the same as Yeo-ryeong without even bothering to study and play all day. Just as Ju-in suddenly found a lost USB at the corner of the couch, they all started to play it and reminisced their old memories while Y/N smiled at them from 3 years ago.
Suddenly, tears started trickling down her face without her knowing it herself. Y/N didn't know why. Nobody knew until they heard soft sniffling coming from the couch, turning around to find Y/N covering her own face as she tried to silently sob. Quickly grabbing a box of tissues from the desk, Yeo-ryeong and Dan-I started comforting Y/N while patting her shoulder and her head.
"I'm so sorry..."
"Shh...it's okay."
"I've never had friends like you guys before. All of you are so kind, so willing, and accepted me so easily. It makes me frustrated whenever I feel like I'm bothering your friendship sometimes, especially since we just met one another not so long ago."
Staying in silence but still urging her to continue, Y/N continued to take a few more pieces of tissue out of the box to silently blow her nose.
"It's like I feel like I'm being a hassle to your friendship or something..."
"NO!"
Yeo-ryeong cupped Y/N's face and forced her to look at her.
"No, L/N Y/N, you are NOT disrupting our friendship at all! We are so happy and glad to have another girl in our group! Do you know how suffocating it is to deal with so many boys and only us, two girls?! We are so glad to have you in our team!"
Sniffles turned into sobs, and sobs turned into bawling.
"My mother n-never let me have any friends! I w-was forced to make f-friends with some other random famous kids! They were all so m-mean to me..."
Smiling at the girl who was cutely bawling, Eun-hyung came a little closer and looked up at her.
"Well, you're not the only one fighting this war right now, right?"
Ju-in ran in and hugged Y/N tightly.
"Yeah! Y/N is rank 0! The strongest of the strongest! You have us with you anytime!"
Hiding her face into the hoodie of Ju-in's, she let out a muffled cry before thanking all of them for being with her and having her back while they all assembled for a group hug.
"WOULD YOU GUYS LIKE TO COME OVER TO MY HOUSE TOMORROW?"
Smiling at her antics, all of them nodded.
"Of course!"
Midterms ended. Of course, Ban Yeo-ryeong and Y/N tied for first place. Naturally, Ji-ho placed second. Eun-hyung had placed third and Ju-in, who had the hobby of purposely marking the wrong answers on his tests, placed 50th. Chun-young's results were unknown while Dan-I placed...53rd.
"Should I just give up on studying...?"
Hye-hil and Dan-I exclaimed at the same time while Y/N turned to chuckle at them.
"Would you guys like to study together some time? I guess I can help a little..."
Y/N asked with a rare smile on her face while the two of them nodded firmly with determination.
"Okay, we shall now begin the meeting for the retreat's talent show!"