As days passed by, Minju got closer to Chaewon, much like what she had planned and Chaewon was also liking Minju quite a lot as a friend. The few days that passed by allowed for the four transferees to familiarise themselves with the school campus granting them the ability to roam school without getting lost.
-Hitomi POV-
Minju has been catching my eyes the past few days, but she has not noticed that I take occasional glances at her. That's a relief. I caught something else, though. Chaewon has been hanging out with Minju a lot more these past few days. Has Minju opened up to her already? That's quick...
"Unnie! You seem absorbed in thinking about something, a penny for your thoughts?" Ah, Wonyoung is back from getting me my bread for the break today. "Thank you for the bread Wonyoungie, I wasn't thinking about much stuff, just on Minju and Chaewon's relationship."
"HM? Are you jealous of Chaewon taking Minju away from you or mad at Minju for stealing your Chaewon?" What is this girl even on about? How can Chaewon be mine, and why would I be jealous of Chaewon? Minju isn't mine, neither is Chaewon.
"What nonsensical stuff are you spouting?" Was the most natural response I could get out of my mouth to respond to that question. Am I even supposed to have an answer? Getting those thoughts out of my head, Wonyoung threw me a 'you know what I mean' look and winked at me. Wonyoung probably forgot about her medicine today, giving her a reason to go haywire. We munched on our bread as our breakfast, hoping that it would last us till the end of school before we got hungry again. From my observations, Chaewon's pair go to the cafeteria for their break most of the time while Minju's pair stay in class. With our tummies filled, we were ready to take on classes again.
-Yujin POV-
These past weeks had been chaotic. Two pairs of transferees came to interfere with the balanced ecosystem we had in place. Chaewon's previous best friend coming back into her life, with a new best friend that is about as tall as me, tsk. An addition of a cute and tiny being into our class for Pure Literature too, with a goddess-like girl that probably captured Chaewon's attention. Chaewon would not abandon me for her, right?
"Unnie, you wouldn't abandon me for Minju, would you?" Chaewon, I am trusting you to take care of me in this new school. Don't abandon me, please. "Who knows? I just might abandon you for Minju." Ouch, that hurt... Without me noticing, the look of my eyes changed rapidly from one of anticipation to one of disappointment and sadness. Chaewon caught onto it quickly, though.
"Eh eh eh, Yujin I won't abandon youu. I was just joking. Don't be sad, it is my bad for pranking you. Cheer up. I won't do this again, alright? Cheer up, can't have my bestie sulking for the rest of the day, can I?" I sulked even more, showing my disapproval of her response. "Eh eh, stop sulking. Unnie's sorry... How do you want me to cheer you up?"
Hm. How do I want Chaewon to cheer me up after making me sad? Making her do my signature move, the puppy eyes. "Make the puppy's eye look and it better be good. Hmph." Chaewon was horrible at that and she knew it but she also knew that it was probably the only way I would cheer up. Sighing in defeat, she made the look. Which made her unbearably cringey and cute. Without control, my hands gave her cheeks a squish.
The teacher came into the lecture room, ready to start his lesson. Oh, it's history seeing how Mr Lee came into the lecture room. "Take out your textbooks and flip to page 34. Transfers, got ya book yet?" Both Minju unnie and Nako unnie nodded timidly at Mr Lee's question, likely afraid of him. "Chaewon unnie, tell Minju and Nako not to worry about this teacher being strict."
"Minju, Nako, no need to worry about this teacher. He is one of the most lenient teachers we have teaching us."
-Minju POV-
"Ah, is that so?" The pair nodded, bringing sighs of relief to both Nako and I. Something the both of us do not want this early in the year is attention from the teachers. "Ya, Nako. Are you going to listen?"
"Nah, if he is chill as a teacher, there should be no problem with me slacking in class as long as I get good grades." Ah, the intellect. How lucky of her to be gifted in terms of academics, but unlike her, I am nowhere close to gifted. I am horrible at academics, except for languages. My languages are pretty good.
"Minju ya, are you going anywhere after school? I was thinking of bringing you to the cafe nearby after school if you have nothing planned after school." Is Chaewon asking me out on a friendly hangout? She considers me as a friend so quickly, good to know. I should start earning her trust, but I don't ant to abandon Nako. "Sure, but can Nako come with me? I don't want to abandon her." As I finished saying that, I looked back at the girl that I mentioned. Yup, she sure is sending me heart eyes. How cute. It is Nako anyway. "If you want to let Nako tag along, I am sure Yujin can come along too. Just to keep Nako company." Would Nako want that? Well, Yujin is nodding her head rapidly, eager to tag along or just to keep Nako company. I would never know.
-Nako POV-
What the hell have I gotten myself into? Another round of interaction with Ms Yujin the giant, I would much rather not, but do I have a choice? No. Thus, I can only gladly comply. It is going to be Mathematics after this. God damn, I don't like Math lessons.
-Time Skip-
"That concludes the chapter on probability and statistical data. Remember to finish the work assigned to you guys and hand it in by next Friday. Class dismissed." That ends the day of lessons and marks the start of my unplanned hangout. Not like I mind going out with them, but why must the giant tag along? Gosh. I am still not over my experience with tall people.
"Nako unnie! Ready to go? I will show you the way." A wide smile plastered on Yujin's face. This girl seems harmless, though. That is how all of them seemed at first, too. I won't trust her just yet. Let's wait and see first. I also got Wonyoung to look out for. She doesn't seem to have any plans to interact with me. "Unnie? The other two have already left, wanna go now?"
"I got distracted. My bad my bad. Sure, please lead the way." I nodded too, to justify what I said.
"Unnie! Why are you speaking so formally to me? It should be me being formal to you." How do I even respond to that? I can't possibly say, oh it's because I am scared of tall people like you, right? "No worries, this formal facade of mine will naturally go away when I am more comfortable around you." Eh, Yujin is pouting.
"That means you are not comfortable around me, then. That's saddening. How am I supposed to make you comfortable around me?" She continued pouting. She looks adorable right now. What are you even thinking about?? "Don't worry, it will occur naturally. Now, let's go, shall we?" She nodded enthusiastically. As if she has been waiting to go on a hangout with me. Can I really trust Yujin...?
-Chaewon POV-
Walking along the corridors of the school, both me and Minju went into awkward silence, not knowing what to ask each other to start a conversation. Minju wanted to start the conversation as she nudged my shoulder. "Can you tell me what is wrong with your best friend? Is her name Yujin? What is her intention towards my Nako?"
"EH? Both of you dating? I will ask Yujin to back away from her immediately then."
'No, no, no, you misunderstood what I said. I call her my Nako daily. But what is it with Yujin wanting to get so close to Nako? She is getting frustrated over the intentions of Yujin."
"Oh, if that is so, I don't see the harm in telling you what is going on in Yujin's head. She wants a tiny friend. Yea, that's it. She finds Nako fascinating and extremely cute. Nako is undeniably cute."
"If that is the case, I will tell her to chill out."
"Thank you for helping Yujin in advance, then." Minju reciprocated that thank you of mine with a wink that was deadly. Am I falling for Minju already? It is too early on, there is no way I would like someone so quickly.
-Hitomi POV-
Me and Wonyoung are going to Zone Beanery for the 2nd time this week. Well, she is addicted to the mint chocolate they sell at the ice cream store and I just tag along as she wants company, but the cheesecake there isn't half bad too. Being out of the school gates gave me and Wonyoung a relief as we escaped the stressful atmosphere despite exams only coming in two months' time.
"Unnie, ain't the afternoon air great? Or is it I am just stressed about the exams coming in two months?"
"The latter Wonyoung, the latter." It's two months away yet she is already stressed. Typical school nerd behaviour. Am I glad that I got her as my best friend? Probably. Being the good friend, I can only try to soothe her nerves by doing external activities like stuffing her with mint chocolate. It helps, though.
Looking through the windows of the cafe, I realised it was busy today, filled with customers. With 4 familiar faces in the cafe too. What is wrong with those 4? Are they having a double date? There is no way.
"I spotted a Nako unnie with my eyes! Hii, let us go in and join them, shall we?" I wanted to protest, but I can't possibly ruin Wonyoung's day by not allowing her to meet Nako. Wonyoung said that she is interested in Nako and she seems like someone fun to be with too... I had no intentions of protesting but even if I wanted to, it would be a futile attempt seeing how Wonyoung already pulled me into the cafe. This is awkward, is it not? All 4 of the familiar faces turned towards the both of us. Wonyoung had an easy way out, though. Casually beaming a smile, and saying hi, before walking (jogging) to Nako to sit beside her.
While she did it so effortlessly, I was just staring at and getting stared at by all 4 pairs of eyes. The table Wonyoung sat at had by Nako and Yujin. Eh, Yujin? So I had basically no choice but to sit with Chaewon and Minju as the seats were filled up. Should I sit in the middle of those two or should I sit beside one of them... I am not close with either of them, I was close with Chaewon but considering the current circumstances, I better sit closer to Minju.
-Wonyoung POV-
Ouch. Why is Nako unnie moving away from me when I attempt to sit closer to her? Oh yea, silly me. I haven't even spoken to her much other than the time we were speaking for the Literature discussion... Provided that she is probably wary of me; it is natural. Don't worry too much. That shall be what I tell myself. But, I want to get closer to her. Screw the stupid act, I am just going to strike up a conversation with her.
"Nako unnie, fancy seeing you here. What are you doing here?" That sounded weird, let's hope she replies to me. "Ah, I am just here to accompany Minju but since she has Chaewon's accompany, Yujin is here to keep me entertained." As she finished her sentence, she pointed to Yujin who just waved. Ah, I see what is happening here. "Nako unnie, have you done the Pure Literature homework?" It was Yujin's turn to speak.
"Crap, I forgot about it. I will do it later at home." This could be my chance! "Nako unnie, do you perhaps want to do it here? I could help you with it. I am decent at the subject after all." She let out a small chuckle which were pleasing to the ears. She sounded so extremely cute.
Her next line was provocative, though. "You? Sure~" What was that supposed to mean? "Nako unnie, take out your laptop. I could help too!" Eh, why is Yujin trying to get involved with this now? I was the one who proposed the idea first...
Is she also trying to get closer to Nako unnie? As that question flashed across my mind, Nako was already taking out her laptop. "So, who is going to be helping me?"
-Nako POV-
Now, what the hell am I getting myself into? Having two gigantic beings beside me to HELP me do my work? I must have lost my mind. With that sudden change of mood, I decided against my original idea and placed my laptop back into my bag, earning confused looks from the two giants and also catching a stray Minju looking at my side. "Eh? I thought we were going to help you."
"I should be fine doing it on my own, but it's the thought that counts, so thank you."