"You'll be okay, Mijoo." Jinyoung pats my shoulder for the nth time. We were both standing outside the cafeteria, waiting for the girls to arrive
"I didn't even know their names, how am I supposed to do this?" Jinyoung rolls his eyes
"Mijoo," he carefully places a finger on my name tag; wait, name tags I forgot we had them "just read their name tag."
"They probably didn't have to read my name tag to know my name, from a nobody to a hated somebody in a week. Wow, thanks Jinyoung, I'm forever grateful." I sigh and Jinyoung frowns
"I don't know why you keep thinking everyone's going to hate you, what are they supposed to do about it anyway?"
"Force me to kill myself? Make you guys all hate me through really realistic rumours? They could do anything." Jinyoung's frown became more, frowny. "Don't tell me it won't happen, because it could Jinyoung. It really could." He opens his mouth the reply but didn't get the chance to say anything
"Mijoo!" A chorus of squeals and the squeals owners stampede towards me
"Oh my god, you didn't ditch us. We thought you would." A girl, who by a quick scan of her name tag I discover is quite literally named Joo, grins widely at me - I wonder how good her acting skills are
"Come on let's go and eat." Another, Jaein, grabs my hand and pulls me towards her "Bye, Jinyoung, enjoy your lunch." She waves to him
"Bye Jinyoung." The other three chorus, I look back at him with a 'help me' expression. He smiles at me, reassuringly 'you'll be perfectly okay' he mouths to me.

"So, Mijoo, you seem like the type of person who plays a lot of games and seems a little nerdy and smart." Joo asks me
"Yeah, I guess, you got the games part right but I'm actually really stupid."
"Me too, I do so bad in all of my tests." Jaein says, putting her hand up for a high five. I meet her hand and it makes a loud noise
"Oh, that was a good one." Hyejin says, grinning. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out to see a message from Jinyoung

jinyoung: where are you?

I look at the message and blank out, look around for any signage I spot a sign the indicates the gym nearby

me: near the gym, not next to the gym or in the gym but near the gym

you >> jinyoung

jinyoung: are you okay?

me: for now

"What are you doing?" Joo asks, all four of me lean towards me
"Just talking to my sister about what's going to happen after school, whether or not my mother will be home in time for dinner." They all lean back
"I see." Jaein nods, Hyerin stands up
"I have to go somewhere." She walks off
"Probably going to the bathroom or something like that, which is good because we need to tell you something." I gulp, this didn't sound good
"It's not bad, we promise. It's just about Hyejin." Yumi assures me "We just want you to know, that all of us aren't really friends with her and you shouldn't be either. When it comes to you, she suggested getting to know you." I tilt my head to the side
"What do you mean?"
"She, basically, would rather use you for a way to get to one of them. I'm not sure which one though, it isn't Jinyoung I know that much." I nod my head slowly
"So you aren't here to beat me up." All three of them begin laughing hysterically
"What us? Of course not! We'd never do that." Joo exclaims
"Okay but like is Hyejin nice?" They all stop laughing and shake their heads
"Nope, just make sure they all know about her okay? I can't even remember who she likes, he's older than Jinyoung I think." Jaein says
"You've got about four options there." Yumi points out
"Haknyeon, Jihoon, Hyungseob and Woojin. If it's Woojin she can say goodbye to her dreams because nobody is going to be dating him any time soon. If she isn't nice then she should probably back away from Hyungseob he's the pure and sensitive type and as for Jihoon I'd like to think he's too responsible and intelligent to like her. Then there Haknyeon; a very difficult person to figure out, he doesn't really care about school much and from what I've witnessed he's a bit like Woojin in the sense of I don't see him dating anyone any time soon." I say, I'm partially just mumbling to myself but loud of for them to hear me.
"I see." Joo says.
"Hey guys I'm back!" Hyejin shouts, skipping her way towards them. We all smile at her, my smile is certainly fake - whether she's a good person or not; I'm still smiling like this, I'm not sure if I can trust her. She might be the nice one, who knows?
"Hyejin, do you want to tell Mijoo about the guy you like? The one you keep talking about, whatever his name is again."
"Haknyeon." Hyejin rolls her eyes as if they really should know by now "Mijoo, you sit with him right?"
"Yeah."
"He's a great person right? Really kind and helpful." I remember back to the study session a few days ago and how Haknyeon refused to help anyone
"Uh, yeah, I guess." Hyejin smiles and claps her hands
"See, I told you guys he's amazing." My phone vibrates again

euiwoong; having fun, darling? jinyoung's going to come and collect you since it's almost class time

me; oh, really? he doesn't have to though

euiwoong; can't stop him now he's already left

"Well, have to go to class soon." I say, I pick up my bag and realised that I completely forgot to eat my lunch - no wonder I was so hungry the entire time.
"That's a good point, you have art next don't you? We all have sport so we'll see you later!" Jaein waves, Yumi comes up to me and clutches my hands
"Thank you for spending time with us, you're a really nice person I hope we can do this again." I nod slowly
"Uh, yeah, why not?"
"Bye, Mijoo!" They all chorus. I wave goodbye to them and sit back down, eyeing the food in my bag. It's too late to eat it all now, I open the container and take out a tomato and eat it.
"Mijoo, there you are." Jinyoung jogs his way up to me "It's time for class." I put the container back into my bag and stand up "Did you not eat your lunch or something?"
"Yeah, I was really nervous so I forgot to eat. If you hear my stomach rumbling all through art that's why." Jinyoung pushes me lightly
"Mijoo, really?" I nod "You're silly, let's go to class now okay?"
"Yeah." We begin walking to class, which isn't that far away
"Were they really mean to you?" Jinyoung inquires
"No, they weren't." Jinyoung smiles brightly
"See, what did I tell you? You were fine."
"Yeah, except one of them just wants to be friends with me because she likes Haknyeon. She's the one that suggested it but the other three seem to like me." Jinyoung sighs
"Of course one them likes Haknyeon, there's bound to be one. Are you making assumptions that she's using you though?"
"No." I huff "Joo, Jaein and Yumi told me that they aren't really friends with Hyejin either and that she isn't that nice. Apparently she suggested being friends with me so she can get closer to Haknyeon"
"Oh, you know their names now. That's an improvement. Is this Hyejin another victim to the 'Haknyeon illusion'?"
"The what?" I look up at him, I wasn't following
"The 'Haknyeon illusion'. Everyone that likes Haknyeon is under the illusion that he's a super nice and really helpful person, now see that isn't exactly wrong but! He is a little careless sometimes."
"Oh, then yeah. She is."
"Well, that isn't going to end well. I'll let him know about that later." Jinyoung concludes
"That's a good idea." We turn the corner towards our classroom "Are we late, or really early?" I whisper. There's no one there
"I'm hoping the latter but I think we're late." The teacher exits the classroom and spots us in the hallway, we both gulp nervously
"Ah, Jinyoung and Mijoo. I wasn't wondering where you were, isn't like either of you to miss a day of school. Where were you?" I didn't think we were walking that slow
"On the other side of the school, miss." Jinyoung lies "I had to get something from the office as the end of lunch and Mijoo came with me since, obviously, we're in the same class."
"What did you have to get from the office?" The teacher holds out their hand, Jinyoung take off his bag and produces an official looking school document
"A permission note about the school trip later in the term, my mother lost the note so I had to get another one." He holds up the note and the teacher examines it and the two of us hold our breath waiting for their response
"Okay, that's reasonable. Next time don't leave that until the end of lunch and don't take Mijoo with you so she's late too." We both exhale and enter the classroom
"That was close." I whisper
"It's your fault, you're a slow walker."
"Me? Have you seen me walk? It was your fault." I retort and Jinyoung rolls his eyes
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say." I give him a glare and he grins "You're a slow walker." He mumbles
"Shut up."