Yoojung gave her friend’s one last glance; she couldn’t hide the worried look on her face but when she noticed the looks of concern on both of her friend’s faces, she gave them a quick smile. “I’ll be fine.” She reassured them before slowly reaching for the handle of the classroom door.

Once she stepped in she could feel Doyeon’s eyes burning into her. She looked around the classroom trying to avoid Doyeon’s glare, rather than sitting by Doyeon she opted to sit on her usual seat. Doyeon can move to sit by me, it’s the least she can do after creating this mess. Yoojung thought to herself.

Yoojung was brought out of her thoughts when she heard a bang and felt the desk wobble a little bit, she looked up only to see Doyeon glaring down at her.

“Was there any need to slam your bag on the desk?” Yoojung mumbled to herself.

Unfortunately for her because Doyeon was sat so close to her, she heard.

“Yes.” Doyeon replied bluntly. “You should’ve let me copy your work and we wouldn’t be in this situation,” the taller girl paused for a moment. “Actually, better yet, if you or one of your friend’s hadn’t snitched on me and my friends then none of us would be in this situation.”

“It wasn’t any of us,” Yoojung huffed. “How do you know it wasn’t one of your friends? Maybe one of them felt guilt for their actions, something that you’ll never feel.”

Doyeon blinked, she was truly taken aback by that comment. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was actually hurt by the smaller girl’s comment. Doyeon shook her head. Why should I be hurt over that losers comment? She thought to herself.

“Anyway, here are my notes so just copy them and then we can leave.” Yoojung said as she slid her workbook towards Doyeon.

“I do feel guilt,” Doyeon thought out loud.

“What?” Yoojung blinked utterly confused.

“You said that I don’t feel guilt, so I’m telling you that I do feel guilt.” Doyeon replied flatly before adding; “I’ll admit this to you, Yoojung. I don’t like the way I treat you. I don’t like the way my friends treat you and your friends, but I feel like it’s became a routine now, you know? Like every day it’s the same .”

It was now Yoojung’s turn to be taken aback by what Doyeon had said. Doyeon felt bad for the way she treats her? Yoojung bit her lip as she tried to process the words that the taller girl had said. “Well why do you treat us like that then? If you don’t like it, why do it?”

“I don’t know,” Doyeon sighed. “I don’t know why I continue to treat you the way I do. I guess, because it’s happened for so long it’s like I said it’s just like a routine for me now.”

Yoojung listened to what Doyeon was saying and nodded her head. She wasn’t sure if Doyeon was being genuine or if it was a big ploy with her friends to get her to admit things to the taller girl for them to be used against her. Shaking her head at those thoughts, she turned to face the other girl. “Let’s just do our work, okay?”

Doyeon frowned as she took the older girls textbook. Her immediate thought was to provoke the older girl y saying that she couldn’t understand what was written due to the scribbling mess over some of her words. However she thought better of it, after all the mess was her fault. She began copying the girls work; there wasn’t a sound out of either of them besides the sound of Doyeon’s pen moving across the paper. Yoojung was trying to process what Doyeon had said whilst Doyeon was trying to figure out why she had said it.

Once Doyeon had finished, she passed the textbook back to Yoojung who mumbled a “thank you” and put it back into her bag. As Yoojung stood up to leave, Doyeon suddenly tugged on her sleeve.

“Wait,” Doyeon looked at Yoojung. “Can we go to a cafe together?”

Yoojung frowned confused. “When?”

“Now.”

Yoojung thought for a moment, she knew she had to go to Sohye’s house to tell her and Nayoung everything about her day and the after school lesson. She then realized that if she goes to the cafe with Doyeon she might be able to get more information out of her, maybe even persuade her to leave her and her friends alone.

The walk to the cafe was rather uncomfortable for both of the girls. Neither of them were speaking because neither of them knew what to say. Doyeon wasn’t even sure why she’d invited Yoojung to go to the cafe with her in the first place, there was just a part of her that wanted to spend time with her out of school; away from all of the judging eyes of her friends and random passersby. She wanted to get to know Yoojung a little bit better, not for something to over but genuinely. She just wasn’t sure why.

Once they arrived at the cafe Doyeon lead Yoojung to a table in the quietest corner. The cafe wasn’t too busy but there were quite a few people in there. Surprisingly none of them were from their school though, despite the cafe being only a 10 minute walk from there.

“What would you like?” Doyeon broke the silence.

“Hot chocolate please,” Yoojung went to grab her purse but was quickly stopped by Doyeon.

“No, it’s okay. I’ll pay, it’s really the least I can do.” She smiled awkwardly, “would you like anything to eat?”

“Uh, maybe a chocolate brownie too?” Yoojung smiled.

“Damn, you have a sweet tooth.” Doyeon chuckled. “Cute.”

Both Doyeon and Yoojung’s eyes widened when they heard the word ‘cute’ come out of the taller girl’s mouth. Doyeon quickly excused herself and went to the counter to buy their food and drink.

This left Yoojung sitting wondering what the hell was going on. Why did Doyeon invite me to this cafe? Why did Doyeon just call me cute? All these questions were swirling around Yoojung’s head and she knew she needed to get answers.

And she would.