I just don't fucking get it.

The math problem, I mean.

And it's like Jinyoung doesn't fucking get it either, that no one really gives a shit about—

"—how to solve equation number one," he paused, scanning the room until his gaze landed on, well, "Momo, would you be willing to try and solve it for the class?"

I fucking hate this man.

I fucking hate this class.

I don't fucking want to be here.

In the first place, I shouldn't even be here. But last year, I failed a major course since I wasn't able to hand in this huge Literature exam because it was my dad's death anniversay (and my mom really decided it would be funny to drop the news — that same fucking night — that she and Sana's dad are going to get married the following month).

Really, one of the greatest fucking weekends of my life.

Anyway, just in case you wanna know, the wedding didn't push through. Thank god. Something about issues on Sana's parents' divorce papers or something— whatever. I don't really give a shit.

"No, thank you."

There were a few chuckles echoing the room when Jinyoung looked at me and forced a chuckle out, himself. "Uh, that's not really a request, Ms. Hirai. I want you to solve the equation. Huge difference, so—"

I stood up from my seat rather abruptly, cutting him off before he even thinks of carrying on with the stupid know-it-all speech (which he seems to really like using on me, and which I absolutely hate). Anyway, I ignored the way he raised his eyebrow at me when I took the stupid chalk from his hand and started writing down on the dark green chalkboard with it.

Well, not really writing. More like drawing a middle finger which, because of my rather outstanding art skills, turns out looking like a mad erect penis, instead.

Even better.

Of course my dumb classmates had to laugh at that. I must admit it was pretty funny, seeing the expression on Jinyoung's face. "Alright, that's it! A week's detention for you, Ms. Hirai!"

"Make it two. I'd love some more time to check out that new detention superviser— Irene Bae, the intern? She's pretty hot," I watched the way Jinyoung's frown deepen, it almost seems like smoke is coming out of his nostrils. "You know, I do have a thing for older women—"

"Out!"

I raised both of my hands in faux-surrender. "Hey, you said it, not me." Without looking back, I grabbed my backpack from the floor, strolling towards the exit before Jinyoung's voice echoed my ears once again.

This time, I didn't like what came out of his dumb mouth.

"And go straight to the vice principal's office!"

Oh, no no no.

Not that fucking hell hole!

/

I would've ditched that thing of course, but this time Jinyoung managed to be smart enough to not let me go by myself, sending the student council president to escort me to the vice principal's office— Or really, just to make sure I actually go.

Though he's still quite dumb at that part, since he really thought he'd hurt me the moment he sent the student council president to deal with me — when the student council president is literally my best friend in the whole fucking world, Park Jihyo.

Little ball of sunshine, miss popular girl, rich, talented, gorgeous Park Jihyo—the perfect student.

Oh, and the loser's best friend.

That's about right. I'm like, basically, the only flaw in Jihyo's life.

Though she loves me. She's always made sure I knew that.

I don't even know why she likes me. We are basically the opposites. She's famous and smart and she studies well. She's not awkward, she loves making friends.

I don't even have any other friends besides her.

It's just fucking bizzarre, how Jihyo and I ended up being two peas in a pod. Sometimes, I really have this urge to just hold her by each shoulder, shake her endlessly until she's pinned against the wall, as I scream at her face, "What's the matter with you?! Why the fuck do you like me?!"

Anyway, I already honestly tried that one time when I was wasted out of my mind, but she just fucking giggled at me, pinched my nose like I'm a fucking five-year-old, and then put me to bed.

How can I not love her just as much?

"Yeah, you have a crush on her," I remember Son Chaeyoung from art class told me once. I don't even know why we ended up having a conversation about that. We weren't really friends. She just sat next to my favorite spot by the glass windows of the studio classroom on the first day and kept sitting there for the rest of the year. She'd occassionally speak to me, or mumble under her breath (I found out later on that it was her, speaking to herself—what a fucking weirdo).

Oh, wait, I think I remember now.

It was that time when Jihyo's election party came into our class for room to room campaign, and I couldn't help but stare at her because she looked so fucking pretty that day—and I'm just proud I got such a pretty best friend. Meanwhile, apparently, Son Chaeyoung started to think I was crushing on her.

"Please," I rolled my eyes at her that one time, "I don't like Jihyo like that. She's practically my sister."

I also remember her answer triggering me so much, I almost strangled her right then and there.

"No— Sana's your sister. Jihyo's your crush. Two different things."

I'm pretty sure my glare kind of scared her off at the mention of Sana's name. I really don't like it when people even just breathe out the word sister along with the name Sana.

What more when mentioned in the same sentence as the name Jihyo?

I might be a loser, but I'm not dumb. I know Sana had the hots for her, maybe once or twice, looking at Jihyo and internally labelling her as fuckable or not-fuckable-enough like she does with literally every single woman she sees.

You see, Sana's a fucking casanova. That's why I make sure she's not getting anywhere near Jihyo. And it really pisses me off, because whenever I invite Jihyo over to my house, I'd catch her staring a little too longer than necessary or saying extra stupid jokes to crack a giggle out of my best friend.

So fucking annoying.

Plus, she's also super confident, and so fucking self-absorbed just because she knows she has the reasons to— the only female player in the football team, miss leather-jacket-popular,

the loser's hot sister.

Just amazing.

"You're zoning out," I was cut off from my own thoughts when Jihyo's voice rang against my ear. "Are you nervous?"

I scoffed, turning my head to the side where she was walking next to me. "What? No. That's crazy. Why the fuck would I be nervous?"

"Uh, I don't know," she raised an eyebrow at me. "because you're currently on your merry way to the vice principal's office?"

"Vice principal Kang doesn't scare me," I say. Jihyo must've not believed me because I saw her roll her eyes. "It's true! The only thing that actually scares me around here is cancer. And taxes, soon enough."

Jihyo laughed at my statement, and I might say I was a little proud. I love it whenever those cute, tiny dimples appear on the lower sides of her lips.

"You're an idiot."

"Your idiot." I say, making her smile even more as she sent me a side glance. A few seconds after, I pulled her by the hand to a stop when I noticed that we were only a few meters away from the office. "Hey, listen. I know we've already done this a few times—"

Apparently, Jihyo already knows what I was about to say, because I saw her sigh, pulling her arm from my hold so she could cross them over her chest.

"A few times?" she asks. I pouted, jutting my bottom lip out and blinking several times. Jihyo rolls her eyes. "Momo, I've let you off the hook everytime you got sent to detention."

"Just give me this last one, please, Jih?" I pleaded, holding both of her shoulders so we're face to face. "I promise, you won't get in trouble."

I always promise her that whenever she helps me out, and I always keep it.

Maybe that's why Jihyo let out another sigh.

"Fine," she says, rolling her eyes at me again when I smiled at her so wide and leaned in to peck on her cheek. "You're lucky I have a meeting I need to catch up on."

"I sure am," I say, reaching out to shuffle her hair in a mess. "I'm also lucky you love me too much."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that."

"Hey!" I exclaim in faux-offense, making Jihyo laugh again.

"Run along, Mo," she grins up at me with that adorable gummy smile of hers, making me smile to myself as well. Jihyo started walking towards the opposite direction when she turned back around, pointing a finger at me, "And don't get caught wandering around the hallways, okay? You're gonna get me in trouble!"

I chuckled at her warning, sending her a mock salute before she turns back around and jogs towards the direction of the student council office.

And, well, I might've watched her until she's out of sight, that's why the moment I turned around absentmindedly after Jihyo disappears into a corner, I suddenly felt a body collapse with mine.

What the fuck! I internally yelled, because this person was carrying a huge bucket of blue paint, which I am now soaked from, and I'm absolutely certain I look like the fucking cookie monster. What's worse? She was just standing right there, eyes wide in shock and obvious shame and guilt and—

"Oh, my god! I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry, Momo!"

Of course it's her.

The other loser.

Im Nayeon — the theater nerd. Great actress, outstanding voice, but she's rather odd. I mean, the way she thinks and dresses and everything else. And clumsy as hell. Sometimes, I think maybe everything she touches just simply dies or gets destroyed. I never really paid her much attention before, but now...

Well, now I fucking have to!

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I yelled, for real this time. "What the fuck are you doing, walking around carrying that piece of shit and not looking where you're going?!"

"I'm sorry!" She exclaims again, both hands held up in front of her when I took closer steps to her in fury, unintentionally towering her. "I'm really sorry, Momo. I-I didn't mean to— I didn't see you walking towards me—"

"You know what, just fucking save it, okay?" I scoffed, rolling my eyes at her as I attempted to just walk away. But then, I realized that half of my body was literally covered in blue paint, so I turned back around to face Nayeon, who was still standing by the corner, looking scared. I rolled my eyes. "At least give me something I can change into. I can't walk around campus like this."

Nayeon seemed to snap out of her misery, looking at me, still wide eyed, before nodding hastily and suttering out,

"Right, of course. I-I think I have a spare in my locker."

/

She didn't have a 'spare' in her locker.

She had a pirate costume.

"Those aren't really mine," she says, obviously embarrassed, as she watched my reflection through the huge mirror in the gym lockers where I'd showered and changed. "They're actually Dahyun's, I'm surprised it fits you just fine."

I rolled my eyes, folding the sleeves of the white button up so it doesn't look that weird.

I'm already pretty awkward and friendless— I really don't need yet another reason to fucking repel people.

"Whatever," I mumble, frowing as I scanned my reflection on the mirror once again. I look fucking ridiculous. The thought made me sigh. "I can't fucking do this."

"What do you mean?" Nayeon asks, eyebrows furrowed as she continued to observe me.

"I mean, I can't fucking go out looking like this!" I exclaim as I turned around to face her, tugging at the loose red and gold vest sewed on the white button up. Ridiculous. "Do you even see this thing? I'm already a bad dresser loser around here, okay? I don't need these people calling me a fucking circus freak, too!"

"Okay, then what do you want?" Nayeon yells back in the same tone, throwing her hands up in obvious frustration. "I have nothing else! What do you want me to do?"

A moment of silence stood in between us, no one daring to speak. We just looked at each other, waiting for someone to break the tension. Eventually, I narrowed my eyes at her, muttering under my breath,

"Take off your clothes."

I'm pretty sure that wasn't worded properly, because I saw Nayeon's eyes shoot wide once again, her eyeballs almost jumped out of their sockets.

"What?!" She yells, taking a few steps back as her hand reached out to grab something from behind. "Y-you fucking pervert—"

"I just meant," I cut her hysterics off, grabbing her by the wrist before she can manage to pull her stupid rape whistle out of her back pocket, (Yeah, she carries that shit around campus like a fucking psychopath. Maybe that's why she doesn't have a boyfriend. What man would dare to come near her when she has that thing?) "Give me your clothes to wear and you, instead, walk out with these."

I tugged on the ridiculously puffy sleeves of the pirate costume, which I'm pretty sure looked nearly rather funny.

At my words, however, Nayeon just scoffed. "What?! No way!"

"Yes way!" I hissed at her, gripping her arm as I pulled her closer, my eyes were still looking down at her chellengingly. "It's just fair! Your ass was the reason why I got soaked in the first place!"

(I'm pretty sure that wasn't properly worded, either.)

"I said no!" Nayeon hisses back, attempting on pulling her arm away, but misreably failing, nonetheless. By the way, I'm oddly, freakishly strong. Sometimes even stronger than Sana is. "Let go of me!"

"No!" I yell back once more, tightening my grip on Nayeon's wrist.

I think I saw a hint of challenge in Nayeon's eyes when she narrowed them at me.

"I said fucking let go of me, Hirai Momo—"

"Uh, guys?" A far different voice suddenly interrupted our bickering, causing me to pause. Nayeon took this as an opportunity to pull her arm back again (successfully, this time). "Excuse me, what is going on?"

Jihyo walked straight into the lockers, eyebrows furrowing confusedly when she caught sight of me.

"Mo? What are you doing here?" She must've noticed the ridiculous shit I was wearing, because she eyed me up and down for another second before tilting her head confusedly to the side. "And you're... a pirate."

Stated more than asked.

That was embarrassing enough, but I also almost tripped on my heels when Jihyo crossed her arms over her chest, scanning me intently. She needs to stop making me all fidgety with those fucking stares! Meanwhile, I thought I saw Nayeon from my peripheral vision just silently rolling her eyes in her spot.

"I— Fuck, this is just great," in the end, I breathe out, rubbing my fingers against my temple in an attempt to relieve the aching in my head. "Look, Jih, it's a long story, and I'm gonna tell you all about it later, okay? But first, I need to borrow some of your spare clothes—"

"Ho—ly shit."

Another different voice came through, though it was rather... familiar. It made me shoot my eyes impossibly wide in surprise—almost as wide as fucking saucers—when I saw Sana standing and leaning against the door frame just behind Jihyo, arms crossed over her chest with an amused smirk on her face.

"I didn't realize you wanted to be a pirate, Momoring. You should've told me. I would've topped that off with a cute pirate hat and an eyepatch," she chuckles wickedly, grinning up as she pulled her phone out and took a quick snap of me just standing there. Great. We all watched Sana look down on her phone, grinning impossibly wide as she zoomed the photo in. "My beloved sister! Oh, how adorable!"

"Shut the fuck up!" I hissed at her, fists clenching solid as a rock. She was really infuriating. "What are you even doing here, coming out of nowhere?! And when did you fucking get in?!"

"Momo—" Jihyo's voice rang against my ear as she held me by the arms when I marched angrily towards a still laughing Sana behind her. "Stop it. Come on, let's get you changed."

And then, it hit me.

"Wait," I let out, almost breathlessly. My eyes widened as crazy ideas and realizations continued to invade my brain, and I pulled my arm rather abruptly from Jihyo's hold, causing Jihyo to stare at me in surprise, and Sana to finally stop laughing in her spot.

I ignored the fact that Nayeon and Sana were still pretty much there, behind me and behind Jihyo, respectively, watching our interaction, as I pointed a shaky finger at my best friend, eyebrows furrowing deeper when I mumbled out,

"You two... did you come in here together?"

I'm pretty sure it was a scene Nayeon doesn't witness in theater class everyday.

/