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━━━  " 📂 " ‍..⃗. ༉

𝙍 𝙊 𝙈 𝘼 𝙉 𝘾 𝙄 𝙉 𝙂

! chapter one hundred
& fourteen ─── ʚĭɞ

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A couple days later and Miyeon arrived at school rather early, walking into the classroom to see a group of students waiting near to the teacher's podium.

"Miyeon! Perfect!" Sooa exclaimed, hurrying to pull the Hwang girl over beside her. "You haven't seen Jugyeong nearby, have you?"

"No.. I haven't seen her yet." Confused, Miyeon glanced around the students dressed in the same red blazer. "What's going on?"

"You'll see soon - Jugyeong usually arrives soon." Sooa continued, before someone stood by the door stuck their thumbs up. "Okay - everyone shush."

Moments later, Jugyeong walked through the door to the sound of cheers, someone throwing pink and blue confetti over her head.

"Let's all welcome Im Jugyeong, the amazing winner of the 2020 Newstagram Queen Contest!" Sooa announced, cheering and clapping sounding and even more confetti thrown.

"What?" Jugyeong asked, confusion and shock written in her eyes. "Miyeon?" She looked towards the girl, who only smiled and shrugged.

"Jugyeong, you beat that girl from Yongpa High School!" Sihyun explained. "And... came in first place!" 

"Why?" Jugyeong asked, taking the film and staring at the screen. "Why did I come in first place?" Sooa reached forward and placed a crown on her dark hair.

"Why don't you tell us how it feels to have caused a sensation on social media?" The Choi girl asked, various girls reaching out their hands like microphones and repeating the question in sync with one another.

Jugyeong's face crumpled as she slid into her chair - not the expected reaction to this announcement. In fact, she looked close to crying.

"Ju? What's wrong?" Miyeon asked as she crouched beside her, resting her forearms onto the desk and placing her chin in the centre.

Jugyeong glanced around, before moving forward and mumbling something about that Park Semi girl - quite possibly something about upset she would be.

"Don't worry about that.. you have Seojun and Suho now. Suho can do jiu-jitsu and Seojun can fight. You've seen it, if Semi or Sungyong try to cause trouble then it won't end up well." When faced with trouble, it seemed that Miyeon's instant reaction was to turn to violence.

Considering she had both Suho and Seojun by her side, the first not exactly known for fighting but his martial arts skill common knowledge and the latter having been in trouble far too many times, this wasn't the worst thing she could come up to.

"Jugyeong, what if you become a celebrity," Sooa asked, pulling the two girls' attention back to the crowd of girls once more. Gasps echoed around them at the sound of this.

"Not everyone can be a celebrity." Jugyeong pouted, looking around at everyone. "Sooa, you drive me crazy." She exclaimed before leaning down on the desk, plastic crown falling out of her hair.

"Jugyeong, just enjoy the moment." Sooa told the girl, tapping her on the shoulder. The Im girl shook her head furiously, still facing the desk.

"I want to be her manager." Sihyun proclaimed.

"I want to be her stylist!" Sooa added. the two girls squealing in excitement and high-fiving.

The crowd scattered outside not long later as lessons progressed. But the day passed in a blur of conversation about Jugyeong, nobody able to escape it for more than five minutes at a time - whether it was someone whispering about it or exclaiming it to their friend.

Soojin, Jugyeong and Miyeon walked side by side away from the school, winter coats pulled over their shoulders as the cold settled in.

"Are you going to go straight to the academy?" Jugyeong asked the two girls either side of her, sounding a lot happier than she was earlier that day.

"Yes." Soojin replied, her and the Im girl turning to look at Miyeon for her answer. But she wouldn't give one, distracted by who was coming around the corner.

And who else would the never expect to see near their school but Park Semi and her two friends. "Hey." The girl from Yongpa girl greeted. "I'm Park Semi from Yongpa High School." She introduced herself to Jugyeong, not bothering to take note of Miyeon beside her. "You know me, right?"

"No, I don't know you." Jugyeong had a similar expression on her face to when she saw Hyemin for the first time. She moved to step past them, but was stopped quickly by the girls.

"I noticed you won the Newstagram Queen Contest." Semi continued. "You managed to beat me." She made a face, looking the Im girl up and down. "You look better in your photos."

"It's a shame we have to say the same for you." Miyeon retorted, Semi's eyes finally landing on her.

"Hwang Miyeon, stuck your nose where it doesn't belong recently?" She asked, and the girl in question knew she was referring to the time she stopped Semi from bullying Jugyeong.

"But you look way different from the Im Jugyeong I know." Semi continued, leaning forward slightly with a somewhat taunting smile on her face.

"Ah.. I see." Jugyeong replied. The three girls really had no idea they were talking to the same one. But it seemed the two stood either side of the Im girl did, and one had better intentions than the other.

Once again, Jugyeong tried to leave but to no avail, Semi stopping her once more. "Why are you in such a rush to leave?" The Park girl asked. "It feels like you're avoiding me." Jugyeong didn't reply, and Semi tucked her hair behind her ear as she assumed a more friendly approach.

"Why isn't Han Seojun coming out?" She asked, Miyeon's head shooting over in her direction.

"I.. I don't know." Jugyeong replied, glancing over at the Hwang girl to see if she had anything to add.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" The action hadn't gone unnoticed by Semi, who was now staring at Miyeon. "Hwang Miyeon, when is Han Seojun coming out?"

"Never at this rate, I expect." Miyeon replied. "Why you're so insistent on seeing him I have no idea. Jugyeong, Soojin, let's go." She reached for Jugyeong's arm and pulled her away from the group of three, Soojin following after her.

"Hyemin!" Shouts came from the students of Yongpa High as they saw the new girl, Jugyeong, Miyeon and Soojin twisting around to see the commotion. Hyemin looked like she was in a hurry to get away, but didn't move fast enough and the three grabbed her.

"Let's go." Jugyeong insisted, and with a glance back at the situation, Miyeon and Soojin followed.

"Ju - I think we should go back." Miyeon had barely even taken a few steps before beginning to convince her to go back. It seemed that was all it took, because with their arms linked Jugyeong and Miyeon were heading back in the direction they had came from, rushing back to the area where they had seen Hyemin be pushed towards.

"Hyemin!" Jugyeong shouted, the three bullies crowded around the girl stepping back in shock.

"Were you hitting her?" Soojin asked, words directed to the girl in the blue coat with her arm raised.

"What are you talking about?" Asked Semi, reaching for Hyemin and dragging her to the front of the group. "We were just having a chat. Why?"

Hyemin trembled in the grasp of the bullies, breath coming out halted. "We're supposed to work on our class project today." Jugyeong said after a pause. "Did you forget?"

"What?" Hyemin breathed, "Yes." She nodded quickly.

"She's going somewhere with us today." The one who looked as if she was about to hit Hyemin said, chin balanced on the poor girl's shoulder.

"The project is more important." Jugyeong insisted, and taking the opportunity that was presented by all of the bullies' focus being on Jugyeong, Miyeon reached out and grabbed Hyemin's sleeve.

"You're not going anywhere." Semi attempted to stop her, but Soojin took Hyemin's other arm and pulled her away. Glancing at Jugyeong, Miyeon began to pull Hyemin away, leaving the more than capable Soojin to deal with them.

Or at least that's what Miyeon hoped she was doing, and not anything worse.

Miyeon and Jugyeong continued to pull Hyemin out of the alley until they were out in the open, their hands falling at similar times.

"Thank you." Hyemin still sounded incredibly nervous as she looked between Jugyeong and Miyeon.

"We'll go now." Jugyeong said, reaching to link her arm with Miyeon before Hyemin stopped her.

"Wait - you are Jugyeong, aren't you?" Hyemin asked, Jugyeong not replying. "Thank you for helping me.. but you got a lot prettier. I didn't recognise-"

"Just because I helped you, it doesn't mean I forgave you." Jugyeong turned to Hyemin, and having no idea what she was on about, Miyeon stepped back to let them have some privacy.

"I'm sorry for back then." Hyemin's gaze turned towards the ground, stumbling over her words. "I'm afraid they'd bully me too if I didn't do as they said. I was too scared."

Miyeon had heard of similar situations before - bullies enlisting the help of someone quite like the person they targeted, and the threat of them doing the same to that someone practically blackmailed them into doing their bidding. And despite her suspicions about Hyemin after considering Jugyeong's reaction, Miyeon began to feel sorry for her.

"I shouldn't have done that to you though." Hyemin's voice shook with emotion and the Hwang girl took another step backwards, knowing this was between the two. "I'm really sorry."

"I don't want the others.. to know what I used to look like." Jugyeong said, and Hyemin's eyes flickered over to Miyeon for just a moment, questioning among the tears. Miyeon nodded slightly, confirming the unspoken question of whether she knew or not. "So don't act like you know me." Jugyeong continued.

"I won't." Hyemin quickly promised. "I won't tell anyone. Don't worry."

"Miyeon - let's go." Jugyeong said, and the Hwang girl offered a sympathetic smile to Hyemin before following her best friend.

They were to go and wait for Soojin, and Miyeon once again hoped that the Kang girl really was doing the right thing.

But a sinking feeling in her stomach told her that she wasn't, and it wouldn't be too long until she found out just what Soojin truly was doing.