Mean Girls

xix. the healing

The thing is, being the student body president is a whole lot more responsibility than Ryujin thought it would be. She has become the link between the faculty and the students and if it's anything, it's stressful. She might've been better at handling it if she hadn't so much else going on and as it is, she feels like she's burning the candles at both ends.

After a long but frustratingly unproductive meeting, she crumbles against the lockers in the empty hallways, repeatedly knocking her head against the metal.

"Are you trying to kill a few brain cells?"

She lifts her head and is surprised to see none other than Chaeryeong standing a few feet away, watching her curiously. She's carrying a guitar case that appears to be twice the size of her small frame.

Ryujin smiles wryly. "Perhaps."

It's been a couple of weeks since Chaeryeong's apology in the library and they haven't spoken since. It hasn't been intentional — at least not on Ryujin's part —, she has simply been drowning in president duties on top of her other extracurriculars. She hasn't had the space of mind for much else.

(that's a lie. Chaeryeong has taken residence in the back of her mind for some time now.)

She gestures at the guitar case. "Since when do you play guitar?"

Chaeryeong shrugs a bit. "I've always played, I've just never had much time to do so. I've got a lot more free time on my hands lately."

Ryujin studies her. She actually looks healthier; her skin is glowing, her eyes are bright, well-rested. Ryujin knows she looks like a fucking trainwreck next to her.

(in the back of her mind, she also thinks she wouldn't mind listening to Chaeryeong play guitar).

"You only passed the presidency over to punish me, didn't you?" she says with a dry laugh.

Chaeryeong smirks. "That tough, huh?"

Ryujin sighs so heavily her whole body shakes. She throws her arms to the side in defeat.

"I haven't been able to do anything and it's been nearly, what, a month? The school board just fucking overrules every initiative that I come up with and it's not because they're bad, they just don't want to pay for them."

"What initiatives are those?"

"I want to start a tutoring program for the kids that don't have the resources to get the extra help that they need and the board told me that I'd have to find the money elsewhere. So I just had a meeting with my team and the class presidents, proposing that we cut into the budget for the upcoming Winter Ball. They reacted as if I'd told them to sell their souls or something."

Chaeryeong's eyes go a bit wide. "Big mistake. You don't want to touch their parties, that's literally the only thing they care about."

"I like a party as much as anyone else, but there's no need to splurge that much money on it. I hate them all, they're so superficial and have the attention span of five year olds."

Chaeryeong looks amused. "They aren't all like you."

Ryujin blinks at her, unsure how to take that.

"I know it isn't what you want to hear, but maybe you should be less ambitious."

"What?" Ryujin frowns. "What's the point of being president if I can't change a goddamn thing?"

"You can change plenty," Chaeryeong says, "you just have to take smaller steps and win them over first."

Ryujin stares at her. She honestly doesn't know how to take smaller steps and she's certain that they already despise her.