As the months pass by, Jiyeon starts to fit into their schedules like a Tetris block. She sits with them at lunch and hangs out with them after school. She also gets why everyone wants to gag Dayoung every now and then. She fits perfectly. Even more so to Hyunjung, because now she's not the ninth wheel anymore. Now she also has a cuddle buddy for movie nights, a seatmate for rollercoaster rides.
Jiyeon gets better at Bible study, so much so that she doesn't even need Hyunjung's help anymore. So Hyunjung finds it confusing when she asks if they can study the subject together after school. Nonetheless, she agrees. Of course she does.
Jiyeon offers her the open seat on the bus but Hyunjung insists that she should take it instead. In the end, they agree to give the seat away to an elderly woman nearby.
For the rest of the bus ride, Jiyeon's head rests on Hyunjung's shoulder. She feels a weird burning sensation in her stomach. She writes it off as hunger.
Hyunjung's mother is a bit surprised to see Jiyeon. It was normal for her to bring visitors, but Jiyeon was just new.
"Hey mom, this is Jiyeon, the new girl I've been telling you about" Jiyeon bows in greeting.
"Nice to meet you, Mrs Kim" She smiles that smile, the one that has everyone melting to the ground. And as always, it works perfectly. Her mother nearly suffocates Jiyeon with a hug and reassures her that she's welcome to visit any time.
With that, they're off to Hyunjung's room. She's nervous but she doesn't know why. She's never been shy about her room but she feels like she'll be embarrassed if Jiyeon doesn't like it. It's weird.
"Please don't laugh, ok?" Hyunjung says before opening her bedroom door cautiously. Jiyeon's smile widens as she slings her backpack off and places it next to her desk. She remains silent as she takes a little tour. Her finger runs along the spines of the books in their rack. Her eyes wander to the ceiling where paper cranes are suspended from pieces of thread.
"I love it, it's very...you," Jiyeon says once she's done observing. Hyunjung breathes a sigh of relief and goes to sit on her bed. Jiyeon follows. They get comfortable and grab their books, but with no real intent to study. Hyunjung figures she might as well try to finish her maths homework.
When she's deep into one of the trigonometry questions, she hears Jiyeon call her name.
"Hyunjung?"
"Yeah?" Her eyes shift from her notebook down to where Jiyeon is laying on her back, eyes fixed on a pink paper crane dangling from the ceiling.
"Don't you ever get lonely?" Her tone is not accusing, it's almost philosophical rather.
"Doesn't everyone?" Hyunjung asks to show up her lack of an answer.
"No, I mean like..." Jiyeon turns to face her, head resting in her palm, "with everyone being in relationships, doesn't that make you want to date as well?" Hyunjung's not surprised that the question finally came up. She got it a lot from strangers who knew about their friend group at school.
She has felt it before like she doesn't belong. And it's not like she hasn't tried either. Her mom has tons of friends with sons, yet none of them clicked with her.
"To be honest, yes. Yes, it does" She sighs, she's never really talked about this with the other girls. And it's not like they never asked, they did. Hyunjung just always told them that she's not interested (which isn't a complete lie).
