i won't share you / purinz

a seismic event

"Five minutes," Calls Ms. Park, Chaewon's English teacher, nodding towards the clock that sits above the door. The second hand keeps ticking, inching towards the moment that the final bell will ring and Chaewon will be free of this cursed English test. Normally, this would be fine. Normally, Chaewon would be on her second go-around looking over her answers, making sure everything was perfect. Today, though, she stares at the final question and the empty box under it. Try as she might, she just can't focus on the words. Probably because an earthquake is happening behind her.

Huh Yunjin, the only girl who'd made it onto the boy's baseball team, is sitting behind her clad in her usual obnoxiously blue letterman jacket. She's bouncing her leg so aggressively that it's shaking her desk which in turn shakes the entire column. As if that wasn't enough, she's also performing an elaborate drum solo with her pencil on the edge of the desk. Like always, she's chewing gum and each snap of it in her mouth shakes Chaewon out of any semblance of focus she might have been able to gather. Only Huh Yunjin would be allowed to pop gum during a test. Ms. Park is just as charmed by her as every other teacher seems to be and Chaewon can't understand why for the life of her. Huh Yunjin has less charm than a pig in a bowtie.

When a particularly loud pop interrupts Chaewon in the middle of her fifth time re-reading the question, she finally whirls around. Stirred by the sheer venom in Chaewon's gaze, Yunjin glances up and pauses her popping and drumming. Her eyes are big and brown and completely devoid of any intelligent thought. Yunjin reaches into her backpack, another testing infraction only she could get away with, and fishes out a pack of pink bubblegum. She offers it out to Chaewon and Chaewon rolls her eyes so hard she gets a glimpse of her brain. She holds a finger to her lips to shush Yunjin and turns back towards her paper, taking advantage of the last few moments of silence to read the question and scribble down an answer before the bell rings and Ms. Park begins to collect the tests.

As Chaewon heads for the door, Yunjin jogs after her.

"ChaeChae," She calls, "Wait up."

Chaewon walks quicker, but trying to outpace the 5'7 Huh Yunjin is a pointless endeavor. Yunjin catches up easily and walks beside her through the hall.

"Was I too loud?" She asks.

"No, I love listening to drum concerts while I'm taking a test," Chaewon deadpans.

"Oh, okay phew" Yunjin grins, "I'm only asking 'cause it seemed like you were kind of annoyed so I thought-"

"I have to go," Chaewon interrupts her, turning sharply down another hallway to escape. For a moment, she's worried Yunjin will follow her, but luckily the universe rescues her and she turns right into Sakura, her best friend since middle school who raises her eyebrows at Chaewon's frantic pace.

"Getting your steps in?" Sakura asks.

"Close enough," Chaewon slows down, sure now that she isn't being followed.

"Huh Yunjin?" Sakura guesses.

"Don't say her name so loud," Chaewon hisses, "You'll attract her fanclub."

Sakura laughs, "Don't you think it's kind of cute how she follows you around like a little puppy?"

"Puppies everywhere are insulted," Chaewon grumbles, "Want to come to SGA with me? We're planning prom themes."

"Hanging out with every power-hungry control freak in the school sounds like a ton of fun," Sakura teases, "But I think I'll have to miss it."

"Hey," Chaewon pushes her lightly, "Don't complain to me when we end up having another 70s disco dance, then."