• playing with fire | chaeyu au

• chapt. 3 | i hate math

chaeyoung stared at the empty sheet in front of her. she was suppose to be taking a test - not doodling - and here she sat, drawing bubbles around the instructions and attempting to witeout some questions she didn't want to answer. she couldn't ask anyone for help since none of her friends were in this class; they usually gave her most of the answers.

the only other person she actually knows in this class is tzuyu.

she picked her head off the desk and attempted to search for the brunette. she found her in the right corner of the room. since the desks were positioned to be facing one another, she could get a perfect view of what the girl was doing.

tzuyu was one of the smartest girls in her class. chaeyoung expected her to be doing her test, yet the brunette just sat there, her mouth hung open slightly, staring off into space. tzuyu shut her eyes for a moment before abruptly opening them and realizing that she was in her math class.

she looked down at her half finished paper and grabbed her pencil. chaeyoung watched as the brunette's hair hung just a little over her eyes as she leaned in to write down her work. she saw how tzuyu's tongue stuck out slightly, a sign that chaeyoung took as her concentrating. she couldnt help but think it was extremely cute.

in the middle of the test, tzuyu looked up and met eyes with the very obvious staring chaeyoung. the shorter girl blushed slightly before looking down at her still empty paper. the brunette just brushed it off and continued on with her work not really giving much thought to it.

it wasn't long before the teacher called to collect the papers and chaeyoung started to panic. all that she had on the paper was her name! she started circling random multiple choice answers and basically bullshitting the entire thing.

at least it is better than turning in an empty paper i guess, she thought as she circled the last answer.

"tzuyu, may you please go around and collect the papers?" the teacher asked. the brunette nodded softly before getting up and starting with the people around her.

chaeyoung placed her paper at the front of the desk and pulled out a book she had to read for english. ms. dilaurentis was offering extra credit and chaeyoung actually cared enough to complete it. since she was benched for tomorrow's swim meet because of her reckless behavior on wednesday,  she had time to read a few books.

tzuyu came around and picked the paper up from the table squinting as she realized that there was no written work present. how was chaeyoung suppose to explain how she got her answers when she didn't have any proof on how she got them? tzuyu looked at chaeyoung as a means of explanation, but all the shorter girl offered her was a shrug.

"what? i hate math," she replied.

tzuyu just nodded and moved on to the next desk. "you are working on the extra credit assignment?" she asked the girl not knowing why she felt the need to start a conversation. it was an honest question, no doubt, but hearing herself actually attempt to talk to the girl who threatened her seemed a little .. weird.

chaeyoung looked up from her book as she furrowed her brow. "huh? oh yeah," she said placing the book down. "i actually am interested in this book. are you doing it?"

"nah, i dont need the extra points," tzuyu responded back. she did not intend for it to sound sarcastic but to chaeyoung, it did.

the shorter girl furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes. "of course you dont."

upon hearing the slight difference in the smaller girls voice, she realized that what she said did not come out the way she intended. "that wasn't meant to be-" tzuyu tried to explain before the teacher called for her to bring the papers up to the front of the room. chaeyoung, not really wanting to hear much about the subject,  put her book back into her bag and began to pack up.

once the bell rang, chaeyoung zipped out of the door. she slung her backpack onto her right shoulder and pulled out her phone to text mina.

to: my baby ❤️😍
just got out of class and im headed to lunch. i know you'll kill your game tonight love xx

"hey, i didn't mean to sound rude back there," chaeyoung heard a voice speaking to her as she typed. she looked up from her phone to find a nervous tzuyu standing next to her. the brunette saw the other girl's eyes widen in shock, so she took a step back for boundary's sake.

chaeyoung shrugged as she placed her phone back into her pocket. "well that's not the way i heard it. you act like you need to justify yourself."

"its not that im justifying myself, i didn't want to add what you thought i said to the list of things you hate about me," the taller girl responded as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

the older girl licked her lips and looked away as she caught site of jennie and lisa walking to the lunch table. "look i honestly dont care about it okay? consider it forgotten. i have to go," the younger girl said before pushing tzuyu out of the way and chasing after her older friends.

tzuyu watched chaeyoung walk away as she stood there with her shoulders hung over. she licked her lips and sighed before heading over to the library to spend her lunch hour.

*•*•*•*

"check and mate my friend," jennie exclaimed as she knocked one of rosé's chest pieces out of the way. 

"jennie what the fuck!" the other girl exclaimed getting up from her chair. upon hearing the snickering of jennie behind her, rosé was almost about to throw a pillow to the brunette's face. luckily, lisa stopped her. "lisa, i hate your girlfriend."

"shut up you love me. dont even lie," jennie responded as she began to put the pieces back into her box. once she was done, she went over to throw her friend into the tightest hug she can ever give. rosé tried to break free from the other girl's grasp but it made no use, jennie was strong.

in the middle of all the commotion, sana came out from the bathroom and sat next to lisa. "what did i miss?" she asked the group.

"not much," jihyo replied as she stuffed her face with popcorn. "the little prince is actually mr. prince."

"he forgot everything!" jisoo whined as she wiped tears away from her eyes. everyone looked over at her, wondering why she would be crying at a kid's movie. it did have some alternate an hidden meanings so who could blame her? besides, the girl can be very emotional at times.

the blonde girl nodded as lisa passed the popcorn over to her. the group were all hanging out at momo's house since she had it all to herself and didn't want to be alone. none of them, of course, told chaeyoung and dahyun about their meetings. the truth was, they actually got along fairly well. they were all upperclassman after all and knew each other longer than they knew chaeyoung and tzuyu. it was only in the presence of the short haired freshman that they had to act like they hated one another. they didn't get offended either by the things they said when their individual groups collided, everyone knew it was just to add to their image.

"nayeon and momo, can y'all stop flirting please? we wanna watch the movie," jisoo sighed as she threw a pillow at the two girls.

yeah, they were fairly close, maybe even too close.