GOLDEN.

How Things Are Meant to Be

"Wow, Johnny asked you?" Joy piped awkwardly, stepping in time with Wendy as the shorter girl continued to walk in the halls.

Wendy turned, as if noticing she had just shown up. "Oh, it's you. Yeah, he did..." She trailed off, trying to seem sympathetic.

"Well, I-I'm happy for you." She smiled waveringly, then shrugging. "Um Jinyoung from our calculus class asked me."

"Ooh, Bae Jinyoung?"

"Yeah."

"Did you say yes?"

"I mean, yeah, but like just as friends."

Wendy smirked, opening the classroom door. "I'm sorry if you were hoping for Johnny to ask you. He's the one who asked me, though I have no idea why—" Wendy let the lie slip through her teeth. "but hey, we should totally get ready together. I asked Irene and the others if we should all book an appointment at the salon together. It'll be fun."

"Yeah sure!" Joy grinned, happy to receive the invitation. "I'm available, for sure."

"Great." Wendy grinned at Joy, sitting down at her seat.

Chaeyoung stifled a scoff. "Gosh, I have a bad feeling about that girl."

"Who?" Lisa hissed back.

"The new girl. Wendy."

"What kind of bad vibes is it?" Lisa turned. "Like 'Sana' bad?"

"More like Tzuyu bad."

"Okay, Tzuyu isn't that bad." Lisa defended. Chaeyoung shot her a bewildered look. "She killed a teacher!"

"She has BPD Chaeyoung! And besides—she isn't that bad."

"You used to hate her..." She gave Lisa a look of disbelief. "What exactly happened?"

The truth was that Lisa had been visiting Tzuyu at her mental institute. And learned more about the girl than she would've thought.

Appearances were deceiving, and though Lisa had originally thought Tzuyu was nothing but a pretty girl with dangerous motives and possessive issues, boy had she been wrong.

All that had been were many, many misunderstandings.

"I'll explain later. But you were saying about Wendy?"

"She just gives me that feeling of Jennie."

"But Jennie's our friend. Why would that be bad?"

"I don't know." Chaeyoung didn't know how to word. "It's just that she reminds me so much of her. I always thought our school could only handle one Jennie Kim."

"Chaeyoung, Jennie is dead. This is way the universe is telling us she's gone. Wendy is like her replacement."

"Oh, don't give me that bullshit."

"Well, unless Jennie comes back to us alive and well then I'm not believing anything otherwise. Now I refuse to hear anymore of your hypothesis' about her mysterious disappearance. She's dead, and as much as I hate it and want to deny it, it's what the evidence shows."

"You're seriously giving up like that?"

"Chaeyoung, don't make this harder than it already is. We've had this conversation many times. I don't want to talk about this again."

Lisa turned back to her classwork, Chaeyoung sighed.

Perhaps that's how things were meant to be.

🌟

"Hi baby. These are my friends." Jin squeezed Jisoo's shoulder, excited to introduce her to his friends.