venomous // loona

four

a/n: venomous already hit 1k 😭😭 thank you guys so much for reading, i really hope you are enjoying the book so far!! to thank you, here is another long-awaited chapter ❤️i also didn't edit this lmao sorry that it's also kinda short ikjdjrjjrjr

Hyejoo woke up tangled between blankets and a pair of arms and legs that enveloped her body in a koala hug, skin feeling warm and slightly damp from sweat. Scrunching her face, she turned to see who was hugging her, blinking at the sleeping figure who's body- of course- belonged to Chaewon.

With a long, drawn-out sigh, Hyejoo pushed herself out from Chaewon's limbs the best she could without waking her up, glancing over to the only source of illumination in the dark room; which happened to be Haseul's face lit up by the screen of a laptop.

"Haseul?" Hyejoo whispered, looking back over at Chaewon to make sure she didn't wake her up.

"Mh," Haseul hummed, fingers working quickly against the keyboard.

Hyejoo watched Haseul's emotionless face, oozing concentration and intelligence, as her eyes moved rapidly as she read what was displayed on the screen. Curiously, she scooted over to sit next to Haseul, wondering as to what she was so focused on. "What are you doing?" She asked, laying her weary head on Haseul's shoulder.

"I could ask you the same thing," Haseul mumbled, fingers stopping for a short second as her eyes moved to the time at the corner of the screen. "It's almost two in the morning."

Hyejoo bit back the yawn threatening to escape her body, feigning wakefulness. "I'm not tired."

"You have school today," Haseul informed.

"And?"

"And," Haseul began, looking away from her laptop to stare at her little sister. "You need your sleep. As much as I absolutely love you being by my side to annoy me," Haseul said, sarcasm dripping off her tongue, "you really need to bring up your grades. Getting rest would be a good start."

Hyejoo could almost laugh at that, "Me? Good grades? In which dimension?"

"This one, if you cared enough."

"Well, I don't. School has become more of a construct based off the letter of your grade and brings more value to your test scores than it does your actual knowledge to the subject. I know enough to make it into this world, I know enough to know I'm not even gonna use half this shit in my future," Hyejoo declared.

"You're being dramatic," Haseul claimed, taking Hyejoo's head off her shoulder so she could look her in the eye. "School is more than grades, you know. And anyway your grade isn't just some number that ranks your educational usefulness, it's a reflection of what you have learned from the lectures you've been given and how well that knowledge has stuck with you. School isn't just any other thing, it's the base of your life, because once you get out of it, that's what your future will depend on; everything you've learned until that moment."

"But why does it have to be like that?" Hyejoo asked. "Why does our future have to depend on how well we've done in school? That's like telling all the kids with learning disabilities that they might as well give up now because their future apparently holds little for them-"

"Hyejoo, that's not what I-"

"You can't convince me of something I stand strongly against. I'm not against school- but I am against the way we go about it. There is so much room for improvement and it's so dumb that we do nothing about it. The education hasn't changed much since it's been brought about. What the fuck is that about? Why are we still using this outdated system that shows a clear bias towards the mentally unchallenged when there is so much more we could be doing with the way our schools operate today? It's so dumb. And if I'm just an upset teenager for complaining about it, so be it. I'm tired of my opinion meaning less just because of my age."