The Close Strangers

t w e n t y

Yerim comes into the classroom, being surprised yet confused to see her friends are all in there.

She checks the time from her wristwatch that she decided to where because she has no phone to check the time. The class will start in around fifteen minutes. It's still weird to see Lucas and Felix along with Yoojung have perfectly seated when they usually come a minute before the class starts.

"Where's Mark?" Yuqi asks once Yerim reaches their table.

Yerim shrugs, wondering why Mark is the first thing Yuqi ask once she's arrived.

Actually, she left Mark behind and he didn't run after her either earlier.

She feels relieved to finally say the truth, but she also regretted how childish she was for getting upset over little things. It's all too late anyway. She's too embarrassed to say sorry even though she's indeed sorry.

All she can do right now is saving her pride in front of him by acting all fine now.

"Did he wake you up this morning?" Chaeyoung asks as Yerim takes a seat between Yoojung and her.

Hyewon is sitting in the desk in front of them all alone since Yuqi is sitting beside Yoojung.

Yerim can hear the boys giggling behind her back, causing her to wonder as she ignores Chaeyoung's weird question.

"Did you get breakfast together? Who cooked it? His mom?"

Yerim turns her head to Yoojung, the one who just asked.

"You should've joined the theatre club, Yerimmie. Your acting all of this time was really amazing," Chaeyoung says as she opens her laptop, preparing for their lecture that is about to start in five minutes.

She notices how everyone is being sarcastic right now.

"What's this all about?" Yerim asks carefully with the unstoppable giggling that comes behind her as a back sound.

Hyewon turns her head before smiling in a way to comfort her.

"You live in Mark's house, right?" She asks in a very low voice, but it's enough to change Yerim's expression.

All four pairs of eyes are looking at her right now. She gives up since there's no point of denying now.

"You guys knew?" Yerim asks.

"You guys knew?" Lucas copies her words while mimicking her voice.

Yerim turns around, lifting her arm to smack Lucas as hard as she can. She's already upset about what happened between Mark and her. Now, she becomes more upset after she found out that these boys have spoiled everything.

She thought she could believe them, but no, not at all. They are all useless and annoying. She shouldn't have called them friends.

"I told you not to tell them!" She shouts as she stands up to face the boys.

Her shout sounds so scary to the point that every single person in the class turns their heads spontaneously.

"Oh, that's Mark," Yuqi diverts the conversation at the time she sees Mark coming into the classroom.

Mark ruffles his black hair stressfully as he walks toward his friends. He glances at Yerim who is already sitting back at her place while looking so annoyed.