I Hate You, Don't Leave Me

Chapter 4

The sun beat down over her head as Chaeyoung walked out to the courtyard with her lunch tray. Surrounded by the loud chatter of students, she scanned the area for her housemates. It took her a second to find them, but after a few seconds of hoping that they were sitting in the cool air of the cafeteria, she spotted Jennie and Jisoo sitting at one of the round black picnic tables with Hanbin and Kai. Chaeyoung sighed, deciding that she'd rather endure the heat than sit inside all by herself, so she made her way over to her friends and plopped down next to Jisoo.

"Hey, Chaeng," Jisoo greeted. "What do you think of our chemistry class? I think it's already pretty interesting, and I'm sure that the labs will be really fun."

Chaeyoung could not say that she really cared for the subject. She was much more interested in the art elective that she was taking, but she smiled for Jisoo's sake and nodded along with what the brunette was saying. "Um, yeah, I guess."

Jennie saw right through the blonde's attempt to agree, rolling her eyes at her best friend. "Soo, not everyone likes chemistry as much as you do." Jennie turned to Chaeyoung with an apologetic look. "Don't mind her, Chaeng. She's kind of a nerd."

Jisoo scoffed. "Oh, come on. You don't like a single one of your classes."

"Does anyone?" Jennie asked, and Chaeyoung couldn't help but chuckle at that statement. Jennie and Jisoo clearly had very different views on school, and she found it funny that they got along so well despite this.

Chaeyoung was just about to reply when something caught her eye on the other side of the courtyard. It was Lisa, sitting down at a table in the corner, all by herself. Come to think of it, Chaeyoung hadn't even seen Lisa show up for lunch the last two days, and she wondered if maybe the other girl normally sat inside. Something told Chaeyoung that wasn't it though and that this girl normally avoided eating with everyone altogether, just like she did at the house.

Chaeyoung was still angry at her roommate, but she couldn't help but feel bad about how harsh she had been the previous day, especially now that Lisa was sitting all by herself. That image tugged at the blonde's heartstrings, even if she knew that it was probably what the other girl preferred. She wished that she could just be callous and indifferent like her roommate, but that wasn't the kind of person she was. She was the kind of person who now felt kind of terrible because of the way she had treated Lisa.

"Chaeng? Earth to Chaeyoung?" The hand waving in front of her face, and Jisoo's voice saying her name, brought her attention back to the people in front of her.

Everyone was looking at her expectantly, and Chaeyoung realized that Jisoo must have asked her a question, and she had been too spaced out to answer it. "I'm sorry, what?"

"I was just asking what school you came from. What were you looking at?" Jisoo asked curiously.

Chaeyoung took a second to consider how she wanted to respond. She knew that everyone at the table probably hated Lisa, especially Jisoo (we all know this is not true, it's just for story purposes), and Chaeyoung didn't want them to be disappointed in her because of her natural tendency to look out for everyone, no matter how horrible. However, she knew that she needed to just tell the truth. She just needed to be herself, no matter what anyone thought. Besides, she was pretty sure that these people wouldn't think that she was actually a little concerned about Lisa after the way she had treated the brunette the previous day. "I was looking at Lisa. Does she always sit by herself like that?"

Jennie shrugged. "When she even shows up. Don't worry about her. It's her own fault that no one wants to sit with her."

Chaeyoung was glad that her friends didn't make anything of her question. She realized that these people knew Lisa for two years already, and she decided to keep on pressing them for information, wanting to know if Lisa had always been this way. Chaeyoung thought that she most certainly had until she remembered something that Jisoo had said shortly after they first met. "You said she used to be friends with Jessica and Krystal. What happened?"