Friend Qualification Test
The day after Suyeon advised her to clear up the misunderstanding face-to-face, Yeoncheong found herself pacing the corridor where the first-year classrooms were gathered.
Ugh... this is so awkward.
The first-year classrooms sat one floor above the second-year ones. Having set foot in a place she normally had no business visiting, Yeoncheong was regretting it already.
I should've just dragged someone along with me.
But actually going back down to fetch a friend was out of the question. If she marched up here all confident and solo, only to slink back for backup, her friends would never let her hear the end of it.
She'd already confirmed with Seoha which class the first-year student council vice president — Chaerin — was in.
Return the tracksuit, clear up the misunderstanding. The break between classes was shrinking by the minute. Having steeled herself on her goals, Yeoncheong poked her head into Chaerin's classroom.
Her blue eyes swiveled left and right until they found Chaerin laughing and chatting with friends in one corner of the room.
"Um... excuse me."
She called out to the nearest student.
"Huh?"
The first-year answered back in casual speech without a second thought. Hwaryeong High's uniform didn't give much away on that front, and besides, no one figured a person hovering awkwardly outside a first-year classroom could possibly be a second-year.
"Could you go get Chaerin for me?"
Why don't you call her yourself? was written all over the girl's face, but there was no reason to refuse, either.
"Hey, Chaerin. Someone's here for you."
At her classmate's call, Chaerin turned — and her eyes met Yeoncheong's. She looked briefly flustered that Yeoncheong had come to find her first, then retrieved her tracksuit from the locker in the back and came over.
The break was short, and two people with almost nothing in common didn't have much to say. Yeoncheong took the tracksuit, bowed her head once more, and cleared up the misunderstanding — and when the conversation ended and Chaerin returned to her friends, she was carrying several packets of jelly in her hands.
"That senior — is she the one you were talking about?"
"...Yeah."
At her childhood friend Soyul's question, Chaerin nodded after a slight pause.
"The way you carried on, I thought she was some bully trying to keep you away from Seoha-sunbae, but she looked really meek and sweet to me?"
Recalling Yeoncheong's face from her fleeting glimpse, Soyul offered her first impression.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"...This?"
Chaerin glanced down at the jelly packets in her hand and pressed her lips together.
"She said she was sorry. Told me to share them with my friend."
"Huh. Turns out she's a total sweetheart of a senior."
Soyul plucked a packet from her hand without ceremony, tore it open, and popped a jelly into her mouth.
"You'd betray your own friend for a single jelly?"
"Betray? Aren't you just jealous? Jealous that your precious Seoha-sunbae is having a nice chat with a friend that isn't you."
"Ugh..."
A groan of pain escaped Chaerin, the jibe having struck dead center.
Soyul seized the opening to pop a jelly straight into her friend's mouth and pressed on.
"If you're that jealous, why don't you go latch onto Seoha-sunbae yourself?"
"Absolutely not!"
Chaerin shot back, then mumbled around the jelly.
"A true fan knows keeping a respectful distance is rule number one."
"Ha."
Soyul's dry laugh carried a great deal of meaning.
"You don't like this, you don't like that. If it bothers you that much, why don't you check whether you're actually fit to hang around as Seoha-sunbae's friend?"
She meant it as a joke...
"Yes! That's exactly what I should do!"
...but Chaerin clapped her hands together and lit up as if she'd just been handed a brilliant strategy.
"Uh... you're serious?"
"Soyul, you're the only one who truly understands me."
Chaerin snatched one of the jellies Soyul was holding, popped it into her mouth, and chewed thoughtfully.
"You can have the rest."
With that, Chaerin headed back to her seat the instant the bell rang.
"...I really do talk too much."
And so Chaerin's childhood friend Soyul offered a deep, silent apology to a blue-haired senior whose name she didn't even know.
Perfect.
That had been Chaerin's first impression of Seoha back in middle school. Academics, athletics — even the arts, like painting and music. Practically omnitalented. The teachers' attention and praise showered on her alone, always surrounded by crowds of friends, and yet an aloof, untouchable presence whom none of it ever swayed.
That was the Seoha Chaerin knew — the girl she'd appointed herself the first fan of, the one she looked up to and strove to become.
And then, at some point, that perfect senior had started bringing up one particular friend's name constantly, even using her class-officer duties as an excuse to look forward to spending time together.
What kind of person could it be, this friend who got to stand beside the perfect Seoha-sunbae? Chaerin was curious — and envious.
Yeoncheong-sunbae... was it?
Having committed the casually overheard name to memory, Chaerin began quietly shadowing Yeoncheong's daily life from that day on.
Sometimes she hid in the stairwell to steal glances at Class 2-1.
"Yeoncheong, let's go to the bathroom."
"I don't need to go?"
"I'm asking nicely. Come with me."
"I said I'm fine. Hasol already dragged me there earlier."
"Seoha, grab the other arm."
"Ah! If you're going, you two go without meee!"
Sometimes she hid among the crowd of students to watch in the cafeteria.
"My pork cutlet!"
"You stole mine last time."
"That was Seoha's!"
"So it's fine if I take yours, then."
"Ah. Aaah. My pork cutlet..."
As Chaerin watched Yeoncheong get her chopsticks sucked away, her own hand suddenly moved like lightning.
Smack.
"Ow!"
Her childhood friend Soyul, struck on the back of the hand, glared daggers at her.
But Chaerin paid her no mind and went for the pork cutlet with her own chopsticks.
"Don't touch my pork cutlet."
"Tch. You blocked me."
Thanks to her snack-poaching childhood friend, the cafeteria observation didn't last much longer.
And there was more.
"Guys, I feel like I keep saying this, but... being stuck in the middle like this, it feels like I'm being arrested for some crime I committed."
"Well, you're not entirely innocent."
"What crime?"
"Ignorance is also a crime."
Sometimes it was the sight of her being hauled around the track by an arm on each side after lunch.
"Yeoncheong, let's test whether you flinch — just one hit, I swear."
"No, why on earth would you test that? Wait! Stoooop!"
"Don't move, or it'll hurt when I miss."
"S-save me! Somebody help! Hey, I know everything you did this wee— mmph! Mmph."
Thwack.
"Mmmph...!"
And sometimes it was the sight of her getting brutally flicked on the forehead, for reasons unclear — whether she'd actually done something wrong or not.
Thus Chaerin gathered a great deal of intelligence on one senior by the name of Ha Yeoncheong.
A few days later, in a first-year classroom sitting empty after final period.
"So? What did your investigation turn up?"
At her childhood friend Soyul's question, Chaerin replayed everything she'd observed and forced the words out with difficulty.
"...She's not a bad person."
"Then?"
"A pitiful senior?"
"Huh?"
Soyul's eyes went round. The evaluation of someone she'd been hostile toward until just days ago had swung to the opposite extreme.
"...No? Or maybe a punching bag?"
"Now she's not even a person anymore?"
Soyul genuinely couldn't fathom what Chaerin had witnessed to arrive at those conclusions.
"Anyway, turns out she's got no business being barred from Seoha-sunbae's side."
"Right. The Seoha-sunbae you never stop praising as absolutely perfect wouldn't choose her friends carelessly."
For her part, Soyul was ready to write the whole thing off as a few days' worth of harmless episode...
...but Chaerin was turning over something odd she'd noticed in the scenes she'd watched.
The look in Seoha's eyes when she gazed at Yeoncheong. And another senior, too — one who hovered by her side so constantly it rivaled even that.
Could it be...?
But Chaerin's thought went unfinished.
"Hey, Chaerin. Chaerin!"
"Huh?"
"Can you really carry that to the student council room all by yourself? I told you I'd help."
Her childhood friend pointed at a box that looked fairly heavy.
"I'm fine. This much is nothing."
Chaerin hoisted the box up and slipped out of the classroom in a flash.
Meanwhile, that same day, at that very hour, in the Class 2-1 classroom.
So it really was nothing after all?
Yeoncheong, just back from a quick trip to the teachers' office, lost herself in thought as she packed her bag.
Chaerin had thought she was hiding it well, but Yeoncheong had caught on to the covert glances ages ago. It wasn't doing any harm, and both Seoha and Suyeon, who were always around her, had said not to worry — so she'd simply left it be. And sure enough, after a few days, it had faded away on its own.
Well, she might've been coming to see Seoha, not me anyway.
Convinced no one would come to see her over something like that, Yeoncheong shook her head and batted the stray thoughts away.
Studying for midterms. Preparing for the school festival. Her schedule left no slack to spare on things that didn't matter.
And so, stepping out of the classroom, what met Yeoncheong's eyes was—
"Huh?"
—Chaerin, coming down the stairs with a box taller than she was.
Her legs wobbled like a newborn fawn's; she looked one breath away from toppling over.
...I can't just walk away after seeing that. And this...
Yeoncheong, who had been heading for club activities, broke into a run, calling Chaerin's name.
But then—
"Ah!"
Her name, called out of nowhere. The moment Chaerin's head came up, the precarious balance she'd been clinging to gave way entirely.
"Kyaaah!"
Certain she was about to pitch forward and fall flat, Chaerin screamed — but the disaster she feared never came.
"Whew... you okay? Nothing hurt?"
It was thanks to Yeoncheong arriving at exactly the right moment and catching Chaerin by the waist, holding her steady.
A scene straight out of a ballroom ending pose.
The embarrassment hit Chaerin a beat late; she scrambled upright and bowed her head.
"I'm so sorry!"
Chaerin scrambled to gather the contents that had spilled from the box. Yeoncheong crouched beside her and helped collect them.
"You really don't have to help."
"It's fine. It looked heavy, so I'll carry it with you."
As she picked up the spilled items, Yeoncheong went ah and looked up at Chaerin.
"If you actually don't like me, just say so."
"That's...! Not anymore, really."
Chaerin shook her head hard from side to side, pressing her lips together as she tidied the box.
"Then just help me as far as the student council room."
"Sure thing."
On a count of one, two, the two of them hoisted the box up together.
As if something were still left unsaid, Yeoncheong spoke up.
"Oh, and one more thing."
A soft smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.
"My friend told me — in moments like that, you don't apologize. You say thank you instead."
Yeoncheong felt a quiet swell of pride at having passed on to her junior the very lesson Suyeon had once taught her.
Chaerin could only stare at her, dumbfounded.
It was the moment the character-assessment rating for Ha Yeoncheong shot straight up through the roof.
The door to the student council room opened, and Yeoncheong and Chaerin carried the box inside.
"Thank you so much."
Chaerin bowed her head in gratitude, and Yeoncheong waved it off like it was nothing. Naturally, she looked around for Seoha and gave her a casual wave — and Seoha broke into a warm smile in return.
Once Yeoncheong had gone, Seoha's gaze turned, of course, to Chaerin, who had come along.
"How'd you two end up walking here together?"
"Oh, I nearly fell on the stairs and she caught me. It looked heavy, so she insisted on carrying it with me."
Yeongcheong could probably carry that and then some, Seoha thought, nodding along.
And then.
Having witnessed the brief exchange between the two and Seoha's gentle smile, Chaerin knew for certain: the aura she'd sensed from Seoha-sunbae all those days of secret watching had been no illusion.
And she made a resolution.
Sunbae — I'll help you.
She would be the one to secretly support Seoha, in a way no one else knew about.
"Seoha-sunbae."
When Seoha turned, Chaerin was nodding vigorously, out of nowhere.
"Yes?"
Seoha could only be bewildered by the sight of Chaerin blinking up at her with bright, eager eyes, her head bobbing again and again.
