Study Emergency
Having paid the price for failing Seoha's crackdown with two consecutive days of torment, Yeoncheong was back in the club room, hard at work on her final stretch of midterm studying, just as she had been days before.
The sky, only now realizing summer had passed, had been scattering rain here and there every night. Just as the chill of mornings and evenings and the sky darkening earlier had her finally thinking, so autumn's here at last—
"Achoo!"
"...You scared me."
It was a sudden sneeze from Yeoncheong. Nayun, the one person in the world who could give her a run for her money in a startle contest, narrowed her eyes.
"You're not coming down with something, are you?"
"No, it's just the changing season."
Yeoncheong waved a hand to brush off Nayun's concern, but the two of them weren't the only ones in the club room.
"If you feel even a little off, go see a doctor. You've been sneezing a lot lately."
"She's right. If it gets worse right when you're taking your midterms, forget the bet—you'll just plain fail."
When Hasol and Suyeon each chimed in, Yeoncheong took a step back.
"Why would I go all the way to a hospital over this... I'll just take some multi-purpose cold medicine."
Her body may have become a woman's, but her old as long as I'm not dying, I'm fine mindset lived on.
"...Fine. It's your body. You know it best."
Suyeon apparently decided she'd said her piece and shook her head. But Hasol still had nagging left to do.
"Then at least change into a different uniform. Once midterms are over, the spring-and-autumn uniform mixing period starts, remember?"
"Ugh... the summer uniform's just more comfortable. I'll think about it if it gets cold."
With the trivial conversation wrapped up, Yeoncheong and her friends, reminded that midterms were right around the corner, returned to their own studying.
Having made solid progress on their studying at school, Yeoncheong and her friends headed out for the day without staying too late.
On the way to the front gate, Nayun shot Yeoncheong a sidelong glance and spoke while facing forward.
"Don't study over the weekend. Go have fun. Really hard."
"That's my line."
The two glared at each other, each tossing in another jab as if refusing to lose.
"Take it easy, won't you? You seem like you're coming down with something."
"Maybe it's all that studying. You've been looking drained lately. Get some exercise."
Trading rotten little smiles at each other, the two who had a midterm wager riding on this exchanged their warm-hearted well-wishes when—
"Who do you think's gonna win?"
"Nayun, probably? She's put in way more study hours."
Suyeon and Hasol, who had drifted a few steps back as if they were total strangers, giggled between themselves. The two friends walking ahead belatedly realized what was going on and stopped in their tracks.
"Hey. Are we embarrassing to you?"
"Yeah. Are we that embarrassing?"
The two crossed their arms in perfect unison and glared at Suyeon and Hasol.
The fact that Nayun, for a girl, loved sports and had a rough-and-ready personality. The fact that Yeoncheong had adapted to life at a girls' school so seamlessly you'd never guess she used to be a boy. That exquisite balance occasionally produced moments like this, where the two were perfectly in sync.
Suyeon and Hasol stared back at them, eyes gone round. Then, little by little, the corners of their mouths crept upward, their eyes narrowing into slits.
"Haha! You two are doing that on purpose!"
"Khh... A-are you kidding...! Don't make me laugh!"
Their breathing was so perfectly matched it seemed like they'd rehearsed it in secret, and Suyeon and Hasol burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?!"
"Stop laughing! We're being serious here!"
Yeoncheong and Nayun threw a full-scale tantrum until the two finally stopped giggling.
"Wow... this is the first time the front gate's ever felt this far away."
Hasol said it as they finally arrived at the gate, rubbing at the corners of her eyes—they'd had to stop halfway for a good laugh, after all.
"We're off. See you at midterms."
"Get home safe."
Yeoncheong waved to her three friends.
"Oh, right. Hasol, where are we studying this weekend?"
"Do we even need to meet up somewhere? Just come to my place. It's not that far."
"Okay."
Yeoncheong caught the tail end of the exchange between Hasol and Nayun. Hearing that the two, whose homes were close to each other, would be studying together, something clicked and she shouted out hurriedly.
"Ah! Wait, wait!"
"Hm?"
The three stopped and turned around at once. Yeoncheong looked at Suyeon among them and brought up something she'd nearly forgotten.
"Suyeon, could you ask Siyeon to teach me a subject or two this weekend?"
"Why don't you just ask her yourself?"
"I don't have Siyeon's number."
Suyeon stared at her in silence, lips twitching.
"Hmmm. I don't mind asking for you, but..."
A short sniff. Suyeon's head tilted to one side without her even realizing it. The question that followed stole the breath right out of Yeoncheong's lungs.
"Why won't you ask me to teach you?"
"...No, it's, um... it's just..."
Cold sweat beaded on her forehead out of nowhere. Yeoncheong's brain scrambled to figure out which words would let her survive this.
Suyeon stared at her for a long moment, then—
"Never mind. I know better than anyone that your grades were at their best when Siyeon was the one teaching you."
"Huh?"
The bluntness of it left Yeoncheong baffled. And to her, whose face was covered in question marks, Suyeon kept going.
"I'll take my payment in good food."
"Th-that's all you want?"
Coming from Suyeon, who as recently as last time had thrown a fit demanding Yeoncheong sit on her lap, it was a remarkably reasonable demand.
"Deal. Let's do that."
Afraid the girl might change her mind, Yeoncheong snatched up the offer before she could.
And then—
Suyeon grinned like a predator who'd just spotted prey walking into her trap.
"We're going to your place, right? Looking forward to this one too."
"Huh?"
Clearly entertaining no objections, Suyeon turned on her heel.
"My place? ...No wait, you're coming too?"
Urging the other two friends along, Suyeon drifted away from Yeoncheong.
"Wait! N-no, that's not happening!"
Yeoncheong's cry after Suyeon echoed pitifully down the street.
While Yeoncheong had been spending her afternoons studying with Suyeon and the others in the club room, Seoha was in the student council room.
What am I even doing right now?
Midterms were the week after next—right after this coming weekend. Under normal circumstances, the student council would have paused its usual duties for exam season, but...
It was the first-years' festival preparation proposals that were the problem. She hadn't expected them to finish on time, but neither had she expected things to drag out this badly. Even the proposals the first-years had finally submitted had issues of their own.
Having completed every last check, Seoha squeezed her eyes shut and lifted her head.
"Phew..."
Behind a breath that might have been a sigh, or might have just been her steadying herself, Seoha's lips twitched.
"And that's a wrap. Good work, Chaerin."
"Oh, no, it was nothing. The first-years' late submissions were partly my fault too..."
Seoha wasn't alone in the quiet student council room. Chaerin, who felt uniquely responsible for the first-years' tardy submissions, had stayed to help her.
Seoha gave the deeply deflated girl a gentle smile.
"I know how hard you went around to all the first-year classrooms. You did what you could. Besides, this is the first-years' first time actually running festival prep themselves—running late is practically standard."
"...Senior."
Chaerin's eyes sparkled, moved. But Seoha's fresh, easy smile didn't last long.
"That took forever. I doubt she's still at the club room...?"
Seoha murmured under her breath, gazing out the window. But the student council room was far too quiet to hide a murmur, and Chaerin was a junior with an intense interest in her perfect Senior Seoha.
Is this because of Senior Yeoncheong...?
Ever since the proposals had been submitted, Yeoncheong's visits had grown sparse, while Seoha, as student council president, remained swamped with festival preparations. Even Chaerin could tell that their time together had naturally dwindled.
The moment she realized this was exactly the moment to support Seoha, Chaerin's mind went into overdrive.
"Ah!"
At Chaerin's sudden outburst, Seoha's head turned.
"What is it?"
"Senior Seoha, do you happen to like movies?"
"...Movies?"
At this out-of-nowhere talk of films, Seoha tilted her head, and Chaerin pressed on.
"I ended up with movie tickets that are good through the Chuseok holiday, but I already have other plans, so I can't use them."
Hearing that much, Seoha could predict what would come next.
"Are you offering them to me? I'm fine, really, so give them to another friend—"
"There are two tickets."
There was no displeasure at being cut off mid-sentence.
"I'm sorry?"
Making sure she'd heard right came first.
"Two tickets."
Seoha's ears were working perfectly fine.
She was the type to refuse such things tooth and nail as a rule, but the words two tickets tempted her. Riding the momentum, Chaerin delivered the speech she'd organized in her head.
"You're always so good to us, Senior, so I want to give them to you. If you're free over the holiday, take someone and make it a date. Nobody turns down a gift, after all."
Seoha's red eyes flashed as she turned Chaerin's words over in her mind.
"...Well..."
Seoha herself spent far more time away from home than with her parents, and Yeoncheong, whose parents worked overseas, was unlikely to have anything special planned over the holiday either.
"Right? I'll send them to you now."
In an instant, Chaerin had sent Seoha the coupons and was gathering her bag and standing up.
"Anyway, a friend's waiting for me, so I'll head out."
Chaerin slipped swiftly out of the student council room. Seoha, left behind with a parting study hard, gazed blankly at the spot where her junior had been.
I sort of get what she's doing...
Chaerin had always shown something like affection toward her, but lately the direction of it had shifted, ever so subtly. If he had to put a name to it—she seemed to know something, and was quietly pushing things along from behind the scenes.
Seoha briefly debated whether she ought to rein her in, then quickly shook her head.
She'll be fine.
A junior she'd watched since middle school. She had her sloppy moments, but fundamentally she was a kind, good kid. She kept a respectful distance, too.
And last of all—a Seoha who'd happily borrow a cat's paw if she could had no reason to turn down help like this.
Checking the movie coupons Chaerin had sent her, she murmured to herself.
And it's not like Suyeon hasn't been bragging—I was wondering how to strike back...
The very day after Suyeon had gotten Yeoncheong on her lap—
Suyeon had crowed about how she, in turn, had gotten to sit on Yeoncheong's lap. Seoha hadn't made a scene of it, but she'd been jealous all the same.
"...I'm looking forward to it."
If nothing else, her final thought proved impossible to hide, and it slipped out loud. As she pondered what she and Yeoncheong might do going to see a movie, just the two of them—a smile bloomed across Seoha's lips.
That night, at the twins' house.
Suyeon's voice—which had half-promised, half-declared she'd drag Siyeon along by banking on the cooking—rang through the house.
"Ah, come on, just this once! I'm begging you!"
"Not happening. Am I not studying for exams too?"
Flat on her back on the floor, Suyeon threw a tantrum, grabbing the chair Siyeon was sitting in and shaking it.
"You can just study there too. I texted and asked earlier—Yeoncheong's going to have her teach her a few of the hard topics."
"That's—it's shaking too much!"
Siyeon refused flat out, saying she had her own studying to worry about, and Suyeon busied herself trying to wear her down.
Realizing her usual tactics weren't working, Suyeon sat up and bowed her head deep.
"Fine... I'll tell her no."
"Good. There are plenty of other people you could ask, anyway."
A watery, sympathy-tugging voice. Siyeon still refused to so much as glance her way, but—
"Yeoncheong said she liked it way better when you taught her than when I did... What a shame."
"Sh-she did?"
"Mm. She also said out of everyone who's ever tutored her, you explain things the cleanest and best."
"Really?!"
Siyeon perked up, then belatedly cleared her throat and scrambled to fix her expression.
"W-well, if you put it that strongly, I can hardly refuse. Tell her I'll come tomorrow."
"Really? Thank you, Siyeon."
Suyeon latched on and clung to her, and Siyeon, peeling her off, twisted her hair around her finger as her lips quivered.
"I'm going for Yeoncheong's sake, not yours."
The twins had been together nearly twenty years now. Suyeon, who knew her sister's temperament down to the letter, smiled.