Keep the Pranks to a Minimum
"It's good news for everyone, you guys!"
She was beaming with a pure, sunny smile, but Yeoncheong had been taken in and led around by the nose by that exact expression more than once or twice before.
"Th-then, if you really hate telling us directly, how about we trade hints? One at a time?"
"Hints? One at a time...?"
The corner of her mouth curled upward along with the end of her sentence, as if to say, you think that's enough?
It was the relaxed confidence of someone sitting in the position of absolute power. Suyeon had people she could ask in endless supply—Seoha, Seobin, and more—while Yeoncheong could only ever ask Suyeon herself.
And if she really was hatching some outrageous scheme, the sooner she found out, the sooner she could prepare a countermeasure.
As the saying goes, the one who's desperate bows first. Yeoncheong's middle finger awkwardly lifted.
"F-fine. Two?"
"Hmm..."
Even at the desperate, pleading look in Yeoncheong's eyes—begging to settle for at least this much—her opponent only tilted her head back and forth and hummed a tuneless little song.
Honestly, Suyeon would have preferred not to know. Knowing wouldn't have mattered much either way.
Like she'd said before, she had plenty of people to ask. Besides, learning what the class T-shirt looked like with a month or so still left would only leave her anxious. There was nothing in it for her.
No—she was simply testing the waters over and over because Yeoncheong's flustered, at-a-loss reactions were so adorable.
"F-fine, I'll tell you..."
"Oh?"
But Yeoncheong, having read her opponent's composure in an entirely different sense, resolved to sacrifice her very dignity to uncover the scheme.
Which was to say, that was how terrified she was of whatever Suyeon was really plotting.
Urgh... maybe I've teased her way too much lately.
Suyeon resolved to cut back on the teasing for a while. Delicious reactions were always welcome, but letting her trust level bottom out this badly was a problem.
Still, that was that, and this was this.
She'd said Yeoncheong didn't have to know, but that had only been in case she didn't feel like saying it herself.
There was no reason whatsoever to refuse an offer to reveal it directly, embarrassment and all.
"Okay, sure. Tell me first, then. Clearly. And loud."
When Suyeon jerked her chin at her, urging her to get on with it, Yeoncheong's lips quivered.
"...The cheerleading uniform."
The words were barely out of her mouth before she buried her head—while Suyeon, finally learning the true identity of the T-shirt she'd been so curious about, could only blink stupidly.
So it was one of those ridiculous, attention-grabbing costumes—the kind with aggressive 'agro' appeal?
"That's it?"
No. Just as Seoha had said, it was a modest, cute outfit perfectly suited to a sports festival.
At that instant, Yeoncheong shot to her feet with an expression of complete incomprehension and raised her voice.
"'That's it'?! It's—it's uh! Skin-tight, and it's short enough that your belly button shows, and... just! It's embarrassing, okay?!"
"You already bared your midriff and played puppy at the festival. This seems a little late for false modesty."
"Yeah. Considering Hasol and Nayun didn't bat an eye, it can't have been that revealing. Way too late to be shy about it."
The two friends were utterly shameless about anything that wasn't their own problem.
"That was a punishment! It doesn't count!"
See, this was why she hadn't wanted to tell them. Grumbling, Yeoncheong pointed at her trading partner.
"A-anyway! I told you first, so now you have to tell me too."
"Ah, right, that was the deal, wasn't it?"
As if she'd completely forgotten, Suyeon gave a casual shrug of her shoulders.
Yeoncheong would have a full meltdown if she knew, but there was nothing to be done about it. It was partly Yeoncheong's own fault for assuming some bizarre scheme was underway.
"I'm talking with Teacher Jisu. About getting permission to use the club room at night too."
"Huh? Wait, that's it?"
Called it.
This time it was Yeoncheong who blinked dumbly, echoing Seoha's exact words from earlier.
A very constructive plan, the precise opposite of everything she'd feared.
In other words, she'd traded a plan that had never needed worrying about in the first place for the public reveal of an embarrassing uniform...
The moment Yeoncheong realized she'd been completely played, her voice rose to a shout.
"What?! Why would you hide good news like that!"
"Because it's not confirmed yet. If I got you all excited and then it fell through, you'd be crushed, wouldn't you?"
"Ugh... URGH! You did that on purpose, didn't you? A hundred percent on purpose!"
She was furious, but she'd been the one who'd jumped to conclusions and gotten suspicious all on her own, so she couldn't even mount a proper rebuttal.
All she could do was bounce up and down on the spot, trying to cool the heat boiling inside her.
The next day, after school, in the club room.
While Yeoncheong and her friends were absorbed in midterm studying as usual, Suyeon returned from the teachers' office with the news that their nighttime use of the room had been approved.
"Hmph..."
But being duped this time had genuinely stung. Holed up among the friends she loved, Yeoncheong didn't bother hiding her sulk, doing nothing but turning pages in her book.
As if deciding she'd sulked long enough, Suyeon dragged a chair over, sat pressed close beside her, and nuzzled against her friend's shoulder.
"Still sulking? I'm sorry~"
Truthfully, this kind of anger worked in Suyeong's favor too.
No matter how perceptive a person was, they couldn't read everything. Only when Yeoncheong got angry could she know for certain where the line was—ah, so she draws the line here.
But then...
"And what exactly do you think I'm sulking about?"
"...Huh?"
Suyeon had never imagined Yeoncheong could be that angry. Never imagined she'd say something like that—the kind of line you'd expect from a sulking girlfriend.
"H-hey. Let's go."
"Me too?"
"When whales fight, it's the shrimp whose backs get broken, right? You should clear out too, Seoha."
The atmosphere was unmistakably different from usual. Once Hasol and Nayun swept Seoha out of the club room, the once-cramped room seemed to widen in an instant.
And a pair of mismatched eyes rolled back and forth, busy reading the frosty expression of her friend.
"Y-Yeoncheong?"
"Tell me. What you think you did to make me like this."
She'd only ever heard that a man did not want to hear this particular question from a woman—absolutely could not afford to.
But at this moment, Suyeon felt exactly the same way.
D-damn it... what is it? What did I do?
The incident just before had merely been the spark that set off everything that had piled up—surely the real reason was something else. With that thought, Suyeon's worry deepened.
She'd sent the chain letter on April Fools' Day. She'd ordered Yeoncheong to bring stuff from home to decorate the club room without asking first. She'd piggybacked on her and groped her chest. And this time, she'd weaponized Yeoncheong's own suspicion to con her properly.
That was just the big-ticket items from April alone...
Counting the things she couldn't even remember, there had to be far more.
"The fact that you have to think this long means you don't even know what you did wrong."
"N-no! It's... it's just, thinking back, I've done so many things wrong that I..."
"Hah."
Cold sweat broke out at that short, sigh-like laugh.
She'd felt it back when Yeoncheong fought for her sake, too—despite that harmless appearance, she was the type who was genuinely frightening when angry.
Perhaps it was the influence of all the years she'd lived. Beneath that chilly surface, the aura leaking through was ferociously savage.
Did she need to say something—anything—to keep her from getting angrier? But what if she guessed wrong? What if this incident made her permanent persona non grata?
The brain that had whirred along so crisply whenever panic set in during study sessions had long since vanished without a trace.
Only a greenhorn girl at a complete loss wiggled her fingers.
"I'm sorry for ordering you to bring stuff over without asking. I'm sorry for pushing you until I touched your chest. I'm sorry about yesterday, too. And, and..."
The more apologies she rattled off, hoping at least one would land, the wetter her voice became.
At that, the blue eyes that had been glaring at her through narrowed slits wavered wide.
By the end, her sniffles swallowed up her mumbled words entirely.
"Wait! I haven't even said anything yet!"
Because her friend had burst into tears, Yeoncheong sprang up from her seat.
She'd planned to use this opportunity to set the mood straight and deliver a proper lecture—you've been pulling an awful lot of mean pranks lately.
But apparently she'd set the mood too well.
Only the one who actually gets angry knows how well it landed.
Her original plan dissolved like a wet tissue together with the tears of Suyeon, who had never intended to cry.
In the end, the mixture of guilt and bewilderment—why is she crying?—completely collapsed the levee that had been trembling with tears.
"Don't throw me awayyyy!"
"Wow, you're honestly driving me insane."
How far had her imagination run in that split second to produce that?
Yeoncheong, first things first, pulled her friend into her arms to keep the sound of crying from leaking outside.
"I'm not throwing you away. What are you, an object? Who goes around discarding people?"
Whether she heard that or not, Suyeon, deaf to everything, spilled out the excuse she'd been holding inside.
"I-I can't do it like Seoha does, okay? I express it my own way, like how she does it with Siyeon—that whole, uh, sweetness thing. Hnn... if you s-say you hate it, I'll stop from now on. Sniff. I'm sorryyyyy."
Just as Yeoncheong shied away from open displays of affection out of embarrassment, Suyeon too found it unbearably awkward to say things outright, Seoha-style—only her method of coping was different.
So the teasing was, in its own way, an expression of affection.
To think that this girl—the kind whose bright personality and looks made it seem like she must have dated at least once—was conveying her feelings like a grade-school kid...
Even Yeoncheong, who had assumed she was just in it for the delicious reactions, was thrown.
"I already know you like me. Did you really have to go that far?"
"B-because then you'll look at me even one more time, won't you..."
Either she'd been relieved that Yeoncheong was patting her back instead of yelling, or she'd been embarrassed to be crying over something like this—either way, Suyeon's tears stopped quickly, and she looked up at her friend.
At that moment, Yeoncheong couldn't help the sharp intake of breath.
Having just bared a hidden truth, her cheeks were flushed, her face limp and softened from crying, her eyes glistening and brimming with moisture.
Because every last thing about her friend had stolen her gaze.
She'd seen her cry once before, but maybe it was different this time because the meaning of the tears was different.
Barely managing to corral the emotion of the moment, Yeoncheong let out a sigh.
"Sheesh... first that whole misunderstanding when I hadn't even said anything, and now this much of a crybaby, honestly..."
"You're not exactly one to talk about crying either—mmph."
There was no reason to stand by and let an embarrassing truth get exposed.
Yeoncheong, wrapping her friend up in a firm embrace and clamping a hand over her mouth, licked her lips nervously.
"You said it's your way of expressing yourself, so I won't tell you to stop. But tone it down. Because sometimes I genuinely want to sock you one."
"Then what if you let me tease you more, on the condition that you can sock me one?"
Suyeon murmured it with only her face lifted slightly out of the embrace.
Yeoncheong didn't like that face at all—having been in tears until a moment ago, now grinning ear to ear.
Not when somebody else was currently losing her mind over what on earth to do every time this girl cried.
"...No."
Yeoncheong glanced around the club room—empty, of course—and took a deep breath.
When she dipped her head slightly, her lips drew close to the ear of the friend in her arms.
"Because I like you."
Thump.
Suyeon shoved Yeoncheong back hard, her face red to the point of bursting.
"Wha? What? What did you—what did you just say?"
"I said I don't make a hobby of hitting my friends."
Using her stiff, outstretched hand as a fan, she fluttered it against her face again and again.
Yeoncheong, her own face nearly as red as her friend's, met her eyes with an awkward gaze.
"N-not that! I mean what you said before that! What did you say?!"
"Hmm? I don't really remember."
"What?! Don't lie! Say it again!"
Judging by the way she was blushing, she'd definitely heard it properly.
But Suyeon wanted to savor it properly, and closed the distance with Yeoncheong in one decisive move.
"J-just once! Just once more, please!"
"I told you, I don't remember."
"AAAAHHH!!! LIAR! LIIEEEERRR!!!"
The ruckus—who do you think you are, a goldfish?—sent the three friends hurrying back, worried the two might actually be fighting, only for their eyes to go round as saucers.
There was the friend with tear tracks still on her cheeks, grabbing the other friend by the collar and shaking her.
It was impossible not to misread the situation.
"Ha Yeoncheong..."
"What did you do to make her cry?"
"Did you... hit her?"
The lecture she'd planned had gone undelivered. Instead, she'd suddenly found herself patting a crying friend to console her.
And because she liked her, she'd swallowed her embarrassment and even offered a gesture of affection first, on the understanding that the teasing should ease up from now on.
For all of that, the mountain of slander piling onto Yeoncheong's head accumulated in the blink of an eye.