4 Chapter 4

"NO. There's literally no way you haven't watched Riverdale. What planet do you live on?!"

"Um, one that recognizes when a show is absolute garbage? I, for one, choose not to waste my time watching 27-year-olds play high school students in a far-fetched murder mystery with the worst plot since Star Wars: Episode I."

"Oh no you didn't. How dare you insult even the least strong installment of the Star Wars saga. Oh, and don't let me forget-RETURN OF THE JEDI IS OVERRATED!"

"Oh, you uncultured swine."

I burst out in laughter at that point, not able to control the relentless giggles caused by the hilarious scene in front of me. Chae and Jisoo were staring absolute daggers at each other, caught up in the most heated debate I'd ever witnessed and trying not to yell- after all, we were sitting in the cafeteria at school. Making a scene probably wouldn't be the best idea they'd ever had.

It had been a week since my first day at school, and the three of us had spent every lunch together, talking, joking, and overall having a great time. It turns out that even though we're all quite different, there's a lot we have in common.

Like their rivaling views on pop culture.

Don't even get me started on the fights they have about Team Edward vs. Team Jacob.

Today they're in the midst of another match that tiptoes the border between good natured and genuinely frightening. Nevertheless, they crack me up. I didn't think people were this passionate about their opinions- no wonder wars happen.

Okay, I admit that might not be a completely parallel comparison. But it's not completely invalid. I mean, everyone could probably benefit from being a little less stubborn and a little more willing to see things from someone else's perspective. I wonder how different the world could be with a little more empathy.

It was there when their debate was about to cross into dangerous territory and I was laughing my ass off when Jisoo's phone lit up in an alert. I didn't think anything of it, barely registered it, even, until everything shifted.

Jisoo looked down at her phone, and her face fell simultaneously. In an instant, their conversation was completely forgotten as she froze to the screen. Nothing happened for a moment, until Jisoo stood up abruptly.

"I-I have to go to the bathroom." She said before quickly walking away and out of the lunch room. For a good few seconds, we couldn't even register what had happened.

After the shock wore off, Chae and I stood up in unison.

"What's going on?" she asked, clearly as taken aback as I.

"I have no idea," I responded with a shake of my head. "I'm going to check on her."

"I'm coming with you," Chaeyoung stated firmly. I nodded at her, glad for the company. I picked up my things and quickly followed in Jisoo's footsteps, Chaeyoung close behind me.

When we got to the bathroom, I was hit with a sense of déjà-vu.

I could hear Jisoo's muffled sobs trickling from a stall door, just like the week before. I motioned for Chae to follow me and walk to the door where the sound was coming from. I quietly rapped my knuckles on it. "Jisoo?" I breathed. Her sobs became less persistent. "Hey, it's us. Can you please open the door?"

After a few heartbeats, she opened it. Her face was streaked with tears. My chest lurched and I didn't hesitate in pulling her into a hug. After I stepped away, Chaeyoung did the same.

"Hey, what is it?" Chae said softly. "I promise I didn't mean what I said about Star Wars."

Jisoo let out a half-hearted laugh. "No, it's not that. It- it's something else. It's been going on for a while. I- I trust you guys, though. If I tell you, will you promise not to tell anyone else?" She looked at us imploringly, eyes wide.

"Of course not," I responded. "I promise not to tell anyone, unless it's something really serious. We've got your back."

"I promise too," Chae said.

"Okay." Jisoo took a deep breath. Then she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone. "It's something on social media. It was made by some people at this school. I- I know you're friends with them, Chaeyoung. I'm really sorry."

She placed the screen in front of our worried faces, and I read what was on it.

It was Jisoo's Instagram page. Except, I realized after a second, it was not really her. It was made by someone at this school. All the posts appeared to be unflattering pictures taken of Jisoo when she hadn't noticed. Some of them were even photoshopped with Jisoo's face on disgusting pictures. And the comments. The comments were utterly horrible. People were shockingly merciless in the comments, laughing at Jisoo and calling her names like 'loser', 'weirdo', and 'attention whore'. The thing that boiled my blood above all was the most recent post. There's a comment under it with twenty likes, written by some girl named Lee Soo-ah:

'Damn, not to be rude or anything, but if I was her I'd literally just kill myself.'

Shock. That's what I felt.

Then anger.

The fact that teenagers- people going to this very school, even- could be this mean and cruel absolutely disgusted me.

I was about to say something, but Chaeyoung beat me to it.

"Oh my god. That girl- I was best friends with her in middle school. I- I will kill her."

I'd never seen Park Chaeyoung like this. She was fuming, her hands clenched in fists and her eyebrows drawn sharply together. Her eyes were shining with a murderous glint.

For a second, I was reminded of a time when I was twelve.

I was reminded of my father.

That's what made me scared above anything else.

Jisoo appeared frightened too, her eyes wide with shock. "No, Chae- please don't say that. It's okay, it's just stupid kids being bullies."

Chaeyoung didn't appear like she heard Jisoo at all. She muttered something else under her breath before she practically ran out of the bathroom.

I shared a shocked glance with Jisoo.

Oh shit.

~

10 minutes later, I was sitting in the nurse's office. My mind was spinning like a whirlwind. I had my head in my hands, still trying to comprehend everything that had just happened.

After Chaeyoung stormed out of the bathroom, Jisoo and I followed her. In the cafeteria she'd marched right up to the Soo-ah girl and shoved her.

She'd literally shoved her on her ass.

Then she started yelling, yelling about the Instagram page and about how disgusted she was by Soo-ah and how she regretted ever being friends. Her voice was shrilly and her words tumbled and twisted, a mess of consonants and vowels and hatred. I could barely understand a single thing, but I could guess well enough. Then she punched Lee Soo-ah in the face. At that moment, Lalisa Manoban ran to Chae from where she'd been sitting and restrained her.

Everyone else just looked on in shock, Lalisa being the only one who could (or even tried to) hold her back. After a few moments, Lalisa was able to calm Chaeyoung down enough to form coherent sentences. Lisa whispered something in her ear, which I assumed was some sort of question, because then Chaeyoung responded by telling her to take out her phone. After a minute, Lalisa looked up from her phone with a slightly shocked expression. She looked at Soo-ah on the ground, (who was sniffling by now,) and then over at where Jisoo and I were standing by the other side of the cafeteria. She had a conflicted expression on her face. After a beat she glanced back to Chaeyoung, who still looked pissed. Lalisa murmured something like fuck it under her breath before taking Chaeyoung by the wrists and walking over to where Jisoo and I stood.

Nobody seemed to breathe.

Then Lalisa looked around.

"Well?" she snapped. "Will one of you get that sniveling asshole off the ground and to the nurse's office, or are you too busy eating your own shit?"

Immediately a murmur of apologies went around, and students began to move again.

It was safe to say that I was appalled.

At that point some teachers walked in, looking both furious and bewildered, and ushered everyone out. One helped up Lee Soo-ah from her position leaning on another student's shoulder and told Chaeyoung, Lalisa, Jisoo and I to follow her in a barely controlled tone.

And that's how I found myself sitting in the nurse's office next to Kim Jisoo and Lalisa Manoban, while Lee Soo-ah's bleeding nose was treated by the nurse and Park Chaeyoung was in the principal's office.

It's not where I'd expected my day to go.

We sat in silence for a while, until I decided to speak up. "Lalisa?"

She turned to look at me. She wore a heavy expression, a mix of disappointment and fatigue. "Yeah, Jennie?"

I was a little surprised that she remembered my name. "Um, thanks for- well you know. Stepping in and everything, earlier. You really saved the whole situation from getting worse."

Lalisa smiled slightly. "Yeah, don't worry about it. No one else was going to do anything. You know, the kids at this school are pretty pathetic. They talk a big game and cling to their cliques like their life depends on it, but their loyalty is all fake. The second someone's in serious trouble or their reputation is in danger, they abandon their so called 'friends' in an instant."

"Yeah. I can see what you mean," I sighed. I stayed silent for a bit, lost in thought. Then I remembered something. I turned to where Jisoo was sitting on my other side, and was alarmed when I saw her head in her hands. "Jisoo, are you okay?"

She looked up. Her lips were shaking, but she wasn't crying. "Do you think I'm okay, Jennie? Lee Soo-ah said that stuff on Instagram, and it was bad enough. Then I shared it with you and Chaeyoung, thinking I could trust you to keep it between us. And she went and caused this. So no, I'm not okay. Not in the slightest."

"I'm so sorry, Jisoo. I'm so sorry. This sucks, I know. You have every right to be upset. But I'm confused. I've never seen Chaeyoung act like this," I said honestly.

"I have." I looked over at Lalisa in shock. "I've seen her act like this." Jisoo and I both leaned in closer, our curiosity (and dread) sparked. "It was a long time ago, though. Back in our final year of middle school, ninth grade. At that time, she was best friends with Lee Soo-ah and I was new in town. It was around the time we had final exams, which was a big deal because our scores would determine what high schools we could get into. I didn't know it at the time, but Chaeyoung's dad is a super successful lawyer, meaning they're rich. I'm talking loaded."

I listened intently, surprised by this new information that I wouldn't have guessed to be true. Chaeyoung doesn't seem like someone with a rich father- she's sweet and down-to-earth, not at all egotistic or superficial.

"But unfortunately, that also meant that he expects the same success from his only child. He has unrealistically high expectations of Chae, and the pressure on her built and built until she started getting anxiety attacks."

I sucked in a breath. I didn't like where this was going.

"She still gets them sometimes, especially when there's a lot of pressure on her. Anyways, there was one day at school when she was really stressed and someone was talking shit about Lee Soo-ah. You see, Chaeyoung is super protective of her friends. She values them more than anything, for better or for worse. Everything together was overwhelming and she just snapped. She got into a fistfight with the kid and they both got suspended."

"Who was the kid?" Jisoo asked hesitantly.

"The kid was me." Lalisa grinned maniacally.

"What?!" I half-yelled in shock. I'm sure our faces were comical, because Lalisa started laughing.

"Yeah," she managed between chuckles. "Chae threw the first punch, but I wasn't about to take that and held my ground well. You see, my brother taught me how to fight." She stretched her arms nonchalantly, my mouth still open in surprise. "Chaeyoung's strong, though. It was a well-matched fight. We both ended up with bruises and bloody noses. After that, we became best friends."

"Okay, I still don't understand. You were shit-talking Lee Soo-ah?"

"You and Chae became best friends after being in a fist fight?"

"Okay, okay, I'll explain, geez," Lalisa assured us, waving her hands impatiently. "Well, Lee Soo-ah was not a nice person, for starters. She spread rumors about Chaeyoung all the time even though they were supposedly BFFs, and made fun of kids left and right for being different in any way. So there was a reason I didn't speak too kindly about Soo-ah. Unfortunately, Chaeyoung could be a little blind to her friends' faults and refused to believe anything negative about them. You know, I made that mistake too, this year. I know I wasn't the nicest to you when we met, Jennie, and I'm sorry about that."

"Thanks, but it's no big deal," I shrugged.

"No, but it is," Lalisa insisted. "And when Chaeyoung started hanging out with you guys last week, I got jealous. I was used to her being my friend, and no one else's. After we had that fist fight three years ago and got suspended, I explained to her everything I'd seen Lee Soo-ah do behind her back and we got really close. Even in our friend group, we were always closer to each other than anyone else. But now, instead of making an effort to be friends with you guys too, I just stuck with those other kids because I was afraid of losing some fucking popularity. It took today happening for me to realize that I'm done hanging out with those losers who don't care about anything that matters."

I smiled at her. "You're welcome to join us. I think we're pretty caring, and we're definitely not cool."

"You know what, I'd be happy to. Oh, and call me Lisa."

"Sounds good, Lisa."

Jisoo smiled too, albeit her expression was evidently still distraught. Lisa frowned sympathetically at her. "And Jisoo, I'm really fucking sorry about what Soo-ah said to you. Even online, that shit is evil. Words can cut deeper than a knife, and no one deserves to be told that. Not even Lee Soo-ah herself."

"Thanks," Jisoo breathed. The air between us felt comfortable now. My tension was significantly eased, although not completely since there was still the whole Chaeyoung thing. But the three of us had just formed an unspoken alliance that I knew extended beyond a lunch cafeteria and classroom politics. We would have each other's back. I felt something warm in my chest at the thought. Belonging to a group of friends, a group of true friends, was fresh and exciting, but also comforting in a way I wouldn't have imagined.

After a few more minutes, I saw someone through the windows of the waiting room. My pulse jumped when I realized it was Chaeyoung, being escorted by a teacher through the hallway and towards the exit of the school building. I jumped out of my seat. Lisa and Jisoo looked at me quizzically, but I was too nervous to form words so I just pointed out the window frantically. They followed my arm, and upon seeing Chaeyoung outside, jumped up as well. We all rushed to the door, opening it and stepping out and into the hallway.

Chaeyoung heard the movement and turned around, stopping dead when she saw us. We walked over to her, but the teacher was now pulling on her sleeve.

"Come on, girl. There's no time for chitchat." The teacher hurriedly continued with Chae in her grasp down the hallway. I shared a befuddled glance with Lisa and Jisoo before we followed them all the way out of the school building.

Apparently there was time for chitchat, however, because outside in the blinding sunlight, Chaeyoung and the teacher stopped abruptly. The woman looked down at her wristwatch with a huff. "He'll be here soon," Chaeyoung assured her.

"Who?" I said, reaching them along with Lisa and Jisoo. Chaeyoung turned to look at me, but the teacher just muttered and looked at her watch some more.

"You know what, I don't have time for this. You can wait out here by yourself for your father to come pick you up. You're seventeen, for heaven's sake." The teacher stomped back inside the school, leaving the four of us together.

Chaeyoung stared at Jisoo with an apologetic expression. "I got suspended. It's what I deserve. I deserve more, really, but my dad's the head of the school board and a lawyer, so he was able to sway them in my favor. And Jisoo... I'm so sorry. I know you probably hate me and don't want to be friends anymore, but please just let me say I'm sorry. I let my emotions get the better of me, and made a huge mess after you trusted me with a painful secret. It's unforgivable. Even though Soo-ah definitely deserved it after how horrible she was, it was all really stupid of me and I didn't make anything better. I'm sorry."

Jisoo was silent for a few moments, but the expression on her face shifted slightly as she studied Chaeyoung. She sighed. "I forgive you."

Chaeyoung looked up in surprise. "What? Really?"

"Yeah," Jisoo said decidedly. "It was stupid of you, and definitely not what I needed or wanted. But Lisa told us about your dad's pressure on you, and your anxiety attacks. I get the feeling that more was bothering you than you let on."

Chae glanced at Lisa with a bit of relief. I guess she isn't upset that Lisa told us that. "Yeah. It's been getting a little rough recently."

"Plus, I know you mean well in a sort of messed up way," Jisoo added.

"I'm a monster," Chaeyoung whispered. She was staring at the ground now. "I'm a monster for hurting someone like that."

"No, you're not a monster," Jisoo stated firmly. She stepped closer to Chaeyoung, placing her hands on Chae's shoulders. Chae looked up remorsefully. "You just care about your friends deeply. You're the opposite of a monster. You care so much about what's right and what's wrong that you would fight for your life over it."

Chaeyoung smiled weakly. "You really think so?"

Lisa and I stepped in closer. We all held each other's shoulders at this point, forming a sort of group huddle. The three of us smiled encouragingly at Chaeyoung.

"We know so," I concluded. Then she grinned and we collapsed into a four-way hug, laughing after a bit and holding each other tightly.

We stayed that way for an amount of time that seemed as short as a second, but simultaneously longer than an eternity. In reality, we broke apart after five minutes when Chaeyoung's dad arrived at the school to pick her up. But in that huddle I felt closer to the three of them than anyone in my life before (except my sister). In that moment, I could feel a bond being born between us that transcended time and space. It reached out through stellar orbits and asteroid fields, past galaxies and planetary nebulae, through the edges of my expanding universe and hopped between parallel universes until finally stopping to settle as stars in the irises of our crinkled, laughing eyes.

We were friends- true friends. And that in itself was enough to make me truly happy.