the lonely hearts club [saida, minayeon, jeongchaeng]

Chapter 6: welcome to the black parade

When Dahyun hands Sana the strawberry shortcake she made for her, secured inside a little box with a tag that has her name on it and a little pink ribbon that's tied in the weirdest, most endearing way, her brain all but stops functioning right then and there. This is truly the stuff dreams were made off.

"Sana?" the other girl frowns. "Hello?"

That brings her back to planet Earth.

"Sorry!" she nervously giggles. "I just disconnected for a second!"

"It's fine, don't worry."

A beat passes.

"Are you... going to take it?"

Sana realizes she was so busy shortcutting she hadn't even accepted the gift and, apologizing again, she takes the present from Dahyun's hands (desperately trying to avoid contact in case she'd die in front of her).

"Thanks, Dahyun," she says sincerely, once most of her embarrassment has died down. "You really didn't have to do all this."

"You really didn't have to wear a Marmot costume for me either," she replies, making both of them giggle a little bit at the memory of Sana jumping around in that thing. "So I guess we're both even."

Sana had managed to get another uniform in no time and Momo never suspected a thing, so it was a smooth process (except she spent like 200 dollars. And her mom almost fainted when she saw Dahyun's uniform passing it off as hers'. But still, it had been worth it). Plus it was time she bought another one already, the other one was a little tight already, and she tells Dahyun as much.

"So really, it was no problem," she concludes, nodding and hoping Dahyun knows she's sincere. She doesn't want her to worry about paying her back or whatever.

"Well, in any case, I hope you still accept the cake," she nods, with a small smile on her lips, but that smile slowly turns suggestive. "My friend Chaeyoung helped me."

Sana involuntarily tenses. She didn't think Dahyun would be this straight forward about trying to set her and Chaeyoung up, and frankly, she still hasn't decided what the hell she was going to do with the situation at all. She doesn't want anybody to end up feeling hurt, and lying is never the best option but if she told her the truth she'd be compromising Chaeyoung and she'd be exposing her own crush. She has no idea what she's going to do, and yet here she is, Dahyun looking at her with one eyebrow raised and waiting for an answer.

"Really?" her throat feels suddenly dry.

"Do you know her?"

Shit. "Yeah, kind of."

"From where?" The other girl asks, leaning in.

"Eh, Mina. Yeah! Mina told me to tell her -," she clears her throat. "To ask her for help. For the uh, Student Council."

"Really?" Dahyun hums, not entirely pleased with her answer. "She's pretty, right?"

Sana almost chokes on air. "Huh?"

"Chaeyoung, she's pretty," Dahyun continues pushing. "Isn't she?"

"I mean..." Chaeng is pretty, but she isn't Dahyun. "Yeah, sure. She's pretty."

Dahyun only nods, standing up. "Good."

Sana stares down at her strawberry cake as the other girl walks away without another word, and finds that she isn't feeling hungry at all.

"Holy shit," Chaeyoung whispers to herself, as everyone in the room started working per Nayeon's (very demanding and angry) request. When all hell had broken loose, she and Jeongyeon were discussing decorations and the budget they would have to ask their principal for when Mina and Nayeon's fight had gone into screaming mode, and as soon as it was over and Mina had walked out the door Jeongyeon and Jihyo had run to Nayeon to try to calm her down. She hadn't expected them to blow up on each other like that when last week they seemed to be getting along somewhat okay-ingly, and now they are back at square one. She pulls out her phone and starts typing.