The good in the bad // {Baewoo}

4. Act One: The Start

"Okay, I swear my head is going to explode" Jini moaned, running a hand through her hair.

"Well if you downed the entire alcohol counter yesterday it's not my fault" Jiwoo shrugged.

The break between fourth and fifth period had just struck, and Jiwoo, Jini and Hyunjin were sitting on their individual desks enjoying a minute of well-deserved rest after an interrupted hour of molecular biology.

Jini frowned, almost indignant, and her dark eyes scanned Jiwoo for a long time before answering her.
"I didn't go into it that hard," she tried to say.

"Yes you did" Hyunjin argued.

"Oh, shut up. Just because you're a priest we don't all have to hold ourselves to your standards," she retorts.

"Wow now I'm even judged if I have a good head on my shoulders. What a society!" the boy commented sardonically.
"Jini, you were totally stoned yesterday. It's normal for you to have a hangover now," Jiwoo interjected, with a simple shrug.

Jini gasped, but didn't say anything else, accepting the facts as they were.

In the meantime, Jiwoo's mind had traveled far away, precisely to a few hours earlier, in the villa at the party.

Bae Jinsol had never seemed like a one-night stand.
Not that she cared, of course.

But it was strange to see her flaunt her conquest, almost defiantly, before his eyes.
Jiwoo was sure of one thing: she would never understand the ambiguous look Bae gave her the moment she saw her with Jake, the imbecile fourth year boy.

Maybe she thought 'what a slut, she really has it with everyone.' Maybe she found confirmation in the gossip going around.
But what was she complaining about in the end? Jiwoo was the one who started those rumors. She did it every time, after every party.
The next morning, punctually, he heard shouting in the corridors and gossiping about Jiwoo Kim's 'numbers' from the previous evening.

But last night, when Bae Jinsol's walnut-colored eyes fell on her face, Jiwoo felt strange.
It wasn't like usual, like when they gave each other dirty looks and dirty looks during class or exchanged unkind jokes.
No, that evening, for the first time, Jiwoo hadn't been able to reply, perhaps make some of her usual unpleasant and derisive comments.
She had remained silent, and waited for Bae to do everything herself.

The moment had lasted little more than a handful of seconds, mind you, but they had been enough to make the little Korean girl uncomfortable.

"Jiwoo!" a foreign voice made her jump. She looked up at the face where it belonged, which was Hyunjin's, and realized that she had lost her train of thought, again.

"Mh?" she said absentmindedly.

"I was telling Jini that we can't go out with the group tomorrow night because we have history research to do" Hyunjin repeated, snorting, and then throwing a meaningful look at her friend, hoping she would catch it.
Jiwoo stared at him, puzzled for a moment, they didn't have any history research assigned for the week.

She was about to point it out when she saw Hyunjin raise an eyebrow and widen his eyes, as if to make her understand something.
Suddenly, Jiwoo remembered.

"Oh right, yes, unfortunately we're not there"

"But screw the search! It's a party thrown by Felix, you know his parties are the best, you can't abandon me" Jini whined, and Jiwoo and Hyunjin exchanged looks.

"Yeah, it's a pain in the ass, I know.." Jiwoo continued the act.

Luckily the bell rang, preventing Jini from asking any potentially uncomfortable questions that would have forced Jiwoo to invent further stories.