THE TRANSFER STUDENT

Suspicions, Pt. 1

A few days later, Byulyi returned to school.

After her grandma had woken up that day, the doctor had run several checks, before declaring that she was ready to be discharged when she wanted to. Byulyi, of course, was ecstatic.

Seokjin and Jisoo, and occasionally Mr Kim, had gone to help her take care of her grandma for the next few days after school. The F5 members had gone to visit her grandma twice as well. For that, Byulyi was really grateful.

However, Seokjin and Byulyi hadn't talked about their conversation since that day. They were so busy taking care of Byulyi's grandma that they didn't have the chance.

It was time to put that all to an end when Byulyi returned.

It was lunch time the day that Byulyi had returned ro school. Seokjin took the initiative, walking to Byulyi's table and asking her out for lunch that day. Jisoo had... well, of course, tagged along. Byulyi knew that it was going to be awkward but... it wasn't.

It was worse than awkward.

"Byulyi..." Jisoo frowned, staring into her pale soybean stew. "I'm sure you heard my apology that day at the hospital, didn't you? Once again, I wanna apologise."

"Me too..." Seokjin said. "Even though you were the one who abandoned me first, it was my fault for getting mad. I should have talked it out nicely. I'm sorry..."

"Yeah," Jisoo nodded encouragingly. "I don't object anymore. I was foolish. I'm really sorry, Byulyi. I hope you and I can become good friends too. Is that possible?"

"Why wouldn't that be possible!" Seokjin looked at Byulyi hopefully. "She's an easy-going person, isn't she?"

"Aw, that's so sweet." Jisoo smiled. "Thank you, Byulyi. You're the best. I can't believe I treated you that way before."

And that was how the meal went. Byulyi hardly had the chance to speak, because Seokjin would say one sentence and Jisoo would say the next. At the end of the meal, Byulyi was sure they were back as friends, but it sure didn't feel like it.

They walked back to the classroom, three of them side-by-side, but Byulyi felt as if that conversation about friendship never took place in the first place.

Attempt one, failed.

Back in class, things were more light-hearted. About a week had passed since the day Hoseok had accused Jieun of stealing his watch, and the matter had almost been swept under the carpet.

Hoseok had made a report to the school, who chided him for bringing such an expensive item to school. People in school were mostly supportive of Jieun, because no solid evidence had been found yet. Some people, who were mostly Jieun's anti-fans, however, thought otherwise. They felt that Jieun was the most likely to have stolen the watch.

Jieun was much better. With her F5 members on her side, she felt happy. Plus, her classmates were supportive of her too. Even Hoseok had dropped his accusations against her and started being friendly again. She really thought everything was going to get better.

However, Yoojung didn't seem to think the same way. Whenever she had the chance, she brought up the topic of the watch. That day, was no different.

"If the culprit isn't caught yet..." Yoojung scratched her chin, doodling on a piece of paper on Jieun's desk. "It means that he- or she- is still out there with Hoseok's watch. But why?"

"Why?" Jieun laughed. "Yoojung, please. It's a gold watch we're talking about. The person obviously stole it for the money."