Chapter Text
: ・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・ :
Sports Day had finally arrived.
The students were excited and ready to give their best on the long-awaited day. Everyone was looking forward to the cheerdance competition.
The Green Team had been champions for two consecutive years, especially with Nano always joining the competition. She was constantly the highlight of the team. Not only was she pretty and popular, but she was also an exceptionally talented dancer.
Meanwhile, Namtan, Milk, and Emi were gathered with their basketball team, discussing their defensive strategy.
Namtan wanted to beat the Blue Team so badly, especially since Amy was on that team. She wanted to prove to Amy's fangirls that their sweet-talking Amy wasn't all that.
In reality, insecurity was eating at her.
She had been friends with Amy since elementary school.
Back then, Namtan looked up to her almost like an older sister.
But everything changed last year.
When they were in Grade 10, one of their childhood friends confessed her feelings to Namtan.
The feelings were mutual.
They had liked each other since Grade 9.
Amy knew all about it because the girl often talked to her about her feelings for Namtan. In fact, Amy was the one who encouraged her to confess.
Eventually, Namtan and the girl started dating.
But somehow, during their last semester of Grade 10, Namtan caught her girlfriend cheating on her with Amy.
The betrayal crushed her.
She couldn't understand why they would do that to her.
She considered both of them her close friends.
Amy had even helped bring them together in the first place.
That's what made it hurt even more.
It wasn't even as if Amy genuinely liked her girlfriend.
Amy just liked kissing girls.
At least, that's how Namtan saw it.
She was bitter toward Amy the most because Amy knew they were together and still chose to stab her in the back.
Of course, she hated her ex-girlfriend equally.
When her ex transferred to another school during Grade 11, it was honestly a relief.
At least she didn't have to see her face every day anymore.
As for Amy, Namtan guessed she could tolerate her.
A little.
But she was still pissed.
The admiration she once had for Amy had long since turned sour.
She could never trust her again.
Especially because she knew Amy never seemed sorry for what she had done.
: ・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・ :
At the gym, everyone was hollering, cheering, and dressed according to their team themes.
Jane was actively leading her team's cheers to boost the morale of her teammates.
She wore a dinosaur costume she had bought from Temu. Whenever it was their turn to cheer, she enthusiastically hyped everyone up.
There was also a cheering competition. The teams would be judged based on their energy, creativity, crowd engagement, costumes, and props.
For the first time, Belle actively participated in Sports Day. In previous years, she usually stayed at home playing online games.
But this year was different.
She was having fun with Earn and her friends.
Belle liked Jane's Time Machine concept, especially because it gave Jane an excuse to buy a ridiculous dinosaur costume.
She thought it was silly.
In a good way.
Earn was happy to see Belle enjoying the event.
She took photos and videos of everyone to keep as memories.
When Namtan, Jane, Emi, and Milk noticed, they immediately jumped into the frame and posed dramatically for the camera.
The gym erupted with cheers when the basketball games began.
Belle patted her friends on the shoulders and wished them good luck.
She had a good feeling her team would win this year.
For five consecutive years, the Green Team had never won the games category.
Sports simply weren't their strongest area.
But this time, Belle thought they actually had a chance.
Especially with the Tower Three on the team.
Namtan was 169 centimeters tall.
Emi was 165 centimeters.
And Milk, the tallest among them, stood at 170 centimeters.
Belle had a very good feeling about it.
During the dance competition, the atmosphere was intense because all the participants were talented. Even their costumes were extravagant.
"Ooy, are all the participants good-looking or what?" Jane asked.
"Don't be fooled. It's just makeup," Emi criticized.
"Huh? What do you mean good-looking? Are you blind?" Namtan scoffed. "Look at Shishas's group. Half of them look like they stopped by an embalmer's service instead of a makeup salon."
Namtan's friends immediately looked at her, frowning.
Milk elbowed her. "Harsh?"
"What? I'm being honest!" Namtan defended herself.
"You'll all be surprised to hear this, but that didn't come from me. Namtan's the one judging them. I have absolutely no opinion," Emi said.
"Of course you don't. You're not qualified to judge beauty," Namtan shot back. Biting her lips to not laugh. She could tell Emi didn't understand that.
When it was Shishas's team's turn to perform, Belle, Namtan, Emi, Milk, Jane, and Earn were watching from the bleachers.
"Earn, I'll be very honest. I think you can dance better than all of them," Belle said sincerely.
"Ooy, don't exaggerate," Earn replied, feeling embarrassed.
"Good Lord, is this a cheerdance or a church doxology?" Emi muttered. "Where's the beat?"
Milk wasn't usually the type to make negative comments, but even she had something to say. "I'll be honest. If I didn't know they had a month to prepare for this, I would've thought this was a group presentation they put together last night."
"Maybe they're nervous," Jane said, mouth twitched. "Or maybe they forgot to eat breakfast."
"Honestly, Shisha is the only one who knows how to dance," Namtan remarked. "Where did she even find the rest of those members?"
"I suddenly missed my bed," Belle started yawning. "Earn, I swear I'm not saying this just because we're friends. You dance better than them. They're not even in sync."
"No, comment," Earn immediately replied.
Milk agreed.
Jane was watching a performance that barely felt like a performance. She couldn't understand how underwhelming it was.
"Maybe I should keep my mouth shut," Emi said. "Last time I criticized Shisha, I got sent to the office. She gets mad whenever somebody criticizes her."
Emi paused, watching the performance after Shisha pulled off a not-so-impressive choreography.
The Red Team still cheered anyway because it was their job to support their teammates.
"Mama Mary, what was that move?” Namtan’s brows furrowed.
Earn, Belle, and Milk were playfully elbowing each other to not comment anymore.
But Emi being Emi. She didn't get the memo. “Jesus, look at Shisha. She acts like she's the hottest shit alive."
Her face turned sour.
“What the fuck was that move anyway? She looked like a cattle being dragged to the rice field,” Emi made a scornful look.
The group immediately covered their mouths.
That was already dangerous territory.
But Emi wasn't finished.
"Shisha looks like a foot with a face."
"Oooy, Emi!" Jane gasped.
"And her members look like catfishes swimming in the mud."
“I thought we support women here?” Milk reminded them.
“I do! But not them!” Emi pointed at Shisha’s team.
The rest of the group decided not to add any more comments.
If someone heard them, they would be cancelled.
"Oh, thank God that was over," Belle sighed in relief.
"Fuck. That took way too long," Emi remarked, pulling her sleeves up. She shot Shisha's team a disdainful look when they walked out of the spotlight, feeling like they killed the show with their performance.
Finally, it was Nano's team's turn to perform.
Jane immediately ran back to her position to hype up her team.
Behind the stage, Nano and her teammates gathered in a circle for one last pep talk before going on. They stacked their hands together in the center.
"Go Green Team!" one of them shouted.
"Let's go!" everyone yelled in unison before breaking the circle.
The announcer introduced their team and explained their concept.
But before they could begin, an underclassman hurried over to Nano and showed her a post on Twitter.
"Phi, is this true?" the girl asked.
Nano was speechless.
The post from three days ago had resurfaced. This time, it claimed that Nano had been pretending to donate money to animal shelters while actually pocketing the funds herself.
According to the post, even Sister had become one of her recent victims.
Nano's stomach dropped.
She thought that issue had already been cleared up.
So why was it spreading again?
She scrolled through the comments.
Most of them were negative.
Suddenly, Shisha walked past her and stopped.
"You know what?" Shisha smirked. "Everyone should thank me for exposing your lying bitch ass."
Nano's eyes narrowed.
"You."
Her tone was sharp.
"Nano, come on! It's our turn!”
Before she could say anything else, Baipor grabbed her arm. She quickly took the phone from Nano's hand and passed it to another teammate.
Nano glared at Shisha who was mocking her.
Shisha simply waved.
That insidious smile never left her face.
Nano and her team stood in front of the students.
The music started, and Nano did her best during the song's intro.
Jane led the cheering team to hype up the crowd. She had come up with a chant for when Nano's team performed. She had practiced with her team beforehand.
It was basically a fan chant.
The synchronized chanting alongside the music energized the entire gym.
But somehow, Nano got distracted by everything that was happening to her.
The rumors.
The accusations.
The posts about her.
The cheers started sounding like laughter.
Like whispers.
Like people mocking her.
Gossiping about her.
It messed with her head so badly that she eventually forgot parts of the choreography.
Everyone noticed that Nano was off-beat and occasionally delayed during the performance.
At one point, she even bumped into one of her teammates while dancing.
Jane noticed it too.
But she didn't stop.
She continued leading the chants, calling out each dancer's name and encouraging the crowd to cheer louder so the team wouldn't lose morale.
Finally, the music ended.
Everyone clapped.
It wasn't as bad as it looked.
There were a few mistakes, but overall, it was still a good performance.
Nano was mortified.
The moment the music stopped, she immediately walked out of the gym. Jane was baffled but still continued to lead the cheering.
Belle, Earn, Namtan, Emi, and Milk, who were at the top of the bleachers, were giving each other a knowing look.
"Ok…?" Belle glanced at Earn since she was next to her. Earn was in Nano's circle. If anyone knew what just happened, it was her.
Earn shrugged, eyes still on the empty stage. She knew they had practiced hard for that performance. Somehow it just didn't land.
"What the fuck was that?" Emi said.
"What do you mean? I think it was alright," Milk remarked, shrugging.
"I don't have comments about Nano, but speaking of things that don't make sense," Namtan started, arms crossed, still watching Nano's team file out. "Why did our prop budget get cut to thirty percent again?"
"I heard from Jane that Nano's team needed seventy," Milk said flatly.
"For what?" Belle squinted at the retreating cheerleaders.
"Costume and salon," Earn added.
"Seventy percent for that?" Namtan's brows furrowed as her eyes swept over the team's outfits one more time. "What are they wearing, Balenciaga?"
"Balenciaga my ass!" Emi leaned forward with full conviction. "That looked like it was bulk-ordered from Temu at 2 AM."
"Did Jane even fight for the budget?" Namtan asked.
"She did." Belle picked at a loose thread on her sleeve, not quite meeting anyone's eyes. "She even asked me for Nano's address."
A beat of silence.
"Wait." Earn slowly turned to look at her. "It was you who told Jane where Nano lives?" She looked genuinely surprised. "Last time, Nano was being all weird about it. She didn't tell anyone who came to her house, just casually mentioned that someone showed up to pester her and brushed it off like it was nothing."
"My god, Belle." Milk stared at her with flat, unblinking eyes. "Were you snooping through your aunt's files?"
"Errr… uhhhh..." Belle suddenly became very interested in the basketball court below.
"Ew, she was snooping through her aunt's files," Namtan confirmed to no one in particular.
"I was just helping Jane fight for our budget, ok?" Belle said, with the energy of someone who had already decided that was a completely valid justification.
"...The budget we still didn't get in the end," Namtan said.
She didn't even say it meanly. Just stated it. Which was somehow worse.
"We didn't get premium snacks because the money went to their costume and salon," Emi grumbled, slumping back against the bleacher seat like she had personally been robbed.
"In fairness," Milk said carefully, "Nano looks expensive."
"Of course she does." Namtan waved a hand. "Nano could wear a garbage bag and still look expensive. That's not the point. The point is the budget. Seventy percent, all of that, for a Temu-looking costume?" She raised a brow.
"And somehow Shisha's team," Belle said, nodding toward the now-cleared stage, "whose performance looked like they'd just been informed that today was the performance. Their costumes were actually kind of…nice."
Milk and Earn nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, they had to look good," Emi said. "Or else there'd be nothing to distract from the fact that they danced like they were dragged straight out of a drainage canal five minutes before going on."
Milk pressed her lips together very hard.
"No comment," Earn said.
"Same," said Milk, who had several.
Outside on the field, her teammates quickly surrounded her.
"Nano, what the fuck was that?" Khaopan snapped. "You were the one telling us not to fuck up. We practiced for weeks. And now you're the one who messed up our choreography?"
"Khaopan..." Baipor tried to calm her down.
"Baipor, not now!" Khaopan shot back. "I'm tired of this bitch constantly messing up our group's image."
Nano showed Khaopan the Twitter post.
"It was Shisha. She planned this to mess with me."
"Fuck you, Nano!" Khaopan fired back. "Stop blaming other people and own up to your shit! It doesn't change the fact that you messed up our choreography! What Shisha posted has nothing to do with why I'm pissed right now!"
Khaopan was right.
Nano knew that.
But she didn't have anything else to say.
She felt small.
Surrounded by her teammates.
Listening to Khaopan's nonstop criticism.
The words slowly stopped registering.
Everything began to blur together.
Their voices became distant.
Like static.
She was drowning.
Drowning.
And then...
Suddenly, Jane swooped in.
"Wait! You can continue talking shit about her tomorrow. Hell, I'll join you. But right now, I really need her for something."
Jane made a finger-heart.
"Part two of the cuss battle tomorrow! Same place, same time!" she said with a sheepish smile.
Khaopan and Baipor stared at her in complete confusion.
Nano was equally surprised to see Jane there.
At the gazebo, Nano sat silently, buried in her thoughts.
She didn't know how she was supposed to pay back everyone she owed.
She didn't even know where to start.
Her reputation was already falling apart.
Jane offered her a chocolate.
Nano shook her head.
Jane offered again.
Nano declined.
For the third time, Jane held it out.
Nano simply shook her head again without saying anything.
It began to worry Jane.
"You know, you should eat chocolate. Consider it your cheat day. I bet you haven't eaten much these past few days because you've been preparing for today's performance."
Jane took a bite of the chocolate.
"But honestly, eating chocolate when you're feeling bad really helps."
She turned toward Nano and smiled.
Chocolate was stuck between her teeth.
"Because it's deliciouuuus."
Nano couldn't help smiling.
Jane looked so ridiculously stupid.
Jane immediately scrunched her nose.
Success.
She had managed to make Nano smile.
Nano let out a heavy sigh.
"I don't know what to do next," she admitted. "Suddenly, I've become the talk of the entire school."
She couldn't bring herself to look at Jane.
"If I'm being honest..."
She finally met Jane's eyes.
"I don't have the money to pay all of them back."
Jane thought for a moment before replying.
"I think there's a way. Don't worry. I'll help you."
"It's almost 400,000 Baht," Nano challenged. "How exactly are you going to help me?"
She didn't want false hope.
She didn't even know how she was supposed to pay that amount herself.
She was still a high school student without a stable income.
Her family didn't even know about the debt.
So she doubted Jane could possibly help with something this huge.
Four hundred thousand Baht was a ridiculous amount of money.
Jane wondered what the hell Nano was buying with that huge amount of money.
Was Nano starting her own laundry business or what?
Anyway, no matter how difficult it seemed, there had to be a solution.
They just needed to find it.
"You still have all those branded items, right?" Jane suggested. "Maybe you could sell some of them. We could start there."
"Are you crazy?" Nano frowned. "I love those things."
"But in this situation, you don't have much of a choice, do you?" Jane said. "If you're able to pay people back but choose not to, I think that's not much different from scamming them."
Again.
That word.
Scamming.
It immediately irritated Nano.
"Nano, think about it. The people who lent you money might need it too. If you refuse to pay them back when you can, you'll just look even more selfish."
"Fine! I will!" Nano snapped. "But how am I selfish when I'm trying to find a way to pay them back?"
Her voice was sharp.
"Just let me handle this myself!" She glared at her.
"N-no, Nano, that's not what I meant..."
Suddenly, Nano's phone rang. She answered it and walked away, feet stomping, without looking back.
Jane watched her leave. She felt bad for what she had said. Maybe she could have chosen her words better.
She was trying to help her, but somehow, she hadn't managed to say it in a way Nano could understand.
As Nano stormed off from the gazebo, leaving Jane behind, she went outside to meet someone from her past. A former schoolmate from her years in a co-ed school.
It was hard to get close to Nano. She was a difficult girl to pursue.
He treated Nano like a difficult video game stage. The challenge only made him more interested.
After seeing all those hashtags about Nano, he could tell she was in big trouble.
He saw an opening and decided to make his move.
"Oy, Phi, you didn't have to come out. You know I'll still send you the money," he said, happy to see Nano again.
It's true that Nano didn't have to come out.
She only left because she was irritated at Jane and didn't want to say anything else that might escalate into a fight.
But this was worse. She had to deal with a guy who was clearly taking advantage of her situation. Nano wasn't dumb. She knew exactly what he was doing.
Nano hated asking him for help, but he was the only person who she could think of who was willing to lend her money without asking too many questions.
But what choice did she have when most of the people she owed money to were after her?
She had already run out of options.
She had to swallow her pride.
"Thank you. I'll pay you back when I can."
Nano said it with a firm voice, her expression hard and unwelcoming. It was obvious she wasn't amused by the situation.
The guy liked it anyway.
"Ooy, Phi. It's okay. Don't rush it. I can wait for you." He even winked.
Nano was clearly disgusted and walked away.
: ・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・┈・┈・꣑୧・ :
That same day, Nalin was called to Mother Superior's office.
Mother Superior reminded her that if she ever saw students doing inappropriate things at school, she had to report them immediately so the administration could take proper action.
School rules existed for a reason.
They were meant to guide students and help mold them into better people.
Mother Superior also reminded Nalin about her mother's condition and subtly pressured her to follow staff protocols.
Nalin simply bowed and excused herself.
She hadn't been working there for very long, yet it already felt like a roller coaster ride.
None of her students or colleagues knew about her mother's condition.
She was in Stage 4 cancer.
Nalin was doing everything she could to save her mother and give her more time.
If her mother was no longer there, she would have no one left.
She knew their time together was limited.
She needed this job.
She needed the bonus if her students won the competition.
Unlike her students, she wasn't well-off.
Her students were lucky.
Most of them were born into wealthy families.
Most of them still had their parents.
Nalin felt like she had nothing.
Her mother was the only person she was still holding on to.
And if her mother was gone...
What would that leave her?
She already knew the answer.
She just didn't want to accept it.
Not yet.
There was still time.
She wouldn't give up.
She would do everything she could.
She had to prolong it.
As for her problems at work...
Being given such a huge responsibility as a teacher was difficult enough.
She knew what her students were up to.
The question was whether she should tell the administration or not.
She understood them.
She had been young once too.
Naive.
Still learning.
Nalin was Grade 11-C's homeroom teacher.
She knew what her students were doing.
She knew Earn would be in serious trouble if anyone found out.
She knew Belle was covering for her friend.
She knew Belle smoked on the rooftop.
She knew about Nano's growing debts.
She knew about the other students' delinquencies too.
She had known all along.