Chapter Text
A-na had to go to school without Jiwoo today, something about her getting extra dance practice in.
A-na calls bullshit. Jiwoo has never been so committed to a club that she goes to school 90 minutes earlier than necessary, not even when she had before-school volleyball practice last year. And that was mandatory.
So, when Jiwoo informed her this morning, something certainly felt fishy.
Still, there wasn’t much she could do about it. Jiwoo had left before A-na’s alarm even went off. She had only found out via text message as she trudged out her room, feet still sticky on the wood panels like the day before.
She walked the usual path to school a little earlier than usual. The roads were completely void of any cars, the usual serenity of her morning routine even more peaceful than usual. More often than not, her endless chatter with Jiwoo left her unaware of the morning around her. Today, she had time.
She walked along, the cold creating a puff of white frost each time she exhaled. The sun peeked through the dark clouds, casting a golden sheen of light along the footpath, highlighting the morning dew that caught on the fields of untrimmed grass.
It was quiet, aside from a few birds chiming every now and then and A-na, with no one to talk to, was left with one option: to think.
Yesterday had fully proven she one hundred percent had spider powers. There was no point in denying the signs anymore. The spider-grip, the additional strength she just so suddenly gained, not to mention the definition of her muscles that suddenly appeared overnight.
She had spent the previous morning too worried about Jiwoo leaving without her to even think about looking at herself in the mirror. But today, with the additional time she had, she took a moment as she was putting on her shirt to admire the new tone in her abdomen and arms.
Now, she would never have admitted to being scrawny before…
Though, Ian definitely would have.
A couple days ago, her arms were noodles. Now, she could visibly see muscle protruding from her bicep. It was honestly so unbelievable she had to pinch herself to clarify.
It hurt.
The thought should’ve scared her more than it did. But honestly, she couldn’t help thinking this is single-handedly the coolest thing that could happen to someone, let alone her.
To think she could be just like spider-man made her body vibrate. Scenarios played in her head, her knocking out a criminal and returning a woman’s purse, saving cat’s that climbed trees and got stuck, being the city’s very own superhero.
It all felt ridiculous, yet unexpectedly within reach. A-na, someone who adored science, always thought of herself as a logical person. But now, now that she had superhuman powers, the far-fetched didn’t seem so ridiculous anymore. She just had to wait for the right time.
-
The sound of A-na’s dirtied, rain-wet sneakers scraping along the pavement became inferior to the noise projecting from inside the school building. Her baggy jeans absorbed the remnants of last nights storm over her walk, leaving her legs uncomfortably damp each time they brushed the material. She enters the school doors to a bustling hallway packed with students chatting amongst themselves.
Usually, as she enters she finds Ian upon walking through the doorway, leaning against her locker. Today, as expected, she was no where to be seen.
Note to self: don’t get to school early ever again.
She moves to stand beside a dingy heating unit where other students don’t bother loitering. The corner reeked of dead mice, the heat permeating the smell through the air. Her nose scrunched with disgust before she slid her phone out of her pocket, texting Ian to ask where she is. The text only just sends through before a dark shadow casts over her phone screen.
“Hey”
A-na’s gaze tears away from her phone. She looks up and is met with the eyes of Gi-tae and his friends, who stand a little further back.
Shit.
A-na’s gaze flickers to Minjeong and Jimin sneering on his left, Minjeong’s phone in her hand with the camera already facing A-na. Unconcealed giggles between the two surface as they indiscreetly point at her screen.
On Gi-tae’s right, his best friends Yeonjun and Soobin, stood beside him like personal henchmen.
Her gaze returns to Gi-tae.
“Hey, what’s your name again?”
He definitely knows her name.
She says it anyway.
“Uhh, A-na,” she says, voice wavering.
She looks between the five of them again.
“Why?”
“A-na” he smiles, sarcasm oozing from his prince-charming smirk.
“Yesterday, remember that?”
A-na shifts on her feet awkwardly before nodding once, muttering quietly.
“Pretty sure.”
“You made me look stupid in front of everyone,”
A step.
“and now,”
He advances again, a closed fist barely making contact with her shoulder before pushing. Relatively hard.
A-na recoils backward at the pressure of the shove.
“Yuha won’t even talk to me.”
Ahh. The pieces fall into place the second Gi-tae finishes his spiel.
So that’s his problem. That makes a lot more sense.
A-na thinks about the bathroom yesterday and fights a smile by biting the inside of her cheek.
“Probably ‘cause she thinks you’re a dick” she retaliates. The answer came so suddenly she surprised even herself.
A week ago today she would’ve stayed quiet and been fine with a shoulder check while they walked past her. Suddenly, she had the confidence to fight back.
In her peripheral vision, she catches Jimin and Minjeongs jaws hung low in shock as they snicker behind Gi-tae with Yeonjun and Soobin.
Gi-tae turns, glaring at his friends before settling back to look down at A-na, an icy expression washing over his previous “charming” smile.
“You think you’re so funny, don’t you?”
He leans close, voice dropping an octave.
“Just stay out of my way,” Then drops to a whisper.
“and stop talking to Yuha.”
“Standing up for you isn’t doing her any favours.”
That hit. Something painful clenches her heart, draining her confidence instantaneously. Gi-tae watches as her posture cowers and her eyes lower to the ground with a shit-eating grin on his face.
He waits a moment before sobering, his usual angel act reappearing the moment he leaned back out of her space.
He looks down at himself, adjusting the collar of his polo and smoothing the fabric down his chest.
“Understood?” He asks, feigning innocence.
A-na doesn’t answer. She remains a statue in the middle of the hall. She feels the muscles in her jaw untighten as the sting behind her eyes subsides.
“Great.” He says, shoving past A-na, pushing her straight into the vacant lockers beside her. The crash of her frame bashing into the metal projected through the hallway, settling the space with more quiet than usual.
The rest of his group walk past, each one giving A-na their own judgemental glare before catching up with Gi-tae.
A-na watches them go. Her eyes sharpen as she traces their backs descending down the hall, mocking cackles coming from the girls as they replay the footage on Minjeong’s phone.
She exhales sharply through her nose before looking down at her still-open text thread with Ian.
A-na:
Where are you?
Ian:
Where are you?
Ian:
I thought you said we were gonna meet at the dance room to spy on Jiwoo unnie?
Admittedly, she forgot about that.
She shuts her phone off quickly, compressing the ugly emotions that had surfaced just seconds ago. She rushes to readjust her bag on her shoulder and sprints down the hallways to get to the dance studio.
-
“God, took you long enough” Ian remarks, her stance lazy with her arms crossed loosely over her chest. The smug smirk she was wearing dropped slightly as A-na approached.
“You okay?”
“I’m good, just tired.”
Ian softened, letting it go. It’s what A-na loved about her, she never pushed.
After a few moments of silence, Ian glanced sideways to A-na, expression thoughtful.
“I’ve been waiting here for like ten minutes, you know.” She teased, clearing the slight tension fogging the air.
A-na smiled.
“Shut up I forgot.”
“You planned this”
“I know”
“Do you?”
“Ian, stop talking”
Ian grins pridefully, content at stopping her teasing there.
“Come over here” she beckons, her hand waving A-na over in invitation as her neck cranes through a window placed just that little bit out of her height.
A-na joins her, looking through the small square glass adorning the doors that peek right through the dance studio, giving almost a full view of the entire room.
She sees Jiwoo, laughing more than dancing. Her forehead void of sweat as a towel hangs loosely from her neck. Her laugh echoes through the room, loud enough for the two spies to hear it.
Interesting.
“Who’s she with?” A-na chimes.
“I haven’t seen yet. Unfortunately, the window only shows so much.”
A-na moves side-to-side, trying to get an angle of the person Jiwoo’s with. The wall on her right obscures her view.
Mystery girl inside cracks another joke, judging by the way Jiwoo bursts into laughter again, her mouth wide-open as her eyes scrunch closed.
A-na feels the curiousity itch at her skin.
“I’m disappointed in you” she sighs, shifting her gaze to the shorter girl expressionlessly.
Ian smacks her shoulder in frustration and a laugh escapes A-na before she can stop it.
Jiwoo cranes her neck toward the door at the noise.
“Duck!” Ian whisper-yells before diving to the floor, pulling A-na along with her.
“What was that?” A muffled voice sounds from inside, painfully familiar.
There’s a long pause before a reply comes.
“I think just some kids in the hallway” Jiwoo replies, shrugging before turning back to the other girl.
“I swear I know that voice.” A-na whispers, her eyebrows furrowing in concentration. She can practically hear the gears in her brain grinding as she tries to match the face to the painfully familiar voice.
“Who is it?” Ian replies back, miming a similar volume.
“Sh- listen.”
Ian quiets and presses her ear closer to the door.
“It kinda sounds like Juun unnie.”
Something In A-na’s brain clicks.
“YES!”
The noise comes out louder than expected. Ian’s eyebrows shoot up before she hurriedly lifts her finger tightly against her mouth, a sign telling A-na to shut the hell up before we get caught!
A-na turns to the door. Footsteps sound from the inside, gradually getting closer and closer.
“Do you hear that?”
“Hear what?”
A-na snatches Ian’s wrists and yanks her away from the door, dragging her around the corner with her.
The door clicks before swinging open.
“Hello?”
Silence corrupts the hallway, Jiwoo standing with her hand outstretched to support the heavy door as she looks around to figure out where the noise came from. A-na ducks back behind the wall before Jiwoo turns to her direction.
She sighs quietly in relief, her shoulder easing with the action.
However, moments later, the hairs at the back of A-na’s neck raise and a buzz nuzzles her skull.
“She’s coming.” She whispered, hardly audible to even Ian who was pressed up against her side.
“What’d you say?” Ian asks cluelessly, voice mimicking the volume A-na had used.
No time to explain. Without answering, A-na yanked Ian away from the wall, rushing the both of them through a slightly ajar classroom door.
The two crouch beside a bookshelf and Ian goes to speak again, but is hushed by A-na’s finger raised between the two.
The quiet follows, classroom still as Jiwoo’s confused hum sounds in the hallway, just outside the door. It isn’t until A-na hears footsteps descend back to the direction of the studio that she allows Ian to speak, lowering her pointer finger.
“God, that was close” Ian huffs, her raised eyebrows finally drooping.
“Tell me about it”
Ian glanced her way before dead-panning.
“Your fault by the way”
“We didn’t even get caught” A-na scoffs.
“Miracle”
“Oh, We were fine”
“How’d you even know she was coming anyway? Must be them massive ass ears of yours.”
A-na glared at Ian, snorting, with her hand muffling the chortling noises that escaped her mouth with poor execution. It only took a few seconds before she decided Ian could survive a sucker punch to the side.
“Ah- fuck, holy shit,” she winces, hands raising to her arm to rub harshly. She sucks a breath through her teeth before continuing.
“Have you been working out or some shit?” She rubbed it harsher.
“Oh my god, I think I’m already bruising.”
A-na laughed, her eyes rolling at Ian’s dramatics.
“Karma, little Ian. You should think before you speak.” A-na remarked, her smile smug as she stands to leave before Ian can bite her ankles or something.
As she goes to slide the classroom door across, she cocks her head back at Ian.
“Hey, what time is it? I think we need to get to homeroom soon-“
“Yuna?”
A voice at the door halts her movements. Still faced toward Ian, she whipped her head around immediately, face taut with fear.
Thankfully, it wasn’t Jiwoo.
“Yuha~” she sing-songed, forced and awkward.
Yuha bit back a laugh, pursing her lips with amusement.
“Hi,” she replied, something dangerously close to a laugh escaped as she finished.
“This is Stella.” She continued, stepping aside so the short-ish blonde girl with a sheepish smile could be visible.
Stella was honestly gorgeous. Her hair was styled messily, yet looked flawless regardless. She smelled expensive, like designer perfume. And she practically oozed confidence. Next to Yuha, they could honestly pass as twins.
“Hi, I just transferred,” she held a hand out to A-na excitedly. “Yuha told me you were sweet.”
She mentioned the last part so off-handedly, A-na almost didn’t notice. It was only when she saw the slight twinge of her lips as she slyly eyed Yuha beside her, that it registered.
“Oh, did she really?” A-na asked, grasping Stella’s hand to shake as the two pointedly stared at the older girl.
The previous tension that had settled behind A-na’s ribs eased.
Yuha rolled her eyes, pink dusting her visible ears. She hadn’t worn her hair down today, A-na bets she regrets it.
“For the record, I recommended you because she’s in most of your classes.” She murmured, explaining with playful irritation.
“You think I’m sweet?”
Yuha’s eyebrows scrunched tighter, bottom lip jutting out slightly. Cute.
“I take that back.”
Ian chimed in, popping her head over A-na’s shoulder.
“Can’t take back what’s already been said, unnie.”
Yuha groaned and grabbed Stella’s arm to drag her away, very obviously done with the conversation.
“Wait, I didn’t get to say hi!” Ian whined, shouting just enough so Yuha and Stella could hear as they rushed down the hallway.
“Yeah, I didn’t get to say hi.” Stella repeated, looking up to Yuha like a kicked puppy.
Yuha sighed frustratedly in return, stopping their descent down the hallway and turning back to collect the two girls.
Ian’s pout vanished, catching up before Yuha could change her mind. The four resumed the new girl’s tour, side-by-side, before homeroom began.