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Wendy isn't an angry person. She swears she isn't.
She also swears that if she loses even more valuable learning time at high school to yet another pointless question from a certain student, she's kicking Kang Clueless out of the class herself — by force, if she has to.
Being elected class president has its benefits after all, and Wendy's pretty sure she's not the only one bothered by the class clown's regular antics. Kind of. The laughs of the other students sat round her sound so forced, no real emotion.
After all, who would seriously laugh at Seulgi’s stupid questions?
Wendy wonders how long she spends just devising them. Questions like; “We have blue veins so we have blue blood, right?", or “If a person owns a piece of land, do they own it all the way down to the center of the earth?”, aren’t your typical seventeen year-old enquiries.
It’s just her luck that Seulgi’s in almost all of her classes, and the worst of all of them all is maths; which is simultaneously her favourite subject and her worst nightmare, when paired with Seulgi.
Especially if there’s a cover teacher.
“Now we need to find 'x’.”
Their substitute teacher for today turns to the class, his eyes roaming across each unwilling face before stopping on one unfortunate daydreaming soul, seated near the back of the classroom. "Would you like to show us, Miss Kang?"
Wendy internally groans and rolls her eyes in annoyance, while snickers can be heard echoing throughout the room as Seulgi makes a show of squinting her eyes at the board, before lifting a finger and pointing at the equation in question.
“Right there,” she says with a smile, and Wendy almost face plants her desk. “Also,” Seulgi continues, as if her answer wasn’t already bad enough, “When are we actually going to use this in real life?"
Mr Jang stutters, and Wendy pities the poor young man - who has only just begun teaching, too - for being stuck with a class notorious for the one very distracting student.
“Well—“ he fidgets, readjusting his tie. "If you're, ah — If you're looking to be an engineer —"
"I'm not."
The interjection is too innocent to warrant a telling off on the grounds of rudeness, and Wendy heaves a sigh before raising her hand.
“Sir?"
The man drags a hand over his face from frustration. “Yes, Miss Son?"
“The answer is five, if you rearrange and square root the right side."
“Clever clogs,” she hears Seulgi say with a giggle; and Wendy can now feel a vein pulsing in the side of her head.
Mr Jang praises her tiredly before writing another problem on the board with a squeaky blue pen, ignoring the class's groans when it’s nearly the end of lessons for this period.
“Miss Kang, try and follow Miss Son’s example and solve this one."
Wendy mentally commends him for trying, but the next thing that comes out of her self-proclaimed arch enemy's mouth dashes all hope he might have had left.
“Sorry,” Seulgi scratches her neck bashfully, “I’m afraid I’ve completely forgotten how to do algebra, sir."
There's a moment of silence that passes over the class just then, and Wendy thinks that this time — this time, for sure. Seulgi will be put in her place; as well as a detention for her insolence, while they're at it.
But all that Mr Jang does is sigh, and subsequently wipes the equation off the board.
“Be sure to revise for next lesson, Miss Kang."
“Sure thing!" Seulgi chirps, twirling her stupid pencil in her stupid hand.
And Wendy loses it.
"Wha —“ she splutters, rising from her seat in breakneck speed and without a second thought as her frustration bubbles over. “How could you let her get away with that? That’s a mediocre excuse at best. My pet hamster could give better answer than that!"
Wendy is absolutely livid, on edge and about to rip her hair out any minute, eyes wide as she stares the teacher down.
“Oh, you have a pet hamster?” Seulgi asks with that ever-present dumb grin, and Wendy so very nearly snaps her pencil in half.
“Miss Son,” Mr Jang calls with exasperation, setting the board rubber on his desk as the class watches on; silent, for once. “Please sit down."
“But sir —!" The class president stammers in shock.
“Not another word,” he says more sternly now, regarding her with a scolding gaze. “Now please take your seat and stop disrupting the class."
Her mouth falls open, and a couple gasps ring out among their spectators.
“She’s the one who was disrupting the class!" Wendy all but yells, and at this point she couldn’t care less about tarnishing her flawless reputation when there's justice to be carried out — justice which isn't being exacted properly.
(At least, that what she tells the school counsellor later.)
Mr Jang positively fumes. “Miss Son —!"
She ignores him, throws her hands up in frustration. “I can’t believe this!"
And all throughout it, Seulgi doesn't stop smiling. “Hey, hey," she speaks up, "Take a chill pill, Wan-ah."
That does it.
Wendy rounds on her then without a second thought.
“I won’t take any pills if they’re anything like those laxatives you slipped in Mrs Gong’s drink the other day."
Victory.
The stupid grin soon disappears, replaced by wide eyes and a jaw dropping open in horror as she looks over Wendy's shoulder and into the eyes of the now—furious Mr Jang.
Wendy turns around with a triumphant grin, but falters when the man's ire is turned on her too, a shaking finger pointing at the pair of them before he roars:
“Two weeks of detention. Both of you!"
***
The next afternoon is made a little more bearable with the cool summer breeze wafting in through the windows, but does nothing to cool the perpetually blown fuse that Wendy’s been impersonating since yesterday morning.
"Hello, Wan-ah," Seulgi chimes breezily as she enters the classroom and takes up the seat beside Wendy for lunchtime detention.
There’s no way Wendy is going to fall into the trap and talk back. It’ll only bring more grief.
"Mr Jang wasn't looking so great earlier,” Seulgi laughs, and Wendy can’t help but groan.
It was going to be a long, long lunch hour.
“Come on, that was a funny pun!”
The dumb bear’s voice grates on her nerves more than usual when she’s sitting right next to her, and Wendy grits her teeth hard. “No, Kang,” she growls, “It was not.”
A minute of silence passes after that, with only the hustle and bustle of a busy lunch break in the background. Then Seulgi starts humming, and Wendy glances at her for a single, aggravated moment before doing a double take at the fact that Seulgi’s humming and staring at her.
What a creep, I swear to God —
“What?” Wendy snaps, and just as an apology makes its way to her lips she swallows it back down. Seulgi keeps humming anyway and grins widely, her eyes curving into twin crescents. Wendy feels like she’s being blinded by the sun, and barely stops herself from slapping her own cheeks at the thought.
“What is it?” The shorter one repeats, shifting uncomfortably under her gaze.
Seulgi just shrugs, her stare unmoving and her smile unfaltering. “Nothing.”
Wendy scowls at her, notices the flash of pearly whites caught on rose-petal flesh, and immediately looks away. “…You shouldn’t bite your lip,” she eventually finds herself scolding the elder. “It’ll damage it.”
Seulgi nods absently and releases her captive lip without a word.
“And can you stop humming, please? It’s really kind of distracting.” More like annoying.
“Sure."
And just like that, the humming stops.
Only for the lip to be bitten again.
Really distracting.
Wendy clicks her tongue. "You're biting your lip again."
"Biting what lip?"
Seulgi looks blankly at her, and Wendy is so close to just screaming in frustration.
She settles for angling her seat away from her with a huff, pointedly ignoring the taller girl when she begins to tap the surface rhythmically.
The noise sets her teeth grinding, pushing the bubbling well of ire even closer to her boiling point with just the sound of Seulgi being there.
(Because Kang Seulgi is that much of a distraction. Even her breathing pattern is distracting.)
"Will you stop that?" Wendy finds herself getting worked up far too easily this time as she whirls on the other girl, a scowl forming on her face that Seulgi counters with a raise of her eyebrows.
"Stop what?"
There it is again. The innocent blink; the dumb question; the unassuming smile. All just part of Kang Seulgi's trademark — the typical slacker with an outstanding talent in the art of distraction.
"The tapping!" Her voice comes out as a hiss, and she barely just restrains the urge to stuff her pencil case down Seulgi's throat. "Stop tapping!" she repeats for good measure, and just about manages to add a hasty, "Please."
"Well, since you asked so nicely," Seulgi drawls, her lips quirking up into a pleasant grin that sends a wave of irritation coursing through Wendy's being. “I've stopped."
"Good,” Wendy mutters. “Keep it that way."
Seulgi obeys for all of three seconds.
“I will if you do just one tiny little thing for me.”
The urge to jump out of the window doubles with that one sentence, and Wendy slumps in her seat.
“Why would I do something for you?” she scoffs, grabbing at a thick textbook left idle on her desk to occupy her fidgeting hands.
Seulgi makes a show of thinking hard, her smile nonchalant as she tilts her head to the side. “So that I’ll stop annoying you, of course.”
Her fingers stop fumbling on the pages of the textbook, and Wendy draws a deep, calming breath in through her nose.
So she knows she’s annoying.
"Fine. What do you want?” she all but growls, and the other girl giggles in response.
“Relax. I just want you to tutor me."
Wendy drops the book on her foot, barely even registering the pain as Seulgi stoops to pick it back up. She looks as if she’s about to ask if she’s okay, but Wendy raises a hand to stop her as her eyebrows raise even higher.
“Come again?"
The book is placed back into her hands with unusual care.
“Don’t get me wrong, I would totally ask someone else if I could." Seulgi pulls a face, kicking her sneakers against the floor. She almost looks shy. "But you’re a certified nerd anyway, so —"
Wendy bristles. “Who are you calling a nerd —"
“Oh look, it’s a distraction!"
Seulgi points to a random window, and Wendy actually falls for it.
“Why you little —!”
A four-tone bell pierces the air then, interrupting Wendy just as she moves to chuck the book at the little pest beside her.
“Detention’s over!” Seulgi cries, out of her seat and already halfway out the door as she calls over her shoulder, “I’ll see you tomorrow after school then, Wan-ah!”
Wendy scrambles after her mere seconds later, but Seulgi’s already near the end of the corridor.
“I never said yes!” she yells down the hallway, ignoring the startled looks from her fellow students as Seulgi just turns around mid-stride and waves, beaming brightly as she jogs backwards.
Only in the next second she collides with Mr Jang, and Wendy stifles a laugh behind her hand as she watches her enemy-turned-detention-partner bow quickly before scampering off.
Watching the girl practically skid round the corner, Wendy can’t help but smile. A part of her considers it - giving a chance to this dopey, smiley bear of a girl.
Just this once?
The logical part of her mind argues that she’s a lost cause; an unneeded distraction. Wendy agrees with it to an extent, because Seulgi is a distraction.
A silly distraction, but a cute one nonetheless.