"Cerise, you know that I'm new in the school, unlike you who have been in the same middle school with them. Do you know some people I have to watch out for?"

"Some people you have to watch out for?" Cerise paused. I heard her humming a few times, probably considering whether it was safe enough to spill.

But in the end, she just answered my question with, "I… I think everyone can be friends. U—um… Emmy, you're a beautiful girl, just be yourself, and people will befriend you…."

I scoffed as I heard the answer from Cerise. I knew that she was just sweet-talking me because she was also scared.

The thing I didn't like the most about Cerise was her cowardly nature. She said similar things in the previous timeline to me, telling me that I would be well-liked as long as I stayed true to myself and acted naturally.

Yeah, I knew she meant no harm, but her sweet encouragement was also one of the reasons why I acted like a clown. Because I thought as long as I acted naturally, I would be well-liked.

But I understood her concern. She was just trying to be nice since we were yet to be close friends.

Though, I didn't need her 'encouragement' for now. I needed her to keep talking and spilling tea, so I could get some idea about Kristen's secret.

Cerise told me that she knew Kristen's secret in the previous timeline, but she didn't dare spill it because she was afraid.

I should've urged Cerise to spill the beans in the previous timeline when we were really close before she had to move away. Now I was stuck as a stranger, and it would take a while until we could be good friends.

But I didn't have enough time, I only have six months. No, if we were talking about precaution, I only had one to two months to know the secret from Cerise before I needed to plan a good confrontation with Kristen.

"Thanks, Cerise. But like, I'd love it if you tell me some stuff, you know. I heard from some people there were people you should avoid at any cost."

"I—I never heard anything like that…."

I knew Cerise would dodge again, "Really? So you're saying there was no bullying during your middle school years?"

"…"

I heard no answer from Cerise, which made me assume that her defense had started crumbling. I tried to remember which girl Cerise mentioned in the previous timeline, the girl who bullied Cerise a lot during her middle school years.

"Cerise? Are you there?"

"Yeah…"

"Eh, what's with the silence? Are you alright?" I asked. "You know, I just want to be safe in high school. I don't want to get gossiped about and bullied."

"… Yeah, I understand," Cerise replied. I understood that Cerise also had a trauma of her own. From what she told me in the previous timeline, she had been bullied terribly in middle school. She just got bullied less in high school because there was a new girl more interesting to bully, poor, naive, weaker, and acted stupid most of the time.

And that girl was me.

The only thing I remembered about Cerise mentioning the middle school bully was the way she looked down on Cerise for being 'the girl whose smelly mom cleaned trash' because Cerise's mom was a janitor.

I forced my brain to remember anything about Cerise, as detailed as it could.

It took a while until I got a lead once I remembered the same girl who mocked me in the morning for being so humble and down to earth, like a worm.

It was like a light bulb lit up in my head, I cleared my throat and continued, "Yeah, did you know that someone actually insulted me on my first day. She called me very down to earth, like a worm! Gosh, how can people be so rude!"

"Wha!?" Cerise finally reacted. I could hear the sound of something dropping, probably because of her overreaction. "Who said that?" Cerise asked.

"That girl's name is Ashley. I don't know who she is, but she just insulted me and left," I replied.

"Ashley…"

There was an obvious hostility in Cerise's voice when she called that name. I smirked as I finally remembered the name of the bully.

Well, not really a bully. I remembered that Ashley never directly bullied anyone, but her poisonous tongue would push someone into the gutter, and she would let the rest of the bullies gang up on the victim.

While she watched like a nonchalant queen at the top, just because she could shove everyone's mouth shut with her money.

"Ashley also insulted my mom once, leaking to everyone about my mom's job. Because my mom works in her dad's office as a j—" Cerise paused again, then she asked, "Emmy, you wouldn't feel disgusted to befriend me even though I'm poor, right?"

"Huh? Why would I? I'm also not well-off. My parents are divorced, and my mom only works as a receptionist," I mentioned lightly. I wanted to give Cerise a sense of security and camaraderie.

"Okay, I trust you, Emmy. So my mom is a janitor working in Ashley's company, well, her dad's company, to be exact. And Ashley called my mom a 'toilet cleaner' in front of everyone back in middle school."

"Is that the reason they bullied you?"

"Kind of, they started giving me some of their leftover lunch, telling me it's a donation, in case I don't have enough money to eat…."

"Cerise, I'm sorry to hear that…." I actually understood her pain. I experienced the same thing after Ashley told everyone about my living conditions with government help, and they also did the same thing to me.

"Ahaha… thank you, Emmy. But it's alright, at least I have one friend in middle school, though not anymore, haha—" Cerise laughed dry after she mentioned her only middle school friend.

I grinned when I heard her mentioning her ex-friend. Of course, it was that one friend.

"Not anymore? What happened?" I asked curiously.

"It's a long story. But we're not friends anymore. Though, we are still in the same school as her right now."

"Really? What's her name? Maybe I've been in the same class as her before."

"Her name is Kristen, Kristen Suite."

Jackpot.

The grin on my face grew wider as I started prying, "I think she is in the same class as me. I saw her name in History class' student list."

"What happened between you two? Is she one of the girls I have to watch out for?