the next week at school, yuna was sat at the field while jake and soovin were in a meeting with their council and sunghoon was doing a makeup test after he was absent.

"hey yuna" she turned her head and looked up only to see heeseung there

"oh hey" she grinned before moving so he had room to sit down.

the boy sat down beside her and handed her a drink of aloe vera, "thank you" she bowed her head slightly before placing it beside her

"can i ask you something yuna?" heeseung asked her and she immediately nodded, "do you still like jake?"

her mind blanked at the question not knowing how to respond

'..do i still like jake?'

"judging by how you're not responding.." heeseung bitterly chuckled at this

"no! it's not that i just..i'm confused by my own feelings" yuna responded, feeling horrible, "i like you i do-"

"but you also might like jake" heeseung finished for her

yuna stayed silent knowing well she couldn't deny it because she didn't know how she felt.

"then let's go on another date" heeseung proposed

she raised her eyebrows at this, an obvious shocked face plastered on.

"the date will determine whether or not you truly like me and if you're truly over jake. if you still like him, then go to him, i can't be mad at you for that anyways"

yuna bit her lip and nodded, "alright. let's do it"

♡

"so" jake and soovin sat across from each other after the meeting ended and there was about 10 minutes left before lunch ended, "i'm going to assume you know saerom?"

soovin sighed, "yah. i do. but not personally, just know her from my old school"

"saerom goes to a public school..you said you transferred from a private school"

soovin decided to just trust the boy and tell him what she had told yuna and hoped for the best, "yah i lied. i transferred from saerom's school because i had to"

"you had to transfer?"

"at my old school i was top in ranks and the person in second place didn't like how she could never beat me but she ended up finding a way to get that spot because she found out one of my secrets that i never told anyone. not one of my close friends knew and not even my parents knew. that secret was that..i like saerom..i like her a crush" jake nodded, listening to her, "and because people are so..you know how people feel about people who like the same gender.."

soovin sat in the classroom, finishing up some of her classwork during lunch so everyone was in the canteen, eating.

she heard the door slide open and she looked over only to see another one of her classmates; ahn juhyeon

soovin just looked back at her paper but she heard the footsteps approach up and she looked back up again to see the girl standing in front of her

"do you need something?" soovin asked

"yes" juhyeon crossed her arms, "drop your ranks"

"excuse me" soovin raised an eyebrow

"you heard me. drop your ranks. just enough so i can be 1st in the school" juhyeon spoke with no hint of joking or lying on her face

soovin scoffed before standing up, "get lost" soovin turned to walk but immediately froze at her next words

"you like noh saerom" juhyeon scoffed, "and judging by how you're frozen, it's true. disgusting"

soovin stood in place, clenching her fists tightly, "oh how embarrassing would it for you if everyone..found out that you like a girl. saerom too for that matter!" juhyeon gasped before chuckling, "or..you can transfer schools"

soovin immediately turned around before walking towards her and slapping her face, "you're such a bitch! using someone's feelings for your own personal gain! what will you get from being first?! satisfaction?? maybe if you just studied harder then you'd be damn fine-"

juhyeon's hand met soovin's cheek, "leave the school! or i won't hesitate to go tell people you like saerom!"

"so i left that school. i couldn't bear the thought of saerom knowing i like her and thinking im weird for liking her..so i chose to leave" soovin explained her side and just like yuna, jake felt sympathy for the girl

"to be quite honest..i'm surprised it wasn't sunghoon you liked" jake told her

"yah! why would i like him?!" she shouted, offended at the reply

"because you know the trope of being mean to someone jokingly because you like them? yah i kinda thought that but now i understand everything else" jake responded, "is that why you felt..odd whenever saerom was mentioned"

"yes. i convinced myself so much..i tried so hard to convince myself that i didn't like girls..that's why i forced myself to be with you and i'm so sorry for doing so. i thought i was weird" she clenched onto her skirt, "i thought i was strange for liking girls so i tried to force myself to at least like both..but i can't. i only like girls"

"and that's okay" jake replied, "it's okay to just like girls. you shouldn't force yourself to like me or any other guy for that matter just because you think it's weird or others think it's weird. it's not. you can't help it so you should accept it"

"thank you jake"

soovin was feeling a bit more relieved knowing the two people who she trusted a lot did not find her weird or anything else. she felt like she could finally be free of something that has been eating her alive for so long.