-

"N*ked car wash," Sana suggests immediately.

"No, no," Dahyun shakes her head, scrunching up her face, "That's too risque. Half-***** car wash."

"How about a bake sale?" Chaeyoung suggests. "We can collaborate with the middle school's PTA. My mom makes good cookies. I'm sure we could get them to sponsor us or something."

"And we can bake at someone's place, too," Tzuyu supplies helpfully, looking away shyly when Chaeyoung beams at her. "It can be the council's first bonding activity?" Tzuyu sounds ridiculously earnest, and Jihyo told herself that she was tougher than this, but she finds herself nodding anyway.

"Great idea. Any other contributions?" Jihyo claps her hands. "My place this weekend?"

-

Given the fact that there isn't any money in the treasury to count, Nayeon takes it upon herself to help Sana out with contacting the PTA for the bake sale. And of course, with all things -- they get distracted. They don't even make it down to the storeroom down the hall before Jihyo has to step in to separate them, and even then they're still holding hands as they skip back to the council room. It's disgustingly sweet, and Jihyo wonders how they're going to do their council duties with each other in the way. Nayeon's saving grace is her offer to bring in beanbags from home to put in the room. Sana says she'll sign a softball and they can pass it down to future student governments.

Mina and Tzuyu, meanwhile, are helping out to clean up the council room. Mina has a broom, and Tzuyu a mop. Dahyun makes herself useful by carrying the dustpan around and telling Mina that she'll be here as long as Tzuyu needs her - very kind but not very necessary. Chaeyoung pitches in by guarding the bucket of mop-water, though Jihyo suspects that might just be a ploy to get near Tzuyu.

Jeongyeon and Momo disappear together, too, but for something actually productive, because they come back with even more decorations. Jeongyeon hangs a little chalkboard that says 'STUDENT COUNCIL 2017-2018' on the front door, and Momo is nice enough to draw nine little figurines to the members' likeness. They spend the rest of the afternoon pasting motivational quotes and framed art prints on the wall to, as they say, 'jazz up the atmosphere', and Jihyo is feeling much more comfortable in it by the end.

It's nice, and Jihyo can see everything slotting into place already. It hadn't been the most dramatic or amazing of beginnings, but it's less about the beginning and more about the journey, Jihyo tells herself. Or so she's heard. Either way, as she watches the council begin to fall into a pattern that looks like a well-oiled machine, she can't help but smile.

Her council.

She likes the sound of that.

-

"They got caught again?" Momo laughs, letting Jeongyeon nip at her throat and press her into the bedspread.

They're in Momo's bedroom, with the door wide open and Momo would honestly care more about this if not for the fact that Jeongyeon is on top of her right now. She'll apologize later, if they get caught. Which they won't. Because they're masters of hiding. Hiding from their friends, hiding from their parents, hiding with each other.

It's not a perfect arrangement, but Momo'll take it.

"They're dumb," Jeongyeon affirms, pressing kisses to Momo's collarbone, fingers tugging gently at Momo's button-up shirt to pull it past her shoulders. Jeongyeon's expressed hatred of button-ups so often - she's not savage enough to rip them open, but she's also not patient enough to unbutton them one by one. Momo says they should go shopping for new shirts soon.

They really should.

"But they don't have to hide," Momo muses. She lifts her hips when Jeongyeon asks her to, but the expression on her face is thoughtful, intimate, as if she's not quite here. It's distracting, and Jeongyeon would really rather not be distracted right now. Not with the way Momo is just lying here, toned and breathy and even more excited than she was when they were in school.

Sometimes, Jeongyeon wonders how their friends don't pick up on the tension between her and Momo. Only Nayeon knows, and she had to walk in on Jeongyeon and Momo to find out. Even then, she'd asked if the two of them were 'having sex but in a platonic way'. She asks that regularly.

(Jeongyeon never knows how to answer.)

But she concedes that it might be for the best. Sana is too wrapped up with softball and Nayeon at any given time to pay much attention to the intricacies of Jeongyeon and Momo's relationship, and she doesn't really know Momo so it's alright. Jihyo is too busy studying and overachieving to pay much heed to them, too, and Jeongyeon supposes she can't blame her. Jihyo has different goals. She wants a shining college application, and Jeongyeon... Well, Jeongyeon isn't sure yet, but she wants different.

"We aren't them," Jeongyeon says, and it sounds like a promise.

-

Dahyun is the one to create a group chat, having acquired all their numbers within minutes of leaving the council room. There are no texts for a moment as they add contacts, and then it's chaos. Dahyun's pretty sure she sees a nude meant for someone else enter the group chat before it's hastily removed. That, and everyone's embarrassing screen names.

(And hey, Dahyun's screen name isn't embarrassing, okay? tofumaster98 is a very sought after moniker.)

Memes enter the group chat soon after. Jeongyeon sends a rage comic that looks like it's from 2012. Tzuyu replies with an emoji. That's alright, Dahyun can forgive that. Nayeon misuses a piece of texting slang, and everyone collectively calls her grandma. Dahyun shakes her head, smiling as she watches the texts unfold on the screen. Reading all of this makes her feel warm, even when Mina makes five typos in one text, even when Momo tells Chaeyoung to 'eat her ***' and Chaeyoung responds with 'gladly'. This feels like home, even if it's too early to say.

She sets her phone aside and goes back to work.

-

Jihyo's door is wide open when Chaeyoung reaches her place - Jihyo had sent her address out in an extremely obnoxious, emoji-ridden text that cordially invited everyone to come over and bake. She had added in the text that it was 'BYOF' - that is, bring your own flour.

The first thing she sees is Sana running around with her face caked in flour. She steels herself for the sight that greets her within, and surprisingly, it's not as bad as Chaeyoung thought it would be. Sure, it's bad, but she had expected someone to have accidentally stuck their head in an oven by now.

"Chaeyoung!" Jeongyeon greets, thumping her back affectionately. She has an oven mitt on one of her hands and a softball in the other hand, a softball that appears to be Sana's, from the way the other girl is yelling at Jeongyeon to give it back. "Sorry, Minatozaki," Jeongyeon giggles, tossing the ball over to Momo. Chaeyoung spots Jihyo walking Sana to the sink to wash the flour off her face.

"Jesus," Chaeyoung says out loud. Tzuyu looks up from the recipe book, laughing at the expression on Chaeyoung's face.

"Hi," Tzuyu smiles, "We're making muffins." She nods to a steaming tray sitting on the counter, where some muffins are being left to cool. Chaeyoung doesn't miss the way one of them has a huge bite taken out of it. That, and the fact that Momo's lips look the slightest bit burnt, and that she looks extremely sulky.

Ah.

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