Cold | Yoo Jaeyi x Woo Seulgi (FriendlyRivalry)

II.

She sounded entertained, but there was tension behind her words. She'd seen this before—Jaeyi's games. Last year it was Cho Ara: loyal, devoted, used like a chess piece and discarded just the same. No one really knew how Jaeyi made people orbit around her like gravity.

No one dared to ask.

Except maybe Yeri.

Beside her, Joo Yeri was quiet, eyes fixed on the scene behind them. Her gaze moved between the transfer student in her out-of-place red uniform and the girl beside her—Jaeyi.

The contrast struck her. The way the transfer sat small, eyes downcast. The way Jaeyi sat tall, turned almost fully toward her, not saying a word.

Just watching. With that damn smirk.

"How strange," Yeri murmured to herself, resting her chin in her palm. Her eyes narrowed slightly. She wasn't sure if she was intrigued by the new girl—or by Jaeyi's sudden interest in her.

"She's plotting again," Kyung murmured beside her. "We'll never figure out what she's up to."

Yeri smiled at that. "But that's what makes it fun, right?"

Kyung beside her stiffened slightly. Yeri, noticing, leaned in just enough to make her uncomfortable. "Wanna bet on it?"

Kyung adjusted her glasses with her middle finger. Yeri caught the gesture and smirked. She knew that gesture, she's interested.

"...Fine. What's your bet?"

"Let's wait until next week," Yeri said playfully. "We watch her. Observe. Try to guess her play before she makes it."

Kyung hesitated, but nodded.

Neither of them knew, not really, that whatever Jaeyi was planning this time... wasn't a game.

Not yet.
Not quite.
But it was the start of something.

Something strange.
Something magnetic.
Something neither of them had the words for yet.

.

"Say, Jaeyi..."

Yeri's voice sliced through the quiet like a scalpel, cool and precise. "What's with the new pet you've picked up?"

Jaeyi paused mid-motion, her hand still on the cuff of her immaculate sleeve.
The hallway was empty—eerily so. No echo of footsteps, no murmuring voices. Just the two of them suspended in silence.

Yeri remained where she was, casually propped against the lockers like she had all the time in the world. Lips pursed. Eyes sharp.

She liked the stillness in Jaeyi.
Perhaps, liked it a little too much.

No answer. No shift in expression. Just that subtle, deliberate quiet.

So Yeri pressed again—leaning into the question like it was a blade she enjoyed twisting.
"I mean... I don't see what's so interesting about her. Transfer student with a tragic look and a dead father? In your father's hospital, no less. Coincidence?"

She started walking, slow and theatrical, fingers tapping at her chin as if she were in deep thought.

Then she stopped—just in front of Jaeyi. Smiled wider.

"...Or is it because you are—"
She left the sentence dangling, like bait on a hook. She wanted to see if Jaeyi would complete it. Wanted to catch her slipping.

But Jaeyi only looked at her—unblinking, unreadable.

The silence stretched, dense and deliberate.

Then finally—quiet, careful: