The next day rolled by; Miriam was traumatized from last night. She sat down on a secluded part of the school’s courtyard and began to cry softly. She wiped away her tears and noticed Bangchan and his friends were sitting at a nearby spot, looking concerned for her, feeling so ashamed that they had to see her like this.
She then moved to another spot. She walked to the gazebo, where she first spotted Jake playing his violin. It was also the first time she had noticed that there was something off about his and Yeji’s relationship. But she knew that it was true: they are officially dating now.
She curled up between her legs and cried harder. This time of anger.
Bangchan walked up and stood in front of her.
“Miriam?” he said, gently before sitting down next to her.
She quickly buried herself in his arms and held on tight to his waist.
“Channie! It was so terrible! I can’t believe he did that to me! I can’t believe I did that to him! And now…he really hates me and loves her!”
“No!” said Bangchan, caressing the back of her head, “He really does reciprocate your feelings. I saw it in his wet eyes. And you really did tell him how you felt. You should be happy about it!”
“I am happy about it,” Miriam cried, “I just feel so terrible because I thought I was so hard on him!”
“Well, you thought he wasn’t nice to you, and you stood your ground, that was the good thing. But we were mostly unsettled with you slapping him and pinning him down with your foot.”
“And don’t worry!” said Hannah, with the rest of the gang, “Because we just thought of something that will let the whole school know about Yeji’s true colors.”
“We are here to help you.” Bahiyyih added.
“Thank you, everyone,” Miriam sniffled, eventually smiling, “So…how are we going to let everyone know about Yeji’s actions?”
“The plan is this,” said Lea, “Tonight is the school basketball playoffs. Yeji is captain of the cheer team. If us girls can stop her from finding her uniform, then it will buy us some time to plan the next part and that is to let her storm to the gym court, where the game will be held.”
“And since we are in the team,” said Bahiyyih, “You are going to impersonate Yeji for us.”
She has been a bully to me, Miriam thought, And she has been manipulating and isolating Jake from me and even his own band. I guess there is no turning back and letting it all go on.
“I’m in!” said Miriam.
.
.
.
It was a few hours before the game. Bahiyyih went to the cheer team’s storage room and found Yeji’s outfit. She tried it on Miriam. It was a perfect fit!
Miriam could not believe that she was actually going to impersonate Yeji in front of everyone in the game.
“Ready?” asked Bahiyyih.
“Let’s go!” responded Miriam.
While the boys were talking to Jake, the girls ran off to join the cheer team in the dressing room, close to the gym court.
Jake, who had noticed, asked, “What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story,” said Bangchan, “We’ll explain it later. Right now, you have a game to catch!”
The girls made it in the dressing room.
“Team!” said Bahiyyih, “We have something very important to tell you. And it’s about our captain, Yeji.”
“It’s okay,” said a cheerleader, “We already know what happened last night.”
“Yeah,” added another, “All of us saw how she set Jake up into saying all of those terrible things! And that was really manipulative of her.”
“We need your help,” said Lea, “We are going to let everyone know that Yeji has been a big bully to not only us, but even to the entire school!”
“We are in it to win it!” said another cheerleader, “Count us in!”
It was finally time for the basketball game to begin. Everyone cheered as the players took their positions and the attention focused on this matchup between the school team ENHYPEN against Kep1er. As Bangchan and his gang stood nearby, they waited until they could give the signal to let the girls know that Yeji was coming.
Meanwhile, Yeji was searching for her uniform. As hot- headed as she was, she knew exactly what must have happened.
“WHERE THE HELL IS MY UNIFORM?!” she screamed.
Bangchan heard her screaming for her uniform, and indicated that she was coming. This signaled to the girls and they rushed out to perform their routine to TWICE’s song “Touchdown”. Luckily, Miriam learned all of the dance moves and was able to follow along with the rest of the team. Everyone was impressed by her song and dance skills.
Yeji then stood at the edge of the court and saw what was happening. She could not believe her eyes. She fumed with a pang of anger and knew she had to do something.
As Miriam and the cheerleaders finished their routine with the perfect finish, Yeji took this opportunity and marched right up to Miriam. As she got closer and closer, Miriam was scared. But the other cheerleaders were right beside her, and Bahiyyih and Lea held both of her hands.
“HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY UNIFORM FROM ME?!” Yeji screamed as she wanted to make sure that the team knew who was in charge, “YOU KNOW I KNOW YOU MIRIAM HAMMINGTON! YOU ARE JUST JEALOUS OF ME BECAUSE MY DAD IS THE DIRECTOR OF THIS SCHOOL AND I AM A RICH GIRL, AND YOU ARE JUST A POOR MIDDLE-CLASS GIRL! AND BECAUSE OF WHAT YOU DID, IT’S PAYBACK TIME!”
Yeji grabbed a big bucket of water that was supposed to be for the winner of the game, and splashed it all over Miriam, soaking her from head to toe. It was freezing cold and Miriam herself could feel it seep into the uniform, making it cling to her body as she felt completely drenched.
But it wasn’t over. Yeji then began to violently strip off the cheer outfit on Miriam, and the cheerleaders rallied around Miriam to protect her from her anger. It seemed now everyone knew what a terrible and spoiled girl Yeji was and they cheered Miriam’s name in her honor.
“WHAT?!” Yeji screeched, “YOU ARE ALL JUST GOING TO CHEER FOR THE NEW GIRL INSTEAD OF ME, THE POPULAR ONE?! YOU ARE ALL JUST BUNCH OF LOSERS WHO ARE JUST TRYING TO–”
“KANG YEJI!” Bangchan shouted from afar.
Yeji flinched and saw that he wasn’t alone. There was Jake, Kai, Felix, Hannah, and, as the crowd looked, there was one more person with them - Yeji’s father, Principal Kang, the director of the school!
“It’s over Yeji,” said Jake, walking up towards her, “If Miriam hadn’t taught me anything last night, then you should know that if you look back on this day, when you were a senior in high school, you will regret it more than you do right now.”
“I agree!” said a girl in Yeji’s group, “The only reason we were friends with her was because we thought she was a really cool person. And now that we’ve seen what she has done to this poor girl, I’m starting to rethink our friendship!”
Yeji watched how Miriam was being dressed in a graduation robe and then Miriam’s mother bringing a bag of an extra change of clothes.
“Could this day get any worse?” she pouted, crossing her arms.
Mr. Kang stood nice and tall, right before her.
“Kang Yeji,” he said sternly, “From now on, you are coming with me to my workplace. I am very disappointed.”
“Yes, Appa. I’m sorry.” Yeji said, guilty and now defeated, having to face the consequences for her actions.
Mr. Kang gave her a warm hug out of love, since he wants his daughter to be the sweet young girl she used to be. He knew that one day she could make it right. And so, they both walked out of the gym court.
Once they were gone, the crowd cheered for Miriam, as she exposed the true colors of the most popular girl in the school and turned her in to her own father, finally relieved that she was held accountable for her actions. As Miriam stood proudly with a graduation robe on her, she was eventually happy to see that justice was now served to the school.