violetgreeneao3

[violetgreeneao3]

“Prequel” chapter 1 & 2 draft :

A/N: if you hate it please let me know! I’ve read these early chapters over so many times now that it’s impossible for me not to hate them LOL, but I hope it’s nice on a fresh pair of eyes !! Ty to all of u guys who supported me thru slow times to make this happen! Much love —

Chapter 1: Pilot

Wonyoung was not quite ready for a new school year, but if she was being honest, she wasn’t ready for most things. So the first day jitters were nothing out of the ordinary for her.

Not even two seconds after walking into Manoban’s homeroom, same as last year—same as every year would be, painfully enough—she turned to Sunghoon and asked him for a pencil.

She forgot to bring one.

She forgot many things, even her planner, which was designed to help her not forget things. The irony slipped through the cracks of her overactive mind.

In the corner of her eye, Sunghoon eyed her warily. That was when she noticed that Yuna was laughing near the front of the room, her witchy cackle giving Wonyoung bad chills.

The only good thing about an unaltered homeroom class was that she had a good handful of friends to sit with. At least she didn’t have to worry about whether everyone in the class hated her or not. If they believed half the things Yuna said about her last year, then so be it. If there were a storm, she would always have had Sunghoon, Jiwon, and Jay to create a ship around her, easily keeping her afloat.

As for her other classes… she just had to hope that last year would remain in the past. That was last year, she told herself, and this year would be much better. They were Sophomores now. More mature. Hopefully a little less gossipy, though she knew she was thinking a bit too wishfully now. (Even she enjoyed indulging in a well-spun web every now and again.)

Trying not to think about any of—not last year or what may happen once the bell rang and she had to head to Chemistry— Wonyoung stared blankly out the window. A flock of gray birds in the grassy patch of green outside caught her eye.

The courtyard was shaped like a big, green plus sign, with the two main buildings closing like puzzle pieces on opposing ends. The cafeteria was at another end, and the front office was vaguely across from the remaining one. When she really thought about it, the enclosed-ness made it look a bit like a prison, but she supposed it didn’t feel that way, and that was what really counted.

The school was newish (like, two decades old newish), and apparently it was a big project to make because of all the green space. There was a big scandal because they converted a public recreational park into a private soccer field for the students, but it was mostly hushed by what everyone assumed was either a legal team bankrolled by the student’s enrollment cost or the parents of more influential students—or perhaps a mixture of both.

Or at least someone said all of that during orientation.

Wonyoung hadn’t cared enough to research more. All she needed to know was how to navigate the halls and how to keep her name out of Yuna’s godforsaken mouth. Needless to say, Sophomore Wonyoung was experienced on both fronts. She was even designated to show new freshmen around, which she did over the summer during their weekly orientation days. And as for Yuna… that one could be owed to her sisters’ regrettable actions.

She really needed to stop thinking about Yuna.

Sunghoon nudged her right as she had that thought, giving her an ink pen. She took it and then said, “You better give Liz your seat.”

He scoffed and elbowed her. “Wow. Not even a ‘thank you’?”

“Well, I just wanna by my best friend.”

“So I can sit by Jay again? Over my dead body.”

“I suppose that’s fair.”

As if one cue, Jiwon entered a couple of minutes before the bell and approached him for his seat. ”Swap with me,” she said, and when he said the same thing about killing him for it, she threatened him. He didn’t budge.

With a toss of her eyes, Jiwon sat in front of them. Jay arrived soon after and plopped next to her and said a tired, mumbly greeting before smacking his head down and dozing off. So by the time the bell rang, Jay was sleeping beside her, his forehead flat on the desk. A string of drool dripped from the corner of his mouth onto the surface.

Jiwon turned and they all made varying faces at Jay’s condition. Jiwon’s was, understandably, pure disgust. Wonyoung tried her best to have a similar expression but couldn’t help but crack a smile at how Sunghoon opening grinned, highly amused.

“See? I’m not dealing with this,” Jiwon groaned, reaching over to smack Sunghoon’s wrist. “C’mon, let’s do a boys and girls table again.”

”No way, I had to deal with it last year. You got him now,” he said.

“He’s more your friend than mine.”

“We’re all friends here,” he said teasingly, wiggling his fingers in faux enthusiasm. “Just ignore him.”

“And face Manoban’s wrath for him sleeping? As if.” Jiwon switched her strategy and began pouting at Wonyoung, who just raised her brows in a very unimpressed fashion.

“Nope. No way. You know I already have three other classes with him. I can’t risk losing my minimal brain cells by being around him this early.”

“Then make Sunghoon move.”

“Um, excuse me. I’m right here.”

“You would totally move if she asked.”

“Nope. She already tried.”

“But she didn’t really try.” Jiwon leaned closer, hitting Wonyoung’s wrist encouragingly. “Come on, start crying.”

“Not funny.”

Jiwon frowned, and Sunghoon’s smug smirk intensified. He even laughed and pointed at Jay’s unconscious face. “Might wanna watch your elbow, there, before you get some of his juices on you.”

Wonyoung tried not to laugh with him, but Jiwon’s reaction was too funny. She shot an apologetic look at her best friend before switching her gaze to the populated seats around them. Some stuff had changed, but not too much.

Jun was with Mingyu, who Wonyoung vaguely knew. They were boys on the soccer team with Sunghoon. Jun noticed and waved at her, which she returned with a smile and wave of her own. To her right, a shy boy named Sunoo was playing with some eraser shavings at his otherwise empty table. He was the only one sitting alone, Wonyoung discovered after a confirming glance around, which Wonyoung thought was shame. It wasn’t his fault the class had an odd number of students.

Finally, Wonyoung had the misfortune of meeting Yuna Shin’s eyes for a microsecond. It was the type of eye contact that threatened to ruin an otherwise perfectly mediocre day, both their smiles fading at the same rate. Trying to shake it off, she turned back to Jiwon.

“You can sit with Sunoo instead, he isn’t so bad,” she said. All of them shifted their gazes toward the cited boy in a remarkably indiscreet way. He caught Sunghoon’s gaze in particular and looked back down like it burned. “Or… maybe not?”

Sunghoon shrugged. “I always thought he was kinda weird.”

Wonyoung hit his arm. “Don’t be rude.”

”Eh, maybe. It is weird, he’s Zhanghao’s friend, but he doesn’t even talk. That’d be like me being shy and you being you.”

“What’s that supposed to—”

Jiwon huffed hard enough that the black pieces of hair framing her face lifted and fell. “This sucks. Would’ve been fine if it were third period, but now I have to deal with Jay snoring beside me every day? Manoban’s gonna hate us even more than she already does.”

”She doesn’t hate us,” Wonyoung supplied weakly. It was a partial lie. Last year, they were only rowdy in the mornings that Jay decided he wanted to be awake, but those were few and far between. Still, Jiwon and Wonyoung had the misfortune of being grouped in by association even though they got the highest marks on every assignment. They were both good at Geography. “Ok, well maybe she does dislike us a bit, but that can change. This is our chance to turn a new coin.”

”You mean a new leaf?” Jiwon asked.

”Same thing, Lizzie. Let me talk to Sunoo for you.” She smiled between them, whispering conspiratorially. “Maybe we can make him sit by Jay, then you can get your own table and join us for the midterm project.”

Wonyoung set her pen down and stood up, carefully smoothing the wrinkles out of her uniform skirt and straightening the crooked tie Chaewon hastily repaired with a needle and thread the night before. She used red thread because it was all they had, but Chae promised to buy her a proper new yellow tie sometime soon. For some reason, Sophomores had to wear yellow, which, ew, but she digressed.

”Are you even friends with him?” Sunghoon asked as she stepped behind him, stopping only because he had his chair pushed too far back and he wasn’t moving, just staring at Jay. “This isn’t a good idea. He’ll be pissed.”

”Should've thought of that before he fell asleep,” Jiwon commented.

”No, I mean the other kid.”

”Sunoo? He has a name, you know. And I’m sure he’d rather sit by Jay than no one at all.” Because as the class filled up, it became obvious that everyone already had someone from last year. There were still a few open tables in the back, too, and the bell was about to final late bell was going to go off soon.

Sunghoon put his arm out in front of her to block her from even trying to scoot by. The people at the table behind eyed them strangely. “Move your arm so I can—”

The final bell rang. The screech lasted for about four seconds, then Manoban was in front of the room clapping for their attention.

”Ok, seats. Everyone, seats. Sit and be quiet.”

“Oh my god, Sunghoon,” Jiwon whisper-groaned, reaching forward to tug his arm so Wonyoung could scoot by behind him, but it was definitely way too late to start switching seats because the room fell disturbingly silent.

Manoban sounded more excited than usual, which was equally disturbing as the easy silence. “I have an important announcement this morning.”

Wonyoung was about to make her way back to her seat. She pulled it back out and took half a step back before almost falling over into it when she saw someone walking to the front. Someone unfamiliar. Someone new.

A girl with big, doe eyes that scanned the room until they met her own, blinking. Without knowing why, Wonyoung’s face heated at the eye contact. The walls felt a little closer on each side, and the August sun seemed to be penetrating the window just to heat her cheeks.

“Miss Jang,” Manoban said with a tired sigh. “I said sit.”

”Oh, of course. Sorry,” she muttered sheepishly, falling back into her seat.

She pulled herself in closer to the desk, flinching when it made an awkward creaking sound as the legs scraped against the floor. She could physically feel the blood pooling in her cheeks and it only got worse when that doe-eyed gaze followed the unsteady movements, her head tilting slightly like a curious puppy.

“Ok, Homeroom. This is your new peer.” Manoban stepped away from the podium and gestured for the new girl to take it. “I’ll let her introduce herself.”

The girl simply cleared her throat, still staring right at Wonyoung in a way that was both jarring and… pleasant. Wonyoung was no stranger to attention, but it never felt like this. Yeah, it was nice at times, so long as Yuna wasn’t spreading rumors, but god Wonyoung couldn’t even begin to explain the nice-ness of this girl’s gaze compared to other people’s. There was something so exciting about it.

Sadly, the girl looked away, her pretty eyes comfortably sweeping the rest of the room.

“Hello, I’m Yujin Ahn. I’m just starting here. I look forward to getting to know you all,” she said succinctly, her voice calm and level, posture ramrod straight—nothing nervous about her tone despite all the curious, blinking eyes and hushed whispers.

Wonyoung wiped her sweaty palms on her skirt. Only then did she notice how relaxed Yujin seemed. How easily her hands settled on the podium, how calm she was, and the fact that she was wearing pants. It was against school policy for girls to do so, and Manoban’s mood not being affected by such a blatant breach in procedure must have meant something about Yujin, even if Wonyoung was not sure what. She found herself particularly intrigued by it.

“How wonderful,” Manoban said with a little too much enthusiasm, lightly patting Yujin’s shoulder like it was required. A little stiff, but Yujin didn’t seem to mind. She just began looking around again, which meant Wonyoung had to look away because she couldn’t get caught staring too hard for a third time. She tried not to wonder how pink her cheeks were anymore.

Seriously, Yujin was exceptionally pretty. Her hair was mid-length, a few inches past her shoulders, straight with subtly swooped ends. Her features had a soft maturity about them that, along with her demeanor, made her oddly… handsome.

“Now, Yujin hasn’t been here long, so she’s not fully filled in on how things work, particularly within these walls,” Manoban said in the tone she usually used when teaching them about some sort of serious historical event that she found captivating. “That being said, I expect a lot of hospitality from you all. Make her feel as welcome as possible here.”

The class made a collective sound of assent.

“Move,” Wonyoung leaned over to whisper in Sunghoon’s ear, elbowing his rib. “Go sit by Jiwon.”

“Huh? Jay’s still there.” And asleep, which greatly complicated matters.

Her eyes darted around for an answer, but all she could see was Yuna turning left to whisper to Lia, gesturing vaguely to the empty desks near the back. Lia’s unsettled look told Wonyoung everything she needed to know about what Yuna was saying. She wanted Yujin to sit beside her.

Yuna turned back and met Wonyoung’s eye with a massive smirk. So it was now an official competition, with Yuna jeering like that. And Wonyoung couldn’t lose. She wouldn’t. It wasn’t even fair—Yuna didn’t care about Yujin, or making her feel welcome. Yuna just cared about having a new pretty minion to add to her entourage.

Maybe Wonyoung wouldn’t have usually felt like it was her job to intervene in the matter, but this was distinctly different. There was something strong and impulsive that made her act. A feeling in her chest fluttering like a moth dancing around a wind-blown lighter. She wanted Yujin, even if it was primarily because Yuna did, too.

“Me!” Wonyoung said a little too loudly, standing up and immediately feeling very silly about it because all tired eyes were on her. It really was too early for all of this. “You can sit here, next to me.” She looked down at a very confused Sunghoon then away before he could say anything in dispute. “He was just moving over there.”

Sunghoon followed her finger to where Sunoo sat. “What? No. Why would I—”

“Just go,” she whispered with a little too much exasperation. It was so quiet in the room that everyone could hear them despite her best effort, but she felt the need to be quiet anyway. “Go.”

His eyes were wide and confused. “Is this a joke?”

She crossed her arms. “Why would it be?”

“Because all I did was give you a pen.”

“After stealing all of mine,” she lied, grasping at straws with a dry mouth. “And my planner. I still haven’t forgiven you for burning it along with my…” Her eyes flashed around. “My scrapbook from when I was a baby. You knew how much it meant to me. You really took things too far by desecrating something so dear to me.”

(Manoban liked ornamental words.)

“What? You don’t even have a—”

“Yes I do. Don’t lie,” she said, gaining confidence because she sort of forgot everyone was looking at her and Lia wasn’t moving anymore. The second it hit that she was sounding a smidge manic, she sat back down. Her hissing chair cut through the loud silence. “Right, Lizzie? I told him not to sit by me and he just won't move. It’s borderline harassment.”

“Uh, yeah,” Jiwon chimed in after a poorly disguised laugh. She sounded like she was fighting another one, too. “Wonyoung’s been telling him to move, but you know how he is, so stubborn. Right, Jay?”

Jiwon kicked him under the table and he jerked awake. She repeated the question and Jay nodded, barely even lucid as their neighbors laughed at how carelessly he wiped his slobber away with the sleeve of his blazer. She kicked him again and he sat up, scratching his head.

“Yeah, for sure. Right. That’s exactly right,” he agreed, audibly and visibly disoriented.

“Well…” Manoban trailed off, annoyed and unconvinced. “I suppose it’s up to you, Miss Ahn. Would you like to sit with Wonyoung, or should we arrange something else?”

“That’s fine.”

Without another cue, Yujin left the front and started walking toward Sunghoon’s seat. As people began to talk in low tones, his hushed curses went unnoticed by anyone who wasn’t in the immediate vicinity.

Wonyoung ignored all his questions, avoided his eyes, and simply pushed him away. She quietly helped him shove a few things in his bag so he could go away quicker. If he had a look of betrayal in his eyes, Wonyoung wasn’t ready to face it quite yet. Rather, she smiled up at Yujin.

“Hi,” Wonyoung said, suddenly overwhelmed when Yujin smiled back, So soft and beautiful.

Wonyoung momentarily forgot about her victory until she heard a grumbly sound near the front of the room that was undoubtedly Yuna.

“Hello.”

Wonyoung quite literally forgot about everything else in the world, even the fact that Sunghoon took her only pen, which was technically his pen, but still, it was awfully petty. All she could do was begin to regret her decision as her mind slowly blanked. Yujin was somehow even cooler up close, and she wasn’t quite sure what to say next.

Her voice was a little tighter. “I—I’m Wonyoung.”

Did she just stutter?

“I know,” Yujin said, glancing at a huffing Sunghoon that was at present (awkwardly) to Yujin’s right. All that separated the two of them was the empty aisle between tables, which felt more like a ravine than a three-foot gap. Then she decided to look away and unpack her things, thankfully no questions.

“Can I—um, I—” Wonyoung continued to stutter out, her question floating away like a cloud the second Yujin’s doe eyes turned in on her. They were a lot closer now.

Yujin’s uniform was clean and pressed and she was wearing pants, which was weird, and the though made Wonyoung forget what she was going to ask in the first place.

Wonyoung suddenly felt really ridiculous for wearing hand-me-downs and thrifted clothes and using the strawberry tear-free shampoo for kids because she always got it in her eyes and it stung. In that very moment, as she stammered for something to say, there were so many minute things about herself that she found regrettable.

“Can I…?” Yujin bounced back at Wonyoung, voice low because Manoban was talking again.

Wonyoung didn’t realize her eyes were wider than normal, nor that she wasn’t even blinking as she stared into Yujin’s naturally hypnotic eyes. Not until something clattered in front of them, the eye contact breaking when Wonyoung checked to see what it was. A pen. The source of it? A smirking Jiwon.

“I think you were trying to ask for a pen.”

“Oh,” Yujin said.

“I—Yes.”

“Yeah... Clearly Wonyoung is just a mess, like, all the ti—”

“Miss Kim. It is day one,” came Manoban’s exasperated voice. “Eyes forward, lips sealed.”

They all zipped their mouths shut, even Yujin, and it probably didn’t help that Wonyoung couldn’t stop a smile from creeping onto her face as she side-eyed Yujin for the entire almost hour-long class period. The side of her face was beautiful, too, and Wonyoung couldn’t believe she would actually be sitting beside this girl all year. Seriously. How was she going to function?

Class continued, but that sensation never ebbed. The fluttering. The warm kindling in the pit of her belly.

By the time the bell rang, Wonyoung couldn’t remember a single thing on the syllabus. Not what percentage the exams were worth, nor what pre-reading needed to be done for the next class, nor whatever third thing was important to know.

All she knew was that Yujin’s hands were bigger than her own. Yujin had neat handwriting, swooping yet legible. Yujin had this habit of running a hand through her hair after flipping a page, resting on her elbow while her eyes swept quickly along the words. It was cute. Yujin was cute. Although, Wonyoung didn’t know what that meant when the thought appeared in her head. Or what to do with that information, if anything at all.

As everyone was packing up, she panicked. She knew she needed to say something, didn’t know what, and blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“Um, wait—what’s your next class?” she asked, her cheeks growing warm again as everyone around them shuffled out of the room.

Yujin handed her schedule sheet to Wonyoung, who hummed. “Stats with Lee. I heard it’s not bad. Should I—I’ll walk you there.” She started toward the door, turning and holding the door for Yujin so that they could fall into step together down the hall. “You know his son is on the soccer team?”

“Ms. Lee’s son?” Yujin asked.

“Yeah. His name’s Heeseung.”

“Do you play soccer?”

“God, no.” She laughed, waiting until she was halfway down the second flight of stairs before beginning again. “But Sunghoon and Jiwon do. The boys and girls teams are close. Our football team here is awful but the soccer teams are both really good, so everyone just—”

“Wonyoung–Oh my god.” A hand on her shoulder stopped her abruptly right before she could make the final turn into the math hall. Minejong’s smile was blinding and excited as she shook Wonyoung by the shoulder. “Did you see our Study Hall? Fourth Period? You have to switch in. Literally everyone’s in there. Even you-know-who.”

“Sounds like I don’t wanna be in there,” Wonyoung mumbled, pushing Minjeong back slightly. Wonyoung then offered a smile, half apologetic, half promising. “I’m going to Chem. See you in third?”

Minjeong hummed, her eyes scanning Yujin up and down, once, twice, before Wonyoung pulled her away by the arm so that they wouldn’t both be late to their next class. After dealing with Sunghoon and Jay in Chem, Wonyoung would simply fill Minjeong in during Anatomy. Then lunch. Maybe she could sit with Yujin. An easy, solid plan.

As they passed the rooms, Wonyoung pointed out the classes on Yujin’s schedule, informing her of what she needed to know. Like that Ms. Moon’s room was up where they came from, study hall was in the library, which was near the front office—and everything but Spanish was in the building that they were currently in. Wonyoung also told her that pretty much all Sophomores took the same variation of courses with only a few exceptions. They also shared the same lunch period, along with the Juniors, and a few seniors who had scheduling gaps.

“I know, it’s confusing. But it’s, like, some Sophomores take English courses instead of how we're taking the Chemistry ones. But I heard they’re talking about getting rid of Study Hall, which is just—like, god, I think I’ll die if they do that.” They stopped in front of Ms. Lee’s door and Wonyoung gestured toward it, rocking slowly on her heels. “So… sorry. I was talking a lot, but I can show you around more during lunch if you want. Or we can sit together. Or—I don’t know. Here.”

Without thinking enough to psych herself out, Wonyoung took her phone out of her backpack’s side pocket and opened a new contact. “We’re not supposed to have our phones out, but since you’re new, I’m sure it’s fine. You can text me if you have any questions. I’m basically an expert. I even helped with the freshmen orientation, so yeah. Expert.”

Yujin smiled and punched her contact information in. There was a brief silence after she handed the phone back where neither of them seemed to have anything left to say, but also neither of them wanted to be the one to say bye. Thankfully the warning bell did the honors.

Wonyoung nibbled her bottom lip, trying and failing not to stare at Yujin too hard, or for too long, searching for words and finding nothing adequate. Goodbye seemed too simple, especially when Wonyoung wanted to see her again as soon as possible.

Wonyoung only managed to look away when someone brushed into her arm.

“Well—See you at lunch?”

Yujin nodded. “Goodbye.”

“That sounds so final.”

“Oh, then… I’ll see you at lunch.”

“Perfect.”

Satisfied, Wonyoung bounded back up the stairs in what was closer to a sprint than a leisurely walk. The bodies had thinned out, so she didn’t have to wrestle her way there, passing opened doors and teachers yelling at everyone to hurry along.

Wonyoung never had one of Mr. Kang’s classes before, so worse case she was sure she could spin the ‘I was lost’ excuse, but she didn’t really want to draw more attention to herself. Not when the truth of the matter was that she was so transfixed with her new classmate that she threw her friend under the bus for a new friend, who she then walked to class. Which… why, exactly, did she do that? The whole kicking-Sunghoon-to-the-curb thing?

The guilt of it only hit her when she broke into Mr. Kang’s classroom, a bunch of eyes blinking at her because she made it just before the bell. Almost everyone stared at her for half a second before they went back to chatting.

Thankfully the tables were in groups of four and there was still a seat open behind where Jay and Sunghoon sat beside one of Sunghoon’s friends from the soccer team. Wonyoung slid in, returning Jay’s small smile only to divert to a frown when Sunghoon didn’t so much as look her way. As if she were a ghost.

Mr. Kang began to talk about the Syllabus, which was both projected and lying in front of her as a print-out, but Wonyoung was busy reaching across the table to nudge Sunghoon’s arm. Even if she had listened, she would’ve instantly forgotten everything anyway. When Sunghoon did not respond, she nudged him again.

“Shut up,” he muttered.

“I didn’t even say anything,” she whispered back, but he turned away toward the board to ignore her more easily.

So, yeah. Much more upset than Wonyoung knew how to deal with. Usually Wonyoung was the upset one, not the other way around… So she was out of ideas.

She tried to listen as Mr. Jang discussed the grading scale, testing curves, and lab safety procedures, but despite her halfhearted efforts she ended up tuning him out as she contemplated the right thing to say to Sunghoon. Sorry seemed too simple, but at the same time, all she wanted to do was help Yujin. Or maybe she wanted to spite Yuna. Either way, what she did was perfectly sensible.

Or… maybe not. Nothing seemed like the right answer, and honestly the more she thought about it, the more her mind drifted back to Yujin. She ended up occupying most of Wonyoung’s thoughts somehow, despite her best efforts to think up apologies instead, like she was meant to do in the first place.

Everyone stood, chairs screeching against the shiny tile floor.

Wonyoung didn’t know what was happening until Haechan—the boy from Sunghoon soccer team—told her they were doing a quick lab where they had to calculate density, or something, which just involved weighing some stuff. She was tasked with collecting equipment.

Two seconds in and Wonyoung was so preoccupied worrying about Sunghoon that she almost dropped a beaker on the ground.

Thankfully Rei was getting one from the same cabinet and caught it before it shattered. Wonyoung thanked her a couple times, a bit more profusely than was normal, she was sure, but she was simply thankful that some trace of luck was still on her side this morning.

After returning to the table and depositing the lab materials, she stepped to stand beside Sunghoon. Then she tapped his arm.

“Sunghoon,” she tried. He pretended she wasn’t there. When he rounded the table, she followed, as persistent as she tended to be. “I’m sorry, ok? I just—I don’t know. I just wanted to sit by her.”

He ignored her as he filled the beaker with sixty milli-somethings of water. Meanwhile Haechan and Jay did a poor job of pretending not to eavesdrop from across the table. Fine. Great. Just amazing. Not even one day back at school and there was already some drama that everyone would be talking about come lunch time.

Wonyoung and Sunghoon, friends since middle school, having a Cold War in Chemistry. That’s what everyone would say, anyway, despite Wonyoung trying her very best to get him to at least look at her. Perhaps acknowledge her existence.

“I know I didn’t have to throw you under the bus like that. I wish I didn’t do that.” Having enough of the cold shoulder, she grabbed his hand and tugged. Finally he was forced to look at her, so she pouted for full effect. “I’m really sorry. I really am.”

He glared at her harder than ever before. (It was sort of funny, the way his face was all screwed up, so she fought not to crack a smile.)

“So you’ll tell her to give me my seat back?”

Her lips parted for words but nothing came out. As the silence drew on, her cheeks grew hotter under his knowing gaze. After all, he had said it like he already knew the answer—So why even ask? Now it was just awkward.

When she didn’t verbalize the no, he took her silence for what it was and scoffed, circling the table again.

This time, Wonyoung knew better than to follow.

.

The first truly good thing about her day was third period. Like a little oasis right before the chaos that would be Lunch. Surely when the time came, all the conversation was going to be about what she did to Sunghoon, and why she did it. Honestly, Wonyoung wasn’t ready for that, so she tried to focus back on the present:

The squeak of dry erase against whiteboard. A quiet huff of laughter to her right as a note was passed. A familiar voice droning on at the front of the room.

In Mr. Wu’s class, she, Jiwon, and Minjeong sat near Wu’s desk—right in front of it—and Yuna sat somewhere near the door, all the way to their right, at the opposite end of the first row. The desks were long rows of linked tables with stools, so Wonyoung got to sit between her two closest friends. Because now that Sunghoon was upset at her, Minjeong would probably be next in line… and obviously Jiwon would always be number one.

The moment Wu stopped talking about the stupid syllabus, Wonyoung turned to vent to them about all the Sunghoon stuff. Jiwon chuckled along, never serious about anything. She was just happy that there was drama. Minjeong seemed genuinely interested, if only because she was entertained.

“Why did you do that?” Minjeong laughed out, her gaze flitting to where Mr. Wu sat at his desk, clearly listening in despite his indifferent exterior. “Honestly, I think it would be weirder if he wasn’t super upset with you.”

“He’s not super upset. He’s just… I don't know. And I don’t know why I did it. It’s just so stupid,” she groaned, her forehead thudding against the table. “I’m so stupid.” She banged her head again. “He’s so stupid.” Another bang—

“Careful, Jang.” Mr. Wu warned, his tone slightly amused. “If you're going to damage your frontal lobe, do it outside of my classroom.”

“I’m fine. All my lobes are fine,” she said, her voice somewhat muffled by the thin syllabus she was using as a pillow.

Jiwon, leaned forward on her arm, saying, “I mean judging by how red and stuttery you were… I don’t think it takes a detective to figure out why you did what you did.”

“I wasn’t red or stuttery.”

“Right. Because you were both at once.”

“I was not.”

“You so were. Lets ask a second hand source.” Hey, Yuna—”

Her face heated all over again as she whipped her head up to slap Jiwon’s shoulder. “Oh my God, Liz, I swear to—”

“It’s a joke, Won, jeez, calm down. Deep breaths.” Jiwon poked Wonyoung’s cheek with the back of a pen, voice lowering. “You’re all red again.”

“Because you just called for Yuna.”

“Please, as if you’re afraid of her anymore,” Jiwon scoffed. “You’re all red because of Yu-jin,” she enunciated. “Admit it. That’s why you’re acting weird. You totally have a crush on her.”

Minjeong’s eyes widened. She leaned in closer.

“Really? I mean she was pretty cute. Is that why you were walking her to class? How exciting! Wonnie finally—”

“Guys no. No! Oh my god—I literally just met her. Just stop. She’s not cute and I don’t like her. I was walking her because… well, she’s new and that’s my literal job. Or it was for the summer. That’s all it is. It was just instinctive.”

“And the blushing?” Jiwon pressed, unperturbed by the outburst. “Is that instinctive?”

“That’s because it’s hot in here.”

“Because you’re thinking about—”

“No. Drop it already,” she said, but it sounded more like a whine than a demand.

“I was gonna say ‘because you’re thinking about the temperature’, but whatever… cut me off. Clearly you’re thinking about her.”

“I’m going to kill you.”

“Mr. Wu, did you hear that? She just threatened my life!”

“Hm?” The teacher glanced over, feigning ignorance.

Wonyoung leaned back to avoid all eyes as she repeatedly clicked the pen Yujin gave to her just that morning. It was the only thing Wonyoung had to write with since she forgot her pencil pouch at home, so she was basically being forced to think about Yujin all day. That was all it was.

Jiwon was so totally wrong in assuming that Wonyoung had any special feelings on the first day of school.

Sure, her cheeks were getting red and there was nothing she could do about it, but that was just because they were teasing her. Nothing more.

“What day is the HOSA meeting again?”

“Friday,” Mr. Wu supplied. “And I expect your official Leadership application the day before appointments.”

“Right—And when are those again?”

“No. Nope. Stop changing the subject.” Jiwon stood up with her hands on the table, the room going quieter because her chair made a loud sound. Wonyoung dropped her face into her hands, crumbling into the desk once more as Jiwon continued to cause a scene. “Don’t help her, Mr. Wu. She has to explain herself!”

“I already said I can’t!”

“Then I’ll explain yourself for you!”

“It doesn’t work that way!”

“Girls,” he sighed, but he was smiling and it was clear he wasn’t bothered. He was used to their antics from last year.

“Sorry Mr. Wu,” they said at once—even Minjeong, who was doing nothing but trying not to laugh at them—and Jiwon plopped gracefully back into her seat. “I guess I’ll have to wait until lunch.”

“You better not. It’s not even true. I don’t—there’s no way I would—I’d never—”

“See? You can’t even say it.”

“Because you just cut me off,” she snapped.

“Nope. It’s because it’s true and you don’t wanna admit it.”

“It’s not.”

“It so is.”

“It isn’t.”

“It is.” Jiwon smirked. “You even got her number.”

“Can you stop yelling?” Wonyoung was easily flushed down to her chest, her voice a humiliated whisper.

“I’m speaking at a perfectly normal volume.”

“For a soccer game, yeah, but you’re literally yelling.”

“Still not yelling.”

“I swear, if you bring this up at lunch I’ll—You—Just don’t do it. Just drop it.” She put her head down, huffing again. Upsetting herself just so that they knew she was upset, so hopefully Jiwon wouldn’t go around telling everyone she liked Yujin when she didn’t. She totally didn’t. “Just don’t.”

.

She walked into lunch as a tenth grader for the first time, her hands on the straps of her backpack as she hurried over to their usual table somewhere near the middle of the cafeteria. It was big, rectangular, and a good mix of HOSA girls and Soccer boys, which was basically as close to a stereotypical table of people as they got at this school.

Before Wonyoung could be relentlessly teased when Jiwon inevitably told everyone that Wonyoung liked Yujin when she didn’t, she found Sunghoon and tugged on his arm to try to force him out of his seat.

Heeseung—Wonyoung’s least favorite boy on the soccer team—whistled. “Lover’s quarrel,” he teased loudly enough to draw nearby attention.

“Not funny,” she spat back, yanking Sunghoon by his blazer because he was staying seated despite her tugs. Only half a day had gone by and she was already tired of his standoffishness. They’d never fought before. Not really. Not where Sunghoon was the upset one and she was supposed to be sorry.

Right as Wonyoung got Sunghoon out of his seat, Yena appeared twirling her car keys on her finger. “Hey, I think Yuri put your name in for the thingy. She’s in Wu’s if you—”

“Ok, we’ll go there right now,” Wonyoung said, smiling goodbye to the older girl while gracelessly extracting a very brooding Sunghoon from his seat.

Forcing him to forgive her was more pressing than anything extracurricular. She couldn’t even be super happy about the Secretary thing when she was worrying about him so much, so she tugged Sunghoon along until they were near the cafeteria door.

“Seriously, Won, do you really have to cause a scene all the damn time?” he grumbled, reluctantly following her outside after wrestling his sleeve away from her. Surprisingly he kept following her, the two of them circling around the cafeteria building, passing by small groups of students on the circular tables outside. They ended up in the shade, her back against the wall, arms crossed like she was the one waiting for something. He was poised similarly, standing in front of her with his hands in his pockets, brows raised. “So?”

“So you’re mad at me.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone real quick, her heart jumping when she saw one message. Then her heart sank. It was Yujin apologizing, saying that she told some girls on the Debate team that she would eat with them. Clearly she couldn’t keep her disappointment from showing, because Sunghoon nudged her.

“What? Did Chae text you?”

“No…” she slipped her phone into the waistband of her skirt. She leaned back and sighed. “Yujin did.”

Sunghoon made a face. “So Liz wasn’t just being Liz, you really have a crush on her? That’s what that was?” he asked, loosening his tie because it was quite hot, hot enough for Wonyoung to drop her bag so she could take her blazer off and hang it on her arm.

When it was just her and Sunghoon alone, she thought it was ok to be a little more honest. He wasn’t like Jiwon, who would go and tell every one of their friends when she thought something was funny.

”I don’t think so,” she said earnestly, if a bit thoughtfully. She looked down at her feet, moving them out more so they lined up with Sunghoon’s. She tapped the shiny black top of his shoe. “I don’t even know her very well. Obviously I can’t have a crush on her.”

”That’s why it’s a crush. It’s not like you’re promising to marry her. It’s just a feeling.”

”Well what feeling?”

He shrugged. “A crush-y feeling.”

“You’ve had a crush before?”

”Of course,” he huffed out while laughing. She had to look up at him because he was taller than her, the same height as most boys his age. Tall, but still on the edge of another growth spurt.

She was sort of the same, an awkward height that was still on the shorter side, but her strange proportions made it obvious her legs would grow longer. She didn’t believe in any god, but every night before she slept, she prayed for an extra inch to no avail.

Distracted, perhaps searching for something (someone) she scanned the tables on either side of them. They were all full because they were on the shaded side of the cafeteria. She spotted a few familiar faces. Only one person saw her, though, and waved, but it wasn’t who she was looking for. She only realized Sunghoon was waiting for her to say something when she looked back. He was waiting. But she didn’t quite know what to say next. Not that she ever really did.

She blinked up at him again, asking, “So who was it? Who did you like?”

”Honestly…” he trailed off, his hands in his trouser pockets. “It was you in middle school, and I’m only saying it’s because it’s not true anymore.”

”Then who is it now?”

He looked away and back. ”Who said it had to be anyone?”

”Dunno, you just seem like the type who’s always liking someone. Especially if you picked me, of all people.”

”It’s not something you pick.” He looked away at the bricks above her head, then back down. Oddly avoidant. “That’s why I was asking you if you liked her, because it kinda just happens to you. Even if she was a bad person, it’s not like you can pick and choose.”

The way he said it was a little bitter, but Wonyoung decided not to prod.

She pursed her lips, then said, ”Well, if she was a bad person it’ll probably stop on its own. I wouldn’t like someone like that.”

”Ah-ha!” he said a little too loudly, leaning closer and lowering his voice. “You do like her, you just admitted it.”

”I—No I didn’t. It was purely hypothetical,” she said, but her face was prickling with heat, and she knew it was more than the weather in August. He looked unconvinced by her excuse, so all she thought to do was whisper, “Don’t put words in my mouth. You’re being like Liz.”

“I’m much better than Liz,” he said smugly. “That’s why you’re out here talking to me and not her.”

“Well, no. I’m talking to you because you were upset.”

“Who says I'm not still upset?”

“Me.”

“Wow. Love has changed you, Won. For the worse, may I add. What happened to bros before—”

“Oh, shut up.”

She looked away to escape his teasing eyes, gravitating for no particular reason to a table near where the cafeteria cut off to the front side. They passed it on the way to where they stood. It was empty before. Now it was occupied by Rei, Yujin, and two other people Wonyoung couldn't see.

Yujin was already looking. Looking in that way people did when they had been looking for a while. Was Yujjin listening to them? Could she hear from that far away? Could she read lips? God, the thought was so mortifying, Wonyoung’s face only grew a deeper shade.

She pushed Sunghoon away, clearing her throat.

”I have to talk to Wu, actually, about being Secretary.”

”’K, I’ll walk you.”

”No,” she said, and he gave her a weird look because she sounded too aggressive. “I mean, thanks for forgiving me and everything, but I wanna just think about everything alone right now.”

”It’s cool. I get it. Yeah. You’re definitely gonna go see Wu and totally not going to talk to Yujin there,” he said, taking a few steps back and blatantly pointing at their table. He sent her a playful wink before she jumped up and thwacked his hand down.

“Ok—ok, god.” He laughed, jumping away from her steely eyes and reddened cheeks. “See ya after school.”

She rolled her eyes and picked up her bag off the ground. “Probably not, no, but whatever.”

He left with bouncy, receding steps.

Mostly just to prove a point to herself (and Sunghoon), Wonyoung simply sent Yujin a smile, a wave, and walked away, her feet taking her to where Yuri was in Mr. Wu’s classroom. She didn’t really want to talk to Yujin when there were three other strangers present. Mostly because she didn’t know what she would really say to Yujin, and it was a lot more embarrassing to fumble words in front of an audience of girls who were very good at articulating themselves.

Plus, on the off chance she did have a crush, like everyone seemed to be suggesting, going up to Yujin during lunch would come off too strongly, right? Or maybe it was even worse that she was worried about how she came off at all, because worrying about such a thing was a confession in its own right.

When the lunch bell rang, she packed up her things, said bye to Mr. Wu, and went to Precal and Spanish with Jay. Then she listened in Physics as Mr. Kang managed to talk about a six page syllabus for an entire hour, then she sat in the Library for Study Hall with people she still didn’t know very well. She spent most of the time counting down the minutes until the final bell while everyone else did some reading for their classes.

The only thing she had to do during the block was stress about the fact Jiwon was talking about her and Yujin during fourth period Study Hall, which had both Yuna (ew) and Rei, who was apparently friends with Yujin and—god—Wonyoung would just about die if Yujin heard a rumour like this when they just met a handful of hours ago. There was no way Rei didn’t hear Jiwon teasing her in physics.

This had to be some kind of world record. Day one of Wonyoung’s Sophomore year and everything was already so magnificently screwed up.

Last time she felt this nervous was in sixth grade. That was when she had to introduce herself and everyone else’s tri-fold boards contained two parents, whereas hers was just Mom and her sisters. Usually it wouldn’t have been a big deal, but at the expensive kind of school she attended, it was strange. But she and Jiwon became friends because of that. They were both in on a partial scholarship. Together they met Sunghoon in gym class, got along because they were all so competitive.

The pieces fell into place from there. Wonyoung grew into herself all the way back then, feeling all the emotions there was to feel throughout middle school. At least that was what she thought freshman year, where there wasn’t anything entirely new. Why, now, did it feel like she was back at square one again?

..

She was too afraid to text Yujin when she got home. She didn’t want to come off as too eager. Not to mention she was generally overthinking things, which she fully blamed on Sunghoon and Jiwon. They were blowing things way out of proportion the whole day, Jiwon more in front of others, Sunghoon even worse when it was the two of them. He even pulled up wedding rings and dresses, joking that Wonyoung should probably start looking. Such a ridiculous joke.

Somehow—despite her best efforts to ignore the teasing—Wonyoung managed to embarrass herself all on her own the very next day. It happened before the first bell even rang. She tried her best to be casual as she slipped into her seat by the window, but her hair got caught on the screws of the chair and she winced when it pulled. One little yelp and Yujin looked over with worry in her eyes.

“Are you ok?” She seemed to take the pained look on Wonyoung’s face as something very serious. “Is something wrong?”

“Oh, no, it’s nothing.” She scrambled to grab her notebook and planner from her bag, looking away to hide her blush. She gave herself a mental slap across the face for looking like such a fool in front of Yujin.

Yujin.

Yujin.

It should be illegal to have such a nice name. It suited her a little too well and it stuck in Wonyoung’s mind like glue.

She spaced out thinking about it, doodling hearts in the margins of her notebook. As the bell to begin class rang, a stupid smile had already sprung up on her face. Absent-mindedly, she drew stick figures that were secretly she and Yujin with all of her friends. It was a secret because she labeled everyone with fake names in case Yujin looked over.

She just wanted to be friends with Yujin. Strictly friends.

Sure, Yujin seemed cool, well dressed, and was beautiful in an oddly handsome way, but she wasn’t the first person Wonyoung met who was like that. Well, at least for the most part.

Plus, she barely even knew Yujin beyond her name, number, and schedule. Of course that would change over time. Over lunch? Or maybe they could get something after school if Yujin still wanted to sit with Rei and and the other debate girls that Wonyoung didn’t really—

“Miss Jang?” A voice cut into her thoughts. It was so quiet in the classroom that everyone heard Wonyoung drop her pen in surprise. Manoban seemed particularly displeased by the sound. “Are you listening?”

“Hm? Yes,” she lied, because she hadn't realized she’d been so obviously not listening. “May you, um, repeat the question, please?”

Ms. Manoban made a frustrated sound and pointed to the board. “The second one, please.”

“Ah, of course.”

A series of conflicts motivated by desire to control the Holy Lands was known as the… the… uh… yeah. No. She simply wasn’t paying attention and certainly wasn’t ahead on the reading. It was only the second day—Who was already doing homework?

“Ummm…” she drawled, glancing down at hand-drawn pictures of hearts. No notes. Just stupid, silly drawings that were not, in fact, hieroglyphics that could be magically translated into the correct answer.

She really had trouble paying attention in classes like these, where the only purpose was to digest facts and remember dates that didn’t truly need remembering but for the sake of passing tests. It all seemed so silly to her. What was history for, anyway, when Google existed? It was boring. And stupid.

She didn’t know the answer.

She never knew the answers.

“Would it help jog your memory if I put quiz points on the line?” Ms. Manoban asked wryly, smug as she usually was when she caught someone who spaced out like a normal human being. “Let’s say… Five points? Let it be a warning to the rest of you.”

Wonyoung looked back down at her notes with the worst type of blush. It was an easy question, she knew, if not by intuition than by the sound of Yuna snickering where she sat near the door, but knowing that didn’t help.

Wonyoung simply wasn’t smart. She’d always felt the slightest bit put off by it. Confused by how she could be so dense when it came to academics. Her family worked so hard to afford this school, the least she could do was answer this stupid, useless question.

But she couldn’t.

It was only the second day. Everyone—including Yujin—was looking at her. They all, with perhaps the exception of Yujin, seemed to be impatiently waiting for her to throw in the towel so they could move on. She probably would’ve, too, if she wasn’t afraid that her voice would break and tears would fall.

Wonyoung’s eyes flickered up and met Jiwon’s. It was only half a second, but Jiwon’s expression changed. She turned back and began to choke theatrically, hacking and heaving.

The way everyone jumped eased the tension in Wonyoung’s chest.

Jay had stirred beside Jiwon, eyeing her like she was insane. Which maybe she was. But even if so, she would be insane and a very good best friend for drawing attention away from a very distressed Wonyoung.

She was subsequently saved by a tap on the wrist. Looking over at Yujin, she saw a little note scrawled in blue ink, the words much neater than anything she could’ve written. Her heart skipped a beat, their eyes locking for a small flicker where Yujin smiled reassuringly. It was so, so pretty.

“The Crusades,” she said confidently over the sound of Jiwon hacking up a lung. Then she repeated herself when Jiwon abruptly stopped.

A new sort of silence overtook the room. Wonyoung expected Manoban to break it, but it was actually Sunghoon making a noise. Wonyoung looked—He was trying and obviously somewhat failing not to laugh out aloud. Wonyoung felt her face heat for a new reason now, Yujin still lightly smiling at the edge of her vision.

“Correct. Remember it was a series of wars. I’ve seen one too many students write that it was one big Crusade. Thank you, Miss Jang, though it took you quite some time… Let’s skip the third one so we can get finished today,” Manoban said bitterly, switching the slide, changing topics without so much as looking Wonyoung’s way. “Now, as you may recall, during the Carolingian Renaissance, the Bible was…”

Wonyoung leaned on her arm with a relieved sigh, eyes fixed on some distant point outside the window. Somewhere between the building and the center of the courtyard was a squirrel. It ran across the grass, up a tree, and out of sight, but Wonyoung still knew it was there. It didn’t go away just because it was out of sight.

Wonyoung looked over and watched Yujin as she took notes. Now Yujin knew what everyone knew. Wonyoung was an idiot who could barely pay attention in some classes and didn’t test very well—at least not compared to everyone else. There were some classes she excelled in, but those were the less lecturer-y ones. Few and far between at a school like this, one without decent arts programs, or cheerleaders, or even a band.

Sometimes Wonyoung wished she went to a normal public school that had all of those things. She’d probably be a cheerleader, work on school plays, go to football games and real school dances—All they had here was soccer, lacrosse, and overly formal networking events masquerading as charity banquets.

It hurt her, if only slightly, that as hard as she tried, she couldn’t fit in here. At least not in the way she wanted to. She could carve out a place for herself, have as many friends as she wanted, a whole lunch table, a class—even the whole school—and she still wouldn’t be smart enough to excel. It made her a bit of a fraud. A disappointment. Basically everything Yuna said throughout freshman year was true.

She was swallowing hard around lumps in her throat, saved from tears by the bell. By some miracle, she got over everything the second she saw Yujin’s big brown eyes. The lumps receded with the tears like a tide.

“Thanks,” she said, blinking up at Yujin after they packed their things and stood. She hadn't realized Yujin had a couple inches on her until right then, when she felt so small and pink in the face. “I guess I owe you one now.”

Yujin shook her head. “It’s ok. Everyone has off days.”

Wonyoung chose not to disclose the fact it wasn’t an off day. It was a very usual day. She got easy questions wrong more than she got them right. Their friends liked to joke that Wonyoung and Jay together had one complete brain cell to divvy up. Last year it stopped being embarrassing, but a new year felt like resetting whatever mental barricade Wonyoung built up to feel less ashamed.

“I promise I’ll pull my weight on our project. I’m not good at remembering stuff super quickly, but the project is fine. I can make a really nice PowerPoint.” She led the way out of the door, following the stream of students, holding the door for Yujin so she could fall into step beside her. “So you have Lee now? Stats? How was it yesterday?”

“Good. It doesn’t seem like we’ll be covering much.”

“Oh, wow. I bet you’re super smart then. I’m only in Precal.”

“Precal is hard.”

“You’re just saying that.”

She shook her head. “It has more topics than other maths.”

Wonyoung almost hit someone because she was staring at the side of Yujin’s face while navigating the bustling hall. Thankfully she looked away in time to climb up the steps without tripping on the first one. She grabbed the rail just in case and said playfully, “Well, you sound like a real expert. I could really use some of that myself, as you saw today.”

Yujin smiled. When they got to the top step, she asked, “What class do you have now?”

She was stupidly excited that Yujin cared enough to ask, as if she expected their conversations to be one sided.

“Chem, but I have it with Sunghoon and Jay, which is basically, like, awful. And also our fourth group mate is one of Sunghoon’s friends, so basically we’re screwed.” She sighed and avoided Minjeong’s eyes as they passed her. “But it’s not all bad. Mr. Kang seems great.”

“He does. I have him after lunch.”

“Who’s in your lab group?”

It was honestly too loud for Wonyoung to hear the three people Yujin listed, but Wonyoung knew she would’ve forgotten even if she heard. Yujin spent the final seconds mentioning something about either the soccer or debate team. Something with the word team.

They stopped outside the wall by the door.

Yujin turned to her, leaning just a bit closer. “One more question.”

“Yeah?” she breathed, her hand twitching at her side. She adjusted to fidget with a pleated fold in her skirt.

“You and Sunghoon,” Yujin said, her head tilting to the side. “Are you friends?”

Wonyoung mirrored Yujin’s head tilt. “We are.”

“Oh.” Yujin paused, but it was short enough that Wonyoung didn’t have time to analyze it. “After the first day I… I thought you guys got into an argument.”

“Oh.” Right. Yes. The lie that Wonyoung told only to sit beside Yujin, so that they could be friends. With reddening cheeks, she waved it off. “That was just—It was nothing. Well, I was upset but we’re fine now.”

She rocked on her heels, her eyes moving away from Yujin’s to the thinning crowd of students in the hallway.

“Well, I should—”

“I should—”

They both stopped. Smiled. Looked away.

With an anxious hand running through her hair, Wonyoung took a shy step back. “Chemistry,” she muttered, pointing back where she came from. “I guess I’ll see you at lunch.”

Just like that, Wonyoung skipped down the stairs from whence she came, hurrying down to the end of the opposite hall. She made it in with the bell. Everyone was already seated, but they were chatting loudly while she excitedly crossed the room and threw her bag onto the ground. The second she sat at the group table, Sunghoon began to vaguely tease her while Jay grumbled at her request to have his seat.

“Wait—Why are you late?”

“I’m not late.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I don’t, but it’s none of your business anyway—move.”

She ignored all inquiries, which she sort of had to do even if she didn’t already want to, because Rei was only one table away. And if the blush on her cheeks got worse whenever he nudged her, or wrote something on her paper, or whispered a crude joke to her, she pretended everything was normal.

.

Wonyoung was bad at memorizing things, yet she remembered Yujin’s schedule without having to put in any effort. Rather than go in one ear and out the other like usual, the knowledge actually stuck on the first try.

Without fully processing the gravity of her actions, she left Anatomy early to go stand in front of the library, where Yujin had study hall third period. It took a great deal of effort to get Jiwon and Minjeong not to follow her, but after Mr. Wu kindly told them they couldn’t tag along, so she left just in time to get there right when Yujin was leaving.

She was a poor actress.

“Oh—um, Yujin. Hi,” she said, awkward and fumbly.

She almost ran into Yujin, who seemed only somewhat surprised to see her.

“Hello.”

Wonyoung was glad to miss lunch with everyone else.

The day before, she went to Mr. Wu’s room and found it locked, so she went back to the cafeteria and endured fifteen long minutes of profuse Yujin-related teasing.

She blamed her “friends”—all of them—for implanting this crazy idea into her head. The idea that she may have a crush despite not knowing a single substantial thing about Yujin. If she didn’t know herself better, she may have thought it was true. But no. The blushing, shy glances, and general nervousness was because she had never wanted to be someone’s friend so much. If it was a crush, it would be a friend crush.

They found a table outside, along the side shaded by the looming cafeteria building. It was a table at the furthest end. Mostly quiet. Everyone around were freshmen Wonyoung didn’t recognize.

They sat and exchanged about three sentences about their classes—Chem was alright, Anatomy was fun, This girl named Yena sat by me in Study Hall—and they were interrupted. It really wasn’t a good time because Wonyoung was bright red from that last sentence. Yena only sat beside Yujin because of all the teasing—it must’ve gotten back to her… or maybe it really was just a coincidence.

Rei was a semi-welcomed distraction.

“Hey,” Wonyoung said, unsure whether to introduce herself when clearly they both knew each other. She decided on, “I like the hair,” as a middle ground.

Rei smiled.

“Yeah. Got it cut.”

“It looks good.”

“Yeah. Yours is getting pretty long.”

“I’m scared to cut it.” She shrugged. “And I like it long.”

Although Rei was still standing, not taking a seat, Wonyoung started unpacking her lunch. Rei just made a sound.

“Definitely the safer choice.”

“Is that an insult?”

“No, your hair is just so shiny and long it’s scary. Any tricks on dealing with dead ends?”

“Leave-in conditioner and hair sunscreen.”

Rei laughed. “Hair sunscreen? Really?”

“No. I just trim it, Rei.” She rolled her eyes with a faintly playful smile that may or may not have flickered to Yujin unconsciously. “It’s not that complicated.”

“Well I’m kind of indisposed hair-wise. My hair is Fucked—capital F. Bleached it way too hard in middle school. Now it’s super dead.”

“Oh. How tragic.” Wonyoung turned to get a better look, shrugging. “I never noticed.”

She only realized Yujin was being so quiet when she spoke up.

“Are you guys friends?”

The answer was no. They only knew each other from adjacent acquaintances in a friend-of-friend way, but they also didn’t dislike each other. No good or bad blood existed between the two.

Rei was easy to talk to when necessary, but they had different interests, barely overlapping friends. She worked with her once in Biology last year, where they had a handful of conversations just like this one. One time they talked briefly about their favourite alternative cheesecake flavours, purely because there was no other common ground. That was, however, their last real conversation.

Wonyoung found that when Rei got passionate about something, the topic would turn into a very real and serious debate…

In the end, Wonyoung only really knew Rei to be much like Jiwon— a bit of a gossip.

She couldn’t help wondering what Rei thought of her. If it was the same indifference Wonyoung felt or if it was worse because of Yuna. Probably worse. Who would have said good things about her during Freshmen year? Maybe Eunwoo? Didn’t he also do Debate? Would she have even come up in conversation?

Wonyoung missed the chance to answer Yujin’s question, nor did she really register what sound or gesture Rei made in reply.

Rei spoke to Yujin for a minute or two about something relating to Debate; the reason she walked over in the first place. Something about printer paper, booking the auditorium, and meeting before school.

Boring stuff.

Wonyoung just picked at her trail mix until they were alone again. Then she decided to break the silence by asking, “You bring your lunch, too?”

When Yujin nodded, her hair glimmered and caught the faint glow of sideways sunlight. The wind also blew the pieces framing her face.

“Yeah, my mom makes it,” she said.

“That’s sweet. My mom is kinda busy so I have to make mine. But I like doing it, so it’s fine.”

Yujin watched Wonyoung as she removed the little stacked tupperwares that kept everything from touching. Her fruits, rice, and noodles were all perfectly quarantined.

“You eat your food cold?” Yujin asked.

“Mostly. Sometimes Mr. Wu lets me heat it up in his microwave, but I don’t like to bother him too much. Sometimes his door is locked. And sometimes he gets in these really bad moods where it’s awkward to sit in there or ask for stuff.”

“Interesting,” Yujin said, as curt as always until, “What does he teach?”

“This year it’s Anatomy and I think regular Bio now. Last year it was Health Science and AP Bio. Some of the teachers change subjects a lot. I had him for two classes and he also runs HOSA—so I just saw him a lot.” She paused, unsure of what to add. “He has a pink microwave, too.”

“That’s cool.”

“His wife bought it for him.”

“I meant the subjects he teaches.”

“Oh.” Wonyoung flushed.“It’s kinda cool.” It was really awkward to discuss when she failed the AP exam. (Skipping regular Biology was a bad idea…) “Anyway. I’m gonna be leadership in HOSA soon. Jiwon knows Yuri’s girlfriend from soccer, and Yuri is the President, so she gave me a position.”

“That’s… not very democratic,” Yujin said. Wonyoung laughed mostly at how Yujin said it. It was quiet for only a second before Yujin asked, “Do you want to be a doctor?”

“A pediatrician, I think.” She paused to think, eating a small cashew. “Or maybe a midwife—I heard that it takes less school but I don’t know if I can do all the blood…”

“I’m also bad with blood,” she said, picking at the crust of her sandwich. She was staring at it, yet to take a bite. “So a pediatrician. Do you like kids?”

“Yeah, I want some,” she said, popping open her rice, first, to pour the cold beef to put on top. “You?”

Yujin shrugged. “I don’t think so. I’m not good with them.”

Wonyoung’s heart ached briefly.

“Well, you don’t have to be good with them to have them.” She began mixing her food. “I think it’s really cool. Because even if you don’t like some kids, you’ll like your kids. Because they’re yours. It’s special.”

Yujin hummed like she agreed, then just said, “Maybe.” So Wonyoung got the idea that Yujin was keeping quiet on purpose this time. “So you like babies?”

“Oh, yeah. I think younger kids are the cutest. Babies are the best.”

“I think I’m the opposite.” She kept picking at her sandwich, though she wasn’t staring at it anymore. The eye contact was almost worse. Wonyoung felt like she couldn’t eat with Yujin looking at her. “Because babies don’t talk.”

“But they’re cute. And you can totally talk to them—you’re actually supposed to.”

“But they won’t answer.”

“That’s not the point.” She pouted, slightly frustrated. “You really wouldn’t talk to a baby? A baby?”

“I don’t think so, unless I had to.”

She desperately wanted to change the topic before she lost some faith in humanity, so she slid her Tupperware closer to Yujin and said, “Wanna try? I made this last night.”

Yujin looked down at the food, blinking a few times. “You made this?”

“Yeah. Try.”

“Should I use your spoon?”

“Yeah, here, it’s fine, I don’t mind. The beef might be kind of tough, though, so don’t try to cut it.”

“Ok.” Yujin took her spoon and conservative portion, half rice with the smallest piece of meat. Yujin was also careful not to touch her lips to the spoon too much, which made Wonyoung smile involuntarily.

Yujin chewed.

“Is it good?” she asked after counting three seconds. Chaewon told her she was too quick to ask whenever she asked someone to sample her food—too ‘pushy’. “It’s not very spicy. I’m not good with it.”

Yujin covered her mouth and nodded. “It’s good.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” She finished swallowing and smiled, never showing her teeth. It was a pretty smile. Soft and easy and honest. “It’s really good.”

Wonyoung found herself blushing and looking away, picking at her rice because her stomach felt queasy, full of moths or cotton or something that made her head spin. The silence wasn’t even notable to her. She would’ve let it go on forever had Yujin not broken it.

“So you want to be a pediatrician because you like kids?” she asked, sliding Wonyoung’s food back to her to continue picking at her sandwich.

“Um, well, kinda. I guess I don’t really want to be a doctor. If I could pick, I think I’d be a teacher, or a nanny—or, honestly it’d be nice to just stay at home with my kids, but that’s not really very twenty-first century of me, is it? That’s not really a goal, I don’t think. It’s more of a back up plan.”

“I think that’s fine, if it’s what you want.”

“Yeah, I guess. But obviously I can’t do that. I need a real job and stuff, and a teacher doesn’t pay well, so a doctor makes sense. Plus my family are all doctors. I probably should’ve mentioned that—My mom’s an RN, my sister’s a surgeon, my other sister is doing a surgical thing, but she hates it, so for now she’s a nurse. I think she’ll just end up doing that for a while.”

“Oh, wow. That’s cool.”

“Yeah. It actually doesn’t pay a lot right now, though. Because Bee isn’t a famous surgeon. She’s just a regular one, just for a couple years now, and she’s got all this debt to pay off from school, and Chae’s school too. And the cars.” She was getting carried away, as she tended to. Talking too much. “Anyway, so what does your mom do?”

“She stays at home.”

“Oh, that’s nice. The dream,” she joked, smiling. It went awkwardly quiet for a second, but she didn’t know why until—“Oh, your dad. What does your dad do?”

Wonyoung found it cute that Yujin had to be asked. That she didn’t just think to provide the information unprompted. That this entire thing seemed more like a Q&A than a conversation, and that she was enjoying it all the same.

“He’s a… um… just—He’s an… executive guy.”

“Really? That sounds fancy. Which company?”

“…Costco,” she said after a while.

“Costco?” she asked, eyes wide, and Yujin just nodded. She got the sense Yujin was hiding something, but she knew better than to try and push it. “So are you like… wow. That’s crazy. My sister used to work at Costco. The surgeon one. When I was a baby.”

Again, Yujin shrugged. She started staring at her sandwich again, picking at the crust once more.

“Do you not like the crust?” she found herself asking.

“No. I don’t like sandwiches.”

The way Yujin said it—so dry and factual—had Wonyoung thinking it was a joke. It seemed like it would be one, anyway. She laughed alone for a second until she grinded to a halt.

“Wait, what? Then… Why did your mom make one?”

Yujin shifted uncomfortably and Wonyoung very briefly wondered whether it was the question or her tone that made Yujin uncomfortable. Or maybe she was reading her wrong altogether. It was hard to tell when her heart started thudding gradually louder, a distracting rhythm.

Eventually Yujin said, “She doesn’t know what I like.”

Yujin kept picking at the bread, taking a small bite that made her feel a little bad, not because Yujin looked sad, but because she didn’t look sad. She said it so matter-of-factly like it wasn’t even a sad thing. She felt bad for Yujin. Then she felt bad for feeling bad, because she didn’t really know if it was her place to pity.

Her next move was instinctual.

“Let’s trade, then,” she said, pushing her Tupperware back across the hatched table. “I like sandwiches.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, of course. I’m not super picky.”

“Oh, I guess I am, then.”

“What sort of food do you like?”

Yujin shrugged. “I haven’t tried many things.”

“We should try and change that. I like to cook—I can make something new for you.”

“You shouldn’t, I’m ok.”

“But I want to.”

“It’s ok, I wouldn’t want to bother you with it.”

“But it wouldn't bother me.”

“You shouldn’t have to.”

“I don’t have to, the point is… nevermind.” Wonyoung gave up on pushing the subject.

It took a lot of back and forth just to convince Yujin to trade lunches.

Yujin said they couldn’t trade because she’d already picked at the sandwich. Wonyoung said that it didn’t matter and she could take off the crust. Yujin said that it was fine and she shouldn’t have to, but then when she said she probably just wouldn't eat, Wonyoung insisted so aggressively that Yujin was better off listening.

If Yujin couldn’t tell by the end of lunch, she would eventually come to learn that Wonyoung was like that. Pushy. Stubborn. Insistent. Overbearing.

It didn’t have to be a bad thing unless someone (like Yuna) made it seem like it was. At least that was what everyone told her when everything was happening. We don’t mind those things about you, they said, when she really wanted to hear was We like those things about you.

Still, she wasn’t hurt too badly by such little things like that. After fifteen years of life, Wonyoung learned to live with being liked by some and tolerated by others. Being hated was what was new. And it occurred to her as she lied about liking dry turkey sandwiches that the last thing she wanted was for Yujin to hate her.

If anything, she could already feel herself wanting the opposite.

FEEDBACK MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Chapter 2: Copilot

Yujin had never given much thought to how uninteresting she was.

She spent most of her years bouncing between cities and tutors, new people in, old people out, new clubs, new events. But at fifteen when everything started to settle down, her mom finally insisted they start behaving like a normal family. As normal as they could, at least.

One night, when they were still moving in, Yujin overheard them talking through the walls.

”She needs it.” Her parents didn’t argue much, but that was only because they didn’t talk much, only sharing silent glances that Yujin usually locked herself in her room to avoid. “And a real school, too, no more of this homeschooling nonsense.”

“It’s better for her, Jisoo.”

“It’s not. She needs to be around people her age.”

“She’s in plenty of clubs.”

“That’s not the same, Bohyun.” Her mother sighed. “Can’t you see by now that all of this is hurting her?”

Hurting didn’t seem like the right word, but Yujin couldn’t argue the point from around the corner. She was too on edge, anyway. She’d never heard her mother speak with such conviction.

“This is non-negotiable. There’s this Preparatory school I’ve been looking at—it’s fantastic—and either you let her go, or I’ll take her and you won’t have a say anymore.”

It was an empty threat, Yujin thought, but it had something behind it. A shadow of power. She imagined them exchanging some sort of look.

Her father sighed in a way that told Yujin she would be attending a real school come August.

Her mother fought for her and won. At first she wasn’t sure whether to be grateful for it—if it was really Yujin she was fighting for or if it was just the idea of winning something for once, because she wasn’t consulted at all before going ahead and being enrolled.

It seemed more like having one set of shackles exchanged for another.

Yujin was not exactly new to the city. Every summer of middle school her father hired tutors in the city and enrolled her in this exceptionally fancy debate club downtown. Sometimes he was in the city, sometimes he wasn’t. Sometimes her mother was, sometimes she was with him for public appearances or political events. In either case, her driver would take her two and from all of her activities, and when she got home there would be portioned meals waiting for her in the fridge.

Every single element of her life down to which shampoo she used was just as calculated.

They called it love—her mother did, anyway—but if Yujin was being truthful, she never really felt it. At one point she doubted that love existed at all. She went back and forth with herself on whether it was real or merely a construct of the mind, but that line of reasoning spiraled into something a lot more semantical, and she never really liked those sorts of arguments, so she gave up and forgot about it all together.

It was a lonely existence, going on and on with herself. All of the conversations happening in her mind.

Yujin just didn’t realize how bad it was until she started to wonder what it would be like to go to school. She watched a few videos on YouTube and found herself getting a bit excited about it. She wanted to talk about it.

There was only one person she really knew, but she waited to tell her in case things fell through.

Late July, Yujin was sitting at her desk doing research for her next Debate session when she heard a knock at her door.

“Come in.”

Her mom came into her room that day with a pressed blazer.

Yujin already had plenty of blazers.

There was a yellow cress with the letters GWP embroidered onto it. Her heart picked up and she set down her pen. Her excitement dipped a reasonable amount when she saw her mother wielding a skirt cut from the same cloth. It came back as her mother gave her more information.

It was the same school Rei (her only real friend) went to. She would be a second year, like Rei, which was why the shield crest was yellow. Every year had a different color. She would be a little older than her peers, but Mom wanted to “give her more time”, which may have meant something, and she promised Yujin that classes wouldn’t be too difficult.

After her long speech-like explanation, her mother reached out and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

Yujin flinched and felt sorry for it immediately, when she saw the look on her face. It was the first time in forever that Yujin could remember her doing something like that.

Mom sighed and took a step back.

“I was thinking we could go get you a haircut, maybe have your nails done?” she’d said. “Anything you want for school.”

“Ok.” Yujin tried to mask her surprise, taking the blazer, the skirt, hanging them on the smudged mirror on the back of her closet door. She stared at the uniform, then herself in the mirror, then asked a bit awkwardly, “...Am I allowed to wear pants instead?”

”Hm…” Mom trailed. The pause felt a lot longer than it really was. “I don’t see why not, if that’s what you prefer.”

Yujin nodded. She had plenty of nice clothes to wear, then. Clothes that weren’t… skirts. She actually didn’t own a single one. How did her mother not know she didn’t like them?

Maybe that was what hurt. That her own mother did not know she wouldn’t want to wear a skirt, that she wouldn’t want her nails done, and that she wanted more than just a couple inches cut off her ends.

There was a time she liked her long hair, but at some point it became a chore to tend to.

Still, when the time came she didn’t correct her mother when she told the barber to cut off just a few inches.

Before she knew it, she was bidding Minghao goodbye, leaving the black sedan, and walking up alongside a horde of other students.

Her only relief was briefly speaking with Rei before class and knowing that she wouldn’t have to sit alone at lunch.

Then the bell rang, and it was Yujin’s job to know where to go for Ms. Manoban’s United States History class. She had a bit of trouble because this school had no paper maps and she wasn’t sure what “that way” meant whenever a tired student vaguely gestured in a direction that often conflicted with what the last person told her, but by some miracle she made it in time.

Introducing herself was no big deal.

But knowing that she would see these same people every day for an entire year? That was new.

It almost made her nervous. Luckily she had plenty of acquired tricks for not overthinking things like these.

As she stood in front of everyone, her eyes kept catching onto someone’s near the window. The first thing Yujin noticed, if only subconsciously, was that she was pretty. A lot of the girls were pretty, but none of them were sitting by a window that made their hair look sparkly, eyes big and curious.

Yujin forced her gaze away, but it didn’t end up mattering because she ended up sitting beside Wonyoung.

Wonyoung.

The name suited her well.

She would’ve said that, and maybe would’ve mentioned that she had nice hair, too—and she’s—but Ms. Manoban started to talk and Yujin figured it would serve her best to listen.

After all, she would sit beside Wonyoung every morning. And Wonyoung would walk her to the next class. And she saw her between classes. Then they sat together at lunch the next day.

Very trivial things, which Yujin really wasn’t used to.

It was new. Not in a bad way. More like taking a step outside and breathing fresh air. Everything felt slowed. Subdued. Not too much, but just enough.

She went from History (with Wonyoung), to Statistics, to Study Hall, to Lunch (with Wonyoung), to Chemistry, to Debate, to Spanish, and then finally to Physics before ending the day.

She hadn’t met too many people, but she preferred it that way.

Too much at once would’ve been overwhelming.

During that first slow week, Yujin found herself really thinking about things. Mostly overthinking simple things relating to Wonyoung.

Whether Wonyoung would doodle or take notes while Ms. Manoban spoke. Whether they would be eating lunch together again, or if Wonyoung would sit with her other friends like the first day. Whether Wonyoung would send her a text about the homework after school, or if she would stop since it was Friday, which was a weekend, which meant they wouldn’t see each other until Monday.

Thankfully she had something new to think about by then. Friday afterschool was when the first after school Debate meeting would take place, which was mostly a formality to talk about future meetings.

She was the first person to reach Ms. Moon’s presently empty room. She had nothing to pull out but her binder, so she pulled out her phone instead.

Wonyoung sent her a message one minute ago.

Wonyoung [16:10]: you have your debate thing, right?

[16:11]: Yes

Wonyoung [16:11]: cool we should do something after school

Wonyoung[16:11]: I just have a hosa thing i think gets out at the same time

Yujin [16:11]: Ok

She wasn’t even sure that she was allowed, but she was fairly certain her mother would say yes, so she agreed proactively.

And also because she wanted to.

“Hey.”

She set her phone down and turned to look at Minju, smiling politely as she moved to occupy the single desk in front of her.

They’d only spoken in Debate class, which so far had been a good mix of silent research and Ms. Moon lecturing them on etiquettes, fallacies, and terms that they already knew. A crash course of the basics for those who needed it.

But now it was quiet, and it was just them, and Yujin couldn’t help but feel a bit out of place, grasping for something to say.

“Hello,” she replied politely, then they made mindless small talk about their days while taking out their things, Minju turned to face Yujin, and by the time they were done neither of them really had anything more to add to the fact that their Fridays were “good” and “fine”.

Minju briefly complained about Spanish, actually, but that was really all before her eyes flitted to Yujin’s phone, which lay facing down on the desk beside her hand.

“Who were you texting?” she asked.

“Wonyoung.”

“Oh.” There was something about Minju’s tone that was strange. She couldn’t pinpoint it, but it was there. “I heard you guys were friends now.”

“Is it newsworthy?”

Minju laughed. “Well, sort of. You’re newsworthy. You’re–um, well… everyone seems to like you.” She had pulled out her phone while talking and, in the meantime, offered it to Yujin. “We should be friends too. We can talk about debate stuff, or anything, really.”

Yujin nodded and was halfway through filling out her information when she saw someone sit down at the desk to her right. She spared a glance at Rei, saying a quick hello while finalizing her number.

“What are you doing?” Rei asked. Her tone had a bit of an edge to it, which caught Yujin off guard as she handed Minju’s phone back to her.

Minju turned away, leaving her to answer.

“Just trading numbers.”

“Why?” Rei asked, still strangely, as Eunwoo and Jungwon filed in.

“For debate stuff.”

“Um… ok,” Rei trailed, her attention shifting as Eunwoo sat in front of her, which was beside Minju, with Jungwon in front of him.

The older girls sat to the left. Aeri, Yena, Jiheon, and Jeonghan.

Except for Yena knocking on Yujin’s desk and saying hey, the Sophomores and Juniors exchanged only small smiles as greetings, but that was it. They were in different competition sections according to grade level. Freshmen weren’t allowed on the team and the Seniors met separately. She only knew Yena because she sat beside her at Study Hall, where they worked separately and silently most of the time, busy even on the first day.

“Ok, quiet everyone,” Ms. Moon said lazily, stepping up to the podium and quickly pulling up the August schedule.

The minutes passed quite swiftly. Nako was five minutes late and sat in front of Minju. That was the only disturbance for the half hour, and for the next half hour they were each supposed to talk to Ms. Moon about their research. The Juniors got to go first, so Rei made Yujin help push their desks together so they could chat in the meantime.

Yujin got the itch to check her phone while Jungwon turned his desk around to face them, so she turned it up for a glance.

Wonyoung [04:26]: this meeting is BORING

Wonyoung [04:30]: I have to talk soon

Wonyoung [04:30]: because im officially the clubs youngest secretary

“Wonyoung?” Rei said with a strange intonation, one that had Yujin setting her phone down on its face again. “So you’re friends? You’re texting? Do you still sit with her at lunch?”

“Yes,” she answered, spinning her pen and then pausing. Her bottom lip caught on her teeth for half a second. “I think so.”

”You think so?” Rei laughed lighthearted, lowering her voice. “Her group is kind of untouchable in a… weird way. They’re like Hogwarts. You don’t force your way in, you have to be invited. Fancy letters and all.”

”Right…” she trailed, because what was she supposed to say to that? “I don’t know the rest of her friends.”

“Well she’s the gateway.”

“I’m not sure it works that way.”

“It does.” Rei leaned on her arm as Jungwon sat down facing them. “She’s super close with Jiwon. Have you talked to her?”

“Jiwon?”

“Yeah, she’s in your homeroom, right?”

Yujin nodded. “She sits in front of us.”

It had only been a week and all she’d seen of Jiwon were smirks and quips at Wonyoung’s expense, but compared to Sunghoon—who looked at her once on the first day and never again—she considered herself in pretty good standing with Jiwon.

“We’re acquainted,” she decided, leaning a little closer to add, “And Sunghoon doesn’t seem to like me.”

Jungwon made an agreeing sound. “Oh, well yeah, everyone seems to think he has this big crush on Wonyoung.”

“Ew, that’s not it,” Rei disagreed, lightly slapping the table in the middle of all of them. “See, if they liked each other, they’d be dating already. They've been friends forever. Sunghoon literally took Chaeyeon to HOCO. It was cute.”

“Ok, but they broke up,” Jungwon pointed out, lowering his voice further, like a secret. “...Because of Wonyoung.”

“That’s just a rumour.”

“Why are you so adamant? Do you know something?” Jungwon pressed with a little smirk.

“No, I just have two eyes and a brain. Yuna started that rumor, so it’s certifiably bullshit. They don’t like each other. I hear the way they talk in Chem, and honestly…” Her eyes drifted away from Jungwon and over to Yujin again, who was reduced to nothing more than a confused spectator. “I think she likes someone else.”

“Who?” Yujin asked without thinking. And it was the first thing she’d said unprompted. Her chest felt a little warm, but she stifled it. “And how do you know? I thought you weren’t friends?”

“We aren’t, but I eavesdrop. Also I hear Jiwon say stuff in study hall. Sounds like she has a crush—Wonyoung, I mean,” Rei said conspiratorially, leaning in and whispering, “Which is kind of a big deal. Apparently she’s never dated anyone, not even in middle school.” Her eyes flitted over to the left near the front, where Minju, Nako, and Eunwoo left and pushed their desks together in the same way they had theirs. “She turned down Eunwoo twice. Once in seventh grade and once in eighth. But there were a ton of rumours that it was a dare.”

“Yikes…” Jungwon winced.

“Yeah, I know. He’s sort of friends with Yuna now, kind of, but he definitely still likes—”

“Hey kids.” They all looked up at Yena with varying degrees of surprise. Jungwon was most startled. Rei and Yujin were some mix of relieved to see that it was just her, smirking. “What are you whispering about over here?” Rei threw her mechanical pencil at Yena, who caught it with a hearty chuckle. “You and Jang?”

Rei made a huffing sound, but Yujin didn’t know what to do but stare up at her. Half of her—the main half—was confused. The other half was cued in by Yena’s tone, which meant something even didn’t know what.

“Jang?” said Aeri, who was suddenly at Yena’s side. “Perky Jang?”

“Isn’t there only one Jang?” Rei asked.

“There’s only one Jang in our grade,” Jungwon supplied matter-of-factly. “She means Wonyoung.”

Their conversation seemed to be pulling the attention of everyone. Minju’s entire table was staring, along with Jiheon and Jeonghan, and even Ms. Moon. They were all swiveled to look for one reason or another. Curiosity for the first two groups, impatience for Ms. Moon.

“That Jang. Wonyoung Jang, hm. What an unlikely pairing, you and her,” Aeri commented, turning away to walk back toward her seat.

Yujin wasn’t sure what to make of Aeri’s tone, or the weird smirk she wore, or the way both Jiheon and Jeonghan looked at her expression when she turned back around. Even if she had known what any of it meant, she wouldn't have had time to worry about it.

Yena opened her mouth to say something, but Ms. Moon beat her. “You’re up, Ahn. Research”

“Oh, right—” She hurried to grab her research, which was twelve sheets of printer paper that she printed out in Study Hall. It was actually Yena that showed her how to use the library’s printer.

She took the neatly stapled pages up to Ms. Moon.

Everyone quieted and scattered because Ms. Moon, who was usually relaxed, sounded quite impatient. She also shot Yena a look that was somewhere between a glare and the fond sort of reprimanding glance one would send their child’s way.

Yena and Ms. Moon must have been pretty close. Ms. Moon started teaching here the same year Yena was a freshmen, and from there Yena eventually became the President of Debate Club’s Lower section. Ms. Moon had yet to choose which of the Sophomore's she wanted this year, but Rei was insistent she would choose Yujin.

She stood there patiently while Ms. Moon thumbed through her research, highlighting two sections. “Change these to bullet points for readability. Other than that, it’s perfect. Great work.” She handed the revised paper back to her with a small smile. “Get Eunwoo for me.”

She went to tap on Eunwoo’s shoulder, Minju and Nako staring at her as she told him it was his turn.

Knowing what she knew about him and Wonyyoung, Yujin remained looking at him a little longer than necessary. He was very handsome. Absurdly so. She wondered what he looked like two years ago. Why Wonyoung didn’t say yes to him, if maybe it was something more complicated than her just not wanting to go to a middle school dance with him. Maybe it was just as complicated as everything here seemed to be.

Maybe something involving Yuna, who Yujin heard about almost every single day in one way or another.

Then she thought about Sunghoon.

She couldn’t help being curious.

That first day where Wonyoung was upset at him and then seemed to cheer him up at lunch gave Yujin the impression that they were very close, then, chatting in the shade with their shoes touching. But she would be lying if she said she thought anything of it. She truly wasn’t thinking of it like that, didn’t get the chance to misunderstand.

Benefits of being homeschooled, she supposed.

Unless it was a bad thing.

There was a chance Jungwon was right.

As Rei and Jungwon flicked through their research one last time, Yujin thought back that first day.

Wonyoung was leaning back against the red brick wall and Sunghoon came close in front of her. They chatted for a bit and he leaned even closer to add something, but Wonyoung seemed a bit disinterested in whatever it was. She was looking around, even waved at someone before continuing what seemed like a search for someone. Why did part of Yujin want it to have been her that Wonyoung was looking for? The way she smiled when their eyes met really made it seem like it.

She kept thinking about it until Jungwon went up.

He was last.

“She really doesn’t have feelings for him?” she found herself asking quietly. Just so Rei could hear. “And you don’t think he sees her that way, not even a little?”

Rei didn’t reply for a few seconds, just stared at her for a few seconds like she couldn’t decide whether to be more surprised or confused. She blinked. Yujin felt a little hot under her gaze, so she looked away, but when she looked back she saw that Rei’s eyes were wider.

“You’re still on that?”

She shrugged and toyed with the corner of her research paper. ���I saw them together on the first day. He was upset with her, I think, but she changed his mind after they spoke.”

“Right… uh, I don’t know, I’m not a mind reader.”

“But you seem like you know a lot.”

Rei’s smile turned into a smirk. “Wait—Do you like her? Is that what this is?”

“Of course I do.” Yujin’s brow furrowed. “We’re friends.”

”Oh, did you mean—what? I’m confused. I wasn’t asking if you—” Rei looked over where Minju was sitting, then back with a huff. “Nevermind.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, if Wonyoung is your friend then you’re all set. She gets a lot of shit but she takes good care of her friends. She’s a good person. Jay was one of her projects and he turned out… alright, I guess. Better than before.”

Yujin nodded as she packed away her things, her backpack on her desk so she could slide everything in. With her hands busy, she didn’t think before asking, ”Does Jay have feelings for her?”

“As a friend?”

“No as… more. Like a boy.”

“Like a boy? God, you’re so ridiculous,” Rei chuckled, shoving everything into her bag before hopping up. “I don’t know them personally, so I don’t really know, but I would say no. I don’t think he does.”

“And that other guy?” She wracked her mind for his name and found it after zipping her bag shut. “He—”

“Oh my god, Yujin, how do you even know so many people? You’re obviously paying such close attention to everyone she talks to,” Rei snorted, shaking her head. “If you’re gonna keep asking about every boy at this school, I’m the wrong person to ask. If you really wanna know, you should get close to Jiwon.”

Rei turned away and threw her bag over her shoulders, cuing Yujin to do the same.

“And what’s it to you if people like her?” Rei added almost like an afterthought, except it was clear she intended for it to come off that way.

”Because,” she said with a start, poised to explain, but nothing more came out.

She’d never done that before. Never not had a reason to explain what she just said.

There was just this feeling she couldn’t explain or begin to understand. The same feeling that had her overthinking everything relating to Wonyoung all week.

“I’m just curious about her friends,” she decided, but it came out quiet, bordering on uncertainty. “But nothing, really. It doesn't matter to me.”

”Mhm, sure. Then why haven't you asked about my friends having feelings for me at all? Hm? You just care about your shiny new friends, now?” she asked teasingly, bumping her shoulder.

”No, I was just getting to it,” she lied, turning away to see if Jungwon was almost done. She regretted it, though, because she met Eunwoo’s eyes in doing so.

He was staring blankly, and she turned away as quickly as possible only to be met with Yena staring her down. And she was smirking, at that. Somehow it felt even worse than Eunwoo’s curiosity.

She felt as though she shrank two sizes by the time she turned back to Rei.

“Let’s keep talking, just us. I wanna ask you something,” Rei said, fixing her desk so it was back in its row. “Ice cream?”

She shook her head, attention turning to Jungwon, who was halfway back with a deep frown. “I told Wonyoung I’d go with her.”

Rei raised a brow. “Go where?”

“I don’t know. She said she wanted to ‘hang out’.”

“You’re hopeless.” Rei clicked her tongue and huffed a little laugh, turning to a disgruntled Jungwon who slapped his research onto his desk. “C’mon. We gotta go pick up Wonyoung so Yujin can go on her date.”

Yujin’s eyes widened comically at that, but neither of them seemed to pay any attention.

Jungwon was too busy waving them off and telling them to go without him, clearly frustrated with whatever feedback Ms. Moon gave him.

After a slight delay, Yujin offered to stay and help, which made Rei roll her eyes, but Jungwon smiled at her and said he’d be fine. That she should go on ahead. Enjoy her date.

Date.

Such a strange thing to joke about, in Yujin’s opinion, but she digressed.

So that left the two of them to walk down the hall, Rei leading the way to where the HOSA meeting was taking place in the auditorium. Thankfully Rei did a good job of filling the silence with a detailed continuation of their earlier conversation.

“I didn’t wanna say anything when everyone else could hear, but…”

Turned out Rei didn’t think Sunghoon had feelings for Wonyoung because it seemed like no one did, not really—not in that way. When Yujin mentioned Eunwoo, Rei said he was the only one who’d ever properly asked her and that it was almost definitely a dare from the rest of the soccer boys, because Sunghoon was livid after it happened.

As Rei divulged, Yujin kept her swirling thoughts to herself, comments about how it seemed impossible.

What wasn’t to like about Wonyoung?

According to Rei, it was common knowledge that Wonyoung was nice and smart, and anyone with a pair of eyes could see she was really pretty. Very, exceptionally pretty, with big eyes and a bright smile. A kind heart, too.

So Yujin didn’t understand where this notion that no one had a crush on Wonyoung came from. Just because they didn’t have the courage to ask didn’t mean they never felt that way. Shutting down Eunwoo so early on probably set a bad example.

Plus, if she was really as popular as Rei said, that would also stop a lot of people from risking social alienation, because wasn’t that what happened when someone popular rejected someone less popular? Probably. Since everything else there seemed to work like it did in popular media (She did her research)(—watched the first thirty minutes of High School Musical).

She knew better than to press the topic with Rei, or to start a debate about how there were plenty of ways to explain Wonyoung’s lack of suitors aside from deeming Wonyoung as (according to Rei) un-crush-able, especially when Rei seemed more interested in shifting the topic back to Jiwon even though Yujin already said she didn’t know her very well, nor did she think she ever would.

She resolved to check her phone while Rei talked herself in circles about how the girl’s soccer team was better than the boys, and how she wished she knew how to play.

Wonyoung [05:02]: r u out yet?

[05:05]: We’re walking to the auditorium

Wonyoung [05:05]: k, ill stay put then :)

Yujin pocketed her phone and resumed listening.

Rei continued to inform Yujin.

She told her that Wonyoung had known Sunghoon and Jiwon since middle school. They met Jay freshman year when he was on the verge of failing out, and for no real reason other than a random seating chart in Algebra two, Wonyoung helped him by providing him with friends who weren’t pothead delinquents.

He got lucky.

All he did was sleep in class and barely pass with C’s, but Wonyoung, she… it seemed like that was how she was. She helped.

“She’s good,” Rei said, and Yujin found herself nodding along to it, and maybe smiling, and maybe feeling a bit strange as Rei told her to enter through the door she was pointing at.

She then waved goodbye and watched as Rei turned toward the front of the school, where someone was waiting to pick her up.

Yujin reached for the handle of the door and pulled.

Next thing she knew, she was wobbling back trying to avoid it.

She almost crashed into Jiwon, nearly knocking out the soccer ball tucked under her arm.

Jiwon was forced to notice. She sounded casual, a tiny smirk tugging at either side of her lips.

“Oh, hey,” she said.

Yujin returned the greeting verbatim and they blinked at each other. Then stared.

Jiwon in Yujin’s way; Yujin unsure of how to get past her without it being more awkward than it already was.

And it was only awkward because Jiwon was not moving.

Not a single inch.

“I don’t get why Wonyoung’s fixated on you,” she said after the silence. Huffing. Not rudely. Not kindly. She just looked Yujin up and down and shook her head. “You’re strange.”

“Um, ok,” Yujin said, because thank you was the only other thing that came to mind, and that didn’t seem right. She looked over Jiwon’s shoulder and said, stiltedly, “Speaking of Wonyoung.”

“Oh—wait—is she waiting for you?”

“Yeah, she—”

Jiwon turned back on her heel and gestured sweepingly inside. “No need to worry, I’ll take you.”

“Oh, it’s fine. I can—”

Jiwon sounded like she was grinning now, but Yujin didn’t even bother trying to decipher it. She already knew Jiwon was uncrackable as that one zodiac cipher.

“No need. I insist. Come right in. This way.”

They rounded through a carpeted hall that turned into rows and rows of red, cushioned seats all facing the stage. All the lights were on, so Yujin had a clear view of everyone that lingered after the meeting ended.

Wonyoung, Minjeong, and another girl sat around on the edge of the auditorium’s stage.

Wonyoung kicked her feet, staring at them as they moved, and then laughed at something the unknown girl to her right said. That girl was the first to speak when Yujin approached.

“You must be Yujin.” She extended a hand in greeting. “Yuri. I heard you like handshakes”

Yujin nodded and took her hand for a shake. “Yujin.”

Wonyoung hopped up off the stage, her hand gripping the edge tightly. She let go before taking an additional step to be close to Yuri’s hand.

“Ok, cool, great, fun. Lovely introductions.” Wonyoung put her hand on Yuri’s forearm and pushed down slightly, effectively breaking the handshake. “Yuri helped me become Secretary like I was telling you about. She’s the HOSA President.”

“And Yena’s girlfriend,” Jiwon added, now leaning against the raised part of the stage, spinning the soccer ball in her hands like she was trying very hard to draw attention to herself.

“What did I say about objectifying me?”

Minjeong, previously silent, shrugged. “It’s practical. She knows Yena.”

“Not you too. Just when I was beating the girlfriend allegations…”

“They're very true, and very public,” Wonyoung said.

Yuri went on anyway, reprimanding them about why it was bad to introduce her that way.

Yujin barely listened.

She was busy looking at how Wonyoung looked in the company of her friends. A soft smile. A real, deep laugh. Cheeks the slightest bit pink.

It was actually cold in the auditorium, so it was weird that Yujin grew hotter by the second, but she didn’t get the chance to question it.

Wonyoung nudged her and whispered out of the corner of her mouth. “Let's go.”

After about three steps in the opposite direction:

“Oh, there they go,” Minjeong said, as amused as she sounded whenever she spotted them in the hall between first and second period. “Sneaking off...”

“Can we come?” Jiwon called.

Yujin stopped, but Wonyoung tugged her.

“They don’t actually want to,” she said, ignoring her friends and pulling Yujin out of the auditorium by her blazer cuff. They kept jeering, but Wonyoung was insistent on leaving without looking back. “God—Ignore them. They’re just—just ignore them.”

And Yujin did, mostly. She may have paid them more mind if her phone hadn’t buzzed.

She’d turned the ringer on in case Wonyoung texted her, but Wonyoung was still marching ahead, her hand busy with Yujin’s sleeve. In no position to have sent a message.

Curious, Yujin pulled her phone out of her pocket and glanced at it.

Unknown Number [5:10]: Hey, it’s Minju

Unknown Number [5:10]: Just wanted u to know :)

“We have to take the bus to the good part of downtown. The nice places are, like, five minutes away, but it’s too hot to walk.” Wonyoung finally let go of Yujin’s sleeve and turned to face her, smile faltering as her eyes flitted down to where Yujin was looking. “Who are you texting?”

Yujin put her phone away, one new contact was added, and shook her head. “It’s fine,” she said, because she didn’t really want to talk about Debate or school in general.

Despite being slow and largely uneventful, the week had been awfully exhausting in a way Yujin wasn’t used to.

Part of her wanted to go home and flop into her bed. But more of her—the larger part of Yujin—wanted to go wherever Wonyoung was willing to take her.

So they hopped on a big grey bus that took them further and further away, Yujin’s smile growing with each thing Wonyoung pointed at along the way.

…

Wonyoung had this way of talking a lot. She kept the conversation going for much of the entire journey as they rode.

Yujin nodded along with everything she pointed at and asked a short question here and there, mostly grateful that Wonyoung had at least five times as much energy as her.

Though she was quite sure by now that would always be the case. Even early in the morning, Wonyoung seemed to enter the room with as much energy as she would have by lunch.

They arrived at a small shop with a pink sign overhead, white lights flickering around it.

She stopped to hold the door for Wonyoung. Somewhat out of habit, mostly because she didn’t ever like entering first and Wonyoung seemed well equipped to order.

But Wonyoung paused in the doorway, blinking quickly at Yujin before stepping inside with a small shake of the head—as if ridding herself of a pesky thought. By the time they were waiting in line, Wonyoung was oddly calm.

And avoiding Yujin’s eyes, slightly red in the face.

Wonyoung was so hyper-focused on the menu that Yujin assumed she was thinking about what she was going to order, but her eyes seemed fixed in the middle with no visible intention to absorb anything.

“What should I try?” Yujin asked.

She felt bad when Wonyoung jolted, interrupted from her thoughts(?, or lack thereof), but the moment was over quickly.

“Um, do you like matcha?”

“I’ve never tried it.” Because she wasn’t supposed to have any caffeine at all.

“Really? Wow. Ok. You can try mine and just get the regular one. That’s a good place to start.”

“Ok.”

When they were next up in line Wonyoung wrestled with her backpack to remove her wallet. She dug through it for the exact price in dollars and cents because apparently she had it memorized. The transaction was as simple as handing the cashier some wrinkled cash and oxidized coins. After she went, Yujin tapped to pay with her father’s black card.

“Fancy,” Wonyoung said, her voice lighter and more relaxed now as they waited for their drinks in the pick-up area.

Their shoulders bumped when they took unequal steps.

Wonyoung faltered a little, her feet wobbling.

Yujin reached out and steadied her by the shoulder so she wouldn’t fall.

There was a pause.

And just as quickly, Yujin darted her hand and eyes away because she was touching Wonyoung and the contact was hot, and electric — and maybe those weren’t things she was supposed to be thinking.

After the topic of conversation in Debate, the same thoughts weighed heavy on her mind. How could people not be affected by Wonyoung? Sometimes Yujin had difficulty merely meeting her eyes. When she smiled a certain way, or laughed at a certain pitch, they were the brightest things Yujin had seen.

Yujin had to look around at everything to distract herself.

The walls were white with bamboo slats. The seats looked stiff, small, and generally uncomfortable, but most of them were occupied by younger people with laptops. They were in the college part of downtown, so Yujin knew they must be college students.

She also knew her father worked nearby. They were around the area where her summer Debate Club was held, where she met Rei.

The drinks were taking a while.

There was only so much to stare at.

The silence stretched on, and on, both of them looking around and then at their feet—but not at each other.

Yujin wasn’t sure what happened, but whatever it was left them both feeling tense.

“So,” Wonyoung said with a smile, and finally Yujin’s eyes snapped down to hers.

Was their height difference always this obvious, or was it just because they were standing close?

Yujin could see Wonyoung’s individual eyelashes. They were glittery in the overhead lighting, oddly mesmerizing.

“Um, Yujin?” Wonyoung looked away at the pick-up counter, then back. Her cheeks gained about two degrees of redness en route. “Did I lose you, or something?”

“Oh–um, what?”

“I asked if anything interesting happened at your meeting.”

“Oh—No, not really. Ms. Moon checked our research.” Yujin found her bearings enough to explain. “We have to have them revised by Monday, and then we’ll start having mock sessions based on what we collected.”

“Wow. That sounds like a lot of work. Today Yuri and Mr. Wu announced the Cabinet, then we ate cookies and talked for a bit.”

“That sounds fun.”

“It is.” Another pause. Lots of pauses between them all of a sudden. “You should join sometime, if it doesn’t overlap with your stuff.”

“I think it usually does.”

Wonyoung shrugged. “Still.” Her smile grew and Yujin made a mental note to check the School Calendar for a working date sometime soon. “Maybe you should try.”

“I will,” she said a little too quickly—the opposite of a pause.

Wonyoung huffed a laugh from her nose and looked away right as their order numbers were called. Both at once. They stepped forward and back without any incident, in much better sync by the time they walked outside.

Conversation flowed more easily.

It was more like lunch, where Wonyoung talked about assignments, something she heard, or even something she saw online. But lunch had an expiration date where their little walk downtown didn’t.

They kept walking until they found a table in the shade outside of a pizza shop.

If she was regretting choosing Yujin to hang out with over everyone else, she wasn’t making it obvious. She hummed a tune that Yujin didn’t know and took in their surroundings, absentmindedly wiping her hair behind her ear.

All Yujin could think about was how very pretty she was.

Her cheeks were full and peachy in the sunlight, eyes bright, everything so… symmetrical. Her side profile—which Yujin was most used to observing in Homeroom this week—was even prettier in the afternoon light.

“How is it?” Wonyoung asked out of the blue. “The drink, I mean.”

“It’s sweet.”

Wonyoung giggled. “Well, yeah. That’s kinda the whole point. Do you like pearls?”

Yujin nodded and sucked one up, chewing it on the right side of her mouth.

“Here, try mine too. I’ll try yours—Swap.”

They exchanged drinks.

Yujin waited to see if Wonyoung would drink from her straw before she drank from Wonyoung’s fruity tea. Always one to follow her lead.

Permanently, perhaps, because Yujin really couldn’t imagine sitting in this spot and drinking this drink with anyone else.

Because Wonyoung was her first real friend.

The first real person that wanted to spend time with her despite having practically nothing in common. And despite her penchant to go quiet, which bothered Rei from time to time.

Before, Yujin only had a few debate friends, like Rei, but no one was ever there purely because they wanted to be, eager to talk to her about every unsubstantial little thing like Wonyoung did.

Plus, Yujin thought that being here with someone else wouldn’t have felt the same as with Wonyoung. It seemed oddly… special. Wonyoung was oddly special. There was this peculiar nature Yujin couldn’t place.

But, by god, Yujin had never met someone who could talk for as long as Wonyoung could talk.

“Yours is really sweet. I think they messed it up or something. But I honestly like it like that, when it’s so sweet you have to keep drinking or you’ll feel the roof of your mouth and it gets all sore,” she said, resting her head on her hands, leaning closer. “Wanna switch? We’re like halfway done anyway, and I like this one, and I can tell you don’t. You can just pay me some other time.”

Yujin knew Wonyoung was stubborn, so she agreed to trade.

“What else haven’t you tried?”

“Hm?”

“Like foods or drinks.” Wonyoung swirled the thick straw around in the plastic cup.

“I’m not sure. It’s hard to think of things I haven’t tried.”

“That makes sense, yeah. I’ll just name stuff, then. Have you had… um…” Wonyoung's focused look was quite nice, the sort of look that had Yujin spacing out in her furrowed brows rather than intently listening. “That waffle thing? The waffle with the bubbles? Sometimes they’re flavoured.”

“Hm?”

“You haven’t had it?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Good. We can have it together some time. Have you had the fish with the ice cream inside?”

“No.”

“Oh, it’s so good—What about Crepe cake?”

“No.”

“Really? You know, I tried to make that. It didn’t go very well, it kinda melted into sugary mush, but still, my sister liked it. Plus, it’s the thought that counts.”

“Yeah.”

“We should go try everything you haven’t tried.”

“Yeah.”

As Wonyoung kept listing ideas, it became increasingly obvious that she had a sweet tooth.

It became an unconscious note pinned onto a tack board in Yujin’s mind, stored safely in the event that Wonyoung actually meant all of these things. A part of Yujin still found it a little hard to believe that Wonyoung would want her company again, after such an uneventful trip.

Wonyoung seemed to have plenty of friends. So… why?

Why was she here?

Why did she want to be friends with Yujin when everyone found them unlikely—amusing, even?

It felt like she was on the outside of something, but when she turned to look everything scrambled back into place. She could never quite figure out what it was, only knew that it unsettled her deeply. Like maybe she was doing a terrible job of belonging and Wonyoung was too kind to tell her.

They spoke for at least half an hour about pretty much nothing.

Nothing of substance.

The weather came up in a literal sense.

Wonyoung liked summer, Yujin liked winter.

Yujin liked rainy days, Wonyoung liked clear skies.

Somehow the school uniforms came up and Yujin said she’d never worn a skirt willingly before, which Wonyoung found quite surprising.

“So you usually wear pants? No dresses, either? So like, suits?”

“Yeah. I only went to competitions and I could wear what I wanted, as long as it was formal. I prefer suits.”

Wonyoung hummed, her rabbit-like front teeth catching on the corner of her lower lip. Her lashes seemed to flutter slightly as she blinked—a mindless little thing—and she leaned closer on her arms over the table, her voice sounding a bit different.

“… Maybe I should come see you in a suit some time.”

Yujin huffed a laugh through her nose.

“If you want to, but I doubt it would be very entertaining.”

“But I do want to, and it’ll be entertaining as long as you’re there.”

“You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

Wonyoung’s eyes flitted away and back, her cheeks growing rosier.

“I don’t usually suggest doing things that I don’t want to do, Yujin.”

“Oh.” A pause where Yujin could sense some level of irritation. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. But if you don’t want me to go, I won’t go.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you went.”

“That’s not the same as wanting me to go.”

“It isn’t,” she said. “But I also want you to go.”

“You—You’re confusing me,” she stammered, leaning away to cross her arms. “So you want me to go? Why? I’m—You—You’re confusing me.”

“I’m sorry. I thought you already knew that I liked spending time with you.” Yujin leaned a little closer by instinct, unsure of what to say except, “I don’t usually spend time with people I don’t enjoy the company of.”

She wasn’t sure where that came from because: 1. She didn’t usually spend time with many people at all, and 2. The people that she did spend the most time with (namely her parents) were neither voluntary nor enjoyable.

But it still felt like the right thing to say. And while being technically false, it also felt disarmingly truthful.

It wasn’t the sort of thing Yujin had ever thought about before, but she supposed she was quite used to concealing things. Hiding and telling partial truths to people. Father, teachers, and family friends.

“Well, sometimes people just lie to be nice,” Wonyoung said, like she was reading Yujin’s mind. She slumped forward again. “I lie about little things sometimes, obviously, when it doesn’t matter, but if it matters I try to be honest. My mom always told me it would always be ok as long as I was, which makes sense. Lies can never come back to hurt you if you’re upfront, and you never have to worry about anything, and you can be sure that everyone around you is, like, actually there for you and not whatever version you’re pretending to be.”

Wonyoung huffed and shook her head.

“Basically, all I’m trying to say is that you shouldn’t lie to me—or anyone at school, honestly. You shouldn’t try and act a certain way, like—like if Yuna is mean about anything, just tell me. Don’t try to change anything to make her stop. It really won’t work at all. Not in a good way, anyway.”

“Um…” Yujin trailed, because she didn’t fully understand everything involving Yuna, but she nodded anyway. “Ok. That makes sense.”

“Ok, good,” Wonyoung said, red in the face from what Yujin presumed was breathlessness from her rant. “Do you usually… say stuff just to be nice? You know, let people down easy, I guess…?”

“Not usually, no, but sometimes my parents don’t want me to be honest.”

“Oh, wow. How come?”

“Appearances, probably.”

Yujin took a measured sip of her drink and shrugged, looking away in hopes that Wonyoung wouldn’t ask anything further.

“Well, I’m sure when it comes down to it, they’ll always love you. My mom is like that—You know, whenever she’s mad at me, or I’m mad at her, she either tell me that there’s nothing I can do and no amount of whining I can do that will make her stop loving me, or she’ll just tell me that she’ll always love me. —

So it’s not like anything will change that unless I, like, kill someone. But if I did that she might help me hide the body and stuff, actually, so I don’t know.”

“Maybe. What about your sisters?”

“Oh, they’d probably murder all the witnesses and stuff, too. But that’s just because they’re insane,” she said matter-of-fact, sipping a small sip of what was left. “What about you?”

“I'm an only child.”

“But your parents?”

“They would help me hide it.”

That was all she planned on saying, but then she saw Wonyoung’s smile.

It made her feel like she was already going against Wonyoung’s earlier advice. Already telling half truths to someone who specifically ordered them whole.

So she elaborated.

“But it’s more for Appearances. My mom might do it just for me. I’m not really sure. But I guess my father just wouldn't let his daughter go to jail.”

“Oh,” Wonyoung said, her smile fading. “Do you think that’s better than nothing?”

“I think… yeah. I think so.”

A long… long… long and cozy pause followed, broken by Wonyoung humming and saying:

“So you’d rather have not quite the right type of love than no love at all?”

Yujin blinked a few times. Thinking. Then nodding.

“Yeah, I think so.”

Wonyoung chuckled and shook her head in amusement.

“You always say that. I think so, I guess, maybe, might—It's not annoying. It’s just something you do a lot, and I only notice because you seem like you’d be decisive. Because it’s like you actually don’t—nevermind. I’m being rude, aren’t I?”

“No, it’s ok. You’re right.”

Yujin felt a little embarrassed by this all, somehow. It felt like being called out more than anything, because something like that from the lips of someone like Wonyoung feels akin to an insult.

“Oh.” Wonyoung looked up into the sky. “Look at that. It’s about to rain.”

“You can tell?”

“Yeah, can’t you feel the little drops? Plus, rain has a smell. A rainy smell. Like really early in the morning, when the grass is all wet and your hair gets all frizzy.”

As Wonyoung spoke, the rain picked up.

“You should probably call your Mom. I'll try to get a bus before the rain gets bad.”

“Is someone not coming for you?”

She shrugged. “At some point, yeah, but now it’s raining, so I don’t want to wait for someone to get off work. I don’t really like being out in the rain.”

Wonyoung left to throw away their cups.

In the meantime, Yujin texted Minghao, who was always nearby because he had her location. Mostly for security purposes, but also for convenience.

“I can take you home. My driver’s coming,” Yujin said when Wonyoung returned.

“You have a driver? Fancy. I thought your Mom just drove a really nice SUV with mysterious tinting.”

Wonyoung picked up her backpack and stepped deeper into the awning to hide from the rain, Yujin was close behind, her eyes fixing down on Wonyoung, who leaned back against the glass.

After all that talking they stood in silence. The rain picked up around them, pattering, slamming, coming down like hail.

Yujin’s eyes only left Wonyoung periodically, whenever Wonyoung would start staring back, knocked from her reverie by the accidental insistence of Yujin’s eyes on her.

She was just so nice to look at that Yujin couldn’t help it, and that thought alone made her stomach churn.

“You know, you’re pretty handsome,” Wonyoung leaned in to say, her eyes having this joyous glitz to them. “You always have your hands in your pockets. It’s… I dunno. Handsome.”

“Is it?” she asked, doubtful.

“Yeah. And your tie is so perfect. And your shoulders are so nice, wide but not too much.”

Yujin’s face heated with every compliment.

She went from looking at Wonyoung to eyeing the ground, not used to the praise. Wonyoung giggled and Yujin had to look back, her eyes catching where Wonyoung’s tie was all lopsided.

“Do you make your tie messy on purpose, then?” Yujin asked, but the rain must’ve made it difficult to hear.

“What?”

Yujin leaned closer to Wonyoung’s ear. “Your tie.” She paused, forgetting the words with Wonyoung so close. “You—It’s crooked a lot. Is it on purpose?”

“Ah. I—um, I—No, it’s—It’s not on purpose, no.” Wonyoung looked down at it, hands going to tug it straight—a useless feat when the base was poorly constructed. “It's just always bad because no one ever taught me.”

Right.

Yujin was an idiot—of course. Wonyoung had only her mom and sisters. She shouldn’t have brought it up but she couldn’t take it back anymore.

All Yujin could think to do was step impossible closer and loosen the knot of Wonyoung’s tie a little, pulling it apart and off. She had easy access since Wonyoung didn’t wear her blazer—her backpack bulged with it.

Wonyoung helped move her hair out of the way and watched as Yujin made a short and long end, twisting and pulling through with muscle memory.

“Sorry, I’m not good at explaining things,” she said quietly, since they were close.

“No, it’s ok. I’ve never really thought about it before, so it helps to see.” Wonyoung blinked up at her through those lashes. It must’ve been the pouring rain that put them both in such a transfixed daze.

She was so close to Wonyoung.

Even realizing it, she didn’t want to move.

Doing so would’ve been like giving up a front row seat to something amazing, because that was how Wonyoung looked to her right then. Yujin had never felt like that from just looking at someone before.

So it really must’ve been the rain or—oh the caffeine. This was probably why she wasn’t allowed to have any, because she could hardly think anymore.

Wonyoung bit down on her lip again, nibbling now.

“You know, if you tie my tie enough, I can probably learn to do it too. If you show me like that enough times.”

“Ok.”

“But be warned. If you couldn’t already tell from Manoban’s, I’m a slow learner. Most people get annoyed at me.”

“It’s ok, I won’t.” Yujin swallowed so hard she practically gulped. And she didn’t usually stutter, but she couldn’t help it when she spoke again, the caffeine making her heart race so fast it made her antsy. “I—I’m, uh, really patient.”

“Ok.” Wonyoung bit the inside of her cheek, her face even peachier from this angle, cheeks a cute rosy hue. Her voice was so quiet, it was like a single drop of rain added to the onslaught around them. “Good. I’m glad.”

Yujin nodded, still not stepping away at all because Wonyoung hadn’t mentioned it or acknowledged it in any way, so maybe it wasn’t at all strange to stand close.

She could deduce that since it was raining, Wonyoung must figure the best way for both of them to keep dry is to stay as close to the glass as possible.

Going inside wouldn’t have worked because they wouldn’t have been able to see the car.

The car.

Yujin finally turned and saw it right there in the road, all black and shiny and coated from bumper to bumper in raindrops.

“Is that it?”

“Yeah.” Yujin considered taking Wonyoung by the hand or arm or something, but ultimately decided against it and instead offered up her blazer. “Here. Use it like an umbrella.”

“Oh—T-Thanks.”

“Yeah, of course.”

Yujin led the way into the raindrops, blindly trusting that Wonyoung had the sense to follow.

And she buzzed with something the entire way, although she didn’t quite know what it was.

FEEDBACK MUCH APPRECIATED!!

Please tell me what you hated and what you loved!! Brutal honesty appreciated here because I really want to make something good ‼️

My main question is which chap was better in terms of style. Was WY more fun to read or YJ? Was it because of the plot/events or the writing itself?

I took a different approach w their POVs here, so I’m curious which is more fun to read 👀

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 1 - The enemy of my enemy

Wonyoung was a very good girlfriend. So good, in fact, that she wanted to surprise Sunghoon before his soccer match because her Service Club meeting got out early. 

Since he was the boy’s team captain she knew he would be on the field. It was big, freshly pressed, and… empty. Her backpack hung heavily as she walked around in search of him, opening the app they used to check each other’s location (yes, they were that kind of couple), and being confused as to why he was somewhere near the bleachers. She didn’t see him so she drew closer, moments away from stepping onto the metal and announcing her presence when she heard a faint breathy sound.

”We should get going,” came a somewhat familiar voice. She’d spoken to the boy once or twice before, though at the moment his name escaped her mind’s grasp. “Coach will be looking for us.”

”Just a second,” said Sunghoon, and Wonyoung made the mistake of carefully sneaking around the back, ducking all of the support beams and rusty poles to peek her head into a dark space illuminated only by the streaks of light that shone through gaps in the seats overhead. 

She had to bite back a gasp. Surprise was the first thing she felt for a good few seconds. Watching her boyfriend of almost a year now make out with a boy from his soccer team had to be somewhere near the bottom of things she expected to see ever in her life, but low and behold, here she was staring face to face with something so humiliating.

Sunghoon’s hand slid from the boy’s neck down his body and Wonyoung had to turn away. As much as she wanted to cause a scene she knew there wasn’t a point. He wasn’t worth it. 

“Maybe you’ll have more luck than me,” she blurted, a wry satisfaction buzzing through her when they both froze in shock. She turned away with a sigh, not wanting to face them because her fake little smirk was shaky at best and unconvincing at worst. “He was never good at that sort of thing.”

”Wonyoung,” he tried distantly, but she was already pacing away across the field by the time he collected himself.

This was… not ideal. It’ll look so bad for her. She’s only a Junior so she would have to live through another entire year of this rumor looming over here. Wonyoung Jang, the Fairview High School Queen Bee, was cheated on. Swapped out for a different model, and a boy at that? The mere idea of anyone knowing mortified her, so she pledged to keep it to herself and knew deep down that Sunghoon was relieved he knew she would, too, so really there was no stakes for him. He wouldn’t feel very sorry. For some reason, that was the worst part. 

.

Yuri carefully wiped the last tear from the corner of her eye, hugging her a little tighter.

Wonyoung knew that Yuri knew something was wrong when she showed up at her doorstep, though it still took an hour or two of coaxing for her to spill what happened to the older girl. 

Now she sat in a set of Yuri’s pajamas, in Yuri’s bed, with Yuri’s arms around her. Her tears seeped into Yuri’s shirt and the only thing that grounded her aside from the warm embrace was the twinkling of fairy lights overhead. Her duvet was also quite soft, so that helped. 

“He didn’t deserve you,” she said, drawing away to hand Wonyoung a glass of water she prepared. 

“I know.” She took a gulp, taking the rest of her tears with the water, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I just can’t believe I… y’know. With him? I thought it was special.”

“Well, he’s a boy. It's never special.” Yuri reached to turn off the lights and Wonyoung couldn’t complain. “There are better people out there. Better boys, even. Try not to worry about him.”

She simply lied back with her against Yuri’s pillows and deeply appreciated the impromptu sleepover. Something disastrous may have happened if she was alone. Without Yuri to coax tears from her, she may have gone and blown up his car or lit his house on fire, her sadness always turning to rage when she didn’t know where to put it.

As per usual, Yuri held out her hands so Wonyoung didn’t have to figure it out herself.  

.

“I wanna get him back.” Wonyoung kicked at the grass as he walked through the courtyard with a scowl. She sort of ditched Gaeul for the morning to talk things out with Yuri, but Gaeul wasn’t the type to mind. “But it’s so hard when I can’t say what happened.”

”Why can’t you, again?”

“Um, because it’s embarrassing?” she states plainly, looking at Yuri instead of the route ahead because she was so dumbfounded that Yuri wasn’t getting it. That owlish look of hers said as much. “You know what people would think of me. Like, how could I have let that happen? And Sunghoon got to run around getting what he wanted while I was just the stupid girl who let him.”

”I don’t think anyone would think—”

Wonyoung stopped abruptly, her Calculus textbooks falling out of her arms when something ran into her. About the same height (maybe a little taller) but with enough muscle mass and force to make her stumble. 

“Whoops…”

Wonyoung’s instinct was to glare.

If Wonyoung was the Queen Bee of the Junior class, Yujin was the same for Seniors. Her smirk was exceptionally insufferable today, though she was sure the whole Sunghoon situation made Yujin’s smugness feel that much worse. She couldn’t bring herself to do more than huff and pick up her book, and didn't have the energy to say anything snappy when Yujin stood there with her arms crossed, clearly expecting it. 

“Where’s your dumbass boyfriend?” Yujin asked, sightseeing Yena as she left her side to take Yuri’s hand. The two of them just walked off together with nothing more than a wave. At the sight of them leaning and whispering, Yujin let out a laugh through her nose and Wonyoung rolled her eyes. “Did you finally decide to dump him?”

”Yeah, but what’s it to you?” 

“Well what happened?” Yujin looked a little more surprised than Wonyoung knew how to understand. When she didn’t reply Yujin sighed. “Well at least let me know how to bother him with it.”

“It was… a mutual thing.”

”Liar.” Yujin scanned her up and down. “You’re a mess.”

”Wha—”

”You’re wearing Yuri’s clothes and your eyes are all puffy. Makeup can’t hide everything, Wonyoung. Just tell me what happened. You know I’ll bother him with it.”

Wonyoung bit her lip, weighing her options. She hated Yujin mostly because Sunghoon did. Not that they were broken up there should have been no animosity, but hate is nothing if not a habit, and by now Yujin hated her right back. Plus, it really sucked that Yujin couldn’t be so stupid and careless and everyone still liked her, whereas Wonyoung had to do so much to curry favor. She had to get with someone like Sunghoon in the first place to make it easier, but this anxiety overwhelmed her now that news would begin to spread of their breakup. Unless she took some kind of action, most people would take Sunghoon’s side. Things would return to how they were before, with Wonyoung having a handful of friends and Sunghoon getting the rest. 

When it came to hating Yujin, Sunghoon was the real expert because he hated her for good reason. She was a girl who was better at him than soccer and knew it. His ego was bruised by her mere existence and before that meant Wonyoung was bruised by it, too, because she dated someone subpar at the sport, but now that they were a part she needed to find a way to exploit this weakness.

A weakness that stood in front of her right now, her arms crossed, hair tousled from morning practice, a faint woody smell of some perfume wafting to Wonyoung’s nose. It was strangely pleasant, not as suffocating as the Jimmy Choo Sunghoon coated himself with each morning. Something subtle, much like the teasing glint in Yujin’s eyes. 

“You really wanna know?”

”Of course,” Yujin smirked, scanning her face. “That bad, huh? Haven’t seen you this mad since I beat him at the fair.”

Wonyoung rolled her eyes, bumping shoulders with Yujin as she passed, but not without mumbling, “Bleachers after school.”

In her mind, all the pieces were clicking, disconnected parts joining together in her mind to take the shape of a plan. One that would hit Sunghoon where it hurt and rub salt in the wound at the same time. And the plan lied somewhere near the bottom of her things she would have ever expected, right there above seeing Sunghoon cheat on her with her own two eyes, because the plan involved Yujin, who she loathed only a little less than Sunghoon for reasons she could only partially describe. 

But you know what they say… the enemy of my enemy is her… something. Hopefully she’ll be able to tack a label on it after school.

NEXT Chapter 2 - Untitled

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 6 - Homecoming

Yujin didn’t have a suit, only a tie, so she was going to rent one but Wonyoung told her she would need one in the future anyway.

“You may as well get one now.”

“Can’t exactly afford it, Princess,” she said, about to mention how it was mainly due to Wonyoung’s expectation that Yujin pay her for food wherever even though they weren’t really dating, but she didn’t get the change to bring it up before Wonyoung dragged her into a boutique downtown.

“We have to pick up your tie anyway. It matches my dress,” she said with an eagerness that brought a smile to Yujin’s face. Maybe this Homecoming stuff wasn’t so bad after all, if it made Wonyoung smile like that. Yujin let go of her arm right before she rang the bell at the front. A man appeared from the back and Wonyoung’s smile changed to something saccharine. “Hello, Daddy. I need a few things for my friend.”

“Oh hello Dear. It’s lovely to see you,” she said he barely meant it. “What will you need?”

“Just a suit for Homecoming, for Yujin.” Without warning, Wonyoung dragged Yujin into the back. Her father followed them, so Yujin couldn’t even see the expression on his face until she was up on an elevated circle surrounded by tools and various fabrics.

It would’ve been nice to know ahead of time that Wonyoung was taking her here, not only to have a suit tailored but that it was being done by her father. But she supposed there was a reason Wonyoung didn’t tell her, because she knew her well enough to know she’d have refused.

Wonyoung plopped herself in a nearby seat, her sunglasses slipping off the crown of her head. She set them aside just as her father began taking Yujin’s measurements. The silence didn’t last long.

“Does Sunghoon already have something made?” he asked, jotting down some numbers on a notepad nearby. He returned to measure her shoulder, saying, “I figured you’d take him here to get something made.”

“Well I would’ve, but we broke up,” she said, her voice a little stiff but not in a worried way. More embarrassed than anything else, which made perfect sense for her. “So Yujin’s taking me instead so I don’t have to go alone.”

“Well that’s awfully kind of you,” her father said, taking the final measurements and humming. He turned to Wonyoung, then. “Is there any certain fabric you’d like, or colors?”

“Cotton is fine, in Navy Blue. Something that matches the tie I asked for.”

“Oh, right. It matches your dress,” he said in the same bored tone he’d been using throughout the entire interaction. He was a succinct sort of guy. At least Yujin hoped so, because if not that made his demeanor more of a personal attack.

When Wonyoung mentioned Sunghoon he didn’t seem sorry, nor did any particular emotion strike him. Apathy was the word for it. Yujin couldn’t help but wonder how Wonyoung’s mother was. If she was the same or if she was even in the picture at all.

Yujin had swore she heard Wonyoung say parents, plural, but that was an easy thing to mishear. Nevertheless, one parent like this was enough to explain why Wonyoung was the way she was. If Yujin had to venture a guess, she would say Wonyoung got her control freak nature from him and her emphasis on vanity from her mother. Or maybe, like most things, it was just a mix of both.

“If you have something you can just fit it now. I wouldn’t want to trouble you with a new project.”

“How kind of you, Dear,” he said, still monotone. Maybe sarcastic? Yujin couldn’t tell, just gave Wonyoung a very confused look as he disappeared into another room that presumably contained ready-made suits.

Wonyoung merely shrugged and stepped over to her, grabbing the pink tie on the way and holding it up on Yujin’s chest.

“It looks good,” she said, pulling it away and packing it up with a tap on the fancy box’s cover. This whole place was fancy, explained Wonyoung’s money quite nicely. “Suits you well.”

Wonyoung’s father came back and they interacted very unlike family. It was like this was a business transaction. By the end of it, Yujin felt the need to offer her hand and for the first time he smiled.

“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Jang.”

“You, too, Miss...?”

“Yujin,” she supplied despite Wonyoung having said it multiple times already. His hand felt like a vice, communicating everything that he didn’t, a veiled threat that made Yujin swallow hard. “Yujin Ahn.”

He let her go, finally, after an assessing pause, and Yujin didn’t have to think twice about where Wonyoung got that from.

..

For someone who spent the better part of highschool hating Wonyoung, she didn’t know a lot about her. She hadn’t known about her father or her mother or if she had any siblings. She simply hated Wonyoung by association since she hated almost everyone Wonyoung spent her time with at school.

Since the Sunghoon breakup, however, she started spending more time with less people. Yuri, Jiwon, Minjeong, and Yujin, among other people she had only a few classes with. Plus there was Rei and the rest of the team, who Wonyoung pretended to loathe but clearly enjoyed the presence of.

Yujin noticed a shift in her. Their conversations still morphed into arguments more often than not, but their small talk was illuminating.

She discovered Wonyoung’s mother was a pretty famous politician and Wonyoung made fun of her for not already knowing that, as if her focus was solely on Wonyoung before she even knew her.

She took Wonyoung to the shop and they walked around looking at the nicest cars, which Yujin had yet to beg her father for but she knew if she said the right things he would cave. She picked a Cherry Red Mustang that was for sale.

“Oh, I fixed the engine on that,” she said, but Wonyoung rolled her eyes.

“Don’t care.”

Yujin must have been some kind of masochist for smiling when Wonyoung acted that way, all eye rolls and strutting off with crossed arms and a sharp turn of her flats. Her hair was wavy and bouncy, the sunlight catching it, and for the nth time Yujin offered to drive her home but for the nth time Wonyoung refused to ride on a ‘death trap’.

“Fine. Wait,” she said, stopping Wonyoung by her shoulder before she left the lot. “Let me ask my dad for the Mustang. I’ll be right back.”

She steeled herself and walked back inside, approaching him as casually as possible, but it fell apart when he gave her a knowing look.

“What are you about to ask me for?”

She looked away sheepishly, itching her nape with a small sigh.

“The keys to the Mustang.”

His look turned more reprimanding.

“It’s important,” she insisted, leaning against the counter. Her tone was unconvincing, though, and she resorted to a little, “Please?”

He considered it, glancing toward the lockbox that contained all the keys on the wall. He glanced toward his own key ring, before asking, “Maybe if you tell me why you want them after just getting your bike done.”

“Because,” she said, swallowing dryly when his eyes flitted to where Wonyoung was probably waiting. She had a time limit when it came to being outside in the sun and she’d probably reached it. “Wonyoung’s scared of riding it because of her hair and stuff and we’re going to homecoming.”

“Who are you and what have you done with my daughter?” He grinned and pulled her into a very sudden hug. “I’m glad things worked out between you two. I’ve never seen you bring someone around here so much.”

“It’s not like that. It’s still just about her ex,” she said as he took the keys from the box. He dangled them in front of her.

“Ok, well, I can only give them to you if you promise me something.”

“I thought all I had to do was tell you why…”

“No, I said maybe. The official term is that you tell her how you really feel.” He dropped the keys into her hands, his grin turning into a small smile as he ignored her wide eyes to ruffle her hair. “Now don’t go saying you don’t know what I mean. I know you. You wouldn’t go this far out of your way for just anyone.”

“Hello,” came Wonyoung’s voice, which was suddenly light and airy like a wind chime. She gave Yujin a weird look, either at her eyes or the blush on her cheeks, but looked back to Dad. “Sorry about the car. I’m in a hurry.”

“It’s no worry. You just make sure to have fun at your little dance.”

Yujin expected some discomfort on Wonyoung’s face but she laughed with a little teeth and smiled and it was just about the most beautiful thing Yujin had ever seen. When did she get so comfortable here? Or maybe the better question was when did Yujin get so comfortable having her?

..

Yujin hadn’t been nervous until she thought about what Dad said. She even tried to rid it from her mind altogether, but he kept bringing it up when she was at work as if he knew exactly what she was trying to do. It got to a point where she told him she didn’t like her like that, which earned her a long lecture she really wasn’t in the mood for.

In an instance that was rather unfortunate but would have been a lucky break had they not been talking about Wonyoung, Wonyoung appeared. It was only surprising because it was a weekday evening. She wielded two drinks, one of them getting shoved into Yujin’s hands.

“We have to go get your suit,” she announced, lifting her sunglasses to reveal her eyes, which were as dazzling as usual. “Hi Bohyun. Good day today?”

“Splendid,” he answered, grinning stupidly and giving Yujin some side eye that only made her blush ten times worse. “I’ve gotta thank you for pulling something together for Jinnie. I barely pay her so I know you must’ve pulled some strings.”

Wonyoung laughed, waved it off, and looped their arms.

“It’s fine as long as I can take her right now.”

“Y’know as long as it’s you, you can take her whenever you want.”

“Good to know. Thank you,” she said, and by the time they were holding hands on the street Yujin was in absolutely no state of mind to question how easily Dad sold her to this psycho for the evening.

Some wind and a sip of her drink brought her back to reality.

“Why exactly do I need to come?”

“To make sure it fits right,” Wonyoung said, looking over at her. Those eyes scanned her up and down as they waited for the signal to change. “Which you should know because I literally told you I’d need to have my dress fitted one more time. We’re going to do that after.”

“Sorry. This is just a lot.”

“It’s really not. Prom will be even more of an ordeal because I’ll have someone else do my hair and makeup and my dress will be much longer. This is nothing compared to that.”

“You’ve given it a lot of thought, huh?” she asked, kicking herself for sounding strange. She was sure Wonyoung noticed too, given the judgemental look she tossed at her. “Any idea who you’re gonna go with? That’s a ways away.”

Wonyoung stopped abruptly, their joined hands becoming a prison when Wonyoung’s regular grip turned into a death grip.

“Why are you even asking that?” she spat out, turning to glare at her. It was a good sign she was still holding her hand though… probably. “Are you just trying to rub it in, or what? Are you mocking me?”

“No—No. I was just wondering because you brought it up like you had plans.”

“Well obviously I did but my plans were for the boyfriend who cheated on me, so thanks for reminding me of that.”

Wonyoung was always like this. She always blew up at a single hairpin drop. So Yujin knew what to do when Wonyoung released her hand with a frustrated huff.

She grabbed Wonyoung by the wrist and kept her from turning away.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I was really just asking. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Well you did.”

“I know. I’m sorry. It didn’t even feel like rolling over anymore. It was more like smoothing a bandage over a bruise, the careful way she laced their fingers together again. “Can I give you a hug?”

Wonyoung was the one who closed the distance between them, and the weight of Wonyoung in her arms was far too familiar. Far too comforting. Far too much like something she didn’t want to let go of.

She knew by now her father was right. Try as she may, she couldn’t ignore it forever. Her feelings were only growing by the day. With each smile, laugh, snarky quip, and moment of physical contact between them, Yujin was growing more attached.

Each time they did this especially, her chin on Wonyoung’s shoulder and her arms hooked around the small of her back. Wonyoung may have tried to make herself appear big and strong, but it was in moments like these Yujin knew better than anyone that deep down Wonyoung was as light and delicate as she felt. So lithe, Yujin could have lifted her off the sidewalk and spun her if she wanted to. And she did want to. So she did it, smiling at the proximity of Wonyoung’s giggles to her ear.

God, Dad was right. She really couldn’t ignore it any longer. Against all odds and likelihoods she was falling. And devastatingly fast.

She was honestly afraid to look down, unsure of how close the ground was. She much preferred to stay suspended in the air, blissfully unaware that at any given moment she could be reduced to smithereens.

..

Wonyoung was a sight to behold.

Yujin had been waiting for about ten minutes outside. It took a great effort not to mess up her tie as she waited outside. Thankfully there were no cars in the driveway and the only light on came from what Yujin assumed was Wonyoung’s room. When the light shut off, Wonyoung appeared in front of her in the following minutes, and she didn’t really know what to say. Honestly, she didn’t think words would be right for the moment.

She smiled, unblinking, and gave Wonyoung the corsage she requested.

“It’s a good thing you can at least follow instructions,” she said, fixing the flower on Yujin’s suit that matched the ones now on her wrist. It suited her well, the pink and white roses complimenting her dress and Yujin’s tie. Wonyoung’s sigh was slow and steady. “Where would be without me?”

She shrugged. ”Probably at home watching a good movie.”

“So tortured, basically, given your taste in movies,” she teased, and there was this lightness about it that Yujin was suddenly conscious of. Weeks ago it would have been insane, the idea of Wonyoung speaking to her in such a softly goading way.

Her lips were glossy and shiny and Yujin could not look away from them. She couldn’t erase the part of her mind that remembered Wonyoung saying they would kiss. They hadn’t spoken about it since, of course, but she wasn’t sure what to expect.

Sure, Yujin had a few kisses under her belt, but she hadn’t ever anticipated them. Never before had her skin gotten all tingly, nor had the hair on the back of her neck bristled at the thought. Not until now, that was.

“Let’s get going then. Fashionably late, no thanks to you.”

“You said eight…” she said, opening the door for Wonyoung and putting her hand where she may have very well hit her head. “I was punctual.”

“Which is rare for you. You’re always late.”

“Well this is… special,” she said, slamming the door when Wonyoung gave her a confused look. The escape was temporary, though, because Wonyoung was speaking again the very second Yujin sat in the driver's seat.

“This is just like everything else we’ve done,” she said, drumming her nails on the centre console as Yujin shifted into drive. “Just… with background music and something to look forward to. This should be it.”

“Will it?” Yujin swallowed, trying and failing not to let that sinking feeling overpower the excitement. “Won’t it be bad if we break up after Homecoming?”

“Yeah. I suppose it would.” She clicked her tongue adorably, as if she hadn’t thought of this before. “Good thing Thanksgiving break is in a month. That’ll be a good time to end things.”

“Will it?”

“Why in the world are you using that tone?” she sort of snapped. Yujin almost jerked the wheel, but she calmed herself down when Wonyoung huffed. So silly of her to have forgotten that Wonyoung was just like this naturally, never more than a misstep from implosion. “You sound like a kicked puppy. Is there something you want to say to me? Since when have you been afraid of protesting with me?”

She had a point. Yujin was acting starkly unlike herself. That much she could not deny.

“I just figured you’d want more time with me.” She really hoped Wonyoung did not notice how she had to fake her usual confidence. “Y’know, since I’m a really good girlfriend. I thought you’d miss me.”

“You wish,” she scoffed, smiling.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence that seemed comfortable for Wonyoung and was just plain foreboding for Yujin. She had a really bad feeling about the night. She was sure that if she took Dad’s advice she would end up humiliating herself

But at the same time she wasn’t sure she had much to lose. It wasn’t as if Wonyoung would be able to tell anyone but Yuri that it had happened, because what kind of rumour would that have been? Yujin had a crush on her own girlfriend? Wow, major news—Someone call the New York Times.

So as she drove them to the venue she tried her best to muster the courage. She tried to keep in mind the excitement on Wonyoung’s face when they announced they would have a proper prom and not one inside of the gymnasium like usual. The way her eyes lit up and then curved with the force her smile, which was most beautiful when she wasn’t putting in all the effort she did when other people were around. People who didn’t care about her like Yujin had grown to. Who would never have known her like Yujin did.

Yujin handed the tickets to the man at the door. He checked their IDs and crossed their names off, giving them a wave to enter.

Wonyoung smiled at him and led the way, tugging Yujin by her arm.

“I thought you said to walk slowly?”

“I’m excited,” she stated plainly, her smile so infectious that Yujin had to share it despite how much she hated the prospect of mingling with a bunch of people she barely knew for hours. Even muffled through walls, the music sounded terrible.

She knew now that Wonyoung would be her only respite in this ocean of things she hated. How ironic. Two months ago she would have thought that impossible. She hated Wonyoung and now here she was taking her to homecoming. Having a crush on her and trying to find the words while being dragged from group to group.

She noticed a few people. Yuri and Yena, of course. Rei and Jiwon, who despite arriving separately and being from very different circles, were chatting with each other against the wall. Minjeong, then a Jimin when she walked over in what was a clear attempt to get Wonyoung to introduce them, and since Wonyoung was happy she actually did.

There were a lot of other people too. Yuna, Haneul, Shuhua, Yeri—It felt like it was never going to end. She didn’t know even half of the people at some point, so she told Wonyoung directly into her ear that she was going to refill her drink and Wonyoung said she’d be there in a moment.

Yujin was smelling the punch to make sure it was safe when she felt a tap on her shoulder.

It was quiet enough by the refreshments that no one had to yell. They could speak normally and understand each other well.

“I see you’re absolutely hating it here,” Minju said, Eunbi smiling and waving at her side. Finally some familiar faces. “Where’s your girl?”

“Uhh…” she drawled, glancing where she exited the crowd and drawing a blank. “That’s a problem for me in five minutes.”

They both laughed, and while only Minju stared, Eunbi pulled her into a tight hug.

“I’m so glad you came, Yujin. I really thought you wouldn’t go to prom before you graduated.”

“I didn't want to.”

“Well it’s good you found someone who forces you outside of your comfort zone.”

“If by that you mean being pushy and overbearing, then yeah. Sure. I’m well outside of my zone.”

“As you say, dripping with fondness,” Eunbi laughed, playfully booping her nose. “I’ll admit I thought it was weird, but I trusted you. I thought you didn’t like younger girls but you seem really happy.”

“Yeah, I am,” she admitted lowly as someone else approached. She avoided looking fully in the dim, colourful lighting because she was afraid it was Wonyoung and she would notice her blush, but luckily it was Soojin so she didn’t need to worry.

“Wow. Wonyoung really fixed you up nicely.” Soojin roughly patted the lapels of her suit. “Did her dad make this for you?”

“Uh—Yeah, how’d you know?”

“Just a guess. I remembered Sunghoon had this phase of bragging about his HOCO suit last year, so I figured you’d get the same treatment.”

“Isn’t that a big deal?” Minju asked, her eyes a little wider than usual. Her arms were crossed, too, and she seemed to have trouble meeting anyone’s eyes. “Meeting her parents?”

“Oh, no. Not really. It was just a little thing. Plus I’ve never even seen her Mom.”

Eunbi laughed. “Do you not watch the news?”

“Uhhh, no.” Yujin scratched her nape with a dry chuckle. “I should probably go—”

“What about your Dad?” Minju asked, and it all felt a bit awkward. The small silence where Eunbi decided to walk away and Soojin slowly followed, taking the hint. “Sorry… I made it weird, didn’t I?”

“No, it’s fine,” Yujin lied. As much as she wanted to ignore it, the situation wasn’t usual. They dated a long time ago, yeah, way back in freshman year, but no one had forgotten about it. “She’s met him, yeah. And he really likes her.”

“That’s nice. I’m happy for you, really.” Minju’s smile was real, but that also meant she didn’t hide the faint sadness in it. A wistfulness underlined the sincerity.

Yujin still felt pretty bad about how she handled things, how easy and careless she was when she broke up with her.

“Hey… I’m really sorry about back then,” she finally said after mustering the courage. “I wish things worked out between us.”

“Should you really be saying that when you have a girlfriend?”

“Oh—Well, I—uh—I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just sorry I was a douchebag.” She laughed dryly. “I’ve changed, is all, and I wish I was more mature back then so I didn’t hurt you.”

“Thanks,” Minju accepted with a chuckle and sip of her beverage. “Wonyoung’s a lucky girl.”

“Jinnie.” She felt a tug on her arm at the exact time she heard her voice, which was somehow both sweet and sharp. A blade made of sugar crystals. She spared Minju what felt like a very dismissive glance, then turned her so she could have all her attention and place either hand on her shoulder. “Let's dance.”

“Sure.” Yujin set down the cup she hadn’t even filled and sent Minju a wave goodbye before being dragged away toward the mass of people. What she didn’t expect was for Wonyoung to avoid the crowd and push her against a wall on the opposite side.

“What was that?” she hissed, her smile out of what seemed like nowhere. Yujin didn’t even get the chance to wonder what she was talking about. “You can’t just talk to your ex like that.”

“Why? We’ve been friends for a while and she wakes up to me.”

“Because you can’t. People are gonna get the wrong idea.” Even in her most livid form, Wonyoung was breathtaking. It swayed with her angry movements, which were a mix of these sort of stomping paces and switching weight between her legs, and it was honestly adorable. “Hello? Aren’t you even sorry? You could ruin everything by doing that. Also I saw you talking to Soojin.”

“And…?” she teased. “She’s my friend, Wonyoung.”

“You—You can’t,” she protested, though the ridiculousness seemed to be hitting her because she looked away momentarily and her cheeks were growing increasingly discolored.

She could do nothing but grin and ask, still very teasingly, “Why not?”

“Because I said so.”

“So I’m just supposed to follow you around and talk to no one?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

“But you can talk to anyone you want?”

“Yeah, obviously.”

“Wonyoung.”

“What?”

“Are you jealous?”

“Jealous? Don’t be ridiculous. It has nothing to do with—No. I’m not jealous. God. Don’t be an idiot. I wouldn’t even care if you guys were talking if it wasn’t in a public place. I wouldn’t care at all. Me? Jealous? Don’t make me laugh. You would never make me—”

Yujin yanked her in and silenced her on a whim. Silenced her with a kiss that was one-sided for a second, Wonyoung’s lips motionless against hers until they responded with fervour. She mirrored the same heat and hunger that Yujin put into it. It could’ve been fake, yeah, but that wasn’t exactly on Yujin’s mind as she felt Wonyoung’s manicured nails on the back of her neck and she finally felt the curve of her waist. Really felt it, took a real grasp, her other hand snaking to where Wonyoung’s dress exposed her skin in the back.

They were having a very normal, albeit steamy kiss until Wonyoung made this sound that flipped a switch in Yujin’s brain. Suddenly she reversed their positions, pining Wonyoung against the wall with her lips and tracing her spine with the tip of her finger so that she arched off of it and into her instead. The shiver she produced was nothing short of addictive.

Countless dizzying seconds passed like this. Her hands feeling Wonyoung, skin both covered and exposed. Wonyoung’s hands clutching her shoulder, feeling her in a different, more restrained way that was still a lot for Wonyoung. It spurred Yujin on, encouraged her to leave kisses on the underside of Wonyoung’s jaw when she leaned her head back against the wall, breaking the kiss for panting breaths of air.

Yujin had more stamina, obviously. She would’ve been willing to kiss Wonyoung into oblivion, maybe even forget where she was and do a lot more to her in the ballroom, but a stern voice interrupted that.

“Girls.”

Yujin quickly backed away with a loud clear of her throat, feeling closer to death than ever because she knew that voice and really didn’t want to turn to face it. But she had to. The most she could do was smile awkwardly.

“I hate to have to tell you this is neither the time nor place. Sorry. Rules are rules,” Coach Manoban said, smirking and nodding toward her. “You’ve got something on your lips there.”

Yujin wiped the back of her hand on her lips.

“Anyway, no more making out or you’ll get kicked out. At least go where no one can see you.,” she said, taking a step away before looking back. “Also you’ve still got her lipstick on you.”

Wonyoung groaned and pull her her closer, almost as close as before, and used her thumb to wipe off whatever marks Coach Manoban had referred to. Yujin couldn’t help the stupid grin that made it difficult for her. The butterflies in her stomach were restless and giddy. Especially when she noticed Wonyoung’s intense blush and the way she couldn’t even look at her after cleaning off her mouth.

“How’s mine?” Wonyoung asked, pointedly ignoring what just happened.

“Perfect.” She couldn’t even be surprised by how Wonyoung came out unscathed. It made so much sense for her, with how put-together she was. Yujin leaned into her again, still high off their kiss. “You’re so pretty.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

Yujin craned in again, moments away from kissing her when Wonyoung pushed her back by the shoulders. She looked stunned and then it hit Yujin. The order of this was all wrong. She missed the part where she told Wonyoung she actually liked her and just jumped to the kissing, as impulsive as ever.

Wonyoung was just so beautiful when she was truly flustered.

Fuck.

She wanted Wonyoung so much more than she thought.

“Let’s get something to drink,” Yujin said, stepping further back to give her some space. She even shoved her hands into the pockets of her pants. “Or food? Are you hungry?”

“I could use a drink,” Wonyoung laughed awkwardly, her eyes leaving without returning. Yeah. Not such a good sign. “Can you grab me one?”

“Of course. I’ll be right back.”

She did a walk of shame, her eyes trained on the hardwood floor, the music getting slightly louder before it hit her that she didn’t even ask what Wonyoung wanted. There was punch, water, tea—a whole bunch of things. So she turned to ask and was more surprised than she should’ve been at the sight that awaited her.

Wonyoung, still against the wall. Sunghoon where Yujin had been. His gaze was as harsh as his jaw. Wonyoung looked somewhat pleased, though more uncomfortable, but this was what she wanted.

Still, Yujin waited to see if Wonyoung wanted an escape. Even though her heart ached in her chest, her lips burned, and her head throbbed with regret, she watched them interact because she didn’t want to abandon Wonyoung fully. She hadn’t considered, of course, that Wonyoung had never been hers to leave in the place.

Their conversation got heated, then Wonyoung looked around and saw her. Saw Yujin watching them intently. Her reaction? Grab Sunghoon’s wrist and pull him away.

All those feelings she had doubled. Sadness turned to anguish and the regret was this desperate gnawing. She couldn’t even bring herself to be upset with Wonyoung, only herself. After all, Wonyoung had been more than clear on what she wanted in the beginning and every step of the way.

Sure, the lines were blurred when they went on lunch dates, sat chatting in the car, and held hands when they were nowhere near school, but those occurrences could all be justified in some grand way. All those things were necessary to make their relationship more believable, or convincing, or realistic, or whatever Wonyoung would say whenever Yujin asked about it.

At any step of the way, Yujin could have refused. Wonyoung would never have forced her to hold her hand at the mall. Wonyoung would never have been the one to ask Yujin to a movie. Wonyoung wasn’t the one who initially asked Yujin to lunch.

This was a grave Yujin had begun digging since the second this whole thing started. It was no no fault of her own that she was suffering the consequences now, watching Wonyoung drag Sunghoon away.

Yujin didn’t want to pry. What she wanted to do, as her heart weighed her down and the floor became the easiest thing to look at, was leave and not return. But that stupid, gullible part of herself still cared for Wonyoung. An overwhelmingly strong care that she could not ignore.

She followed after them, speeding up her steps so she wouldn’t lose them. Of course it happened anyway. They had a good head start, so when she broke into the hall she could only follow the faint click of Wonyoung’s heel and the pleading lilt to Sunghoon’s voice.

She found them in a stairwell and had to stand against the wall to hear well, but it wasn’t too hard because of how echoey the space was. She missed the first half of their conversation, clearly, because they were in the thick of it.

“Was that not the point? You did it, Wonyoung. Congratulations!” He feigned a chipper voice, then went back to frustration. “Is that what you want to hear? Fine. You win. You made me jealous.”

“That is not the point,” Wonyoung said so sternly. But wasn’t it? Was that not exactly what she wanted from the get-go?

Though, her goal had always been unclear. Yujin was simply along for the ride. At first because of a petty hatred for Sunghoon, then at some point because she had a real, mounting crush.

He laughed, the bitter sound echoing.

“You’re seriously going to sit here and try to convince me you being with Yujin isn’t about me? Maybe everyone else believes that but I don’t. Not for a second. I know you don’t like her, Won, no way that changed so quickly.”

“I only disliked her because of you.”

“That’s not true and you know it. You hate that she’s better than you.”

“Fine. Ok. Maybe I did.” Ouch. She sort of expected it but it still stung like a slap. “But I don’t anymore. And maybe it even used to be about you but honestly I forgot you existed up until about a minute ago.”

That was… alarmingly untrue. Wonyoung had brought him a few times in the past weeks. It was a consistent thing that usually came up whenever the lines got particularly blurry and Yujin made the mistake of pointing that out. He was always on her mind, if only peripherally, and that fact only made Yujin feel like an even greater fool.

“That’s not true,” he mumbled.

“It is. She’s so good to me and you know it.”

“Because she wants to get in your pants.”

Wonyoung huffed a laugh at that.

“You of all people should know I’m not that easy. And even if I was, you know Yujin isn’t like that. You’re the one who hates her because she’s better than you.” She took a few steps, seemingly toward the door, then paused. “You know, the problem with you is that you need to grow the fuck up.”

Yujin was surprised before she knew why. Wonyoung was far from a saint but she’d actually never heard her swear, she didn’t think, and the most perverse part of her mind was kinda excited about it but that was really far from the point. Anything to distract from her heartbreak, she supposed. Though she had to admit, with each word Wonyoung spoke, she felt her heart hurt a little less.

“You’re lying,” he said firmly.

“I’m not.”

“You are.”

There were footsteps, then the blunt sound of what was likely a shove.

“God—Stop! Just stop,” Wonyoung said, her first words still bouncing around as the following were delivered. “I don’t want you and I never will.”

“Come on, Wonyoung. I know you wanted me back and you have me! You always have. That thing with Sunoo was just us messing around. I regret it since it happened.”

“I don’t care about that. Just let me—”

“That’s just not true. You don’t like her. Cmon, don’t do this to me. You can’t—”

“Move. I have to leave,” she said with a shaky breath, now on the verge of blowing up. “She’s probably looking for me.”

“Seriously, what do you want me to say? Whatever it is I’ll say it. Just tell me so we can—”

“Are you so self centered that you can see it?!” Wonyoung finally broke into a full shout, her voice no match for concrete walls. “It has nothing to do with hating you and everything to do with loving her! Ok?! You could try your hardest and you wouldn’t be a fraction of the person she is so just stop. I didn’t even have to try with her, that’s how easy it was. It was a fucking accident but it’s real now.”

Wonyoung’s breaths were trembling and loud and ragged, but the volume of them was no match for the cataclysmic explosions going off in Yujin’s chest. Each heartbeat was like a tidal wave crashing into her soul, a maelstrom of questions building into one suffocating feeling.

“And if you can’t see that, I really don’t know what more I can say except goodbye.” Her voice was trembling and oh so unlike the version of her she wanted everyone to think she was. “And honestly, I hope you find whatever the hell you’re looking for.”

Was this real?—No. It couldn’t be. Love? That seemed like way too much for Wonyoung. Or was it? Could it really be or was she just so blinded by her own feelings she couldn't see that this was a part of Wonyoung’s master plan? She had, after all, been very vague with the details.

Yujin was I caught up in her mind and the heat of what she listened to that she didn’t noticed Wonyoung leaving until it was too late. She opened the door straight into Yujin, and only upon realizing it was Yujin did she look shell-shocked.

“Yujin,” she barely even whispered.

Yujin offered a weak smile. “…Hi.”

NEXT Chapter 7 - All’s well that ends

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 7 - All’s well that ends

She groaned into her million for the millionth time. All she’d done was change into her pyjamas and roll around for a couple of hours, then she heard something knock on her door. Not her front door—No—her bedroom one.

“Daddy?” she squeaked hopefully, thought in any other circumstance she’d hope it wasn’t either of her parents.

“Nope. Just me.” Thankfully it was just Yuri. “Can I come in?”

“Yeah. Of course.” She straightened up her bed and sat up against her headboard, clicking on the lamp beside her bed so Yuri didn’t have walk blindly into her room after closing the door. “What’s up? Did something happen with Yena?”

“You’re really gonna do that?”

“Do what?”

“Pretend nothing happened between you guys. I saw that kiss, Wonyoung. And then I saw you two leave like you saw ghosts.” She plopped beside Wonyoung and leaned into her, smiling with her signature smooth edge. “So what happened?”

With Yuri, there was no point in holding back. Honestly, anyone could’ve walked through that door and she would’ve spilled everything out to them, even her mother or father. She just needed someone to talk to that wasn’t herself.

“So she kissed me, obviously. But then Manoban stopped us and it got kinda awkward, so she was going to get us drinks.”

“Did you like the kiss?”

“Just give me a second, ok? I’m getting there—Obviously I liked it. Shut up. Stop looking at me like that.”

“You like her,” Yuri teased, poking her cheek.

Wonyoung groaned and slapped her hand away. “Stop. You haven’t heard the part where I ruin it, ok? Because Sunghoon came up to me and started harassing me about ‘talking’ and I really didn’t want to but Yujin saw us and I didn’t wanna make a scene so we left.”

She took a big inhale, then a slow exhale when Yuri put a steadying hand on her shoulder that said without words, take your time.

“So we were walking kinda quick and when I looked back Yujin wasn’t there, so obviously I thought she would wait there for me while I dealt with him, but then we started arguing and it took a while. I guess at some point she came looking for me, so she overheard us arguing.”

“And that’s bad because…?”

She hid her face in a nearby stuffed animal, burying into her so the words were severely muffled. “Because I said I loved her.”

“You what?”

“I said I loved her.”

“What’d you say?”

“That I-I love her.”

“You—”

“Shut up, I know you can hear me!”

“Ok, I’m sorry,” Yuri laughed, pulling her out of her stuffed animal and into a tight hug. She was notably also in some pyjamas, though they looked nothing like anything she owned…

“Were you at Yena’s house?”

“Don’t try to change the subject. Yujin knows you love her. That’s good.” She pet the top of Wonyoung’s head as she spoke. “You’re probably too dim to notice but she likes you too. I don’t know her well enough to say if it’s love but she’s at least at crushing levels. Even Yena agrees.”

Wonyoung couldn’t even muster the strength to feel betrayed by the implication that Yena knew of their scheme. That was for later.

“I just feel so stupid,” she whispered, burying into Yuri’s shoulder with a mortified sort of groan. It hasn’t even been a day and it’s already haunting her. “She probably thinks I’m some stupid little girl that’s obsessed with her. Why would I say I love her when I’ve only known her for a couple months? I want to die, Yuri. Please kill me now.”

“No need. I think she’s really happy you feel that way, Wonyoung. And, you know, everyone’s first love is like that. It’s fast and strong and usually unexpected. It’s like a good—”

“Don’t even go there.”

“Dirty mind.” Yuri chuckled and brought them down so they could lie down.

“And first love? It’s like you’re forgetting Sunghoon ever existed.”

”You did not love him, Wonyoung. Let’s be real. He’s not who you care about and you shouldn’t try thinking about him to minimize your feelings for her. Just feel it.” She kept stroking Wonyoung’s hair. Usually it would make the worry go away but this was just too much for it to work. “You guys will be fine tomorrow. Everything will go back to normal except you’ll actually be together for real, which is obviously what both of you want.”

“But it won’t. I messed it up.” She swallowed hard. “When she dropped me off I told her we should break up.”

“What?”

“Yeah. And I just left.”

They had left Homecoming early for obvious reasons. The mood was dead, but leaving didn’t really help because the car was even worse. The drive home was very, very awkwardly silent. Neither of them wanted to talk about it. There was no opportunity to pretend Yujin didn’t overhear her and even if she didn’t it would still be terrible because that kiss (if it could even be classified as that) could not go ignored.

It was funny, though, that they ignored it anyway for the fifteen minute ride to Wonyoung’s house. Even then, when the car halted in front of her driveway, she didn’t want to acknowledge any of it.

So the newly impulsive, brainless, idiotic part of her kind decided to say, “I think we should break up now,” right before leaving the car.

“Why would you say that?” Yuri asked, all awe-stricken curiosity without any judgement.

“Because I didn’t think she felt the same…” she mumbled. “It’s so stupid. I hope I never see her again.”

“You don’t mean that,” Yuri said, sighing. “What you mean is that you hope she feels the same. You’re going to finally ask for what you want for once instead of pushing people around for it.”

“What? I don’t do that.”

“You do. You’ve done it from the start with her and honestly I didn’t expect her to give into you so easily. I thought you’d actually have met your match for once but Yujin rolled over just like everyone else does.”

“That’s because it’s me.”

“Yeah, I know.” For the nth time, Yujin sighed. But it felt very final. “Tomorrow you’ll apologize and she’ll forgive you and everything will be normal again.”

Wonyoung wasn’t sure she would have ever classified the two of them together as normal, but at some point that had become all she wanted. The one thing—the only thing—she’d really truly wanted in a long time. She craved Yujin more than she craved chocolate, some good banter, or even validation. For once she had found all of that in one place. In one person. Someone who treated her better than thought she deserved.

All she had to do was make it right again. She just wasn’t sure it would be as easy to fix as Yuri made it out to.

…

Yujin only had a handful of ways to really relax, so she decided that instead of going to school she would help her Dad around the shop.

She couldn’t face Wonyoung and was glad that he understood after a little chat that began with them going to Homecoming together and ended with them being broken up. She may or may not have left out the part where they kissed, taking some creative liberties of her own to change that part to a slow dance and Wonyoung’s confession of love to a confession of a crush. Those changes, she found, made everything more palatable for someone who didn’t know the whole story. Also for someone who wasn’t eighteen and stupidly, pathetically yearning for someone who had never given real signs of feeling the same until about sixteen hours earlier.

She wondered what he would say if he knew the truth. If he would encourage Yujin to go to her and say everything she wanted to say or if he would accept her walking away. She didn’t want to know because he didn’t know the entire story. He wasn’t there for all the times Yujin stepped forward and had to watch as Wonyoung took two steps back. It was like every time she tried to make a move or imply that they could possibly be something more than pretend-girlfriends, Wonyoung rejected her. She was tired of being the only one to show up.

“Yujin.”

She thought she was hallucinating at first. No way the timing was so… comedic. As perfectly imperfect as Wonyoung herself.

And she wasn’t in a sparkly pink, knee length dress, but did she did wear a sweater and a skirt that made her look just as heavenly. Yujin almost hated it. Almost despised how Wonyoung could appear so casually with a soft smile she’d seldom seen grace her full lips.

“Why aren’t you at school?” Wonyoung asked her, stepping closer.

“Why aren’t you?”

“Because you didn’t come,” she said, closing most of the distance between them. “So I wouldn’t have had the chance to apologize if I didn’t show up here. It was lucky guess, really, because I don’t know where you live.”

Yujin pursed her lips and looked away, trying and failing not to feel anything special at how smoothly Wonyoung’s voice filled the otherwise empty space. Dad was out trying to sell a car to someone, so it was just them in the shop.

“What do you want, Wonyoung?”

“Just some of your time.”

“I think you’ve had plenty already.” She readied herself to turn back to the car she was fixing, the mirror still needing to be reattached.

“Please?” she said, her nails still painted pink as her hand encircled Yujin’s wrist to stop her from going back to work. “I’ll even ride your stupid motorcycle.”

That, Wonyoung must have known, was an offer that was very difficult to deny no matter how much she wanted to spend time away from the younger girl. Time was supposed to heal all wounds, someone once said, and Wonyoung had proven to be an awfully big one.

But Yujin had always given in a little too easily. She figured she may as well do it one more time now that she actually got something out of it, which was the promise of Wonyoung’s terror on the back of a motorcycle.

”Where are we going?”

…

Wonyoung was a very good girlfriend. She thought so, anyway, until she decided to rewind the past couple of months to take note of every way she led Yujin on. The hand-holding. The dates. The proximity.

If she could have gone back to the start she would’ve done it all differently. She wouldn’t have dated Yujin. Wouldn’t have willingly put herself in such a vulnerable place because she would have inevitably ended up on the back of a motorcycle riding toward school in the middle of the day.

Needless to say they weren’t going for attendance.

But by the time they arrived, Wonyoung had forgotten who, what, and when she was. her head was spinning and she threw the helmet into Yujin’s arms, trying and almost failing not to throw up in the school parking lot.

She fell to her knees and was quite surprised to feel Yujin’s hand on her back.

”Is it really that bad or are you just being dramatic?”

“Guess,” Wonyoung said through gritted teeth, sucking in deep breaths of air on steady ground. Thankfully it went away swiftly. She grasped for Yujin’s hand to stand, deciding on a whim to keep holding it as she led them toward the field. “Come.”

”Ok, but where exactly are we going? You promised not school but told me to take you here, so if this is just a way to trick me into going to class you can give up now.”

“Just shut up and come this way.”

”You’re dragging me.”

”Then let go,” she said, stopping and glancing at where Yujin held her hand in return. It was warm and familiar now. She even loosened her grip to give Yujin the real option of parting, since space may have been something she needed. Still, she was relieved beyond belief when Yujin decided to hold on.

…

Halfway across the soccer field, Yujin realized where they were going.

“Did Manoban put you up to this?” she asked, tugging Wonyoung back to force her to stop. It backfired, however, because she did it at the exact moment Wonyoung took it upon herself to stand still, so she tugged Wonyoung into herself and the ground came at her with a swift vengeance.

The wind was knocked from her, her only reprieve being that Wonyoung was wide-eyed above her and otherwise unscathed. Even after everything Wonyoung put her through, she would have felt guilty hurting her in any way.

”What was that for?” Wonyoung sat up, straddling her unconsciously, looking down with concern that furrowed her brow. “Are you ok?”

”Accident, yeah. I’m fine. Just—just get up now,” she said, sitting up and pushing Wonyoung off of her as gently as possible. Not that touching her waist really helped the butterflies in her stomach or the heat rising to her cheeks. Nor did staring at Wonyoung, who was also blushing and staring and painfully pretty.

Right. She hadn’t even properly apologise. She also hadn’t told Yujin where they were going. Additionally, she had rarely done if ever done anything that was nice just for the sake of being nice. But Yujin couldn’t ignore the pull any longer.

She thought maybe some distance would help, maybe speaking ill of Wonyoung to Dad or going over all the reasons they wouldn’t work out would make these feelings go away. But if all it took was a light touch and their eyes meeting, she was doomed.

“Wonyoung,” she breathed. “I really—”

“Don’t,” Wonyoung interrupted, going as far as to lean in and slap a hand over her mouth. “Oops, sorry. That was harsh. I’m just not letting you steal my moment. Don’t say anything, ok?”

The second she pulled her hand away, Yujin disobeyed.

“How do you even know what I was going to say?”

”Because you’re looking at me like that.”

”Like what?”

Wonyoung swallowed. “Like maybe you like me too.”

“Maybe?” She smirked and put her hand lightly on the side of Wonyoung’s face. “Let’s test—”

It was Wonyoung who hurried forward to bring their lips together, their teeth knocking together. They both winced without drawing away, Wonyoung’s hand beginning near her shoulder and ending near her ear to brush over the stud on her ear. Yujin both loved and hated how it made her shiver.

Finally Wonyoung needed air, but Yujin found that despite running miles every day she too was panting. Wonyoung was worse off, though, so she drowned it out with her ragged breaths.

The kiss had been good. Very good. Probably just as good as their first one except maybe better, because this time it was just them and they shared the same silly grin on the turd of the soccer field.

“You’re really so impatient. I wanted to do it on the bleachers.”

”Do what, exactly?” she teased.

”I-I didn’t mean that. Don’t—Don’t make it weird.”

After tucking her hair behind her ear, Yujin discovered that Wonyoung’s blush reached all the way to the tips of them. Here she was in Yujin’s domain, her skin glowing red like a stop light, her lips so swollen and distracting.

Wonyoung was the one who asked Yujin to be here. She led Yujin here, told her to shut up, and kissed her. It was so… vulnerable.

Wonyoung half in her lap on the grass, one of her hands grasping Yujin on her face and the other around the side of her neck. Desire lit her eyes and seeped from her pores, giving her this effortless glow that somehow still managed to be a bit cold but was overall warm. A steady, humming sort of warmth that buzzed between them.

“Anyway, I wanted to say I’m sorry for breaking up with you.”

”And…?”

”And,” she drawled, leveling Yujin with a look that both scolded her for talking. “For some reason I actually like you,” she finished. “So I redact what I said about breaking up. We’re still together.”

A laugh rumbled Yujin’s chest.

”Is that your version of asking me out?”

“No.” She wrapped her arms around Yujin, tugging her into an embrace that doubled as a very obvious attempt at hiding her blush. “It’s not a question.”

“Oh, Wonyoung,” she sighed with faux wistfulness, returning the hug by encircling her waist. For several heartbeats she simply basked in the warmth of her. “I’m starting to think all you do is force my hand.”

“You like it.” She turned and her words hit the bare skin of Yujin’s neck, which proved to be a problem that set her nerves alight. “I’m glad we didn’t make it to the bleachers. Reminds me too much of everything.”

”Is that where it happened?”

Wonyoung hummed affirmatively. “And it still hurts to think about, so you better not break my heart.”

Wonyoung had been very vague about what she witnessed, but Yujin could paint a picture with all the tools Wonyoung had given her. Sunghoon kissing his teammate under the bleachers, an unsuspecting Wonyoung catching them in the act and probably announcing her presence with some kind of joke because expressing heartbreak would have taken vulnerability she didn’t have. Still didn’t. Yujin found solace in knowing she was working on it.

”I would never hurt you on purpose like that.” Neither one of them wanted to let go. Distantly, the bell rang to signal the end of whatever block was going on but neither of them even flinched. “Him, though. I'll break his face if you want me too.”

”Oh, don’t lie. You’ve been wanting to do that for a while now.”

“Caught me.”

Wonyoung laughed and burrowed further into her. This was the most physical she had ever been, Yujin hadn’t known she had it in her, but it also explained all the hand-holding and leaning into her side. She tried to keep her mind from wandering far, which wasn’t too difficult a task when Wonyoung’s voice brought her back to Earth.

“We should probably get going soon.”

”Yeah, probably.”

”But we’d have to take your bike.”

”Yup.”

”…”

”…”

Needless to say, they remained exactly where they were for a good while.

END

START Table of Contents

NOTE:

So that is all! I know it’s an abrupt ending but I wanted to leave it off on a positive note and I’m not the best at endings so… that’s all I got for now. was going to write an epilogue & expand the story if I ever posted it on AO3 along with a bunch of other edits including but not limited to:

- making Minju a bigger character

- adding that Wonyoung was ACTUALLY jealous in the locker room

+ slow down the development/realization of Wonyoung’s feelings

- featuring Sunghoon A LOT more

- going into more detail about why Wonyoung acts the way she does

- touching more on Yujin’s financial situation, create tension between she & Wonyoung over it

- writing in more times where Wonyoung was kind to Yujin, and how Yujin’s reaction to it changes slowly

But, for the sake of brevity and my sanity, I didn’t want to make any of these edits before posting because this is just a little fun thing I wrote while practicing both 3rd person perspective and enemies-to-lovers vibes! If I ever post on the main, I’ll make sure to add more depth to the story

Just wanted to disclaim once again that this is the rawest form of a draft I’ve ever posted, I’m honestly not satisfied with it at all but if anyone made it this far, thank you! I have a feeling this would have sat in my drafts for a year and may not have been posted at all (almost 100%)… and honestly that felt like a bit of a waste of man hours so I hope you at least found some entertainment this little practice piece <33

If you want to come scream w me about annyeongz here is a link to my Tellonym and Zaqa, but of course you can always use the ask feature on tumblr as well, or just close this and move on with life—All are perfectly valid!

If by some chance anyone new is here, I have other annyeongz fics on AO3 (but NSFW warning)

For anyone wanting to go the extra mile, I also have a Ko-fi!

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 5 - Also Untitled…

Wonyoung hadn’t missed a day of school since she got the flu in elementary school, and even then she had to be forced to go home by her teacher. That was, of course, until the day Yujin Ahn sunk a knife into her back.

She clearly didn’t know she said something offense by the dead-in-headlights look she gave with pudding smeared all over her face, but Wonyoung didn’t care. She walked away all the same, unable to bring herself to care about the people who stared at her as she did.

So she wasn’t at school the next day. Rather, she was rolling around in her bed. It wasn’t like her parents would know because they were at work, so she planned on spending the entire day there wallowing in her own self pity.

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she was so dumb for thinking that Yujin was actually nice to spend time with, even if for a moment. Eating lunch with her had been peaceful and short, the time passing easily as they switched between scheming, comfortable silence, and sometimes even a regular conversation.

And Yujin hadn’t even texted her any sort of apology, either. Clearly she didn’t care that what she said cut deep—deeper than Wonyoung wanted it to.

She hated thinking about how she pretended. She knew she didn’t but only because it was necessary. Her parents would absolutely loathe her if she became some sort of outcast while carrying their name, so the natural thing to do was elevate herself as much as possible by any means necessary. If that meant medicine sex with Sunghoon, so be it.

What she couldn’t tolerate was Yujin throwing those words around like it was some kind of game for her. Like it was something she did because she wanted to. Like she wouldn’t much rather argue with Yujin for hours than have him touch her ever again. Looking back, she wasn’t sure how she tolerated it in the first place. Especially knowing it meant nothing to him.

A knock at the door interrupted her little pity party. Her hair was unkempt. Her pyjamas clinged to her in some places. Her stomach growled because it was late into the afternoon and she hadn’t had a bite to eat yet. Thinking it was Yuri at the door, she descended the steps anyway.

A second knock gave her pause. Yuri didn’t knock twice… ever. She checked the peephole and groaned, trying not to care that Yujin had her arms full of things.

“Shouldn’t you be at school?”

“Shouldn’t you?” she quipped, then thought better of it. “Sorry—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean what I said the other day. Can you open the door?”

“No.”

“Wonyoung, I’m sorry,” she said with much more sincerity. Wonyoung took a peep and saw a slight pout on her face. “I was just trying to mess around. I didn’t really know what happened between you guys. And I guess I still don't, but can we talk about it? I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

Wonyoung didn’t really want to think about what this was all about. Yujin shouldn’t have cared about her enough to skip school to apologize and bring her lunch and chocolate. Though Wonyoung supposed she also wasn’t supposed to care about what Yujin thought. Yujin was the one person whose opinion Wonyoung didn’t care about. She didn’t know why this one matter was different.

She fought with the lock on the door and swung it open with a huff.

“As long as this doesn’t make us friends,” she said, disappearing into the couch to collapse onto the couch. “And take your shoes off.”

“Uh—Yeah. Of course.”

..

One of the first things she asked Yujin was how she knew what her favourite chocolates were and what her favorite restaurant was. Yujin said she’d mentioned it before but Wonyoung asked how she knew everything exactly. Her order and her favourite flavour box of French chocolates.

“I talked to Yuri,” Yujin mumbled.

“You what?”

“I told Yuri I hurt your feelings and asked her what—”

“Just shut up. Why did you involve her in things? She’ll never leave me alone about it now.”

“Why is it a big deal?”

Wonyoung gave her a leveling look. It was like Yujin forgot the reason she was here in the first place was because Wonyoung was upset at her. Yujin seemed to recall that. She apologized again before sighing longly.

“So now that I’ve spent all my money on you, will you tell me what Sunghoon did? Did he say what I said? Is that why?”

“No.” She popped a strawberry truffle in her mouth and made Yujin wait until she finished it. “He cheated on me.”

“He—” Yujin was cut off by her own shock, her eyes doing the same saucer thing they did when she was really taken aback. She sounded a little breathless. “Why would he do that?”

“Because he’s awful.”

“Yeah, clearly, but I didn’t realize he was stupid too.” The way Yujin said it made Wonyoung’s heart slip for a second. Like it was such an obvious thing. It felt nice, having someone aside from Yuri defend her like that. “Do you know who it was?”

“I saw.”

“Oh. Damn. Don’t you want revenge on them, too.”

“Not really,” Wonyoung sort of trailed off. “I just feel bad for him.”

“Sunghoon?”

“No, obviously not Sunghoon.”

“Then who do you feel bad for?”

“Sunoo,” she supplied, opening the carbonara Yujin brought for her. It was still warm to the touch. “That’s who I caught him kissing.”

Yujin looked even more surprised, if that was possible, because she choked on thin air and her eyes were on the verge of bulging out of her head.

”Yeah, so there’s more than one reason I couldn’t tell the truth, but the most important one was that it was just really embarrassing.” She twisted the plastic fork around in the noodles to get a good bite. “I’m just the idiot who let him get away with that stuff under my nose. How bad of a girlfriend was I not to notice? That’s what they’d think.”

”I don’t think anyone would blame you.”

”Well you don’t know most people, then.”

”Why do you care about it?” Yujin asked very carefully, dropping from the couch to the floor, scooting closer to where Wonyoung’s feet touched the floor. It was a nice gesture, allowing Wonyoung the easier task of lowering her gaze. “If those people would think bad of you so easily, did they even matter in the first place?”

Wonyoung scoffed, not wanting to think about this for the millionth time. What Yujin didn’t understand was that not caring was easier said than done. It wasn’t a switch you could actually flip, however easy it was to pretend.

“Easy for you to say. You don’t have anyone but your soccer minions.”

”They're not minions,” Yujin said with a smile, watching Wonyoung take the first bite of her food. “They’re my friends and I don’t need any more. You’re too insatiable.”

Wonyoung eyed her while she swallowed, licking the corner of her lip afterward. The look in Yujin’s eyes was strange. It was as if she was looking a little deeper than usual, peering through a window Wonyoung didn’t notice was cracked open.

”Don’t you like that?” she threw back at Yujin, stealing Yujin’s slight smile. “Isn’t that why you agreed to this?”

”No…” She broke their eye contact for probably the third time ever. “I just thought it would be fun.”

”And is it?” She took a small enough bite that it only took a few seconds to swallow. “Am I fun?”

”You’re… definitely something,” Yujin said from her spot on the rug, hugging her knees to the chest and leaning back on the cushion beside Wonyoung. The following silence was comfortable until Yujin seamlessly asked what was next for them and they resumed their usual schemeding like nothing ever happened.

Except something did happen and it hung over them, silent but deadly. It was hidden in the distance between them. One that was smaller than usual but still there, if barely, waiting for just the right moment to snap.

..

It was Wonyoung who insisted they do more, but it was also Wonyoung who found herself getting nervous about it. She blamed Yujin in her head and under her breath, mumbling to her about how sweaty her hand was or how terrible she was holding it. It got to an uncomfortable point, Yujin’s clammy hands in the awkward way she interlaced their fingers.

”You’re really helpless,” she snapped after school one day, both of them piling into Yujin’s newest vehicle. She had owned three different cars in the short period Wonyoung had known her, since it was sort of a routine for her to drive whatever hadn’t been sold at her father’s shop. This one was a Volkswagen. The windows didn’t even roll up.

”I’m trying my best, ok? Sorry if I’m not up to your standard.”

”That’s the understatement of the year.” She was distracted by her seatbelt, the buckle was really tricky, so she didn’t notice anyone approaching until she heard their voice.

”I see you two are at each other’s throats, as always,” Yuri said, dropping an envelope straight into Wonyoung’s lap. She nodded at Yujin. “Nice car.”

”Thanks. Might be the last one.”

”What is that supposed to mean?” Wonyoung said with her usual impatience toward Yujin, ripping open the envelope to verify its contents. Perfect. Two tickets with their names printed in the middle.

”It means I’m finally gonna get my—”

”Ah, perfect. Here.” She tossed the tickets into Yujin’s lap now, watching in great amusement as Yujin’s eyes widened.

“What? No way. I don’t do dances.”

”You do now.”

“No, I don’t. Homecoming is the worst one, too. All of this for football? The worst sport ever created?”

“Well it doesn’t matter what you think because you’re going. You’re dating me and I always do dances.”

Yujin groaned and slouched against the steering wheel, her next complaint drowned out by the sound of Yuri’s chuckle.

“Well I’ll leave you to your lover’s quarrel.” She gave Wonyoung’s hand a squeeze and walked away to where Yena waited, her eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Wonyoung reached over the console and took Yujin's hand, holding it with a sigh. The gesture was becoming a little too familiar, but she wasn’t exactly in any state to argue. She just leaned back against the headrest and closed her eyes, waiting patiently for Yujin to drive her back home.

..

Wonyoung first showed up to Yujin’s work to discuss what they would be wearing.

”Can’t this wait?” Yujin asked, and Wonyoung laughed at her ignorance.

”There’s nowhere else we can discuss it. If we do it at school everyone will know we had it planned. You have to ask me before we start talking about it. How do you plan on doing it?”

”I don't know, Wonyoung, I need a second here,” she said, tinkering with the insides of the motorcycle. She seemed like she wasn’t listening, yet she gestured toward the stool for Wonyoung to sit in, so she did, and she spent a few minutes spinning back and forth waiting for Yujin to be done. It was taking too long.

”How long will this take?” she asked, kicking Yujin’s thigh with the tip of her shoe. “Hello?”

”You’re impossible.” Yujin set down her wrench and wiped down what she was doing with a cloth, some sort of oil transfer. She poured more onto the sides of the bike and the dull metal became shinier. “It’ll take a while. I’m just doing the outside now so it looks nice. What do you think?”

”I think whoever would ride that thing is certifiably insane. Now how do you feel about pink?”

”Insane?” Yujin grinned. “You’ll be riding it soon.”

“What?” She couldn’t stop the bit of fear that made her voice squeak. “No I won’t.”

”Well its my bike.”

”Then sell it and get a real car? One with four doors and working windows, preferably.”

” Sorry Princess, you can’t bully me out of this one.” Yujin crouched and shined a lower piece of metal, strategically facing away from Wonyoung’s piercing gaze. “But pink sounds fine. I can get a pink tie.”

”Yujin, I'm not going to homecoming on a motorcycle. What about my hair? My dress? No way. You’ll rent us a real car.”

“Nope,” she said, popping the P. “I haven’t even asked you to go yet.”

”It’s non-negotiable.”

”Isn’t everything with you?”

“Yujin,” she groaned, standing from the stool to snatch the cloth out of Yujin’s hand. She threw it to the side carelessly, not bothering to watch it hit the floor. “This is important to me. We have to go and it has to be perfect. This is when he’ll confront me.”

“And why would he do that?”

”Because I’ll be irresistible, obviously.”

“So what are you normally?” Yujin still wore her most infuriating smirk, and even where she kneeled on the ground felt like somewhere far above. “Because I really think if he wanted you he would walk up to you no matter what you’re wearing.”

”You just don’t understand him like I do. I’m the one who dated him, just trust me. The second I leave the gym he’ll come after me,” she argued, her hands on her hips. “All you have to do is make him jealous.”

”And what then?” She couldn’t miss the bob in Yujin’s throat as the older woman stood. At her full height with her boots on, Yujin was taller than Wonyoung in her flats, but Wonyoung knew by now the reality was that they were the same height. Why was it, then, that it never felt that way? Especially not when Yujin looked at her like that. “Are you gonna get back with him?”

“I already said I wasn’t. Why are you so hung up on that?” Her eyes drifted back to the motorcycle, which looked better only in the spots Yujin made shine. “I just wanna make him regret what he did by showing I’m better.”

“You don’t need to show that, Wonyoung. You just are.”

Yujin moved to wash her hands in the nearby sink and Wonyoung couldn’t help but follow, her heads neatly behind her back as she dried not to brush against anything that would stain the lazy hem of her sundress.

“Careful, Jinnie,” she teased, because she’d heard Yujin’s father call her that a lot—pretty much exclusively. “It almost sounds like you’re complimenting me.”

Yujin dried her hands and raised a brow. Everything about it felt so dangerous, from the look in her eye to the smile they shared.

“And what if I am?”

Wonyoung crossed her arms and took a step away, putting some distance between them that would expand right after she said, “Then you should probably ask me to homecoming.”

..

Wonyoung did not need to fake how happy she was when she was approached by a Yujin wielding flowers and a sign, nor did she need to pretend she was so excited she pretty much jumped into her arms. Though those were secrets she would take to the grave.

She had to admit, despite the success of her plan, there were many things about it that unsettled her.

They would have been walking between classes (because Wonyoung insisted Yujin walk her), and she would have been telling Yujin about some rumour she heard, and they would have passed Sunghoon without her noticing. It happened many times., where she would be with Yujin and completely forget Sunghoon existed. Perhaps it happened more frequently than it didn’t.

It was also that as homecoming loomed on the horizon, Yujin grew better and better at things that Wonyoung criticised for her. First the hand-holding, then being late to lunch, then not giving her enough gifts at school. After enough encouragement in the form of arguing, Yujin got the hang of what Wonyoung liked and Wonyoung wasn’t sure whether to enjoy it or hate it. Based purely on the principle of it being Yujin, she decided on the latter.

“I’m honestly really surprised,” Yena said one day, because spending time with Yujin unfortunately meant spending time with the rest of her band of thieves. Yena’s gaze shot to where Yujin held Wonyoung’s hand, a few of them walking from the field to the main part of campus before the morning bell rang. “You guys are actually kinda… cute together.”

Both of them opened their mouths to say something, looking at each other like they wanted to protest but also knew better. It should’ve been more awkward than it was. It should’ve felt at least a little bit wrong. And it certainly shouldn’t have been a statement that made a sensation akin to pride bubble in Wonyoung’s chest.

“Thanks,” Yujin said before Wonyoung could get her bearings, and that was that.

..

Sometimes Yujin would be very tired.

It reminded Wonyoung that Yujin didn’t have such a simple life, which almost made her feel guilty for being just another burden on the older girl’s shoulders. Then she remembered it didn’t have to be that way. This was, after all, an arrangement intended to be mutually beneficial. (And she pointedly ignored the voice that questioned why she cared about Yujin’s burdens in the first place, when she used to do everything in her power to poise herself as one.)

After their first embrace when they announced they would be attending Homecoming together, Wonyoung made hugs a regular part of their routine. She tried to tell herself it was just for show, but sometimes she would do it when Sunghoon or his closest friends weren’t anywhere nearby. Sometimes she would just do it when she could tell Yujin was having a rough day.

“What are you…” Yujin trailed off one of the first times she did this, but then she simply sighed and hooked her chin over Wonyoung’s shoulder, submitting to the gesture just as easily as submitted to the rest of her whims (Even if she insisted that submission wasn’t the right word).

It felt much better than it should’ve. Yujin may have been terrible at everything romantic but hugs were certainly not a weak point. The way her arms either looped around the small part of her back or came up to hold the higher part was nothing short of warm and cozy.

Sometimes Wonyoung didn’t even know what she was doing. Like one time Yujin had a late practice and Wonyoung found herself watching from the bleachers as the sun fell in the sky, grateful that Yujin did not question it by the time she was done. Instead, they went for ice cream and laughed about how Yujin fell on her face in an attempt to score a goal.

It was all so… confusing. But it wasn’t supposed to be, and Wonyoung wasn’t sure when it started being that way.

It was like she was driving and the windshield fogged and she was supposed to arrive at her destination anyway. But she didn’t know where she was going anymore, and wasn’t sure why Yujin was in the passenger seat. She just had this really bad feeling that if that were the case she would end up driving them straight off a cliff.

There was something so easy about digging a hole for yourself, falling into it, and not realizing you were suffocating until the moment before the lights went out. Like hitting the brakes too late, making no attempt to defrost that window until she crashed into the ravine she installed by the roadside.

Though, admittedly, Wonyoung always had a penchant for theatrics. A proclivity for the dramatic. Hence the whole fake-dating-her-ex’s-enemy thing in the first place.

She’d long learned to ignore the voice of better judgement in the back of her mind because it was shaky wrong, and thus it did not usually twirls the result she was looking for. Because, here again, she knew if she listened to the voice telling her to just stop the thing with Yujin, she wouldn’t succeed. Sunghoon would just laugh behind her back or maybe even in her face for attempting to have something with Yujin.

But what was the goal here? Sunghoon would follow her at homecoming, sure, where she would be wearing a beautiful baby pink dress that stopped at her mid thigh that matched Yujin’s tie—They went and had it altered together, where Yujin almost fell asleep—but what exactly did Wonyoung want to say? What could she tell him that she didn’t think he already knew? What could she say to Sunghoon that would serve as the verbal equivalent of removing the knife from her back and pushing it straight into his?

Very late at night, after half an hour of silence with Yujin soft snoring on the other end of the line, it came to her. Just like that… so simply… so easily… She knew what to say.

She’d rather not consider why the thought entered her mind at all.

NEXT Chapter 6 - Homecoming

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 3 - Die Hard

Yujin wasn’t so bad. She wasn’t very good at holding hands, accepting kisses on the cheek, or generally being romantic, but thankfully Wonyoung had enough experience for the both of them.

It was almost enjoyable.

The first time they had to fake it was a bit of a surprise. Yujin some friends were forcing their way in to see one of their dates. Although Wonyoung expected this sort of thing from both sides, she hadn’t expected it so quickly, so she had to think on her feet.

She was good at fake niceties, though, good at chatting with her hand in Yujin’s lap and “unconsciously” leaning closer because she knew her friends were paying attention.

“Think they bought it?” Wonyoung asked, though she was mostly teasing her. She’d have to be blind not to notice the blush high on Yujin’s cheeks that night.

“Yeah, maybe.”

“Are you always this shy?” Wonyoung stopped in front of her building. Which was literally her building, or her father’s anyway, and she lived on the top level. “I guess I have to go now. You can answer me tomorrow over breakfast.”

She turned away but Yujin wordlessly caught her wrist, spinning her back around after sliding up her arm.

“I have work tomorrow.”

“What work? It’s a Saturday.”

“My job.” Wonyoung was a bit surprised when Yujin squeezed her arm before letting go. She was already getting better at this, which should be a comfort but is also a bit alarming. “But I’m free for lunch, as long as it isn't a date. Since we aren’t really dating.”

“Don’t flatter yourself. I just want to know where we’re going from here, how we’re gonna act at school on Monday. You just clearly aren’t the hand-holding type.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Yujin tried to sound offended but it just made her smile.

“Nothing,” she said. “I didn’t know you had a job.”

“Yeah. Is an hour long enough? Or maybe we can get dinner—but I thought dinner was a little too much like a real date, so—”

“Yujin,” she cut in with a chuckle. “Lunch is fine, just tell me where. It’s a little chilly out for a chat.”

The taken aback look on Yujin’s face was also quite cute. There were a lot of things about Yujin that were cute, which was a good thing because Wonyoung never liked cute. Part of her was worried Sunghoon wouldn’t buy this because of that. They’d have to be really convincing.

Good thing Wonyoung was very persuasive.

..

What Wonyoung did not expect was for Yujin to work in a… dumpster? Garbage truck? She wasn’t quite sure when she first stepped into the little diner, but from what she could glean Yujin’s discheeved condition—blue, stained coveralls and messy hair—she got her hands dirty.

“What hole did you just crawl out of?” she said before sipping on the straw of her Diet Pepsi. “And you smell like… oil.”

“Is it that bad?” Yujin sniffed her arm, easily making Wonyoung grimace. “Guess I’m just used to it.”

What in the world did she get herself into?

Apparently Yujin worked at an Auto Shop, which was strange but not exactly surprising. Her father owned it and she got paid minimum wage, which made Wonyoung feel bad enough to try and pay for the bill. Try because despite Wonyoung already having her credit card in hand, Yujin set cash on the check.

Wonyoung really should’ve argued, just used her parents' pile of money to pay for her things like she did everything else, but she didn’t. That forty dollars Yujin gave her still sat in her wallet waiting to be used on something she wasn’t couldn’t have her parents knowing about, but that would be for down the line…

Wonyoung spent a long time on the menu while Yujin didn’t even take a glance. She clearly had come to this place frequently, one of the servers even giving her a wave as she passed by. In the end, Wonyoung decided to get a Caesar Salad, watching in half disgust and half amusement as Yujin scarfed down her burner and fries barbarically. She had a streak of ketchup on the corner of her lip, so Wonyoung wiped it because she was close enough to.

Yujin went quiet for a bit after that, her rambling cut short only until Wonyoung inquired as to why she stopped. But aside from that incident, for most of Yujin’s lunch break they had forgotten to talk about anything they came to discuss. Instead, Yujin got lost in rambling about the inner workings of her job and Wonyoung miraculously found herself being genuinely interested. All she knew was which brands were the most expensive, not why or whether they were worth all the money in the first place.

“Maybe you can come by some time, my dad wouldn’t mind.”

“Meeting your parents so early?” Wonyoung joked as the two of them made their way outside the now cramped space. “You’re getting awfully ahead of yourself these days.”

“Oh, I was just joking” Yujin scratched her nape.

Wonyoung tried to stifle the bubbling disappointment in her chest. She shouldn’t have expected more from Yujin and wasn’t supposed to want it. The small silence reminded her that they should get to it already, no more dancing around the subject.

She brought up how they didn’t talk about Monday at all and Wonyoung’s instinct, then, was to propose they meet again tomorrow. But Yujin was busy, so Yujin proposed they get breakfast instead. But that didn’t work for Wonyoung, who promised Yuri they could go to this cafe.

“But you could come with,” Wonyoung said, her tone somewhat questioning. “I didn’t technically tell Yuri what was going on but I did tell her I wanted to get Sunghoon back. I’m sure she’d be more than willing to scheme with us.”

“Don’t you think it would work better if she believed it, though? And could she really keep it from Yena for long enough?”

“It shouldn’t take long. We should make our move at homecoming.” She was about to go into more detail but Yujin stopped and when Wonyoung glanced to her right she saw the little shop, all three of the service garages wide open, only two of them occupied by maintenance workers. “But I guess I can just give you a call tomorrow night? It’ll be better to discuss it right before school, anyway, whatever we decide to do.”

“Yeah, totally.”

One of the men working in a garage noticed them, perking up at the sight of Yujin. Must’ve been her father. Wonyoung smiled and waved, drawing Yujin attention to him as well, though Yujin failed at giving him any greeting.

“K I’ll call you.”

.

So they started talking on the phone.

They made plans for Monday, deciding in the end they needed to keep it a secret for longer. Yujin trusted the girls to keep it a secret as she already told them to as she waited for Wonyoung to decided their next moves, and while Wonyoung initially wanted to dive head first into this and shout from the rooftops she was dating Sunghoon’s (and her own, albeit former) mortal enemy.

“You know I disliked you more than Sunghoon,” Yujin said, her voice a little scratchy and tired. It was about one o'clock and they’d long forgotten about the next morning. “It was a different kind of dislike, though. I didn’t hate you. It was just a stronger feeling because it felt like you should know better.”

“About what?”

“Just… about him. Being with someone like him.”

Wonyoung sighed. “Congrats. You finally got to say you told me so.”

When news got out that Wonyoung and Sunghoon were dating sometime last year, the first thing Yujin did was corner Wonyoung after school to tell her she was making a mistake. Wonyoung, already knowing about the rivalry between them, simply rolled her eyes, walked away, and brushed the whole thing off, but after everything that memory came drifting back into focus.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Yujin said, oddly soft. Wonyoung blamed a lack of sleep.

Wonyoung hung up after that, abrupt but necessary. She was afraid she never would’ve done it if not then, and her hesitation hovering over the red button made her think that maybe it would be better if they speed things along. Maybe Wonyoung should just keep hating Yujin, keep judging the way she eats, the way she dresses, the way she speaks, instead of allowing herself to see them as cute. Because at the end of the day she didn’t like Yujin and she didn’t want to. She decided then, as she let sleep consume her, that she would commit to not liking her.

Old habits really did die hard.

.

“That movie is atrocious,” she spat out, clutching her textbook to her chest.

Yujin gasped exasperatedly, their arms brushing as they walked down the hall when she gestured wildly for no real reason other than to express her frustrated disbelief.

“It’s amazing. It’s a classic.”

“It’s action porn and it’s old and grainy. Whiplash is the best movie.”

“What? The ending is so bad. Why would you enjoy something like that?”

“Because unlike Die Hard it’s realistic. Good art should mimic life, after all.”

“You’re so pretentious.”

“You’re just too thick headed. It puts me to sleep.”

“Have you even watched it fully?! It’s good!”

Wonyoung found a laugh slipping free at how passionate Yujin was, her steps more like little hops as they crossed the rotunda. Soojin smiled at them as she scaled the stairs and they Wonyoung back before Yujin moved to hold the door open, failing to notice Soojin at all in her desperation to convince Wonyoung her awful movie was good. Medicine maybe, but not good.

Anyway, the appearance of Soojin had her thinking. She wondered how long the girls on the team would keep the secret for, if they even believed it all, or if anyone in the school would believe it even if it got out. It had been almost an entire week. They’d been walking around together but it was all friendly. They never crossed any lines, but it did its job in pissing Sunghoon off. Seeing them “get along” was enough to bother him, even if their conversations more resembled heated debates where Yujin battled Wonyoung’s logic with phrases like “it just is” or a very dismissive “ok princess” and Wonyoung wanted to gouge her eyes out.

“No, I haven’t fully watched it but the point is that I don’t need to in order to surmise that it’s no masterpiece.”

“Can you not talk like that? You’re losing me in your fancy rich talk.”

“Ad hominem”

“Add huh?”

Wonyoung rolled her eyes, smile tugging at her lips.

“Have you ever paid attention in a literature class?”

“I’ve never taken one.”

“You disgust me. You’re just wrong.”

“Ok, Princess.” See? She even let out an amused little huff like Wonyoung was the stupid one. “Whatever you say.”

God, Wonyoung really hated her. She couldn’t wait for all of this to be over so she would never have to deal with Yujin’s idiocy ever again.

The fact that she willingly subjected herself to it almost every night on the phone was merely for the purposes of making an ironclad plan. That was all.

.

“Vengeance becomes you, Wonyoung,” Yuri half jokes.

Yujin has yet to crash one of their Sunday breakfast dates, which is obviously because Yujin is avoiding it and not because she’s actually busy. Whenever Wonyoung proposes they go anywhere with Wonyoung’s friends, suddenly she has something better to do.

But it was fine. She enjoyed her alone time with Yuri and honestly it gave her a breath of fresh air away from Yujin, whose presence was just so suffocating.

“See you keep saying things like that and mentioning your master plan to make Sunghoon… whatever you’re trying to make him, but it seems like you just want to talk about her.”

”Yujin?” Wonyoung asked, affronted. “Don’t be ridiculous, I can’t stand her and she can’t stand me and that’s all. It’s to get back and Sunghoon.”

“What’s in it for her?”

“She hates him.”

“Why? Because he’s better at soccer?” Yuri let out as a scoff, taking the final bite of her croissant and shaking her head. “Please, that’s such a sorry excuse. It’s always been about you.”

Wonyoung didn’t know what to do with that, so she simply finished the reset of her latte and stormed away without paying her part of the bill, the September wind cutting her deep.

Yuri was just plain wrong. Yujin had always hated her for being the exact opposite of what she stood for. Wonyoung was all about vanity and social status and how many people she could surround herself with; Yujin was whatever the opposite was. Looking like she rolled out of bed, did things to antagonize people, and kept only a tight circle. Wonyoung only hated her back because somehow, despite all odds, people liked her for it.

Why was it so difficult? Why did Wonyoung have to jump through all these hoops to get what she wanted but for Yujin it just fell into her lap? People just liked her, easy as that, and it seemed so unfair.

Almost. But then she imagined Yujin all sweaty in her workshop and changed her mind right away.

This little morning with Yuri… she’d just have to erase it from her memory altogether if she wanted to remain civil with Yujin. If she let it get to her, she just may explode and end it before Sunghoon even found out, which would be the worst possible outcome because it’d mean she did this all for nothing.

And, god, if there wasn’t something Wonyoung hated more than dedicating herself to something only for it to slip away. She had to fix this right now, before things got to that point.

NEXT Chapter 4 - Lines in the sand

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 2 - Untitled

Yujin had practice after school, so she rushed to the bleachers to tell Wonyoung that. But the second she saw her sitting there with her legs crossed, one of her feet bobbing as she gazed blankly at the field, she found herself slowing to stare. 

She’d never really seem Wonyoung as anything more than Sunghoon’s girlfriend. Another one of his little pawns—He was so terrible in so many ways, she never understood why anyone would want to be with him. Especially Wonyoung, who seemed so pretty she could have had anyone she wanted. 

Wonyoung somehow noticed her, giving her an impatient look with pursed lips.

”Sorry,” Yujin said when she got close enough, throwing her backpack and duffle bag down before sitting beside her. “Had to catch my breath.”

”Why? You play soccer.” Wonyoung turned and she was so close, Yujin had to back away slightly so as not to be distracted by the proximity. As much as she disliked Wonyoung for her association with Sunghoon and generally being a stuck-up priss, she was quite pretty. “Anyway, I’m hungry. You should buy me food first.”

Yujin gave her a look. “I have practice.”

Wonyoung simply held out her hand saying, “Still,” and somehow Yujin understood her. Somehow she just knew what Wonyoung wanted, and somehow she was willing to give it to her. She reached into her duffle, digging through for her wallet and giving Wonyoung a twenty. “Inflation,” she said with a cunning smirk. Yujin added another twenty. 

The little giggle she let out as she pocket the money took Yujin aback, however slightly. She didn’t know Wonyoung made sounds like that, honestly never saw her as the type to let out a genuine laugh, which she knew deep down was foolish but didn’t fully realize until it was dislodged by firsthand experience. 

“So are you gonna actually tell me what happened or did you just want to rob me blind?”

”Hey, you’re the one who handed the money over,” Wonyoung defended, sighing like she would rather be somewhere else but her smile gave away how much fun she was having. “And I’m not gonna tell you what happened. I’m just gonna tell you what we can do to make him regret what he did.”

”We?” Yujin stuck on that word until she registered the rest of them. “And wait—He did something to you? I thought you said it was mutual.”

”Yeah. It was mutual after he did something to me.”

”That’s not what mutual means.”

”It means whatever I wanted it to mean,” she snapped in that way she always did. Always so angry. Yujin always enjoyed drawing it out of her, pressing the buttons she knew made her tick, but in this moment she found herself resisting. She huffed a sigh and continued—“Now you know the only one who hates you more than me is him, right?”

”Uh, yeah.” Though Wonyoung hating her so much was news to her. She always saw it as something proximal. Her dislike for Wonyoung rarely felt like hate. It was just such a strong word reserved for people like Sunghoon. 

“Exactly. So he would never expect you and me together, and he would especially never be able to live down the rumor that it was because of you.”

”What? I don’t under—”

”Me and you,” Wonyoung cut in with a hint of agitation. “Together.”

”Together…?”

”Dating,” she supplied, confirming a suspicion that felt ridiculous until it became reality. Wonyoung took her hand, her eyes widening at how easily Wonyoung threaded their fingers together. “Rumour has it, I left him for you.” 

The way Wonyoung said it made a wave of heat go through Yujin. She shook Wonyoung’s hand off of her, backed away further, and fought the blush creeping up her neck.

”He—He’d never let anyone believe that.”

”He doesn’t have a choice. I have something on him.”

”Ok, but what—How does this get back at him?”

”Because he’ll obviously want me back the second you have me. If it were anyone else it’s whatever but if it’s you it’s different.”

”So this is all to get him back?” Yujin swallowed the lump in her throat and the hole in her wallet. No way she shelled out forty dollars for this shit. This crazy, stupid, insane idea that seemed like a means to no real end. “You realize I don’t win here, right? You use me to get him back and then I’m what? Chopped liver?”

”Of course not.” Wonyoung looked thoroughly offended. “You think I’m an idiot? I’d never get back with him.”

”Then why—”

”Can you stop interrupting and just let me talk?” she spat out, rolling her eyes when Yujin mimed the motion of zipping her lips shut. “I won’t get back with him but I’ll make him think I will, and then I’ll be with you the whole time.”

Yujin scoffs. “He’ll just tell everyone he’s with you.” 

“I said no interrupting.” Wonyoung held her hand again out of the blue, stunning Yujin all over again. She decided not to fight it yet. “I have a plan for that.”

”Ok, well what—”

”Yujin!” shouted a voice that was certainly not Wonyoung’s. They both turned to face it, Rei at the bottom of the bleachers glancing between them. She stepped closer and her eyes widened. “Wonyoung? What are you guys—oh.”

”Oops, sorry.” Wonyoung stood and dusted off her skirt, making a show out of releasing Yujin’s hand. “Guess you caught us, we’re dating.”

”Wha—We—I—” Yujin stuttered. She had not agreed to this. “I never—”

Wonyoung silenced her with a kiss on the cheek. And that blush she was fighting? Yeah, she lost. Color flooded her whole face and felt like an idiot just sitting there, Wonyoung’s hand running through her hair, nails scraping her scalp in a very tingly way. 

”Oh that’s… unexpected,” Rei laughed out, coming to tug on Yujin’s shoulder. “Everyone’s looking for you right now. Try answering your phone next time.”

”Yeah, just a second,” she said, grabbing Wonyoung’s arm a little too roughly and forcing her to sit back down as Rei walked away with another laugh. She leaned in and had to force her voice into a low growl rather than a shout. “What the hell was that?”

”I’m giving you a way in, Yujin.” Wonyoung’s smirk had never been this broad before, a conniving shimmer in both of her eyes. As opposed to earlier in the hallway, she actually looked happy. “So you can go catch up to Rei and tell her not to say anything, because you know she won’t, or you can go in the locker room and tell everyone we’re dating, and that way we can take Sunghoon down together.” 

Well when she put it like that, it seemed so simple. It could be a trick. This could all come crashing down on her, that may even be the plan, a plan in which Wonyoung would stand atop the pile of ashes with that very smirk on her face. 

“Would I get my money back if I chose the first one?”

”Nope. You’d cut your losses.”

Even so, Yujin didn’t think this would end badly. Even though Wonyoung was clearly a lot more than the pawn she once saw her as, Yujin couldn’t bring herself to believe she could take everything away. Unlike Wonyoung, Yujin was too secure to fear one person taking it all away.

“Ok,” she whispered, standing and cracking her knuckles. Looking down on Wonyoung made things feel a lot more distant. “Just… wait for me. Let’s get lunch together after my practice.”

Wonyoung laughed and shook her head. 

“We’re not actually dating, Yujin.“ She started walking away, too far for Yujin to protest. “We don’t go on dates.”

Yujin had no choice but to watch her go, stunned by the events that occurred while being simultaneously mesmerized by the spring in her step as she receded into the distance.

…

Yujin almost didn’t lie when Soojin asked her what took her so long. She almost didn’t say Wonyoung’s name and almost called the whole fake girlfriend thing off. But Rei gave her a raised brow and she figured it was only a matter of time until Wonyoung spread it herself. 

So she told the lie. 

“What?” Yena gasped, pinning her against the locker in two seconds flat. “You’re lying.”

“I’m not.”

“You are. You don’t mess around with underclassmen.” 

It was true. Very true. So much so that she couldn’t outright deny it without giving some sort of plausible reason for breaking her own rules.

“Well, I… I’m not messing around,” she let out sheepishly, hoping and praying that her guilt for lying came off as emotional vulnerability. “I really like her.”

“Sounds like bullshit,” Yena said with narrowed eyes, but she let her go and threw her shirt into her hands. “I thought you hated her.”

“I hated Sunghoon. They broke up.”

“What? Why?” Yena asked, looking a bit offended. Yujin knew it was because Yuri must’ve failed to mention it, but did she not know how Wonyoung and Yuri were? Yujin wasn’t really friends with them and even she knew they were more like sisters. 

“Because I…” Yujin swallowed hard. This story was so fucking embarssing, of course it was what Wonyoung decided would make the best cover. “I told her I like her.”

It was really quiet and while Yujin was used to the attention, she wasn’t used to everyone’s eyes being wide.

“And why would you do that…?” Rei pressed on.

“Because I like her.”

Yena was the first to laugh, then Rei, but it was more a nervous sort of laughter than anything, like they were seeing if Yujin would join in and confirm it was just a joke. But it wasn’t—or it wasn’t supposed to be—so she didn’t laugh and they stopped because they knew it was true enough. 

“Oh my god.” Yena let out an amused huff from her nose. “We're talking about this at Enzo’s after practice. There’s just no way—” 

“I can’t go eat,” she blurted, her face a bright red. She knew it would only be worse if she was the centre of conversation at the pizza place near school. They would eat her alive then. “I've got a date with Wonyoung.”

That was somewhat the end of it, silence overtaking the space as those who hadn’t changed yet finished up.  

Yena leaned in, grinning to whisper, “I’m coming and watching.” 

“You’re not.”

“I am and there’s nothing you can do to stop me. I’ll follow you.” 

“Yena—”

“Yujin.” Their gazes both shot over to Ms. Manoban in the doorway, a small smirk on her face as she glanced between them. “And Yena, I suppose. You’re ten minutes late and you’re all doing a half mile.” 

Yena groaned and gave Yujin a shove. 

“Fuck. You’re buying a pizza for all of us now, just bring your stupid girlfriend along.”

“I can’t—I don’t—” Yujin tried, but Yena walked away, leaving only her to bang her head back against the lockers. “Have money for that…”

A long, heavy sigh squeezed itself  from her lungs. She gave Wonyoung the last of her big bills, so all she had was a measly ten bucks and some change. All she could think about while running laps around the track was how expensive this “relationship” was going to be. 

NEXT Chapter 3 - Die Hard

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

(DRAFT) — Better Than Revenge

As requested on Tellonym, here is the enemies-to-lovers fic from my drafts for those who are interested!

Warning it is unbetaed and unedited this fic is as raw as they come, hence it being posted on here and not AO3…. I apologize in advance for the errors, also for the subpar formatting

STRAIGHT FROM THE DRAFTS I PRESENT — “Better Than Revenge” (not inspired by the ts song /s)

~23k words

TAGS: (light)enemies-to-lovers, high school setting, slow-ish burn, banter, crushes, accidental feelings, SOME fluff, eventual kiss, confessions, rich!wonyoung, mechanic(?)!Yujin(😭), Not Proofread!

Synopsis:

Wonyoung, resident Queen Bee of Fairview High School, had her entire world shattered to pieces when she caught her picture-perfect boyfriend snogging someone else under the bleachers.

Of course she couldn’t let this get out. How embarrassing would it be if everyone knew? She’d be humiliated.

So she did the next best thing, which was obviously enlisting the help of his very worst enemy to get revenge on him.

The caveat? Wonyoung happened to hate her almost as much as he did, if not impossibly more.

(Unfortunately Yujin hated her right back.)

READ CHAPTER 1

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 - The enemy of my enemy

Chapter 2 - Untitled

Chapter 3 - Die Hard

Chapter 4 - Lines in the Sand

Chapter 5 - Also Untitled...

Chapter 6 - Homecoming

Chapter 7 - All's bad that ends bad

[violetgreeneao3]

BTR Chapter 4 - Lines in the sand

Yujin was fixing a blown out speaker quite early in the afternoon, so focused on the task that she missed the sound of shoes clicking. The ballet flats Wonyoung wore because she deigned normal shoes like the spoiled princess she was. Yujin wouldn’t have been surprised if one day she just started wearing heels to school, pretending to be an adult like she pretended to be everything else.

She hadn’t noticed Wonyoung’s entry until she heard a throat clearing. When she looked up and was met with a glare, her eyes widened.

“Why don’t you want to go to breakfast with us? Is it because Yuri’s there? Are you embarrassed about anyone else knowing? Because I can assure you I wouldn’t let her get the wrong idea. I already told her about us and—”

Yujin tugged her in too late, but she figured stopping Wonyoung now would be better than letting her ramble on, a thing she only did when she was particularly upset. The worst part about when she got like this was that Yujin didn’t know why half the time. Most of the time. Maybe all of the time.

“Stop,” she practically hissed out, her own cheeks burning because she could just feel her father’s gaze. The thought made her release Wonyoung’s arm and roll back in her stool, standing so she could have the height advantage, crossing her arms to put some metaphorical distance between them. “You can’t just show up here and yell at me over your problems. I’m working.”

“My problems? Their our problems,” Wonyoung said, instantly forcing Yujin to regret entertaining her because she was raising her voice by the second. “Or have you forgotten we’re in this together? It seems like you’ve been forgetting that lately. Every time I try to hold your hand at school you brush me off. What am I supposed to do with that? No one will ever believe it if all we do is walk around and argue.”

“Well maybe that’s for the best,” Yujin said, keeping her voice low in the hope that Wonyoung will get the hint. Too late, she thought better. “Maybe we can talk about this later, I really can’t be—”

“What’s for the best? Us ending things?”

Yujin’s heart stopped then, her eyes widening at the apparent hurt in Wonyoung’s eyes. It was a look Yujin didn’t think Wonyoung was capable of. Something that went beyond offense and dipped well into the realm of sadness.

Shit.

Whatever Sunghoon did, clearly it was worse than Yujin thought. It was so bad that the prospect of losing her chance to get back at him made a look like that appear on her face, and this overpowering force took hold of Yujin, shoving her better judgement away from the helm to force her to actually care.

This whole thing was more of a hassle than it was worth. At first she only did it because it seemed like it would be fun to watch Sunghoon seethe and squirm, and also to piss Wonyoung off in the process, but at some point over the past couple weeks her desires shifted.

Sure, they argued more than they agreed, but they also shared laughs and smiles and lunch breaks and cups of frozen yoghurt. She knew what toppings Wonyoung liked. She knew what dresses she preferred to wear. She knew how Wonyoung looked with and without makeup because she didn’t feel the need to always wear it with Yujin. That made them… friends. At least it felt like it to Yujin.

She didn’t let herself realize it until now, with Wonyoung biting her lip and turning away with a huff. Before she could stop herself, she caught her wrist.

“Wait,” she said, eyes still wide. “I’m sorry. I—I’ve just been busy. We can take the next step, whatever that is.”

Wonyoung spun back with a toss of her eyes and swatted Yujin’s hand away from her.

“We’ve talked about this a million times and you can’t even remember our timeline? We were supposed to have kissed by now.”

“Kiss?—What? Wh—”

“I just mentioned it the other night. You had nothing to say about it then.”

Yujin scratched her nape, eyeing the concrete floor. She fell asleep during that call as she did for most of the ones that ran into the am hours. She couldn’t stay up all night like Wonyoung since she actually had work, but for some reason she never had the heart to hang up. She would just keep jolting awake to the sound of her voice and not even getting mad over it. She tried to listen all she could, but it wasn’t enough. Nothing was ever good enough for Wonyoung.

That was part of why Yujin didn’t understand this obsession with Sunghoon. Whatever he did… Why couldn’t Wonyoung just let it go? Why did she have to center her life around some mediocre man instead of shining the star she knew she was? Why did she care if anyone disagreed with that assessment?

It all seemed so childish.

But Yujin wasn’t any better. She was here, now, playing along with the game when she should’ve been working.

“Hello there.” Both of their gazes met Dad’s. “I’m Bohyun, Yujin’s Dad. I think I’ve seen you around here a few times, stealing Yujin for lunch I assumed, but I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting you.”

“Oh, yes, that was me.” She stepped forward and offered her hand, an act that made Dad grin. “Wonyoung.”

Their handshake was firm. Yujin felt like her worlds were colliding and not in a good way. In a more cataclysmic way, the type of collision that springs a black hole.

She was about to jump in when Dad, true to his usual character, took the reigns of the conversation.

“So, are you and Yujin together? Yujin didn’t tell me about a—”

“No,” Yujin raced to say at the same time Wonyoung said, “Yes.”

Fuck.

This little sh—

“Oh. We’re actually just classmates,” Wonyoung said, her cheeks turning red and her charismatic persona fading away. The same voice she used when speaking to teachers became meeker, shy, and generally unbecoming. “She’s just been helping me with something.”

“Yeah, just something at school.”

“Aren’t you friends then?”

“Yes,” Yujin said at the same time Wonyoung said—very staunchly—“No.”

“Oh, Sorry ‘bout that. Just figured since you’ve been going off to lunch together you—” Dad’s eyes widened comically. Like he was realizing something that did not need realizing.

She literally opened her lips to reply but Wonyoung beat her to it. She’d never seen Wonyoung nervous talking to someone but, oh, her cheeks were vibrant and she clutched her little designer purse for dear life.

“Well it was nice to meet you. I have to go volunteer now so, um, have a nice day.”

Yujin hadn’t seen Wonyoung exit a scene as gracelessly as she did this one, the urgency audible in the light clicks of her receding steps. They both watched her until she disappeared out of the opened garage door, neither of them wanting to face the other because… well, it was awkward. His misunderstanding and her inability to find the words to clear it up.

“Didn’t take you for a heartbreaker, Jinnie,” Dad said, his tone more disappointed than Yujin had ever remembered hearing it. His arms were crossed and gaze was stern when Yujin finally met it. “I thought I’d raised you better than to hurt someone like this.”

“It isn’t like that,” Yujin said, desperation lacing her tone. She leaned against the car with a frustrated huff. “She just asked for my help to get back at her ex and I agreed. That’s what we’ve been talking about at lunch.”

He hummed thoughtfully, instantly believing her. She didn’t think she’d ever lied to him before, always faced the consequences of what she did when it was necessary. Thankfully this wasn’t one of those times.

“Well what did this ex do? Was it something involving you?”

“No. I don’t know what he did. I just know it really hurt her.”

Dad paused at that. He gave her a look that said he had a million more questions, then let out a sigh that said he would voice none of them. It was like he knew she didn’t need it, that every question that remained was one Yujin didn’t want to answer or didn’t know how to. Not yet. Maybe not ever.

He gave her a firm pat on the shoulder, squeezing firmly.

“Well I’m always here, kiddo.”

She smiled, letting out a sigh on her own.

“I know.”

..

“Ok so it’s been about three weeks now. I told Yuri to let it slip to Yena and she’s gonna say it’s not a secret, then I’m gonna get mad at her in the cafeteria today because it was supposed to be.”

Yujin was in a daze from morning practice. Manoban just pulled her aside and had a chat with her for five or so minutes, discussing the practice schedule for the upcoming game and confirming Yujin’s plans for their unmonitored practice, so mind her if her mind was not on Wonyoung, who decided that the soccer field at seven am was the perfect time to accost her about this bullshit.

“Ok, looks like you’ve it all fleshed out, Princess.” Yujin waved at the team as they passed, catching the ball that Yena threw with a smile. The guilt she felt for using them had faded, but seeing Yena then made it come back, albeit in a much smaller dose. It wasn’t like they were doing any real harm. Lying just wasn’t something Yujin was used to.

As they entered the locker room, Yujin said, “If you need me to do any lying, you should rethink. I’m no good at it.”

“Well all you’ll have to do is clam up when I yell at you for telling your teammates. I’ll surprise you on when to make it seem real, since I obviously know you’re a terrible liar. I mean, seriously, those chips were not good however much you tried to justify the purchase.”

She fought a smile at the memory. Both of them at a convenience store after practice, Yujin spotting these grape flavoured chips, Wonyoung telling her not to buy them despite never trying them. Yujin told her to never knock it, then tried to lie when they turned out to be awful.

“Are you done?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at a smiling Wonyoung.

“Nope. Do you think Yena is the type to spread it around after she finds out it’s ok? This part kinda hinges on the word getting around.”

“Dunno.” Yujin flung open her locker and removed her clean clothes, shoving all the old dirty ones into her duffle to clean later in the day. “But doesn’t it hinge on your yelling?”

“Uh, well sorta but I would seem kinda crazy if I yelled at her and it turned out Yena isn’t the type to tell.”

“I think you may just be crazy. No one will think about it that much.”

“Oh, shut up. It makes sense.”

“If you care so much, why don’t you just get Yena to do it?”

“Because that’s way too obvious? Catch up. Must I dumb everything down for you to comprehend ?”

“Sorry. My bad. I only just ran several miles and did army drills before the sun came up.”

“Boo-hoo. You don’t get to complain about something you signed up for.” Wonyoung leaned on the locker beside her, eyeing her movement as she reached the end of her dirty clothes. No clean ones were left. She must have miscalculated for the week. “This is what happens when you’re messy. I told you to sort your bag.”

“I did.” She argued, throwing the soccer ball into the empty space before slamming her locker shut. “I just didn’t do my locker.”

“You’re a real piece of work.”

She ignored Wonyoung and entered the code for Soojin’s locker, stealing a tshirt and some shorts because she always had a spare.

“What are you doing?” she said, her tone all clipped.

Yujin froze because it was one of her upset tones again, which was not unusual, but this one seemed too covertly bothered to brush off. Like Wonyoung was trying to pretend she didn’t care when she did. Like that time Yujin refused to tie her boot, then ended up kneeling down because Wonyoung said a very succinct, “Ok,” in that very same tone.

“I’m just… changing?”

“Who’s locker is that?”

“Soojin’s, she—”

“Why can’t you use Yena’s clothes? Or Rei’s?”

“Because they don’t have—”

“Why do you even know her locker combination?”

“Because I wear her clothes when I—”

“So this is a regular thing?”

“Yeah I just—”

“Just shut up already.” Wonyoung marched over with her eyes ablaze. She had this rage about her that Yujin usually enjoyed causing but not like this. Not when it was an accident, a fire she had no clue how to extinguish because the class was unknown.

She snatched the clothes out of Yujin’s hands and shoved it haphazardly back into Soojin’s locker, slamming it shut way too hard. Yujin thought better of saying anything, just watched as Wonyoung clicked the lock back and huffed.

“You’re not wearing another girl's clothes, Yujin. Are you insane? Are you really so stupid? You’re dating me. Not Soojin. If you need clothes you should wear mine.”

“Oh,” Yujin said, her voice cracking over the single sound, which could barely even be considered a syllable. “Can I use your clothes then?”

“No. I don’t have any clothes. Why would I? It’s not like I play soccer.”

Yujin didn’t even know what to say. She was at even more of a loss than she was during that little run-in yesterday at the shop, and that was saying a lot because at least then her Dad broke the silence.

Wonyoung set her bag on the bench, unzipped a compartment, and handed Yujin a little pink tube. She didn’t give Yujin any more time to think of what to say or ask before she huffed and marched away. Yujin could practically see smoke trailing from her ears, her fancy white Hilfiger sneakers echoing until Yujin could hear her steps no more.

She was left with a duffle bag full of dirty clothes from that weeks’ practices, toiletries, an empty space for her cleats, and other things. None of which were clean clothes. There was thankfully time to shower but she had to slip back into her jersey and soccer shorts, and even the socks which felt very wrong.

The little pink tube, she figured out as she dried her hair, was perfume. Wonyoung’s perfume, she knew now by heart, which was sickeningly sweet and absolutely nothing like what she would usually wear, but she sadly wasn’t stupid enough to not know what to do with it. Nor was she a good enough liar to pretend she was. She she spritzed herself with it and shot Wonyoung a simple texting asking to meet her for lunch, apologizing for what happened with Soojin’s clothes.

As the day burned by and everyone gave her weird looks for being in her soccer gear, she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Her only respite was Wonyoung texting back, telling her they could meet briefly in the courtyard, clearly still upset if her punctuation was any indication. (It usually was)

She was walking in the hall with Rei and told her what happened, and that was when Rei casually inserted an idea into her head. She said Wonyoung was the type to get really possessive and jealous when she dated people. Rei told Yujin that she did it with Sunghoon, wouldn’t even let him talk to girls she felt threatened by, then she weakly apologized for making Wonyoung sound so insecure. Yujin couldn’t even get caught up on it. She was so busy picking apart what happened in the locker room, trying and failing to find another way to explain why Wonyoung lashed out.

By the time lunch came, it was all that swam into her mind aside from the lingering scent of Wonyoung’s perfume.

She rocked nervously on her heels where she told Wonyoung to meet in the courtyard. A few groups of people were scattered along the brick planters to eat lunch under the sun. That was the scene when Wonyoung came marching over looking furious.

Right. Yujin almost forgot she was scheduled to blow up at Yuri at lunch, so she must have just come from that. No way she was this upset about the Soojin thing. No way she was this jealous, right?—But what else could it be?

“Wonyoung, I’m sorry,” she immediately tried, swallowing hard when Wonyoung said nothing. “I didn’t think you’d mind about Soojin’s clothes, really. I didn’t even think about it like that. I’ve never seen her or any of the girls that way and—”

Wonyoung bumped shoulders with her so hard she stumbled as she walked away, that look in her eye not even close to fading away. People were looking now, even peeking out of the cafeteria doors and walking out when they saw them, but Yujin didn’t process it fully at the moment. She simply turned on her heel and followed Wonyoung, a trail of apologies falling on apparently deaf ears until Wonyoung entered the hall, banking the first left into a stairwell.

Then, like a switch had been flipped, the light came back to Wonyoung’s eyes. A grin broke out on her face, one that Yujin had never seen before. It was all toothy and girlish, turning her eyes to crescents.

Yujin felt her heart skip and what should’ve been a relieved sigh came out as a soft, breathless sound.

“Oh my god, it worked so well.” She giggled. Actually giggled. “I didn’t expect you to be so sorry, but I guess I should thank you.”

“But… the clothes?” she could barely even manage, Wonyoung was so close and so smiley she seemed like a whole new person.

“I didn’t care about the stupid clothes, Yujin. I just wanted you to think I was mad at you so that could happen. And you,”—She booped Yujin’s nose—“Delivered perfectly.”

“You… played me?”

“Of course I did. You said it yourself. You’re a terrible actress. Plus,” she shrugged, stepping toward the stairs with an easy, elated smile. “You should’ve seen it coming. I’ll always be two steps ahead of you, Yujin. Don’t forget that.”

She winked. Winked. A real, actual wink before skipping up the stairs.

Yujin couldn’t have followed if she wanted to. She was too stunned. Wonyoung had made her wait nervously all day just in case Yujin didn’t put on a good enough show to convince everyone.

She wasn’t sure whether to be offended or impressed. Yes, Wonyoung had used her, but she was Wonyoung. That was what Wonyoung did and Yujin knew that better than anyone else at this school. She always played into it, but this one felt like an oddly low blow. But again, she was Wonyoung. This entire scheme itself was evidence she was willing to go to any and all lengths necessary to get what she wanted. In this case, it was revenge.

Yujin was a fool for—although being on her side—not anticipating being caught in the crossfire of it. It was inevitable, she and Wonyoung hurting each other, like a cycle she thought they broke when Wonyoung left Sunghoon, but no, of course not. The thing about cycles was that they never ended.

The lines had been blurred for a moment, she realized, when she made the mistake of actually feeling sorry. Giving in to Wonyoung’s anger was a new thing. She wasn’t used to being the one to quell it and she realized once more it wasn’t her job. They weren’t actually dating, as Wonyoung so kindly reminded her at every twist and turn. She was an idiot for even considering Wonyoung would actually be jealous over her. Such a fool.

It was just about revenge for her. That was all.

Yujin thought that maybe two could play at the game. After all, old Yujin never would’ve let Wonyoung get away with doing something like this to her. So maybe all she had to do was prove to Wonyoung once more that she had a seat at the table here. Sure, she’d been letting Wonyoung take the reins out of general ambivalence for whatever happened between her and Sunghoon, but now it was personal.

One thing about Yujin was that wasn’t going to take a punch like this lying down.

..

It felt a lot like how it used to be. Jab for jab. Tit for tat. Blow for blow.

Yujin started by standing her up at lunch, making sure that when Wonyoung showed up at the shop that she knew it was entirely on purpose. The anger on her face was perfect.

In an almost masochistic way, she couldn’t wait to see what Wonyoung would do.

She regretted that thought, though, when she found an extra lock on her locker. It was a pink heart with a keyhole, giving Yujin no chance to even guess the combination, but she just had to wear someone else’s spare practice clothes until they could snip it with some bolt cutters.

She got Wonyoung back by adding dye into her water bottle, knowing how embarrassed shed by the fact that her mouth was stained blue.

Wonyoung stole her shoelaces.

Yujin cornered her in the bathroom between classes, clicking the lock shut when the only other girl left. Wonyoung washed her hands and told Yujin to move aside, but Yujin refused, dead-set on forcing the teacher’s pet Wonyoung Jang to get a tardy that she couldn’t explain.

Wonyoung fought for it very desperately until the bell rang, and though she would never have been a match for Yujin’s strength, she also wasn’t the type to go down without a fight. She practically tackled Yujin against the door. Yujin kept her at bay with a mixture of using her body to block it and keeping Wonyoung far enough that she couldn’t reach.

By the time Wonyoung almost got it, she was laughing, though only after Yujin started laughing. It was just that once the bell rang and she wasn’t really fighting for anything anymore, she finally also found it funny.

Without knowing why, Yujin wanted to suspend the moment. She allowed Wonyoung to unlock the door only to grab her right wrist, then her left, easily bringing them over her head and slamming her helplessly against the door. She was really no match, Yujin had only been amused by her flailing attempts to escape the bathroom. But not then. Not when she pinned Wonyoung against the door and saw the stunned look on her eyes. Her smile fell with Wonyoung’s.

They stared. Both breathed heavily from the minutes of wrestling. Wonyoung’s hair was a lot messier than hers mostly because it was longer, more likely to be tangled. Wonyoung’s cheeks were flushed high up from the exertion of it, a dusty pink that was distinguishable from the rare embarrassed blush she’d seen rarely in other situations. Here Wonyoung was tired out. Panting. Flushed as their bodies were.

Yujin realized too late that their chests were touching. She released Wonyoung with a jolt like she burned herself. And maybe she did.

Wonyoung blinked a few times, then scrambled to get her bag. She left without meeting Yujin’s eye again, even redder by the time she’d left Yujin alone in the bathroom.

She was not sure if Wonyoung would retaliate. She had the feeling that was one they both enjoyed.

..

Yujin hadn’t really noticed what anyone thought of their relationship, but that was all Wonyoung was able to talk about during lunch. School lunch, that is, because Wonyoung insisted now that they were an open couple they needed to eat together.

Also, Yujin had to give her her cookie and pudding cup each day, which turned out to be the biggest shame.

“Why can’t it be the other way around?” Yujin groaned after only a couple days of this.

“Because it just is. You don’t get to complain.”

Wonyoung had been in a good mood lately, always chipper as they walked the halls. It was the new attention. It had to be. She was dating a Senior who notoriously didn’t date and the story was that Yujin pined over her.

God, Yujin really didn’t care what people thought of her but that… that was an exception. The idea of her wanting Wonyoung was so absurd she didn’t know why anyone believed it in the first place.

Sure, Wonyoung was pretty, smart, funny (when she wanted to be), and had a beautiful smile, but that didn’t mean Yujin wanted her. Just because she checked all the boxes Yujin had unconsciously drawn didn’t mean she had developed any feelings for her when she was with Sunghoon, her mortal enemy who she needlessly antagonised. All of these things were mutually exclusive.

“Admit it. You like it,” Wonyoung said while peeling the top off of Yujin’s pudding cup.

“I really don’t.”

“You do, you like giving me what I want.”

“Wonyoung.”

“What?”

“Don’t make it weird.”

Wonyoung froze in her scooping, the spoon suspended in chocolatey brown.

“I didn’t—I wasn’t thinking of it that way.”

The rising blush on Wonyoung’s cheeks made Yujin raise a brow. A single inneduo was enough to set her off? Yujin had only found a few ways to make her blush and this was one thing she could add to her repertoire. She grinned at how Wonyoung avoided her eyes as she swallowed her bite.

“So is that what you like? Being spoiled?” Yujin pressed, milking this because it was just too good. “Because, wow, you really chose wrong with Sunghoon, then. He’s selfish.”

“Shut up,” she spat out. “You don't know anything.”

“Oh, but I do. The way people act is a reflection and he’s just always selfish. He’s like you. But I bet you pretended, didn’t you? Because that’s what you do. You—”

Wonyoung stood abruptly, and Yujin almost smirked even harder than she already was, but it all fell away when Wonyoung’s pudding cup—No, her own pudding cup—hit her square in the face.

“You’re terrible,” she said, her voice trembling. The speed with which she gathered her things was entirely unlike her. Her voice even shakier in a way that made Yujin’s chest tighten. “We’re done. Don’t talk to me ever again.”

Aside from the pudding smeared all over her face and the way her nose ached, those words should’ve been music to her ears. She’d long told herself she regretted accepting this arrangement in the first place, for it was much more trouble than it was worth. But it was more like a broken, high pitched ringing sound than a symphony.

What struck her was not relief but regret. Probably stronger than she’d ever felt before.

It hit her, then. This game they played. Drawing lines in the sand without realizing that it only took a single breath to make them disappear.

NEXT Chapter 5 - Also Untitled

START Table of Contents

[violetgreeneao3]

Fic Graveyard 🪦🕊️

Herein lies a collection of my Abandoned/DNF’d fics, as per someone’s CC request. I have no current plans of continuing/writing these fics so read at the risk of your sanity. (I would rather DIE than let anyone see these trash fire monstrosities in their current forms; I would have to completely restart if I ever wanted to post these concepts 😭)

I also decided to omit the official names I had planned b/c i may use them for other fics and don't want to cause confusion.

The order of these have no meaning, just random. I included notes for each fic with bonus info, why I DNF’d, how far I got, or other ramblings.

1. After the disbandment of izone, each member goes on their respective path, some together, some apart. Four specific members join two different groups— IVE and Le Sesserafim. Or at least what had been IVE and Le Sesserafim. but what happens when Starship is absorbed by HYBE?

Condition: This is one of the only idolverses I’ve ever written. I wrote about ~12k words of this over a year ago.

* Honestly the premise of this one is still appealing to me, but as I collected “dead” fics for this list, I used a certain criteria to decide whether to keep it as a *maybe I’ll write this later* or to toss it. One of those criterion were “Can I think of a good ending?”.

Good doesn't necessarily mean happy, just something I would personally be satisfied with, and the reason most of these fics are on here is because the answer was No—I had absolutely no idea how I would end this fic, so I probably would never finish writing it, either.

2. Assassins AU: wherein Yujin and Wonyoung are both separately tasked with killing a target, like any other run-of-the-mill job for the notorious assassins, except there’s one catch—Their targets are each other. Finally, they’ve met their match.

I was debating whether to add a prior relationship between them or to have them be wayward souls—strangers that feel oddly drawn to one another. This fic was lowkey an excuse to write a knife-to-throat/gun-to-head scene (or sex scene) with LOTS of tension, but the urge to do so passed and I ended up leaving it as a draft.

3. ANOTHER Assassin AU wherein Annyeongz are from rival families that have a blood feud.

I planned for Wonyoung to seduce Yujin while knowing who she was as a sort of “spy”. She lied about her name and developed close a relationship with Yujin, but when her family found out she was faced with a choice: Betray Yujin or betray her family. She chose Yujin, but unfortunately Yujin found out who she really was before she got the chance to confess on her own terms.

*Fic devolves from there, this is all I recall from a brief skim of it*

Condition: Wrote 56k words of this a little over a year ago, abandoned because I didn’t know where to take the story (from what I saw scrolling through it was AWFUL… please trust me)

4. Vampire AU: Yujin and Wonyoung are high school sweethearts, but one day Yujin goes to try out for a strange audition and becomes a vampire.

I think they have vampire sex? Yujin definitely feeds on Wonyoung’s blood to stay alive though, and I think she eventually has to turn Wonyoung into a vampire to save her life despite Wonyoung SPECIFICALLY telling her not to (Basically Yujin had promised never to turn Wonyoung, only to break it when Wonyoung’s life was on the line).

Another thing I recall about this fic is that Yujin goes missing for ~5 years when she leaves for the audition, so she I guess she spent 5 years as a vampire before going back to Wonyoung? I don’t remember how Yujin survived for those 5 years, but I know I remember Wonyoung dating Sunghoon (she moved on and eventually got with after Yujin “left” her), and the second Yujin came back, she broke off her years-long relationship with him to be with her again. Also I think Wonyoung *liked* having her blood sucked… (Random details, but I thought they were cute things to mention)

Condition: Wrote this a little under a year ago, DNF’d at 31k words because I didn’t know where to take the story/lost motivation.

5. A/B/O AU where Yujin is a submissive alpha and Wonyoung is a dominant omega. Classroom sex occurs.

I started writing this because of a recommendation on CC (I think it was just an ABO rec but I wanted to put a spin on it) and abandoned it at ~3k words because my omegaverse writing skills are abysmal.

6. Grey’s Anatomy AU where (basically) Yujin is Derek and Wonyoung is Meredith.

If you’ve never heard of Grey’s:

Yujin is an attending Surgeon and Wonyoung is an intern, which basically means Yujin is who Wonyoung wants to be when she’s older. Before Wonyoung’s first day of work, she meets Yujin in a bar and sleeps with her. She finds out the next day that Yujin is one of her bosses and the fic is a cat and mouse game of Yujin chasing her and then backing out and Wonyoung chasing her back until they finally get together—it’s a terribly written fiasco, but was sort of fun to imagine nonetheless.

Their age gap is about ten years, which is ignored in the show but I addressed it in the fic. A commonality between the fic and the show, however, is that the power imbalance is largely ignored (because that’s no fun! [to write about, anyway. The fic was 90% lighthearted])

Condition: Wrote this over a year ago because I started watching Grey’s, abandoned at ~91k words (How the hell did I write that much?! I need to manifest that type of motivation and free time NOW😭)

7. Wonyoung is home for the summer, back from her office job in Seoul. Yujin, however, had never left their small town. Wonyoung pretends that her life in the city is super fulfilling and perfect but that’s a lie—she hates it and her boyfriend is NOT as great as she makes him out to be—but she’s too proud to admit it. Yujin, a doctor at a local Pediatric office, is much happier. Wonyoung secretly envies her. And maybe still loves her a little bit, too.

The plot mostly revolves around their past and skips around in time, eventually revealing that the feelings Wonyoung had for Yujin as a child weren’t merely friendly, and somehow she missed that while Yujin was fully aware of it. (Double) Eventually, they kiss and Wonyoung has to wrestle with cheating on her boyfriend (family problems make that difficult for her, b/c her father was a cheater and left her mother when she was young [Daddy issues ftw!!]) and also being gay in her small town wouldn’t be taken so kindly.

Condition: This was a DRAFT I planned out earlier this year, so I had an outline of events but didn’t write beyond the first chapter (~3k words). I think it was inspired by a K-drama, can’t recall the name. Abandoned b/c I just wasn’t in the mood for it anymore (I think this made me realize FULLY plotting a story down the dime ruins the fun for me, sadly).

8. Chef AU

I had the idea of making Yujin an Executive Chef and Wonyoung a Commis Chef (like fresh out of culinary school her first job is under Yujin), but I couldn’t come up with a good story, so I changed the plot to make them both mid-level chefs vying for the same higher position. I wanted there to be this enemies to lovers thing where they hate each other because they’re both the best and the other one is “holding them back” but also urging them to better by merely existing, with trust and betrayals and sabotage and reluctant teamwork.

This was one of the first fic ideas I had and it was well before I realized I couldn’t easily write about things I had no experience with. I was (and still am) sorely lacking in the Culinary knowledge required to take on a project of this calibre😭. I would’ve had to research & plan everything out to be accurate, which I realised about 1 chapter in… but at least I learned that “write what you know” is good advice to follow, at least for a beginner…

9. Yujin is a developer for a company that makes AI bots. One day she creates Wonyoung and slowly, after many tests and trails and tribulations, falls in love with her. Obviously the only logical course of action is to steal her and run away.

This is another based on a CC request, and I honestly still think if a cute idea as a one shot, it’s just I liked the idea so much I wanted to make it a long fic with Detroit Becoming Human vibes, but of course that’s a little too advanced for me.

Condition: I wrote ~3k words of this, so not much, but I think this one of the only fics on this list that I could still see myself making something out of, just more goofy and lighthearted. Still, it’s here because I don’t currently have plans to do so.

9. Bridgerton-esque AU where Wonyoung is deemed the “diamond” (most vied-after woman during the courting season), but she can’t quite find someone who she wants to marry. There’s a seemingly perfect guy—a prince—but it’s actually his cousin that Wonyoung has eyes for.

She and Yujin actually end up having a relationship, although in the beginning it’s more of an older sister thing for Yujin where Wonyoung’s love is one-sided, until at some point Yujin stops seeing her that way and takes her feelings seriously, and their relationship became intimate and dangerous.

Condition: I abandoned this at ~19k words because it was getting sad and I couldn’t handle the angst. The ending I had planned was hopeful but still depressing and I don’t think my mental health can handle making that any time soon (or ever. I ENVY all the authors who can spend hours and days and years writing a story with a tragic ending. I just can’t do my babies like that :( )

Side note: I actually came up with this idea BEFORE the most recent season of Bridgerton (like I started writing this idea before even FINISHING season 1), which doesn’t really matter at all, just wanted to claim lesbian bridgerton I guess? I’m just yapping at this point, I love the ending of the latest season despite all the hate it got

LIGHTNING ROUND FOR IDEAS THAT I ONLY WROTE AS SINGLE SENTENCES or failed to write but wanted to mention (all from different times, MOSTLY a year ago but some more recent):

- “Streamer AU Wonyoung accidentally exposes the relationship on cam”

(Cute but lacking plot)

- “Enemies to lovers flower shop x event planner AU”

(this one has some kick ngl…I still see the vision)

- “I like older girls.”

(??? No idea what the idea was, maybe a CC rec? But slay!)

- “Band and cheer.”

(Classic. Succinct. I like it.)

- “Enemies that are secret lovers.”

(I just wrote tropes down and hoped the fics would write themselves I guess.)

(wait, I lowkey still do that…)

- “They meet in a dog park and flirt and go back to her place.”

(I SWEAR I remember someone giving me this idea on CC but I only started making a list of reccs relatively recently so if this was you helloooo, I tried fo write this!)

- “Princess x bodyguard”

(nah because this one still has me trying to write it every once in a while… I’ve dreamt about this AU but can never think of a good plot)

(also a CC rec and I might still write this one now that I’m looking back at it😭)

- “Time travel AU where Wonyoung is a researcher who goes missing and Yujin searches for her in multiple timelines”

(I think I dropped this b/c it lacked romance; was more about Yujin solving the mystery)

- “They’re soloists who are rumored to be dating. A scandal threatens to ruin their careers but they have proof to deny it, but the whole situation brings them close and they bond over how terrible the industry is etc etc…”

(Interesting but I didn’t think it through enough. How does it end??? I can’t handle all that angst😭)

- “Wonyoung bullies Yujin for being a lesbian but it’s just her own internalized homophobia and religious guilt and they fuck in the locker room(or not idk if the vibe is smut).”

(I have so many ideas like this.. but those others are still in my TBD pile)

Other:

- I tried A/B/O outside of the fic I mentioned in the main list and it’s pretty stilted. I think I can do it eventually because I genuinely like the trope, just need more practice for it not to be completely garbage. Also I really struggle with plots in ABO Aus when brainstorming

- Hybrid fics—I also like the idea because it’s so CUTEEE, but I don’t really know how to write them as animals… I think I need to read more

Sorry if these ideas kind of SUCKED but I had to choose fics for this Graveyard that I am (as close as I can be to) 100% certain I will never pick back up again, which made the pickings slimmer compared to my entire “WIP”/Draft list.

There are plenty more drafts I consider “Abandoned” (I have a whole tag on my Notion for it), but I didn’t put them because I could see myself still using them in the future, so they don’t fit with the rest.

If you asked for something on CC within the past couple months but didn’t see it on here, it’s probably because I’m still considering making it and is sitting in my Notes App list, but just to be safe you can always drop by there and leave the same idea again since it doesn’t hurt to make sure I see it❤️❤️

Maybe I can make a separate list of fics I MIGHT write (What separates those fics from these are that I actually planned proper endings for them), but the problem is I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up by saying “Hey, any of these can be fics,” when tomorrow I may decide I hate the idea… It feels a little cruel 😭

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading my yap and I love you!! See u next fic (hopefully soon) ❤️❤️

(By CC request I started a Ko-fi where I may or may not post small fics (idk if I’m allowed to do that on there??), but I’ll cross post here too) [might do proper commissions in the future but currently I don’t have the time :(]

[violetgreeneao3]

Masterlist 💕

My AO3 Page

Ordered by Kudos as of 04/13/2024

(my personal favourite/top 3 in blue)

Out of Our Element

Explicit (18+)

Completed (15/15) [186,069 words]

nerdy Yujin; pornstar Wonyoung

Fast smut, slow romance, Vers/Switch annyeongz

She fell in love

Explicit (18+)

Completed (2/2) [5,854 words]

Friends with Benefits

Series: Domestic Annyeongz

Explicit (18+)

G!P Yujin; Housewife Wonyoung; Domestic Fluff

Interconnected One-Shots (mostly seasonal)

Christmas [9,266 words]

Valentine’s Day [14,988 words]

Easter [10,980 words]

in bed

Teen (13+)

One shot [2,615 words]

University AU; Cuddling; Confessions

Libido

Explicit (18+)

One shot [3,208 words]

Horny Wonyoung; Whipped/Service T Yujin

a terrible secret

Teen (13+)

One shot [1,774 words]

Established relationship

“Wonyoung is hiding something. Yujin can tell and is determined to get to the bottom of it.”

cracked panes

Explicit (18+)

Ex girlfriends; Implied Story; Angst w/ happy ending

Completed (2/2) [9,517 words]

chemistry

General (All ages)

One shot [1,868]

Lighthearted student x professor

“Wonyoung has a crush on her chemistry professor.”

Series: (Annyeongz Version)

Explicit (18+)

Incomplete series [2/?] (I stillplan to come back to it!)

Angst; popstar!Wonyoung; heiress!Yujin

“Slut!” (Annyeongz Version) [From The Drafts] [5,441 words] — Wonyoung POV; Secret Relationship; Hook up

Is It Over Now? (Annyeongz Version) [From The Drafts] [9,222 words]— Cheating; Gaslighting; Trust Issues; complicated dynamics

Deal?

Teen (13+)

One shot [1,700 words]

First date; moviestars AU

“In a dimly lit restaurant, actresses Wonyoung and Yujin, recent competitors at the Oscars, share first date.”

Icebreaker

Explicit (18+)

One shot [3,149 words]

Figure skater Wonyoung; hockey player Yujin; bitter ending but it doesn’t really matter because it’s smut

God save the Queen

Explicit (18+) (Underage characters 16/17)

One shot [7,907]

Childhood friends; royal/fantasy AU; forbidden love; implied/referenced homophobia

O’ Captain.

Explicit (18+)

One shot [8,549]

Space AU; engineer!Yujin; Captain!Wonyoung; mutual pining; ambiguous ending; forbidden love

in the rain

General (all ages)

One shot [823 words]

Short & sweet; kissing in the rain

“On her way to the date with a girl who had been a stranger just months earlier, Yujin hadn't noticed the sky graying until rain was already spilling down. Fortunately, Wonyoung didn't mind; instead, she decided they should make the most of it.”

[violetgreeneao3]

about me & links

My name is Violet, I usually go by Vi or just V <3

My pronouns are she/her, currently in FLORIDA! (EWWW I KNOW IM SORRY I MOVED HERE FOR UNI)

I like to read & write (I've been busy with school but I'm trying to maintain my hobbies), and I've so far only written for Annyeongz on AO3 💕

(Idk what else to add here are links:)

Masterlist 💜

Tellonym or Zaqa (or here on tumblr) for anonymous questions/comments 🩷🧡 — I know it takes me longer these days to reply but just know I appreciate the support just as much!

Twitter if u wanna chat! 💙

Ko-fi for anyone interested in donating ❤️

updated (01/12/25)