The next week had passed and the tension between Yejin and Jackson had faded more than she realized. Even Jaebum apologized to her and told her that what he did was out of line and that he was really sorry for acting like such a . Regardless, she maintained the practice routine she started last week and Jackson maintained the sitting alone in the stand routine, this time, not being as sad and instead calling out a few comments here and there. Of course, he would get a few side-eyes from the members and even the coach, but they were internally relieved that he was feeling better. On Thursday, it was decided that Yejin was good enough to be put in the game and she felt on top of the world. But on Friday when she decided to go up to the classroom alone instead of playing with the boys in the gym before school, she was a bit shocked. After putting down her things and pulling out some of her notes to go over, she heard footsteps approach the room.

“Why aren’t you downstairs?” Jackson asked as he spotted her alone in the room. The girl lifted her head to look at him.

“I’m resting,” she said as she watched him balance on the door frame with his good arm. He looked at her and tilted his head before letting out an okay. She went back to review the notes as the boy walked across the room and sat in front of her, taking off his bag and sitting it on his lap. He pulled out a box and sat in on the girl’s desk on top of the notebook. She saw the picture of a phone on the front and paused.

“I said I’d buy you a new phone,” Jackson said. Yejin just looked up at him and blinked a few times before looking back at the box. “I talked to your dad and told him what happened. He wasn’t happy but he helped me set it up and, open it,” he said as he watched the girl sit in her seat, unsure of what to do, Yejin hesitated and decided to opened the box, pulling out the newer edition of the phone than one she previously had. “My dad is kind of a pushover and if I ask for something he’ll give it to me so,” Jackson rambled on and Yejin barely listened as she hit the button to unlock the device. It’s black screen lit up to a dark gray as the logo appeared on the display. While the phone was loading, the girl looked at the boy who was still talking about whatever he thought was important.

“Thank you,” she cut him off. He went silent and let himself smile a bit. Yejin felt refreshed that she had a new phone and that he was trying to fix things, and a bit sad at how she was still ignoring him. But then she thought of how he acted towards her and the awful things he said and was still confused as how she should treat him. Could she really pretend like she hated him? Even if she tried being nice, would he just brush her off again for the sake of his reputation? The phone finally loaded and Yejin saw the unlock screen was set to a picture of her during practice, all sweaty gross and a bit blurry due to her movement. This sent her over the edge, past the point of no return and a tear fell from her eye. She started sniffling and Jackson stood up from his seat just to inch over and kneel by her side. The girl hung her head in embarrassment as she let a few sobs wrack her body, unable to control the pent up energy from leaving her. She had worked so hard and pushed everything negative away in order to achieve her goal. But now that it was about to happen and things seemed way better, she still didn’t feel whole.

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