Thursday, 11:10pm

Chaeyoung and I sat on the couch in the living room of our apartment. An action movie was playing, but I paid no attention to it, for my mind was elsewhere. It was on Sana. Why was my mind stuck on her?

I looked at Chaeyoung, whose face was turned at the TV, but eyes showed that she, too, was lost in some other thought.

“You okay there, Chae?” I asked.

I watched as she mentally snapped herself back into reality. “Ah–, yeah,” she said, then she looked down at her hands in her lap, “I was just thinking.”

“About?”

She sighed, “About how different practice was without both Mina-unnie and Jeongyeon-unnie.”

“Ah, it did feel quite different,” I said.

“I can’t believe we lost two of our closest friends this season,” Chaeyoung exhaled as she turned her head to the ceiling, “Jeongyeon-unnie and I were real good pals.”

“Yeah, pals who at telling jokes,” I commented.

Chaeyoung chuckled, “Yeah, maybe that’s why we made such good friends.” She turned her head to me. “What do you think of the new manager?” she asked.

I scoffed, “I don’t like her. She was late and she’ll never be as good of a manager as Jeongyeon-unnie. So I’m just skeptical about how well she’d do.”

“Really?” a grin came onto Chaeyoung’s face, “It seemed like you really liked her as soon as you saw her.”

I blushed, “I–... That wasn’t–“

“You like her a loooot,” Chaeyoung said as she leaned towards me.

“No! I–...” I struggled to find the next word.

“You whaaaat?” Chaeyoung asked, tilting her ear towards me.

“I hate her!” I tried to say, but my voice cracked at the middle of the statement, causing Chaeyoung to laugh.

“Are you sure about that?” she asked in between her laughs.

“Yes! I’m sure that I hate her!” I exclaimed. Yes, I hated her. I hated her for being late, leaving the players with no support for a large portion of the practice that day. I hated her for replacing Jeongyeon, who was perfectly good at her job. I hated her for acting innocent when I could tell she had ulterior motives. I hated her for nearly making me forgive her. I hated her for being so beautiful, and messing with my head.

“I’m sure that I hate her,” I repeated quietly to myself.

I watched Chaeyoung’s grin turn into a serious tight-lipped expression. “Okay,” she said, “I believe you.”

That night I laid in bed, unable to sleep, for my mind was still on the girl I claimed to hate. I can’t say that I’ve ever hated someone so much so quickly. It was immature of me to judge her prematurely. But I couldn’t help it. I had to admit that most of my dislike for her didn’t stem from how she came late; it stemmed from how she seemed to constantly occupy my mind. I actually hated her because I couldn’t control how I thought of her. I felt so conflicted. I wanted to hate her for being late and replacing Jeongyeon. But I kept thinking about how sweet her voice sounded as she said my name. I kept thinking about how her golden brown eyes looked through my figure with lust. I kept thinking about that cheeky smile. I hated that I would think of these things.

I sat up from my bed. In the corner of my room was my duffle bag. In the duffle bag was the water bottle label that had her number on it. I got off my bed and approached the duffle bag. My hand rummaged through the contents of the bag until it found the water bottle label, crumpled in the bottom corner of the bag. With it in my hand, I returned back to my bed, and sat on the edge of it. I uncrumpled the strip of paper. Then I stared at the numbers, which were written in Sharpie, with the help of the street lights outside that seeped in my room through the blinds.

Did she actually expect me to put in her phone number and call or text her?

I shook my head before placing the water bottle label next to my phone on my end table, with the numbers faced down. Then I dropped my head onto my pillow, and went to sleep with Sana still on my mind.

Saturday, 1:04pm

“Dahyun, wake up.”

I opened my eyes to be greeted by Chaeyoung, who was standing over my bed and looking down at me with large beady eyes. Behind her, my blinds were open, thus letting sunlight into my room. The bright sunlight made me unable to fully open my eyes. So I turned to face away from Chaeyoung and the bright sunlight.

“Dahyuuuuun,” Chaeyoung whined, “Did you forget that Jihyo-unnie requested that we practice this Saturday?”

I turned my head to face Chaeyoung, my eyes squinting at her. “What? She did?” I asked, my voice husky.

Baseball practice was every Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. Sometimes, though, Jihyo would request that we have a Saturday practice as well, if she believed that we needed it. It was unusual for her to request a Saturday practice just after our first practice. Also, I never did get any announcement from her.

“She texted us,” Chaeyoung said.

“What? I didn’t get a text.”

I heard Chaeyoung groan. “Because you were asleep all morning, Dahyun.”

I stretched before turning to face opposite from her again. “That’s Dahyun-unnie to you,” I said.

“Ah, fine, whatever! Just get up!” Chaeyoung hopped onto my bed, and I could only groan once I felt her body weight on top of mine. She sat on my hip and her legs straddled my body. With her hands, she tried to shake my shoulders to wake me up. But I wouldn’t even open my eyes.

“Wake up!” she instructed. Then she stopped shaking me and said, “If you don’t wake up, I’m gonna spit on you.”

At that statement, I immediately started squirming underneath her. “Agh, fine!” I exclaimed, “I’ll get up!”

Chaeyoung didn’t budge. “You promise?” she asked in a childish voice.

“Yes! I promise!”

Chaeyoung got off of me and then stood herself beside my bed. I sat up, rubbing at my eyes. “What time is it?” I asked.

“1.”

“Aghhh,” I whined, “It’s not even near time to practice.”

“Mina-