Tuesday, 8:47pm

I came out of the bathroom with a towel on my head and another around my body. I dragged myself into my room. I looked down at my hand, which I unbandaged to shower. On my bed laid the roll of bandage that Sana handed to me before practice ended. I sighed in defeat as I didn’t know how to wrap my hand with a bandage properly.

“Chae!” I shouted from my room, “Can you come here?”

“Okay!” I heard faintly through my closed bedroom door. Soon enough, the door opened. As soon as Chaeyoung saw me, she covered her eyes with her hands and loudly squealed before crying out, “You’re !”

“I’m not , stop overreacting!” I cried back.

“That towel is the only thing blocking your private parts!” Chaeyoung exclaimed.

“Oh, get over yourself! You don’t react like this when I’m in a swimsuit and there’s only so much fabric covering me!”

Chaeyoung was about to shout back when she stopped to think. “Oh,” she mumbled.

“Anyway,” I cleared my throat, “I just have a question.”

“What?”

“Do you know how to wrap a bandage around my hand?”

Chaeyoung stopped to think for a minute. “You don’t just go around the hand randomly?”

“I-I dont think so?” I scratched my head, unsure about my answer.

“Eh, probably not, huh?” Chaeyoung stopped to think for a minute, “Ah! Call Sana-unnie! Ask for her help.”

“As in, ask her to come over and wrap my hand?” I asked.

“What’s wrong with that? She’s your friend, right?” Chaeyoung asked.

I sighed, “I guess I’ll have to do that.”

“Can I see your hand?” Chaeyoung asked as she walked towards me.

I held out my hand with my palm up. Chaeyoung cringed as soon as she saw my hand. She took my hand into hers and looked over it closely.

“Why don’t you ever jump in front of baseballs to protect me?” she asked in a whiny voice.

I clicked my tongue, “‘Cause I know you can catch it.”

“Well, whatever, I’m glad you gave Sana-unnie a chance. It just happened a lot sooner than I thought it would.”

“Ever since you told me to give her a chance, I did,” I said.

“Good to see that the ace baseball player and the new manager are getting along nicely.”

“It’s hard to see now why I used to be so hateful towards her in the beginning.”

Chaeyoung shrugged, “I didn’t get it either.” Chaeyoung looked up from my hand at my face. “I’m curious. What made you stop hating her?”

“She’s very convincing.”

“With how she took up the role as manager?”

“Yeah...”

“Is that all?”

I wanted to say yes but my head shook as a negative response.

“What else then? What made you stop hating her so much that you’d jump in front of a baseball—or maybe even worse—to protect her?”

“I mean,” I scratched my head, searching for the right words to say, or even the right answer, “I used to think she was only wild and flirty but she’s shown that she’s more than that."

“She was flirty?”

Oh right, I never told Chaeyoung this.

I slowly nodded.

“What about her flirtatiousness did you hate?”

“Why do you keep questioning me?”

Chaeyoung shrugged, “I feel like you yourself don’t know exactly how you feel about Sana.”

“I do. She’s my friend.”

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes at my response.  “Just answer the question.”

I sighed a little. “I just hated how successful she was at flirting,” I admitted.

“So... Like... How she makes your heart beat like crazy or your face heat up? Stuff like that?” Chaeyoung asked.

“Well yeah, those are the short-term effects. What I hated most of all was how she would constantly occupy my mind afterwards. Until I go to sleep. And then when I wake up, I think of her again.”

“She doesn’t occupy your mind anymore?”

“She–... She still does...” I admitted, “...In a better light.”

“So now, you think more about her rather than her flirting, huh?”

“Where are you going with this?” I asked again.

Chaeyoung didn’t respond. She only stared intently into my eyes for what felt like a long while before sighing. “I just don’t think that you actually hated her at all in the beginning,” Chaeyoung said.

“What?”

“And ever since then, whatever you felt for her initially has only grown.”

“Can you get to the point?” I asked, annoyed at Chaeyoung’s confusing and indirect phrases.

“Look, I want you to figure it out yourself, so I’m done with questioning you. Once you figure it out, you’ll get it.” She gave me a light pat on the shoulder before turning to leave. I was left there to stare into the space in front of me, wondering what Chaeyoung meant by those paradoxical words. My phone vibrated on my end table, startling me a bit. I picked up my phone and noticed a text message from Sana.

“Hey Dahyunnie ;)” -Sana-chan

A winky face. That was such a Sana thing to attach to the end of a text message.

“Hey” -Dahyun

“How’s your hand?” -Sana-chan

“It still hurts but it’s not as bad as before” -Dahyun

I sighed before typing up another message.

“Btw idk how to wrap a bandage around my hand” -Dahyun

“Oh omg I probably should’ve shown you how to. Does Chaeyoung know?” -Sana-chan

“No she doesn’t know” -Dahyun

“Send me your address” -Sana-chan

I hesitated before typing in my address and sending it.

“Ok I’ll be over in ten!” -Sana-chan

I groaned quietly to myself before calling Chaeyoung. She opened the door and stood in the doorway waiting for me to say something. I sighed to myself before saying, “We’ll be having a guest so be prepared.”

9:05pm

I sat on the couch, attempting to wrap my own hand with the bandage. Every way I tried it seemed no better than the previous time I tried. Wrapping your hand in a bandage the “right way” was much harder