Author's Note: A little and late Valentine's update :)

Waking up with the thought that she's going to work out again is surprisingly refreshing for Chorong. Or maybe it's the knowledge that she has finally taken the initiative with Bomi.

Yes, that’s right.

Last night Chorong dialled Bomi's number:

"Chorong?"

"Hi, Bomi-ah!" Chorong exclaims, a little hyper with her idea.

"Hi,Rong" the auburn-haired girl answers clearly amused by Chorong's out-of-breath greeting. “What’s up?"

"Well, you see." Chorong paces on her room nervously. “Something… happened with my running machine and I don’t want to use it again. You go running on the weekends, right?"

"Uh, I- y-yes, yeah, I do," Bomi chokes on her answer.

"Would you mind if I join you tomorrow?" There is silence in the other line for a moment.

“I don't mind. You can come, if you want. It'd be great if you come. To have some company, that is."

"Great! That's great." Chorong jumps a little on her toes. "I’ll see you at 7:30 at the bus stop halfway to your house?"

"Sounds good to me."

"Great."

With the conversation still fresh on her mind, Chorong puts on her black running shorts and an old grey sweatshirt with the neck cut out and puts her hair up in a ponytail.

She beams and gives a firm nod at her image on the mirror.

Chorong steps out of her front door and into the street. She feels the chill air of the morning, her breaths condensing a little as they escape , but nothing can spoil her good mood.

The walk to the bus stop seems longer than ever.

As she approaches the place, she catches a pair of trainers, attached to crossed, pale legs, the owner of which seems to be seated on a bench behind the bus stop advertisement.

"Bbom-ah!" Chorong greets happily when she confirms that the girl stretched out in the bench who has her head leaned on the glass wall and her eyes halfway closed is, in fact, her running buddy. "I didn't see you there for a moment and I thought you might be late but it was you just being a lazy bum. Aren't you supposed to be stretching and warming up instead of nodding off?" She rants off, excitedly.

"Good morning to you too, Rong," Bomi says sarcastically eyes still closed, then yawns. "I'm not much of a morning person."

Chorong frowns as she stretches. "But still you go running instead of sleeping on weekend mornings?"

Bomi shrugs. "I wanted improve my stamina because my dancing was lacking… and look better too," she rubs her eyes, finally opening them, "so I started to-" 'Holy. Freaking. .' "t-to go running to, ah… get rid of- of the belly fat." 'For the love of everything holy, are those shorts even there? And what's with the off-the-shoulder sweatshirt? That neck is just begging to be bitten, Christ! Could she make it harder for me?'

"You seem to have achieved your goal successfully," Chorong mutters loud enough for Bomi to hear as her brown eyes rake over Bomi's usual running attire. She lingers on the dancer's midriff. Definitely got the abs.

'Is Chorong… flirting? No way.' "W-we should uh, probably go. We don't want to be too hot- I mean! We don't want the sun to be too hot! While we are still… running." 'Geez, you can shut your mouth now, Bomi. Nice. Now stop with the ogling too!'

"I agree," Chorong wheezes out, feeling already too hot for this time of the day.

They start trotting at a regular pace down the street. "Where to?" Bomi asks staring ahead.

"Where do you usually go?"

"Well, there's a nice park halfway between Eunji's and Namjoo’s."

"Oh, yes I know it." Chorong cuts off as they take a turn towards the park. The hem of the neckline of her sweatshirt slips a few inches down her arm.

'Her skin is seriously perfect. It's like it were cream or something,' Bomi thinks briefly before averting her eyes. Chorong bites back a smile as she pushes the fabric back in place.

Suddenly the dancer's face saddens. "Why did you give me a chance?"

"Why not?" Chorong asks, although she knows what Bomi is talking about.

"Because…" 'I don't deserve it. I don't deserve you.' They reach the park and begin following a path that must be familiar for Bomi. "I've been nothing but awful to you since we've known each other."

"I'm sorry, Chorong-ah." Bomi avoids looking at her. "God, I'm so sorry. I know it's… useless now to apologize because the wrong is already done but, I'm truly, sorry."

"It's never useless to apologize, Bomi." Chorong smiles, then bumps her shoulder to Bomi's. "Besides, I already forgave you. We're friends now, right?"

'Only friends… I'll take what I can have.' "Yeah."

They fall silent for a moment, the only sounds being their slightly laboured breathing and Bomi's jumbled thoughts.

'That wasn't so hard… should've done it before. Feels good to be forgiven. Maybe we could do this every weekend.' Bomi's lips curl upwards briefly. 'We could be running buddies… it'll be our secret. Being alone with her is awesome… I don't want to share her with anybody.' This time, the auburn-haired girl shakes her head. 'That's stupid, she has her friends... I wonder what would have happened if I had been the one to check on her that time? Maybe I could've apologized earlier… maybe we'd be more than friends…'

Chorong feels the first drops of sweat tickling her neck. Without thinking, she takes the edge of her sweatshirt and pulls it up to her face to wipe her sticky skin, leaving her stomach uncovered and even flashing a tiny sliver of white sports bra.

'Yeah, right, like she would ever want toooh holy ! OH !' "Ow, ow, ow."

"Bomi!" Chorong cries when she catches up with what just happened. The auburn-haired girl seems to have tripped on something and she's now sitting on the ground and cradling her ankle with a pained expression. "Oh my God, are you okay?"

The black-haired girl quickly kneels in front of her, her hands hovering over Bomi’s leg and her eyes frantically assessing the damage.

"No…" Bomi whimpers. Chorong notices she's biting back tears. 'Come on, don't be a . Tears are for the weak.'

"Come on, let me help you up." Bomi shakes her head. "Yes, Bomi-ah, I know your ankle hurts but you have a very ugly scrape on your knee that needs to be cleaned."

Bomi sniffles, glancing at her knee. She winces. "Okay."

Chorong wraps an arm around the dancer’s waist, pulling her up carefully. Bomi winces as she jumps on her good leg to position her body up against Chorong's smaller one and throws her arm over the girl's shoulders.

"Come on, I saw a fountain a few trees away."

Chorong carries the girl with some difficulty and Bomi giggles, mumbling something about Chorong's short stature. She lets it go with a head shake because it's distracting the girl from the pain.

"There," Chorong says softly as she helps Bomi sit on the edge of the small fountain. "Let's put some water on it, okay?"

"Yeah," Bomi rasps.

Chorong cradles some water with her hands and pours it on Bomi's knee carefully, getting it cleaned of sand and small pebbles. She repeats it a few times under the intense gaze of the girl.

'She's so kind. It's just… the way she does everything. Shows how big of a heart she has …'

"There, all clean," Chorong announces softly. She wipes the droplets of water that are running down Bomi's calf and looks up at the girl. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to take the shoe off to see if it's swelling and if we need to go to the doctor."

Bomi gulps. "Okay."

"It's going to hurt a little." Chorong smiles sympathetically as she rubs Bomi's calf with one hand comfortingly, the other taking the heel of Bomi's trainer and pulling it out carefully.

"Ow, ow, ow…" Bomi winces. She bites her tongue to stop the tears that threaten to escape.

"All right, it's out. Doesn't look too bad. Now I'm taking off your sock too so you can put it under the water. The cool will do good to it," Chorong explains as she takes the sock off swiftly.

Bomi hums as she bathes her ankle into the cool water. "It's swelling a little," she mumbles annoyed.

"Yeah." Chorong frowns up at her. "How did it even happen?"

"Uh…" Bomi blushes profusely. "There was a rock. I didn't see it."

"How?"

She gulps. "I got distracted."

"By what exactly?" Chorong asks with a raised eyebrow, although she already has an idea.

'By you! Showing off your abs and- and Jesus Christ, I think I saw her bra.' "I can't remember." Bomi pulls her foot out of the water, moving it a little from side to side. "It doesn't hurt that much."

"Good, that means it wasn't anything serious." Chorong goes back to rubbing Bomi's calf with her hand, her eyes piercing on the dancer's flushed face. "Your house is not too far away, I can help you walk there. You should put some ice on this."

The walk to Bomi's place is silent and only slightly awkward. Part of Bomi keeps mentally berating herself for her clumsiness while the other is trying to contain her mental flailing for being so close to Chorong. These last thoughts are making the black-haired girl blush and be even more aware of their flushed bodies and the way Bomi's skin feels under her hand on her waist.

Chorong pushes the Yoon's door open with the hand not holding Bomi and the dancer guides her through the house and to the living room where she falls into the couch with a groan.

"Are your parents home?"

"No, they’re out at a breakfast, I think."

"Right. Well, first things first. Where is the kitchen?"

"That door over there," Bomi points. "There has to be some ice in the freezer."

"Be right back."

A couple minutes later, the black-haired girl appears with the ice and a couple of bottles of water. "Here, this is for you," she gives Bomi a bottle then sits on the couch next to her, carefully moving Bomi's foot to her lap. "And this goes here…" the dancer gasps as the ice makes contact with her ankle, "oh you big baby," Chorong teases.

"It's cold!"

"Well, of course it is. That's kind of the point." Chorong tries to hide her amused smile.

Bomi just mumbles.

They stay in silence for a few minutes and Chorong moves the ice pack from time to time to see how the swelling is going. It looks to be decreasing which is a very good sign.

Suddenly a phone starts blasting from another room.

", that's my phone."

"Do you want me to get it?"

"Yeah, please. My room is the second to the left down the hall."

Chorong leaves Bomi to nurse her own ankle and rushes to her room, she quickly spots the phone and runs back to the living room. The phone starts blasting again.

"Here."

Bomi glances at the screen. 'Hayoungie…' "What happened?"

Chorong takes her previous position, her eyes never leaving the dancer's expressive face.

"I was out. Running." There's a pause. "No, I haven't heard from her."

Chorong "ooh's" quietly to herself.

“Just go to her and tell her. Everyone seems to know how Joo feels for you but you!"

Chorong nods to herself and Bomi sends her a small smile at the gesture.

" it up, Hayoung. Just… stop being afraid, or you'll never know." Suddenly Bomi's demeanor changes. Looks like Hayoung said something that made her uneasy. She watches Chorong out of the corner of her eye. 'It's wasn’t the same situation at all.' "I have to go. I'll talk to you later Hayoung. Talk to Naeun, you should know how mature she is. She won’t get mad," there's a pause. "Bye."

"For a girl as smart as Oh Hayoung, it's taking a while for her to realize what Namjoo’s reason for being upset is."

"It's not that. She knows perfectly well that Namjoo’s not happy that she's sleeping with Naeun."

"Then what is taking her so long?" Chorong asks, a little exasperated.

"Hayoung…" Bomi starts with a long breath. "She might want to pretend she's this tough girl from the wrong side of town, that doesn't give a damn about anyone, but she does. She's just afraid of what could mean to get together with Namjoo, what it could do to them if they change status and then some time after end in bad terms,” Bomi looks lost in her thoughts. "So she turns to Naeun every now and then, when her insecurities get to her. You know, their friendship is very strong and kind of strange, Naeun knows why Hayoung is doing it… she just gives in because she knows Hayoung can’t face her feelings for Joo yet and she’ll be granting Hayoung’s wishes until the she’s ready. Naeun is too soft."

"Wow," Chorong breathes out. "I don't think Hayoung has anything to be afraid of."

"Couldn't agree more."

"I mean, even if Namjoo's feelings weren’t that obvious." Chorong turns to face Bomi completely. "Even then, she should just go for it."

Bomi eyes her curiously. "What do you mean?"

"What I'm trying to say is, if you really want something, just go for it. Even if you are scared, even if you feel that person might not feel the same; you just can't stop yourself from trying because if you do, there will come a day when you will look back and you will ask yourself, what if? And sadly, the moment to know the answer would have passed and you'd never know."

Bomi gulps hardly. 'Is she telling me something…?.'

Chorong listens and frowns. This just can't do. She had enough and if Bomi is not going to take her word she might as well lead her own words and get it over with.

“I’ll go, Bbom-ah. Even if it doesn’t hurt that much, you need to rest and I have something to do.”

“Oh.” ‘But I don’t want you to go.’ “I’ll walk you to the door, Rong." She stands up as quick as she can, and grabs Chorong’s hand delicately.

"No." Chorong says severely.

The word hits Bomi square on her heart for an unknown reason. Chorong watches as her face contorts in hurt and quickly tries to hide it. "Oh, okay."

"No, Bomi, you don't get it," Chorong explains. "I don't want you to, because someone might see."

"Oh, right." The dancer swallows dryly. ‘Why doesn’t she want to be seen with me?'

"You still don't get it."

"Get what?" Bomi asks, confused.

But Chorong doesn't answer. She just reaches out and cups Bomi's cheek with her hand and turns her face. Bomi looks devastated. She smiles sweetly and leans forward until Bomi has to cross her eyes to look at Chorong's.

'What is she-'

But her thought is cut off by the lightest of pressures against her lips. Chorong just stays there, lips grazing against Bomi's, enjoying the softness, the velvety texture until she grows bold and applies a little more pressure against them.

Bomi reacts immediately. She kisses back firmly, opening her lips just a bit to capture Chorong's bottom one between hers, something she has been dreaming of doing since forever. Chorong moans in the back of softly. She sneaks the hand that is holding Bomi's cheek to the back of her neck and pulls her in, opening and her tongue getting the first taste of Bomi's, immediately getting addicted.

Bomi breathes hard through her nose as Chorongs's tongue grazes hers and pulls her close by the waist. Her mind is completely blank; there's a sound similar to static that flows into Chorong's mind and makes her dizzy. Their tongues dance against one another, slowly, with a purpose, like two strangers meeting for the first time and feeling that immediate connection. Bomi's playful nature shows and she flicks at Chorong's tongue with the tip of hers, earning a moan from the shorter girl and a smirk of her own.

Chorong pecks Bomi's lips a few more times, chastely, as her thumb grazes against Bomi's jaw bone gently and then she finally leans back. But not too far; she keeps her eyes fixated on dark brown ones and her hand on Bomi's neck.

"Okay?" Chorong asks hoarsely.

Bomi stares at her in wonder. And then she swallows and nods. Chorong thinks that Bomi looks radiant.

"Okay."