*WARNING*
The sport descriptions below are written from an amateur point of view.
So if you love this sport, don't stone me, I tried my best.
*WARNING*

Shinkyung took a deep breath.

It’s nothing to be afraid of, Kang Shinkyung. You’ve dealt so many things which were way harder than this. Just be confident, nice and relaxed and everything will go smoothly, without any awkwardness or bad impression. Let yourself go and go with the flow. You can do it, girl!

Without any further thought she bravely pressed the door bell. She didn’t have to wait for long, soon quick footsteps were heard at the other side of the gate. Shinkyung ignored her rapidly beating heart and took another deep breath. She was ready.

“Hi!” The middle-aged woman in the gate smiled widely. “How can I help you?”

“Good afternoon, eomeoni.” Shinkyung bowed politely. Her voice was firm but at least she could speak up. “I’m Kang Shinkyung, Seowon’s classmate from Sukjong High School. I’d like to talk with your daughter.”

Visiting Seowon at her home was one of the bravest things she has ever done but she deemed it’s worth it if this way Seowon will believe their friendship is this important to her.

“You’re Shinkyung-a?!” Seowon’s mother squealed in happiness. “Come in, we were waiting for you!”

They were waiting for me?

Shinkyung found this kind of reaction a bit frightening but stepped in nonetheless.

The Bae family lived quite far from their high school, on the outskirts of Seoul in a family house with a big backyard and fancy fence around. Adding Seowon’s two younger sisters, Soohyun and Saeji (Shinkyung knew their names well because her friend never stop complaining about them and even so all of their names began with ‘S’ which made them easy to remember) their family consisted five family members so the big place was a need.

Shinkyung looked around warily. There was a swing hanging on a tree and a little garden currently without flowers hence the season.

It’s a waste I can’t see flowers in blossom, she thought bitterly. She couldn’t bring a pot inside her little flat.

“Seobaby, your little friend is here!” Mrs. Bae shouted. Her high pitch resembled Seowon’s perfectly (although it was probably the other way around) which meant the visitor almost got a heart attack.

“I’m coming!” A voice shouted back from the upper floor and within seconds a very tousled head appeared at the end of the stairs. Seowon’s eyes almost fell out of their sockets as she realized that the Kang Shinkyung is actually in her house. “Kyungie?!”

“Shinkyung-a has finally come, isn’t this super great?”

“Well, it’s definitely surprising.” She answered her mother totally perplexed which was neither unseen nor welcomed by the latter.

“Ya, Seobaby, be nicer! The point is that she has finally come.”

Shinkyung did her best to smile back at Mrs. Bae then turned her look to her friend standing uncomfortably at the stairs. She understood her surprise, after all she came unannounced but still she expected a little bit nicer welcome too. Maybe I did offend her pretty badly.

“I’ll take it over from here, omma.” Seowon dismissed her mother with a wave of hand.

“Okay, Seobaby. Just promise you’ll be nice, okay?”

“I’ll promise if you promise you won’t call me Seobaby once again.”

“Alright, alright.” Her mother nodded and turned to the right. “Do you and your little friend need any refreshments?”

“No, I don’t think we have enough time for that.” Seowon looked at the watch on her arm with a pout then at the waiting girl by the door. “Let’s go upstairs, my room is there.”

Shinkyung followed her without a word.

She had planned out what to say at home but in front of Seowon somehow every right word left her head and all she remembered was that she did wrong and needs to apologize somehow… without getting into another unreasonable fight of course.

Oh my, why am I so useless when it comes to emotional things?

The upper floor walls were painted faint peach and Shinkyung could count five rooms overall. The doors had different colors like blue, pink and purple. This phenomenon was quite striking in her opinion. Only their upper floor itself has more color than our whole house…

“The rosy door leads to Saeji’s room, the mint-colored to Soohyun’s.” Seowon explained as they abruptly stopped in front of the purple door. “Mine is the lavender one.”

Numerous posters on the walls, a shelf full of books and a rather large Totoro plushie in the corner – that’s all of these what welcomed Shinkyung stepping into Seowon’s room. The room was definitely smaller than the room she had at home but it just made it feel cozier and somehow warmer.

“Make yourself comfortable!” Seowon proposed while stepping to a medium-sized cabinet with opened doors.

Shinkyung ignored the temptation which said to go directly for Totoro and let’s hug him to death and sat down to one of the colorful pouffes at the other end instead.

“Sorry for coming unannounced.” Seowon was standing with her back facing her but Shinkyung had no doubt she’s listening carefully. “I tried to approach you in school but somehow it never worked out and… well, you’ve always mentioned I should visit you at home so I’ve decided to.”

Oh my, I’m so bad at this.

But there was no way back anymore.

“I overreacted to what you’ve done. I shouldn’t have raised my voice and just left but I became so upset that I couldn’t stay in place. You don’t know this about me but when I freak out I’m not really able to calm down… So yeah, the way I reacted wasn’t right but I think what I said is true.”

Shinkyung was eager to see some reaction from Seowon but the said girl was still facing away from her, occupied with sorting through her clothes probably. It made Shinkyung uncomfortable but she continued determined.

“If I needed help from you, I’d say it. I know that I tend to go my own way and deal with problems alone but believe me, if I really needed help, I’d know that you’re someone I can turn to without doubts. So when I decide to do something on my own and decide to I exclude you it means that it’s not that much of a problem. That I can deal with it without involving you or anyone else who matters to me.”

“Are you finished?”

Shinkyung wasn’t even at half of her prepared speech but seeing the light in Seowon’s eyes she nodded quickly.

“Then it’s finally my turn!” Seowon threw the clothes she just had picked out onto the chair beside her table and sat down to Shinkyung’s left. “These few days were ones from hell for me. If you think about it, that’s the first time we ever fought about something seriously. I always tease you and you always huff because of it but I don’t think any of these cases were as serious as this one.”

Shinkyung agreed with a hum.

“I didn’t know what to do. I mean, never before this were you upset because of me.” Seowon continued. “You quickly forgave everything I did. It was the first time you criticized me and as I see it I was more offended by this rather than by what you actually said… Because let’s be honest it’s easy to see that the thing I love meddling with other people’s business is not something to be proud of.”

Here goes Bae Seowon, Shinkyung thought with a grin. She dared to because Seowon was also grinning widely.

“I reflected and realized that setting you and Donghae oppa up for a date wasn’t a fair thing to do. I felt it’s totally right and fair but it wasn’t because none of you knew about it and… Hell I was just upset as you were when you and everybody planned that date out for me and Eunhyuk oppa last summer and I still completely forgot about it!”

“It’s understandable though.” Shinkyung commented. “In your case it worked.”

Seowon turned her face to her friend.

“It could have worked in your case as well you know.”

Oh my, please don’t. Seowon’s honest sentence sent weird ideas to Shinkyung’s mind. She opposed all of these ideas but in reality – on more like in her dreams at night – they all made sense and seemed possible to happen.

Donghae holding my hand, calling me beautiful, is embracing me when I feel alone… I have to admit I had thoughts like this and even lately despite of his love confession about Miyeon-a sometimes they appear in my head. But it doesn’t mean I think of him that way. Because it doesn’t feel right…

“Could you tell me what is so wrong about Donghae oppa that you can’t think of him that way?” Seowon asked warily.

“Nothing is wrong about him.” Shinkyung answered immediately a bit scared because how could Seowon say the exact same thing she thought. “He’s nice and attractive. Nothing is wrong about him it’s just that our relationship can’t be better than that. He’s an oppa whose friendship and support I appreciate but that’s it… And honestly, isn’t all of this enough?”

Shinkyung had problems with deciding about when there’s enough of something and when there isn’t.

Sometimes I just want him to be near to me, to say nice things to me… to be more than what he is actually. But then again other times I claim we’re perfect the way we are and thinking about more than that makes me feel odd and unreasonable… Why is a relationship such a complex thing?

“… for him it’s most likely not.”

Shinkyung was too immersed in her thoughts to catch Seowon’s saying.

“Huh?”

“Nothing.” Her friend waved and broke into a smile. “I’m happy at the end we could talk this out. I’ll saintly vow not doing anything behind your back from now on, okay?”

“Okay… Wait, it doesn’t mean you stop matchmaking me with Donghae oppa, does it?”

Seowon blew a raspberry.

“You’re too smart for your own good.”

The two girls laughed but their joy was soon interrupted by an alarming sound. As it turned out, it came from Seowon’s phone.

“Gosh, the match!”

“What match?”

Seowon disregarded her friend’s question and reached for the clothes left on the chair.

“If we’re not ready in fifteen minutes, we’ll miss the bus and if we miss the bus… Arrgh!”

She was in such a hurry that she successfully put on her skirt inside out. “Girl, please go down and ask omma for the basket until I put on some make-up. And ask for the blue blanket with the strawberry pattern as well, ‘kay?”

Shinkyung had still no idea what’s going on but she understood Seowon’s in a rush so did as she was told without a word.

What kind of match is she talking about?, she wondered as she took the stairs down. I don’t remember her mentioning it before.

Shinkyung sighed as she arrived downstairs. How is she supposed to look for Seowon’s mom? She doesn’t even know where the front