Just Breathe
Description
It's just before your 100m fly final and Baekhyun catches you just before you enter the call room.
He smirks and lightly punches your arm.
'Good luck, Jiwon. Blow them out of the water and kill it for me, okay?'
You nod and pull down your swim cap for the fifth time.
'Don't worry, I know you can do this. I'll be at the end of your lane cheering for you.'
You turn, hearing your name being called by the marshall.
Noticing your nervousness, Baekhyun taps you once last time.
'Forget about Coach Ha and being kicked out of the squad, Jiwon.
Just breathe. Swim and breathe.'
BYUN BAEKHYUN
Born August '97, individual medley specialist with knee problems from years of playing football.
Has the temper and the body of a Greek God.
Personal best times: 1:04.24 (100 metres free) and 1:10.68 (100 metres fly).
Best friends with Park Chanyeol. Loves Park Jiwon like a sister.
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YOU/ PARK JIWON
Born September '95, butterfly sprinter with poor reaction times off the block.
Easy to get angry, easy to make cry. Unrelated to Park Chanyeol.
Personal best times: 30.06 (50m) and 1:04.72 (100m).
Best friends with Joo Narae and Choi Seonyoung. Regarded as a sister by Byun Baekhyun.
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JOO NARAE
Born May '97, 2nd resident backstroker in the squad.
Constantly competing against friend and lane buddy, Kang Jinyoung.
Personal best times: 1:05.42 (100 free) and 1:15.23 (100m back).
In the midst of moving to America. Best friends with Park Jiwon. Dislikes Choi Seonyoung.
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CHOI SEONYOUNG
Born February '96, middle distance freestyler, 'Good in training but loses it at the races.'
Considered the prettiest girl in the squad.
Personal best times: 1.08.36 (100m free) and 2:26.48 (200m free).
Best friends with Shin Chaekyung and Park Jiwon.
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OTHER SQUAD MEMBERS
Kang Jinyoung- Born Janurary '97, 200m back national champion
Shin Chaekyung- Born January '98, inferior sister of national champion Shin Hakyung
Park Chanyeol- Born March '96, 200m national champion with eyes only for Choi Seonyoung
Cho Soomi- Born August '97, long distance freestyler and middle distance flyer, best friends with Go Ahreum
Go Ahreum- Born July '97, all round butterflyer, best friends with Cho Soomi
So Yoora- Born November '96, 'skinny mini' with the biggest girl-crush on Choi Seonyoung
Kim Sora- Born January '96, freestyle sprinter with an underlying heart problem
Coach Ha- Olympic swimming coach, tattoo extraordinaire
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LANE LAYOUT
Lane 1: 'The Distancers'
Lane 2: 'The Big Boys'
Lane 3: 'The Big Girls'
Lane 4: 'The Flyers'
Lane 5: 'The Sprinters'
Lane 6: 'The strokers'
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This is the story of our friendship.
It started in summer and ended in March, 2 years later.
This is the story of how I lost you, and never got you back- my bestest friend, Byun Baekhyun.
This is the story of how I vowed never to return to the pools again.
Author's note:
This is my story. Please do not plagiarize. If there is just one story I do not want being copied, it is this one. I'll reiterate it again- this is my story.
Every character is based off of someone I know and used to swim with therefore now and then, new characters may be intoduced. There are only a couple of things changed in this story. 'Joo Narae' moved to Japan, not America, 'Choi Seonyoung' is blonde and no one in my swimming squad was Korean. The real life 'Byun Baekhyun' is Eurasian, looks like Kim Myungsoo (INFINITE) and his brother 'Jaehyun' looks like Do Kyungsoo (EXO) only with smaller eyes and more piercings.
Updates may be slightly slow as I still haven't come to terms with everything that happened yet, despite this taking place 3 years ago. I want to grow and get over what happened and I hope that by writing my story for you to listen, this will help me.
♡Special thanks to my Mexican chica Lynnda for making me the Baekhyun edit! Make sure you take a look at her stories, she's a fantastic writer!♡
Poster by superstar-k at Poster Paradise!~ Many thanks again!
-DEDICATED TO SP-
Foreword
It started the summer you found out Narae liked Baekhyun.
You weren't surprised because, well, everyone liked Baekhyun, just not you. During the years before Baekhyun joined the squad, you had liked someone else who was similar in build and similar in appearance, but different in personality and age. Whilst Baekhyun was more hot headed, he was calmer and more rational. And whilst Baekhyun was a grade below me, he was in the grade above. That someone was Jaehyun- Baekhyun's elder brother.
Blessed with good genes, anyone younger than Baekhyun usually fell for him and anyone older fell for his brother. Shin Chaekyung had always had a thing for Jaehyun and when you had tired of your feeble crush, she asked you to help her win him over.
That started the name: 'Jiwon, The Love Doctor'
However, fast-forward to the summer you promised Narae you'd try to help her get together with Baekhyun and it was a completely different story on your front. You were long over Jaehyun and focused entirely on being friends with the second brother in the infamous Byun family. Seonyoung was in on the plan naturally, much to Narae's dismay, but with her help you befriended him and by the end of summer, the four of you were inseperable.
Just like that, Byun Baekhyun had become my best friend and my brother- someone I would have taken a bullet for and he would have done the same for me too.
Weekends were spent out, wasting your youth together.
Days were spent at the pool, messing around together.
Nights were spent staying up all night, talking until you fell asleep at your laptop, waking up to hundreds of facebook messages poking fun at you for being the first to sleep.
As your friendship built, he let you in on all his secrets and warned you about his temper. He told you what to do should he ever get angry at you, knowing he'd hold a grudge for the longest period of time if it wasn't sorted out soon. He'd cheer for you at competitions, not leaving the end of your lane for anything, giving you a pat on the back if you had done well and a hug if you hadn't. He'd joke and pretend to be angry if you ever beat his personal best, feigning annoyance, when he was really ecstatic for you, telling you so if Seonyoung wasn't around.
If you could go back to the month where it all ended, you wished he would have listened to you. Instead of listening to you when you had been babbling about nonsense, simply trying to talk to him for longer in the beginning of your friendship that summer, you wished you had saved that time and stored it in a capsule for later use.
You wished he would have just given you those few seconds to say to him, 'breathe, Baekhyun. Just breathe.'
Maybe then you wouldn't have lost him.
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