Kyung let out a strained breath, slender hands gripping his knees to keep his body from crumpling into a heap on the ground, shaky vision barely fixed on the upright figure in front of him. Sweat dripped from his forehead, every pore on his head, arms, legs, and even places he didn’t think could perspire. Park Kyung had only ran (if you could call it running)  a mile, but he felt like his body was going to fall to pieces if he didn’t keep a grip on it at that very moment, knuckles white as he wobbled in his position.

“Are you really going to stand there like that, Kyung?” the figure in front of him spoke in a snarky high-pitched voice, her hip jutting out as she tapped a sneaker against the asphalt in an annoyed manner. “You said you were going to keep me company, but you’re being a baby!”

“I can’t,” Kyung managed to choke out with a heavy breath, slowly moving to stand up straight and shuffle his feet a few inches towards the female, who had easily ran twice the distance in their time at the track and only worked up a couple of glistening beads on her forehead, which anyone could hardly classify as sweat. Women didn’t sweat. “Sohyun, I’m a mathlete, not a” another exaggerated sigh passed his lips. “whatever.”

Kwon Sohyun was a “whatever” with plenty of medals and trophies under her belt-- soccer, track, baseball, swimming, volleyball, table tennis, and even games that hadn’t been named yet. There wasn’t a sport that she couldn’t play and almost every person in her high school was intimidated by her ferocity, and if they weren’t, they hadn’t met her yet. Her desire to be the absolute best in everything radiated off of her thin frame and only one person dared to speak to her casually. That person was the heaving mess in front of her, her best friend and number one in their class, mathlete Park Kyung. Although the two were seemingly opposite at first glance, their bond stretched far beyond their superficial differences, and far back to their first kiss in elementary school that they had sworn to never speak of. All things considered, the relationship was hardly complicated.

“On the count of three, you’re going to start running and you aren’t going to stop until I tell you to,” Sohyun said firmly, jogging in place, ready to shoot off ahead of her friend at the flip of a switch. The female athlete’s body was an anomaly-- how she hardly perspired after a long cardio workout, or how her limbs moved in an almost fluid motion, effortless. “We’re going to get you into shape, Nugget! Every girl at Seoul Science High School will want to date you in a week. I promise,” she tried to wink, but both of her eyes closed, looking strange to the other student, who cocked his head in confusion. “ONE!”

“I don’t have time for this, So--”

“TWO!”

“I want pancakes, and I’ll buy you a snack, too,” Kyung tried protesting again, much to Sohyun’s delight, her lips curling into a smile before parting again to yell out the last dreaded number. The mathlete put a foot forward, hardly ready to take off, but determined to not be in breach of their agreement. They were in their second year of high school and hadn’t been on a single date, heard a single confession, or even brushed hands with a person of the opposite . They were going to find dates in a week’s time. The scrawny Park Kyung had a week to build muscle and tone his body, which was absolutely impossible, but Sohyun had repeatedly insisted that she could make it happen. She was never wrong.

“THREE!”