Cupid's Arrow 1
Anyone ElseSojung rolls her wrist to loosen up the tension. Just one more shot, she thinks. Pulling the string back, she lets out a breath and aims. It lands in the inner most ring, but it's so close to the next ring. There's disappointment in her, so she shakes her head and starts walking to the target.
"Sojung, are you off now?"
"Yeah, that was my last shot. I'm kinda rusty, not gonna lie."
The teammate looks at her target, and their eyes almost bulge out of their head. There wasn't a single hole or arrow outside the eight points ring.
"Huh. Rusty."
"I'll see you tomorrow." After loading the arrows into the quiver, she puts it back on the rack, and her bow in her locker. Unstrapping her bracer, she rolls her wrist once again and flexes her fingers. Sojung can feel a sore in her arm from the hour of practicing.
As it's finally the end of the day, she decides it's a good time to call her girlfriend. Not even three rings, and she picks up.
"Hi Sojungie! I was just about to call you, because my class just finished."
"I just barely finished training. How's the first day?"
"It was great! I really like my history teacher. She's super fun, and she's lenient with submissions."
Before she can respond, she feels her phone vibrate again. There's another call incoming from Yuna, and it seems like it's important because the younger never calls without a text before hand.
"Sarang, Yuna's calling me right now, and I think it's important. Do you want me to put you on hold?"
"It's alright. You just call me back when you're done, okay?"
"I will. I love you."
"Love you too."
She taps her screen to end the call, and pick up Yuna's at the same time. "Hey, Yuna."
"Sojung, I need your help." Her best friend sounds worried with the way she spoke quietly.
"With?"
"It's about Yerin and Eunbi."
"Yerin and Eunbi?" It was an odd combination. Sojung knows each of them individually, but she's barely seen them interact since they met last week. All she knows is that since classes started today, something must have happened during training.
"There's something going on between them. I think they hate each other."
That takes her by surprise. As far as she's concerned, she thought the two would get along really well with their personalities. "What makes you think that?"
"I came by their gym to see if we could all go back to the dorms together, and— ugh, it's hard to explain, but I can feel it!"
"Where are you now?"
"I'm outside our rooms."
"Why are you outside?"
"I couldn't decide on who I should be with.
Sojung blinks. "Why not your roommate?"
"But... Yerin."
Then it clicks. "Yuna, do you like Yerin?"
"...no."
"Of course you do." She sighs. Her friend can get quite helpless when she starts to catch feelings for someone. Sure, Yuna's known Eunbi for longer and they're roommates, but there's obviously something that Yuna sees in Yerin that's making her like this.
So it's a situation of friendship or love.
"Why don't you get both of them in Eunbi's room, then you and I can be in my room?" She says with sarcasm all over my voice.
"Sojung, that doesn't make any sense."
"Just come down here, would you?" She looks up at the dorm building, as if looking right at Yuna through the walls.
-
Earlier...
"Sparring practice. Choose a partner, and this will also be a good way to get to know your teammates. Ten minutes, then you're all free to go," the coach said.
Yet, here I am in a standoff with Eunbi as the rest of the team start sparring. Neither one of us make a move, not wanting to give in.
"Let's just do this," she says with a heavy voice. Putting her helmet on, I have no choice but to put mine on as well. It seems we're on the same wavelength, because neither of us start off with a bow. Immediately getting into our stances, my breathing changes.
Focus.
Show her what you can do.
Eunbi makes the first move with a quick kick to my head. I dodge, but she punches me in the torso. That's one point for her.
I jump back, and switch feet to kick at her head. She leans back, but I fake her and kick at her side. Two points for me.
I wrap my leg around her, but I get ahead of myself when she tries to get out of it, and I end up falling on the ground. Damn it.
Back on my feet, she aims high, but I block it with my hand. I try the same thing, and she defends the same way. We both hop forward, and the next thing I know, our arms are flailing at trying to get a hit and also blocking. We're close enough that I can feel her warm breath, and see those eyes that seem to not have any emotions behind them.
I get distracted, so she pushes me off slightly and does a roundhouse kick. It brings me to my knees, and I can barely process what just happened. I look up, and she's already walking away with other teammates that finished.
This was just today. She's not better than me. Pull yourself together.
I catch my breath on the mat, and pull my helmet off. There's a pulsing in my head, and Eunbi is one of the reasons for it. Going into the locker room, I still when I see Yuna talking to Eunbi as the latter changes out of her uniform. Before Yuna sees me, i thank my past self for choosing my locker in the next row over. Changing clothes in front of Yuna isn't exactly something I'd want to do... yet. But I certainly don't want to do it close to the little devil.
"Where's Yerin?" I hear Yuna say.
"She's uh, somewhere." Was that Eunbi? I've never heard her talk brightly like that before. Then again, she's barely spoken a sentence to me.
"I was hoping we could all walk together. Catch up before hitting the showers or resting."
There's hope in Yuna's voice, and it makes me think twice about leaving quietly by myself. I zip up my bag, put on a smile, and make my presence known.
"Yerin! I was just about to go and find you." Yuna has that smile again that makes me feel so calm.
"Hi, Yuna." I ignore the glaring eyes coming from my side.
The walk to the dorms felt painfully long. Eunbi and I were responding to Yuna while also trying our hardest to ignore the other.
"Sojung told me about what happened the other day," Yuna starts.
"About what?"
"How you walked into her and Eunha." A chuckle sounds out from her, but I also hear a sound of disgust most likely from the other girl.
"They thought I was asleep after that with my headphones in, but I know they were trying to keep quiet." I feel a chill run through my body as I recall what happened.
The angel sighs. "The least Sojung can do is get me a date. I got those together. I've been stuck third wheeling them for the past year."
"You're too good for anyone, Yuna."
I almost scoff at the way Eunbi says it.
"Oh, come on. Surely there's someone that's not bad. Maybe on your taekwondo team?" Yuna glances my way, and I can only wish I know what that means.
"Trust me." Eunbi's gaze catches mine, and her eyebrow lifts up slightly. "You don't want to date anyone on my team."
I let out one audible laugh. "And how would you know?" Breaking the unspoken rule, I finally respond to her.
"I just do."
"Lucky for you, I know someone that would happily take Yuna out on a date."
-
Present
"So. Yerin huh," Sojung questions.
"I feel like she likes me too, y'know?" Yuna bites her lower lip in giddiness.
"Is that the same feeling that makes you say Yerin and Eunbi hate each other?"
"Sojung, if only you saw how they were. The tension was thick and daunting."
The older folds her arms. "Are you sure it's that kind of tension? Not... the other kind?"
"What's the other kind?" she asks, clueless.
"The we're-about-to-take-each-other's-clothes-off kind."
Yuna's face flushes a deep red. "I-i hope not." She cups her cheeks to try and cool them down when a thought pops up. "Oh! Yerin said something earlier. I was trying to hint at wanting to go out with her, and she said she knows someone that would really want to go out with me."
"Okay?"
"She meant herself!"
"So did you ask her out?"
Yuna blinks. "No... I was busy thinking about her and Eunbi."
"Sooo... What do you want to do?"
She keeps quiet as she thinks. She could start with trying to get Yerin and Eunbi to be friends, but wouldn't it be easier if she got closer to Yerin? That way, she knows enough about the two of them, and she can help them better. But what if she gets carried away with Yerin, and she gets farther from her roommate? What if Yerin finds someone else? What if Yerin and Eunbi end up dating each other?
Yuna's eyes widen. "Help me ask out Yerin."
Sojung's lips curl into a smirk. "Leave it to cupid."
...
"You should really stop calling yourself that. Just because you're an archer doesn't make you the god of love," the younger rolls her eyes.
"Eunha would disagree."
Heading to their respective rooms, Sojung steps in carefully, searching for her roommate. She finds me drying my hair with a towel, and a stick of Pepero in my mouth.
"Hi Sojung."
"Yerin! Jung Yerin! The best roommate I can ever ask for! How's the first day been?"
She was never the most energetic (me taking on that role), so I knew something was up. "It was good. I didn't really like the lunch menu. How was yours?"
"It was great! I shot all bullseyes during training! Just kidding. I didn't." She takes the towel, and rubs my hair with it. "I just want to apologize again for me and Eunha. I promise you, it's not going to happen again."
"It's fine. I can't count it as PDA, because you were technically in private. I would be more mad if it wasn't Eunha you brought in here," I joke.
"Woah, I'd never do that." She pauses, and steals a wafer stick. "Are you seeing anyone at the moment?"
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