Yoona’s foot tapped erratically against the wooden surface, her back hunched as her eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. The fingers of her left hand mindlessly played with the small dents of her desk. They always managed to find their way there when she was stressed, and during exams was when she played with them the most. Her other hand held tight a calculator, in the process of answering a question.

Her mind had wandered away as she took her eyes off the exam paper, staring at the back of the student in front of her. It seemed to be more interesting than anything in the room.

If it weren’t for Yuri, she probably wouldn’t have made it past the first question and if it weren’t for Yoona’s persistence, she wouldn’t have gotten herself a tutor. Obviously, she needed to thank Yuri after this.

Yoona smiled before looking at her left palm, the grin still plastered on her face. She lost count of how many times she’d read the words. Every 10 minutes, she found herself looking at them. To Yuri, they weren’t supposed to mean much. Just words to get Yoona through the test. But to the younger, they meant more than she could ever ask for.

Yoona took one last look before getting back to answering the question, her eyes glimmering at the message.

You better be sitting beside me on graduation day.

***

“Hey! Down the front! Could you move your big head? I can’t see the game!”

Tiffany had to grab a hold of Jessica’s hand and pull her back to sit down, knowing that at any moment, she could climb over the bleachers and beat the crap out of the idiot blocking her view. At all sides, people cheered for their team, most of them screaming ‘Soshi Sharks’ over and over again while others screaming for whatever the hell the other team was called.

“Yoong’s been off lately.” Tiffany stated, her eyes full of worry.

“What do you mean? She’s doing fine.”

“No. She never misses a chance to score, but throughout this whole time, she hasn’t made even one goal. It’s all the other girls.”

“Soo’s got her.” Jessica nonchalantly spoke.

Yuri intently watched the game, her eyes fixated on one girl. She wasn’t quite sure of how to react when someone scored a goal or when a team claimed the ball off their opponents or when a player was offside. She’d never been to a football game before so she had no idea what the yes and nos were.

How loud was she supposed to scream? Was she allowed to leave if she needed to pee?

She found herself so often, leaning in towards Taeyeon to ask her questions on what was happening. Whose goal was whose? What the hell is a red card? Why does the guy in black and white have to blow a whistle every chance he got? She felt like she was just watching people run from one end of a field to another, which was exactly what soccer looked like.

When Yoona had approached her the other day, giving her tickets to her game, it woke up the butterflies in her stomach. She was even taken aback with the fact that Yoona actually wanted her there, considering the younger didn’t like people knowing she associated herself with Yuri. The tanned one wondered if it would even be okay if she yelled out Yoona’s name, cheering for her, but then again, she could just call out to the team, right?

There was no reason for her to call out to just Yoona. Even if the older girl did want to be a supportive girlfriend, doing that would probably just piss Yoona off.

So for the majority of the game, Yuri had kept mum, only shouting out the team name when the rest of the girls did. She just copied them and hoped for the best.

From what she’s heard, both teams were neck and neck by halftime, leaving them at the same score.

“Ugh. Who knew soccer would be this boring?” From beside her, Yuri could hear her friend’s disinterest in the tone of her voice.

She could’ve turned and told her to not be so rude, but then she’d be a hypocrite. Yuri couldn’t even get herself to concentrate for more than 5 minutes. She thought that maybe if she knew the game and rules better, she’d be more fascinated with the sport.

She should’ve told Yoona to explain beforehand.

“Be grateful Yoona was kind enough to buy the tickets.” Sunny reprimanded.

“I didn’t ask her to get me a ticket.”

“Well why did you come?”

“Because you forced me to!”

“I did not. Stop lying.”

Yuri chuckled at the bickering couple. You couldn’t stop them even if you tried. She quickly picked up her phone soon after as she heard an incoming call, smiling at the caller ID.

“Hellooo?”

“I have about 10 minutes before the next half and the only thing I want to do right now is kiss you.”

Quick to the point… “In front of everyone? Well that’s not like you, Im Yoona.”

“Not in front of everyone, silly.” She could practically feel the younger’s goofy smile through the phone. “Come see me in the locker rooms? I made sure no one saw me walk in here.”

Yuri didn’t even hesitate to accept the offer. She walked into the locker rooms with anticipation. She didn’t get to talk to Yoona when she got to the venue, so it felt like forever since she heard the younger’s voice.

Inside, Yuri finds her girlfriend patiently sitting on one of the benches, wringing her hands over and over again as if it would calm her down. At that moment, Yuri wasn’t able to describe how attractive Yoona looked. She was just sitting there, her hair tied up in a messy, high ponytail. Her thin lips appeared so delicious from where Yuri stood, and she wondered if this was the same thing Yoona did the first time they had met.

Careful were Yuri’s steps as she approached the exhausted soccer player who, more than likely, was thinking about her girlfriend’s arrival.

“You called?” In just the split of a second, Yoona stood, immediately surprised as she saw the sudden figure before her.

“Oh, I most certainly did.” A wide smile now gracing the younger’s lips. “From how slow you walked, you’ve just wasted 3 minutes you could’ve spent with me.”

“Well I’m sorry I had to walk all the way to a secluded area just to get a kiss from my overwhelmingly self-conscious girlfriend. I’ll try better next time.” Yuri playfully sneered back, earning a warm chuckle from Yoona.

“Let’s not waste anymore then.”

Yoona pulled the tanned girl in by her waist, kissing her full on the lips. “Did you eat anything?” She asked between kisses.

“Some of Tiffany’s hotdog. Why?”

“I can taste the sauce on your lips.”

“I’m glad you enjoy the taste of my hotdog breath.” One last kiss and Yoona pulled Yuri to the bench, both of them sitting down, thigh against thigh. “Did you tell your parents?”

“They screamed.”

Yuri giggled. “So you’re sitting next to me for graduation?”

“Definitely.”

Yuri leaned her head against her girlfriend’s shoulder, snuggling into her. “How do you feel? You’re tied with them, right?”

Yoona nodded slowly, looking a bit glum with the realisation that her team wasn’t actually winning at the moment. “It’s weird. Usually we’d be winning by the end of 1^st half, but I haven’t gotten a single goal in.”

“Stop blaming yourself. I don’t think you’re the only one in charge of scoring.”

“I’m not but it’s usually me scoring…” Yuri laid her hand on her girlfriend’s thigh, gently rubbing it to sooth her senses.

“Maybe you should give other people a go.”

“Change is bad.” Yoona pouted, giving Yuri the cutest look. It was too hard for the latter to not smile. She placed a soft kiss upon Yoona’s pouty lips, lingering as both their eyes saw nothing but the back of their eyelids.

“Sometimes, change can be beautiful.”

***

It was the start of 2^nd half and after reluctantly leaving Yuri to get back to the game, Yoona hadn’t expected to be pulled onto the sidelines before she’d even gotten on the field. Her coach looked distressed, and Yoona knew why.

“We’re tied, Yoona. You know that right?”

“Yes, coach. I know. I’ve decided that maybe the other girls could also get a chance to shoot? I mean there’s strikers other than me so maybe-”

“Nononono.” The coach stopped her before she could even finish announcing her suggestion. “You need to be the one to shoot, Yoona.”

“Why so? Isn’t it a little unfair?”

“Soccer’s never a fair game. You look away one minute and the opposing team cheats 5 different ways. You barely touch another player and they’re on the floor, crying for their mothers and giving you penalties. You wanna play soccer, you need to be willing to lose the small things in order to win the big ones. Is your relationship with other people going to get you far in life?”

Yoona tapped her chin. “Well it depends who the person is like if it were Angelina Jolie or something then-”

“That’s not the point!” The coach swung an arm around Yoona’s shoulder, pointing at the table not too far from where they stood. “That trophy over there is what’s important right now. If we walk home with that trophy, we walk home with a future. You understand?”

Yoona didn’t want to. She didn’t know what was right anymore. Was stealing the ball off teammates more efficient in winning than actually giving them a turn to score? Of course not! So then why was her coach telling her it was?

“Remember. You can’t afford losing this game. Especially with the fact that we’re on a winning streak. Perfect your movements. Perfect your kicks. Perfect you.”

Perfect. That was the only word that had etched its way into Yoona’s skin. It flew through her bloodstream and built a wall inside her head. At the tip of her tongue, it stayed, being the only thing she could taste. She had to be perfect. For her coach. For her fans. For Yuri.

“Yes coach.”

“Well then, get that trophy.”

***

After everything Taeyeon explained to her, Yuri was starting to pay much more attention now than before. She was beginning to see both teams’ different uses of techniques and how they applied them in the situations they were in. She saw how if there was one mistake made, there were loop holes to getting back to the plan. She saw all of it. The one person who didn’t was Yoona.

She watched her girlfriend run around the field like a headless chicken. Every time she had the ball, Yuri expected her to pass it to the closest teammate near the goals, but instead, she’d attempted to score, knowing full well she wasn’t going to get it in.

“Yoona! What the hell are you doing?!” Sooyoung yelled from where she stood as she watched her friend try to shoot. The ball flew right over the nets, giving Yoona’s team a score of nothing.

As one of the players ran to get a new ball, Sooyoung had gone up to her friend. “Dude, you could’ve passed it to one of the other girls. Are you stupid?” The younger attempted to ignore her, trudging off to an open area to stand.

“Hey!” Sooyoung grabbed her friend by the shoulder, pulling her back.

“What?!”

“Get a hold of yourself! What’s wrong with you?”

“Everything, apparently!” Yoona pushed the taller one away, leaving her in shock. Sooyoung wasn’t quite sure what happened but she knew this wasn’t like Yoona. Yeah, they were losing by 1 but she didn’t expect her friend to get worked up like this. Something was obviously bugging her.

The rest of the game didn’t get any better. Every time Yoona had a chance to shoot, she’d miss it by a long shot, groaning after every try. Sooyoung couldn’t even talk to her anymore. Once Yoona had the ball, it was like she was the only one in the team. Running past opponents only to fail to get a goal in.

From the sidelines, her coach was having a fit. Throwing his hat on the ground, kicking the bench. To simply put it, no one was happy with the game. Even the fans’ cheers seemed to be dying down as well. This was the worst game Soshi Sharks had ever played.

“Get her off the field!” The coach yelled, pointing to Yoona. She came running off with a scowl.

“Sir, I can do this!”

“No. You just sit on the bench and watch, you hear?”

No words were exchanged after that. Yoona had never been taken off the team, so she didn’t know how to react to it. Her face was red from both running and the embarrassment she was going through. Failing in front of her fans, friends and girlfriend wasn’t the best thing to be proud of even for a low self-esteemed girl like Yoona.

She didn’t dare give the bleachers a glance. Only facing her back to them knowing everyone was judging her.

***

Her team lost. Their first game to ever lose. People left the game before it even ended, knowing who would win. No one really knew whether they lost because Yoona was on the field or because she wasn’t on the field. It was hard to decipher if it was the captain’s fault or not. It didn’t matter though, because Yoona was blaming herself either way.

“I’m not going to ask you girls whether tonight was a good game because you know the answer to that already.” The coach spoke with authority. “Obviously some of you have lost your touch. Yoona…” He looked at her sternly, intimidating her. “…I expected more.”

Yoona lowered her head, her eyes scrunched shut at those words. “I’m sorry, coach.” Her team only stared, sympathetic.

The coach sighed, stressing over their loss. “We have another game. In a few weeks. Practise day, afternoon, night. I don’t care if you have important things to do. I want you all winning the next game, understand?”

“Yes coach.” The whole team said in unison.

He dismissed them before they packed up their bags and took off their gear. Each one said goodbye to Yoona, feeling sorry for her as they left. Out of nowhere, Sooyoung pulled her friend into a hug, tight so the younger couldn’t leave. Not that Yoona was thinking of pulling away in the first place.

Sooyoung didn’t say anything. Being her best friend, she knew what Yoona was feeling. She knew how upset she was. She knew how much Yoona needed this.

“Coach is a giant dickwad. Don’t listen to a word he says.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it? I could’ve done better.” Sooyoung pulled away, looking Yoona in the eyes.

“It’s okay if you don’t do well. Sometimes, you have bad days, and that’s totally fine. Don’t let one little thing get to you. After winning all your games before this, why does a loss make you so upset?”

Yoona breathed. “It’s not the loss. It’s the fact that I caused it.”

“We’re all a team. Hell, I think some of the girls weren’t even trying. You’ll get over this. We’ll win the next one. I promise.”

And then Sooyoung’s arms were around Yoona again, reassuring her with just one, tight embrace. “You’re doing great, man.”

“Agreed.” Yoona turned at a voice similar to Jessica’s. Her friends stood there with a smile on their faces, proud of their soccer players. “You both are. This game was totally rigged.”

“I don’t think they even needed a team. They could’ve taken on the opposing side by themselves.” Tiffany added, determined with what she stated.

Yoona managed to snicker, but she was still quite upset. Adding to that, only 2 fans had come to greet her after the game. Much less than what was predicted. But one look at a certain tanned girl, the one standing not too far from her, Yoona didn’t feel so upset anymore.

“Hey you…”

The younger gave a shy grin, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. “Hey. How’d it feel like to watch me fail?”

Yuri wrapped her arms around her girlfriend’s waist, resting her forehead on her shoulder. “I loved it.”

“You what?”

“It was cute.”

“But I lost. How is that cute?”

“You. You’re cute. What you do is cute. It was cute when you got mad and,” Yuri moved to look at Yoona’s red face, giggling. “It’s cute how embarrassed you are right now.”

“Argh. Shut up.” Yoona smiled and hugged her girlfriend tight, burying her face in the crook of her neck as the other laughed.

From a few feet away, Seohyun squealed.

“Oh my gosh. They’re so freakin’ adorable.”

***

It’s been a week since the terrible excuse of a football game, and Yoona had been nonstop practising. She was found on the field every day. Sometimes without Sooyoung because the older girl just couldn’t afford to dedicate that much time to train. In other words, she was too lazy.

Because of how much time she spent practising, it was starting to interfere with her dates with Yuri. They hadn’t gone out for a while and Yuri couldn’t admit to Yoona that she felt lonely, because Yoona had other things to think about. She had to worry about her upcoming soccer game.

If Yuri had whined to her about it, she’d think of her as someone clingy. And Yuri didn’t want to seem clingy at all.

After respecting Yoona’s decisions, Yuri never mentioned her girlfriend’s self-consciousness. They never fought over it and ended their days with kissing and smoothies. The time that they used for studying was then used for dates.

But that hadn’t happened for a while. Because with that time, Yoona had exchanged it for her soccer practise. And Yuri couldn’t do anything but accept it.

“You gonna tell her?”

“I don’t think she’d want to go. People will get suspicious, you know? Yoong doesn’t want that happening.”

Hyoyeon groaned. “Geez. She’s got you wrapped around her finger.”

“Whaaaat?” Yuri scoffed. “She does not.”

“Oh yeah? A few weeks ago, you would’ve been chasing her tail every time she chose her reputation over you. Now? You let her walk over you like a door mat.”

“I’m simply accepting what she wants. I care for her. I’ll wait for her.”

“So you think Yoona isn’t willing to come see our dance competition because she’s too scared to be seen with you?” Hyoyeon raised a brow at the stupid excuse. If anything, these two were basically not even dating. “That’s ridiculous. If that’s how you think, it’s obvious Yoona doesn’t give you enough attention.”

Yuri scowled. “She gives me more than enough. I’m grateful.”

“Yeah, but is she?”

To be quite honest, Yuri was so tired of fighting with Yoona, she’d resorted to just accepting how insecure she was. She didn’t want to shout anymore and she felt it was useless to argue over such little things. And she knew Yoona was tired of apologising as well.

“Just ask her. It’d be nice to see her supporting you.”

Yuri sighed. “I’ll think about it.”

***

After calling Yoona and asking her to meet at the tree, Yuri thought the younger would turn her down seeing as she had soccer training to go to. She’d accepted it to Yuri’s surprise, the latter quite happy with the answer. It couldn’t necessarily be called a date, but at least she had the opportunity to finally talk to Yoona face-to-face.

She’d planned on asking her to go to the dance competition she was having. Not quite sure of the date yet but she knew it was bound to happen. But there was a slight doubt that maybe Yoona wouldn’t want to go. Maybe she was still scared. Yuri would understand though, no matter the answer.

Yuri was busily circling the giant tree as her girlfriend approached her, a charming smile plastered on her face.

“Hey, Yul.” She gave a soft kiss to the said girl’s forehead. “You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Why’d you call?”

I just wanted to see you. Is that too much to ask? Yuri didn’t voice it out loud, knowing it would start something. “I wanted to ask you something…”

Yoona checked her watch, reading the time. And by that, Yuri knew it was limited. “Better make it quick. I have soccer practise. Also, get this!” Yoona eyes were wide with happiness. “If we win this, coach is getting us free pizza! Free pizza! So I gotta train really hard seeing as our next game’s been moved to Friday. Free pizza, Yul! Isn’t that great?”

Yuri’s face had confusion written all over it. If the game was moved to Friday, that meant it would be on the same night as Yuri’s dance competition. Having known Yoona for a while, and seeing how much she loved football, her decision was too obvious. Im Yoona would never turn down soccer and free pizza to watch her girlfriend dance. Her secret girlfriend, that is.

“What was it you were going to ask me?”

Yuri stuttered. “I uh…I…” Was there really a point in asking now? “I just…wanted to know if…you still think about me.” She sighed in disappointment, knowing that was only partly of what she wanted to know.

Yoona chuckled. “Of course I still think about you.” She gave Yuri a quick, savouring kiss. “Every minute of the day.”

Yuri smiled. “Good.”

“I’ll see you later, okay?” A couple more kisses and Yoona had left. Yuri didn’t want to think about it but it was true.

She was probably nowhere near being one of Yoona’s priorities.

…

__________

Merry Christmas, lovely readers ((to those that celebrate it))! It’s Boxing Day where I am but I assume some of you are still on the 25^th. Hope you guys have a great day/night!

As always, thank you for reading! :))