RACE YOU TO HER HEART; 
Chapter 18: Catching Up (IV)

Dahyun begin studying harder after that... Not necessarily because she willingly wanted to though... But rather because of her mother's insistence... Also because Nayeon was very strict and persistent as a tutor. 

As expected from a top student/overachiever like Im Nayeon, the older girl was definitely serious when it came to studies and grades... What Dahyun didn't expect though was to experience this 'seriousness' firsthand. 

"You have to do this, this and these questions okay? And when you're done we'll revise your pass exam papers," Nayeon said, with a no nonsense tone, as she flipped through one of the assessment books she had prepared for Dahyun. "Oh wait, do this question as well."

"But Nayeon unnie there's so many..." Dahyun sulked. 

"Yah, do you want to do well or not?" Nayeon scolded. 

"Yeah..." Dahyun nodded. And she really did. She wanted to do well so she won't disappoint her parents or Nayeon, she wants to do well so that she can be allowed to run again... So that she would be grounded no longer. However, as soon as she proceeded to start on the first question, she frowned. How is it already so difficult? 

15 minutes passed and she was still stuck on the same question. She turned her head to look at Nayeon who was sitting a little bit further away, eyebrows furrowed as she busily did her own homework and revisions. Nayeon indeed felt like a totally different person when she's studying... So serious... It made Dahyun a little bit angsty. She could almost feel the intense and stressful waves of energy radiating off the older girl.

'Aish better not bother her with this question... Skip!' Dahyun told herself. But damn... It seemed that the next question was equally as hard. 

Feeling helpless, Dahyun looked at Nayeon again... Why did the older girl suddenly look so intimidating... Ah but then again she's still very prett-

"Yes?" Nayeon suddenly spoke, without looking up from her notes. She had a sort of stoic expression on her face that Dahyun wasn't use to. 

"U-uh... Um..." Dahyun stuttered out.
Crap why did she sounded so... cold? Is she perhaps angry?
"... Nothing!" Dahyun let out, diving back into her assessment. 

Nayeon looked at her, "Do you need help?"

"N-no... I'm good."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep..."

"Okay, tell me if you do need help," Nayeon deadpanned, going to write something down on her notes. 

Dahyun went back to attempting to do her assessment questions...
.

.

.

After finally completing one of the questions she was once again stuck on another one. 

She stared at that question with a pained expression. 'God, I hate maths!' She wanted to say. Since this was an assessment book, Dahyun wondered if there were answers at the back of the book. So she begin flipping to the back... 'Oooo jackpot, answer keysss!' However, she soon realised that she didn't understand why the questions were done the way the answer keys said it was. Dahyun sulked. 'Why is everything so difficult... Why why why why whyyyyyy-'

Just then she felt Nayeon peering over her shoulder. 

Dahyun felt her heart did a little nervous jump. For some reason she was worried that Nayeon would end up scolding her... Maybe Nayeon would even find her dumb for not being able to answer these math problems, that Nayeon probably found simple, and had to resort to secretly looking at the answer keys. 

But the older girl only clicked her tongue. "Yah," she muttered, her hand reaching for Dahyun's writing hand. "What are you doing? Are you stuck on this question? Why didn't you ask me?" 

"I- uh..." Dahyun found herself mumbling. Her dizzy brain couldn't really function at this point, not with Nayeon leaning so closely against her back, and holding her hand as she wrote out a math equation. 

"Look, this is how you're suppose to do it. You had to differentiate this first before you can- yah Kim Dahyun are you paying attention?" 

"N- Yes! Yes I am?" 

Nayeon pulled away before giving her a look.
 

"Okay, sorry I wasn't listening..." Dahyun admitted. "Maths is confusing unnie... and how can I concentrate when you're so close to me..."

Nayeon raised her eyebrows in surprise at that, then she kept quiet for awhile. The younger girl only continued sulking over how she hated math from the bottom of her heart. 

"This is hopeless unnie, you should give up on me..." Dahyun sighed. 

Dahyun later felt a light peck on her cheek. Surprised, she looked at Nayeon whose expression had seemingly changed back to the lovely looking one that Dahyun always saw. "Yah, don't give up so quickly okay? Don't you want to go back on the track team?"

Oh yes the track team. Just the thought of not being able to ever run on the track team again already made Dahyun felt like crying. She sighed. "Yes but..."

"Nope, no buts. If you really want to get back on the team then you just have to keep on trying harder. We have a deal with your parents remember?" Nayeon nagged. The younger girl sighed, agreeing inside that what Nayeon said was true, as she nodded along. "Hey don't be so discouraged Dahyun-ah," Nayeon said while trying to turn Dahyun's chair around to face her. "This is just the beginning you know," she said while bending down, "And well, maths is all about practice to be honest. Once you get the hang of it you'll do fine, trust me," Nayeon reassured her with a smile. 

And with that as her motivation (not to mention with Nayeon backing her up) Dahyun decided to give it another go. 

-

Nayeon was right though. 

It took a couple of weeks, redoing plenty of maths questions, as well as loads of nagging and explaining from Nayeon, before Dahyun was eventually able to confidently complete most of the questions in the assessment books and mock examination papers by herself. 

After school, three times a week, Nayeon would walk the younger girl home, before tutoring her there. English, math, science, humanities... Nayeon made her studied as much as she could in the span of 4 hours for each of the days which was rather impressive if Dahyun was to be honest. The older girl indeed have a brilliant sense of time management.

Having Im Nayeon as her personal tutor, however, made Dahyun really confused. She couldn't get use to how Nayeon would be all loving and sweet on their way to Dahyun's house... But suddenly cold and distant when she was tutoring the younger girl. 

What's going on?? She often can't help but think. It made her feel quite upset when Nayeon was being cold to her... Aren't they suppose to be dating? Ah, but maybe she's just like this when she's studying... After all it's Im Nayeon the overachiever we're talking about here... 

Thankfully though, after a while, Dahyun kinda got use to it... This hot and cold treatment she was receiving from the older girl... Kinda... 

What she still wasn't use to was the pressure placed on her shoulders... The feeling of a tight knot she'd get in the pit of her stomach every time she got home. 

It seemed that at some point that tight knot, that negative and stressful feeling she'd get, somehow begin to associate itself with a certain Im Nayeon. And when Dahyun saw the older girl, she somehow felt like... She couldn't breathe. Which wasn't an uncommon feeling Nayeon gave her, after all Nayeon's pretty face always made Dahyun's heart skip and her breath get caught in ... In the good sort of way. 

But now... Dahyun wasn't sure if that feeling Nayeon made her feel was felt in the good way anymore... 

"Dubu-yah!" A happy Jackson chirped as he swung an arm over his best friend's shoulder. 

"Oh hey Mandu..." Dahyun greeted. 

Jackson stared at her oddly. He knew Dahyun wasn't the "happiest kid on the block" recently due to being grounded and banned from running and all, but still she usually didn't seemed so down. "Yo what's the matter?"

"Huh?"

"Why the long face?? Didn't you do well for the mock test in class this week?"

"I guess so..."

"Well then, why do you look so upset?" He asked. 

"I..." Dahyun looked at him thinking about what to say... But she gave up with a sigh. "Nevermind..." She waved it off before she continued walking forward. 

Jackson furrowed his eyebrows. "Woah woah woah, hold on a sec!" He said, going in front of the shorter girl to stop her from walking. "What do you mean nevermind? You're obviously troubled so tell me what's wrong?"

Dahyun bit her lip. "Well I..." She looked up thinking, trying to find the words to perhaps describe how she had been feeling, "I just..." Jackson continued to look at her with an eyebrow raised in question. 

"I just... Feel kinda..."

"You feel kinda?"

"I don't know?... I feel kinda... Like ty?" Dahyun nodded to herself. "Yeah, I feel totally ty. ty and stressed out." 

"Oh..." Jackson mouthed. "Why?"

'Because my parents are stressing me out, and Nayeon unnie is stressing me out, and examinations are coming but I'm grounded and am still not allowed to run!' She wants to scream. But she doesn't. "Well, I just do," she deadpanned instead with another exasperated sigh, too lazy to explain all of these to Jackson. It wasn't like he could do anything to help anyway. 

"Hmm... do you wanna hang out today after school?" Jackson asked casually. 

"Nah... I'm kinda like still grounded remember?"

"Oh yeah..." Jackson mumbled kicking away a pebble on the ground as they both continued walking. "Hey hold on a sec! Aren't you only grounded for like a month or something?"

"... Oh yeah I guess I am?" Dahyun said.

"And..." Jackson started with a grin, taking out his phone. He click on the calender checking the date. "When did this start? Hasn't it already been a month?"

Dahyun's eyes widened in surprise, "oh my gosh... It has!" She breathed in realisation. It's been exactly a month and a week since she was grounded. 

"Uh-huh," Jackson nodded, smiling. "Which means..."

"I'm no longer grounded?!" Dahyun said with a huge smile on her face as she did a little happy hop. 

"Yeah!" Jackson cheered, before the two friends hi-fived. "So, let's hang out?"

"Okay!" Dahyun said, suddenly feeling less ty, "Where to?"

-

Jackson brought Dahyun to a place where he claimed could "help relief stress" but "doesn't involve running".

"Tada!" The guy chirped with his arms wide open. 

"Baseball?" Dahyun gasped while staring at the entrance of the place. 

"Yeah that's right! Well actually... It's caged baseball? It's pretty new and cool and they're having a student discount now so it's super cheap! Come on let's go," he rushed out before swinging an arm over Dahyun's shoulder and dragging her in. 

While Jackson went to book a slot for them, Dahyun went to look around. Baseball was a pretty big deal in Korea, almost every family loved watching the game, but Dahyun herself has never actually tried it. With that said, the curious girl was pretty excited as she walked around having a glance at the various automated baseball cages and the people inside batting/pitching like a pro (or like a noob). 

"Hey, here," Jackson said handing Dahyun two bats and pairs of gloves. "We're playing in cage 15 okay? Go wait for me there, I have to go pee." He whispered the last part out as Dahyun giggled. 

Walking down the narrow dimly lit hallway, Dahyun could hear the occasional sounds of a bat hitting against the ball as she hugged the items given to her against her chest. 

Halfway through, a particular cage caught her attention. The atmosphere was very rowdy inside that cage and there were quite a number of guys standing outside that cage seeming to be peering/admiring the person inside. "Woah..." The guys were mumbling as they stared at the batter inside.

'Ah the guy inside must be very good at baseball,' Dahyun thought. 

Out of curiosity, Dahyun went to take a look too. 

To her surprise though, that "guy" happened to be a girl...
and a rather attractive one at that. 

Dahyun couldn't really see her entire face at first, but just from her back and occasional side profile when she moved, she could see how fit the girl looked. In a pair of distressedly ripped skinny jeans and a royal blue crop top, her nicely toned arms and legs could be seen. She held onto what seemed like her own custom brought baseball bat, jet black with a couple of hot pink and white graffiti logo sticker of some sort pasted on it.

Dahyun knew nothing much about baseball but the way the girl plays makes her seems as though she's a professional baseball player, swinging and hitting every shot on point. 

'Cool...' Dahyun thought to herself just as the girl made another perfect hit. 

*clank!*

The sound of the bat hitting the ball was followed by a cat-call by one of the guys watching her outside the batting cage. Dahyun rolled her eyes at that, being reminded of how annoyingly ertic some guys can actually be. 

That whistle caught the attention of the baseball girl though, causing her to turn around to look at the guy... Who then seem to feel very proud at getting her attention.

Dahyun manage to see the girl's face then, and she suddenly understood why so many people were there staring at her. Firstly, although Dahyun truly thinks that her Nayeon unnie is the prettiest girl in the world, she couldn't help but admit that this pro-baseball playing girl isn't bad looking at all either. She had evenly-dyed long blonde hair, tied into a messy ponytail and looked around Dahyun's age... or maybe just a little older than Dahyun. Secondly, Dahyun almost choked when she caught a glimpse of the girl's toned stomach. 'W...wow... she has abs... that's...um... nice,' she thought to herself nervously. Confused by that thought, Dahyun wasn't exactly sure if she was checking that girl out (which made her feel the slightest hint of guilt towards Nayeon), or just being envious of her nice body. Maybe it was a little bit of both.

Also, when she first turned around, Dahyun noticed how the girl had a confused and innocent look on her face, her eyes round and slightly wide. But later on when she met eyes with the annoying guy who distracted her from the game, she gave the most unimpressed-pissed-off-fake-smile ever. Closing an eye, she stared at the said guy while lifting up her tumb, as though aiming at him. Everything seem to happen so quickly and the next thing everyone knew was that the next shot she hit with her bat swiftly flew right towards that guy's face. 

The guy shut his eyes tightly, bracing himself as though totally not expecting that. Luckily for him... He was outside the cage so it protected him from being hit. 

The other people around him – including Dahyun who had thought that he deserved it – started laughing as he heaved a sigh of relief. 

The baseball girl herself was very proud and amused at that, letting out a giggle that Dahyun found rather cute for someone who have just behaved so 'toughly'. Just then the blonde girl's amused pair of eyes met Dahyun's smiling ones and the younger girl got a shock. 

'Oh crap I got noticed' Dahyun thought to herself, a little stunned and embarrassed, as though she got caught staring at a stranger play baseball when she wasn't suppose to be there. Immediately, Dahyun avoided eye contact with her while awkwardly walking away towards where Jackson previously told her to go.

-

The media – and that blonde baseball girl with nice abs – definitely made baseball looked cool and fun... But when Dahyun tried it herself... It was a totally different story. 

"HAHAHA YOU DUBU!" Jackson mocked. "I can't believe that out of 10 shots you only manage to hit 1!!"

"Shut up!" Dahyun huffed. "You're not that good either!"

"Hah at least I'm better than you, you noob!" Jackson said, sticking out his tongue. 

Dahyun gasped, slightly offended at his words. "Well, I bet if I practice more I'll be 10 times better than you in no time!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Well then how about a challenge then?" Jackson proposed, "we'll play again next week an-"

"WHAT? THAT'S TOO FAST, TODAY IS ONLY MY FIRST TRY YOU CHEATER!" Dahyun complained. "The week after next!"

Thinking for a bit Jackson shrugged, "alright fine, the week after next then. And if I win you have to... Buy me drinks for a week and carry my gym bag after track!"

"Ew your gym bag stinks though..."

"I know," Jackson snickered. "That's the point hahaha!"

Dahyun rolled her eyes, "okay fine and if I win..." She thought for a moment. "You have to... LET ME DRAW ON YOUR FACE WITH MAKE-UP AND THEN TAKE A PICTURE OF IT!" 

Jackson looked at her, horrified by that idea. "What the heck?... No way that's stupid!"

"Well you're stupid!" Well to be honest, Dahyun was fully aware of how both Jackson and herself were being stupid, but hey, having fun while doing stupid and immature things together sums up their friendship pretty well.

"YAH!"

"Don't be a make-up fearing coward Jackson Wangggg!"

Jackson glared at her. "OKAY FINE! DEAL! It's not like you'll win anyway," he later scoffed.

Dahyun smiled sarcastically back at him, "oh we'll see about that."

...

Far at the back at the outside of their batting cage, a girl with long blonde hair and a jet black baseball bat was watching the two friends, clearly very amused at their childish bickering. 

"Hey," someone tapped her on the shoulder, "Their time slot has been up since 10 minutes ago. Should we tell them to get out of the cage?"

"No," the girl breathed calmly, eyes never leaving the other two people inside the batting cage... or more specifically... eyes never leaving a familiar looking fair-skinned Dahyun. "Just leave them be, I'll pay for the extra time they're taking up."

A/N : Hello... it's me... I know it's been awhile (okay I know it's been super long actually...) but... I'M REALLY SORRY A LOT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN MY LIFE BUT LOL I GUESS I'VE BEEN SUMMONED OUT FROM THE DEPTHS OF MY DARK CAVE BY MY CONSCIENCE FROM THE NUMBER OF SAD/ANGRY/DISAPPOINTED NOTIFICATIONS I RECEIVED FOR AN UPDATE SO HERE'S A PEACE OFFERI- I MEAN UM AN UPDATE. PLEASE DON'T KILL ME Y'ALL *insert awkward-nervous smile* (if there're still anyone even reading this). HAHA, anyway, 1/2 of this chapter has been in my draft folder for the longest time omg and I'm so glad I finally got it out of that dusty digital space lololol, so yeah hopefully y'all enjoyed it. I'm quite hyped to continue writing this fic hohoho (I feel my writers block slowly leaving me now...) but again I don't know if I have the time so I dare not promise anything. So yeah I hope everyone has been well and have a great week ahead! Also, sorry again for the wait! As always, comments are welcomed (even if it is to scold me for not updating lol... but pls try to be kind with the scolding as I'm just a fragile little human :'( hahahah)

Till the next chapter then!~

~strangemagnet