Equilibrium, in physics, the condition of a system when neither its state of motion nor its internal energy state tends to change with time. A simple mechanical body is said to be in equilibrium if it experiences neither linear acceleration nor angular acceleration; unless it is disturbed by an outside force, it will continue in that condition indefinitely.   

 

 

The alarm sounds at the most unholy time possible - four thirty in the morning – and Yebin rolls out of bed, her body still sore from last night’s practice, changing into her swimming suit in less than 10 seconds. All of this is done with her toothbrush hanging off her teeth, in mid-brush, foam threatening to spill out. Haggardly, she s in the dark for her oversized sweater – that will do – and grabs her cap, goggles and all the other she’d need for practice that still hasn’t dried from the night before.

(Her foam pull buoy is still as soggy as all hell, but it’ll be wet in another hour again.)

 

After Yebin’s holding on to everything relevant, she softly locks the room door with the first and only display of careful tact, throwing her keys into the backpack and leaving her sleeping roommate Jeon Soyeon to snore through the rest of her morning.

Soyeon could wake up at nine and call it hell. Yebin could wake up at six and call it a ing luxury.

This was almost every morning with an exception of Sunday, but it was routine. A necessary sacrifice. It flowed almost like water.

It had everything to do with water.

 

Her hair splays in the wind as Yebin un-parks her bike and rides to the swimming complex, a good 16 blocks down.

Her coach’s disappointed voice from reviewing last week’s competition still rang in her ears. Coach Im’s face usually betrays nothing, but Yebin knew better.

It’s still dark but the waning light of the sports centre glows from the end of the winding road. It’s 4:55 am, and it’s time to wake Wonwoo’s lazy up.

Granted, he’ll just probably be kicking today and running laps while they train today, but she’s so sure if he never comes he definitely won’t be anywhere near the hall gym like he said he would.

Yebin knows, however that he’ll come anyway.

 

“Wake up, sloth child,” she huffs into her phone, tying her bicycle to the stands outside the complex.

He picks up, but there’s no sound.

“We are the Borg,” Yebin tries.

“Shut the up… my resistance isn’t futile…”

Yebin smirks as she walks past the locker room. “Oh?”

Wonwoo’s sheets give off a crackling sound into the receiver when he rolls over, and Yebin can already envision it.

“Hey, when there’s a will there’s a way,” Wonwoo sleepily retorts.

She scoffs and mouths a “Yo” to Mingyu and Minghao when she passes by them taking off their windbreakers and ing about some Applied Math professor. “What if I told you that Mingyu’s stripping next to lane 8 right now and he’s got bed hair?”

She can hear him sigh into the receiver. She almost laughs. She wants to.

“ you, Yebin,” her phone croaks, and the call ends.

 

Later, in the midst of warming up and dicking around in the pool, waiting for Coach Im to arrive, everyone is doing some form of 400m freestyle while Minghao and Jieqiong are nowhere to be seen. Aspiring valedictorian Wen Junhui has already finished his laps and is discussing with Seokmin that sounds a lot like quantum physics, and Yebin swears that if not for Seokmin’s reflective glasses, he’d probably look like  a confused, crying sheep.

Soonyoung tells them about some girl in Business Management that didn’t do for project work. He keeps looking towards the door fearfully – and rightfully, understandably so.

All of them are going to get collectively screwed the moment Coach Im Nayoung steps in.

 

Everyone’s present but Wonwoo and Eunwoo, and Yebin is now a little scared for their (quite nice) asses.

 

Suddenly, the door squeaks open. Everyone, stills, even those in mid-, and looks towards the head that starting to peek through-

 

“HAHAHA did y’all think I was coach? Think again!”

Eunwoo shouts and stretches her arms, shimmying in a weird sort of way that only Hansol can appreciate.

Her Supportive Boyfriend 101 Chwe Hansol laughs and pats her on the head before disappearing, and everyone sighs in relief.

 

Soonyoung thrashes the water and yells at her to never scare them like that. The rest of them just laughs unsurely, and Eunwoo jumps right into Yebin’s lane.

“Wait… Hansol sent you here so you spent the night at his place?” Yebin wiggles her eyebrows. Eunwoo just slaps her.

Jieqiong slips into the pool along with Minghao, her face flushed and a portion of her back hair tucked sloppily into her cap. It’s the second time it’s happened, or at