Ever since their friendly outing at the café, conversations in between classes or in front of lockers were longer than usual now. Joohyun was usually the one who was posted in front of her own locker, shifting between one huge textbook and another (amidst all the gifts from admirers) for her next class. Seulgi passed by every now and then, and during the times that she did, she made a stop next to her senior and chat her up.

            Conversations weren’t anything meaningful. They started off with small talk, asking each other how they were doing for that day, or what class they were going to next. Joohyun knew the conversation wasn’t really going anywhere at that point, but it was something to progress from, considering how they only waved at each other a week ago.

            “Hi, unnie!”

            Joohyun’s last class of the day was dismissed, and here she was, standing in front of her locker again to put some books away. Seulgi hopped and planted down next to her with a big grin.

            “Hi, Seulgi,” Joohyun greeted. She propped a hand against the door of the locker, looking at Seulgi.

            “Are you heading home now?” Seulgi asked.

            “Not yet.” Joohyun frowned. She wanted nothing more than to ditch the study group for her Biology class, but she desperately needed a good score on her next exam in order to keep her high grade. She pouted at Seulgi. “I have a study group to get to.”

            Seulgi mimicked Joohyun’s actions. “Aw, okay. I was going to ask if you wanted to walk home together today.”

            Joohyun shot her a small, apologetic smile. “Yeah, not today. Maybe tomorrow!”

            Seulgi nodded in response and continued to watch Joohyun finally taking her massive Biology textbook from her locker and shut the door closed right after. The latter noticed as she was leaning against the locker next to hers, head resting against the cool steel, until she abruptly popped right back into a normal stance, slightly startling the older girl.

            “Oh, right, unnie!” she exclaimed. “Are you going to the pep rally this weekend?”

            Joohyun shifted the book against her chest, clutching it tight. She had not really thought about attending other school activities than the mandatory ones the administration forced them to go to. Pep rallies wasn’t really something that she went to anyway. It wasn’t like she was the one being lifted up high in spirits from it nor was she the one to be cheering on the football team. Well, wasn’t that what cheerleaders were for? Usually the ones who were more into school activities did all that they could to attend whatever events there were held on the weekend. Joohyun wasn’t into any of that—she was graduating soon, so she might as well put in all the time and effort she had into her studies while she still could. The only thing she did to support the school was act as one of the morning announcers during homeroom. She was scheduled to get back on the PA system in a few weeks, but at the moment, nothing school-related aside from her academics should bother her.

            “No. I don’t plan to,” she flat out said, raising an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

            Seulgi’s hands shifted up to the adjustable straps of her backpack to fidget around with it, pulling it up and down on one end or both ends. Joohyun noticed that a lot—how the other girl played around with the straps to adjust her backpack whenever she was asking a question or awaiting a response that was taking unusually long from the other person. It was a cute antic, she noted, and she smiled when Seulgi was committing the action.

            “Oh… I was just asking because the dance team is going to be putting up a performance,” she said with a small voice. “And I was going to see if you were going to be there.”

            Joohyun’s face lit up.

            Was this her crush’s way of asking her to watch her perform?

            Seulgi grimaced and pulled onto the adjustable straps, but not hard enough to actually shift the position of the backpack. “I-I just thought it’d be nice to see you… b-but it’s okay, unnie!”

            Joohyun could see every second of awkwardness creeping up on Seulgi when she tried to cover up her state by nervously laughing. Joohyun’s teeth pull in her lower lip at the sight of the strong bashfulness emitting from the younger girl.

            “Are you asking me to watch you dance, Seulgi?” she asked.

            Seulgi lowered her head and Joohyun thought she saw the ears poking out through her hair becoming red. “I-I mean, since you’re not planning to, it’s okay.”

            Joohyun smiled. “When is it?”

            “H-Huh?” Seulgi’s face warped so quickly into a state of alarm. Her eyes were becoming wider than usual and her jaw was slightly slack. “O-Oh, um, it-it’s this Saturday at 6!”

            “And when exactly are you performing? Just so I know I won’t miss it at all.”

            “We’re in the second half of the pep rally!” Seulgi piped up, grinning.

            Joohyun couldn’t help but smile as well. “I’ll see you then.”

            Seulgi lightly bounced on her toes and she energetically nodded her head. “Okay, see you then, unnie! Bye! Have fun studying!”

            She turned around and hurried off with the same bounce still in her steps, probably becoming even more noticeable the more she was getting closer to the gates to get off campus. Joohyun continued to watch her retreating figure until Seulgi turned the corner.

            The smile slowly diminished until her teeth no longer showed, but her chest felt so warm to know and physically see how nervous the younger girl could get.

            As long as Joohyun knew she was not the only one who could become a bumbling mess in front of their crush.

**

            “Seulgi asked you to watch her dance at the pep rally!?” Sooyoung exclaimed. “I’m impressed.”

            Joohyun raised an eyebrow. “Why? Doesn’t she usually ask her friends to watch her?”

            “No, unnie. We come on our own anyway because most of us are in the pep rally,” said Sooyoung. “You just happen to be one of the few people she cares about who’s not doing any extracurriculars.”

            “Well, I just thought it was cute the way she asked me,” Joohyun said and smiled. “She was kind of nervous.”

            “Ha, as if you weren’t the nervous one a week ago?” deadpanned Sooyoung. “Tables may have turned for you, which is good, but you need to keep it up, unnie.”

            “Then, what should I do after the pep rally? Isn’t she going to be hanging out with her dance team afterwards?” asked Joohyun.

            Sooyoung leaned back against the teacher’s desk, careful not to move any materials lying on top of it. “Ah, that’s not if you still ask her to hang out. Every team in the pep rally usually hangs out on their own afterwards as some form of bonding, but if you ask to hang out with her, she’s probably going to ditch her team for you.”

            Joohyun narrowed her eyes at Sooyoung. “What makes you so sure?”

            “She highly respects you, unnie, and you rarely ever go out anyway. Since she asked you out to watch her dance, isn’t it more appropriate that she follows up and hangs out with you afterwards as a way to say thank you?”

            Joohyun scratched her neck. “I don’t know…. I feel like she would still choose team bonding. I mean, it’s not often that she gets to do that, right?”

            Sooyoung crossed her arms and sighed. “Let’s just hope she’s not dense enough? But ask to hang out with her anyway. Grab dinner somewhere, get a drink, do something. Heck, stay on the bleachers and just talk. Anything that you can do just to get you and her alone.”

            Joohyun huffed and leaned back against her chair. “Okay, but what if she says no?”

            Sooyoung pushed herself off the desk and paced over to Joohyun. She palmed the desk, gradually leaning down to stare at the other girl.

            “There’s a very slim chance that she does,” Sooyoung stated. “But I wouldn’t worry too much in the first place. The fact that Seulgi asked you personally to watch her perform in the pep rally is good enough, but we’re not here for good enough. We can’t just keep settling for good enough. We need to push through and make ourselves known and confirm our spots.

            “So, if worst comes to worst, which is her basically choosing the dance team over you, then don’t fret about it too much.”

            Joohyun lowered her head and sighed.

            “Unnie,” Sooyoung said softly, her tone much lighter and calmer than before. Joohyun looked up at her and watched her lean back to cross her arms. “It’ll be okay. See it as another step closer.”

**

            Pep rally weekend rolled around and Joohyun found herself treading onto campus when the sun was setting, a sight she rarely ever saw considering how she was usually out of here with the sun high and bright. The entire student body wasn’t always at the pep rallies—it was usually only the groups who partook in it (namely the student council, football team, cheerleaders, and now the dance team) and friends of whoever was in them—so the population was considerably smaller, but still loud enough to get everyone in high spirits.

            Joohyun came a little bit late to the pep rally, so she was awkwardly stepping over her peers on the bleachers to sit at a spot where there was barely anyone. No one she knew well enough was on the bleachers, unfortunately. Sooyoung was doing God knows what (she was just not here for darn sure), Seungwan was at home studying for a big test coming up on Monday, Soojung was on the cheerleading team, and Jongin was on the football team. Everyone else she hung out with didn’t care too much about this aspect of school, but she tried not to mind it since she was here for one purpose—Seulgi.

            The dance team usually didn’t perform at pep rallies, but for some reason they were asked to put up a performance.

            But Joohyun had no right whatsoever to complain. At least not when the dance team situated themselves in the middle of the field and her eyes became saucers at the sight of their clothing. She had no idea how they were able to pass through dress codes and the faculty staff sitting on the first few rows of the bleachers. Crop tops, high-waisted shorts, sleeveless shirts. There was so much skin to the point that Joohyun was surprised a teacher didn’t stop them from even coming onto the field.

            Joohyun’s hand crept up to —a way to minimize the expressions that might come up when the performance started—and she immediately spotted Seulgi positioned somewhere in the front of the formation. The latter’s head was turning here and there, eyes scanning the bleachers and looking visibly distraught until she locked gazes with Joohyun. A bright grin formed quickly and she hopped up and down in her spot, waving high at Joohyun. Joohyun laughed and she lightly waved at her.

            At least Seulgi wasn’t wearing just a sleeveless crop top and high-waisted shorts like the rest of the girls on the dance team. Bless the jacket on her back because Joohyun wasn’t sure she’d be able to last to see Seulgi showing a lot of skin while doing movements that would considerably flex her muscles (the same gorgeous muscles she was able to get a peek at during the last few times at practice).

            The music started and Seulgi tore her gaze away with a serious expression plastered onto her face almost immediately. There weren’t enough words in the dictionary to explain what kind of sharpness and fluidness Seulgi’s dancing exuded. She wasn’t in front most of the time, she wasn’t the dance captain, who was considerably the best dancer in the whole school by the student body, but to Joohyun, Seulgi was all she could see—she was the best dancer in her eyes, she was the only one whose movements were more fluid, sharp, precise, hard-hitting.

            Joohyun was sure she couldn’t be the only one who was in awe watching the choreography. All the whooping and cheering proved her point, hearing the screams of certain name of members of the dance team. If Joohyun was as wild as them, she’d be screaming Seulgi’s name off the top of her head, but she was too star-struck, too in love with the facial expressions that Seulgi illustrated—and hello, was she biting her lip? —too bothered watching how she moved through the field with the choreography she had seen part of before. So, that explained the dance practice they had the other time.

“YAAS, KILL IT, MOMO!”

            “SLAY ME, JIMIN!”

            “OH, MY GOD, KANG SEULGI!!!!!”

            “TAEMIN, I LOVE YOU!”

            Joohyun was feeling quite hot by the time the dance team delivered a strong finishing move. The cheers became so much louder than she had ever heard before, and then again, the entire student body wasn’t even present.

The emcees of the pep rally hopped back into the middle of the field with their microphones, and the dance team were ushered off to the side. Joohyun found herself following the only main dancer trotting with the jacket trailing behind her.

            They remained in their spots a few sections of the bleachers away until the pep rally officially ended with a well-known school cheer for the football team. They were going to compete in about two more hours at the very same field, and everyone was hoping that the cheering that happened just earlier was able to come back just as loud when the game started.

Everyone started to climb off the bleachers and file out from the field into their cars. Joohyun was one of the few audience members still present on the benches. The cheerleading squad and the football team were heading off in one massive pack—most likely heading to a local diner to replenish their energy for tonight’s game. The dance team was still at the end of the bleachers with a few members talking animatedly and gesturing to head to the lot.

Seulgi looked up to where Joohyun was quietly walking down the steps. The latter noticed her waving at her team and dashing down the bench, carefully climbing up so that she could meet the older girl. Seulgi was on the other side of the extensive rail, but seeing how Joohyun was almost at the end, she gripped tightly onto the bar and leaned over it.

            “Unnie!” Her face was still flushed, but she still managed to plaster a big grin on her face like always. Joohyun hated it sometimes how rapidly her chest seemed to warm up at the sight of how ridiculously cute she was. “Did you watch me? How was it? Weren’t we so cool?”

            Along the journey to get to Joohyun, Seulgi’s hair splayed all over the place with a few hair strands awkwardly laying on another side of her head. Joohyun lightly giggled and reached over to fix her disheveled appearance.

            “You were really cool,” she confessed. “I was in love.”

            Joohyun abruptly stopped fixing Seulgi’s hair and immediately took a step back, eyes widening and lips trembling to form up a quick cover up of what she had just stated. Seulgi, on the other hand, didn’t look so different. Her eyes were just as big, and her hands seemed to clutch tighter onto the rail, knuckles turning white.

            “I-I-I, I was so awed by h-how well you danced!” Joohyun spewed out. “It-it made me love how your team expressed yourselves. D-Dancing should be appreciated more.”

            Man, if Sooyoung heard what the heck I just said….

            Too bad it was the best her jumbled mind could do at this point. She lowered her head with eyes shut, mentally reprimanding herself. Sooyoung wasn’t here to do it, so she was going to have to scold her stupid self. She knew Seulgi heard her—heck, she was freakin’ loud and clear in this near empty football field. The only thing that was separating them were the rails, and that wasn’t much of a barrier anyway.

            Joohyun didn’t even need to have her eyes open to know when Seulgi laughed that god damn adorable laugh of hers, that gorgeous smile was accompanying it. She opened her eyes slowly to look up at the younger girl, ears and face red yet crescent eyes filled with love.

            “Thank you, unnie,” she said softly. “I’m glad we were able to make you feel that way.”

            Joohyun mustered up all that she could to compose herself. A small smile spread across her face. “You were really good, Seulgi…. I’m amazed how your team isn’t in competitions yet.”

            “Hm, maybe next year! We still have a long way to go.”

Seulgi was too humble and precious for her own good to realize how high their dance team’s potential was to rank in the national competitions. But as long as she was enjoying herself, Joohyun believed that even being a part of the team was such an honor for Seulgi.

Amidst Joohyun’s stupidity of a subconscious confession and her failed attempt at trying to cover it up, Joohyun noticed the dance team leaving the field with only one member left behind—the one in front of her.

“Your team is leaving. Shouldn’t you get going?” she asked.

Seulgi stared at them before turning back to Joohyun. “I thought I’d hang out with you instead. Is that okay?”

Joohyun saw this as one of the outcomes for coming to this pep rally, even Sooyoung did all that she could to help her prepare for this moment, but she was still feeling shy and nervous.

The tables have ce again.

“O-Oh… yes, of course...” Joohyun mumbled.

“Do you… do you want to come over to my house?” asked Seulgi. “We can eat popcorn and watch movies.”

Another smile.

Another scrunch of her eyes.

Joohyun’s chest felt warm, like her heart had so much love to give and continued to spread throughout her veins.

“I’d love to.”