“So, what’s wrong with your knee?” was the first thing Yerin asked as soon as Sowon and the others were gone. 

 They were sitting in the farthest bench at the end of the basketball court.

  “I…Don’t know, honestly” She admitted. “I’m not sure I know what Sowon was even talking about”

  “oh,” was her only response. She remained quiet for a few seconds before continuing.

  “Then that’s good, wouldn’t want you getting injured or else, you wouldn’t be able to skate.”

Eunha nodded quietly.

  “Are you excited to become captain next year?”

  “Didn’t we talk about this yesterday?”

   “I don’t think we did” Eunha shook her head. “So tell me, are you?”

Yerin stared at her feet, kicking the dust on the floor lightly with her foot.

   “I’m excited, I guess”

    “you guess?”

    “I don’t know,” Yerin admitted. “I don’t know how I feel about it. I don’t know why Sojung would even choose me as her successor”

    “Maybe because you’re the “vice-captain” of the team…”

   “Yeah, but that’s only because after the seniors graduated, Sowon and I were the only ones left, she couldn’t really make a newbie her right hand and I was the only other person that knew how things worked around here. I’m not even that good at it, I just enjoy skating”

There was another pause.

    “I wanna skate” Yerin mumbled. “do you wanna skate for a while? just the two of us”

    “I doubt it’ll be just the two of us,” Eunha muttered eyeing Yerin’s phone. “the others will be back in any minute to join us.”

    “Seriously doubt it” Yerin said. “SinB just texted me saying she finally managed to get Sojung to buy them some snacks and asked me if we wanted to come with but I know you’re not really in the mood and I don’t want you to stay here all alone…”

    “I was thinking that maybe if we skated for a while it would brighten up your mood”

    “Most probably” Eunha said with a smile as she bent down to grab her bag where she kept Yerin’s and her skates.

  She pulled the other girl’s out first and handed them to her before taking her own and putting them on. 

Yerin stared at her skates with a smile and then looked at Eunha. The look on her eyes made her heart skip a beat.

    “You know,” Yerin began casually. “I wanted to quit rollerskating”

Eunha, who couldn’t look at her in the eyes and just worked on her knotted shoelaces as she talked.

   “you did?”

   “Yeah, all of my unnies were gone and believe it or not, Sowon and I weren’t the best of friends”

   “Why didn’t you, then?” Eunha said, still pulling on her shoelace which didn’t seem to loosen.

   “Because I—” she stood up, “let me help you with that”

Yerin bent down in front of her and started to undo the knot.

   “um, thanks but, because you what”

   “I…” Yerin let out a loud sigh. “just forget I said that.” 

She stood up, straightening her skirt.

   “The knot’s gone” Yerin announced. “let’s skate.”

She offered Eunha her hand which she happily took. Yerin pulled her up and once she was on her feet, she interlocked her fingers with Yerin’s, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Slowly, the silence was gone and it was replaced with the sound of laughter, One chasing after the other and vice versa. Racing; obviously, the short haired girl won; and of course, a lot of teasing.

  “You may have beaten me, but I’m the one that’s going to be captain next year!” Yerin said with a mocking chuckle as she sat back down. A small sigh leaving her lips as she felt her muscles relax again, they had probably been skating for at least half an hour and although Eunha clearly didn’t want to stop, Yerin was ready to call it a day.

   Eunha plopped down next to her, panting lightly but smiling like never before. For the first time in the whole day, she actually felt energetic and ready to do anything. She looked to her side and she could see Yerin was clearly exhausted but she looked happy nonetheless.

   “True, miss captain” Eunha agreed. “So, are you finally going to tell me what made you wanna stay?”

Yerin stared at Eunha for a second, as if contemplating. She opened and took a deep breath. Eunha gazed back at Yerin, completely absorbed in the moment and it wasn’t until Yerin opened , ready to speak, that she realised she had been holding her breath. What did she even want her answer to be, anyway? That she was the reason she decided to stay? She frowned, where did that thought even come from? Slowly, she drifted her sight away from her friend’s, she scooted closer instead and felt her head gravitate towards Yerin’s shoulder. It was a comfortable position that made her smile shyly.

    “I’m kidding, you don’t have to say anything” Eunha reassured in a voice that didn’t sound like her own. It was soothing and hushed, almost a whisper. They were completely alone, Eunha couldn’t understand why that had come out the way it did, but it made her feel even more embarrassed. Still, she knew she meant it.

   “I don’t care what your reasons were, “ She mumbled. “All I know is you’re here and I’m thankful for it”

Eunha was no longer blushing, instead, she felt as if she were dreaming, unable to wake up, not wanting to wake up. She felt happy, sitting there silently with her head on her best friend’s shoulder. Her heartbeat began to quicken, Yerin let out a small chuckle.

  “You really don’t, do you?” Yerin’s tone was unrecognisable. Yerin turned her face towards Eunha’s who slowly lifted her head from her shoulder. their faces were close. "Too close" Eunha thought once she started feeling the older girl’s breathing on her lips. She was paralysed, not knowing what was going on but before she could do anything, Yerin stood up and kneeled in front of her.

   “You know, Eunbi,” She began, grabbing a white crayon that had been lying on the ground and rolling it around on her fingers, 

   “you truly are one of the greatest people I’ve ever met” There was a smile on her face but it didn’t look like a happy one. 

   “You never get mad at me even though I’m always annoying you and you still approach me, ignoring everything I’ve put you through. I've never had a friend like that you know, Sojung and I are close now a days but we aren’t even in the same grade. Still, when she instructed me to ask around in my grade in case someone wanted to join, I was reluctant about it... I always saw you in our class, the pretty girl with the cute ”

Eunha kicked Yerin lightly, the uneasiness seemed to disappear for a second ‘till Yerin looked away again and kept talking.

   “You turned out to be good at it, which was surprising” She poked Eunha’s roller-skates with the crayon. Eunha realised Yerin’s eyes were glimmering but no tears were coming out, Eunha feared for herself if Yerin’s voice were to crack.

    “and we became friends…” Yerin said that last word in such a way, she swore she felt her heart break into a million pieces, scattered, unfixable. She suddenly felt guilty for all those times she thought to herself Yerin was being “too much”.

    “and I…” Yerin gulped. “…am happy, I guess, that you were by my side”

Her crayon finally started tracing something on her shoe. Her sad look disappeared completely, her face transformed into an expression Eunha couldn’t recognise. She had seen Yerin make that expression before but she never understood what it meant. 

   “Jung Eunbi-yah” She said with a smile. “Let’s be together forever!” 

These were her last words before her attention was directed to her shoe. Eunha’s heart dropped when she saw the shape Yerin was filling in. It was a heart. It made her feel weird even though it was just a heart. It wasn’t the first time Yerin had drawn a heart on her things or anyone else’s for that matter, it rarely had any meaning but it made Eunha finally understand the look on Yerin’s face.

   “What’s that heart for?” She laughed nervously.

    “Because I love you” Yerin answered innocently and Eunha’s mouth went dry.