Yerim wasn’t sure when it had started.

All that noticing of tiny little details; from the dart of her tongue to her lips while she was nervous, to the silly habit of scratching the nape of her neck while she was embarrassed, or that absolutely annoying way that her eyes would form crescents when she smiled, or that ridiculous and loathsome way she laughed whenever she tripped over her own foot or fell off her chair.

What was more ridiculous was how Yerim had grown to ponder about these characteristics.
Unjustifiable as her actions were, Yerim couldn’t get those images of a certain brunette out of her head.

Kang Seulgi.

It was crazy, seeing how she had had a huge crush on Irene, the most popular, smart and beautiful girl in school. Irene had been extremely kind towards Yerim when she first entered the librarian club, teaching her more than what she had to know. Irene would also step in to cover up for Yerim whenever she made a mistake, easily cushioning the repercussions with her popularity in school. Over time Yerim had developed a huge crush on Irene and was pretty sure that she probably wouldn’t find anyone else that would have measured up to Irene much less surpass her in terms of her beauty and kindness.

That was until their teacher had announced that there would be transfer student who would join them for the new semester and the brunette had walked up to the front of the classroom to introduce herself.

“Hello everyone, my name is Kang Seulgi! It is nice to meet you all! Please take care of me!”
The brunette had bowed and flashed a grin with an eye smile that sent all their classmates squealing but Yerim. Yerim didn’t like the idea of how this Kang Seulgi was going to be competition for Irene unnie in terms of popularity, which was evident from how her classmates had reacted earlier and merely scoffed in return when Seulgi shot her a friendly smile after taking the seat beside her table.

Yerim had to admit that Seulgi was indeed really pretty but she was nowhere comparable to Irene.

Yet there she was, stopping in her tracks once again across the fence of the school’s backyard to watch Seulgi feed a kitten some milk and giggle when the little ball of fluff started her hand in gratitude. It was weird but Seulgi’s giggle had struck a nerve in her heart, sending it into a frenzy of palpitations that didn’t improve when the brunette had locked eyes with her and smiled.

Yerim thought she was going to die and merely ran back home, only remembering that she was supposed to wait for her best friend Joy to leave together halfway through.

“Yah! Kim Yerim! You said you were going to wait for me!”
Joy had yelled over the phone and Yerim was thankful that she wasn’t wearing her earphones as usual otherwise she might have probably gone deaf from that not-so-friendly greeting.

“ I’m so sorry Joy, I suddenly remembered that I had to go grab something for my mom. The shop closes early today so I had to rush off first.”

Yerim lied.

“Hmm, ok then. Tell Mrs. Kim I said hi and I’ll visit her soon. Anyway, be careful on your way home! I’m hanging up.”

Yerim put down her phone but yelped a little at a gentle tap on her shoulder, turning abruptly to see who it was.

Oh bloody.
A monolid with familiar brown hair tied up in a ponytail.
It just had to be Kang Seulgi of all people.

“Oops, I’m sorry did I scare you?”

 “No.”
Yerim merely answered flatly and turned to quicken her pace towards home. The girl with the ponytail grabbed the straps of her schoolbag and hurried to match up Yerim’s pace as well which annoyed the raven haired teen a little.

Why was Kang Seulgi following her anyway? Was she some sort of creep?

“ Do you live happen to live in this district too?”
Yerim was a little cautious, her mother had told her about