“So how did the date go?” Hyebin wiggled her eyebrows as she washes the dishes. 

“It wasn’t a date!” Yeonwoo blushes. 

“Sure it wasn’t. You spent the whole day together with just the two of you. And I’m not even going to mention how happy you were when you got home.” 

“I went out with a friend and I enjoyed it. There’s nothing to it.” Yeonwoo dismissed her roommate and flipped open her book on Philosophy. 

“Okay then. What did you do with this friend?” Hyebin asks as she sits down on the chair across Yeonwoo’s.

“We played and fed the kids. That’s all.” 

“Are you sure you were not sidetracked?” Hyebin smirks.

“God Hyebin.” Yeonwoo closes the book, “Nothing happened. And besides, she has a soulmate that she greatly adores. I can’t just fall inlove with her and confess and everything would work out. It doesn’t work that way. We aren’t soulmates.”

“Since when did you think so highly of this soulmate thing? You know from experience that soulmates don’t always work out.” 

“Nancy convinced me that they do.” She sighs. “And maybe...just maybe. My parents weren’t soulmates. That’s why they didn’t work out.” 

“But how can they not be soulmates when they felt pain the same way the other felt it. That isn’t just a coincidence.”

Yeonwoo just shruggs, “Life has a way of shaping people.”

She was about to stand up to focus on studying but Hyebin calls her out again.

“Confess to her.”

Yeonwoo stopped dead in her tracks and looks back at Hyebin who looks so serious.

“Why would I? We aren’t meant to be.”

“You once said you don’t want regrets. If you don’t confess, you’ll regret it. Even if she likes you back or not, atleast you tried. And besides, how are you so sure that you aren’t soulmates?”

“Because we aren’t. I already confirmed it.”

“But Dabin, just like you said. Life has a way of shaping people. There’s nothing we’re sure about in this world. So just go for it.”

The two shared eye contact and it lasted for a long time.

Hyebin was a childhood friend of Yeonwoo. Her house was just across the orphanage so they would often play when they were kids. Hyebin is also the reason why Yeonwoo studied in this university.

Their friendship goes way back and deep, enough that Yeonwoo is sure that whatever advice Hyebin gives her, it always works out for her.

“I hate it when you quote me.” Yeonwoo says before leaving the kitchen.

—-

Nancy screams in happiness as she spikes another ball through the air and into the ground, knocking the blockers away.

“Conserve your energy kid. This is just warm up.” Daisy knocks on her head.

“I’m just really pumped up!” Nancy grins and jogs in place.

Jane, who is sitting on the floor grunts at her, “Freaking stay put McDonie! I’m drained just looking at you.”

“Come on guys, let her show off. Someone’s watching.” Ahin smirks and looks at the bleachers, where Yeonwoo can be seen sitting with her group of friends. 

“No! I wasn’t showing off!” Nancy blushes.

“Sure kiddo.” Daisy laughs and sets

another ball to Nancy, who shot it straight to the other court with ease. 

Jane laughs as their teammates on the other court struggle to receive that hit, “Sure you aren’t. And I’m  not gay.” 

Ahin walks to the side to get a bottle of water when she suddenly fell to the grown with a thud. 

“Ow.” She hisses as she holds her knee. 

“Was it you being stupid or your soulmate?” Jane asks. 

“It was my soulmate. I wouldn’t trip over air you know.” Ahin glares as she starts to stand up. 

A few moments after that, Nancy receives a message. She checks her phone and it was from her Yeonwoo unnie. She grins and hurriedly types in her password to view the text. 

‘I think I know who Ahin’s soulmate is.’

Nancy confusedly looked up the bleachers and at Yeonwoo who is staring back at her with a smile. Her gaze then turned to Yeonwoo’s friend who was holding her knee and hissing in pain. 

The volleyball player points at the said girl and looks at Yeonwoo. The latter just nods and smiles.

‘Tell me her name and contact number. I’m going to get my teammate laid.’ She types.

‘Stop it child. Stay innocent. And her name is Jooe, a friend of mine.’ Yeonwoo then sends the contact number. 

Nancy walks to Ahin who’s busy receiving a ball.

“I found out who your girl is.” The younger smiled. 

Ahin stops in her tracks and looks back at her, “Seriously?”

“Yeah look up there.” She points to the bleachers where Jooe is seated. Jooe was looking back at her in amusement. 

“Are you sur-“

Before Ahin could even finish, she’d been smashed with a ball on the face by Nancy. 

“OW!”

The older glared but soon calms after seeing Jooe on the bleachers who is holding her face and grunting. 

“Do you need me to hit you more for you to be sure or what?”

—-

Nancy wished finding her soulmate was as easy as how Ahin found hers. She just got hurt, with her soulmate on the same place, and they find each other. Now they’re flirting infront of Nancy and the youngest just sighs. 

They were at the cafeteria again, but this time with Yeonwoo’s group of friends, Jooe and the soulmates Nayun and Taeha. Nancy was sitting across Jooe and Ahin who were lost in their own world.

Nancy thinks about how fast it all happened. How the two just suddenly clicked and now they fill each other’s lives.

“I wanna meet her so bad.” Nancy pouts and rests her head on the table. 

“Who?” Hyebin asks.

“My soulmate.” She sighs, “When I meet her, for sure I’ll be complete.” 

Hyebin looks worriedly at Yeonwoo who was just looking away. 

Everyone was doing their own thing when Hyebin’s head clicked. And when the Captain Ball’s head clicks, it isn’t usually a good idea. 

“Dabin!” She smiles, “Can I ask you to buy me a cup of coffee?” 

Yeonwoo looks up from her book and raises an eyebrow, “Why can’t you get it yourself?”

“Becauseeee, my class is a minute from now and I just really need my daily caffeine. I’d do anything you want if you just get me my coffee.”

Hyebin looks at her so pleadingly that she can’t help but accept, “I’m only doing this so I can ask whatever I want from you.”

So Yeonwoo sighs and stands up as she puts her book back into her bag.

“Nancy!” Hyebin calls, “Go with her. The cafe is pretty far from the campus.”

Yeonwoo widens her eyes at her best friend and glares at her while Nancy looked oblivious and just nods.

“You’re so dead.” Yeonwoo mouths to the smirking Hyebin.

—-

The cafe was a little far from the campus. And to take a shortcut, the two decided to pass through an alleyway.

“Wow.” Nancy says as she takes in the view of lots of people crowding and pushing. There were some who were drinking in broad daylight and some were even fighting.

“I used to work in the cafe. But my daily route was to take the long way. I never used this route because of how crowded it is.”

Yeonwoo didn’t like crowds. She felt her breath being out of her as she looked at the people who were struggling to move. She feels weak, as if she would drown if she went in there.

Her heart beats and her ears feel a tingling as she starts panicking. She reaches for comfort, anything to grab on so she won’t explode into pure anxiety and nervousness.

So her hands reached Nancy’s. Who looked at her curiously and moves closer. 

“Are you okay?” Nancy asks worriedly. 

“I’m fine.” 

But she isn’t and Nancy can clearly see it. 

“Are you scared of crowds?” 

Yeonwoo looks down and nods. She felt her eyes getting wet because her anxiety and frustration got the better of her. She was drowning in emotions and she got annoyed at herself for letting her phobia get the better of her again.

“We can take the long way.” Nancy moves infront of Yeonwoo to cover the mess of people infront of them. She then wipes away the older girl’s tears and tightly hugs her.

“You have a class ten minutes from now.” Yeonwoo says. “You can’t be late.” 

“Then we can just come back another time for the coffee.”

“But Hyebin gets really crazy without her caffeine. And really sulky.”

“But you can’t-“

“I can.”

Yeonwoo steadies her breathing and clears her mind. Her hands on Nancy grew tighter as she looks at the crowd infront of her. 

“Let’s go.”

Nancy wanted to say no. Wanted to just place the girl in a position that wouldn’t terrify her. That wouldn’t put her in danger and uncomfort. But Yeonwoo was so determined to do this that Nancy can’t help but accept. She wipes the remaining tears away and kisses her head. 

“Stay close and never let go.” Nancy whispers and holds Yeonwoo’s hand tight. She then walks towards the crowd. 

It was a struggle, even for Nancy who was used to crowds like these after her games, she would consider this a new kind of level.

People didn’t consider others. They just kept on pushing and pulling and shouting that it was a struggle. She felt herself get elbowed in the side and she just grunts. 

Yeonwoo felt pain in her side, but dismissed it because of how much she’s panicking right now. She holds Nancy’s hand like her life depends on it. When it technically does. 

Suddenly, a huge man came in between then and Yeonwoo’s hold got loose. She starts panicking as she was shoved by another person and she falls down. People were cursing at her for causing a disturbance. 

Her eyes get blurry. All she could see was black, she couldn’t see an opening anywhere. Anything to hold on to. Anything to reach. 

She can’t handle it. Her breathing started going irregular again and her head almost blacks out. 

“Nancy.” She mutters as she struggles to hold on and to look for the younger girl. 

“Nancy!” She shouts but her voice grew small as the voices of others were louder. 

She struggled to stand up and to move. But her legs were planted in their place. So she just cried as she continued shaking. People were grunting at her, moving past her without any care. 

“Nancy.” She cries. 

—-

Nancy felt Yeonwoo’s hands slipped away from her. And she panics and looks back as she searches for her. 

Nothing. No one. 

She couldn’t find her and she’s ing annoyed at herself for letting the girl get out of her reach. 

“Yeonwoo!”

But there was no response. 

She continued fighting the crowd, moving towards every direction possible. But eventually she found herself pushed out of the crowd through the exit. 

She hisses as her elbows hit the ground. 

She heard another hiss and looks up at a girl who was holding her elbow while mouthing, “Ow!”

Nancy’s eyes widened. She pinches her arm and the girl yelps in pain and holds her arm as well. 

In exactly, the same spot that Nancy pinched. 

“I found you.” Nancy whispers as she looks at the beautiful girl infront of her. 

She found her soulmate.

And nobody else mattered. It was just her and her soulmate. 

When her eyes met hers, she felt the world stop. The crowded mess was long forgotten. The noisy shouts and fights were dismissed. The pain in her body didn’t matter. Nothing else mattered to Nancy that time. 

Not even Yeonwoo.

—-

A very short updatee :D

Basically because I needed to start the angst.