“Yo, you’re finally here!”

Kyulkyung and Xiyeon heard Kyungwon’s exclamation the moment they entered the auditorium. “I need help! This setting is killing me and Jung Eunwoo only makes things worse!”

“Yah! I heard you!”

“…Let’s get to work before they destroy this place.”

Xiyeon took a look around as she stood on the stage, passing ribbons and bulbs to Eunwoo who was on the ladder, reaching out her arms to the transom. Eunwoo blushed when seeing her girlfriend for two weeks now smiled at her, it wasn’t missed by Kyungwon’s eyes and she could only look away to hide how envious she was.

It was Friday, lots of students had left early to have fun, only the department’s student council being responsible and stayed for the preparation of the school festival. Even though not all of them were part of the council, out of loyal friendships (emphasized by Sungyeon), they came and helped as much as they could so everything could be done before dinner time.

“I never understand why we have to do these extra decorations. Those Mr. Bigs will only give a 5 minutes speech each, the rest of the time and most of the people will be at the stadium! Do you know the athletic tracks are still covered by holes? We’re gonna die if we fall!”

Kyungwon rolled her eyes as Eunwoo jabbering. “The sport teams have appealed, believe it or not…I’ve been hearing Kang Yebin complain for days. Let’s wait and see if it’ll be fixed next week.”

“Speaking of this, have she called you? They should be back from the clinic by now.”

“Clinic?” Minkyung’s voice appeared, Kyungwon turned and saw her come to the stage with Sungyeon. They had just finished their English Literature class. “Yebin’s hurt?”

“Not her.” Eunwoo peeped Sungyeon. “It’s Yewon.”

“What!?” As expected, the round-cheek girl exclaimed, “What happened to her?”

“They had a long match at noon…”

“I was there! We were all there! She was fine at that time!”

“…Will you let me finish?” Sungyeon was serious and nervous, but the others were having a hard time holding back their laughter. “They continued on practicing formation after that, I guess either the practice was intense or Yewon was too tired…she sprained her ankle.”

“Don’t worry, Yebin took her to the clinic right away.” Eunwoo induced, “She didn’t hurt her hand, you know. You can call her.”

Sungyeon didn’t speak for a couple seconds. “…Did they take the bus to there?”

“I think so? They are all too stingy to take a taxi.”

“I’ll wait for them at the bus stop.”

Before the others could say anything, Sungyeon dropped down her bag and scurried out of the auditorium.

“I’m going with her.”

Minkyung followed and except Kyungwon who was trying not to follow her, the others let them be and turned their attentions back on the works. Decoration was one thing, the cleaning after it was another.

“I need more tapes here!”

“I’ll go grab some.” Seeing everybody was busied by something, Kyulkyung volunteered to go to the storeroom. There were all kinds of stuffs and everything was a mess, but at least they still made a rough classification. She was trying to pull a carton out when she heard someone open the door.

“Hey, I found it, I just gonna…Geez can you guys clean this place up someday? The dust is as thick as my bang when I was in junior high.”

“Sounds cute. I’ve never seen your photos at that time.”

Kyulkyung shivered and whipped her head back, Nayoung was smiling beside the closed door.

“Jesus Christ, you scared me…”

“No, it’s just Im Nayoung.” The older chuckled when the younger rolled her eyes. “Let me help you.”

Kyulkyung moved aside to make space for Nayoung.

“How many rolls are they gonna need?”

“Five, I guess.”

Nayoung took out five with both hands. Just when Kyulkyung thought they were heading out, Nayoung put the tapes down on the table beside.

“You need something else?”

“You can say that.”

With a light tug on the wrist, Kyulkyung was in those pair of arms already. “I haven’t seen you for a day. Kinda miss you.”

“I didn’t know you are clingy.” Kyulkyung murmured, hugging Nayoung back, her cheek against her chest.

“But you love me.”

“…And cheeky.”

Nayoung chuckled, pulling away and tucking Kyulkyung’s hair behind her ear.

“How was your day?”

“Boring. I don’t have mutual classes with anyone of you on Friday.”

“Well, select your courses wisely next year.” Nayoung kissed her forehead. “It will be my fifth year, you know…Except my accounting minor, I have another 4 units to fill up. We can have some same courses together.”

“We have had two courses together last semester and one last year.”

“Yeah, but we’ve never sat beside with each other. Not to mention last year, you were still a freshman, you didn’t dare to talk to me and I didn’t dare to talk to you. We had no interactions at all.”

The answer made Kyulkyung giggle. “Oh no, I know the real reason why you want us to share a table. Because…”

Nayoung raised a brow but froze when Kyulkyung tiptoed and pecked the corner of her lips. “This…can happen more, right?”

“Knock knock”

“Yo, you two in there. May I?” They heard Kyungwon from outside the door. “I need to grab some batteries!”

Kyulkyung opened the door. “Why you knocked? This is a public area…”

“You sure you prefer me to come in directly?”

Her words sent a whole pink on Kyulkyung’s cheeks and earned a smack. “You and your cousin really are annoying sometimes.”

Kyungwon faked a hurt expression as Kyulkyung gripped Nayoung’s hand. Nayoung sniggered, mouthing a “Thanks” when being pulled out, didn’t pay attention on what was on the floor.

“Ouch…” She stopped to rub her shin. “Why is Yebin’s bag here?”

“She came to drop it before taking Yewon to the clinic.”

“I was gonna scold her for putting it in the middle of the way but…Never mind. She must be in a hurry.”

Nayoung squatted down to pick up a few stuffs that had fallen out. A T-shirt, a notebook and a piece of paper fell out from it…

“Is that an envelope from the chocolate delivering event?”

Kyulkyung asked without much think. “Why is it in…”

The following words disappeared because they saw the name written on it. Minkyung. They blinked, and they failed to realize the connection before Kyungwon reached over a hand and took it.

“What?”

The name wasn’t difficult to notice at all. Kyungwon frowned, looked between the envelope and the backpack. Her face gradually became stiff and Kyulkyung swallowed.

“You guys heard it? Eunwoo’s screaming again, haha, that pabo…” She tried her best to get Kyungwon’s attention. “Let’s go out and see what’s happening! We can make fun of her!”

Nayoung knew Kyulkyung was asking for help through her eyes. “I’m gonna scold her if it’s just a stupid bug again. It was a fly last time, wasn’t it, Kyungwon? Or a spider? Come on, don’t stand here, let’s go outside…”

And of course, Kyungwon showed no interests in their words. She was still staring at the envelope, Nayoung and Kyulkyung could almost hear the battle of her minds. They gulped when she took out the folded letter, and soon they didn’t know whether to feel relieved or not when she stuffed the letter back, with slightly shaky hands and without opened it up.

Before anyone could think of a sentence to break the silence, Kyungwon pushed the door and left in a sudden.

***

“Good god…I think I can sleep till tomorrow noon...”

“Me too. Today is insane.”

“We have a bunch of matches tomorrow! And another next Monday! Why our recent matches are so close?”

“It had been raining for 3 weeks, remember? Every team has a tight schedule recently.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s not one of our starting players who got hurt today, we have to win the champion!”

Yebin trailed behind the three seniors, giving no responses to their talking. Well, no verbal responses, Yewon could see clearly from her back that her brows were furrowing.

“They are not wrong in some aspects.” She whispered to her ear. “We indeed need all our six starting players to win. You said the trophy is the last thing you and them want in common, right?”

“Last and least.” Yebin muttered, lifting Yewon up a little more. “I don’t even know why they insisted on coming, they only care about themselves and how freaking hard they’ve worked to get the team victories.”

“I don’t need them to care for me, really. I only care if you’re too tired.” Yewon spoke with concern. “I can walk, Yebin…Are you aware you are lifting weights after a long match and an intense practice?”

“No, rest as much as you can. Besides, you’re not heavy at all.”

They continued on walking, it wouldn’t be long before they saw the school gate. Yebin was silent again, she was worried about Yewo