Prompt By: @SHINeeMe08

-Title: Warriors

-Ship: Park Hyungsik x Seo Yeji

Characters: [MAIN] Seo Yeji (actress), Hyungsik/Park Hyungsik (ZE:A), Go Ara (actress) [SIDE] Baro/Cha Sunwoo (B1A4), Dohee/Min Dohee (Tiny-G), Lee Eunjung (athlete), Lee Eliiya (actress), Woo Dohwan (actor)

Word Count: 3907

Warnings: Strong language; ual references

Summary: In which Park Hyungsik and Seo Yeji are both competitive track runners, and both are a little wary of the rules.

“Track runners are supposed to have nice asses,” Go Ara told Seo Yeji as Yeji lined up at the start of the track, lunging forward to stretch her legs out. “What happened to yours?”

Ara reached down, hitting her friend’s before getting swatted away. “You’re thinking of gymnasts.”

“That’s no excuse for where your went. Use ‘lmao’ too much, I guess?”

Seo Yeji had been a runner since she was about nine years old, when she ran cross country for the first time at school. The run was only 1.7k, and she had practiced for about half a year, but still almost retched everywhere when she finished the run.

Unlike most young children, instead of quitting from the trauma, she pushed herself even further, desperate to do even better the next year.

She did, and each year she kept getting better and better, until she was here, in her third year of university and being the second best runner in her school district.

It was nearing the end of the season, and Yeji only had a few competitions left. She had won the majority of her races already, the only person being able to beat her being Park Hyungsik from Usuhan Hagja University, a school and person she was yet to race this year.

Yeji had met Go Ara her first year of university, as they roomed together their first year at Vernichtungsschmerz University (which everyone shortened to Vernich U because no one could pronounce all of that). Although Yeji was majoring in Athletics, Ara was a Drama major, and the two got along very well, despite being quite opposite from one another.

Ara was much more outgoing than Yeji, and everyone loved Ara. No one liked Yeji as much as they did Ara, and many only tolerated her because she was Ara’s right hand gal.

Ara had practically every guy (and girl) falling at her feet, and could get anyone she wanted, although she only opted for her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Cha Sunwoo, and Min Dohee, who she often hooked up with when she and Sunwoo were ‘broken up’. Ara was also known to have a few flings with people from other schools when she went to cheer Yeji on her away races.

Yeji, on the other hand, only ever had one serious boyfriend, and obviously, things ended badly.

Although Ara would immediately shoot it down and disagree whenever she brought it up, Yeji was convinced everyone hated her. They had good reason, too.

“Leave me and my alone,” Yeji growled, straightening up and stretching her arms, and then tilting her head side to side. “You’re ready to time me?”

Ara brushed off Yeji’s first comment and nodded, readying a stopwatch on her phone. “On the count of three,” Ara counted down, and as soon as she enthusiastically yelled, “Go!”, Yeji took off down the track as Ara started the timer.

Yeji had an upcoming race against Usuhan Hagja University, and she knew she’d have to race against Park Hyungsik. That’s why she was yet to race him; leave the best for last, so they say.

The race against Hyungsik and Yeji was a race many waited in suspense for. It would be the university foot race event of the century, as everyone knew Hyungsik and Yeji were not only the best in the league, but fierce rivals and competitors.

Although Yeji had only met Hyungsik a few, brief times, she harboured no personal feelings or grudges towards him (besides the fact he was currently ranked number one in the league, but that would be a title soon overtaken by herself).

The league had strict rules, such as appropriate uniform and what competitors could eat and do a certain amount of time before a race. They claimed it was all for health reasons, making sure their athletes were in good shape and healthy enough to race.

The league also tried to rule out any potential interferences, ‘outliers’, as they were categorized in the handbook. This included limited interactions and relationships between competitors from opposite schools. Basically, if she could, Yeji could bang every runner in her own school, but could only shoot quick ‘congratulations’ and ‘good job’s to competitors from other schools.

“Having outside relationships with competitors can affect your performance,” Miss Lee Eunjung, Yeji’s athletics coach, told her and the other students in her class her first year when they were going over the rulebook. “Having feelings for your competition could make you want to lose to boost the other person. When you’re close to someone, you tend to know how they’re feeling. And if you know they’re not performing the best lately, or having self-esteem issues, or a hard time, or whatever reason, that could drive you to give it to them. And we can’t have that! We try and do our best to win! If you’re going to give the win to the other competitor, you might as well just not show up at all.”

And so she followed the rulebook, keeping her relationships friendly and limited, and she did well.

But not well enough.

Yeji circled the track, and came running back past Ara, stopping a few steps ahead of her.

She doubled over, her hands on her knees. Her breathing came laboured, and she looked up expectantly at Ara for her time.

“56.2 seconds.” Ara read off, and Yeji sighed, flopping to the ground of the track.

“I’m doing worse.” she groaned. Her average time was about 50 seconds.

“You’re just not warmed up all the way,” Ara comforted. “Let’s go again.”

Yeji ran the track a few more times, but her time never improved to her average, and 56.2 seconds remained her best of the day.

“You’re just having an off day,” Ara said as Yeji shouldered her bag, the two ready to call it a day. “You’ll do better tomorrow.”

She did. She didn’t reach her goal of 50 seconds, but managed to round the 56.2 to 56.0, which was some sort of improvement.

With each passing day, each day inching closer to the race date, Yeji became more and more frustrated with her time. If she wanted top runner in the league, to beat Park Hyungsik, she needed to do better. 56.0 seconds wasn’t going to cut it.

“What’s his time?” Yeji asked one day at lunch, leaning her head in her hands and picking at her food.

“I’m not sure.” Ara sighed, leaning back, glued to her phone. Ara never ate lunch, especially cafeteria food. Yeji didn’t particularly like caf food, but she got it free as apart of her program.

“Runners need to constantly be in top shape,” she remembered Coach Lee telling her team. “If you’re not going to take care of yourself, don’t bother showing up.”

“I could like, totally find it for you, though.” Ara said, and Yeji’s head snapped up, suddenly finding more interest in her friend.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” Ara said, as if it was easy as punching some numbers into a calculator or Googling it. “Someone’s bound to know at the pre-party. If not, I’ll just ask him myself.”

Right. Pre-parties were a student tradition of sorts. Before races and other events, the hosting school would also host a party for their students and students from the visiting school. Yeji had heard it was a way for students to grow closer (quite literally) and celebrate, and having ‘good party memories’ would mean no hard feelings when one school beat the other.

Yeji had never been to one of those pre-parties. She saw it as a violation of her rulebook, as she didn’t know who had the nerve to show up there. She also didn’t have the nerve to be called out by Coach Lee (Yeji was a little afraid of Coach, but she’d had worse).

“Tell me as soon as you find out.”

A few days later, Ara came up to Yeji, telling her about how she had asked people she knew already about Park Hyungsik’s time, but no one knew for sure. “Like, 50 seconds to a minute is apparently what other people have heard. I don’t know how reliable that is, though.”

Yeji sighed. Her times were around the same. She had to hold onto hope that his best time was a minute if she wanted any hope on winning.

-•-

“Are you coming to pre-party?” Ara asked as she readied herself in front of a mirror in Yeji’s dorm.

Ara knew Yeji would refuse, not wanting to risk her position on the track team. Ara always asked, and Yeji always refused, and Ara always left, and came back the next day with some wild tale of some guy she met, and Yeji always listened, and ran the next day, and Ara always cheered super loud and Yeji always poked fun at her for it, always said she was embarrassing, and Ara always said she was just being a supportive friend and that she secretly liked it (she did, but she would never admit that).

Yeji didn’t know what was up with her. What she was thinking. Perhaps it was the stress, but this time around, she had a change of heart.

“Sure, I’ll come. Should I change?”

Yeji watched Ara’s eyes widen in surprise in the mirror, and she wheeled around to face Yeji.

“Are you feeling alright?”

Yeji nodded. Ara pressed a hand to her forehead anyways.

“You’re not worried about the team?”

“I’ll just stick close to you.”

“If you’re fine with it, I am.”

“Should I change?”

Ara looked her friend up and down, surveying her. She then shrugged, reaching out for her wrist. “It’ll do.”

Yeji let Ara drag her down halls and into another dorm room, a room crowded with bodies where music pumped loudly.

“Yeji!” Ara shouted, pulling her into the room. “I have to introduce you to my Usuhan Hagja friends!”

The two approached a group of girls, who eagerly greeted Ara, and, in turn, Yeji, albeit a bit begrudgingly.

They’ve heard, Yeji thought. They know.

Ara began to rattle off their names, names that Yeji quickly forgot.

They spent most of their time there with those girls; laughing, drinking, dancing.

For the most part, Yeji had a good time. She knew none of these girls ran, and Ara had met them when she took her first year of school at Usuhan Hagja before transferring to Vernich U.

“You’re Seo Yeji, right?” one girl asked, and Yeji nodded carefully, fearful of the girl’s reaction. “You’re racing Hyungsik tomorrow, right?”

Feeling a little relieved, Yeji nodded again, and was soon pulled away by her as well.

This must be where Ara gets it from.

Yeji knew she had had too many drinks in her, especially before her race tomorrow. Perhaps it would’ve been a little more tolerable if it was a normal race, and not Yeji’s biggest race of the season.

Yeji knew Ara had had one too many drinks as well, and when Ara drinks, any and all rationality and judgment disappear faster than she can get the drinks down.

Yeji knew this nameless girl had drank too much, by the way she walked and the way she gripped her hand and the way she talked, the way her eyes came dangerously close to rolling into the back of her head and the stench of alcohol that radiated off of her, stronger than Axe on a middle school boy.

Yeji soon found out Park Hyungsik had had too many drinks too, and when he was a lot like Ara when drunk.

Yeji knew that was the reason she woke up next to him, stark in a stranger’s bed and a stranger’s dorm.

-•-

“I can’t believe you don’t remember any of it,” Ara hissed as she lugged a hungover Yeji back to her dorm, Yeji having text her and fled the scene of the crime before Hyungsik even registered she was there. “Allow me to recount last night's events to you.”

“You were just as drunk as I was, if not more.” Yeji pointed out.

“Perhaps, but at least I remember everything. Now,” Ara cleared . “Lee Elliya introduced you to Hyungsik, and I swear, it was something out of a Disney movie. At first, I thought you were just red from the alcohol, but no! I literally watched you get redder and redder the more the two of you talked. It was love at first sight! Even two lesbians would be able to tell you two were like, hardcore flirting. And then one thing lead to another, and bam! Or should I say bang!”

Yeji groaned. “That was horrible.”

“But seriously. You’re like, totally his Cinderella.”

“I don’t want to be Cinderella. I’d rather be someone badass, like Mulan. She was hardcore. A ing warrior. She saved all of China.”

“Yeah, I don’t think Cinderella could run 400m in 50 seconds. Mulan could probably do it in like, 30 seconds, though.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, ‘Ra.”

-•-

-1:44pm-
princehyungsik: can’t wait to see you tonight. good luck !

-•-

Yeji had a mini heart attack when she got that text notification. She didn’t even know he had her number. There weren’t any other messages from him, but an influx from Ara.

-•-

-2:01pm-
goarago: please tell me you’ve checked your ig at least
seoyeetji: what?
goarago: oh god
goarago: because you are my best friend im going to tell you
goarago: because i care about you and please don’t be mad
goarago: there were some videos recorded of you and hyungsik last night
goarago: no tape or anything but like videos of you two making out
goarago: everyones calling you a and bringing up the woo dohwan thing again
goarago: im so sorry yeji

Of course they were.

-•-

Later that day, Yeji stood on the track, behind the starting line, stretching, preparing for her run.

She tried to clear all thoughts out of her head: last night, Park Hyungsik, Go Ara, Woo Dohwan, the fact that almost everything she knew was coming crashing down around her.

Now Yeji remembered why she didn’t go to pre-parties.

Any plans of a clear, focused mind was soon wiped as she was pulled down from the clouds by someone coming up behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey,” he said as Yeji turned to face him. “I’m not sure if I should thank you or apologize to you for last night.”

Yeji would be lying if she said Hyungsik wasn’t good looking at the very at least. And she would also be lying if she said she hadn’t heard only good things about him.

Hyungsik was like the Ara of Usuhan Hagja University. Everyone loved him, and anyone who spoke any ill of him must be some sort of spy.

Yeji laughed. “Don’t worry about it.” she said.

She wanted to be friendly with him, but not only could she feel the rulebook being stricken across her, but the shame and humiliation she was facing. She wanted him to leave quickly, before someone spotted them and yelled “!” at her again.

“I know we’ll get in trouble if we’re seen talking to long, but this is practically our last race of the season. Let’s get together afterwards, okay?”

“Sure.”

With that, Hyungsik walked away, and Yeji ran her race with one of the most clouded, distracted minds she had ever had.

She finished third with a time of 57.29 seconds.

Hyungsik finished first with a time of 54.20 seconds.

-•-

“I can’t believe I would let him do that to me!” Yeji yelled, pacing back and forth in the dorm while Ara sat on a barstool, sipping coffee from a mug. “He’s stupid and I hate him!”

“Hate who?” Both girls turned to the open doorway, where the one and only Park Hyungsik stood.

“Speak of the devil.” Ara muttered.

“May I come in?”

“Of course.”

Hyungsik walked further into the room, leaning against the counter near Ara as Yeji continued to pace.

“Wanna tell me who you hate?”

“You!” Yeji snapped. “You did this to me! You’ve not only made everyone hate me even more than before, but made me lose! I could’ve done much better! Could’ve been further ahead of you, let alone second ing place!”

“Woah, slow down there,” Hyungsik said, holding his hands out to try and calm her. “I don't think everyone hates you. And I’m sorry for getting into your head. That’s not what I meant.”

“But that’s definitely what you did!” Yeji yelled. “And of course everyone hates me, why wouldn’t they? I really am the crazy they all think I am.”

Yeji sank to the floor, putting her head in her hands. She was surprised to see Hyungsik sit beside her and feel his arm snake around her shoulders.

“I don’t think anyone thinks you’re a crazy .”

“They do, Hyungsik, they do. Last time I had a boyfriend, he cheated on me, and there’s a video of me ‘freaking out’ on him because of it. Everyone called me a crazy . And here I am, really freaking out on you. They were right. All along. I’m a crazy .”

“Who cares if you’re a crazy ? I dig that.”

“You like being yelled at?”

“.” Ara muttered. “Need me a freak like that.”

“No, not like...” Hyungsik groaned. “I mean, like, there’s worse things you could do. And I kind of deserve it.”

“Hell yeah, you do.” Yeji snapped, although deep down, she knew it wasn’t really his fault, and it was no one but her own.

-•-

When Yeji’s anger at Hyungsik floated past, Yeji agreed to a date in the off-season. That one date then turned into another, and another, and before they knew it, they were totally officially dating.

Yeji gained some of her popularity back with Hyungsik, and although she still felt like people hated her, she felt like it wasn’t as strong anymore.

Ara continued her back-and-forth relationship with Cha Sunwoo, Min Dohee still being on the side.

A year later, as the track season began to start, Ara was with Sunwoo, and Yeji and Hyungsik would meet up and go running together each day. They aimed for the mornings, easily the best time for a run, but often ran in the afternoon and evenings as well.

“We’ll have to keep us on the down low this year,” Yeji told him one morning during a run. “We’ll both be expelled if they find out.”

“Rulebook, yeah, .” he muttered, and Yeji laughed under her breath.

“We’ll be fine unless someone sells us out.”

“You think that would happen?”

“It could. I think most people are over us by now, though.”

The track season started off beautifully.

Again, Yeji and Hyungsik didn’t race each other until later, but they had more than one race this year, and raced sooner than the previous year.

Hyungsik started his season with a bang, winning all races but one, where he reached second place a few seconds after first place as he tripped and fell. Luckily, he sustained no injuries, but he was convinced the Silverleaf University student he raced tripped him.

Yeji started off a little slower than Hyungsik. Her first few races, she failed to win, gaining second and third places, but after a few races she was able to pick her first place streak back up.

Yeji and Hyungsik’s relationship never faded, but they did keep it quiet. They couldn’t run the risk of someone remembering them. They’d lose everything.

About half way through the season, there was a league wide race, with all top competitors from each school.

It was a large, busy event that a lot of people made a point to attend.

Yeji and Hyungsik were both top in their own schools respectively, and the day of the race, Yeji and Hyungsik purposely arrived at different times, purposely lined up at different places, purposely ignored each other.

Ara’s sign only proclaimed Yeji’s name loudly purposefully.

As Yeji stretched, she surveyed the competition around her. The loud, yellow jerseys of Malgeun Haean University, the runner and coach of Silverleaf University conversing in their green.

Vernich U was a deep shade of red, and her jersey proclaimed “VU WARRIORS” on the front, and her name and number on the back.

Usuhan Hagja University’s jerseys were much cooler, Hyungsik’s jersey a calm shade of blue and the team name being ‘Titans’, which sounded cooler than ‘Warriors’.

“Hey!” The student from Silverleaf shouted, drawing all attention to them. He pointed aggressively at Yeji. “Is this allowed? She’s dating that Usuhan guy!”

Yeji swore there was an audible gasp from the crowd, and she saw Ara lower her sign, which was usually held high.

“Is that true?” an officiant asked, and Yeji felt all eyes on her, the chants of ‘’, ‘’, and ‘crazy ’ rising.

“Yes.” she said.

Yeji was no Mulan, but she was a warrior, and she needed to face her problems and challenges head on.

She knew what was going to happen, and there was no use lying about it.

A collection of officiants all leaned into one another, conversing, and then broke out, the same one from before facing her again.

“We’ll give you two options. Either forfeit the race, or you’ll be forced to leave the league.”

“I’ll forfeit.”

“Yeji, no!” Hyungsik exclaimed from the other side of the track. “I will. I forfeit.”

“You can’t both forfeit.” the Silverleaf student said.

“If she goes, I go,” Hyungsik said. “And that rule is bull! In no way is this relationship causing her to want to lose to me, or the other way around. If anything, this gives us more incentive to win! She beats me at everything! Monopoly, Uno, Solitaire...I didn’t even know you could beat someone at that game!”

The officiants turned to each other again, the one facing out again afterwards. However, before they could talk, Coach Lee came running up, the rulebook held out in front of her.

“The rulebook says that relationships are forbidden from students from opposite schools. We’ll transfer Yeji to Usuhan Hagja.”

“Coach!” Yeji yelled. How could she do that? That would mean Yeji wouldn’t be under Coach Lee anymore. Yeji wouldn’t room with Ara anymore. Yeji wouldn’t be hated as much.

“She still can’t race,” the official replied. “It’s too competitors from each school, and Park Hyungsik is higher than Seo Yeji, school or not.”

“That’s fine.” Yeji said.

“Yeji! No!” Hyungsik yelled again. He didn’t seem to be able to put together many coherent thoughts at the time, but he knew he didn’t like what was happening.

“Wait a second,” Coach Lee warned. “If Yeji forfeits, and then transfers to Usuhan, that means she’s an Usuhan student. Vernich will still need a runner, and a student from another school can still volunteer to run in her place. So, Yeji can still volunteer to run for Vernich.”

The officiants conversed again, and then sighed. “I guess we’ll allow it. But from now on, she runs for Usuhan.”

They cheered, the student from Malgeun Haean slapping her harshly on the back in her deep purple uniform.

They ran the race, the Silverleaf student placing first. Hyungsik and Yeji ties for second.

Hyungsik swears he beat Yeji by a toe.

FIN