[Present Time]

    “Princess~~”

    "....."

     “Hey princess~~~~~~~~~”

    "..........."

    “My cutie princess~~~~~~~~~”

    “Yujin, you’re annoying,” Wonyoung addressed as she swatted Yujin’s hands away from poking her cheeks. In return, Yujin’s lips formed into a pout before she laid back down on the bed. More specifically, Wonyoung’s bed.

    It was the night before they were heading out for their long-awaited trip. And somehow, Yujin had decided it was the best time to crash at her place unannounced. Well, too bad for her, she was busy packing her stuff for the next day.

    And now, she had to take care of a whining puppy rolling around her bed, calling for her attention.

    “You’re boring,” Yujin huffed in dissatisfaction, crossing her arms as she stared at the ceiling.

    Wonyoung rolled her eyes, “Aren’t you supposed to be packing for tomorrow?” Her hands continued to fold the pieces of clothing without even sparing a glance at the uninvited guest.

    “I already did. I did it early so that I can actually come here tonight,” Yujin uttered while rolling around the sheets again in protest.

    Yujin was actually excited to spend time with her best friend again. They rarely had time together nowadays ever since Wonyoung decided to join student council early this year and at the same time, she needed to focus on her practice.

    But now, her schedules cleared up after her recent competition ended a week ago. And her coach had told her to take it easy now to focus on her studies.

    So, more time to spend with Wonyoung. Just the thought of it made her happy.

    “I’m bored, Wonyoung~,”

    “Go home,”

    “Mean,” Yujin grumbled. Realizing her best friend wasn’t even going to give the slightest attention to her, she lifted herself up and crawled to the edge of the bed where Wonyoung sat and laid down beside her on her stomach. She observed how delicately precised Wonyoung was folding her clothes.

    “Can’t you just stuff them into your bag or something?”

    “No. It’ll look messy,”

    “I doubt anyone would check your bag and say ‘Oh Wonyoung, why is your bag so messy?’, will they?” Yujin sarcastically remarked.

    She thought she was successful in getting the latter’s attention when Wonyoung turned her head towards her and stopped her actions.

    Until..

    “OW!” Wonyoung flicked her forehead, earning a loud groan from the puppy. Yujin rubbed the spot with her hands as she glared at her best friend.

    “Stop bothering me, puppy,” She stated as she resumed her work.

    But did that stop Yujin? Of course not. She never takes no for an answer.

    “Princess~~ play with me~~” Now it just sounded like a whiny puppy waiting for their owner to play with them. Yujin sat up and started poking her back and shoulder to get her attention for once. Usually, playing means, watching funny videos on Wonyoung’s laptop or playing on her Switch or just simply talking to each other.

    Wonyoung chuckled lightly at Yujin’s attempts to get her to play with her, “You’re being stupid,”

    “Oh come on. I’m freaking bored,” she whined loudly, “Entertain your guests, Miss Jang,”

    “Play with your phone,”

    Yujin rolled her eyes at the suggestion, “You know I never bring my phone whenever I come here,” She did bring her phone before but Yena interrupted their time once by calling. And ever since then, she never bothered to bring it anymore.

    Why should she?

    “If I come here, that means it’s only you and me time. As in no distractions whatsoever,”

    “And here you are, ignoring me just to pack,”

    “Excuse me. If you told me earlier that you would just barge into my place, I would have packed earlier to make time to play with you,” Wonyoung defended, throwing the fault at her friend.

    “I wanted to surprise you, of course,”

    “Well surprise surprise, you’re being ignored,” Wonyoung sarcastically replied back.

    “You’re so mean to me,”

    “I know and I’m proud of it,”

    Yujin sulked but continued to watch Wonyoung while playing with her hair. She finds watching Wonyoung doing anything interesting.

    “I noticed you’ve been spending a lot of time with Chaewon unnie lately,” After what seemed to be a few minutes, Yujin sat up properly and slowly started to wrap her arms around Wonyoung’s waist from behind, resting her head onto the girl’s shoulder.

    Wonyoung barely startled, just let her friend do as she pleases, enjoying the closeness between them at the same time. It wasn’t unusual for them to be so close to each other.  At first, during their early years of friendship, Wonyoung would get easily flustered everytime Yujin initiated skinship with her, but now, Wonyoung got so used to her extra clinginess over the years, she doesn't even bother to push her away anymore.

     She leaned back into the hug to have a better look of her little puppy, making Yujin grin at the contact.

    Most people wouldn’t know but Yujin was extremely clingy with her. Like extremely clingy. Well, she couldn’t blame them. Sometimes, even their classmates would question their friendship most of the time. They call each other best friends and yet they don’t exactly talk much with each other at school, and both have their own friend groups.

    Yujin with Chaeyeon, Yena and Minjoo while Wonyoung usually stayed around her other group of friends and the student council members. They barely interact at school unless they were in class. The moment class dismissed, both of them would scurry to their own groups. It’s been going on like that since they entered the high school.

    But, unbeknownst to them, Yujin and Wonyoung were actually really close, more than they thought whenever it was only the two of them. Whenever they’re alone.

    Yujin, despite her cool prince-like aura she had at school, had always been affectionate with Wonyoung and showed her caring side a lot to her. Probably the only person she showered with that much affection. 

    Yes, she did care about Minjoo too but not to Wonyoung’s extent. If Minjoo was crying because of someone, then Yujin would be there to comfort her and lend her shoulder.

    But, if it was Wonyoung crying because of someone, she would, without hesitation, show that person a piece of her mind.

    But she never exactly thought of Wonyoung as more than her best friend. Yena did addressed her about that matter, but she just shrugged it off.

    It’s not wrong for best friends to care for one another like that, right? That’s what she’s been thinking. She just thought Wonyoung deserved all the love and affection from someone since her parents never exactly gave her that. She wanted to make sure Wonyoung knows she's loved. That's all.

    “Hm? What about it?”

    “I feel like second place now,” She quietly mumbled, tightening her hold onto Wonyoung’s waist.

    “Yujin, you’ve always been second place,”

    “…..” Wonyoung let out a yelp when Yujin poked her sides in return. She turned her head to see the scowl on her best friend’s face.

    “Chaeyeon unnie is first, of course,” She chuckled.

    Yujin scoffed, “Fine. I can’t argue with that. Let me rephrase that again,”

    “I feel like third place now,” She corrected herself, holding back the urge to roll her eyes.

    Idiot. You’re always first place for me.

    But, of course, Wonyoung could never voice that out.

    “…What did you expect? Both of us are busy with our own duties. Me with the student council and you with your field competitions. Obviously I’d get closer with Chaewon unnie,” Wonyoung simply explained, plainly stating the obvious to her best friend. She continued packing.

    Yujin fell silent for a moment, recollecting her thoughts before throwing a sudden question,

    “Do you like her?”

    “…….” Wonyoung froze, a bit surprised with the question. Out of all their years of friendship, Yujin had never asked such a question nor did she ask the same to her. It just never passed through their minds. Simply because they had better topics than to talk about their love life.

    Right now, she had no answer to that question. But she had no admit she was attracted to the older girl for quite sometime now but she knew it was a bad idea to tell her. Besides, her mind had been going around in a frenzy thinking about where her feelings actually lie.