It was happened on September. I was sitting on the bench inside the lobby, waiting for my friend, Kim Minjoo. I was reading the textbook the professor required us to read before the next lecture. It was a basic book about sociology, and if I should being honest, the book was boring, like every textbook I read before.

I noticed a girl was approaching me. Expecting that she wasn’t on the same year as me, I gulped. I didn’t know her at all, so I assumed that she was a year or two years older than me. Did I do something wrong?

I fixed my glasses to see her clearly, she was beautiful, with a long black hair, a proportional face... and also a perfect figure. She was right in front of me, blinking her eyes.

“Eh? You’re not Choi Yena,” She said. I think I once heard that name before, but no, I’m not Choi Yena, I’m Jo Yuri! I thought.

“You must be mistaken...” I said to her. The girl in front of me just laughed sheepishly, realizing her mistake.

“I thought you’re my friend for a moment... Sorry. Anyway, can I sit here, too?” She asked in a friendly manner. The bench wasn’t mine, so of course she could sit without asking for my permission. I nodded at her, though.

The girl was also waiting for someone. I knew it by witnessing her frequently checked her own phone. Minjoo wasn’t coming yet and I started to feel bored with the book, closing it.

“Oh, I remember reading that book during my first year,” The girl beside me said, looking at the textbook I was holding. Before I could give her any reply, the two of us distracted by a loud voice of someone running.

“Hyewon!” The one who was running shouted. Her voice was really loud. She was running hastily to the girl beside me.

Arrived in front of us, she tried to caught her breath. was opened, panting hard. I didn’t know why, but her face was reminding me of a duck.

“Wha--? I just late for five minutes and now I caught you flirting with a cute girl?! As expected from Kang Hyewon!” She pretended to be shocked, closing while staring at me with those widened eyes. Hearing her words, I frowned at her. How rude.

“Shut up, Yena,” The girl beside me said. She quickly stood up as her friend was already arrived. “Let’s go.”

I could hear the duck girl voice saying something to her friend as they left, but I couldn’t hear what were they talking about. I noticed that the duck girl, seems to be named Choi Yena, looking back at me repeatedly.

The next week, when I was with Minjoo in the auditorium waiting for a lecture for first years, I was shocked when I found Choi Yena was standing in front of us. Smile was all over her face, and it was directed at me and Minjoo.

“Mind if I join you guys?” She asked, her eyes pointing at an empty seat beside me. There are so many empty seats here, why the hell she chose to seat here? Without any suspicion, Minjoo nodded. My best friend is always like that, being too innocent and kind, even to stranger. Choi Yena let out a wide smile, I should admit it that her smile was charming enough to make my heart skipped a beat.

Not long after that, the girl who mistook me as Choi Yena also entered the auditorium, sitting beside Yena while kept complaining.

“Isn’t this lecture for first years? We’re juniors, Yena,” She mumbled, but I could hear her words clearly.

“Don’t be like that, Hyewon! I promised you to treat you chickens, right?” Choi Yena tried to calm her friend.

“I can buy chicken as much as I want to,” The one named Hyewon grumbled.

“Then, why did you come here?”

“...Because everyone love free chicken,” Hyewon pouted. Eavesdropping a senior might be not a good idea, but I couldn’t help myself not to do so.

I tried my best not to look at the two juniors, but again, I failed to do so. Hyewon quickly realized that I was glancing at the two of them. She turned her gaze to Choi Yena.

“...I see,” She said, turning her gaze to Yena with a big grin on her face.

“We meet again, what’s your name?” Hyewon asked me, still in her unchanging manner like the previous day, friendly. Choi Yena hit her friend’s hand when the latter reached out her hand to offer a handshake. Unhappy with Yena hitting her hand, Hyewon frowned at her friend while pulling her hand.

“Yuri. Jo Yuri...” I answered.

“And... your friend?” Hyewon asked again, referring to Minjoo who was busy reading beside me. I softly poked Minjoo, telling her that someone asked for her name.

“I’m Kim Minjoo...” She introduced herself shyly.

“You’re pretty,” Yena commented. Everyone was always saying that, and I suddenly knew the reason why she came. She wanted to flirt with Minjoo, like everyone did.

“This--”

“I’m Yena, Choi Yena. And this is my friend, Kang Hyewon,” Yena cut Hyewon’s words, introducing herself and her friend. Well, I already knew their names, though.

The two juniors invited both me and Minjoo for a lunch after the lecture. I didn’t want to at first, but they seemed sincere enough for Minjoo to believe them, so I didn’t have any choice but to agree. We went to a restaurant not so far from campus. After ordering, I thought an awkward silence would fill the atmosphere between us. Turned out I was wrong, Yena was really talkative, quacking here and there.

We talked about the first year assignments until the dishes we had ordered came. Hyewon changed her focus to the food, no longer care about our conversation. When we were digging in, suddenly a notification sound was heard from Minjoo’s phone.

“Oh God, they ask me to come to the club’s room early,” She complained. Though she complained, I knew that she must be happy.

“Eh, what club you’re in, Minjoo?” Yena asked. I knew it just a normal question, but somehow I felt annoyed. It sounded that Yena was trying to flirt with my good friend.

Because everyone did the same to the point I became fed up with it.

“The Pop Music Appreciation Club--”

“Isn’t that good? You can meet your lovely Chaewon-sunbaenim earlier, right?” I cut Minjoo’s words, giving a hint to the ducky junior in front of me that my friend already had someone in mind.

“Chaewon? Did you--” Yena didn’t continue her words. I noticed that Hyewon was no longer focusing on her food. Her hand was on Yena’s shoulder, as if telling Yena to stop talking further.

Minjoo excused herself early since she should go to her club’s room, leaving a puppy like me with two juniors I barely knew. Although I learned that they wouldn’t do something bad, staying with two juniors was scary. Moreover, Minjoo was already gone, so there was no one to flirt with, right?

“Tell me, do you think our faces are similar?” Yena leaned forward, her hands supporting her chin. She was smiling, or should I say that it was a smug? I never thought myself resembling a duck, so...

“...No.”

Yena’s smile vanished and she turned to Hyewon, who was looking at her phone.

“Yah! She said we’re not similar! Why did you mistake her as me?” Yena protested, hitting Hyewon’s back. Hyewon was drinking her tea, so she nearly choked caused by the ducky girl.

“Wha--! Cough! Cough! Ugh... Isn’t it a good thing that I mistook Yuri as you?” Hyewon asked her friend back, trying to control her coughs. Yena opened , wanting to protest. Sadly, no words came out from her, and I saw her ears became red.

After Minjoo, Hyewon also excused herself, saying that she should do something important.

“As expected from a member of Kang,” Yena said. Kang? Wasn’t it just a regular surname in South Korea? I thought.

Instead of ending our lunch session, Yena opened the menu again, looking through the dessert section. I thought, what was the point of being with me here?

“Yena-sunbaenim, can I go home?” I asked hesitantly.

“Why? Why?” She blinked her eyes in confusion.

“Minjoo isn’t here, what’s the point of us being here?”

“Minjoo?”

“I know it, you want to flirt with Minjoo, right? Everyone did the same.”

“Me? Flirting with your friend? Of course not.”

I was annoyed at the fact she pretended that she didn’t have any intention to do it. I grabbed my bag and stood, but then a hand gripped my wrist.

“Wait! Why do you think I’m approaching Minjoo?”

“You said she’s pretty.”

“Is it enough to conclude that I’m flirting with your friend?”

“Yes.”

Yena released her grip from my wrist, then scratching her head. I could hear her groaning and mumbling.

“Are you dumb?” Yena asked, still scratching her head. Hearing her mocking me, bloods on my head started to boil.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you think why I still want to stay here after your friend and Hyewon left? Don’t you realize that the one I want to flirt is you?”

I still remember that instead of exploding, the boiled bloods in my head  running down to my cheeks and ears. I’m sure that I was red like a ripe tomato after hearing that words from Yena’s mouth that time.

Yena was...bold. Even though I left her that time, she came to me again the next day. Moreover, she bluntly said that she was trying to flirt with me! Even trying to avoid her was futile, since we’re basically belong in the same department and program. But... for no reason, I didn’t hate it at all.

The junior would come and greet me everyday with her husky voice and bright smile all over her face. She’d also tell me that she likes me, to the extent that I couldn’t help but to feel embarrassed every time she did that.

That day was no exception.

“Jjoyul, good morning~” She greeted me like usual, walking beside me with a wide smile on her face.

“Morning...” I greeted her back. I could feel everyone was looking at us, making me uncomfortable.

I didn’t know it before, but lately I learned that Yena and Hyewon appeared to be a popular duo in our department. They’re dubbed as the cool duo, which is kind of lame. Also, they seemed to have many fangirls. They’re cool but also friendly to everyone, especially Yena, since Hyewon is the more reserved and distant one. If only their fans knew that we once had a lunch together...

“She’s a friend of Kim Minjoo, right? I don’t know that she’s also close with Yena-sunbaenim.”

“Maybe Yena-sunbaenim is using her to get close to Kim Minjoo?”

“Poor her,” Despite one of them pitied me, I could her giggle.

“I could understand if it’s Kim Minjoo, but it’s impossible for Yena-sunbaenim to be interested with a plain girl like her.”

I felt something pierced my heart as I heard that words. People always say anything they want, without considering others’ feeling. It’s always ‘Kim Minjoo’, I understand about it already. Still, it was hurt when to know that everyone just looked at Minjoo, while I was nothing but “Kim Minjoo’s friend”.

Don’t get it wrong, I never hate Minjoo because she’s always getting the attention. She’s my best friend and I’m grateful to have her as one, even though she was too innocent and dense. Not to mention that I should hear her own series almost everyday, which I dubbed as “The Chronicle of Kim Chaewon-sunbaenim”.

Yena was different. It was the first time someone comes to me instead of Minjoo, and it made me happy. Although I often ignored her or even annoyed at her, she would be always doing her routine, greeting me and say that she likes me. Perhaps, that was the reason why I couldn’t hate her.

“Yah! Yuri, you’re feeling unwell?” Yena asked worriedly. Her thick lips puckered, forming a really cute shape.

“N-no...” I answered.

“Then why you look like you want to cry?”

I hate it when someone says that I look that I want to cry, because it’d make a crybaby like me really cry.

“No... it just...” Unable to control myself anymore, tears rolled down on my cheeks. Didn’t want her to see it, I paced up my speed to leave her, but she followed me instead.

Both of us arrived at the back of our department’s main building. No one was there except us. I heard Yena’s panting, tired after following me.

“What happened to you?” She stepped forward, getting closer to me. I shook my head while wiping off my tears.

“Why are you interested in someone like me?” I used my courage to ask her, “Why it’s not Minjoo? Or another person?”

“Do I need a reason for that? You listened to what they said, right?” Yena said. My eyes widened. So she also heard it? I thought. She moved forward, approaching me as I stood still on my place.

The moments later, I was inside Yena’s embrace. Her jacket smelled like a detergent, soapy and refreshing. She was slightly taller than me, so I could bury my face on her shoulder. While embracing me, she patted my head.

“Jo Yuri, I told you countless time already. I like you, not someone else, not even your best friend,” She said. I didn’t give her any response, feeling too comfortable inside her embrace.

“You may not like me yet, but...” She took a deep breath, “do you want to give me a chance?”

That’s how our relationship started.

-.-.-.-

A/N: YulYen/YenYul’s story finally started, yeay! *clapping* This chapter takes place before “Sweater” and “Everything”. And yes, Hyewon knew that Minjoo likes Chaewon before, so that’s why she thought Minjoo would come to take care of Chaewon in “Everything”.

While the previous stories focused about how the couple become together, in this story, I want to focus at a couple in relationship. In my opinion, Yena and Yuri will be the perfect couple to pull it. xD

By the way, I had an intention to write the story also from Yena’s side. Since I’m too lazy to write it, I scrapped it. There’s still the remnant, though, so I decided to put it here as an appendix. Enjoy.

-.-.-.-

Appendix:

It was love at the first sight. The girl I fell in love with sat beside my best friend, Kang Hyewon. It was the first time I met her, but my heart was thumping like crazy.

I think I will explode.

Even though I didn’t know any single thing about her.

I couldn’t stop looking at her, finding myself repeatedly glancing back at her even though Hyewon already pulled me.

“Who is she? Do you know her?”

“I don’t.”

“Really? You didn’t ask for her name?”

“No. I just mistook her as you,”

At that time, my usual dysfunctional brain was working like a miracle, only for remembering that girl. Even though I was playing game with Hyewon, my brain refused to forget that girl for a moment, making me failed to focus.

It was a tag team game, and we lost. It was that girl’s fault!

“Yena, what the hell were you doing?! You weren’t supposed to go from the base! I told you to wait!” Gosh, Hyewon’s scolding me was the most annoying thing. She rarely shows much expression in her daily life, but when it comes to games and foods, she’d become fired up like that.

“Yah! It’s your fault for sitting beside that girl!” I blurted out. Yes, it was Hyewon’s fault! If only she didn’t sit beside that girl, we would win!

Instead of upset because I told her that it was her fault, Hyewon let out a laugh, a really loud one. I noticed that tears came out from her eyes, caused by her laughter. What’s so funny? I thought.

“She’s a first year,” Hyewon said as she tried her best to hold her laughter.

“What?”

“You want to know about her, right? She’s a first year!”

So I spent an entire week to find anything about that girl. She’s a freshman, named Jo Yuri, also from the same program as me and Hyewon. I asked Hyewon whether there would be any lecture for first year that I could join, and she said yes.

“Join me?” I clasped my hands together, pleading at my best friend.

“I don’t want to. It’s better for me to--”

“I’ll treat you chicken! Or anything! Please take it as a consideration. Help your poor, helpless friend,” I pleaded. Hearing the words “chicken”, Hyewon looked at me. That moment, I knew it worked on her. Despite being a possible heiress of one of the biggest conglomerate in South Korea, Kang Hyewon would never refuse foods.

Yeah, so that’s the beginning of my story with Yuri.