“Son Chaeyoung!” the sound of someone yelling her name echoed throughout the wide hallway where kids stand around to chat and do stupid things.

Chaeyoung sighs and stops in her tracks to turn to the owner of the voice that called out her name rather loudly that caught most of the students in the hallway’s attention.

The raven haired girl slumped her shoulders as she looked around at the scrutinizing eyes of the students who have nothing better to do than to meddle in other people’s businesses. 

There’s no doubt that if this conversation were to happen in the hallway, rumours about it will spread like wildfire. Just one of the perks of being THE high school soccer star of, if not the entire district, the entire school.

As the tall woman approaching her gets close enough, Chaeyoung grabs her wrist to guide her into a more secluded and private place in the campus,  free of nosy kids trying to gossip.

Chaeyoung stopped in her tracks and faced the taller girl in front of her, arms crossed over her chest as she signaled the other to start speaking.

“You don’t have to look at me like I’m the most annoying person you’ve ever seen you know.” the tall brunette said with an amused tone.

“You kinda are” the short raven haired girl countered but without a bite as she chuckled at her friend before nudging her to tell her what she wanted to say.

The taller girl with a shoulder length dyed brunette hair sighed and placed her arms over the shorter girl in a headlock position to ruffle her hair much to the latter’s dismay.

“You were SUPER late to practice yesterday! Coach was really upset, he made us do endless sucide run drills! I don’t think I can feel my legs anymore!” complained the older while dramatically putting all her weight on the younger girl.

“Sorry, Jeong.” Chaeyoung replied with her head down, feeling guilty her teammates had to go through a cranky coach just because she missed minutes worth of practice. 

She knows coach JinYoung is particularly hard on her because she’s the ace of the team and he’s just aiming to make her even better which she’s eternally grateful for. 

Part of her success in the sport is the discipline that her coach for years have put her through. 

Its is strange that coach Jinyoung had been her coach for almost her entire years of playing soccer. Granted, Park Jinyoung seemed to be close to the Son family.

How close is the question but Chaeyoung doesn't think about it much. What matters is now is her future in the sport.

Jeongyeon, the team’s starter goalkeeper lifts her weight off of the shorter girl’s shoulder to turn to her “Don’t be, kid. It’s not your fault our coach is a bit of a sometimes.” Jeongyeon says which earned her a little chuckle and a light punch on her arm by the dimpled girl next to her .

“The truth is, I was really worried. You never miss even a second of practice even when I try so hard to convince you to loosen up once in a while. Under normal circumstances I would’ve been so proud but I’m legit worried something happened at home… again.” Jeongyeon continued, concern evident in her features.

“Don’t worry, nothing bad happened yesterday.” Chaeyoung responded vaguely, trying to reassure her friend while also trying to avoid the subject completely.

“So… Why the tardiness?” the goalkeeper pushed, squinting her eyes at the younger. Chaeyoung was about to respond with a lame excuse when she got cut off, “And don’t think you can get me with that ‘I slept in’ excuse. We all know about your creepy obsession with jogging at every crack of dawn, probably gawking at the y women running along at the same hour” Jeongyeon said, holding in her laughter at her not-so-funny joke.

Chaeyoung rolled her eyes “First of all, it’s not creepy to want to be health conscious, and second, I just got held up by someone on the way to school, it's no big deal” Chaeyoung said with finality in her tone, hoping she could get her persistent friend to drop the subject.

It’s not like what she said was a flat out lie. She just chose to be intentionally vague with her words. She still doesn’t know what to think of that encounter she had with a certain blonde that’s been occupying her mind for the past couple of hours. 

Okay, maybe not just a couple, the thought of Kim Dahyun never once left Son Chaeyoung’s mind since that incident.

She thinks she really needs to get her mind off of that blonde beauty.

Much to the young center forward’s dismay, her response only caused a spark in her friend’s eyes as she was now being smothered with questions, and a flood of images of a certain petite blonde haired girl immediately pops up, making the younger girl almost curse at her own weakness.

“YOU MET UP WITH SOMEONE??!! A DATE??!!1!” Jeongyeon asked excitedly which earned her a pained groan by Chaeyoung who started to walk away from her but that didn’t stop the tall brunette from following her around, repeating the same question until she gets Chaeyoung to answer her directly.

“Ugh, Unnie, no! I mean, yeah, I met someone but it’s more like bumped into them. And no, I didn’t go on a date early in the morning.” Chaeyoung finally responded exasperatedly. 

The thought of her missing practice to spend time with Dahyun immediately crossing her mind, making her heart skip a beat for unknown reasons.

Why was her heart doing flips at that image? It's not like that didn't happen before. 

Maybe it's because it's been so long since she missed practice for that reason. Chaeyoung smiled bitterly at the thought.

Before Jeongyeon could ask more agonizing questions, Chaeyoung is internally grateful for the presence of one of her teammates.

“Jisoo Unnie!” Chaeyoung calls out with great joy in her tone and Jeongyeon perks up as well as they greet their senior.

“Ppoong! Nyeongan my children! How can I service you all in this lovely morning?” Jisoo, their defensive midfielder, preached rather loudly not minding all the stares they’re getting from passersby.

Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung both cringed at their senior’s blunt silliness but got over it quickly as Chaeyoung has some message to relay to her sunbae.

“Do you know Tzuyu? That tall girl from the animal lovers club who’s also friends with Rosé?” Chaeyoung started as she looked at Jisoo expectantly.

Jisoo pretended to be pondering before responding, “The name does ring a bell...” which earned her an eye roll from Jeongyeon and a content shrug from Chaeyoung.

"Good enough for me, she’s looking for you. She said she wanted to talk to you about something, I can’t really remember what about.” Chaeyoung informed.

Jisoo was about to respond when she gets cut off by a certain brunette beauty walking towards the group of soccer elites in the school.

“Is it someone trying to steal my woman away from me? Because if it is, then just tell her to back off and give up before I do something she will regret.” Bae Irene, Jisoo’s “wife”, soulbound, girlfriend for the longest time (4 years since Jisoo’s first year in high school and flirting since they reached the age where kids started to flirt). 

Talk about true love, it was no surprise to everyone when they found out they’re both each other’s soulmates. With what these two have been through, Irene even purposely moved back a year just to be able to graduate together with Jisoo (which was really stupid, even Jisoo protested against it so much until she couldn’t anymore).

“Aw babe! I love it when you get jealous, it’s so hot. Do it again” and just like that, Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon are left amongst themselves while witnessing the disgustingly adorable flirting of the most perfect couple on campus.

~

“So,” Jihyo started as she tailed her spaced out friend to the cafeteria. 

Dahyun snapped out of her trance and quickly shifted her attention to her friend who’s walking beside her.

Her mind has been preoccupied by a certain petite raven haired beauty. Something that didn’t happen as often before, or at least, not anymore after that time. 

It’s not that she hates the thought of that person crossing her mind every time, it’s just that she thought she’s gotten used to not thinking about her as often anymore. She has tried so hard to keep her out of her thoughts after that moment she broke her heart. 

She can’t fall for that again. She can’t go through the same heartache that almost broke her entirely.

Dahyun gave her friend a confused look b