Day 147

“Uh, did you see this?” Yena turned and asked Sakura immediately as she sat down.

“What?” Sakura asked in a confused voice as she looked at Yena’s phone. She could see a collection of four pictures with the title ‘sad summer is over.’ All of the four pictures featured a very fit looking Hitomi. And in one of these pictures was her and Hitomi taking a selfie just outside the restaurant they had gone to early during their summer. “Oh, I didn’t know she posted that. Ah, I wish was dressed better.”

“No, you’re missing the point,” Yena said in an upset voice. “Read the comments.”

Sakura did as she was told, but still failed to see what Yena was in a huff about. Most of the comments were from what looked like Hitomi’s friends. A lot of the comments were raving at how cute the girl was in each picture. Every friend seemed to send multiple comments each one more ridiculously over the top in their praise than the other. Did girls really do that nowadays? Sakura felt out of touch with the girls of today since she only had a private Instagram account to look at other people’s pictures.

“So?” Yena asked impatiently.

“So what? I still don’t see anything. They’re all saying how cute she is, which she is.”

“Argh, you’re not reading the relevant stuff. They’re all asking about who the other cute girl is. They know you aren’t her sister and they know you aren’t one of her classmates. They’re all insinuating that you’re her new girlfriend.”

Sakura blinked. She had seen those comments, but she simply thought they were asking about some other girl in one of the other pictures. “You’re joking right? They’re not talking about me,” Sakura laughed.

“Of course, they’re talking about you. Who else could they be talking about?” Yena looked at Sakura as if she were the dumbest person on the planet.

“You think I’m the cute girl they’re talking about?” Sakura asked incredulously.

Yena hesitated for a moment before answering, “Well, to some people in the right light, I guess, you might be considered pretty. But again, that’s not the point. There are rumors about you starting up all over the school.”

“Why would there be rumors? And even if there were, I don’t think it would be that big a deal.”

“Have you been living under a rock? Ever since the track club won first and second at the track meet, those first-years have been the talk of the school. They’re as high profile as you can get.” Yena looked over at the entrance to their class room and directed Sakura’s gaze there.

Sakura could see that the crowd in the doorway seemed to be busier than normal. Many of the people seemed to be suspiciously looking into their room. She had been disappointed that she had been too plain to generate gossip between Hyewon and her before, but she now regretted feeling that way as panic rose up within her. “Uh, they’re all peeking in here to see me?”

“Finally,” Yena said looking up at the ceiling.

“Hey, I’m not used to being the center of attention. What do I do?” Sakura asked in a squeaky voice as she tugged at Yena’s sleeve. This level of scrutiny was foreign to her.

“First, you relax,” Yena said as she patted Sakura’s hand on her sleeve in an annoyingly condescending way. “This will blow over in a day when the next big gossip item hits the school. Next, you should really start following some of your friends and classmates. How can you claim to be a girl in this day and age if you don’t use social media?”

“Ugh, can’t believe Yena is the one giving me advice,” Sakura lamented as she buried her head into arms face down on the desk. It was like it was the beginning of the year all over again. It was as if there were thousands of eyes on her, judging her every move. She knew now that it was just all in her head, but it still didn’t stop her from feeling this way

“Hehe,” Yena cackled as she reached over and patted Sakura’s head. “Hey, this is one of my strong areas. I’ll get your through this.”

“Hmm, is it me or are those girl’s looking at you?” Chaewon asked as she and Sakura sat on the sidelines watching their team members play soccer.

Sakura looked over on the other field where some first-years were also playing soccer. Of course, a first-year class had to have their gym class next to theirs. “Yeah, I think so.”

“I guess you are getting…,” Chaewon started to comment before she stopped herself.

“Getting what?” Sakura asked, curious as to what Chaewon was about to say.

“…out of your shell more,” Chaewon finished. “I heard you hosted a joint summer activity with multiple clubs. You must have made an impression.”

“Ah, I don’t think they’re looking at me because of that event I hosted. But you could say it was from that day. After that event, I met up with a friend from the first year for dinner. She took a picture of us together after the meal. Apparently, she’s become a pretty big deal and they all think I’m her new girlfriend or something.”

“Well? Are you?” Chaewon was as direct as usual.

“No! She’s my kohai from when I was in the track club in junior high. We just went out for dinner celebrating her second-place finish.”

“Just the two of you?” Chaewon asked as she stared at Sakura.

“Well, yeah,” Sakura answered awkwardly as she suddenly found herself under the spotlight. She found herself looking away from Chaewon’s uncomfortable stare.

“That’s strange, isn’t it? You’re not really her senpai anymore. You’re in different clubs now. Why did you celebrate with just the two of you?”

“Well, I celebrated with Chaeyeon when she won. Friends celebrate each other’s successes, right?”

“Did either of you dress up?” Chaewon ignored Sakura’s question and asked another pointed question.

“Ah, she did. I just wore my uniform.” Sakura tugged at her collar as she felt herself sweating a little under the Chaewon’s bombardment.

“How dressed up was she?” Chaewon asked again. Each question seemed to stab Sakura in the heart.

“Uh, I think I get what you’re getting at, but I don’t think she sees me that way. She was my kohai and she’s friends with my childhood friend, Nako. We used to run together, and actually, we still do in the mornings. We’re on pretty friendly terms with each other.”

“So, in other words, she was really dressed up,” Chaewon answered her own question after drawing some conclusion from Sakura’s long-winded non-answer.

“Yeah,” Sakura answered in a defeated tone.

Chaewon was not the only one that Sakura had been worried about. The other girl’s words had made her think of Minju and what her thoughts on the whole thing might be. To say that she ran to the library after the lunch bell would be an exaggeration. But to say she walked very briskly was pretty accurate.

“Minju!” Sakura cried out breathlessly as soon as she entered to library and saw the other girl.

Minju looked up with surprise and quickly brought a finger to her lips.

Sakura hadn’t realized how loud her voice was. She found her heart still pounding slightly from the fast paced walk to the library. Breathing deeply until she calmed herself down somewhat, she tried again with a much quieter tone of voice, “Uh, hi, Minju.”

“Hi, Sakura,” Minju said warmly as she motioned Sakura to come around the counter so that they could sit together.

“Thanks,” Sakura said as she made her way around to where Minju sat.

“What’s up?” Minju asked, barely looking at Sakura as she deftly sorted the book returns.

“Uh, nothing much. I was just wondering if you heard, you know, any rumors about me. Whatever you’ve heard, they’re not true by the way.”

“Rumors? Are they about you?” Minju asked as she stopped. Her worried face made Sakura feel all warm inside.

“Yeah, they are,” Sakura answered shyly as Minju’s beautiful eyes looked at her with concern.

“Are they bad rumors?” Minju asked as she placed a hand on Sakura’s.

“Ah, I wouldn’t say that. It’s just that I went out to dinner with one of my friends who’s apparently become pretty popular. And people have been mistaking me as her girlfriend.”

Minju pulled her hands away from Sakura’s. “Oh, why would they think that?”

The other girl’s voice was quiet and didn’t have the bite that Chaewon’s questions did. But Sakura suddenly felt as if the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. “Well, I guess her close friends didn’t recognize me as one of her friends or family members. I think it’s the first time they’ve seen a picture of me with her. She was dressed up nicely and it was just the two of us, so I think her friends just wanted to . But it looks like it’s kind of escalated from that into me being her new girlfriend.”

“I see. You went out with a girl, just the two of you, who’s not family or a close friend, and she was all dressed up for you,” Minju repeated in the same quiet voice.

“We are close friends! I mean, I didn’t see her for a year since middle school, but we were on the same track team. Her current friends just didn’t know about all that. I was just trying to celebrate her hard work since I know how much she’d worked for it for the last three years.” Sakura tried not to sound frantic as she rapidly explained herself.

“Oh, is that what it was,” Minju said brightly and Sakura felt that she could breath easily again.

The mood switch was so quick that Sakura wondered if she had imagined it. “Yeah, that’s all.”

“You didn’t need to come here and tell me all that, right?” Minju suddenly asked as she looked at Sakura again.

This time Sakura couldn’t read anything from Minju’s blank stare, yet she felt as if she were walking on a tight rope. “Well, you’re my… friend. And I wouldn’t want you to think I was keeping something as big as me dating someone from you.”

“Oh, I see,” Minju said as she gave Sakura her usual coy smile.

“Psst!”

Sakura looked around the library as she thought she heard a noise. She looked in the direction of the sound and could see Wonyoung hiding amongst the shelves motioning Sakura to come towards her.

“Unnie, I thought you might come here,” Wonyoung whispered as soon as Sakura came within earshot.

“What’s going on? Why are we whispering?” Sakura asked in the same low tone that the other girl used.

“I kind of want to apologize about the rumors and wanted to see if there’s anything I can do to help,” Wonyoung said, looking contrite.

“What do the rumors have to do with you?” Sakura asked.

“You’re not reading the comments? Some of them think they recognize you from when I dragged you to the roof. I guess I was pretty public about it, but I don’t think many people got a good look at you, so they’re not sure. Plus, it’s been like three months since then and you’ve actually changed quite a lot.”

Sakura’s heart sank at the news. “What are they saying?”

“Well, they now kind of think you might be some sort of two-timer. The mean ones are saying…” Wonyoung didn’t finish the sentence as she suddenly looked very angry.

“They’re saying?” Sakura prompted gently, showing Wonyoung she was okay with whatever news she had.

“They’re saying they can’t believe that you’re able to date one of the stars of the track club and the student council president.”

“Well, they’re not wrong. You two are pretty special girls… ouch. Why did you hit me?” Sakura said as she rubbed her arm from where Wonyoung punched her.

“Don’t agree with them! My unnie is the best girl in the world. She can date anyone she wants,” Wonyoung huffed and looked like she might punch Sakura in the arm again if she disagreed.

“Okay, okay. I get it. Well, if you really want to help me. Just don’t add more fuel to the fire. I’m sure it’ll die down when the next juicy gossip comes out.”

“The next juicy gossip you say?” Wonyoung asked as she contemplated Sakura’s words.

For someone with such an angelic face, the other girl was giving off quite the devilish smirk. “Don’t do whatever you’re thinking of doing,” Sakura chided the other girl.

“Okay,” Wonyoung said, sounding reluctant.

When Sakura got back to the classroom for what was left of the lunch hour, she noticed that the room less busy than usual. Before the summer break, she had been finding herself often with company during lunch. She’d gotten so used to it that she had forgotten what it was like to eat alone like she had the year before.

Sakura felt lonely as she went to her desk and pulled out her bento box. Chaeyeon was probably busy with some class rep stuff or something to do with her club. Yena had dashed out of the room just like Sakura had when the lunch bell rung. Chaewon and Hyewon almost always bought lunch in the cafeteria so that was where they most likely were.

“Hey, you’re here,” Chaeyeon said as she tapped Sakura on the shoulder. She looked around as if checking to see if Yena was around before pulling out the missing girl’s chair to sit. She then placed her own bento on Sakura’s desk.

“You haven’t eaten yet? I thought you’d be busy since it’s the first day of school after summer, but I didn’t realize you’d be this busy.” Sakura felt elated just seeing her best friend’s face.

“Yeah, I was swamped with paperwork from the teacher. I just got back from that. I thought I saw you leave when the bell went, so I thought I would be eating alone today.”

Sakura noticed that Chaeyeon didn’t bring up the gossip and felt thankful for it. She knew the girl was being considerate. “Is it really bad that I’m not on social media like all the other girls,” she asked conversationally after they finished their meals.

“Not everyone here uses Instagram or Twitter contrary to popular belief. Don’t feel like you have to be like the others.”

“Thanks, but I just want to experience normal girl stuff. I spent many years not fully living my school life, you know.”

Chaeyeon nodded as she listened to Sakura. “Hmm, I can understand that. Being in a club that has big goals, I feel the same way too sometimes. Every one of my team members have given up a part of their high school life to get us as far as we have today.”

Sakura smiled as she looked at her friend. Chaeyeon, ever patient and understanding, was always the best medicine for her worries. “How do you manage living a normal girl’s life and your club activities?”

“I handled it pretty badly before actually. I’m pretty much a workaholic. I kind of want it all so I work at everything, including not missing out on everyday girl stuff,” Chaeyeon answered. “But, this year, I met a wonderful person who made all of that easy. When I need to recharge my batteries, you’re right here to be my battery pack. You make me feel like I’m not missing out on being a regular girl.”

“No fair. You’re stealing my lines,” Sakura joked as she looked at Chaeyeon. “You’re the one who’s made me feel like I can enjoy my high school life like every other girl.”

“The feeling’s mutual then,” Chaeyeon said with a grin before her face turned serious. “I should warn you though. People can be a lot more uninhibited online. They can say some pretty mean things.”

“Chaeyeon,” Sakura laughed. “I play online games. I’ve heard the nastiest and meanest things.”

“Oh, really? Like?” Chaeyeon also laughed until Sakura moved closer so that she could whisper into her ear. In mere moments after hearing graphic expletive after expletive, the girl turned bright red. “Sakura!”

Sakura shrugged. “Gamers have dirty mouths.”

“Yuri, you’re here early,” Sakura said as she peaked into the music room. The younger girl was already in the room setting everything up.

“Senpai!” Yuri exclaimed as she stopped moving instruments around to rush up to her. “Are you okay? You’re not feeling down because of those comments, are you?”

“No, I’m okay. Even you know about it?” Sakura asked, surprised how fast gossip could spread. Even Yuri who didn’t seem to pay attention to things around her seemed to be in the know.

“That’s all the first-years are talking about. You’re not really that well known at this school and all of a sudden people think you’re dating a track star, the student council president, and the music club president.”

“Even Nako?” Sakura asked, dumbfounded as she was now, apparently, a three-timer.

“Well, people have seen you two come to school together. Nako’s pretty popular if you didn’t know. She and Yujin have been working hard together to dispel the rumors about you though.”

Sakura still didn’t really understand why Yujin and Nako didn’t get along, but she was happy and touched to hear they put aside their differences for her. “That was really sweet of them to do.”

“Yeah, both of them have a lot of influence in the class. I wish, I could have helped like they did. I wish I could be more like Nako and be able to take charge and handle any crisis smoothly. Instead, the most I could do was to just come here and set up the club room for her.” Yuri had a pout on her face as she looked down, dejected.

“Don’t dismiss what you’re doing. Knowing Nako, she would be worried about this new club, but with you here, she can do her thing. I’m sure she’ll tell you that she’s grateful for what you’re doing.”

“It’s not like I’m doing much,” Yuri said as a smile started to blossom on her face at Sakura’s words. “I actually learned a lot of good habits from watching you prepare the art club for us.”

Sakura couldn’t help but reach out and pinch the young girl’s cheek as she squeezed in a compliment. She knew the girl was doing her best in her own way to cheer her up. “I wish I had an account that followed Hitomi so that I could have just commented myself this morning. I probably could have nipped the rumor in the bud if I did.”

“Senpai, even I use Instagram,” Yuri said as she shook her head at Sakura. “How can you call yourself a girl in this day and age if you don’t use it.”

“Someone else said that to me this morning,” Sakura said, accepting the scolding from the younger girl.

“Truthfully, I only started a public one after I joined the music club. All the club members wanted me to follow them. I’m still new to it, but it is a lot of fun. You know how shy I can be, but I find I can say anything to my members if it’s behind my phone.”

Sakura nodded as she felt the same way. “Well, maybe you can show me a little?”

“Senpai, you’re too nice. I know you just want to make me feel useful,” Yuri said shyly. Even though the girl knew that Sakura had set her up, she still fished her phone out of her pocket.

“Ooh, I didn’t know you wore glasses. You didn’t even wear glasses when I saw you in your pajamas last time.” Sakura wondered if it would be too much of her to ask the younger girl to send her the picture displayed on her phone.

“Yeah, I prefer to wear contacts. These are the only pair I wear since they’re pretty cute. I think you should get a pair like mine. Yours are way too ugly.”

It wasn’t the first time that Yuri had complained about her glasses, which made Sakura feel a little defensive. “Hey, they’re not that bad.”

“No, they really are,” Yuri insisted. “I’m sure you’ll look much better without them on. Take them off, let me see.”

Sakura sighed as she took her glasses off. Yuri’s face became indistinct as she looked at the girl. She expected some sort of reaction, but nothing came out of the girl. She put her glasses back on to see Yuri staring at her with a blank face. “Yuri?”

“Oh, wow… I mean, senpai, I mean… I have to um, I have to get back to… um, preparing,” Yuri suddenly started stammering as she shooed Sakura out of the music room.

“I always knew you had it in you. Not one, not two, but three first-years?” Eunbi teased as soon as she entered the room.

“So, then Nako told them that you were her childhood friend and that Hitomi went to the same school as you did. I told them that you were the acting president for the art club, so it wasn’t unusual for you to be seen talking with the student council president.” Yujin looked weary as she explained the day’s events from her perspective.

“You worked hard,” Sakura said as she poured some tea for Yujin.

“It was hard stamping out all the rumors since it seemed everyone in the school had a juicy tidbit to add. One girl said she saw you with the student council president and that she was crying. Another girl claimed that they saw you hugging Hitomi at the track one morning. Finally, this other girl said that she saw you leave Nako’s house together in the morning. She was insinuating you stayed the night.

“Ah, I see,” Sakura said, nodding, now fully comprehending why comments on Hitomi’s post had caused quite the stir and domino effect.

“Um, instead of ‘I see,’ shouldn’t you be telling me how none of that’s true,” Yujin asked crossly.

“Well, they have happened,” Sakura said after thinking about it.

“You made Wonyoung cry? You’ve stayed overnight at Nako’s?” Yujin’s mouth as ajar as she stared dumbfounded at Sakura.

“She was just emotional about something. And It’s normal for childhood friends to the spend the night at each other’s place.”

“That little twerp. She outright denied it with a straight face,” Yujin fumed. “That girl could lie without blinking an eye. What about you hugging Hitomi?”

“If it’s the day I’m thinking of, I think she was feeling down about her running and I was just comforting her. Hugging someone there is also pretty normal. She’s a former kohai of mine and she’s been helping me get into shape by running with me in the morning. Consoling her was the very least I could do when she was feeling sad.”

“She’s the one that’s making you even skinnier?” Yujin seemed to be even more outraged by this than anything else. She grabbed Sakura by the arm and hugged her arm like it was a baby. “This used to be so soft, springy and comfortable to hold onto. Like a waterbed.”

Sakura pulled her arm away from her crazy kohai. “That’s precisely why I’m running.” She didn’t feel like mentioning that Hitomi also complained about the same thing. It seemed like all the first-years had some weird flabby arm .

“She also stole my excuse for coming here. I was going to tell people you were my crush, remember? If I say that now, you’re going to be even more talked about. Four-timing? I don’t think anyone would talk about anything else.”

“She didn’t steal your idea. She didn’t even want this to happen.”

“Well, it was my idea first,” Yujin fumed.

“You can still tell people that you’re interested in someone. It doesn’t have to be me, you know. I’m sure they’ll stop hounding you if they know you’re taken.”

“Hey, I have a great idea! Why don’t we do just that? Let’s create you an account and you can pretend to be the person that’s interested in me. I’ll post a picture and you spam me with compliments.”

While Sakura didn’t exactly want to lie for Yujin, she had actually been interested in creating a public Instagram account so that she could join in some of the fun that Yuri said she was having. “Okay. I do want you to be able to come to club without sneaking around.”

“Yay,” Yujin cheered as she crowded around Sakura while she started the process of creating her public account. “Senpai, don’t name it @39saku_chan. People might guess it’s you. We don’t want them to think you’re you, remember. No, @39kura is just as bad. Just name it @yujinandme or something.”

Sakura rolled her eyes as the bossy teen took over and dictated to her what she should do and how she should set up her profile. “Are you happy, now?”

“Yeah, now, follow me and comment on this picture with some compliments,” Yujin said excitedly.

Sakura looked at the picture and saw that it was a picture of Yujin with one of her drawings for the art club. Quickly, she spammed comments on the picture in rapid succession. [yujinandme: OMG, you’re so beautiful!] [yujinandme: You’re so good at drawing.] [[yujinandme: Pretty and talented.] [yujinandme: You’re under arrest for stealing my heart.]

Sakura found herself smiling as she finished off the last comment. Yuri was right. It was incredibly fun. When she looked up to see what Yujin thought of her messages, she saw that the younger girl had buried her face in her hands. “Yujin?”

“Hey, you look happy,” Nako said as Sakura went into her room.

“Yeah, I spent the last hour killing,” Sakura said as she pointed an imaginary gun at an imaginary foe.

“I’m glad. You didn’t sound all that happy in your texts this morning.” Nako sat up on her bed so Sakura had room to sit down.

“Yeah, I was mostly annoyed that you got dragged into this. I heard form Yuri and Yujin that you helped explain things. Thanks a lot.” Sakura was the older one, but Nako was often the protector between the two of them.

“Actually, it was Yena who gave me the heads up. She messaged me this morning as soon as she saw the first negative comments on Hitomi’s post. I think she messaged Yujin as well. They met up during lunch. I think they were strategizing how to help you.”

That explained why Yena had rushed out of the classroom during lunch. Neither Yena nor Yujin talked much about what they did specifically to help Sakura, but she knew both were very popular students in the school. “I’ll have to thank both of them again.”

Nako looked down at her feet which she swung up and down from the edge of the bed. “Actually, I have a confession to make. I think I might have made it worse. I’d told one of my friends how you used to be a kissing fiend. And how you made me and your brother kiss you when we were kids. She made a joke about me and you kissing apparently and that added me to your list of girlfriends. The next thing you know, people were saying that we were living together.”

It seemed like everyone she knew thought they were the ones that had made the situation worse. “You didn’t know what your friend would say, and you wouldn’t have known how it would all play out.”

“Still, I probably shared something I shouldn’t have,” Nako said apologetically.

“We’re childhood friends. It’s fine to hug and kiss when you’re just kids.” Sakura shrugged. Just like she told Yujin that it was normal that she and Nako had sleepovers. “You know there was a good thing that happened due to this.”

“What was that?” Nako asked, looking at Sakura curiously.

Chaeyeon: You even kissed Nako? So, how many girls have you kissed?

Sakura: …

Chaeyeon: Is it because there have been so many that you’ve forgotten?

Author’s note:

Sorry for the late update. Will try to get the next one out sooner than later. I’m happy to hear that resumption of activities will happen next month. I can’t wait for it!

Let me know your thoughts!