Eunbi’s Days

Day -334

Eunbi sighed as she looked at the door to the art club. It had been nearly a full week since she had put up posters and tried recruiting for the art club. However, other than a couple of students who stopped by, there hadn’t been much interest.

She had tried getting some friends to join, but they would only join as ghost members. She really wanted at least one person in the club to share her the joy of art with. She would prefer it if said person was a cute junior, but at this point, she would take anyone. However, as each day passed, it was looking less and less likely.

She sighed again as she packed her things. A part of her had considered talking with her parents about transferring to another school, but she knew she would miss this school. She had made many friends and had many good times here. Even if the presence of the cheer dance club dredged up painful memories, she felt that she couldn’t just leave as if this part of her life never happened.

She’d surprised herself with how long she had stuck it out at the club even after she discovered how much her injury over the summer the year before had hurt her dancing ability. She had tried to tough it out, but the last straw had been when she saw the prodigy that was Chaeyeon. Seeing the girl’s incredible skill, and knowing that because of her injury, she could never get to the same level hurt her far more than she could have ever thought. She took another look around the art club that she had thought would be her new home before opening the door and exiting.

Eunbi had always needed an outlet for all of her creative energies that seemed to well up within her. Dancing has been her medium of choice until she found that she was no longer physically capable of it. So, she had turned to art, one of her other passions. While she had felt relief at being able to fully express herself again, she found that she now lacked someone to pass on that passion to which was something she had an abundance of at the cheer dance club. So deep in her thoughts about the matter, she didn’t even realize it when she rounded the corner and bumped into a girl coming the other way. “Oof. Sorry, about that. I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Ah, no, it’s my fault. I should be more careful,” the mousy looking girl said in an almost hysterical voice.

Eunbi looked down at the ground and noticed that she had caused the other girl to drop all of her books. She bent down to help the girl pick them up when she noticed one book splayed open revealing many doodles. “Wow, these are… impressive.” The drawings were not typical of what one might think cute, but they were unique and creative.

“I-I know,” the girl stammered as she hastily started gathering up the fallen items.

That was not a response that Eunbi expected. She took another look at the girl. She still saw the same shy and insecure looking girl that had been her first impression. The girl looked down a lot and avoided looking Eunbi in the eyes. Her body language was heavily guarded, and she seemed the flinch whenever the distance between them shrunk. But the words were another matter. “Do you have time? I want to show you some of my art too.”

The girl looked up finally as she finished gathering her things. “You want me to look at your art?”

“Yeah, I just started an art club but I’m all by myself. I don’t really have anyone to show what I’ve been working on. I’d be really happy if you looked at it. From one artist to another.” Eunbi looked at the girl with pleading eyes. She’d been told by many of her friends that this tactic was unfair, but sometimes cheating was okay.

“I’m not… I mean, I guess, I have time,” the girl said as Eunbi made puppy eyes at her.

“My name is Kwon Eunbi. I’m a second-year here,” Eunbi said with a smile.

“Ah, Kwon-senpai. My name is Miyawaki Sakura, a first-year.” The girl almost did a fully ninety-degree bow.

“Tell me, Sakura-chan,” Eunbi said, using the girl’s first name easily and immediately adopted a tone of familiarity. “Do you happen to belong to any club right now?”

“Um, no,” Sakura said, her face turning completely red presumably at Eunbi’s complete disregard for proper decorum between two people that just met.

Day -306

“Kkura-chan, that’s amazing,” Eunbi said as she admired the small sculpture. As usual, the piece did not conform to what most high school girls might call beautiful nor realistic, but it amazed Eunbi nonetheless. It was Kkura style as Eunbi liked to think of it.

“Thanks, Senpai,” Sakura said as she got up to clean herself up. “It’s pretty messy working with clay. I should be able to finish it early tomorrow. Can we do something else while we wait for it to dry out?”

Eunbi had been surprised when the girl showed up every day after school. Normally, clubs didn’t run everyday, but Eunbi felt excitement at finding something she loved almost as much as she had loved dancing. She hadn’t expected Sakura to show up every day like her, but the girl did. It had caused her to wonder if the girl had any friends and it quickly became apparent that the girl did not in fact have many friends if at all. “Hmm, well, since we’re on a sculpting theme, I thought we could try making wire sculptures next.”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Sakura said, nodding enthusiastically.

Eunbi held out a dry towel for Sakura and when the girl tried to take it, she immediately wrapped the girl’s hands with the towel, helping her dry her hands.

“Senpai,” Sakura said, startled and blushing furiously. “I can do it myself!”

“What’s the point of having my own junior if I can’t baby her,” Eunbi said as she vigorously rubbed the girl’s hands. Sakura had been incredibly shy initially, but Eunbi felt she was slowly opening up more and more.

Sakura nodded obediently and looked down shyly as Eunbi finished her administrations. “Thank you.”

“There nice and dry,” Eunbi said as she uncovered Sakura’s hands. With one of her hands, she reached into the towel to hold up one of Sakura’s hands. The girl’s fingers were long and delicate and completely unadorned with anything, jewelry, nail polish or otherwise. A stark contrast with Eunbi whose hands were not delicate, had many rings, and always had painted nails. Their only similarity was that they both kept their nails short.

“Um, Senpai,” Sakura said, still looking down shyly.

Eunbi giggled as she noticed that it had probably been a while as she stood there holding Sakura’s hand. “What?” she asked deliberately obtusely.

Sakura sighed and pulled her hand back after a moment when Eunbi didn’t make any effort to let go. “You’re always teasing me.”

Day -292

Eunbi stared at her blank canvas. Nothing. She couldn’t think of anything she wanted to paint. Bored, she looked past her canvas and at Sakura whose back was facing towards her.

Eunbi wondered for what might have been the millionth time why her junior didn’t make more of an effort to look better. She tried to many times to change the direction of the conversation to makeup or fashion, but the girl always looked at her blankly as if she were an alien. She never tried to push too hard, because she knew that Sakura could be sensitive about certain things.

It didn’t stop her from dreaming of the two of them going out on the weekends and just spending the day shopping and enjoying each other’s company. Normally, she would have tried to do that by now, but whenever she tried to bring it up, she suddenly felt awkward about it. She never felt that way about any of her other friends before.

“Kkura-ya,” Eunbi called out of the blue.

Sakura swivelled around to look at Eunbi, “Yes, Senpai?”

“Y-you’re doing good. Keep it up,” Eunbi said, flustered as words failed her. The girl nodded and turned back to her painting.

Day -247

Eunbi sighed and gave a small unladylike burp as she put down her plate. “You can really cook.”

“Thanks,” Sakura said, rolling her eyes. “Why did you want to have a barbeque if you didn’t know how to cook?”

“Those girl’s love it. I wanted to do something to thank them for helping me make this club happen,” Eunbi said as she looked over at her three former team members who were trying to get some small fireworks started.

Sakura nodded and took Eunbi’s plate to put away. “No, you can stay put. I can clean up by myself.”

“Okay.” Eunbi watched as the younger girl worked. It was strange to her that such a conscientious and caring girl like Sakura could have so few friends.  The girl had almost insatiable curiosity about things, but when it came to Eunbi’s past, she never questioned it, sensing that it was taboo subject. Earlier, she saw that nobody could really cook any of the food, and she took it upon herself to do it. And now, she was cleaning up for them. How could anyone not want to be friends with such a wonderful girl?

When Sakura made her way back around to Eunbi, she had a Sprite in her hands. “Here you go.”

Eunbi took the drink and then leaned back as she continued to watch the girl clean. Lately, a thought frequently crept into her head; she thought it would be nice if these days stayed like this forever. She could imagine herself lounging in the living room while she watched her cute wife clean up all around. Wife!? Where did that come from?

“What’s wrong you? You look like you’ve seen a ghost?” Sakura asked as she hurried over to Eunbi.

“Ah, it’s nothing. I was just wondering if I left the stove on at home after I made breakfast,” Eunbi said lamely, shaking her head.

Sakura shrugged and went back to cleaning.

Eunbi looked at the girl and then looked over at her friends. Her friends were dressed stylishly since they weren’t in class. Sakura wore her school uniform. Her friends were hot. Sakura was cute. Her friends did not make her heart beat fast. Sakura did.

Eunbi’s eyes widened at that last thought as she as she stared at Sakura. Sure enough, her heart started thumping quickly. She’d always thought that she was into girls that had a girl crush vibe, but her heart was telling her that this was not that case.

“So, um, Senpai, did you think about what I asked you?” Sakura asked as she finished tidying up and shyly came up to Eunbi.

Okay, she may not have been cleaning up out of the goodness of her heart. However, even this little subterfuge of Sakura’s was cute. “Hmm? What did you ask again?”

“Senpai!” Sakura whined and looked directly into Eunbi’s face, something she rarely ever did due to her intense shyness.

“Okay, okay. I’ll open up the club room a few more days this summer. I’ll send you the days I can make it,” Eunbi quickly gave in as she always did to her junior.

Sakura answered by smiling widely and grabbed Eunbi’s hands while jumping up and down like a little kid.

Day -158

“You should go down there,” Eunbi said as she looked at the bonfire.

“And do what? Stand by myself? I prefer being here with you,” Sakura said as she stood next to Eunbi, their shoulders touching as they leaned gently against each other.

Eunbi sighed. She loved Sakura to death, but it hurt her to see such a lonely expression on the girl’s face. Over half of the school year had come and gone, but nothing she did ever removed that lonely frown that popped up every so often.

“You’re worried about me again. Please, don’t,” Sakura said without looking at Eunbi.

“Oh? Your bug sense is tingling?” Eunbi was always amazed at Sakura’s eerie ability to sense her moods.

“That’s Spidey sense. And no, I don’t need that to know that you’re worried about me. You’re always worried about me. I’m fine. I can handle it.”

Sakura was right. Eunbi was always worried for her. The main reason she worried so much about Sakura was because she felt so powerless to help the girl. They were in different grade. Any advice she gave, sounded weak. Just talk to people, Sakura. Everything will work out! To an introvert like Sakura, she might as well tell the girl to strip and lay herself bare to the world.

Eunbi’s nightmare was that she would graduate, and Sakura would be all by herself in her third year. She couldn’t bear to even think of it, but she knew it was a possibility with the way things went. In her growing concern over the issue, she had come up with an inkling of a plan. She had no idea if it would work or not, and in fact she may not see any results until the next term started, but she had to try something. “What I’m worried about isn’t really you, but I guess, the club.”

Sakura tensed up beside Eunbi. “What do you mean?”

“Forget I said anything,” Eunbi said, knowing that Sakura could already guess what she was implying. Silence reigned for the next few minutes as she suspected the girl stewed over her words beside her.

“You’re worried about the club disbanding, aren’t you?” Sakura asked after a moment.

“No, I’m not. I’m sure things will work out,” Eunbi said. She didn’t even have to fake concern. She didn’t actually care whether the club disbanded or not, but she knew that the other girl did. To Eunbi, the club had served its purpose and really it was the person that remained in the club that concerned her.

Timidly, Sakura reached with one arm to pull Eunbi in for a side hug. “I know you don’t believe me, but don’t worry. I’ll do better. Next year, it won’t be just us here standing watching the bonfire.”

Day 208

Eunbi looked at the girl beside her and remembered the year before. She couldn’t be prouder of the girl than she was at that very moment. Not only had Sakura exceeded her expectations in finding her own place and friends at the school, but she had also affected Eunbi’s life in more ways than she could count.

Eunbi had thought she was content with just having Sakura for a member, but she had come to value Yujin, Yena, and Yuri as well. Also, with Sakura’s tutoring, she was looking good to pass her university’s entrance exams. However, the most important change in Eunbi’s life was that Sakura had helped her face her past dancing trauma and helped her regain her love of it.

Gulping down the lump that formed in , she steeled herself to ask the question she had wanted to for the last year and a half. “Kkura-ya.”

Sakura turned to look at Eunbi. “What is it, Senpai?”

“W-would you like to hang out next weekend? I mean outside of school and not for some club or school related activity?”

“Of course, I want to,” Sakura said with an almost shout, before lowering her voice.

Day 2319

Eunbi woke up and smiled as she looked at Sakura who was cuddled up underneath her arm. Gently, she lifted her arm so that she didn’t wake the sleeping woman. They’d stayed up late the night before and the girl deserved her rest. As quietly as she could, she slid off of their bed and got up.

Sakura: Hmm, I guess you can do an ending like that. We show everything that happened leading up to this year.

Wonyoung: I thought it was cute. You and Kkura Unnie share a bed like I do sometimes.

Yujin, Yuri, Hitomi, Nako, Minju: Yeah, that’s so cute.

Eunbi: We do a bit more than share a bed…

Chaeyeon: They also talk a lot too!

Hyewon: …and they probably…

Chaewon: They also play games too!

Yena: She means video games of course!

Author’s note:

EunSaku/Kkubi :P

I noticed them early on when Eunbi first called Sakura beautiful on PD48 and they teamed up for Very Very Very. I was sold after Eunbi’s birthday. It is also probably one of the most frustrating ships as you often wonder if they know each or not sometimes and then at other times like this comeback, they serve a whole bakery. I look forward to being further frustrated by them.