Chaewon’s Days

Day 4

Chaewon was angry at herself as she walked beside Miyawaki Sakura. They were the last two to leave for gym class. And the reason they were the last two was because Chaewon had confronted the other girl for staring at her.

As it turned out, the girl hadn’t been staring because of some animosity as Chaewon had assumed. Instead, according to Sakura, she had been staring because she noticed that Chaewon had worn a new cute accessory. Why did I confront her like that?

Chaewon could only blame it on her directness. It was one of the reasons she hadn’t made any friends in the class yet and had only made a few friends the year before. However, it wasn’t like it was easy to change her natural tendencies. Not that she wanted to either. She cared more about being true to herself than anything else. But maybe she could stand to be a little more tactful and not turn everyone away from her.

The other reason she hadn’t made many friends, one that she desperately wanted to change, was her resting face which made her look like she had a permanent glare on it. It was almost like a vicious circle. She made a face because her thoughts often turned sour when she thought about how lonely she was in the class which scared people off when they looked at her which made her feel even lonelier. Hence, the cute hair pin she picked out for the day to try and make people ignore her natural sour look. But even today, many people seemed to refuse to look in her direction, making it impossible for her to change anyone’s opinion of her.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to put you in a bad spot earlier. I really did think you were looking at me funny,” Chaewon finally said as the silence between the two of them was killing her.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to,” Sakura said while avoiding eye contact.

Day 11

Chaewon waved happily at a group of girls from her class before she left the classroom. As she entered the hallway, she was greeted by another group of girls loitering outside the room. They were also all smiles as they exchanged goodbyes with her.

What happened? She wondered, confused, at how things had drastically changed in one day. Even this morning, she had been treated like a pariah. In fact, it had been even worse than usual since she had come in with a gauze wrapped over her hand. One of the girls had asked her about it and she had answered with “Some little scratched at me.”

There were immediate gasps and the girl that had asked nearly tripped over herself as she turned around to go back to her desk. It was only later that Chaewon realized that her way of phrasing coupled with her glare might have made everyone around her misconstrue what she meant. She considered trying to clear up the misunderstanding, but she knew she would probably make it worse.

Earlier in the week when there were a few in the class that still tried to talk to her, she’d crushed anything developing further when they mentioned games with a simple “I don’t do that stuff.” What was she thinking? What she had meant to say was, “I’m not familiar with games, but I’d like to hear more about it. Maybe you can recommend some to me.”

Day 21

Chaewon’s suspicion that Sakura was the cause of her newly found popularity didn’t go away. With each passing day, she grew more and more certain that people started approaching her directly after she talked with Sakura. Chaewon wasn’t one to beat around the bush, so she confronted the girl on her perceived help at the end of last week. Sakura had looked positively aghast at the at her assertion. The other girl had treated her question as if it were an accusation and seemed genuinely upset by it.

Chaewon couldn’t think of a single reason why Sakura was so adamant in denying that she had anything to do with her sudden popularity. Chaewon turned her head to look at where the girl sat. As usual, she could have sworn that the girl was just looking at her. She spent a moment looking at the girl who was starting to confound her.

Not for the first time and probably not for the last, Chaewon wondered if the girl hated her or liked her. Despite Sakura saying that she thought Chaewon was kind and had good style, the girl was definitely hiding something. It wouldn’t be the first time that she encountered some two-faced girl that said one thing but meant another.

Chaewon tried to think of reasons that the girl might actually dislike her but could only think of how she confronted to girl on staring at her and later on secretly helping her. Even though she couldn’t think of any reason that Sakura could hate her, the evidence was pretty strong. For example, Sakura always seemed to avert her eyes when Chaewon talked to her. A few times, she had seen her and Chaeyeon talking with each other at the beginning of class and when she went up to them, only Chaeyeon did any talking.

Day 74

Chaewon watched as Yena excused herself to go to the restroom. Amusement crept up on her as she turned to see how Sakura would react. After the first couple of times of confronting the girl alone, she knew that the girl was generally more comfortable talking with her when Yena, Chaeyeon, or Hyewon was around. Talking alone like this with her never seemed to be Sakura’s forte.

“Hmm, it’s getting pretty late. I haven’t seen Chaeyeon or Hyewon show up yet. They’re going to be late at this rate,” Sakura said with a voice that sounded like it was cracking with nervousness.

It had taken Chaewon a surprising amount of time to figure Sakura out. Even though she considered herself pretty good at knowing when someone was into her, she couldn’t tell with this particular girl. However, it all made sense when she looked back at all the times that she caught the girl staring at her. With a dreamy look she might add. “They are pretty late. Anyway, what are your plans this weekend?”

“Me? Um, I don’t know,” Sakura said and started giggling nervously even though Chaewon’s question wasn’t all that funny.

“I’m probably going to go shopping. You remember that hair pin that you said was cute? I can’t seem to find it, so I was going to buy another one.”

“Oh, that’s nice,” Sakura said oblivious to Chaewon’s intentions.

Chaewan had to stare hard at Sakura as her meaning went straight over the girl’s head. It wasn’t like Sakura was her type or anything. She liked girls who had an ethereal beauty like angels. Sakura was cute in a down to earth kind of way. But, Chaewon was currently single and when she thought hard about it, she found Sakura’s now obvious interest flattering and wouldn’t have minded giving it a try. She thought about asking the girl ‘out’ directly but felt that it was Sakura’s job as the person who was interested. “I really hate shopping alone, though.”

“Yeah, I don’t like shopping at all, except for games,” Sakura said while nodding her head like an idiot. An idiot that was looking cuter day by day to Chaewon, but an idiot all the same.

Day 121

“I’m not that desperate, am I?” Chaewon asked herself out loud as she walked home. Her earlier encounter with Maru-chan had been fun. But then seeing Sakura coincidently had been less fun.

She had not been looking for Maru hoping to bump into Sakura during their summer vacation. Chaewon just wanted to see Maru. It was not like she especially wore a pair of fetching denim shorts that showed off her legs and a top that showed off her stomach and arms for Sakura to see.

Day 147

Chaewon didn’t know who she was angrier at. Sakura, for getting herself caught up in some lurid scandal involving multiple first-years. Instagram commenters, for insinuating that Sakura was seeing and cheating on multiple girls. Herself, for being upset and not knowing why or who she was angry at.

Looking over at Sakura, Chaewon could see the girl looking nervously at her phone while hiding behind a book. Probably reading and fretting over the Instagram comments. She felt her face making a scowl as she looked at the girl. She was definitely angry at Sakura for getting herself into such a stupid situation.

Chaewon could imagine the situation clearly. The girl ogled over some first years and led them to believe she was into them. The juniors got upset at Sakura for not making a move on one of them and thought that she was stringing them all along.

There’s no way that’s true and you know it, Chaewon argued with herself. She knew this line of thinking was probably due to her frustration at the girl not making any move despite Chaewon letting Sakura know clearly that the girl was good to make a move on her.

Day 190

“Good morning, S-Sakura,” Chaewon said and immediately scolded herself for stammering.

“Good morning, Chaewon,” Sakura said.

It might have been Chaewon’s imagination, but the girl looked proud at herself for not stammering. We all know you’re into me. You were probably practicing at home all day after the sports meet. “So, I wanted to thank you again for voting for me to run the relay,” Chaewon said instead of voicing her inner thoughts.

“Uh, it wasn’t any big deal. Lots of people did too,” Sakura said weakly in the face of Chaewon’s attack.

Chaewon felt smug as she looked at the other girl. Sakura’s slip of the tongue yesterday was proof that the girl liked her. “Well, I don’t know who all voted for me since it was a secret ballot, but I do know now that you were one of them.”

“Ah, you’re welcome then.” Sakura looked defeated as she had to admit it.

Chaewon didn’t really know why Sakura had such as issue with confessing to her. She was absolutely sure the girl was infatuated with her more now than ever. If it’s so easy, why don’t you confess to her then? Confess? Me? She likes me. You like her too! Chaewon shook her head as she suddenly heard her two of her inner voices fight each other on the matter.

“I am sorry that you didn’t get to run because of that small accident you had, though,” Sakura said sincerely.

Aww, she thought to herself as she looked Sakura’s concerned face. Crap, I do like her. My God, why?

Chaewon looked at Sakura more closely. Unbeknownst to her, the girl who she had once thought of being not her type, became her type. Sakura’s down to earth cuteness that she saw before had transformed into that of a goddess over the course of the year. How much of that was makeup and how much of that was just looking at her with love-colored goggles, Chaewon couldn’t say.

“I’m supposed to change the bandage for my ankle, but I’ve never really been hurt before, so I’m not really sure where I should get it around here,” Chaewon said while looking at Sakura with a steady gaze.

“I think there’s a pharmacy near that road where you visit Maru-chan,” Sakura said with a smile, seemingly happy at being helpful.

Chaewon sighed. “Sakura, could you go with me to find it?”

Sakura blinked at Chaewon several times before nodding her head slowly.

Chaewon smiled.

Day 347

“So, you do admit that you helped fix my reputation with the class,” Chaewon said triumphantly at Sakura. The two of them were the last two people remaining in the classroom on their final day of the school year.

“I think you won them over. I just nudged you and the class a little,” Sakura admitted finally after all of Chaewon’s prodding.

“I still don’t get how you did it. Was it just a matter of clearing up the fact that I was scratched by a cat and not because of some gang fight?” Chaewon asked.

“I just showed the class a side of you that they hadn’t seen before. You don’t realise how cute you are when you are looking at or talking about something cute. I knew if I got you talking about Maru-chan, people would see the same thing that I’ve seen.”

Chaewon scrunched her face. “That’s it? That’s all I had to do?”

“Well, you are also pretty terse with your words and can be a little sarcastic. People just had to see that that was just the way you talked and that you didn’t mean anything by it. In fact, people call it a moe gap when someone is cute but has some crass tendencies. Moe gaps are very cute.”

That is the second time in a short span that the girl called her cute. “You think I’m cute?”

“Uh, many people find you cute,” Sakura started stammering cutely herself as Chaewon knew she would.

“I didn’t ask about many people. I asked if you did,” Chaewon said with a bemused expression as she looked at Sakura squirm. The girl had done her fair share this past year in making Chaewon feel flustered. Turnabout was only fair play.

“I’m just saying that I didn’t really do much at all. I think the class would have gotten to know you eventually,” Sakura said, deflecting the question and bringing it back towards topic of how much she had actually helped Chaewon.

Chaewon shook her head. “My first year wasn’t all that great. I only really talked to a couple of people in the class. This year would probably just have gone the same way. Once people form an opinion of you, it’s hard to change it. I don’t know why you have to be so stubborn about it. I just want to thank you.”

“Well considered me thanked,” Sakura said. Neither of them had made any movement to leave the class for the final time.

“I’m going to miss this room. I hope our third-year classroom will be just as nice.”

“There’s no guarantee that we’ll be in the same class,” Sakura said glumly.

Sakura’s sad face made Chaewon feel oddly happy. “Even if we’re apart, I’m sure you’ll find some way to creep on me.”

Sakura blushed but didn’t deny it.

Chaewon moved over to where Sakura’s seat was and sat down. She looked over to where her own seat was. “You don’t even really get a good view from here.”

“That’s a matter of opinion,” Sakura said shyly.

Day 2315

Chaewon sighed as she put down the controller. “I lost again!”

“Ah, so cute,” Sakura gasped out with a quiet voice that Chaewon knew the girl thought was too low for her to hear.

“Sakura, teach me properly!” Chaewon whined.

“Sorry,” Sakura said, but did not look sorry at all. Chaewon though she looked entirely too happy with herself. “So, like I said, you need to be more careful with how you drift. Here, let me show you.”

Even after so many years, Chaewon could still feel her heart beat faster when the girl displayed her more ‘cool’ side as she did now. She shivered involuntarily as Sakura moved behind her and held her hands to teach her how to move her character on the screen. However, she was made slightly disappointed when nothing further happened.

“See? Are you getting it?” Sakura asked from behind Chaewon.

Chaewon sighed and turned her head to graze her lips against Sakura’s. “The one that’s not getting it, is you. You’re still so dense.”

“Ah,” Sakura mouthed as the light dawned in her head. She then moved to take the controller from Chaewon’s hands and let it drop.

Chaewon: What do you think?

Sakura: …

Wonyoung: Why is Chaewon-unnie like this? She’s way too smug about it.

Yujin: She is.

Nako: Saku-chan doesn’t even realize she’s staring at Chaewon-unnie, though.

Hitomi: Well, who can blame her.

Author’s notes:

Ssamkkura :P

Sakura hard carries this ship as it seems to be completely one-sided on her end. While rare, I love it when I see Chaewon reciprocate some of her unnie’s obvious love and admiration.