Day 4

Daydreams

Day 4

Sakura sighed as she gazed upon the lovely sight that was Chaewon. Why am I so obsessed with her? Sakura asked herself.

The first year, when she was in the same class with Minju, the same thing had happened. She fell hard for the girl almost immediately. Every day, she somehow found something new for her to be smitten with. Whether it was the way Minju toyed with her hair or how she smiled whenever something nice happened to her or even cutely sneezed, Sakura had found it all so interesting.

With Chaewon, the same thing had happened. Was she so fickle and shallow to immediately move onto a new girl? A part of her was still head over heels with Minju, but with the girl no longer in the class, her wandering eyes naturally sought out Chaewon.

Truthfully, aside from being incredibly attractive, the two girls were quite different. Minju was kind to a fault, super clumsy, and was very easy to tease. Sakura had wished that she was close enough to be one of those people that could tease the girl, but she had trouble even saying the girl’s name on some days. Chaewon, on the other hand, never volunteered for anything, was incredibly graceful, and always had a snappy and often biting comeback. Yet, here she was, completely falling for the girl just as she did with Minju.

“You have a problem with me?”

“Yes, I mean, no, I mean, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sakura answered, flustered at being called out. She looked up from her desk to see an angry looking Chaewon staring down at her. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she didn’t even realize that class had finished. The two of them were the only two left in the room as the other students had headed out to gym class.

“You’ve been staring at me all class. Did I offend you somehow?” Chaewon asked.

“No, I, I just thought you were pretty… I mean, your hair was pretty,” Sakura said while looking back down. “You have a new accessory.” Oh, no, she’s going to think I’m gross for noticing it.

Chaewon brought a hand to her hair pin. “You’re the only one that noticed or at least said anything.”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Sakura immediately apologized, assuming that Chaewon was creeped out.

“Don’t do that,” Chaewon said, irritated. “Don’t apologize. It makes it look like I’m bullying you.”

“I’m sor… I mean, okay. I didn’t mean to stare. I just thought that it looked cute,” Sakura said, bravely, looking up at Chaewon.

“Thanks,” Chaewon said tersely, and then quickly turned away. “Anyway, we should get going. Everyone’s headed to gym.”

It might have been Sakura’s imagination, but it had really looked like the other girl’s ears had turned bright red. Wishful thinking.

Sakura hated gym with a passion. Though she was in relatively good shape as she had been on the track team before and did some light exercise at home, she lacked the ability to play any kind of sport. It had been a wonder that she even made the team back in middle school, but there hadn’t really been any competition as most of the students were not athletically inclined there.

She looked around the gym, noticing that nearly everyone was paired up for warm-up already. She looked towards Hyewon and Chaewon, the other two girls that were usually alone, and saw that the teacher had paired them up already. It would kill her and her social status even more if she had to work out with the teacher.

“Sakura-san!” Chaeyeon waved at her enthusiastically.

Sakura looked upwards and gave a small thank you to whoever had been watching out for her. “Chaeyeon-san!”

“Come over here. We can do our warm-up here,” Chaeyeon said as she moved to spot with some space away from the other groups.

Chaeyeon’s smile and aura was so bright to Sakura that it was almost blinding. It was as if a goddess had descended from the heavens. While Sakura knew that there was no way that could be true, her feelings that her prayers were answered remained. Her entire life she wished that someone, anyone, would reach out to her and save her from the loneliness that was high school; Lee Chaeyeon had been the one to do that. “Thanks.”

Chaeyeon looked towards Sakura with her ever smiling face and wide curious eyes. “Hmm? What for?”

“For waiting for me. You could have found someone else,” Sakura explained. She watched enviously as Chaeyeon started to stretch her long legs in one fluid motion. As expected of someone in the cheer dance club.

“I like working with you. You’re pretty fun to hang around with actually. I didn’t even realize how fast the time went by when we cleaned up the classroom on the first day,” Chaeyeon said in an easy going way that made her popular with everyone in the class including Sakura. When they had chosen the person that would be the class representative, she had been the unanimous choice among all the students.

“Really? We took so long to clean though.” Sakura said while mimicking the other girl’s stretching motions.

“We did, didn’t we? You kept drawing all those weird pictures on the chalk board which I had to erase,” Chaeyeon laughed. She then got on the floor and motioned Sakura to go behind her to help push her so that she could stretch further.

“Weird? You told me to draw them when I told you I was in the art class,” Sakura said indignantly. She moved behind Chaeyeon and put her hands on the girl’s lithe shoulders. She could feel the difference in musculature compared to when she gave her mom a massage. Chaeyeon’s years of dance practice showed through in the firmness of her muscles.

“Your art style is pretty unique,” Chaeyeon commented while she bent forwards with Sakura’s help. When she finished, she got up to go around and do the same for Sakura.

“Ah, cold,” Sakura said as she felt Chaeyeon’s hands on her neck. Her body felt a little tingly at the other girl’s touch. “You know many artists weren’t appreciated for their work until they were gone.”

“You might have to be gone for long time before enough people come to appreciate your art,” Chaeyeon joked.

“Hmph,” Sakura harrumphed, showing how much she thought of Chaeyeon’s comment. In reality, this moment was the happiest Sakura had ever been at this school. If there was one word that she could use to describe how Chaeyeon made her feel, it was ‘safe’. She felt she could say or do anything in front of Chaeyeon and not feel like she was stepping on a land mine.

“Self-study period, finally,” Yena said as she put away her books.

Sakura automatically clicked her tongue in disapproval before she could stop herself. She braced herself for the inevitable confrontation with the girl in front of her.

“What?” Yena turned around and asked defensively.

“Self-study period doesn’t mean you can goof off,” Sakura said patiently.

“I wasn’t going to goof off. I was just going to relax for a bit. Do some self reflection before I decide what to study. Unlike some people, I have a lot on my plate.” Yena held up her phone which showed multiple after school activities.

“Maybe you should stick to one club. You’re not really supposed to try and join so many,” Sakura winced as she looked at the girl’s schedule.

“I can’t help it if I don’t really know what I want to do yet. I just want to get a feel for all of them.” Unlike with Chaeyeon, everything Sakura said seemed to irritate Yena and vice versa.

“What are you going to do if you get accepted into all of them?” Sakura asked, trying to sound reasonable but it sounded like a critique even to her own ears.

“That won’t happen. Probably,” Yena said the last word in a barely audible whisper.

“Well, if it does, one of those clubs will be disappointed if you’re not available when they need you.” Sakura had made the mistake of inviting Yena to visit her art club and had been ecstatic when she thought she might have found her second recruitment. She had been disappointed to find out that Yena had said the same thing to pretty much every girl who asked.

“Hey, I’ll come by. Even if I’m just a ghost member, I’ll join,” Yena said to Sakura’s chagrin.

To Sakura, Yena’s comment felt like pity, even though she probably didn’t mean it that way.  “Look, you don’t have to come. I’ll find some other people to join the club.”

“Shh!”

Sakura and Yena looked at each other guiltily as many pairs of eyes looked in their direction. They may have been a little loud in their discussion. Self-study period was supposed to be a quiet time.

“Well good luck. Try not to kill yourself with all those club activities,” Sakura mumbled.

“Yeah, yeah. Hope your club stays afloat,” Yena mumbled back, turning around to sit properly in her seat.

Sakura felt extremely shy as she brought her posters to the first-years’ building. There were a few bulletin boards in the building that advertised different clubs. It had been how Sakura had found out about the art club in her first year.

She felt self-conscious as she reached one of the boards and looked around furtively. Fortunately, it was the lunch period and most of the students would be in the cafeteria or eating in their homerooms. The few students that walked past her barely even registered her as she got out her foot ladder and started to put one of her posters up.

“Unnie, you look like you’re doing something indecent.”

“Jang-san!” Sakura exclaimed. She looked down to see if her skirt was properly in place.

“I meant that you were sneaking around and looking like a ert,” Wonyoung laughed.

“Jang-san, you shouldn’t tease your senpais,” Sakura said, admonishing the girl.

“Unnie, you can call me Wonyoung-chan, you know,” Wonyoung said cutely.

The shamelessness of the junior flabbergasted Sakura enough that she didn’t really know how to respond except by repeating the girl’s words, “Wonyoung-chan?”

“See? That wasn’t so hard.” The girl spoke with a poise and level of maturity that made Sakura wonder again if the girl really was only a first-year. “The poster looks really cute. Did you draw these pictures yourself?”

“Right?” Sakura was quite proud of the poster herself and was hopeful that it would draw many students to their club.

“Is this cat supposed to be Unnie? Who’s this bunny?” Wonyoung asked while point at each caricature.

As Sakura was holding onto the poster, she didn’t have a free hand to point at each drawing with Wonyoung. “Well, that’s our club president, Kwon Eunbi-senpai.”

“Is it just you two?” Wonyoung asked, looking at the only two caricatures plastered all over the poster. It was noticeable that there were only two girls depicted in the poster.

“For now,” Sakura said, trying to sound upbeat.

“That’s so sad. I hope you get more members this year,” Wonyoung said sincerely.

“Well, since you’re doing nothing, can you hold this poster up while I tape it?” Sakura asked, feeling like she was losing her demeanor as the upperclassman. She decided to treat the girl like she would Nako. The two girls, aside from the obvious difference in height, were very similar in their personalities and their penchant for teasing their elders. Sakura found the best way to deal with them was to be the stern elder.

She was amazed again the by Wonyoung’s height as the girl moved towards the poster and held it in place. Even with the foot ladder, Sakura was barely higher than the girl. With the girl’s help, Sakura taped the edges of the poster fairly easily. She turned to the girl and smiled to herself as she found herself able to look down at the first-year student. She reached out to pat the girl on the head. “Good girl. Thanks for helping your unnie out.”

The girl looked up at Sakura with a shocked expression before giggling and shaking her head causing Sakura’s hand to ruffle her hair a little. “I wish I could stay and help you with the rest of these posters, but I have other stuff I have to do. I don’t even have time for lunch.”

Sakura smiled as Wonyoung looked genuinely upset that she couldn’t help out more. “Don’t worry about it. I think I don’t have to climb high for the other boards.”

Sakura got off the ladder and waved the other girl off. She giggled as Wonyoung ran off but kept turning around to wave at Sakura frantically. What first-year is so busy they even have to skip lunch on the first week of school?

Sakura groaned as her back felt stiff. It was the last of the posters. She had gotten the librarian’s okay to put one up in the library.

“Here, let me help you with that.”

Sakura felt her heart to start to beat faster at the sound of Minju’s voice beside her. She could almost feel the other girl’s breathless voice caress her ears. “Kim-san! Ah, thank you.”

Together, the two of them got the poster put up onto the bulletin board of the library. When they were done, Minju took a step back to admire Sakura’s poster, which made Sakura’s heart beat even faster. “Wow, you’re so talented. I can’t draw anything.”

“Oh, but you’re so good at other things. Didn’t your poem win a prize last year in our Japanese literature class?” Sakura said quickly and immediately felt self-conscious about it. She felt like she was almost confessing by pointing out that she was able to remember such a small detail.

“Oh, you remember that? Yeah, I just jotted down some things that sounded nice.” Minju’s cheeks became rosy at the mentioning of her poem.

“I thought it was beautiful. You could easily be a poet or a lyricist. The words flow so well together,” Sakura continued to praise, ignoring how much of a fangirl she was sounding like.

“Wow, thank you,” Minju said while her hands came up to cover her wide smile at Sakura’s complements. “What about you, Miyawaki-san? Have you reconsidered joining the literature club? I really enjoyed what you wrote in that class too.”

Sakura remembered being shocked when the teacher had picked out her essay out of all the essays to read to the class. She had felt both proud and embarrassed. She felt as if her soul was being laid bare in front of the rest of the class. The teacher had gone to her afterwards and told her that she should really consider switching clubs the next year, but Sakura had been adamant about staying in the art club. “Ah, I don’t really write as a hobby or in my free time. I prefer to draw, really.”

“Oh, that’s a shame. You’re so good at it,” Minju said with a disappointed face.

Sakura felt if she stayed any longer looking at that disappointed face, she would immediately forget all about the art club. “I think art is as good a medium as any for me to express myself,” Sakura said quickly.

“You’re right,” Minju nodded. “I really look forward to what the art club has in store for us this year. I thought your exhibit was really great last year.”

“This year will be even better,” Sakura promised, suddenly feeling extra motivated to recruit more students this year for the club.

“You can do it, Sakura. It’s just an open house. The first-years can’t hurt you,” Sakura said as she looked at herself in the mirror. What stared back at her was a girl whose expression did not match her words. She saw a girl with large eyes, made even larger by apprehension. She took her glasses off and decided that maybe a splash of cold water would help psych herself up further.

She the tap and felt the cool water running through her hands. Closing her eyes and bracing the for the cold, she rubbed her wet cold hands hard against her face. While it didn’t exactly psych her up with, the cold water did cool her steaming overthinking head. “Okay, let’s do this.”

“Uh, what are you doing?”

Sakura whirled around, frantically trying to place her glasses back on her face. “Huh?” She found herself staring face to face with Hyewon. The girl’s mouth was slightly agape, while she looked Sakura with her usual blank expression.

“Is something wrong?” Hyewon asked, with a concerned tone. It may have been Sakura’s imagination, but it appeared to her that the other girl’s face softened as she spoke.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I was just, uh, I was just nervous, so I wanted to splash some water on my face. Sorry, you had to see that,” Sakura said, flustered at being caught doing something embarrassing.

“Nothing to be sorry about. Anyone ever tell you that you’re cute with your glasses off?” On Hyewon’s stony face, a sudden smile formed that Sakura did not expect and therefore did not brace herself against.

Sakura could almost hear her heart beating loudly. There were many rumors in the school about Hyewon being a ‘player.’ Many of the girls in class whispered about being hit on by Hyewon, but Sakura had never been one to believe in rumors. However, if this was what they meant, then Sakura definitely felt she was being flirted with. “Thanks,” Sakura answered, dumbfounded by the new experience.

“You’re in my class, right? Sakura-san?” Hyewon asked, while continuing to flash that beautiful smile.

“Yeah.” Hearing her name on Hyewon’s lips did not help Sakura’s already stupefied brain. She found it difficult to form full sentences as heat rose to her cheeks.

“I’ve been wanting to talk with you, but you always seem more interested in your phone,” Hyewon said, again pushing forward even though she was only receiving one-word answers.

“Ah, sorry Kang-san. I didn’t mean to be rude,” Sakura said, looking down, away from the other girl’s stunning face, in order to pull herself together. “I wanted to talk with you and other girls in class too, but I guess I just haven’t found the right time for it.”

“I’m glad that it’s mutual then,” Hyewon said. “Please, call me Hyewon.”

It always impressed Sakura how extroverts were able to move on to first names so quickly. Chaeyeon and now Hyewon were calling her by her first name. “Okay, Hyewon-san.’

“Well, good luck on your club recruitment. Maybe, I’ll come by and visit sometime,” Hyewon said with a smile, making Sakura wonder how much the girl had heard before she made her presence known. She hoped she didn’t sound too hopeless.

She watched with a smile as her new friend exited the bathroom. She wondered if it was all a dream. Secretly, she pinched her arm and felt pain. It was all real. It was just then that she heard her phone make a sound, indicating that she had just received a message.

[Kwangbae: OMG! I just saw the most beautiful girl ever.]

[Kwangbae: Oh, and you said we’re not gaming tonight because you have club after school?]

Sakura smiled, although she was a little worried for her friend. Her friend fell in love way too easily. Kwangbae was always getting hurt and dumped. According to the girl, her dates always held some lofty unreasonable expectations for her, which she could not meet up to, causing their eventual breakup. She only hoped this new girl gave Kwangbae a chance.

Sakura’s hopes were high as she found a girl standing in front of their club room. However, as she got a little closer, she was a little disappointed to see that it was Yuri. Yuri had already agreed to join the club, so Sakura had been hoping to find someone new at the door.

“Senpai, aren’t you happy to see me?” Yuri asked with a soft voice.

“Of course, I’m happy to see you!” Sakura exclaimed. “Are you here to hand in your registration form?”

“Yeah, I have it here,” Yuri said with a relieved voice.

Sakura reached out to take the paper from Yuri’s hands. She held it reverently as she looked at it with an indescribable happiness. It was the very first registration form that she accepted for the club.

“Are you crying, Senpai?” Yuri asked, shocked at seeing Sakura’s eyes slightly glistening.

“Ah, sorry. I’m just so happy. Even though you’re just joining us as a ghost member, it still makes me happy that our club is growing.”

“I know that I’m joining so that I can use the music room, but if you need my help for anything, please feel free to ask me,” Yuri said, bowing her head slightly.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Sakura said, tilting her head in acknowledgement. She turned and carefully opened the door to the club room while carefully holding the registration papers in her other hand. She motioned to Yuri to follow her.

Yuri looked around the room while Sakura went over to the desk in front of the room. “Are all these drawings done by you, Senpai?”

“Yeah, I like drawing so that’s what I usually do here. My senpai likes arts and crafts, so a lot of the other things were done by her. I’ll have to introduce you to her when she’s free. She won’t have much time doing any club activities since she’s preparing for exams and everything.”

“She’s very good,” Yuri said as she picked up a hand-made birthday card.

“She’s amazing with her hands. She can nearly do anything,” Sakura gushed as she rummaged through the drawers until she found what she was looking for. “Here, Yuri-san.”

“Thank you, Sakura-senpai,” Yuri said as she received the keys to the room beside theirs.

“These rooms are only usually locked later in the day since some classes use the equipment in here. If you’re leaving late, you’ll have to lock the rooms if you don’t want to get in trouble with the custodian.” Sakura was finding it a lot easier to talk with Yuri now that they’d established a senpai kouhai relationship as club members. She was a little embarrassed that she’d been stuttering when she first met the girl assuming the girl to be the same age as her.

“Is it really okay for me to have this?” Yuri asked. “You barely even know me.”

“I don’t think anyone that sings that beautifully can be a bad person. Besides, you go to school here, so it’s not like I can’t find you.” Sakura always felt that she had a good sense for people and Yuri struck her as a very good kid.

“Senpai, you’re making me blush,” Yuri said as she held her hands up to her face and then fanned herself in an exaggerated fashion.

Sakura blushed herself as she realized belatedly how much of a player she sounded with that line. Nako had always told her that she had a tendency to inadvertently say misleading lines. “Sorry, it’s true, but I… uh, I didn’t mean it that way.”

“Well, thank you again for letting me do this,” Yuri said as she carefully put the keys away. “I can’t stay and sing today since I have cram school, but I’ll be around.”

“Thank you for joining the art club,” Sakura said, waving the girl good bye. She smiled as she watched her first recruit skip happily away. She looked around the room to see if everything was in order. Her talk with Yuri had momentarily made her forget about the art club open house. Gritting her teeth, she moved over to the desk and sat and waited for the new members to join.

“Senpai, what’s wrong?”

Sakura looked up sadly at Hitomi. She looked around and found herself sitting at the bottom of the steps facing the track field. When she left the club room, she hadn’t really been paying attention to where she was going. Sounds of track gun shot outside had drawn her attention. She had gone down the set of stairs closest to the club room and ended up moping at the bottom of them. “Oh, hi, Hii-chan. Uh, nothing’s wrong.”

“You’re lying, Senpai. Even in middle school, when you were down you would come watch the track and fielders,” Hitomi said as she moved to sit beside Sakura.

“I was feeling a little down. I was all tense and excited because today was our first open house. But it turned out to be a little bit of a let down. I waited for almost an hour, but nobody came.” Sakura looked towards Hitomi with a small frown and a quizzical look. “What if I can’t get more students to join? I don’t want the club to disband next year.”

“Hmm,” Hitomi brought her hand up to cup her chin as she thought contemplatively.

If Sakura had not been feeling so down, she would have gushed at how cute her former club member looked as her cheeks got pushed out by her hand. Instead, she waited impatiently for whatever insight Hitomi could provide. “Well? What do you think?”

“If nobody joins then there’s really not much to be done, right? Shouldn’t you make sure that whoever’s in the club now enjoys this year at the very least? When you and the other seniors of the track club were in your last year in middle school, I was pretty sad too. But I didn’t want to make you and the others sad by moping around all the time. I wanted my juniors to enjoy track as much as you helped me enjoy it.”

“I helped you?” Sakura asked, not remembering what Hitomi was talking about.

“Maybe not directly, but I was inspired by your running like I told you last time. When I was in my first year of middle school, I had joined the track club because of you. I had gone to the open house for the track club and I saw the second-years setting up the track. Most of them were sad and not really happy since you were also saying thank-you to the third-years for all their hard work. Everyone kind of looked depressed. The first-years were saying that the club didn’t look fun.” Hitomi looked up as if imagining the scene.

“Nobody really wanted to run or demonstrate to the first-years, except you. I watched as you ran with all your might. I saw how you made the second-years and third-years laugh as you ran around the track with your face all scrunched up and your running form all over the place. You probably didn’t notice, but us first-years were smiling the whole time watching the second-years and third-years cheering for you.” Hitomi looked at Sakura with her eyes forming eye-smiles of their own.

Sakura did remember that day. She remembered how embarrassed she had been, but more than anything she remembered how sad the third-years were because the second-years were so upset. More than anything, she did not want Eunbi to have the same look on her face. “Thank you, Hii-chan.”

“You’re welcome. Come by any time if you’re feeling down again. I have to get back and help them put things away.” Hitomi got up off the stairs and jogged away.

Just like in the past, the sight of the hard-working Hitomi was the medicine that Sakura needed. With a renewed sense of purpose, she got up and went back to the club room.

“Hello? Are you still open?”

Sakura looked up to see the first-year student, Yujin, peering in the class room. She had decided to stay open for just a little longer in case students were occupied elsewhere and it had paid off. “Yes!”

Yujin seemed taken aback by Sakura’s loud reply. “Ah, great. I was walking around looking at other clubs. This was the last one on my list.”

“But hopefully not the least, heh” Sakura said awkwardly with a stiff laugh.

“Ah, right,” Yujin said, looking at Sakura with what looked like hesitation.

Sakura hoped that she hadn’t scared off the only girl other than Yuri to visit the club room. She got up quickly from the desk, causing her chair to fall backwards from the suddenness. “Ah, wait.”

“Take your time,” Yujin said, while looking like she was having trouble holding in a cough.

Sakura closed her eyes and forced herself to breathe. Slowly, she picked the chair up and got out from around the desk. She walked to up to Yujin and was reminded by how tall the girl was. “Sorry, for the wait. Um, would you like a tour of the club?”

“Sure,” Yujin said cheerily. “You mind if I ask you a few questions while we look around?”

“Go head. I’ll try my best to answer them,” Sakura said, feeling more in control as she gathered herself together.

“How many students are in the club?” Yujin asked while peering at one of Sakura’s drawings of Eunbi.

“Well, there’s me. There’s Eunbi-senpai, who’s the club president. There are some other third years, but they almost never come. We just had another first-year join, so you won’t be the only one.”

“So, you’re pretty small. That’s great! I mean, I like a cozy club. Is this room used very much? Do we share it with anyone else?” Yujin asked as she moved on to the next drawing, which was Sakura’s self portrait of herself. She seemed to be stifling another cough as she looked between the picture and Sakura.

Sakura looked at Yujin suspiciously. “Hey, you’re not thinking of using this club room to hide, are you? We don’t condone skipping here.”

“No, I wouldn’t think of skipping class. But, you know, I have some free periods and it would be great if I could go somewhere that’s quiet and practice my, um, art,” Yujin said while holding up her hands to show that she wouldn’t think of using the room for nefarious purposes.

“I see. And just what kind of art do you like?” Sakura asked, not believing the girl in the slightest.

“This! This kind,” Yujin said, pointing to Sakura’s drawing. “Whoever did this is amazing. I want to learn from this person.”

Sakura’s doubts were immediately blown away at the girl’s praise. “Oh, I drew that one. You’ve got a good eye. Sorry, I was wrong to think you were using us.”

“No, problem!” Yujin winked. “You know what? You’ve convinced me this is the club for me.”

“Really?” Sakura was as elated as can be. What a find, Sakura thought as she made her way back to the desk to get the paper work for Yujin to fill out. Two recruits in one day.

Sakura hummed to herself as she locked the club room door. With two more students, provided they stayed next year, the club was going to be safe even after Eunbi and her left.

“Someone’s in a happy mood.”

Sakura turned around and stared at Eunbi with surprise. “Senpai! What are you doing here so late? I thought you had cram school.”

“I did, but I left a little earlier since I finished all my homework and I wanted to see how the club was doing. I had a feeling that you might still be here.” Eunbi moved to walk beside Sakura as they made their way out of the school.

“You won’t believe it, but I managed to sign up two new first-year students,” Sakura said proudly.

“Oh, that’s great. You’ve worked hard,” Eunbi said while pulling Sakura in for a hug from the side.

Sakura blushed as she felt her Senpai’s soft body against hers. She allowed herself to sink into Eunbi’s embrace. “Thank you.”

“Ah, hah,” Eunbi suddenly let out a laugh which made Sakura realize even more how much more developed the other girl was compared to her.

“What’s so funny?” Sakura asked, wondering if the older girl was somehow reading her thoughts.

“I was just remembering how freaked you were when I first tried to hug you last year.” Eunbi was shaking her head in remembrance.

“Hey, some people just aren’t huggers,” Sakura said defensively. “And I did not ‘freak out.’ I was just surprised. In track club, we just did a lot of high fives.”

“Well, it’s an art club tradition to have a lot of skin-ship with your fellow club members, so don’t forget to be close with your new juniors too.”

Sakura blushed hard at the thought of embracing Yuri or Yujin suddenly like Eunbi was wont to do. “I think one of them is the shy type. The other one looks like she would initiate hugs.”

“You’ve got to be careful of the shy ones,” Eunbi said knowingly while giving Sakura a suggestive look.

“You don’t mean me, right? Right, Senpai?” Sakura pouted while shaking Eunbi’s arm.

“Two students? That’s pretty impressive,” Nako said as she read one of Sakura’s mangas while lying on her stomach on Sakura’s bed.

Sakura nodded at her childhood friend. She had wondered if becoming a high school student would change the girl, but fortunately, Nako still came by like clockwork after dinner. Sometimes before dinner, if she knew there would be ice cream for dessert. “Jo Yuri and Ahn Yujin. Do you know them?”

Nako got up at the sound of the two names. “Yuri and Yujin? Yeah, they’re both in my class. Yuri kind of just sits by herself a lot. She’s not really approachable since she always has her air pods in during lunch or self-study period. Yujin is the opposite. There are always girls around her desk. I’m surprised she joined such a small club. If her fan club finds out, they’ll probably all want to join. You won’t have a problem getting recruits then.”

“The art club is a safe haven,” Sakura said, aghast at the very thought of using Yujin to drum up more recruits. “I don’t want to turn her off of art.”

Nako looked at Sakura for a moment, before smiling warmly. “Yeah, that’s so like you.”

“So, what about you? Did you find a club yet?” Sakura asked. While she knew she didn’t have to worry about the girl being able to make friends, she still worried regardless.

“Not sure I’ll have time to join one. I have to go to cram school. I’m still a bit behind everyone since my old school’s level was much lower.”

“Yeah, our school will let you off joining a club if you’re going to cram school.” Normally their school was quite strict about everyone being in a club, which led to a lot of students joining clubs in name only.

“I could just join the art club. That’ll bring up your numbers and maybe give you more of a budget,” Nako suggested again.

Sakura shook her head. As much as she wanted to Nako to be in the same club as she was, she felt that the girl would just being joining out of pity. It was Sakura’s job as her childhood friend to look out for the girl. “If you get forced to join a club and just need to put your name down so that they don’t harass you, then sure, you can join. But if you don’t have to, I would rather you get caught up with school work and then find something that you want to do. You only get to live high school once you know.”

“You’re such a stickler sometime, Saku-chan,” Nako said rolling her eyes. “They don’t care if you put your name down for multiple clubs.”

Sakura made a face as she remembered Yena’s schedule. “I already feel bad that the club already has a few ghost members.” Even worse was that she was the one that suggested that Yuri become one. In truth, she had done it more to help the girl than to help the art club. The girl had looked so forlorn when she learned that the light music club was no more.

“Fine, forget I mentioned it again,” Nako said. “I just wanted to be able to visit you whenever I wanted.”

“You can do that anyway,” Sakura said firmly. She was treated to another one of Nako’s dimple filled smiles. This girl sudden cute attacks would be the death of her.

Chaeyeon: Why is it day four all of a sudden?

Sakura: Well, event flags don’t happen every day. You don’t need to see her grinding.

Chaeyeon: Event flag? Grinding?

Sakura: The protagonist needs to work at increasing affection levels with her targets so she grinds away at it. When the level is high enough, a flag is raised, and an event happens.

Chaeyeon: So, whose event did she grind and raise a flag for?

Sakura: All of them of course.

Chaeyeon: …

Author’s note:

Sakura of course has to go and write another AU idea and it’s a Hogwarts one at that. She needs to slow down or I’ll never find the time to do anything else.

Let me know what you thought!

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Comments

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LoupNoir #1
Chapter 26: I think my favourite ending was the one with Wonyoung. It was really cute how she asks her to move in together.
kristineannmon #2
Waaaah! I love this
Saada_uchiha
#3
Chapter 2: Light music club? Is this a K-on reference authornim :0
island_sam #4
Chapter 20: ssamkkura is forever. i love them! thank you for writing,these stories made me happy.
tuanteddy
#5
Chapter 27: awwww it's really ended why this chapter is so sad... but the conversation with eunbi and wonyoung is really the saddest for me, also yujin conversation...thank you so much for writing this! see u on your next works!
cosmosis #6
Chapter 27: I really enjoyed reading this whole series! It felt really novel and fresh- I especially liked Wonyoung and Chaeyeon’s line, and then the Nako-Yujin frenemy thing that was going on haha. Thank you for writing!
violentsushi #7
Chapter 27: i definitely did not expect that, i seriously thought this was the angst ending before we skipped to the future. but can you imagine it though, a game that somewhat reward you by choosing the worst options at every decision point. i don't play enough vn to come across that, but i imagine it to be a very unique and interesting game. but it was really depressing reading the first half, i was like stop it sakura, why are you doing this. there was even choices where it ask for confirmation if they were sure, and it really hurt.

i'm predominately a sakura ship reader, but i really like the way you write. so if you decide to write for another ship, i would read it. thank you very much for this story, i love absolutely everything about it. looking forward to next time.
dh_pram
#8
Chapter 27: Nice and fun story
I thought there will be harem ending lol
Rine_21 #9
Thank you for writing these stories! I enjoyed reading them. I like how the last story feels like everything repeated and we're back to square one, as it still takes place in the same setting, but they're not students anymore. I also like that it was a harem ending just like what Hyewon and Chaeyeon say at the end, which made me think of Hitomi's line in SSS, "There's no sad ending here".
tuanteddy
#10
Chapter 26: ahhhhh wonkkura this duo is so cute, wonyoung that always look up to her unnie and sakura who always proud of her baby