Day 53

“Hitomi, are you okay?” Sakura asked as they suddenly stopped in the middle of the road.

“Sorry, where were we? I got lost in my thoughts,” Hitomi said as she looked around.

“Let’s take a break. I think it’d be dangerous if you’re running and not paying attention,” Sakura said while grabbing Hitomi’s wrist and pulling her off to the side of the road. Luckily, there was a bench off to the side where they could sit.

“Sorry, again,” Hitomi said as she sat down. She turned to Sakura and she could see faint bags under the girl’s eyes that were not quite covered by makeup.

“What’s wrong?” Sakura asked gently. Normally, Hitomi was very strong and dealt with her problems head on. For her to look like this suggested it was something that even she was having trouble dealing with.

“Our first-year ace has been saying that she wants to quit. She’s been coming to me asking for advice and I’ve been trying to get her to stay.” Hitomi’s voice sounded tired.

“Why does she want to quit?” Sakura asked while she brought a hand up to rub the small of the girl’s back in a soothing manner.

“Our school is pretty traditional. For most of the clubs, including the track team, seniority is a factor. First-years won’t really get to participate in competitions. I knew that was a possibility when I joined the club and I was okay with it. But our ace is not so okay with it.”

“I get where she’s coming from,” Sakura said, nodding. “I also see the other side of the coin. Everyone on the team works hard and wants to show off their efforts. For the second-years and third-years, they’ve put in the time and energy and expect something to show for it. For your friend, she probably feels that her talent is being wasted and is probably wondering why she’s trying so hard if she’s not going to be able to show that talent this year.”

“That’s exactly it,” Hitomi said with a depressed voice. “Even if you do continue track in the second year, you still might not make it to the actual events. I’m sure she would of course with her talents, but it’s not guaranteed.”

“I can attest to that. I sat on the bench in middle school the whole way through. But then, I didn’t have any talent for running at all,” Sakura said with a little laugh.

“Why did you stick with track all those years in middle school, Senpai?”

“Hmm, why did I? You said the sight of me running inspired you. Well, I guess it was true for me too. I remember watching the middle school track team on my way home from school and I was mesmerized by how hard everyone worked. I wanted to be like them; I wanted try my hardest at something too.”

“Even if you never got to show how hard you worked?” Hitomi asked timidly. Sakura supposed that it was awkward asking how one felt being a bench player their entire middle school life.

“I’d like to think my effort was shown when my teammates ran. I trained and ran with them. We pushed each other to achieve our personal best times. I also like to think that the perseverance that I have now towards art or anything else in my life came from my time in the track team. If I didn’t have the experience of trying and failing over and over again, I don’t know how I could have handled the art club recruitment this year.”

“I’m not so sure everyone thinks that way, Senpai,” Hitomi said, shaking her head.

“That’s true. There’s really nothing you can do if your friend feels the way that she does. Or are you having trouble because you find yourself agreeing with her?”

“Does it show that I do?” Hitomi asked with a grimace.

“It looks like you’re trying to convince yourself to stay as well,” Sakura said. “Whatever you decide, just think about why you joined the track team in the first place.”

“You’re usually the more energetic one in the morning,” Sakura said as she walked beside a yawning Nako.

“I’ve been so busy trying to get the new club started. It took forever for me to find a teacher that was free and would agree to sponsor the club if I got it off the ground. I’m so bad at talking to teachers. I almost cried each time.”

“You have it tough. It’s not easy trying to get a club started from ground zero.” Sakura knew it had been especially tough for Nako since the teacher that used to be the sponsor was now overlooking another club. Her friend could be very persistent however and she couldn’t imagine any teacher that was free turning down the girl when she the waterworks.

“I already miss last year. It was so much easier. You didn’t wake up so early and I had to be the one to drag you out of bed. I had lots of free time and didn’t have any worries about this or that.”

“A lot of things have changed, haven’t they?” Sakura asked, tilting her head as she thought about the previous school year.

“But I guess as hectic as things have gotten, I’m glad for it. I’ve never seen you happier and that makes me happy too,” Nako said, looking at Sakura with a smile.

“I think at some point last year, I started to dread going to school. But now, I can’t wait for it,” Sakura beamed as she thought of her mornings filled with Hitomi and the girls in her class.

“You have so many cute girls waiting to greet you every morning. Of course, you can’t wait for it,” Nako said, giving Sakura the side-eye.

“It’s not like that!” Sakura said defensively. “What about you? You’ve been waking up early to go to every cute first-year and appeal to them.”

“I can’t help that every girl that I’ve heard can sing also happens to be cute,” Nako retorted.

Sakura sniffed. “Right. I’ve seen the idol groups that you like. I wouldn’t be surprised if cuteness is the first criteria that you look for.”

“Hmm, well if you think that’s true, maybe I should ask Kim Minju-san if she’d like to join. She’s super cute, and I could tell her that I heard from you that her poetry is very lyrical.”

“You wouldn’t dare! I told you that in confidence,” Sakura nearly screeched at her lifelong friend, but she could tell by the girl’s smile that the girl was kidding.

“Relax. I heard that she joined the literature club recently. She wouldn’t enter my club anyway,” Nako said with a grin.

Sakura wondered if she was the only one feeling self-conscious of the other girl as she sat beside Chaewon. The two of them were the first to be knocked out in dodgeball and now had to wait for the rest of the class to finish. Sakura had been knocked out because she was simply bad at the game. While, Chaewon always gave the cutest disgusted reactions when she did poorly. It made her the primary target of everyone.

“What’s so funny?” Chaewon asked when she heard Sakura laugh out loud.

“Ah, I just thought how interesting it was that everyone tried to get you out first,” Sakura replied honestly.

“Right? Why am I always being picked on?” Chaewon asked indignantly.

That is exactly why, Sakura thought as she was mesmerized by the Chaewon’s cross look which made her unbearably cute. The girl wore her hair in twin tails today. The amount of styles the girl could pull off amazed Sakura. Sakura pretty much only styled her hair straight.

“I’m happy that you don’t always look like you want to run away when I talk to you these days,” Chaewon said suddenly as she looked at Sakura. “Our conversations used to be very short.”

Is that how I look when Chaewon speaks to me? “I don’t mean to give off that impression. I like talking to you, but I guess I’m not really used to talking to many people.”

"I’ve noticed. If anyone other than Yena, Chaeyeon, or Hyewon talk with you, you turtle up. While you’ve gotten better with me, it’s not by much,” Chaewon said bluntly.

It was true that their conversations have been getting longer and longer. Today was the first time in a long while that they were talking with just the two of them without one of the other girls that Chaewon named present. However, that wasn’t really what was on her mind. How come those three are now called by their first names while I’m still Miyawaki-san? “I don’t think I’m that bad.”

“Sakura, call me Chaewon,” Chaewon suddenly said.

Sakura blinked and stared blankly at Chaewon.

“See?” Chaewon asked triumphantly. Even snobbishly proud of herself, she was cute beyond measure.

“C-Chaewon…,” Sakura finally mustered and immediately looked away.

Minju would be the perfect girlfriend. It wasn’t the first time that thought crossed Sakura’s mind. Every time she looked at the girl in fact.

“Sakura, what are you thinking of?” Minju asked with an amused tone.

Sakura blushed as she was caught staring, but fortunately, Minju apparently simply thought she was lost in thought.

“Um, nothing in particular. I guess I just like watching you write,” Sakura said hastily. She had managed to find the time to come to the library during her lunch break and found the girl earnestly writing poetry. Minju had convinced her to join her on the other side of the desk as the other librarians were busy. It had been blissful for her to sit in Minju’s company quietly watching the girl do the thing that she loved.

“Is that a picture of me?” Minju asked as she looked over to what Sakura was doing.

“Ah, it’s just a doodle,” Sakura said while immediately closing her sketch book and putting it away. Her hands had unconsciously started to move as she watched the other girl. Sakura assumed that Minju would probably find it creepy if she saw how many doodles of her there were in the book. “Are you finished with the poem that you’re writing for the literature club?” Sakura asked, changing the subject.

Minju seemed disappointed that she couldn’t see Sakura’s drawing, but her face brightened at the mentioning of the literature club. “Not yet, I’m still tweaking it. I was worried that I would get writer’s block as soon as I joined, but it’s been the opposite.”

“Do you want to me to take a look at it?” Sakura asked. The girl had kept looking up at Sakura as she was writing, and Sakura could see the unspoken question in her eyes.

“Uh, I’m still not ready,” Minju said with a panicked voice but didn’t stop Sakura as she pulled the notebook from the girl. “I’ve barely started revising it.”

“Wonyoung?” Sakura asked as she moved slowly towards the girl that was hunched over a booth in the back of the library. She had caught sight of the girl sneaking in as she and Minju were laughing. One look at the taller girl’s face had made her excuse herself with Minju and rush to the back of the library.

“Unnie?” Wonyoung looked up. While there weren’t tears in her face, Sakura could see the girl was quite upset.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Sakura asked. The term of endearment came out unconsciously and seemed appropriate for the situation.

“Unnie is going to laugh at me if I say it,” Wonyoung said as she turned her chair around so that she could face Sakura.

“Never,” Sakura said as she moved to get the chair from the booth beside the girl. She sat down and pulled the other girl’s hands into her own.

“We were talking about the student council at lunch. Someone in class overheard us and said that I should run for presidency since I would be a ‘shoe-in.’ Then other people joined in and agreed that I wouldn’t even need to try. I couldn’t take it in there and left as soon as I finished my lunch,” Wonyoung said with a voice that was strained by a scream that seemed wanting to be let loose.

“You don’t like it that people assume things are easy for you and just get handed to you?” Sakura asked as she was unsure of what Wonyoung was upset about but that seemed to be what the girl was suggesting. The girl was tall, pretty, and apparently rich. Sakura could see why people would assume that she was a perfect candidate for president, even if she was a first-year.

“Yeah. I was going to run, but I feel like if I win, people will think I didn’t deserve it,” Wonyoung said with a much calmer tone though Sakura would still hear the strain in her voice.

“You’re going to run? That’s amazing. In your first year? Wow. I never know who to vote for, but I’ll definitely vote for you!” Sakura exclaimed, feeling strangely proud that she knew a first-year this amazing.

“Unnie, you don’t even know my platform! You’re just voting because you know me. That’s just as bad as them!” Wonyoung whined as she looked at Sakura with downturned eyes.

“Well, I don’t really see what’s wrong with that. I’m voting for you, because it’s you. If you were a bad person, of course, I wouldn’t vote for you. But you’re not. You’re one of the sweetest girls I know. I’m sure that you only have good intentions and want what’s best for everyone, so I already know whatever platform you have, I would support.”

“Oh,” Wonyoung said, sounding mollified. She looked down shyly as she responded to Sakura’s grasp on her hands by squeezing back.

“I guess I’m saying that you shouldn’t assume that the girls are saying what they are saying because of any other reason than they now know you. You said you’ve made friends in the class now, right? Trust your judgement in them.”

Wonyoung looked back up just as shyly. Her hands fidgeted as she tugged on Sakura’s hands. “I will. Um, Unnie?”

“What is it?” Sakura asked as she watched the blushing girl look at her with pleading eyes.

“If it were me or one of the Kim-sans, who would you vote for?”

“Uh… give me a second,” Sakura stalled as she tried her best to answer this impossible question.

“Are you sure you want to join?” Sakura asked again as she opened the door to the club. “Aren’t you already in a lot of clubs?”

“Yeah, I already said I would join you guys. And I’m not really in many clubs right now,” Yena said. “I wasn’t accepted into many of them anyway. The ones that did accept me, I checked to see if they were okay with a part-time member.  You were right that some of those clubs needed reliable members. I didn’t want them to depend on me, so I dropped those that I couldn’t commit to.”

Sakura wasn’t sure what had come over the other girl all of a sudden. As soon as she had gotten better from her cold and attended school again, she started nagging Sakura about letting her join the club. Sakura had balked at the idea initially, thinking Yena was just doing it out of pity. Eventually, she decided she really didn’t have any right blocking Yena from becoming a member even if she only ever came to one activity. “Well, you don’t really have to worry about this club relying on its members for anything. Feel free to do as much as you like. That was always Eunbi Senpai’s motto.”

“See, that’s perfect for me since I got that you-know-what sometimes after school,” Yena said while winking conspiratorially at Sakura.

“This kind of feels like those Chinese dramas where I’m the new wife that you want to marry but you already have a dozen concubines,” Sakura said as she went to the desk to grab the application paperwork.

“And that you’ll marry me, but only if I drop all of the other concubines,” Yena finished Sakura’s thought. “I am pretty dashing if I say so myself. I was heavily recruited when the school year first started. I was going to join yours, but you kept giving me the cold shoulder.”

“You seemed a bit fickle,” Sakura smirked at Yena. One of the best things about the girl was that she took whatever weird thought that Sakura had and ran with it and often took it further.

“But then you ended up falling for my charms and letting me have my way,” Yena nodded sagely with her hand cupping her chin.

“Probably more for your body then for your charms,” Sakura said automatically before realizing how scandalous that sounded.

“Kkura, you ,” Yena said, using her hand to fan herself.

“Anyway, here you are,” Sakura handed the papers for Yena to fill in and bring back.

“I’ll check my schedule and see when I can start my first day here,” Yena said as she put the application away in her bag.

“Sounds good,” Sakura said, waving goodbye to the quirky girl.

“Oh,” Yena said, as if remembering something, as she was about to leave the club room. “If anyone is the wife that would be me. You give off ‘oppa’ vibes.”

“Senpai, do something about her!” Yuri complained again. She sat to the side while she watched Sakura draw.

“What do you want me to do?” Sakura asked again. It seemed like this conversation was becoming a daily occurrence. She didn’t need to look up to know that the other girl was trying to persuade her with her cutest expressions.

“You’re her childhood friend. She would listen to you. She tries to recruit me in the morning, at lunch, and sometimes even follows me into the washroom. This is the only place that she doesn’t try.”

Sakura had to give it to Nako for her persistence in recruiting Yuri. She was also slightly touched that Nako respected her wishes in providing a safe space for her members, so didn’t come here to the club room. “Like I told you before. I don’t think it’s right for me to abuse my friendship with Nako like that. It’s up to you two to work it out,” Sakura said as she finally looked up away from her drawing to focus on Yuri. Sure enough, the girl was trying to appeal to Sakura with all her power as their faces were inches away from each other.

“I’ve already told her no. Shouldn’t she respect that?” Yuri fumed again. Her lips protruded outwards much like another girl that Sakura knew.

“Oh? I was under the impression you told her you weren’t interested until she got three others,” Sakura said to which made Yuri’s lips protrude even further out. If Sakura leaned forward just slightly, those lips would graze her. The concept of personal space was sometimes a foreign idea to Yuri it seemed. “Hey, we live next to each other. I heard how it’s been going.”

“You told her that I could sing,” Yuri said with an accusing tone. “You should help me stop her from bugging me.”

Sakura finally reached out to grab Yuri’s shoulders and push her away slightly. She had been dangerously close to giving into the girl’s wishes. “Why would I do that? I know how much you like to sing and how devastated you were when you learned the light music club wasn’t around anymore. Why are you so against this? I could tell Nako to stop bothering you until she has three more, but I can see where she’s coming from. If she had another member, it would be much easier to convince more people to join. What’s the difference if you join now or when there are three others.”

Yuri’s shoulders slumped and not from the weight of Sakura’s hands on her shoulders. “I don’t want to get my hopes up. I’ve seen how hard it’s been for you to gather more members. I don’t want to join only to be let down because we don’t have the prerequisite number of members.”

“Is it that bad to have some faith and hope that things will work out?” Sakura asked gently. She pulled Yuri in closer so that the younger girl could rest her head on her shoulder. She rocked the girl gently as Yuri sighed deeply.

“I’m not very good at dealing with setbacks. If I put my hopes into it and it doesn’t work out, it will kill me,” Yuri said with a serious tone.

“That’s not true. I think you’ve handled the fact that there’s no light music club very well so far. I’m sure you had high hopes coming into this year and even came to the music room on the first day. But here you are making the best of things.”

“In all honesty, I had you here to cushion the blow.”

“Well, I’ll still be here if it doesn’t work out.”

“You know if it does work out, I won’t be coming here to participate in club activities as often.” Yuri pulled herself away from Sakura but only slightly. Her face still only inches away from Sakura’s own.

“Yujin, you don’t have to take the news that badly. We may have lost Yuri, but we also got another member,” Sakura said to the girl who was looking at her self portrait glumly.

“Oh, it’s not that. I’m happy for Yuri. While she’s gotten better after we started talking to each other, she’s still pretty anti-social. I think Nako, the social butterfly that she is, would really be a good influence on her.”

“Then what is it?” Sakura asked.

“It’s this picture. No matter what I do, I think it always comes off as too masculine,” Yujin said as she took an eraser to the etching and started to try and fix it yet again.

Sakura moved over to stand behind Yujin. The drawing was quite good, but she could see what the girl meant by ‘masculine.’ Lines were quite bold and sharp along the jawline. The eyes were fierce. “Rather than masculine, I think it gives off a girl crush vibe, no?”

“Well, that would be good if that’s what I was going for. I was going for cute and feminine, like a princess,” Yujin finished dreamily while closing her eyes.

“Well, you are more like a prince,” Sakura joked.

“Senpai, not you too?” Yujin cried out as she opened her eyes back up, clearly upset with Sakura’s choice of words.

“Me too? Have people been calling you a prince?”

“Just about everyone in my class. They seem to have this weird image of me. I’ve gotten a couple of confession letters this year already from girls who think I would make the perfect boyfriend.” Yujin made a face to show how she felt about that.

For some reason the thought of people confessing to Yujin made Sakura’s hackles rise. She almost growled out asking, who would do that to her baby girl, before she caught herself. Yujin was much too young to be courted by someone Sakura didn’t know.

“That’s part of the reason why I run home after school. While I like all the friends I’ve made here in the school, I don’t like to be caught in situations where I might be alone with someone. High school girls are scary when they become fixated on someone.”

“You’re a high school girl yourself, you know.”

“Right, that’s why I know that!” Yujin nodded.

Sakura wanted to know who Yujin was fixated on. Was that why she wanted to be more feminine? She remembered her conversation with Yena and the girl’s comment about Sakura being the oppa out of the two of them. “I guess I could see how some girls look at you and see a dashing handsome prince. You’re pretty tall and you’re always so energetic which I think people associate with boys. Even I will say or do some things that make people think I’m more like a boy.”

Yujin immediately nodded which kind of hurt Sakura’s feelings. I’m not that much like a boy! “But you do have your own feminine charms that make me think, this is Yujin. Your eyes are big, bright, and expressive and can make anyone drown in them. Your dimples when you smile are way too cute to be considered manly.”

“Thanks, Senpai,” Yujin said, smiling. “You have a lot of things that scream of femininity too!”

Somehow that didn’t make Sakura feel better. It felt a bit too tacked on.

“Well, I guess I wouldn’t mind being the prince if I got to choose who my princess was,” Yujin said shyly.

“Sorry to call you here after your cram school finished,” Sakura said, feeling ashamed that she had to call her senpai to help bail her out.

“I’m still in the club, remember. And actually, this should be my duty as the president,” Eunbi said, dismissing Sakura’s apology.

“I might have bit off more than I can chew when I said I could handle everything,” Sakura said as she pulled out the inventory list.

“I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it. I didn’t know how to do everything either when I first started the club last year.”

Sakura nodded as she started to tally up one side of the room so that they could see what they needed to order. “You asked how I was able to manage studying and the club at the same time. Well, I guess it’s easy when everything in the club was taken care of by you. There are so many things that I took for granted. The materials, the permission slips, the scheduling; they were all in place already.”

“I know she’s not around much, but some of these things you can get the teacher in charge to help you with. I’ll make a note on what she’s able to do for you and what she needs from you,” Eunbi said as moved to the other side of the room to check on materials.

Just when Sakura thought she couldn’t be even more impressed by Eunbi, she found a whole other side of her that awed her. The older girl had done a good job in hiding her talents. “How come I’m only finding about what needs to be done now?”

“I did a pretty good job at keeping this from you. I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret or anything. I just wanted you to enjoy your first year in the club to the fullest. I didn’t really want to bore you with the real-world details that were involved,” Eunbi said, almost apologetically. “In hindsight, it was probably a bad idea since now you have to learn how to do it from scratch. We should probably get Yujin in on some of these tasks later in the year.”

Sakura nodded as she watched her senpai move about the room categorizing and taking stock of everything efficiently and quickly. Eunbi projected the image of a professional business woman which was different from the fun-loving older sister type of image she usually projected. The older girl had made the club a fun safe-haven for Sakura in the first year; one that she was still trying to emulate for Yujin.

“What is it?” Eunbi paused in her inventory count as she looked at Sakura who was standing there gawking.

“Ah, sorry I was just thinking how lucky I am to have you here,” Sakura said honestly.

“You won’t get me with tears this time, Kkura,” Eunbi said with a deadpan and turned back around to continue counting. Her hair flung around dramatically for emphasis allowing Sakura a glimpse at Eunbi’s perfect nape.

This isn’t a date. It’s just two friends playing games at the arcade. Sakura breathed deeply as she opened the door to the arcade. It was at that moment, her brain shut down.

Sitting in the middle of the room, amidst the glow of the arcade machines, sat one of the most beautiful girls Sakura had ever laid her eyes upon. Hyewon had gone home to change and she was dressed in a white dress that showed off her innocence. The neon lights flashed against her dress as if it were a backdrop and Sakura found herself dumbfounded as the lights danced all around the girl.

I’m sure she dresses like this all the time, Sakura told herself as she hesitantly walked up to the girl.

Hyewon’s usual expressionless face lit up at the sight of Sakura. “Sakura-san, you’re here.”

“Were you waiting long?” Sakura asked.

“Not at all. I just got here. Thanks for coming here. I really wanted to try some of the games you were raving about.” Hyewon looked at Sakura demurely as she moved to walk beside her. She raised a hand to grab hold of Sakura’s forearm. The way she did it seemed natural as if they’d always walked while semi-linking arms.

Sakura was having trouble thinking as Hyewon’s perfume tickled her nose. It’s normal to wear perform when you’re not in school. Probably. “Uh, let’s play Mario Kart Arcade.”

Sakura nearly gasped for breath as she quickly moved to sit down in one of the open spots of the game. The combination of Hyewon’s innocent looks, nice smell, gentle touch, and sweet voice nearly overwhelmed Sakura’s senses. She took a moment to gather herself as she sat in her ‘kart.’ She looked over and saw Hyewon preparing for the race.

“This game is one of my favorites. I think you’ll really like it,” Sakura said as she entered coins into the machine.

“It does seem fun,” Hyewon replied sweetly.

Sakura smiled back at the girl as the race started. The girl was an enigma to Sakura. At school, she gave off the impressing of being uncaring and aloof. When they talked with each other, she was like a skittish cat. The last time at the arcade, when she heard the girl swear and play against those boys, she was like a tomboy. And right now, she was absolutely angelic. Sakura really wanted to know which was the real Hyewon.

It didn’t actually take long for Sakura to find the answer to her question. Within moments of the first corner in the game, there was a massive pileup and Sakura could hear the girl beside her screaming and cursing., “WTF!”

Sakura was shocked for only a moment before her natural gamer instincts sensed weakness in some of the players that joined their game and made her go for the kill. She raced around the corner with her Mario and passed one player. It wasn’t long before she caught up to another player and one well timed turtle shell later, she was past them.

“You go girl!” Hyewon laughed out as they neared the finish and Sakura pulled ahead in first. “Good job!”

“Thanks, you did well in getting second after that accident on the first corner,” Sakura said as she received a high five from Hyewon who reached over in excitement.

Hyewon seemed to realize what she was doing before she sat back down straight demurely. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me. That was unseemly.”

“No, it wasn’t. I like that we were able to act more comfortably with each other just now,” Sakura said as she found she was able to look at Hyewon without feeling as if she was going to get a heart attack. “You don’t normally act like this do you?”

Hyewon nodded. “People seem to think that I’m like a rich chaebol heir. The person they want to be friends with is not who I am.”

“Well, I want to be friends with the Hyewon that curses and knows how to have fun.”

Sakura looked at the exchange diary that sat on her desk. All day, she’d felt a little out of sorts. It was the first day in a long while that she didn’t hear Chaeyeon’s voice at school.

She pulled out the chair to her desk and sat down only to stare at the diary. She’d sent the other girl some texts, but they all went unanswered. Of course, she knew that Chaeyeon would be busy at the preliminaries for the cheer dance competition, so she hadn’t really expected any reply. Still, she’d hoped that the girl would manage to sneak off somewhere to answer.

Sakura sighed as she opened the diary to the next empty page for her entry. As she flipped through it, she could see some of Chaeyeon’s entries. She loved how personal they were and gave Sakura a peak into the inner workings of her best friend’s life. With that thought in mind, she got out her pen for own entry.

I went running again this morning. It was so nice out today. I had a pretty interesting conversation about meritocracy and seniority with my former junior who’s on the track team. I think you would have been a better person to give advice since the cheer dance club probably has the same issues.

My childhood friend Nako is still working hard trying to start a club all on her own. I wish her the best of luck, because I realized today how much work it takes to manage one. I thought I had been doing a great job, but it turns out it only because Eunbi Senpai made it easy for me by taking care of most of the day to day things. Was she as cool when she was in the cheer dance team?

Sakura was about to add commentary on how cute Chaewon and Minju were today, but she remembered the look of disgust on her friend’s face whenever she gushed about other girls. Instead, she decided to gloss over those moments.

I was knocked out early in dodgeball. Without you to help me, I’m hopeless in that game. I went to the library during lunch again. I saw this first-year there that sometimes hangs around there. She’s running for the student council. Can you imagine that? A first…

Sakura blinked. There she went again. Even after she caught herself with Chaewon and Minju, she’d went and started gushing about Wonyoung. She erased the last bit since she knew her friend would probably just skip over it.

Are you interested in running for the school council? You’re already the class representative. I think a lot of people would vote for you. But then I guess, you’re already super busy as it is with the club and rep duties.

Yena joined the club today, which is good, since it looks like we’ll probably lose Yuri to the light music club. I’ll need to make sure I find out what kind of art Yena likes to do and make sure we have enough supplies for it. I also need to write up the budget and expenses for our summer activities if we want to have any. Ugh, it’s so much work! But I need to do a better job handling it or I’ll bother Senpai again.

How about you? How’s the competition going? I guess I’ll find out when I see you again, so you don’t have to answer it here. When you’re not here, I feel…

Sakura paused again and immediately erased what she was going to write. Chaeyeon already had her hands full and didn’t need to deal with her neediness. The truth was that she felt a little empty without her friend there. For the longest time in Sakura’s life, there was a large empty void. At the beginning of the school year, that void, slowly but surely, started to fill up because of Chaeyeon’s presence.

I’m sending you lots of love and positive energy. Did you receive it? Good luck!

Chaeyeon: …

Sakura: What is it?

Chaeyeon: I don’t even appear in this.

Sakura: You do. You’re in my thoughts.

Chaeyeon: Doesn’t this prove that you like me more then?

Sakura: Well, you can’t see this Chaeyeon’s point of view, but her thoughts are 120% of this Sakura.

Author’s note:

Still on vacation but no longer in Korea. I’d been hoping to get the latest album and watch the movie while I was in Asia, but it looks like it’s not possible. In the meantime, with the drought of content, I found I was able to finish this chapter. Hopefully, all this trouble will finish soon and our girls can go back to doing what they love.

Let me know your thoughts!