AHN YUJIN

“People like you disgust me. Can’t you clearly see that Kim Minjoo is not interested in getting your number or even shooting heart eyes at you” I spat directly at Ryujin’s face.

I’ve been observing her send multiple winks in Minjoo’s direction since Minjoo set foot in the court.

Even if Kim Minjoo is my ex girlfriend, it doesn't mean that some wandering predator can just pounce on her immediately. Wait. Why am I even pinning Ryujin down? Minjoo hasn’t even been declared as mine in the first place to begin with, so why am I getting so possessive over her?

Confused with my own emotions waging war in my own heart and brain, I just took off my crutch that was pinning Ryujin down, before Minjoo could come round and scold me for hurting an innocent soul.

But before I could even mouth out an apology, Ryujin pounced back on me.

Making both of us fall with me as her cushion for the fall.

Seriously what is this ? I just wanna apologise for what I did.

In retaliation to Ryujin’s actions, I took my crutches and whacked her repeatedly on the head with the tip of it and with my healthy right leg, I was able to pin down Ryujin’s legs down to my own body.

I don’t care if we both looked like two childish idiots fighting over such a silly matter since Ryujin pinned me down when I am clearly injured.

This is such a foul move. BOO, I disapprove of it.

However, I didn’t realise that Ryujin had two free hands so she gripped my hair tighter which each and every passing second to the point that I could feel like my scalp was going to separate from my scalp which made me whack her head harder with my crutches, in retaliation.

Finally what seemed like a whole eternity of the both of us battling out our emotions against each other, someone pulled a furiously wriggling Ryujin from me.

I tried to take out every last bit of my energy on her since she was in a vulnerable position. However, I was held back by two pairs of arms on either of my arms, belonging to Chaeyeon and Hyewon who had returned from changing their jerseys.

“Let me go. She pulled on my ing hair, this ITZY trash!” I spat out my words, while trying to wrestle my way out of their tight grips.

“What are you calling an ITZY trash, you foul player of BLOOM*! You attacked me first so it was my only reaction to what you did to me, you crutch monster!” Ryujin spat similarly while she was being held back by Chaeryeong, the goalkeeper of ITZY HIGH.

“Alright, girls, girls. Let us apologise to each other over this petty fight and we can wrap up this day with bubble tea.” Minjoo came in between us, the very girl that sparked the fight between the both of us.

“Never in my entire life.”

“Well, I second that.”

“Well for both of you stubborn gits. Red card to you Yujin. I witnessed you hit Ryujin first so Yujin, apologise first or I’ll ask you to pay for the entire team including ITZY HIGH’s bubble tea drinks.”

“Well-“

“Okay, I’m sorry Ahn Yujin of BLOOM*IZ.” Ryujin apologised first with a smirk glazing over her face.

“Well, that settles it then. Yujin, you are to apologise to Ryujin and pay for their drinks too.”

“What, but you said that if I apologised first. That’s not fair. What the hell. Red cards don't even belong in the penalty rules of floorball or even life. Minjoo, this isn’t fair.”

I whined out my side of the argument.

“Well life isn’t fair so just apologise to her, Yujin or-“

Minjoo walked closer to me, holding a malicious grin on her face.

“I will not allow you to play this game of pursuing my heart.” She whispered softly, winking and walked back to her original position.

Okay this is getting worse, I just rejected any advances she made on me and now she expects me to chase after her like I am some lovesick fool. Well jokes on me, I am going to be the biggest lovesick fool and pursue Kim Minjoo. I should consider changing my own after school club to a club of clowns.

“Well, I am terribly sorry for whacking your dense brain. I was hoping that you would fall into a concussion but I guess not but either way, I will pay for the drinks as requested by Minjoo” I spouted out my apologies while maintaining a strong gaze from Ryujin to Minjoo.

Ryujin wanted to retaliate further but Chaeryeong dragged her away saying, “I apologise and sister, mind if you can just ask your friend to have the drinks delivered here since our coach wants to train us further. Tell Mom that I will be late for dinner too.”

Chaeyeon nodded her head while my eyes widened in shock.

“Wait, both of you are related? But it seems obvious since both of you look like twins”

“Well I mentioned that plenty of times but I’m guessing that it didn’t pass through your dense brain.”

“Hey, no fair. It’s Ryujin who has a dense brain here and not me”

“I heard that,” Ryujin shouted from across the court.

“Oh wow, I’m surprised it managed to pass through it.” Shouting back to her.

“Okay. Okay, stop it Yujin. The rest of the team is ready to go back home and rest with their bubble tea”

“Fine.”

I shrugged off their loosened grips on my arms and picked up my crutches lying pathetically on the ground.

“Okay, girls place your orders on Hyewon and I will pay for it.” I relayed to the team.

“Wait, I thought Yuri was going to pay for it?” Yena looked round questioningly. 

“Well, a little scuffle happened while you were changing jerseys so Yujin ended up losing and she has to pay for the drinks including our opponents drinks”

“Oh pity, I couldn’t get footage of it though. It would have been wonderful blackmail material for her.”

“Don’t worry babe, I got it on my phone.” Yuri sounded out, leaving me to hobble away to settle my order with Hyewon.

Finally, a message popped on my phone, telling me that my orders were ready to be collected in the shop in roughly fifteen minutes which was ample time for the team to travel and retrieve their orders and go back home.

“Okay, your orders are going to be ready in roughly fifteen minutes so let’s get going”

And, with the help of Hyewon’s wonderful sense of direction, we managed to walk to the bubble tea shop.

It seemed bizarre for an entire gang of girls carrying floorball sticks and someone on crutches heading them so I had Hyewon and Yena fetch the drinks and distribute it out.

Once, everything was in order, I called it a day and gave them friendly reminders to stretch at home or that they would end up having the same fate as me.

One by one, they all left, leaving me with Yena, Yuri and lastly Minjoo.

The couple took their leave soon afterwards with them giggling and sending mysterious looks over their shoulders.

I knew they were trying to tease my poor situation of being stuck with Minjoo, but it can't be helped that Minjoo lived round the same street as I was on.

It was a convenient thing for us in the past when we dated but it drove me insane knowing that I would have to see her face every single bus ride in the morning. To which I secretly hoped would happen but she decided to take Chaewon’s car to school thus, robbing her of any chances to reconcile with me.

“Well, are you going to go home or wait till all the ice melts in your bubble tea?” Minjoo waved her hands in front of me.

“What. Oh. Well, yeah. Let’s get going then.”

Minjoo helped carry my drink and every now and then when I paused to take a rest on our way to the bus stop, she would give me a few sips of my drinks to which she would drink it also afterwards.

I could feel a furious blush creep up my neck, knowing that we were sharing an indirect kiss. So I said something to get the matter off my mind.

“Say Minjoo, are the extra pearls in my black milk tea for me or is it for your greedy ?”

“If you want to play this game of courting me, at least do it right instead of insulting me you dumbo.”

“What, who said I was going to court you. What, my non existent parrot?”

“Then why else would you agree then?” Minjoo asked angrily.

“For the sake of apologising to Ryujin” and to indeed play this little game between us of Ahn Yujin getting your heart, Kim Minjoo.

“Anyways, We should hurry up because the transport app said that our bus would arrive in a bit”

“Fine, fine grumpy greedy grandma” Picking up my slow .

Fortunately for us, the bus arrived once we reached the bus stop and to make it better, the bus was empty so I wouldn’t have to deal with people faking a sleep or pretend to be immersed in a phone call until a kind soul gave up their seat.

We sat a bit closer to the exit with Minjoo seating right beside the window while I occupied the aisle seat.

It brought me back to the old memories where I would put Minjoo’s head on my shoulder instead of the rattling window which was the perfect height for her to lean onto. It did surely bring butterflies in my stomach no matter how many I did it for her and I’m sure it did similarly for her. But now, the barrier was lowered for sure. But there was still an invisible line which was there to withhold my own self from taking her head and letting it rest in the crook of my shoulders and neck. I do still admit that I still want her back in my life despite her breaking my little beating heart into a pitiful pulp.

Then, I sensed a movement next to me.

Minjoo laid her head comfortably right on the crook of my right shoulder.

“Let me enjoy this moment before we go back home. Besides I’m holding your drink so just consider this as a repayment by letting me rest my head”

I smiled softly to myself, letting Minjoo’s jasmine shampoo scent invade my noses.

“Yeah that’ll be alright” and I plopped my head right on top of hers, softly.

Just like the past.

Although my brain was currently going into overload mode over this mere action of my past lover putting her head on my shoulder, I felt the same fluttering feeling in my stomach. It assured my little pulped heart that perhaps there was indeed a chance for me to get back with her. 

I enjoyed this moment till I had to move my body slightly to reach for the ‘stop’ button which woke her out of her little nap.

“What-, are we home already?”

“Yes, and you drooled on my shirt” while pointing to an invisible spot on my jersey.

Minjoo moved a bit closer to inspect the nonexistent drool and her scent was getting stronger with each and every passing second.

“What, I didn’t drool you little ” She whacked me on the back of the head and motioned for the both of us to alight.

Finally, I was out of the bus in my hobbling state with Minjoo tagging alongside me with our drinks in her.

We reached my building’s lobby first and before she left to go to the direction of her house, she pulled the collar of my jersey, abruptly.

Making me jerk forward and with only my crutches to stabilise myself, it left me in an awkward position where I was staring directly right into her brown orbs, which were screaming something that I couldn’t decipher clearly.

I blinked at her unknowingly as everything happened too fast for my dense brain to comprehend.

And within minutes, Minjoo was jogging away with her drink swinging wildly in her hands.

I touched my right cheek which was the last place that her lips had left its lingering imprint on.

I chuckled softly to myself, knowing that it was a hint for me to indeed pick up my pace and play this little game we have between us, fair and square.

Giddy in the recollection of the memory of Minjoo leaving a little peck on my right cheek, I accidentally pushed the wrong button to the floor apartment.

Surely, it was exhausting for me to have to wait for the next lift up to my apartment floor with my sprained ankle, it didn’t matter because I felt energised with that one kiss.

Surely, it wasn’t such a big deal for me since Minjoo had always done this on a usual basis when we went back home after our dates or from school. But, it had been so long since my little heart had started to beat furiously aside from game sessions and do somersaults.

I arrived home to drink the least remaining sips of the drink that was originally meant for me but was shared between us and I posted a picture on my Instagram with a caption.

Good job girls for clinching a win under Coach Ahn’s guide and I hope that I will score a goal in the future.

You may be asking what that goal is, right? It’s pretty obvious. ;)

After the posting session and replying to Yena’s spam of comments, Hyewon asking if I would be able to possibly score a goal with my crutches as my floorball stick and Chaeyeon telling me to rest well so that I can lead the team with her again in court, I was able to wash up and replace the bandage round the sprained ankle with the help of my dad since my mom had to do another night shift in the hospital.

My dad then piped up, “Yujin, are you going to your school’s new play next month?”

“What play?” No one mentioned the school having a play, not even Kim Minjoo who was a freaking theatre club member herself.

“This play” while Dad showed me an email from the school inviting students and parents to support their latest production.

My eyes drifted down to the cast members in which Minjoo was playing the main role.

Without any hesitation, “Yeah I am going to go. How about you old man?”

“Who are you calling an old man and yeah, I will probably go to it with your mom. You know how she is about all this theatre stuff considering she was a theatre turned medicine major. Anyways, I need to go and check up on some work email so good night, you injured puppy.”

“Good night, old man” I chirped back.

I wanted to text Minjoo immediately but decided against it. Perhaps I’ll just ask her personally tomorrow, especially since she was playing the main role.

______________________________________________________________

KIM CHAEWON

It is currently Monday which meant Monday Blues.

I sincerely thank whoever created it for I am absorbing every letter of it into my soul.

Why the hell did Ahn Yujin have to ruin my plans for sparking a sense of jealousy within Minjoo. I wanted Kim Minjoo to feel what I had been feeling during the last week I had been dating her.

Jealousy 

She always looks at her ex lover, Ahn ing Yujin with those dreamy eyes whcih were only reserved for her and never for me. What the hell does Yujin have that I don’t? I have everything, a smart brain, a little fat wallet full of my own personal credit cards and thick wads of cash that I worked hard for and good looks.

But every single time, I would display affection to Kim Minjoo in any way, she would reciprocate it back without any care of the feelings that I had poured into my love for her.

I switched to other forms of love and affection by buying her supposed favourite snacks that she had told me but she would only say her thanks in an annoyingly fake loving voice. It irked me a lot but I beared with it knowing that perhaps she was still getting over Yujin and was using me as her little outlet for all the suppressed emotions.

I held it in, praying that one day that she would reciprocate my love for her back to me, full of sincerity.

I held in my tears each time I saw her look at Yujin as if Yujin was her only world she was willing to revolve around.

But, she never looked at me the same way. She would give me those loving eyes, to disguise her disgust with me. Surely, I do shower her with a bit more usual physical affection than what her ex lover would have done so but it was my only way of telling you that I really want you as someone that I would cherish as a lover and you would hopefully do the same too. But it seemed like someone had never left her place in your heart.

I had already accepted my own fate that I would just be eventually your little outlet of suppressed, enraged emotions before we had agreed on dating each other after that one kiss, and that perhaps my little beating heart would be beaten into a little miserable pulp.

And Minjoo certainly held onto one invisible promise and she managed to squash my heart into a miserable pulp just like that.

I looked up to see Minjoo brush her shoulders against me accidentally but she never gave a simple apology and just walked away, laughing to a supposed recount that her friend, Jo Yuri must have said.

I had really sealed my own poor heart into a little miserable demise with that one kiss with Kim Minjoo.

______________________________________________________________

:( well that at least shows Chaewon's side. So do leave your comments or upvote the story if you like it. Also, happy Hari Raya Puasa to my fellow Muslim readers and good morning/afternoon/night to fellow readers round the world? Jdchrt out-