AHN YUJIN 

I don’t know how I manage to do it, but being able to relive my past memories with Kim Minjoo with the label of relationship being ‘ex-lovers’. It just seems so familiar and makes me feel a little warm on the inside. From riding the old cranky bicycle to running up the stairs just to make it in time for the assembly period. I would give up anything just to be with her again but what separates me is from how she had cheated on me with Chaewon without any hesitation.

I walked back to class with Yena, discussing what we should watch for our movie date that she had impromptly set up last night.

Frankly speaking I had no mood to watch some sappy romance movies,unless it was with her of course. But since I wanted to celebrate the fact that Yena had managed to shoot the goal to Yuri’s heart after almost a year of trying to pursue her, I agreed to the date.

Suddenly, I felt someone pushing me roughly. Luckily, if it weren’t for Yena's quick reflexes, I could have tripped on the staircase. I whipped my head around just to see Kim Chaewon’s head bobbing down to the next level.

What the hell? Seriously like no apology or did she happen not to notice but the staircase was only filled with a few students apart from Yena and I.

I shrugged off the thought, just pertaining to her possibly rushing to go to another location.

Just as I reached my desk, I immediately slumped over it just to catch up on my sleep owing to the fact that I had spent the night up thinking about how the past could have been handled better.

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“ So Miss Ahn Yujin, apart from sleeping in my class twice in a row for this week, would you perhaps like to give your opinion on what this topic could be possibly pertaining to?” Ms Lee’s horrible voice drowned out the cheers that I was receiving from fans after landing a winning for the goal.

“Huh, what topic?” I replied, in a state of confusion and looked at Yena who could hopefully save me from impending doom.

Unfortunately for me, it seems that luck is not on my side. Yena was just staring blankly at the whiteboard which meant she had not catched what Ms Lee had droned on about.

I glanced round the class, trying to stall some time to think about this topic.

I caught Minjoo’s dark brown orbs and moved my eyes down to her pink lips where she mouthed an answer.

Without any hesitation, I nodded my head curtly in response and relayed the answer back to Ms Lee.

She accepted it rather grumpily, perhaps upset at the fact that she had not found reason to scold me in front of the class.

I raised my eyebrows in response to her attitude and flashed a quick dimpled smile at Minjoo, just to have my appreciation for helping me out in a difficult time. Well, you could say that the help that we had offered to each other is at a truce for today at least.

Fortunately, for me I managed to catch her eyes crinkling into her eye smile and out popped her Indian dimple which I had yet to see from her time with Chaewon.

Speaking of Chaewon, why the hell did she even bump into me roughly earlier? Like I hadn’t done anything wrong to any parts of her daily lying life. Heck, I even gave up the slots for the field that I’ve booked for the team to help improve their fitness just to allow the Soccer team to train for their upcoming tournament.

I returned my attention to the duck who was currently deep in her dream. I woke her up since I didn’t want to be bombarded with scenes of Chaeyeon and Sakura doing sappy, romance stuff in front of my face.

“Huh, class ended already” Yena said groggily

“Yes, you dimwit and I’m thirsty for the iced Milo they are selling in the drinks stall”

“Okay, okay and I need to tell you some changes that I might have to make to our plans”

“Okay, but after I buy our drinks”

I rushed off in the direction of the drinks stall just before a lunchtime crowd formed around it. I managed to buy the drinks for both and proceeded to find Yena who seemed to be in a conversation with Yuri. I’m guessing she missed her new girlfriend that much, huh?

I waited patiently at the side waiting for Yuri to take her leave, but she spotted me and gestured at me to come over and take a seat with them. It seemed rather foreign having to sit with your ex-girlfriend’s friend considering that Yuri  is dating Yena. Even before the both of us broke up, we had always been trying to couple them together and get them to confess their feelings to each other. It just so happens that Yena seems to manage to woman up and ask her out without me being on the side, eating popcorn, to watch her gay panic.

“So what is it that you had wanted to tell me regarding the changes in our movie date”

“Well, you see Yuri can’t seem to make it to the date next Saturday so we decided to push it to this weekend, on the day of our date. So are you fine with this perhaps? Yuri said she’ll bring one of her friends so you won’t feel like you are third-wheeling us”, she looked at me with those sad puppy eyes which seemed to be cute in Yuri’s perspective but does seem to relate to me at all.

“I will if you could stop doing that pathetic sad puppy eyes or I’ll pour bleach into my eyes so that I would not see it again” as I faked a gag.

Yena gave me an even worse sad puppy eyes with tears welling up 

in her eyes. 

“I swear to god, if you don’t stop this right now, I’ll show Yuri the embarrassing video trying to push the annoying duckling into the pond with your floorball stick”

“Wait, what happened? How did that duck even choose to follow her?” Yuri asked, seemingly oblivious to the fact that she is dating a human duck which happens to be able to play floorball. 

Meanwhile, Yena was gesturing at me to zip my mouth shut or things would go down badly. She’s my best friend but she can’t seem to be strong enough to take me down very easily.

“Maybe, I’ll send you the video as a blackmail material for you to use if this wonderful duck doesn’t seem to be treating you very well eh, how about that?”

She bobbed her head furiously and agreed to the idea. 

“That’s a new member added to Let’s make fun of the duck club” I said jokingly as Yena huffed in annoyance.

The bell suddenly rang, signalling the end of our lunch break so I had to chug my iced Milo down before rushing off to class with Yena after saying her hurried and rather flustered goodbyes.

“Well, it seems like your lunch date with me third wheeling has went well hasn’t it?”, I nudged Yena who was wearing a love struck expression while staring at the back of Yuri’s head. 

Yuri whipped her head round and I could have sworn Yena might have had become a red duck instead of a yellow one, from how hard she is blushing right now.

I’m glad, moments like these allow me to take my aching heart over the loss of a special someone, more specifically a cheater by the name of Kim Minjoo.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday rolled in rather quickly and I rolled my lazy out of my seemingly inviting bed. I contemplated whether I should just ditch the movie date but I knew that it would be rude just to leave Yuri’s friend to third wheel them, on a short notice to make it worse.

I put on a simple white sweatshirt, coupled with my favourite pair of white jogging sweatpants and to top it off, I slipped on a pair of low cut converse sneakers. 

“Hey, hey young miss, make sure you return before curfew or I’ll confiscate your favourite floorball stick” my dad jokingly replied in response to my little dress up.

“Okay, pa. I’ll make sure I’ll come home exactly on time. Not a minute early or late”, shouting it so that I could be heard over the radio which was blasting songs from his past.

Finally, I arrived at the movie theatre which conveniently happened to be at least a ten minutes bus ride away.

Fortunately for me, I was able to spot the couple who were squabbling over what movie that they should watch. 

“Hey guys, so which movie would we be watching today?” As I towered over the two idiots squabbling with each other.

“Well, we have decided on a horror movie, The Conjuring 3” Yena smiled rather innocently 

“What? I thought we agreed on The Half of It, you little ” Yuri rebutted.

Just as they were about to get into another round of fighting over which movie to watch, I rested my hand on  Yuri’s right shoulder and whispered,”You know Yena is the world’s most scaredy duck so you can sort of protect her from those jumpscares that may happen in the movie.”

Yuri looked at me questioningly, as if she did not believe that Yena would be the world’s most scared duck.

So I had to tell her about how she would usually come running back after putting back the floorball equipment in the dark store room. Well, someone told her(that someone is me) that there was a ghost of the floorball player who slipped and fell and died tragically after the rack of sports equipment fell down on her. It seems to me that Yena had bought the story with her two brain cells which could not comprehend the fact that the sports equipment is mostly in wooden boxes which barely reach my knee. But it seemed rather funny so I just decided to leave it at that, letting her suffer with the fear of the ghost taking vengeance with floorball sticks being stabbed in unfortunate victims.

Yuri agreed, realising that she could spend half of the time cuddling with Yena under the pretense of protecting her from the horror movie.

“What are you guys discussing?” Yena asked rather suspiciously, more like out of jealousy that her date’s attention is focused on me instead on her.

“Oh well you see, we were discussing what flavour we should choose for the popcorn for the movie that we have decided to watch, which by the way is your choice. So no more squabbling over stuff till we are nice and comfy in the movie theatre.” I smile rather menacingly to get my point across to her.

“Oh, by the way what the hell is taking Minjoo so long. Was there a bad traffic jam on her way, but I remembered that she took the train though?”  Yuri mumbled to herself faintly.

But one name stood out to me. Minjoo. Wait, she’s coming and she’s gonna be my date for this movie date? This sounds like a nightmare which I hope that I wouldn’t want to wake up from. Wait, no, I’m supposed to despise her existence for causing so much pain for my poor heart. But I guess my heart says the other considering how I constantly dream of being with her every now and then even though I act as if I hate her entire existence.

I asked Yuri to repeat who would be coming just to confirm it again.

“Minjoo. But why though? I thought both are you on good terms, she said it herself even more?” She looked rather surprised.

The last I know I had actually spoken sentences instead of words to her were a few days when I gave her my concealer, especially the day after I had unblocked her to make it worse.

“Oh yeah, we’re on good speaking terms” while Yena’s looked on rather questioningly

I think?

“I should really call her since the movie is about to screen soon” as Yuri picked up her phone, Yena pointed out to her girlfriend.

My eyes followed the line of direction in which she pointed to. 

And I could have sworn my heart stopped right there and then. It was like a broken tape recorder, repeating all the times I fell in love with her countless of times despite seeing her or talking with her every single day.

She was running towards us and she looked rather stunningly beautiful with the white frilled shirt which was paired with white denim shorts together with her white sandals.

However, what she failed to notice was the fact that there was a loose brick. Just seeing her clumsy fall again, triggered an instinct to run towards her immediately to help her up.

I reached her first while the other couple were looking on, rather frozen with shock.

It seems to me that today may not be one of her best days as her skin was literally streaked with blood and the floor was painted with some of her blood too.

“Oh ” we both replied in unison. 

I ignored the fact that we had both said similar thoughts and immediately took out my handkerchief, more specifically one of her handkerchiefs that she had left for me and wrapped it around her left knee.

“Can you try to walk to that bench near us or is it really painful?”

Yena and Yuri had arrived and were offering help to move her to the bench. I nodded my head and assisted them in carrying Minjoo to the bench.

“ it really hurts.” Minjoo whimpered in pain as we cautiously moved her so that she would be sitting upright.

“Hey, are you hurt anywhere else other than your knee” I asked her patiently

“I think I scraped my elbows, but other than that I seem to be fine” she replied weakly.

“Okay, since your wound seems to be bleeding rather badly”, gesturing to the white handkerchief which seems to be rather useless in stemming the flow of the blood, “ I might have to take you to my house to have you patched up since it’s the nearest to us and my mom is taking a shift off. Are perhaps alright with that?”

“Well, I can’t really argue with that since your mom is a nurse. So, yes” she replied.

“Do you need help to bring her back Yujin?” Yena asked while handing me an unopened water bottle and a tissue packet to at least wipe off the dried blood off the ghastly wound.

“I think I’ll be fine on my own. Besides I’ll just call for my mom to pick us up. Also, the movie is going to start soon so the both of you can go off first without us.” I replied

“Huh, okay. But call us if you need our help alright.” Yuri replied and dragged Yena away who was still in schlock over the current situation.

“Also, Minjoo take care of yourself!” Yena shouted after getting over her initial shock.

Minjoo replied with a nod of her head to show thanks for the well wishes.

The couple rushed off towards the movie, hopefully before the advertisements ended.

“Okay, I might have to wash the blood off your wound so that bacteria would not build around it. It won’t hurt and while I’m at that, do you think you could call my mom on my phone so that we could get you patched up faster.” I replied as I gave her my phone, trying to desperately avoid any eye contact with her at the moment.

Minjoo reached out for my phone and our hands touched for a brief moment before she took the phone away rather hastily.

She looked at the phone for a few seconds before gesturing to the unlock button.

“Oh, it’s the same password, I’ve been lazy to change it”

The password was our anniversary date. Thinking about that now, it seemed rather pathetic of me to refuse her pleas to listen to her apology while here I am stuck with the fact that my heart cannot bear to part with her existence.

I immediately put myself to work, by dabbing the wet tissue which had been dampened by the water, on her wound.

I heard her take in a sharp breath. I sympathise with her pain considering how many times I tripped in the court and gotten wounds far worse compared to hers.

“Oh, Yujin, your mom wants to speak to you about something serious”

“What, ok hang on, let me just finish trying the handkerchief”

After ensuring that the handkerchief would not fall off easily when Minjoo walks to the car, I took the phone from her again.

“Yes mom, what is the serious issue?” I asked rather worriedly

“Well you see Yujin, we have a crisis in our home. We are running out of cornflakes cereal and I know how both you and your dad cannot survive on anything but cornflakes cereal for breakfast. So do you mind if you could pick up several boxes from the nearby supermarket while I pick up Minjoo. I’ll wait for you with Minjoo so you don’t have to worry about the bus ride home”

“So you’re telling me our crisis is just the cornflakes crisis.” I deadpanned.

“Well unless you’re telling me that you survive without the cornflakes” 

“Wait no, I would rather eat cornflakes than eat your bland and burnt pancakes, Mom and can you please drive her a little bit faster since Minjoo’s wound seems to be bleeding like Niagara Falls”

“Okay” and with that she hung up.

I relayed the plans to Minjoo who agreed with it and apologised for the fact that I wouldn’t be able to watch the movie.

I shrugged it off, saying that it was not as if I had not wanted to see it, I would rather see it with you though and have you hugging me like the past whenever a jumpscares happen. But I can't do that now, can I?

My mom sent a text after a couple of minutes later to signal that she was here. 

However, it seemed that Minjoo had difficulty walking.

Go prove yourself to be a gentlewoman, a better one than her current girlfriend at that!

“Hey, how about that I just carry you. Like, uhm, bridal style since I can’t really piggyback you?” I asked with hesitation.

“Huh,” she looked up with a confused frog face before replying back, “Uh, you don’t really have to though”

Well that broke a piece of my heart. Let me just go and cry in a ditch then.

But it seems like my logical, thinking brain beat my broken heart to saying, “ You know, it’ll be best so that you won’t have to put so much strain on your knees. Beside we’ll be able to reach the car faster”

“Well I suppose it’ll be for the better. But do you think you could still carry me though. I mean I feel like I’ve gained quite a bit when you know. When we split.”

I ignored the last line and immediately carried her without any notice to prove that I could carry her.

She fumbled in my arms for a while but got comfortable within my arms over time. She even clung onto me with her hands hung around my shoulder like a koala. Just like a pattern, any pattern, like how you dribble the ball straight up to the opponent before hooking the ball away and turning sideways. Now I am presented with this opportunity to prove that I am comfortable with her presence despite the label of our relationship, with the pattern of our old habits returning as a haunting memory of it.

I managed to spot my mom’s car and walked towards it. She walked out and inspected the wound as I gingerly placed Minjoo on the car seat.

“Well, it seems to be that the bleeding has stopped but I’m afraid that the wound might be infected, so Yujin you might want to rush to the supermarket and buy the cornflakes and rush back here. Go and put your legs to use. Good thing, you wore sweatpants today or I might have another patient to take care of”

After ensuring that everything was all clear, I rushed towards the supermarket, without anticipating the fact that leaving Minjoo in the car with my mom could have been probably one of the best decisions I could have made.

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Hihi, Jdchrt here. Sorry I haven't been able to update that frequently since I had practice papers being thrown to me since this is my o-level year(which is a rly important year for secondary school students), it's something like an exam to decide on which pathway you might want to take after high school. But do expect an update in the next 5 days or less if I'm lucky:]. Do drop by comments as of why you think Yujin might have made the best decision in her life. Also, do expect more yulyen moments in the upcoming chapters.