-The Apology-

In the morning, Bora woke up feeling energized. She was all smiles after her dreams, but anxiety soon took over. What if Siyeon didn’t accept her apology? What if she said she hated Bora after what she said? It was making Bora extremely nervous, but she refused to back down. She made a mistake and needed to apologize.

Bora quickly went to school and waited for the two girls to arrive when she felt a light tap on her shoulder. When she turned around, she saw a tall, lean boy with braces that was smiling at her brightly. He was one of her admirers and held a handpicked bouquet.

“will you accept my feelings?” the boy stuttered nervously. His cheeks flushed pink, and his friends waited behind him nervously. She recognized them. They were part of the boys' dance club, so they knew Bora a bit, but Bora felt bad for the boy.

He was cute. He was also tall and had that cute boy image, but she just wasn’t interested in him at all. In any guy, really. She was too focused on her grades and dancing, so boys never made it high on the list.

With an apologetic smile, she politely turned him down, and soon his friends surrounded him with comforting words as they led him away. She felt bad, but she truly wasn’t interested. She didn’t just want to agree to it just so that his feelings wouldn’t get hurt.

But that boy wasn’t what was on her mind right now. That was Siyeon, and she just spotted the girl walking up the road with her sister.

Gahyeon looked up and noticed the older girl waiting by the school gates nervously and smiled. She could guess that Bora was waiting for Siyeon and quickly made up an excuse that she needed to go to the college campus for one of her advanced classes and quickly scurried off, leaving Siyeon standing there awkwardly. It got even worse when Siyeon looked up and locked eyes with Bora.

Siyeon quickly looked down and went to rush by the smaller girl with an apology when she felt a tiny hand gently grasp her wrist.

“um… Siyeon? Can we talk for a moment?” Bora asked. She felt sick to her stomach. She was suddenly so nervous though she had no idea why, and when Siyeon looked up at her briefly, her heart thudded in her chest. What was this effect that Siyeon had on her?

“about yesterday… I…” Siyeon was nervous and couldn’t get the words out. It didn’t help that an extremely pretty girl was still holding Siyeon’s wrist too.

“I know… I jumped to conclusions, and for a second, I believed the rumors even though I know they aren’t true. I just wanted to apologize. I behaved like an , and I'm sorry…” Bora said, and this time it was her time to go shy.

Siyeon looked up in shock as Bora looked down at the ground. She seemed to be waiting for something. It was like she expected Siyeon to curse her or something, but instead, she was just speechless.

“I, um… I don’t know what to say…” Siyeon said nervously as Bora slowly looked up. Siyeon’s cheeks were flushed a light shade of pink, and she looked like she wanted to do something with her hands out of nervousness.

“I know I behaved horribly, and I'm sorry. I can understand if you don’t forgive me, I just wanted to apologize…” Bora said as she looked at the ground again. She didn’t want to look into Siyeon’s eyes and see hate or disgust though she felt like she deserved it.

“Bora, I don’t hate you…” Siyeon whispered softly as Bora looked up in shock. Siyeon seemed nervous, but she didn’t look like she was lying.

“Seriously?” Bora asked as Siyeon nodded while looking away.

“then why don’t you look at me?” Bora asked as Siyeon’s face flushed even redder.

“because you make me nervous…” Siyeon said as Bora looked at her with a confused expression. She didn’t know what Siyeon meant, but she was just so happy that Siyeon didn’t hate her. The issue was that the blinding smile that Bora was wearing only made Siyeon even more nervous.

“um… my wrist…” Siyeon mumbled. It took Bora a second for her to realize that she was still holding Siyeon’s wrist, and quickly Bora dropped it with an apology, but both girls missed the contact almost instantly though they wouldn’t admit it.

“sorry…” Bora said softly before smiling at Siyeon. The quiet girl didn’t know what to think when Bora smiled once more at Siyeon.

“if anyone is giving you problems, let me know. And if you ever want to talk, I will always be here. I know it must be hard with all of those false rumors going around.” Bora said as Siyeon looked at her in shock.

Anxiety washed over Bora. Did she say something wrong? Did she make a mistake? She wasn’t sure, but her heart was pounding, and when Siyeon suddenly smiled and nodded shyly, Bora thought her heart was about to burst.

Quickly she waved goodbye and ran to try to catch the teacher that was over her dance club. She tried to convince herself that she wasn’t fleeing from Siyeon, but she knew that she was lying to herself.

Bora was just so confused. Why did she feel so excited and anxious around Siyeon? Bora was starting to realize the answer but shook it off. There was no way, right? She had never been interested in ANYONE. Male or female. But here she was feeling her heart pounding and her palms sweating from nerves.

Bora was supposed to focus on her studies, but here she was just thinking of Siyeon. And though she was trying to deny what she felt, images of Siyeon continued to pop into her head, and every time that happened, Bora smiled brightly.

“what's making you so happy?” Minji asked with a smile. She was in a very good mood like always and gave Bora her classic smile.

“I just talked to Siyeon… Minji, can I ask you something?” Bora asked, and judging from Bora’s serious yet confused tone, Minji could tell that whatever Bora was going to ask, it was serious.

“sure. Want to go to our regular place?” Minji asked as Bora nodded with a relieved expression. They had a special hang out in the library. Not many used it, and they had a favorite corner that they would usually hang out when they were trying to flee from their admirers.

Once they were in the library, Minji noticed Bora relax slightly, but clearly, whatever she was thinking about was confusing her greatly.

“well?” Minji asked as Bora sighed nervously.

“um… you promise you won't stop being friends with me or hate me?” Bora asked as Minji laughed.

“Bora, the only way I would hate you is if you tried to kill me or something. We have been best friends for forever. You can tell me anything.” Minji said as Bora swallowed nervously and took a shaky breath. Where to begin?

“um, well… I talked to Siyeon, but I felt odd…” Bora said as Minji smiled. She could see where Bora was going and honestly thought that the shorter girl would have noticed this a long time ago but listened until Bora was finished.

“My heart was pounding, and my palms were sweating. But I'm not sure if it was just because I needed to apologize to her, but I swear my heart did flips when she smiled at me… Minji, what if I'm gay? I mean, I have never been interested in guys before, but I thought that It was just because I was busy and just didn’t have time, but now I'm starting to wonder…” Bora said as she looked down.

“what's wrong with being gay?” Minji asked as she looked at her friend with curiosity.

“Nothing is wrong with it, but I have no idea if I really am or not. And if I am, what do I do? What if she doesn’t like me like that?” Bora asked as Minji smiled and wrapped her arms around her friend.

“Bora. If you are gay, then you are gay. I am!” Minji said as Bora looked at her in shock. Minji had never mentioned people she had a crush on or anything like that, but she did always turn down people that asked her out just like Bora, but when the shorter girl thought about it, Minji was always much nicer to the girls than the boys.

“you are? Why didn’t you tell me?” Bora asked as Minji smiled and just shrugged.

“I just didn’t feel it was the right time yet. Also, I have noticed how you always watch Siyeon. It has been like that for at least a year now. Why don’t you talk to her? You don’t have to go into it thinking about dating her. Just try to get to know her better. Then you will probably understand your feelings a bit better.” Minji said as Bora nodded.

“But wait… are you dating anyone?” Bora asked as Minji nodded and smiled shyly.

“yes. She doesn’t go to this school but lives near my house. Every day she would create excuses to walk with me, and finally, I asked her out. It was so cute watching her panic, but in the end, she said yes.” Minji said as she pulled out her phone and showed a picture.

It showed a tall girl with a beautiful smile who had her arms around Minji. They were looking at each other with