Chapter synopsis: Bomi tries her best to protect her dear friendship with Chorong. The annual Baseball League comes around, and Eunji is more perceptive than she lets on.

//

Chorong doubles over, clutching her stomach as she almost chokes from laughter. Bomi was doing a very intense rap cover of IKON’s “Rhythm Ta” in their room and Chorong was having the time of her life. She flashes her teeth and her round eyes have disappeared into thin lines as her nose scrunches from smiling so hard. Evidently, Bomi has found her place back in their room and things were slowly going back to normal. (Kind of)

“Ahh come on Bbom-ah” Chorong wipes a tear from her eye but not the giddy smile off her face. “Let’s go for lunch now, our friends must be waiting for us.”

Chorong clings onto Bomi’s arm as they walk to the canteen. There’s barely any space between them, but this is good, this is how they’ve always been. They’re looking for food to get when Eunji spots the two from afar and shrugs. Huh, I guess they’ve worked things out. For some unknown reason, she does a double take and looks back up, just in time to catch Chorong laughing at something Bomi said. It must have been hilarious because Chorong playfully punches Bomi’s arm with her free hand before laughing some more. Namjoo and Hayoung are in front of her but Hayoung was showing her girlfriend a new game she got on her phone, not realising that Eunji had been staring past them.

Eunji watches Chorong for just about five more seconds and frowns faintly as thoughts start bubbling up in her mind. The class vice-president has always been perceptive, and right now, she thinks Chorong is overcompensating for the time she lost with Bomi in the past week.

When Chorong and Bomi arrive at the table, Eunji doesn’t ask. She figures it’s none of her business and if Chorong or Bomi wanted to talk to her about it, they would talk to her on their own accord. While they’re all still at the table, Bomi does bring something up but it isn’t about the awkward week of avoiding Chorong.

“The Finals for the annual Baseball League is in three weeks! You guys are coming again this year, right?” The question is asked with hope, even though Bomi knew her friends would be there without a doubt.

“Of course I’ll be there! Baseball girls are hot-“ Hayoung gets smacked on the head before she’s able to continue her sentence.

“You really wanna die?” Namjoo knows Hayoung does this on purpose to but she can’t hold herself back from retorting. It’s a trait Hayoung loves about her because she finds Namjoo’s dramatic reactions highly amusing. It’s also why there’s plenty of good-natured banter in their relationship.

“You know I’m kidding” Hayoung wraps an arm around her girlfriend’s waist and pulls her closer into a side hug. She kisses Namjoo’s cheek and she watches a light pink tint spread across her smooth complexion. Most of the time, Namjoo is loud and fierce, but Hayoung has the ability to soothe her down with simple gestures of affection like such. Namjoo leans in further, heating up in embarrassment, and hides her face in the crook of Hayoung’s neck.

“Oh, get a room!” Eunji rolls her eyes and fakes a gag. Chorong and Bomi just laugh along, this behaviour was nothing out of the ordinary for them.

//

They’ve been in the school library for two hours now. Chorong has a report to finish and Changsub has a test to study for. Chorong has always been in the top percentile of her cohort, but she’s never anything but humble about it. She often helps her classmates if they have trouble understanding a topic and seek for help, and she always helps willingly. Truly a heart of gold, this class president. It’s not any different with her boyfriend too. It’s not like Changsub was dumb, but Chorong made studying easier for him. As much as it is a common misconception and stereotype that guys don’t get as emotionally attached to their girlfriends, Changsub was definitely attached to Chorong. Just her sitting beside him or opposite him at a desk would make him happy. It was sweet, really, how the two of them could make each other’s days just by being near one another. It’s why Changsub is more than okay with studying in a library on a Friday night with his dear beloved girl.

“I’m gonna get water, do you want anything?” Chorong whispers.

“Nah, I’m good babe, thanks” Changsub whispers back.

The school library caters to the students with its huge size. It has an atrium in the center of the second floor, where all the desks are placed neatly. Surrounding the vast studying area, brown oak shelves filled with books line up in perfect rows. Chorong, prim and proper as she is, has always admired the tidiness of the school library.

Chorong takes calm steps, glancing at titles on the shelves as she made her way to the water dispenser (which was strategically placed in the far corner of the level to minimise noise and distraction for the students studying in the atrium). She’s enjoying the peace and quiet when she hears a slight thud nearby and almost instantaneously, she has an inkling that it’s up to no good troublemaking students. She eases her way past a few more rows of tall shelves and towards the sound and nears the corner when she sees a familiar back. It’s Bomi, who currently has Naeun against a bookshelf. They lap into each other’s mouths, hands all over each other, and eyes shut tight, so they haven’t even noticed Chorong. Naeun has three buttons of her shirt undone, revealing some marked skin, obviously Bomi’s work.

It starts to feel awfully wrong that she’s just standing there, so she deliberately clears , and that gets their attention. When Bomi whips her head around and sees her supposed best friend, she instinctively removes the hand from Naeun’s waist.

“Oh, Chorong- hey” Bomi says, her voice much huskier than usual, Chorong notes.

“You’re disturbing people who are actually studying in the library” the class president says in a flat voice.

“Sorry-“ Bomi starts but Naeun cuts in nonchalantly, “Let’s just continue this in my room,” and with that, she pulls Bomi along with her by the hand, leaving Chorong to stand alone, her feet seemingly rooted to the carpet floor. She feels a twist in her stomach. Libraries have always been a safe haven to her, so what exactly is she feeling? Or more importantly, why is she feeling this way? Chorong shakes her head in attempt to rid the odd feeling before turning her heel to return to Changsub. She’s forgotten all about the water.

/

“Hey.. sorry about earlier today in the library” Bomi sits on her bed, across Chorong who’s on her own bed. Bomi plays with her fingers in an awkward manner. They rarely had reasons to apologise to each other so this was new to both of them.

“Oh, uhm, it’s okay” Chorong replies just as awkwardly.

“I know you don’t like her, so I’m just sorry you had to see all that-“

“I said it’s okay.” Chorong says with annoyance. The reminder of what exactly Chorong saw earlier that day brings up all the details she wishes she didn’t notice. Naeun’s ed top, Bomi’s hands on her, smudged lip gloss, marked skin. It all bothered her more than she thought. Bomi gulped as she detected the irritation in Chorong’s voice and dropped the topic to avoid any more conflict. Bomi makes a mental note that as long as she doesn’t bring up anything related to Naeun, her friendship with Chorong will be fine. (Or so she thought)

//

Bomi has been spending a vast amount of time on the field in the past two weeks. Besides the usual trainings with her team, she’s been spending time in the batting cage followed by practicing her pitching by herself too. Being the captain and main pitcher, she’s always placed high expectations on herself for baseball. They were only a week away from the Finals of the annual Baseball League, but all the extra independent practicing has taken a slight toll on the captain.

Chorong was waiting for class to start when Yongsun plopped down on the seat beside her. Yongsun, her desk-mate, has been a fellow friend since the first year of school. They’ve somehow managed to stay in the same classes with each grade promotion and neither of them are complaining about it. Yongsun was quite similar to Bomi, very bubbly and cheerful, which Chorong gladly accepted.

“How’s Bomi?” Yongsun asked.

Slightly puzzled, Chorong turns to look at her, “What do you mean?”