♫ Drax Project - Catching Feelings

“I wasn’t looking when I met you, but you turned out to be everything I was looking for.”

Unknown

Sakura groaned as she stood up and stretched at her desk, finally finishing her final midterm for the week. It had been a long couple of days since studying and having Chaeyeon over took a bigger toll on her than she expected, but she didn’t mind it all that much. She’s just happy that tests are over, at least until finals come around. As Sakura was walking out of the classroom, her eyes widened as she saw someone she didn’t expect to see. 

“How was your test? Did you ace it?” Chaeyeon asked as she approached Sakura with a smile. 

Sakura was a little dumbfounded, but quickly shook it off, acting as if Chaeyeon’s sudden appearance didn’t affect her at all. 

“Of course I did. Who do you think I am?” Sakura scoffed.

“What about you, Ms. ‘I Don’t need to study to ace my tests?’” She added with slight annoyance.

“I don’t know~” Chaeyeon teased with a mischievous smirk. 

“Whatever. All joking aside though, you’re done with your tests too, right?”

“Eung.”

“Let’s celebrate a bit then. We can grab some stuff at the konbini and then head back to my place. I can even invite my other friend. I’m pretty sure she’s done with her tests too. She’s the Korean friend I mentioned to you a couple of times before. She’s a little weird, so I think you two will get along really well.” Sakura said with a giggle.

“Ha ha, very funny.” Chaeyeon said, sarcastically.

“Thanks for the invite, but I think I should go back to my dorm. I’ve stayed at your place long enough now.” Chaeyeon added, sounding a little serious this time.

Sakura’s smile faded away as she felt saddened and disappointed at Chaeyeon’s refusal. She had gotten used to having Chaeyeon over, seeing her every day and night for the past few days. Now that Chaeyeon was going back to her dorm, Sakura suddenly felt lonely. Chaeyeon noticed Sakura’s change in demeanor as the girl remained silent as they were walking. Chaeyeon felt bad, so she gave into Sakura’s request.

“Fine.” Chaeyeon sighed before continuing.

“I’ll come over to celebrate and leave afterwards. I have to grab my things anyway.” 

The corners of Sakura’s mouth quickly curved upwards, smiling from ear to ear. She quickly rushed Chaeyeon out of the building and headed to the konbini.

•~•

After grabbing a ton of snacks at the konbini and making a little pitstop in the grocery store, the girls finally arrived back at Sakura’s apartment. Albeit with some troubles with all the things they had to carry back. They took all of their snacks out of the plastic bags and splayed them on the coffee table in the living room. Sakura grabbed two cups from her cupboard and joined Chaeyeon on the floor, who had just finished washing the fruits they purchased. Sakura poured herself a cup of Coke while Chaeyeon opted for water. 

“Let’s cheer.” Sakura suggested, holding her cup up towards Chaeyeon.

“To what?” Chaeyeon asked.

“Finishing our midterms, duh.” 

“What the…” Chaeyeon said under her breath with an amused smile.

Chaeyeon looked a bit embarrassed but amused Sakura anyways and raised her cup up as well.

“Kya~” Sakura said after taking a big gulp of her Coke, as if she had just one shotted an entire glass of beer. 

The two continued to munch on their snacks and conversed about whatever came to their minds. Sakura kept rambling on about her tests; what annoyed her or what she did well on. Chaeyeon just sat and listened. Sakura felt bad for hogging the entire conversation so she was going to ask Chaeyeon about her day, but then suddenly, Sakura heard a notification tone go off. She looked at her phone screen beside her, but it wasn’t her phone. Another ring went off. Sakura moved her eyes towards Chaeyeon’s phone this time. Chaeyeon however, didn’t look at her phone at all. She was just ignoring it.

“Shouldn’t you check that?” Sakura asked.

“Oh no, it’s fine.” Chaeyeon said nonchalantly as she popped a grape in .

They tried to continue having their conversation but the texts continued to come. Each ding became more frequent as time went on. It even got to the point where Chaeyeon had to turn her phone to silent so they didn’t get interrupted anymore. Since Chaeyeon was ignoring the texts, Sakura followed along, assuming that they weren’t important either, but her curiosity was peaking with each ding. Sakura didn’t want to pry, but she became too curious, wandering who it was that was trying to get Chaeyeon’s attention. 

“You sure you want to keep ignoring those? Seems like someone is trying to get your attention.” Sakura said, clearing as the phone vibrated again.

“Maybe someone special?” She added, trying to seem like she was teasing Chaeyeon.

She avoided staring straight at Chaeyeon, but still stole glances to see her reaction. 

“Sorry.” Chaeyeon apologized.

She couldn’t take it anymore as she ruffled her hair and picked her phone up. She seemed irritated at first but then a small smile crept on her face as she scrolled through her texts. Sakura was now really curious. She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt somewhat strange, somewhat jealous even. 

Who is it that? Who can make Chaeyeon smile like that after annoying her? 

Sakura thought to herself as she bit her lower lip nervously.

Chaeyeon quickly texted the person back and set the phone back down. After that, the phone didn’t go off for a while.

“Ah, I need to run to the restroom real quick.” Chaeyeon suddenly said as she rushed off down the hallway.

Sakura sat alone for a minute, munching on her umeboshi snack to pass the time, but suddenly, she heard a phone vibrate again. She could no longer hold back her curiosity. She knows what she’s about to do is a major invasion of privacy, but it felt like she was going to die if she didn’t find out who this person was. Sakura took a cautious look down the hallway where the restroom was. She didn’t hear a flush or water running so she assumed it was safe to move. She moved onto her knees and swiftly crawled over to where Chaeyeon’s phone sat, unguarded. She took one more look down the hallway before tilting the phone screen to get it to show the notification screen.

Her eyes widened as she saw the text.

~Jagiya~ 

The text read. 

Sakura’s heart began to race as her Korean skills kicked in.

Jagiya? Why is this person calling her jagiya? Is this her boyfriend? It would make sense because of her rules. Maybe she makes her boyfriend follow the same rules as me and I’m just her guinea pig.

As these thoughts were going through her mind, Sakura suddenly realized she hadn't looked at the name of the sender yet. She quickly tilted the screen again and her mind went blank upon seeing the name. She set the phone back into its original place and returned to where she was sitting. Her expression was blank as her mind was running a million miles per second now.

Who is that?

The question kept repeating in her mind as she suddenly didn’t feel so good.

“Sorry, I took a while didn’t I?” Chaeyeon said as she sat down, snapping Sakura out of her thoughts.

“Huh?” Sakura replied in the moment of confusion.

“It’s your business, you can take however long you’d like.” She added as she calmed herself down.

Sakura suddenly felt like the atmosphere in the room became awkward, like there was some kind of tension. She couldn’t even look at Chaeyeon, let alone talk to her now. Of course that was all Sakura. Chaeyeon was just herself, continuing to eat her grapes without knowing anything that just happened. However, it wasn’t long until Chaeyeon noticed how quiet Sakura became.

“Saku-chan? Is something wrong?”

Sakura remained silent for a moment, not knowing what she should say.

“Uh- nothing’s wrong.” Sakura nervously replied.

Chaeyeon cocked her eyebrow questioningly, sensing something was suspicious about Sakura.

“Are you sure? Why are you so quiet all of a sudden? Did something happen? You’re not even looking at me.” Chaeyeon pressed on.

Ah, I should just come clean. She’ll be mad at me for looking in the first place anyway, but she’ll become even more angry if I lie to her. I know I would be.

Sakura thought to herself, feeling bad for lying. 

“Actually, Chaeyeon?” Sakura finally spoke up.

“Hmm?”

“I didn’t mean to look, I swear. It’s just, your phone was going off a lot and I was just curious as to who was texting you so much, that’s all. I’m sorry for snooping and invading your privacy.”

Sakura couldn’t lift her head up. She felt guilty for what she had done. Chaeyeon’s eyebrows were furrowed for a moment, but surprisingly though, Chaeyeon didn’t seem like she was angry at Sakura. There wasn’t much to her expression, but one can still tell that she took it well. Chaeyeon took a quiet deep breath before smiling gently at Sakura.

“Saku-chan.” Chaeyeon called softly.

Sakura was hesitant to look up, but thought she should at least deal with the consequences.

“It’s not nice to look at other people’s stuff without their permission, but it seems like you understand that that was wrong. I’m partially to blame since I kind of fed your curiosity so I’ll forgive you this time.”

Sakura was dumbfounded at how easy going Chaeyeon was and that she also blamed herself for Sakura’s wrong doing. 

“I don’t get why you’re blaming yourself too, but thanks for forgiving me.”