Genre: Fluff, Romance

Summary: A story of how first encounters and experiences brought two young women to find love.

Word Count: 5294

Hashtag: #SSBB_AStoryOfFirsts

A Story of Firsts

a/n: Italicized dialogue is said in Japanese, standard font in Korean

“Hey Hiichan, do you like anyone?”

“Wh-what?”

Hitomi’s face reddened as she and her best friend Nako walked to their usual lunch spot.

“I mean, we’re 20 already, and you haven’t been in a relationship yet, surely you already have your eyes on someone, don’t you?”

“N-no…”

“Ooh so you DO like someone. Tell me who! I wanna know who!”

“Who’s what now?” Chaewon asked as the pair had made it to the place where the three usually met for lunch.

“Hiichan was about to tell us who she likes, Chaewon!”

“I don’t remember agreeing to this…”

“You like someone, Hitoma?”

“Since SOMEONE doesn’t know how to mind their own business,” Hitomi said while glaring begrudgingly at Nako, “yes, I do like someone, and no, i don’t plan on telling anyone who it is anytime soon.”

“Aww come on Hitoma, you can’t tell your best friend? Pwease?” Chaewon asked as she gave Hitomi her best puppy eyes.

Hitomi narrows her eyes and sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose as her face further reddens out of frustration and anger (certainly not because she’s flustered at Chaewon’s facial expression, that would just be ridiculous).

“Fine, since Chaewon actually asked nicely, I’ll tell her and her only. Bye Nako.”

“YAH!!! I ASKED FIRST WHAT DO YOU MEAN BYE??”

“You didn’t really ask, you kinda just demanded I tell you who it is. I think Wonyoung is looking for you over there, you should go-”

“Let her stay, Hitoma. Actually lemme call her over here really quick. WONYOUNG-AH!!!”

As Chaewon catches Wonyoung’s attention, Hitomi rushes over and panickedly whisper-yells at Chaewon: “Chaewonnie!! Why are you inviting her over??”

“Nako’s probably going to tell her anyways, they tell each other everything! So may as well just kill two birds with one stone!”

“Did you need something Chaewon-unnie?”

“Oh Wonyoungie! Hiichan was about to tell us about who she likes!”

“Nako-unnie!!!” Wonyoung exclaimed as she rushed to hug her girlfriend.

Chaewon and Hitomi watched in disgust as Nako tiptoed to place a kiss on the younger’s cheek.

“I’m starting to regret calling her over,” muttered Chaewon as the two sat across from them at the table. Upon getting seated, Wonyoung took a deep breath, and enqu

“Hii-unnie! You like someone? Who is it? Are you comfortable telling us who it is? What made you like her? Do we know who it is? Does she know you like her? Does she like you back? Is she at this table? Is it Nako-unnie? You can’t have Nako-unnie, she’s mine! Is it-”

“Ok ok Wonyoung, calm down a bit. She was just about to start telling us. One question at a time.”

Hitomi, Chaewon and Nako sat and waited for Wonyoung to catch her breath after her bombardment of questions. After a few minutes, when Wonyoung deemed herself calm enough to begin a more civil interrogation, she turned to Hitomi and asked:

“Do we know who it is, unnie?”

“You all do.”

“Can you tell us who?”

“Nope.”

“Does anyone else know who?”

“No.”

“Why-”

“Wonyoungie, why don’t we stop pressuring her into telling us who it is and instead let her tell us what she’s more comfortable with?” Nako said, interrupting Wonyoung’s onslaught of questions.

“Nako, you can’t say that after what you led off with while we were coming over here,” Hitomi responded, cocking an eyebrow at the shortest of the four.

“What do you mean? What did I do?” Nako asked, genuinely forgetting whatever it was she said.

“You really don’t remember saying ‘Tell me who! I wanna know who!’ cuz I don’t believe that one bit!” Hitomi quipped with a mocking tone, pointedly glaring back at Nako.

“...I may or may not have said that to you ten minutes ago… hehe,” Nako said in a rather meek tone while rubbing the back of her neck, quite embarrassed from being exposed in front of her girlfriend in such a manner.

Despite that action of what looked to be regret coming from Nako, Hitomi still wasn’t satisfied and continued to glare at her. Nako, not even needing to look at Hitomi to feel the burn of the glare adorning the latter’s face, leaned into Wonyoung’s side, who in turn pulled her into a side hug that was meant to be comforting and protective.

As Chaewon saw the menacing glare on Hitomi’s face, she brushed her hand up and down Hitomi’s arm, instantly soothing her, and said, “Hitomi, let’s get mad at Nako later. How did you start liking them?”

“Well… we first met in middle school…”

Flashback: 7th grade

It wasn’t easy being the new kid in town in your own home country. Imagine how hard it was being the new kid in town in a completely new country that speaks a whole different language. That was the life of Honda Hitomi. 

After moving in, having left all her friends she made over the last 11 years of her life, including her dog Pome, and getting settled in their new house, the Hondas were on their way to drop their children at their schools for their first days. After dropping Erii and Mitsu off at the high school, they made their way to the middle school. Upon arrival, she said her goodbyes to her parents as they went to their new workplace. 

Standing outside the gate, she looked up and saw the name “Produce Middle School” inscribed on the building in front of her. Entering the building, she was met with the ppl at the front office, got her homeroom, class schedule and locker number, and she went on her way.

She found Locker #1006, and emptied her backpack leaving only 2 notebooks and her pencil case to go to her first set of classes. After closing it and locking it up, she tried to make her way to her first class using the map the school gave her. Unfortunately, everything was in Korean, which she could barely even speak, let alone read. 

After walking around confusedly trying to figure out where she was for five minutes someone came up to her, tapped her on the shoulder and asked:

“Excuse me, are you new here?”

Hitomi turned around and saw perhaps the prettiest girl she had ever met. Long brown hair, brown eyes, and a facial structure that generally reminded her of a cheetah. She stood there in silence as they both looked at each other in the eyes, as if silently agreeing with each other to have a staring contest. It was like a scene out of a drama where the two stared at each other like there was no one else around them. Hitomi stared into her eyes even longer, admiring their beauty, as the two continued to maintain their seemingly endless connection. When suddenly:

“Chaewon! We’re gonna be late for class, let’s go!”

A second person, noticeably shorter than the girl in front of her, Chaewon if she heard correctly, appeared and noticed that Chaewon was staring at Hitomi. She took a quick glance up and down her body and said to Hitomi:

“I don’t think I’ve seen you before, are you new?”

“Uh- um- I no speak Korean good.”

“Are you new to this school? I don’t think we’ve ever met.” 

This time, Hitomi understood it completely, and that’s when she realized the newcomer was speaking to her in her mother tongue. 

“You know Japanese?”

“More than that, I am, in fact, Japanese! My name is Yabuki Nako, and this is my friend Kim Chaewon.”

“Oh thank goodness! I’m Honda Hitomi. I just moved here a week ago from Japan and I have no idea where my classes are! Do you think you can help?”

“Sure! Let me see your schedule.”

“Nako, what’s happening?”

“Her name is Honda Hitomi. She’s new, she’s Japanese and doesn’t know much Korean, so I’m gonna help her.”

Hitomi fishes her schedule out of her jacket pocket and gives it to Nako and Chaewon, as they both quickly scan it with their eyes.

“That’s my exact schedule, with the same exact teachers too.”

“Really? You think you can take care of her today? You do know some of the Japanese I taught you, right?”

“Yep!”

“Hitomi, you have every class with Chaewon, so if you need anything just ask her, okay?”

“Okay! Hello Chaewon, my name is Hitomi. Nice to meet you!”

“Nice to meet you too Hitomi!”

“Ok I hate to break the conversation, but class starts in 5 minutes, so let’s go you two!”

And with that, Nako and Chaewon each grabbed one of Hitomi’s hands to drag their new friend to their first class together. As she followed behind, she thought to herself.

Maybe it won’t be too bad being the new girl from a different country. At least not while I have these two.

“Okay, so that narrows it down to all your friends here in Korea. That’s very helpful, Hiichan. Now I definitely know who it is. Thanks Hiichan.”

“Oh really now?”

“OF COURSE NOT, HOW WOULD I KNOW BASED ON THAT ALONE?????” Nako said exasperatedly, seemingly frustrated at how limited, or unlimited the possibilities were.

“Well maybe you should try listening to the full answer before trying to figure out who I’m talking about.” Hitomi said, cocking a very unamused eyebrow towards Nako.

“That’s probably a good idea, Nako unnie.” Wonyoung said while nodding her head.

“Wonnie! I thought you were supposed to be on my side!”

“But Hii-unnie is right!”

“Chaewon, help me out here?”

“What’s there to help with? Hiichan’s right. Are you just embarrassed that you got called out on your impatience?”

“Just say you hate me and go.” Nako said with a pout.

“I could never, unnie! I love you too much for that!” Wonyoung exclaimed while rushing to give her a hug.

“No. Stay away from me. I’m angy,” said Nako as she put on an angry sulking expression, scooting away from the younger girl.

Chaewon and Hitomi looked at each other with identical expressions of disgust at the scene unfolding in front of them. The two watched as Nako and Wonyoung had a back and forth for a minute or two when Chaewon turned to Hitomi and said:

“Hitoma, why don’t you continue while those two have their little lovers’ quarrel?”

“Wait, wait!! I need to hear this!! Wonnie baby, I love you too, now shush. Hiichan needs to finish her story.”

Wonyoung in turn pouted at the rather rushed declaration of love from her girlfriend, resignedly sighed, and turned to face Hitomi with an expectant look on her face. Hitomi took that as the sign for her to continue and said:

“Anyway…as I was trying to say, she was also one of the first people I ever invited to my house here in Korea…”

Flashback: 7th grade

One month into school, Hitomi's knowledge of Korean is existent (albeit at a microscopic level, but we digress). It’s lunchtime and the trio were sitting and conversing in Japanese (with bits and pieces of Korean ingrained). When it got quiet, Hitomi spoke up, asking:

“Hey, Nako, Chaewon, do you guys want to come over to my house? My parents want to meet the two people who were kind enough to welcome me and help me through this past month of school.”

The two girls in question looked at each other, shrugged, looked back and replied to Hitomi, saying:

“Why not? We’d love to meet your parents, Hiichan!”

And just like that, after the bell signaling the end of the school day rang, Hitomi and Chaewon met up with Nako outside the school gate and the three went over to the Hondas’ house. Upon arriving home, Hitomi opened the door and brought the two up to her room. Chaewon and Nako shot texts to their parents to let them know that they were hanging out with Hitomi.

A couple hours later, after the three had finished doing their homework together and had gone through a couple chapters of the Korean Language book Hitomi was given, they heard the front door open.