Author’s POV (Outside polyclinic)

“What did the doctor say?” Sulli asked Krystal after she had finished her consultation with the doctor.

“The usual. Eat more food, especially the ones high in iron like spinach and red meat,” Krystal struggled to keep up with Sulli.

Suddenly Sulli stopped on her track and bent down, “Come on, let me piggyback you to the bus stop.”

“Gwenchana. I might hurt your back.”

“Don’t worry. I am strong enough. Come on.”

“Ok,” Krystal climbed onto Sulli’s back.

“Hai ya!” with one breath, Sulli stood up and continued her way to the bus stop.

“If you feel tired along the way, just let me down. Don’t overexert yourself.”

“Okay,” then Sulli turned around, “Why do you keep touching your lips?”

“Did I?” Krystal quickly retracted her hands.

“You’ve been doing that on our way to the polyclinic from the school.”

“Oh… I’m just thinking… why are you always so nice to me?”

“Because you are my BEST friend.”

“Is that all?”

“Ne.”

“By being so nice, do you know you are leading me on?” Krystal buried her head along the contours of Sulli’s neck.

“What do you mean?”

“Ssul, sarang ae.”

“Wha?!” Sulli lost balance and collapsed to the ground, with Krystal on top of her back.

“Gwenchana?!” Krystal made way for Sulli to turn her body around.

“Ah… yeah. I’m fine. Your joke is really…”

Before Sulli could stand up, Krystal pinned her to the ground. “I’m not joking. I’m serious.”

“Thank you for liking me, but I’m not into girls.”

“How do you know? Have you tried it before?”

“Erm… no. I’ve never thought of it.”

“Why don’t you test it out with me?” Krystal inched closer to Sulli’s face.

“Soo Jung…” Sulli’s body gradually weakened its resistance to Krystal’s advances.

“Lips. Don’t. Lie.” With every word spoken, Krystal’s lips brushed past Sulli’s.

As the smoke of fantasy emerged and shrouded the two like a veil, Eun Gyeol’s mind slowly returned to reality.

Eun Gyeol’s POV (Soccer field)

I shook my head in response to the absurdity of my fantasy. Krystal might be from USA, but she was not as liberal. She won’t take advantage of Sulli.

“However they are alone with each other, so Krystal may not be able to control her hormones,” the devil whispered into my left ear.

“Come on, Krystal is unwell, so she can’t do much. For the same reason, she needs Sulli even more by her side now,” the angel drummed some logic into my right ear.

“Since Sulli is taking care of Krystal, they are going to have a lot of physical contacts and things happen,” the devil added more fuel to the fire.

“Who cares if things happen? Remember Sulli is straight,” the angel tried to put the fire out.

“After experimenting with Krystal, Sulli may change her mind,” the devil demoralised me again.

“You must have faith in Sulli, and more importantly yourself,” the angel cast a ray of light and the devil disintegrated into oblivion.

Yeah! Hwaiting Eun Gyeol! I thought to myself.

“Eun Gyeol. Stop daydreaming! It’s your turn to shoot the goal!” my coach shouted across the field.

“Ye, coach nim!” I gave the ball a swift kick. It hit the goal post, got deflected and flew straight into the coach’s head.

“Ah! Coach nim! Gwenchana?” I rushed towards my fainted coach.

Krystal’s POV (Outside polyclinic)

“What did the doctor say?” Sulli asked me after my consultation with the doctor.

“The usual. Eat more food, especially the ones high in iron like spinach and red meat,” I struggled to keep up with Sulli.

“Is it that time of the month again, that’s why you felt like fainting all the time?”

I nodded my head. Suddenly Sulli stopped on her track and bent down, “Come on, let me piggyback you to the bus stop.”

“Gwenchana. I might hurt your back.”

“Don’t worry. I am strong enough. Come on.”

“Ok,” I climbed onto Sulli’s back.

“Hai ya!” with one breath, Sulli stood up and we continued our way to the bus stop.

“If you feel tired along the way, just let me down. Don’t overexert yourself.”

“Okay,” then Sulli turned around, “Why do you keep touching your lips?”

“Did I?” I quickly retracted my hands.

“You’ve been doing that on our way to the polyclinic from the school.”

“Oh… I’m just thinking…” the lips locking accident with Jae Hee at the stadium kept replaying in my mind.

“About my unnie?”

Sulli’s spot on answer caught me off-guard, “Wae… Why do you think that way?”

“Despite rejecting him, you are still wearing the couple bangle he gave you. Are you regretting your decision?”

“Since when did I reject him?”

“Eh?”

“Actually I did not give him a clear reply, because I’m not sure what I want either,” come to think of it, that fan girl was not too wrong about me being a two-timing . Occasionally I felt like I wanted both Sulli and Jae Hee at the same time.

“Ah! I know what you mean. You don’t feel ready to commit to him. At the same time, you are afraid of losing him forever once you say ‘no’.”

“You sound like you had just received a confession from someone. Is it Eun Gyeol?”

“How did you know?”

“Eun Gyeol is not a discreet person. The way he behaves around you is a giveaway, like how anxious he got after Tae Joon hit you.”

“Hmm… let’s not talk about the guys. I’m hungry. Let’s have steak for lunch. I give you a treat to commemorate our friendship. May we be best friends, even when we are grannies!”

“Haha. Sounds good!”

Best friend. Looks like that’s the furthest we can go. But for now, can you belong to me alone? At least till we reach the bus stop. I thought to myself as I buried my head along the contours of Sulli’s neck.

Jae Hee’s POV (Stadium track)

If I documented how I passed today in a journal, it would read like a “The Day When Everything Went Wrong” elementary school essay. First of all, I was wrongly accused of being a , thus earning myself a flaming fist from Tae Joon. Then Mr Baek thought Tae Joon and I were fighting over girls, so we had to run 10 rounds after training. During training itself, Mr Baek made us do 30 sets of 30 sit-ups and 30 push-ups. Rumours had it that our Korean language teacher, Miss Lee, had rejected him once again, therefore he vented his frustration on us. Right now I was serving my “sentence”. 10 rounds felt suicidal, after having drained 90% of my life force during our extra demanding physical training.

Amidst all these misfortunes, a little blessing stood out in the form of a stolen kiss from Krystal. A kiss that sent fireworks exploding in my head. A kiss that left me wanting for more. While I’m bathed in ecstasy, I hoped Krystal wasn’t too upset about it though.

“You must be enjoying it, don’t you?” Tae Joon interrupted my thoughts. Unfortunately, my stamina was on par with his, so we ran side by side throughout our punishment.

“What do you mean?” I could roughly guess what Tae Joon was referring to, but I wanted to make sure.

“What else? You forced yourself on Krystal just now!”

“Quit making it sound so erse! Krystal explained it herself, that it was an accident.”

“Accident or not, your lips did come into contact with hers, didn’t it? Look at how you keep touching your lips. It makes me sick, having to run with you and witnessing your disgusting action. God knows what byuntae thoughts run through your head all these while.”

I quickly retracted my hands. “As if I enjoy running beside you. And listening to your crap.”

That seemed to shut Tae Joon up. For the next few rounds, we ran in silence. Just when I was enjoying the peace, Tae Joon started again.

“You like Krystal too, don’t you?”

“It’s none of your business!” I did not even consider Tae Joon a friend, so I felt no need to let him into my personal life.

“If you don’t, great, you know where you stand. Otherwise, you are up against me. You know, the word ‘lose’ doesn’t exist in my dictionary.”

I almost choked on my laughter when I heard that.

“Hey, I am not trying to be funny. I meant every word I say,” Tae Joon was offended by my reaction.

“Seems like you are the one who doesn’t know where you stand. At least I do. Whatever it is, good luck in maintaining the status quo of your dictionary.”

“Do you mean Krystal likes someone else other than one of us? Who is it?” Tae Joon contemplated a while, and gulped, “She likes Eun Gyeol? But Eun Gyeol likes her best friend Sulli. Krystal’s gonna be heartbroken…”

Kang Tae Joon certainly didn’t make the best company for a guy. But at least, he provided some comic relief for the final round of our run.