Ever since Chaewon can remember, she has always idolized her parents’ marriage. They were the perfect couple—soulmates that nothing can come in between. Life partners who were always there for each other and couldn’t name one bad thing about the other. It wasn’t until death does them part that 15-year-old Chaewon and twin sister Yeonhee are left with a single parent, their mother. For years Chaewon envied that absolute relationship and believed she found it when she met the It girl, Kim Minju, in fifth grade.

Minju has it all; looks, attitude, popularity, friends, influences, grades, extracellular activities, and wealth. In short, Minju is an overachiever that underachieving students like Chaewon are often compared to and pit against. But to every rich and powerful parents’ dismay, Minju’s indifference towards status makes it easy for her to keep and make friends ranging from dirt poor to more privileged. 

Chaewon found it fascinating that Minju is always surrounded by friends, even from a young age. The other is rarely seen alone, and when she’s in one of the bathroom stalls, her friends would form a circle and wait for her outside. Meanwhile, Chaewon has only been able to keep two true friends, Na Goeun and Kim Suyun. 

Chaewon and Goeun became friends in the third grade when everyone had to partner up for a science project and they were the only two without a buddy. Goeun was a shy girl with a closet full of pink and purple who liked putting the said colors of beads in her hair. Meanwhile, Suyun and Chaewon started off as adversaries. They have been neighbors since age 11 and didn’t become friends until the day of Chaewon’s father's funeral. 

“Kim Chaewon!” 

Across the field, Chaewon notices Suyun getting ready to pass the soccer ball so she waves to her tallest friend, signaling that she’s prepared to score. As the ball comes spinning at her, Chaewon crouches forward a little and gets in position to run up and kick it into the net. However, a player on the defense team had a different plan. 

The sporty and taller girl tries to intercept and steal the ball but once the toe of Chaewon’s black tennis shoes and black and white sphere made contact, there was no stopping it. The ball sweeps past the opponent’s bare shin, stinging her, before passing the goal line and hitting the net. Immediately, Chaewon’s side roars in victory and charges her on the field, winning the game 10-7. Goeun and Suyun get to her first and Suyun hold up her hand as the victor. 

However, as soon as the small celebration dies down, Chaewon’s side instantly hears a complaint.

“It was a foul! I’ve been injured! She kicked my leg!” 

Everyone on the green field gives in to silence. As expected, the complainer is Ahn Yujin; her super competitive side never admits defeat in anything. 

When Chaewon and her team glance over to Yujin, they see that she’s being held up with her arms loop around her teammates Wonyoung and Yena’s shoulders. Yujin wears a scowl on her face and they hear her breathing pick up. 

“The ref needs to call this foul.” Yena, the girl with a ponytail on the left side of her head, demands. Quickly but quietly everyone searches the open plain for the referee, who’s nowhere in sight. 

“Where did—” Wonyoung begins only to be shut down by a male student shouting and revealing the referee’s location. 

“There!” 

Everyone turns to the figure casually moving through the crowd to stand in between both teams. At the center of everything, the girl has her hands in her pants pockets as her long black hair flows elegantly in the warm breeze. 

“Call it what it is, Minju.” Yujin says, “You saw what happened.” 

“I did,” Minju answers in a laid-back manner. “It was fair.” 

Before Chaewon’s team can celebrate again, Yujin hurriedly accuses, “Seriously? Whose side are you on!?” 

While all twenty-something-odd students anticipate Minju’s response, Chaewon goes blank. 

“Whose side am I on? My girlfriend’s side.” 

Everyone gasps. 

Instantly, Chaewon wants to hide as she feels her face turning beet red. She's embarrassed by the boldness of Minju's announcement. It’s a given that Minju has a reputation of being forth-coming, but no one predicted this. And the look on Yujin’s face had everyone more confused because according to Suyun, Yujin is a confidante of Minju. 

“Gir-girl-girlfriend! You two are dating!?” Yena half-asks-half-shouts as she collects the jaw she’s dropped. Although well-liked, Yena received no answers as Minju and Chaewon only had each other in their line of vision.

While Chaewon can’t believe what left Minju’s lips, Minju can’t get enough of Chaewon. To Minju, the 18-year-old with short dark hair is precious in her gray sweater and the left leg of her sweatpants rolled up. 

In the distance, they hear the school bell ring signifying that their first class of the day will be in session in three minutes. Right away, Chaewon is anxious about the unknown. The day has just begun and without a doubt, Minju’s revelation will be the talk of the school. 

———

After dropping the bomb, Chaewon never ran into Minju the remainder of that morning. But students and teachers she hardly knows bombarded her with countless questions about her newfound relationship. 

In the cafeteria, during lunch hour, Suyun and Goeun had to sandwich Chaewon so that curious students couldn’t pry. Regardless, they still tried. Boys and girls alike would write questions or remarks on papers, fold them into airplanes, and fly them over. 

While Chaewon puts up with their behaviors, Suyun glares at students whose planes landed in their food, and Goeun piles the papers up into a small mountain on the table in order to keep the table clean. 

At the shoulders, Chaewon can feel Suyun building up the anger but before her hot-headedness gets the best of her, the room turns deathly still except for the sound of footsteps. Minju and her gang: Wonyoung, Yena, Yuri, Yunkyoung, Sohee, Sakura, Hitomi, Juri, and four boys Chaewon don't know the names of are walking in. 

Everyone, including Chaewon’s, eyes are glue to Minju as she and her group halt just steps before Chaewon’s table. Chaewon studies Minju noiselessly, pondering what the other will do now that she’s already exposed their relationship. With a heavy exhalation, Minju helps herself to the seat directly across them. 

To their surprise, Minju’s first words are, “What are you doing here?” 

Chaewon finds her question absurd and ridiculous. They’re on lunch in the cafeteria, what else could they be doing but eating? 

“What?” Chaewon blurts out. Instantly, regretting confessing to Minju a week and a half ago. Minju isn’t who Chaewon imagined. 

To Chaewon, it feels like the kind, considerate, and heroic Minju died the second she responded with “me too” to Chaewon’s “I like you”. Minju is similar to an angel who turned evil. A sweet dream transitioned into a nightmare. Nothing about her current self is to Chaewon’s liking. Not even her outwardly disclosing their relationship in front of close friends and classmates. 

“Kim Minju,” Chaewon hears Suyun say in a stern voice, “whatever you’re going to do you better not.” 

Chaewon knows Suyun has her best interest at heart but the taller’s command has less to do with her and more to do with history. In middle school, Suyun followed Minju around for a few years until a misunderstanding of some sort shattered their friendship. Up to this day, Suyun refuses to confide in anyone and Chaewon hasn’t had the chance to ask Minju about it. 

“You know you’re welcome to have lunch with us at the bleachers, right?” Minju directs the question to Chaewon and unsurprisingly ignores Suyun. 

“No thank you.” Chaewon retorts out of disappointment when Minju overlooks Suyun. 

She can tell Minju doesn’t like her tone as the other flattens her eyes slightly then grunts a little. “Suit yourself.” Minju stands up to leave but before she can complete a 180 turn, she looks back at them. “By the way, Yujin is in the nurse’s office. If you have any sympathy you'd pay her a visit.”

Whether intentional or not, Minju’s last sentence was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. Chaewon springs up from her seat, ready to return fire. Before she could get a word in, Minju and her gang were already making their way out the same way they came.

Chaewon balls her hands into two tight fists when she feels Goeun grab her by the wrist. 

“Don’t let it get to you, Chaewon. Here, sit, let’s finish our food.” At the sound of Goeun's gentle voice, Chaewon and Suyun’s anger melted. Quickly Suyun urges them to pick up their pace as they’ve lost a lot of time due to the others. 

———

The day flew by without Chaewon running into Minju again, but unlike the last few days, she doesn’t think much of it. As far as she knows, they just had their first fight, and the chances of Minju being upset with her over not visiting Yujin or apologizing for turning down the lunch invitation are high. In addition, conflict and making up are two things Chaewon had little to no experience in. Her parents and family hardly fought and always got along so she’s clueless about the necessary steps, if any, she needed to take to patch up her new relationship. 

Chaewon tightens her grip around the strap of her navy blue shoulder bag. Tonight’s club meeting ran longer than usual and it was 9:49 when she and Suyun got off the city bus and began their twenty-minute walk home. 

Despite being 18 and 6 cm taller, Suyun linking arms with Chaewon gives the shorter an uneven look. While they walk, Chaewon feels Suyun lifting her off the ground a little. Although she doesn’t complain, it reminds her why she’d prefer linking arms with Goeun who’s the same height as her. 

Think of the devil, the first word that comes out of Suyun’s mouth is their petite friend, “Goeun may have let you off the hook but I can’t. How are you two dating after everything I’ve warned you about her?” 

Chaewon shrugs, “I’d rather not talk about it.” 

“Why not?” 

“I’m sure it’s over for us,” Chaewon says nonchalantly. 

Suyun blinks, mostly speechless. One look and anyone can tell Chaewon hasn’t had much dating experience, but Suyun refuses to believe her friend can be this oblivious. 

The taller one stops them dead in their tracks, spins Chaewon around by the shoulder, and crouches down enough to meet her eye level. “If that’s true, I’d be happiest for you but we both know it’s not. You can’t one-sidedly decide it’s over when it’s not over.” 

Chaewon sighs and tries to brush off Suyun’s hands and statements but the other isn’t about to let her off easily. Immediately, she feels Suyun putting down weight on her shoulders along with some light squeezing. “Listen to me, Chaewon. I don’t know how deep your feelings are for her but I can say she likes you a lot. More than you can imagine. She always overlooks Yujin’s mistakes or sides with her, but this morning Minju sided with you. And did you see the look on Yujin’s face when Minju said you’re her girlfriend? When has Minju ever held a secret from Yujin?” 

Chaewon sees and hears the passion in Suyun’s eyes and voice but she doesn't follow. “...uh never?” 

“Exactly! Never!” Chaewon stumbles a bit when Suyun releases her shoulders and takes a step back to fold her own arms. “Tomorrow is Saturday, after my piano lesson I want to hear everything about what happened. Promise you’ll meet me in my backyard at 1 p.m. and tell me all about it.” 

Chaewon wants to roll her eyes a little, “Why? I thought you don’t care for Minju.”

“I don’t,” Suyun expresses, “but I’m curious to know how you managed to snatch up a big fish like her.” 

“Fine,” Chaewon says with a sigh. “Can we go home now? It’s past 10 and Yeonhee will be waiting for me.” 

Suyun smiles, nods, links arms with Chaewon then semi-pulls her along up the hill leading into their neighborhood. 

———

As Chaewon turns the dark corner, she sees Yeonhee sitting on the ground under the porch’s light. Yeonhee perks up and waves once their eyes meet. With the grandest smile she can muster, Chaewon jogs up to her younger twin sister and gives her a big ol hug. Chaewon giggles as Yeonhee smiles brightly, relieved that Chaewon made it home safe and sound. 

Seeing that their mother is asleep, Chaewon and Yeonhee quietly make their way into Chaewon’s room hand-in-hand. At the farthest corner from the door is Chaewon’s white wooden desk. On it, she has her laptop, textbooks, and pencils. Her white room’s decorated with K-Drama, actors, and actresses posters and she has stuffed animals on her twin-size bed and dressers. 

Chaewon sets her bag down on her desk then joins Yeonhee on the ground in the middle of the room. With one of Yeonhee’s hands in hers, Chaewon watches on with a kind smile as Yeonhee communicates with her through hand gestures. 

First, Yeonhee asks her how her day at school was. Second, she expresses her disappointment that Chaewon couldn’t join them for dinner as their mother made their favorite, grilled pork belly. Lastly, Yeonhee wonders how Chaewon’s dating life is going. 

Chaewon lets go of Yeonhee’s hand, makes an ‘X’, and shakes her head. On Yeonhee’s pretty face Chaewon then sees a pout forming. She knows her sister cares, loves, and worships her so she never wants to give Yeonhee bad news. But some things are beyond her control and that includes her girlfriend, Minju. 

Before Chaewon can cheer Yeonhee up, she hears a buzz coming from her bag. Chaewon motions for Yeonhee to wait a moment as she gets up to retrieve her phone from the second to the smallest side pocket. 

On the lock screen, Chaewon sees a message from an anonymous number that reads:

“It’s over.” 

Chaewon’s heart sank. Is her relationship truly over before it even started? 

A/N: That’s it for the first chapter! It’s so nice seeing so manyyyy familiar faces! I really miss you all and I will get back to replying to each and every one of you~ Now, until next time I’ll leave you all with one question: Who do you think texted Chaewon? ^_^