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YURI

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“Bro, I swear! You have to believe me, someone cute was asking about you!”

“Uh huh, keep talking,” Yuri mutters, pulling her backpack onto her shoulder as they walk outside of the shower rooms, “You say that to every girl that asks about me. I thought you were serious about Maia?”

“I am! And we’re good! I’m not looking out to girls for myself, it was for you!” Charlee protested.

“Seriously though, Yuri. Some of your fans are not like the others. They are somehow a little mellow, and are just content on looking at you from afar.” Tami chimed in.

“Ugh, not you too!”

“There’s a lot of cute girls, but I swear! There’s this one girl that’s super adorable. More adorable than all the others.”

“How so? Because again, Charlee, you say that every time you meet a new girl, so I’m not really intrigued, to be honest.”

Charlee pouts a little. “I don’t do that everytime,” she complains, following Yuri out of the gym, heading to the cafeteria. “She was cute and I saw her looking at you dreamily, and when I caught her doing that, she was flustered and stuttered a lot. She also keeps a sketchbook with drawings of you!”

“Okay, okay! I get it, Charlee,” Yuri cut in, giving Charlee an exasperated look. “I get it, she’s cute,” she started crossing her arms as she faced Charlee. “But isn’t it a little creepy?”

“What?”

“Charlee, she was literally drawing me. Doesn’t that sound a little… I don’t know, weird?”

Charlee furrowed her eyebrows, searching for reasons to defend the girl she had met earlier. “Maybe she was just using you as a model to hone her skills!” She pondered aloud, shrugging. “Either way, it’s cute. You should’ve seen it! They are really good drawings too! And I sometimes draw Maia! And she’s not weirded out by it!”

Jae scoffed, “It’s probably because that’s the least weird thing about you, so Maia doesn’t mind.”

They all laughed as Charlee glared at Jae. “Yaaahhh.” She said, whining.

“If Maia wasn’t around, I bet that you’d let any girl punch you in the face if you find her attractive enough.” Yuri commented.

“Oh, shut up…” Charlee grumbles, crossing her arms across her chest with a large scowl on her face.

“What does she look like anyway?” Yuri suddenly asks, her expression softening to a more curious one. “I might know her, maybe.”

By the time that Yuri finished her question, Hana and her group of friends arrived, and they greeted them. Only Charlee knew about what happened to their talk on the rooftop, and it looks like Hana did not tell her friends too about what happened, because there’s no awkwardness around them, except of course between the two of them.

Maia greeted Charlee, which made her friend smile like an idiot, so she nudged her to continue their conversation.

“Oh, uhmmm.” Charlee began, a little less excited to talk about another girl when Maia was around. “She was just a little taller than me, and had long red hair.”

“Charlee, does she have any distinguishing features?”

“Uhm… I just think that she has thin lips? I don’t know, man. I’ll just point her out to you next time.” But Charlee looks like she’s trying hard to remember anything remarkable that she can say to Yuri. “Oh! Oh! I remember! She has a cute beauty mark on her left cheek!”

“Who are we talking about?” Maia suddenly butts in when she hears how excited Charlee was.

“Charlee’s trying to introduce Yuri to the cute girl that she saw earlier ogling at Yuri.” Tami answered loudly which made everyone on the top look at her.

“Ohh.” Maia responded, clearly not thrilled that Charlee was describing someone else’s lips and beauty marks to Yuri.

“Maia— I swear, she was Yuri’s number one fan! She even has a drawing of Yuri on her sketchpad.” Charlee explained, oblivious of the reason why Maia was sulking.

Yuri had to save her friend before she made a larger mess. “That’s right, Maia. Charlee was just being helpful. She’s not really looking at other girls.”

At that, Maia smiled a little bit, and Charlee sighed in relief. “Of course! I only have eyes for you! You’re the most beautiful ever!” Charlee swears, which made the subject of praise blush with the compliment.

“Anyway, where did you say you saw her?” Yuri asked.

“I think she just came out of the music room?”

“Ohhh, her…” Yuri said, smiling. “I think I know the girl that you’re talking about.”

“Really?” Charlee excitedly said.

“But why would she draw a picture of me?” Yuri thought out loud.

“Bro, how would I know? Ask her yourself!” Charlee groans in frustration, then she remembers something. “And where did you know her anyway?”

Yuri rolled her eyes, in response to Charlee’s question. “I’ll tell you if I’m positive that we are talking about the same girl.” Then she leaned in and whispered, “Right now, you should focus on making Maia smile again, she’s been pouting the whole time.”

“Ugh! It’s your fault!” Charlee complains, groaning again.

“I’m not the one who started that talk.” Yuri shot back.

“If only your love life is not boring.”

“Psh, I’m anything but boring.” Yuri bristles in annoyance.

“Yeah, right.” Charlee suddenly agrees, taking Yuri aback. “You’re childish, cocky and way too proud for your own food,” she states, laughing as Yuri’s face screws up in anger. “So deal with it.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Yuri dismisses, scowling. “Just you wait.”

“Ohhhh. That’s more like it.” Charlee teases, bumping into her shoulder playfully. “Do you intend on talking to the girl?”

Yuri contemplated if she should answer the question, because if she’s right, she would definitely talk to the person even if it’s not because of the things that Charlee mentioned. “Maybe.” she answered instead.

“Seriously?” Charlee interrupted loudly, looking oddly surprised, causing people to stare at them with curious looks, much to Yuri’s embarrassment. “I mean, I guess it’s already time, but holy ! I cannot believe that I’ll convince you in doing so. You’ll officially fall into the ‘popular varsity and invisible art nerd’ trope!”

“Oh, shut up! You’re not the reason behind it. And I have no idea what you’re talking about. Nerds are cute though,” Yuri commented.

“I swear, she really is cute.”

“You think every girl is cute.”

“No!” Charlee protested and looked at Maia who was sulking again.

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The next day, Yuri was preparing for school but she still feels tired, mostly because she’s been practicing non-stop because she wanted her mind to be occupied at all times.

If she’s going to be truthful, she's going crazy because she misses Hana so much. But she’s not in any position to ask for her attention, since it was pretty clear that Hana doesn’t really need her.

So, today… Yuri was a little bit sluggish, practically dragging herself through her first and second periods. It was mostly Charlee who kept her awake because of the constant poking of her cheeks. Normally, it would annoy her, but she’d take what she can get so that she won’t fall asleep. She tried her very best to focus on the lessons, as she doesn’t want to fall behind, most especially that they are busy with practices.

After the fourth period, it’s finally lunch time.

Her normal routine before was to check Hana’s location and wait for her so that they could eat together. She would just ask Charlee to buy food for them, so that they won’t have a hard time waiting in line. But now that she actually shouldn’t wait for Hana anymore, she mindlessly just walked towards the cafeteria.

Now, technically, this wasn’t Yuri’s fault, as the person appeared in front of her all of a sudden and it was also not her fault that this girl was running in the hall, however she’s not one to point fingers.

The said girl that ran right into her, was sent onto the floor with a yelp, and since she was able to handle the hit a little better, Yuri was still standing. Yuri took a second to process what happened and blinked, looking down at the person who she had run into, who looked so shocked in front of her, and her stomach flipped.

Ah, .

It was the girl that Charlee was talking about, of course.

“Are you okay?” Yuri asked, crouching in front of her with concern, and started to gather the girl’s things, but the latter was just staring at Yuri, her cheeks were super red, and when Yuri noticed it, she covered her face, groaning.

“I’m— I’m sorry!” The people passing them spared a glance, whispering a little bit to each other, but continued to their destinations anyway. “I didn’t mean to bump into you.”

Yuri’s suspicion was confirmed when she saw the ‘drawing’ that Charlee mentioned.

“Are you okay?” Yuri asked again, since the girl didn’t answer her the first time.

“Yeah— yeah, I’m fine.” The girl responds, nodding as she tries to hide her embarrassment. “Just a bit dazed.”

Yuri seems to not believe her, and helps her to stand up. The girl gratefully took her hand, letting Yuri pull her to her feet. Then Yuri grins a little, “You’re Ji Eun, right?”

Ji Eun flinched and her eyes widened in shock. “Huh… uh… yeah. How’d you know?”

“I played the piano for you, right? Music club auditions?” Yuri recolected.

“Oh, right…” Ji Eun blushed at the realization that Yuri remembered her.

But she also remembers how the people stare at their interaction now, and possibly making fun of her in their heads, and who knows how many pictures of her could have been taken. Her social anxiety was flaring up, and she bit her lip harder, trying to not focus on the people around her. She looked up to Yuri again, hoping that she saw her reaction as some sort of message that she wanted to leave so she could breathe.

Yuri was already giving Ji Eun a concerned look, noticing that she was nervously looking around her, and when Ji Eun looked up, she confirmed that she’s scared of the crowd. So she took this as a sign that she wanted to get to a lesser populated area. Their hands were still intertwined after she helped her stand up, so she gently pulled her forward and she led her to