3rd person’s POV

“Come to think of it, why is Yujin so upset about Chaewon? It’s clear that there’s nothing special between you and her, you’ve already said that too”, Yuri stands beside Minju’s bed and questions. Since coming home, Minju has only greeted Yuri’s parents with one sentence, she didn’t even bother to eat dinner. Seeing that strangeness, Yuri went into her room to find out what is going on. Minju is very sad but not to the point of having to isolate herself from the people she is close to, so she also opens when Yuri begged for help. After hearing about what happened earlier at the park, Yuri immediately had questions in her mind.

“I don’t know, maybe it’s because I haven’t told her anything about Chaewon before, so she’s angry?”, Minju replies sadly.

“But there is no rule between the two of you about having to tell each other everything. It’s optional”, Yuri continues.

“Yujin and I have never set any rules. I think it’s probably because we both want to be honest with each other”, Minju says her thoughts.

“That means there’s something more special than a mere friendship between the two of you, right? Normally, we don’t need to know about all the relationships of our family members, except when adults need to protect and teach their young children. So I’m sure it’s not like sisters too”, Yuri wants Minju to think more.

“Maybe. But now she’s in love with someone else”, the more Minju thinks, the sadder she becomes, at this point her tears begin to flow down her face.

“Did Yujin say that? Did she say she likes someone?”, Yuri demands.

“No... No... Yujin didn’t say that”, Minju stammers.

“You are so stupid! She didn’t say it, you just thought it yourself”, Yuri frowns at her friend.

“Yes…is that true? But she received that gift”, Minju is confused.

“Receiving gifts from someone does not mean liking them. Do you know if there’s a reason? For example, Yujin couldn’t meet Wonyoung to give it back”, Yuri explains.

“But it could also be because she likes her”, Minju’s sobbing.

“She was jealous. You really are stupid! Yujin likes you, otherwise why should she be upset that you didn’t say anything about Chaewon?”, Yuri shakes her head while smiling.

Minju stops crying, she pouts at Yuri without saying anything.

“If you were just friends, would Yujin do that? Is she upset that you didn’t introduce her to a new friend?”, Yuri continues to ask.

“Um… no”, Minju replies shaking her head. Then she unintentionally smiles and innocently asks Yuri: “Does she really like me?”

“See how happy you are. It’s true that Minju is stupid. You can ask her to clarify, but I can’t guarantee that to you”, Yuri teases and suggests.

“I won’t ask her”, Minju shakes her head.

“It’s up to you”, Yuri is about to turn on her heel and walk back to her room when Minju's expression seems to be getting better.

“Yuri-ah!”, Minju calls. “Thank you”, she smiles as Yuri turns her head to look back.

“I’m going to sleep now”, Yuri raises her hand in goodbye.

“Will you sleep here with me tonight?”, Minju pouts.

“Ugh”, Yuri laughs, “Haha! Okay.”

Just a moment, just 5 minutes later, Minju became Yuri’s pillow. She also turns slightly to wrap her arms around Yuri’s waist and hug her friend. She smiles, silently thanking God for giving her a Yuri right here and now. Otherwise, Minju would probably lose sleep and cry all night. Although the mood has improved a bit, but Minju still has many thoughts and her feelings are quite complicated, so Minju still can’t sleep when lying down. She didn’t fully believe Yuri’s words because no one can confirm it now. Minju still fears that it’s all just Yuri’s conjecture and partly her little hope. “Wonyoung is a very cute person, and there are many other good points, she is pursued by many people, so why would Yujin refuse her to like me”, Minju tossing thoughts. Perhaps due to her inherent timidity, she is not confident in herself. Minju also doesn’t know how to talk to Yujin again. Should she apologize? Is it time to tell her thoughts and feelings to Yujin? But the human body must eventually reach its limit, her eyes dim and Minju slowly drifts off to sleep.

...

Leaving behind all the boring and useless classes, Yujin is giving her all on the training ground when she heard from teacher Heechul that among her opponents, someone had achieved 12.09s - 0.1s faster than her personal record. In sports, sometimes just 1/1000 of a second is enough to make a big difference. Since reaching that 12.19s number up to now, Yujin has not been able to do it again. Things get worse when Yujin’s mood haven’t been so good these past few days. It’s because Minju and her still haven’t talked since the evening they met at the park, not even a single text message. Yujin still thinks it is her fault, so she doesn’t dare to open up. “I also blame her for not talking about Chaewon. I have no right to force her to say, even if she’s liked by someone, or she likes others, it’s not a mistake”, Yujin sighs sadly.

From that day on, with the mindset of a heartbroken little girl, Yujin isolated herself from everyone. She only say hello to her parents a couple of words, exchange really necessity during practice with the coach and teammates. Yujin ignored her friends at school, refused all invitations to go out, eat and drink, Wonyoung also felt that something was wrong so she did not dare to bother. Even Yena was ignored, Yujin only replied to messages when she informed her about Minju, but all of them just had some normal information, nothing special: Minju signed up for singing class, guitar class and piano class, which were all expected; Minju was noticed by a few boys, asked to be acquainted, even confessed, but all of them were rejected, it had happened many times before; Minju and Yuri also made many other friends at school, but most of them are girls, Yujin doesn’t know whether to be relieved or worried about this.

“Let’s take a break for 15 minutes”, teacher Heechul shouts after the whole team had performed the training continuously for 45 minutes.

“Nae!”, the whole team responds and starts looking for a place to rest. They open the lids of the cool water bottles taken from the freezer, what quickly become empty and are lying everywhere.

“Those new shoes don’t suit you, Yujin? Your training results are not good at all”, the coach points at Yujin’s feet and asks a question.

“No. It’s very good, very comfortable”, Yujin shakes her head and replies.

“You don’t have any pain, do you? Is there any part of your body where you don’t feel right?”, Mr. Heechul seems very worried. If Yujin isn’t healthy, the result in the Sport Festival won’t be good either.

“Yes, right here”, Yujin points to her left chest.

“You have a heart attack? It’s so serious, why didn’t you tell anyone? Have you seen the doctor to check?”, the coach gets panicked when he thinks that Yujin is having a big problem.

“No. It’s not like that”, Yujin laughs and shakes her head.

“But what’s wrong with you?”, Mr. Heechul asks with a frown.

“Me and my crush are not talking to each other anymore”, Yujin calmly replies.

“Geez! I still think what’s wrong with you. How long have you two been like this? Why don’t you talk?”, the coach also has to chuckle at his student’s sober face.

“It’s been almost a week, sir. I’m not sure about the reason either”, she suddenly sighs.

“If it wasn’t for some serious reason, you would just focus on practicing right now. Trust me, once you get that national gold medal, you’ll be able to talk to them again”, Mr. Heechul says, sounding pretty confident in his thoughts. The teacher thinks that when the children are mad at each other about some trifles, they will want to make up for a few meals, but because they are too shy, they do not dare to speak. When they have an excuse, sooner or later everything will be back to the way it was.

“How? I invited her to watch me compete on the day of the Sport Festival. But in a situation like this, I don’t know if she wants to come cheering or not”, Yujin pouts.

The teacher pats her head and smiles: “She will come. If you don’t want her to see you as the last to finish the running, then practice well, lovesick girl.”

“Nae”, Yujin smiles. She doesn't know why she’s sharing this with Mr. Heechul, but now she’s much more comfortable. “Perhaps he is right, Minju unnie will definitely come to watch me run and cheer for me. That’s why I have to do well”, Yujin thinks and makes up to return to training with all her body and mind.