Things went too smooth that I could not believe how much closer I got to her. After the talk at the park, she became much more comfortable to be around, and I became more like me. I was being less passive when I had to interact with her. I became more clingy and needy. The almost seventeen years old version of me was bold enough, I could say. I was greedy for her.

It was a week before the group evaluation when I saw her walking in the hallway alone. There is no Yujin detected which was pretty weird. They were like almost always together since they got into the same team.

Well, I approached her as quiet as I could only to get caught right away.

“Well, what were you trying to do, Jo Yuri?” she turned around and a mischievous smile plastered perfectly on her face.

Sadly, I wiped it right away, “This, unnie,” I took her hand and intertwined our hands. Her face was unreadable, she stuttered, and I was smiling like a fool.

Victory.

“Yah! People will get the wrong idea because of this.” I would be lying if I was not shocked hearing that from her.

Did she mean ‘People could think that we were a thing or what’?

Why did she hold and hug the others, though? Was it only a problem because it was me?

Those thoughts, those questions.

“What kind of wrong idea?” her eyes landed anywhere but me and I knew she was nervous. Did I make her nervous?

“Like, you know, those ideas….” She failed to explain it to me and I guessed it was less awkward that way.

“No, I don’t know and I don’t care, unnie,” I was not planning to sound that serious but I could not help it. The feelings were there, at least for me, and I prayed to God to give me any hints that it would be mutual.

Yes, I had a crush on her.

It was a pretty small crush at first, and believe me I was not planning to let it grow more. Stupid Yena and her hands that hold me that day at the park. I swear, I was trying my best to deny it and when I failed, I knew I just needed to make it stop.

Yena was the problem. She did not know it, and she made it pretty hard for me. Then, it grew more. The feeling that I had for her, it bloomed. Yena did not know, she didn’t have to know. There was no good in it for her to know. Period.

She let out a sigh, “Yuri-yah, were you on your way to the dorm?”, I slightly nodded.

The vibe was different. There was this heavy atmosphere around us and I might be the one who made it happened. I had this battle inside me, should I just laugh it off and told her that I was joking around? Or should I just wait a little bit more? You know, what if I would be able to know more about Yena and what did she feel about…us?

“Let’s go,” she said, “I’ll walk you there.”

I expected her to let go of my hand, which until then were still wrapped safely within her fingers, bu