Yawning from the lack of sleep, Sooyoung lowered the back of the car seat she was on and closed her eyes. There was another hour before school ended and she had plenty of time for a power nap. For the past few days, she had been following behind Seohyun and was getting sick and tired of just shuttling between the bookstore, her house and the piano school.

The sounds of the ringing school bell awoke her from the nap and she stepped out of the car to stretch her legs a little. Rolling a coin between her knuckles, she spotted Seohyun exiting from the school gates and hurriedly got into the car. Turning the key in the ignition, she started the engine and carefully followed a distance behind her.

Arriving in front of the bookstore, Sooyoung stifled a yawn and contemplated if she should follow Seohyun around. Deciding to just stay outside, she propped her legs up on the dashboard and promptly went back to sleep. The loud squealing of a brake awoken her rudely from her intended nap and she jolted up in shock at the solitary scream emitting from the back alleys. Sensing something was wrong, Sooyoung threw open the car door in a hurry and ran towards the source of the noise. 

A scrambler roared out from the alleyways, forcing Sooyoung to swerve aside to avoid getting hit. Throwing a curse at the back view of the motorcyclist, Sooyoung sprinted towards the inner alleyway and found Seohyun sitting on the wet tarmac ground. She was apparently in shock and her ankles had swelled up to the size of a ping pong ball. 

Running towards Seohyun, Sooyoung promptly removed her cardigan and placed it over her shoulders. A pair of empty eyes turned to look at her and when Seohyun realized that it was someone she knew, the emptiness got replaced with tears instantly. Sooyoung got flustered at the sight of Seohyun's tears and searched frantically in her pockets for a hanky. Finding nothing that can be of use, Sooyoung squatted down beside Seohyun and stretched out the sleeve of her t-shirt. "You can use this to dry your tears, but try not to blow your nose on this okay??" 

Breaking out in a fit of giggles at the comical expression on Sooyoung's face, Seohyun wiped the drying tears on the back of her hands and shook her head gently "Thanks for the offer, but I am fine now." Attempting to stand up, Seohyun grimaced as the pain shot up her twisted ankle. Biting down hard on her lower lips, she forced herself to stand up on both foot with the aid of the wall and waited for the wave of pain to subside. 

A pair of warm hands pulled at her arms, disrupting her balance. Before she could say anything, Seohyun found herself being hoisted up on Sooyoung’s back. Unable to protest against the kind gesture, Seohyun leant in closer and smiled silently as she snuggled up against the comforting body warmth of Sooyoung’s back.

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Things seemed to spark between them after the incident and even though Sooyoung had reminded herself constantly that this was only a bet, she found herself getting increasingly attracted to Seohyun as the days went past. The bookstores and library trips started getting interesting and as they grew closer, Sooyoung realized she was slowly losing this bet of hers. Seeing the smirk on Hyoyeon’s face everyday, Sooyoung would reinforce her resolve to stay neutral but that resolve would crumble the instant she sees Seohyun’s smiling face. She started having a habit of bringing a book everywhere she went, even though it was considered to be unlucky for a con artist like them to be holding a book. The music in her mp3 player had also changed gradually under the influence of Seohyun and soon she found herself listening to music by Yiruma and Beethoven instead.

The final straw came that day when they first held hands. Seohyun had invited Sooyoung to join her for a movie screening and it took forever before Sooyoung had managed to gather up the courage to hold her hands. She vaguely remembered that the movie was a Japanese anime about some talking military frogs but none of the storyline had sunk in because all her attention had been placed on the casually draped hand at the handle of the seat. Various attempts to hold Seohyun’s hand had failed that day and this was her last chance for a shot. Trying not to let the anxiety she was feeling show on her face, Sooyoung rigidly looked in front and blindly searched around for Seohyun’s hand. Sweat poured off her face in buckets and a bass drum roared in her heart, covering the sounds of the movie. Everything went silent the moment their hands touched and fireworks seemed to appear in the air. Her blind tapping had apparently attracted the attention of Seohyun and she had grabbed onto of Sooyoung’s hand to stop her from moving it around anymore. Smiling like an idiot, Sooyoung sighed and knew at that instance, she had lost the bet against Hyoyeon.