Flashback

Sooyoung's POV

-Flashback-

"Move." Nana said coldly. Lizzy, one of her friends that I disliked, shoved me out of the way. Which caused me to drop my stuff on the floor.

"S-Sorry..."I said quietly as I looked at her. Nana was the popular girl at this middle school. She was so pretty, that I couldn't stop myself from staring at her...No wonder she's so popular. Nana noticed and looked away.

"S-Stop staring! I-It's creepy!" She said. She walked away. The rest of her group followed her, but they all glared at me as they walked past me.

I sighed as I picked up all my textbooks. While I was picking my books up, I saw a hand picking up one of my books. I looked up and I couldn't help myself from smiling.

"Yuri..." I said. I met Yuri in the beginning of the year, on the first day of school. She was the only one nice enough to talk to me, so she was my only friend.

"Sooyoung... what did I tell you about fighting back?" Yuri said. I looked down and picked up the rest of my stuff. I stood up and noticed our height difference. Yuri had the average height of a 12 year old, while I was a head shorter than her.

"Yuri, you know I can't..." Sooyoung muttered as I took my textbook from her.

"Just because you're short, it doesn't mean you can't fight back..." She said with a hint of anger.

"Yuri...Even if I was tall as you, I still wouldn't fight back...You know I just can't fight against Nana..." I said softly. Yuri sighed and shook her head.

"Fine...but the next time they do this again, you can't stop me from punishing them!" She said warningly. I giggled. Even though Yuri says that, I knew she wouldn't do it. She knows I'll get mad.

"Alright~ Whatever you say~" I pushed up my glasses and held Yuri's hand. I looked at her pleadingly.

"What?" Yuri said with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's go eat..." I said. Yuri chuckled and nodded. We walked towards the cafeteria with our hands intertwined. When we got to the cafeteria, I let go and went straight to where the food was. As I looked back, I saw Yuri shaking her head with a smile and walking towards me. As I reached the food, a familiar person had an amused smiled on their face. I smiled back.

"Hello Chef!" I said as I waved. The chef nodded.

"How's my favorite student?" She asked.

"I'm alright! Can I get the usual for me and Yuri?" I asked. The chef nodded and gave me what I ordered. Yuri paid and bowed towards the chef.

"Thank you!" She said smiling brightly.

The chef smiled at us but she turned to me. "Make sure to grow taller Sooyoung!"

I smiled confidently. "I will! I'm not going to stay short!" The chef chuckled and waved goodbye. Yuri and I went to the school garden and sat down at our spot under a tree.

"You know I still don't understand how you can like her..." Yuri said.

I sighed. "Me neither..."

"Then why do you?" Yuri asked curiously.

I exhaled. "She's different..." I started to eat. Yuri just stared at me.

"Different? She as mean her friends!" Yuri exclaimed.

"W-Well...she's only like that when she's with her friends...she's different when they're not around..."

"How?" Yuri questioned.

"When I met her for the first time, she wasn't as mean...she was quite nice to me." I said as I looked down trying to hide my blush.

"Are you ever going to confess?" She asked after a few seconds.

"I'm not sure...Probably...If I ever get enough courage..." I said as I slowed down my pace of eating.

"Well, I can't support you..." Yuri said sternly. I pouted and narrowed my eyes at her.

"Why not?!?" I asked a bit upset. She looked down at her food.

"Because she's too mean..." She mumbled. That calmed me down and made me smile a bit.

"Yuri..."

She looked at me. "Yeah?"

"Thanks..."

She scrunched her eyebrows together. "For what?"

"For looking after me...even though we just started to become friends." I said as I smiled at her. She smiled back.

"No problem!" She said happily taking a bite of her own food. I laughed as I dug into my food too.

The next week

"Sooyoung, Are you sure about this?" Yuri asked worriedly.

I inhaled and exhaled deeply. "I'm ready...I think I can do this..." I looked at her for support. She shook her head.

"I'm not going to encourage this." She said. I pouted as I looked at her.

"Don't look at me like that! I already told you I wouldn't support this!" She said defensively. I sighed and looked down. I heard her sigh. She put a hand on my shoulder. I looked at her.

"Fine...Good luck." She said slightly smiling. I smiled and nodded. I walked towards a figure ahead of me. I exhaled and called her name.

"Nana-ssi!" She looked at me surprised, but her eyes seemed to look somewhere else and she immediately put on a pokerface.

"What?" She coldly said to me. I gulped as the courage I gathered started to fade.

"Did you just finish soccer practice?" I asked. She raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, why?"

"J-Just asking..."

"Is that all you want to say?" She said impatiently.

"U-Uh...U-Umm...I-I"

"I don't have all day..." She said cutting me off.

"I-I like you!" I held out the letter I wrote for her. I looked down hiding my red face. She didn't respond, so I looked at her. She was looking at me coldly.

"So?" She asked coldly.

"I-I...D-Do...Uh...Um" I stuttered.

"What did you expect?" I turned to the voice and found Lizzy smirking while leaning on the wall. I turned to look at Nana, and I saw her roll her eyes. I put my head down again.

"I-I d-don't know..." I looked up at Nana who looked a bit sad. She looked down. Lizzy came closer as she scoffed.

"I'm sorry..." Nana wasn't even looking at me as she walked away.

Lizzy scoffed. "What a piece of trash..." Nana stopped walking and turned back to me and Lizzy.

"Lizzy." Nana said glaring at Lizzy. Nana turned to me and her face looked like she wanted to apologize.

"What? I'm just being honest..." Lizzy said nonchalantly. Nana glared at her and bowed apologetically at me and proceeded to walk away.

I couldn't help it, when tears came streaming down my face. Lizzy walked away, but shoved me with her shoulder. She left with a smirk.

"Sooyoung..." I looked up and saw my best friend holding out her hand.

I took her hand and when she pulled me up I hugged her.

"That kinda hurt..." I muttered on her shoulder and it made her tighten her arms around me.

She chuckled sadly. "Kinda?"

I pulled away as I smiled at her. "Yes, kinda...I wasn't in love with her...I just liked her..." She smiled at me.

"You're tough, you know..." She said proudly.

"Of course...If I wasn't...then I wouldn't be me." I said smiling sadly. She wiped my tears and put her arm around my shoulder.

"Come on, I'll treat you to ice cream." She said persuasively as she moved her eyebrows up and down. It made laugh.

"Alright, let's go~" I said smiling.

The next day

I walked into the school with eyes following me. I went to my locker and I couldn't help myself from hearing the people whispering.

"She's the girl who confessed to Nana yesterday." One of the girls whispered.

"She confessed? Omo, she's too daring... How stupid of her." The other girl said. I just ignored them and walked away. I felt sad. I knew Nana wasn't mean enough to spread my confession, it was probably Lizzy.

When I got to class, I could feel everyone's eyes on me. Before I could get to my seat, someone stuck out their foot and made me trip.

"Sooyoung!" Yuri came and pulled me up.

"Thanks Yuri." I said.

"What the heck was that ,Eun Na?" Yuri shouted angrily. I tugged on Yuri's top. She turned to me.

"Yuri..." I said pleadingly, I was angry too, but I didn't want to make a big deal out of it. She sighed angrily and pulled me to our seats. Our seats were in the back and next to each other, so at least I wouldn't have to worry about anyone looking at me.

During lunch break, Yuri had to leave me, because she had to go to her club room for a usual meeting.

As I walking on the school garden, someone tripped me. I looked up and saw Eun Na looking down at me. She scoffed.

"What did you think was going to happen if you confessed?" She asked as she crouched down in front of me. I pushed myself up but Eun Na's friend shoved me down.

"Where do you think you're going?" Eun Na asked.

"Can't you just leave me alone?!?What's so bad about telling her what I feel?!?" I retorted. All the anger pent up just exploded.

She scoffed. "Oh...Now, you're fighting back? Wow~ Confessing and fighting back...You're getting too daring, shorty~" She said as she was eye-level with me. I bit my lips and pushed myself up. Before I could leave, one of her friends held me. She looked up at me.

"How does it feel to look down for once, shorty?" She laughed along with her friends. She stood up and told her friends to let me go. She pushed me and I fell on my . I winced at the pain.

"I'll tell you what's wrong about it...It's disgusting..." She scoffed as she kicked dirt towards me.

"The school idol with the nerd...huh...sounds weird and it brings her reputation down...That's what's bad about it..." She said. She ruffled my hair and kicked more dirt towards me. Her friends started to do the same. By the time they left I was practically buried in dirt. I would have fought back, but one of Eun Na's friends held me down.

I went to the clinic and found the school nurse just sitting using her phone. When she saw me she stood up and helped me lay down.

"What happened?" The nurse asked.

"I fell in school garden..." I lamely excused. The nurse shook her head disapprovingly.

"Tsk...You should be more careful!" She said.

"Sorry, I'll try harder..."

"It's fine... Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I landed on my , and it kind of hurts..."

"Alright stand up." She started to poke my . I wince at the pain.

"You didn't fracture your tail bone, but you seemed to have bruised your ..." She said as she gently pushed me down to lay me down on the bed.

"How do you know I didn't fracture my tail bone?"

"You would be screaming." She said matter-of-factly. Before she left, she told me to just rest in the clinic. She said, she wouldn't care if I skipped class, so I did just that. I slept through the classes.

When the school bell rang, dismissing the whole school, Yuri ran into the room.

"Yuri, what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Soo, Are you okay?" She asked worriedly. I smiled at her.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it..."

"But..."

"Yuri, I told you, I don't want to make the situation bigger..."

She sighed heavily and nodded. "Fine...Did you break anything?"

"Nope~ Just a bit bruised, but other than that I'm perfectly fine..." I said as I stood up. I noticed Yuri looking at my clothes.

"Soo..."

"Yuri, it's fine...I'm fine...Let's just ignore, okay?" I asked her. She just nodded. She reached out and held my hand. Then we walked out of the clinic. We went to our classroom to get our stuff and we left school.

While we were walking on the sidewalk, Yuri started to swing our hands back and forth.

"You know...when we do this, we seem like a couple~" I teased. She looked away, but she abruptly stopped.

"Why'd you stop?" I asked curiously. She surprised me when she went behind me and gave me a back-hug.

"We look more like a couple when we do this~" She teased back. I giggled.

"Ah!" She said. She pulled out of the hug and made me turn to her.

"Get on my back." She instructed as she started to bend.

"What am I? A little kid? No!" I said as I crossed my arms. She stood up straight and looked at me.

She chuckled. "No~.....but you're bruised so walking might be a little tiring for you~" She said matter-of-factly.

"Only my was bruised...not my legs, so I don't need you carrying me." I argued back. She giggled and poked my sides, which made me twitch.

"Come on~ I'm doing it cause you're my friend...plus I need training~" She reasoned.

"What kind of training do you need?....Just go to the gym..." I said. She pouted and started to sway my arms.

"Weight training~... Plus I left you alone, so I kind of feel guilty for leaving you at lunch..." She said with puppy eyes. I didn't want to give in, but I can't let her feel guilty for something that wasn't even her fault.

"Fine...But for your information, you just called me fat..." I said as I got on her back. She started to walk.

"What?!? I did not!" She exclaimed.

"You did~...You said you need weight training, which means you're saying that I have a lot of weight." I stated matter-of-factly.

"Yah~ You're skinnier than me, even if you eat a thousand things you'll probably still be as skinny as a stick." She said back.

"I'm offended..." I said as I pouted.

"What now?" She asked.

"I'm not a stick..." I said stubbornly.

"Right now...you are... But maybe when you hit you're growth spurt, Probably not~" She teased. I hit her on the back playfully. We walked in a comfortable silence for about 15 minutes, but she decided to talk again.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked with a worried tone. I giggled. Yuri was too cute, she kept worrying about me.

I got off her back, went in front of her and made her look at me. "I'm positively, 100% ,O.K, so don't worry, alright?" She sighed and nodded with a smile.

"Are you still not going to fight back?" She asked as we started walking with our hands holding again.

I looked down. "I don't know...I know I said I wouldn't fight back, but now they're becoming even more unreasonable." I said tiredly. Yuri scoffed.

"They were always unreasonable..." She said. I sighed.

"I know, but I just don't like that they were making fun of my feelings..." I muttered.

"So what are you going to do about Nana, if she ever came to talk to you?" She asked.

"I guess...I would just try to avoid her...but I doubt that she would ever want to talk to me." I said sadly

"Stupid." She said. I scrunched my eyebrows together and looked at her.

"Who, me?" I asked, slightly offended.

"No...Nana is..." She said as she looked at me. I avoided her gaze and looked forward.

"No, she's not...she's...I don't know..........." I looked around and realized we were at my house.

"You wanna sleep over, or are you going home?" I asked. Yuri blushed as she gave me a hug.

"I'm going home, say hi to your parents for me...Bye bye~" She said as she waved goodbye.

"Bye~" I waved goodbye.

The Next Day

I was walking in the hallway towards my locker, but I tripped...again. I could hear whispering.

"Someone saw her yesterday with Yuri, they said Yuri was giving her a piggy back ride...Tsk...She's too much..."

Did I mention that Yuri's popular too? Even though she's just a first year in middle school, she's the head captain of the basketball team. Everyone knows about her, they never noticed that Yuri was friends with me...until now, I guess. I pushed myself up.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk...First she confessed to Nana and now she clings to Yuri...She has no shame... She should be embarrassed." I heard them say while I was dusting my skirt. I looked at them.

"What? Do you have something to say?" She asked haughtily.

I just shook my head and walked with my head down. As I walked forward, I fell again, but because I bumped into someone.

"Sor-..." I looked up to see Nana. She was looking down at me with what seemed like a worried gaze. It made me confused and wonder what she was thinking.

"Sooyoung-ssi..." She said softly. My eyes widened. I was staring at her again. Ugh...I have to stop myself.

"Sorry, Nana-ssi...Um G-Gotta go..." I cut her off before she could say anything and quickly left to my class.

-Flashback End-

"I-Is that it?!? What happened next?!?" Taeyeon asked looking genuinely curious. I chuckled, I found her cute. After we left the school we decide to go talk somewhere else, since Taeyeon was getting curious why I hated bullying the most. We ended up talking in a smoothie shop.

"What do you mean what happened?" I asked teasingly.

"T-The story...What happened to you and Nana-ssi?" She asked.

"Well...I avoided her that week, because I felt that being near her meant more bullying...and I was really tired of the bullying...then she moved away a week later, so nothing really happened between us..." I said recalling the past.

"What about the bullying?"

"Well, it continued and got worse throughout the first year..." I answered.

"Then how'd you become the school idol?" She asked. I chuckled.

"You're too curious, you know?....but during the summer before my third year of middle school, I had my growth spurt and grew taller, and my parents made me get the laser eye surgery, so I didn't need glasses anymore......I guess I must've looked a bit better to some people because I started to receive confessions that year...." I said.

"Ah~ Well...At least you had your growth spurt...I don't think I'll grow anymore..." She said sadly as she looked down. I giggled but patted her head.

"But you look adorable, so I don't think being short is bad~" I said smiling at her. She blushed, but she suddenly looked up.

"Ah! What about Lizzy? What happened to her?" She asked.

"Well, she still hated me, even when I became less nerdy...She moved away to America with her parents after middle school." I said.

"Oh...Can I ask one more question?" She said.

I chuckled and smiled at her. She was just too cute! "Go ahead~" I said as I gestured for her to continue.

"When did you start liking Yuri?" She said. I sighed.

"Well... I'll just tell you that next time...Okay?" I said as I finished my smoothie. She pouted and hesitantly nodded. She looked like a cute little kid getting disappointed because she didn't get to hear a bedtime story. I wanted to squeal about her cuteness, which was really weird, because squealing wasn't my thing.

"Do you need me to take you home?" I asked her.

"No...It's okay, my house is really close..." She said.

"Are you sure?" I asked again. She nodded and smiled.

"Also, thanks for today..." She said. I smiled brightly at her.

"Welcome...I gotta go, Yuri's waiting for me..." I waved goodbye and left the smoothie shop.