“For the next five weeks, we will be doing long distance running. Follow the cones and no cutting corners. I will be running with you and I will notice if you suddenly disappear off the track,” the sports teacher glared at the group of giggling girls at the back. They stopped immediately when they saw the intense stare that the teacher was giving them and straightened themselves out.

Taeyeon and Sooyeon were still tying their shoelaces after rushing through the change rooms at record speed. Sang-woo had held them back accidentally when he kept his head buried within books and did not notice the lights signalling the end of class. The two were not keen on the long distance running after their sprint from the art room to the oval which were conveniently located at two different ends of the school ground.

Taeyeon stood up and shook her feet experimentally to see if her laces would slip and gave a satisfied grin when they showed no signs of slipping from the knot. Sooyeon got up after securing a double knot and started tugging Taeyeon towards the starting line where the students were doing their stretches. Accustomed to their usual routine, the two friends pressed their backs together and linked their arms on each of their sides. The two tugged at the same time which wasn’t something that the teacher would approve of as they battled it out for the win. Taeyeon used her whole body weight to pull against Sooyeon as did Sooyeon until she felt herself being pulled backward.

The teacher turned around just as Sooyeon smiled victoriously with a disappointed Taeyeon on her back, stretching. Sooyeon turned her head around to check on Taeyeon and couldn’t hold back her laugh when she felt Taeyeon’s legs kicking about when she accidentally leaned too far, lifting Taeyeon off the floor. She quickly straightened her back and felt Taeyeon start leaning forward a little too quickly.

Sooyeon willingly let Taeyeon lift her off the floor and lifted her feet up into the air to put all her weight onto Taeyeon’s back. She felt Taeyeon stutter slightly with the shifting weight and continued to grin mischievously, just beginning to enjoy the piggy-back Taeyeon was giving. Taeyeon had no clue that Sooyeon was putting all her weight on her which led her to the conclusion that perhaps she wasn’t was strong or fit as she thought she was which was worrying since the expectation wasn’t that high to begin with.

All too suddenly Taeyeon started straightening up; her legs were starting to give way and she didn’t want to end up face first into the dirt. Sooyeon felt her heart skip a beat as she quickly lowered her legs to catch herself before she fell onto the floor. Taeyeon was surprised when Sooyeon landed slightly lower than she expected and turned around to see Sooyeon in an almost squatting position. Once the younger girl had a secure and stable balance, she quickly turned around and knocked Taeyeon on her forehead with her knuckle. Taeyeon was taken aback at the sudden attack and stared into Sooyeon’s eyes with pure confusion.

Sooyeon stuck her tongue out at Taeyeon and rustled her hair playfully before taking her place at the line. Taeyeon frowned at the action and trudged her way beside her friend.

“Alright, when I drop the flag we start,” the teacher informed the students before waving the red cloth that was the supposed ‘flag’. The boys of the class readied themselves with some of the girls also getting into position. Sooyeon noted the determined expression that those people wore and admired their love for physical exercise. She then looked at everyone else who was waiting for the cloth to be dropped and smiled to herself. It was reassuring to know that she wasn’t the only one who wasn’t keep on this physical activity.

The teacher then dropped the red cloth and the enthusiastic runners bolted immediately whilst the others started jogging. The teacher made his way to the back of the pack and jogged behind them, making sure that no one was slacking off or running off course to hide in the toilets.

Naturally, Sooyeon and Taeyeon jogged beside one another and kept a steady pace, not caring for the silent race that was going on up ahead of them. They jogged at a comfortable pace along with a quarter of the class who weren’t all that eager. Taeyeon could feel the teacher’s fiery gaze on their backs but they weren’t doing anything wrong. They were on track and not walking, however she knew that the moment any of them slipped to even a fast pace walk that he would start pressuring them to go faster. Taeyeon had to admit that the school was thorough in picking their physical education teachers. She remembers at her old school, the teachers would give a set of instructions and sit back to talk to other teachers whilst the students either played their own game or sat in the shade to talk.

Unlike the others, Taeyeon usually found herself hiding behind the gym shed during her PE lessons. Communication was needed for her to play sports and was also needed to socialise with the others who were sitting in the shade. Since the communication was always one-way, Taeyeon usually found herself left out and took it within her own responsibility to not trouble her classmates by not involving herself with any of them.

As she was remembering the dark and lonesome memories of her old school, Taeyeon felt a sharp pain in her shoulder and quickly turned around to glare at the perpetrator who had just randomly punched her in the arm for no apparent reason. Sooyeon grinned at her innocently and pointed her finger up at one of the trees to show a bird sitting on the branch.

“Punch Buggy, except in bird version. Every bird you see gets you the right to punch the other once,” she explained. Taeyeon rubbed her arm distastefully and looked up at the apparent sign that allow Sooyeon to punch her hatefully. As the two continued on forward, Taeyeon noted another bird on a branch and quickly took her chance to punch Sooyeon back. When the younger girl glared questionably at her, she pointed up to the bird as proof of her right.

Sooyeon let a quick huff of air out her nose before picking up the pace to the next tree. She scanned it thoroughly for another small bird and when unsuccessful, would quickly sprint to the next. The older girl trailed behind lazily whilst still rubbing her sore arm. She wasn’t too keen in wasting unnecessary energy to find feathered animals but neither was she keen on getting a large bruise the next day. All she could do was try to keep up and hope that the cold weather kept the birds inside and none of them decided to awake ahead of spring.

Taeyeon watched Sooyeon running and pausing every so often and couldn’t help but laugh at the odd display that her friend was presenting. Others probably thought she was apart from the norm with the scowl she wore every time the trees were empty but she knew that Sooyeon didn’t really care for what others thought of her actions.

As Sooyeon was about to run towards the next tree, Taeyeon suddenly realised that she disappeared from her line of sight. Taeyeon readjusted her vision slightly lower and saw Sooyeon on the floor holding her ankle. Finally having a reason to run, she quickly moved her legs to catch up to Sooyeon where she heard a low painful groan. She quickly knelt down beside Sooyeon and examined her friend’s ankle which was slightly red.

Sooyeon held her hand out towards to Taeyeon, silently asking for a hand in which the older girl quickly gave. As she stood on her injured ankle, she winced and started tumbling back down. She would have hit the floor again if it wasn’t for Taeyeon who had quickly caught her. Taeyeon frowned at the obvious injury and stared straight into Sooyeon’s eyes harshly.

Sooyeon gave a guilty smile and rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. Having no patience for the innocent façade, Taeyeon knocked her knuckle against Sooyeon’s forehead. Sooyeon knew that Taeyeon would not take any of her excuses so she merely bit her lower lip and rubbed her abused forehead guiltily.

Just moments later, the teacher along with the rest of the class caught up with them. He noted that Sooyeon was standing on one leg with Taeyeon standing next to her, supporting part of her weight. He ushered the rest of the class to continue and crouched down to examine Sooyeon’s ankle. It was starting to swell and noticeably red now.

“Take her to the nurse. You won’t have to come back since there’s only thirty minutes left and it would probably take you twenty to walk her down to the sick bay like that,” the teacher advised as he took out the nurse’s pass. Taeyeon took the laminated piece of paper which granted her permission to visit the nurse and took a side step to stand in front of Sooyeon. The teacher gave a nod to bid farewell before jogging to scold some of the students who had decided to take a break underneath one of the trees up ahead.

Taeyeon placed the nurse’s pass into her pocket and reached for both of Sooyeon’s hands. The younger girl was slightly confused with the gesture but quickly realised what Taeyeon was doing when Taeyeon hauled her over her back and started awkwardly carrying her to the nurse’s office. Taeyeon was obviously waiting for Sooyeon to lift her legs up and possibly make the carrying slightly easier but she did very much the opposite. She started thrashing about, trying to get Taeyeon to put her down.

Not being able to hold the unstable weight, Taeyeon ended up tipping forward and falling face first into the grass. Realising that she was at fault again, Sooyeon quickly got off Taeyeon’s back and tried to help her up. Instead, Taeyeon refused her help and stood up on her own with her elbows and chin marked with the soil of the grass.

“What did you do that for?” Taeyeon questioned Sooyeon angrily before pulling her to stand again. Sooyeon bit her lower lip and bowed her head in a sincere apology.

“I didn’t mean for you to fall. I just thought that I would be too heavy,” she explained. Taeyeon used the back of her hand to wipe the dirt off her chin before crossing her arms and frowning at Sooyeon.

“You weren’t exactly making yourself any lighter by thrashing about like that,” Taeyeon retaliated. Sooyeon frowned slightly at the unexpected reply. She was silently hoping that perhaps Taeyeon would tell her she wasn’t heavy but she obviously had been reading and watching too much.

“I thought I was carrying a mammoth on my back or something,” Taeyeon continued. She noticed the darkening of Sooyeon’s expression and tried her best to hide her smile. Giving a fake annoyed roll of the eye, Taeyeon turned her back to Sooyeon. The younger thought that perhaps Taeyeon was leaving her to her own measures in making her way to the office but was slightly puzzled when Taeyeon remained standing in front of her.

Taeyeon gave a quick glance back and saw Sooyeon staring at her back with pure confusion and finally let her smile show. She took Sooyeon’s hands and threw them over her shoulder again, readying herself to carry her again. Just as Sooyeon was about to pull back, the grip on her wrists tightened, preventing her from pulling back.

With a strong tug, Sooyeon toppled forward and landed on Taeyeon’s back before her legs were lifted up off the floor again. She noticed the awkward positioning and quickly wrapped her legs around Taeyeon to make things slightly easier instead of thrashing about in case they ended face first into the floor again. As soon as her legs were in position, Taeyeon let go of her wrists and held onto her thighs as she piggy-backed her towards the nurse’s office with much more ease.

Sooyeon placed her head against Taeyeon’s shoulders and peeked at her friend’s expression. Instead of an angered and exhausted scowl, Sooyeon saw Taeyeon smiling back at her. Relief washed over her when she realised that Taeyeon wasn’t that mad at her anymore and wasn’t suffering that much with her added weight on her back.

Her arms tightened slightly around Taeyeon’s neck as she smiled against Taeyeon’s shoulders. She was truly grateful that she had a friend like her and felt conceited that she was Taeyeon’s only friend. With the knowledge that she didn’t have to share Taeyeon around with others made her even happier. Taeyeon was her friend. When people asked who Taeyeon was friends with, she would be the only one who Taeyeon would mention. As selfish as it seemed, she liked that. Likewise, Sooyeon would always answer with Taeyeon being her friend and only friend.

“You will have to be careful for around a week or so. Try not to put any pressure on it and it should heal easily. I shall inform you teacher and exempt you from the long distance running, but I cannot exempt your friend,” the nurse explained to Sooyeon. The injured girl nodded obediently and lifted her leg up to look at her bandaged ankle. She had twisted it pretty badly but the nurse said that she was certain that she didn’t break anything. Once the nurse had finished writing down Sooyeon’s physical education exempt note, she rechecked the bandage before leaving the room. Just as she left the room, Taeyeon peered from behind the door and looked up at the nurse innocently.

“Go on,” the nurse chuckled. Taeyeon smiled gratefully and quickly went to Sooyeon’s side. She looked down at the bandaged ankle and poked at it experimentally. Sooyeon quickly pulled away from the touch in fear that it may be sore and Taeyeon decided not to push it any further.

“Would you mind telling me what you did that forced me to carry you from the oval to here?” Taeyeon questioned seriously. Sooyeon shifted her g