Chapter Text
Head on her desk, she's mostly left alone by the teacher droning on about English because of her grades, Yubin's head is filled with thoughts about one specific, lanky, tall and clumsy girl.
Why is she still thinking about Yoohyeon, previously her long time best friend who ghosted her one day out of nowhere and kept it up for 7 years? She couldn't tell you why, she'd most likely say it's because she was the first friend she had ever had, and thus felt a special sort of bond with the girl.
Now they're both in their second last year of high school and they're practically strangers. They still keep in touch with Bora, Siyeon, Minji, Handong and Gahyeon but the other girls make it an unspoken rule to never let them meet up.
Yubin is thrown back into reality when the bell rings and the teacher dismisses everyone so they can go to the cafeteria.
Lunch used to be weird for the other 5 girls to figure out until Yubin decided to get her food and eat in the library where she's unbothered and can read her book in peace and quiet without having to deal with any sort of social interaction apart from talking with the librarian who only ever seems to open her mouth to scold lousy students.
She reads a few chapters of her current novel before a quick glance at her wrist watch tells her to hurry back to her locker to get ready for her next class and she does exactly that. She can't help but wonder when exactly this started to become routine, maybe it was always like this even before the fallout or maybe it had started because of it.
She had tried to keep in touch with Yoohyeon but the girl just kept blowing her off by not responding to her text messages and not even sparing her a glance whenever they saw eachother in the school hallways. Yubin doesn't bother asking the other girls, they don't need to be dragged into it when it's clear they all feel awkward about being in the middle of the two and making them feel like they have to choose a side is a dick move and Lee Yubin is anything but one.
Their conversations are typical, the only thing is that they avoid talking about Yoohyeon when Yubin is around and vice versa. The latter commends the others for staying patient and not just locking the two in a room to sort things out because of how ridiculously childish it all is. Though that could be because they all know why Yoohyeon decided to disappear from her life all together and just aren't telling her out of respect for Yoohyeon or because they were told not to.
While Yubin can't get angry at them for it, she can't help but feel angry towards Yoohyeon for ghosting her. Did Yubin do something wrong that made her want to cease all contact?
As much as Yubin tries to keep her expressions vague enough to not betray her true feelings, it's only human for her normally stoic face to soften upon looking at her friends who, to her surprise, stuck around despite her cold and at times abrasive nature.
Her mannerisms also changed drastically whenever she was around the girls so was her suddenly clingy nature somehow off-putting to her? Was she too comfortable and crossed a line she shouldn't have? Did she see through her actions?
Before she's able to expand on that thought, her feet have already taken her to her locker and so she pushes it in the back of her mind, where her other thoughts and feelings on the girl have made space in.
The emptiness is normal for Yubin now, it's been long enough for her to have grown accustomed to her school days consisting of quiet walks to and from class instead of the boisterous laughs and conversations that would often time at the very least make her crack a smile. Now the thought of those times either irk her or make her sad, either emotion showing itself as indifference on her face but the right people would know the difference right away.
The right people don't want to bother her and so her thoughts and feelings are left to fester. It's infuriating that they don't want to lend a hand but the same could be said about her reluctance to reach out. They could be waiting for her to extend an olive branch so they know they're not being overburdening. Or they could be tired of the discourse between the two.
The school day goes by faster than it normally would. But it could be said that this always was the normal for Lee Yubin. The times of chatting about pointless topics was only between Lee Yubin and Kim Yoohyeon and as far as the former knew, the latter wanted nothing to do with her.
Writing in her journal about the day, she abstains writing about Yoohyeon since she'd be in every entry and she doesn't even seem to think of Yubin as a friend anymore, almost as if Yubin's existence no longer being in her life mattered close to nothing.
Yoohyeon was her rock, her safe place, her warm blanket she could crawl under after a tiring day. The person she went to whenever she felt like actually socialising but only wanted to be around familiar people. The person she felt most comfortable with. Her person.
When you've went through life as a part of a duo for so long, you can't help but feel the absence of your person when they're no longer there.
It was always Lee Yubin and Kim Yoohyeon, when you saw one, the other was never too far away.
Now Yoohyeon wanted to be nowhere near her.