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You don’t know why you even cared to give attention to that basketball guy. You’re not even into boys for goodness sake. And really, you really shouldn’t have gotten yourself involved with that guy.
Because he’s now standing two meters away from you, giving the very same candy you currently have in your mouth, the one you received from him just an hour ago, to Kang Haerin.
Kang Haerin, your teammate.
Kang Haerin, your actual crush.
It’s Hanni who speaks first, “Dan, isn’t that the same guy that gave you the candy?”
You nod, the candy tastes rather bitter now. The two of you take a step closer to them and the guy finally realizes you’re here. He just gives you a smirk and then a wink to Haerin, like it’s normal to flirt with two girls at the same time, before leaving the corridor.
And then Haerin notices you too, her eyes widened and she opens her mouth to say something.
Before she could say anything though, you take one last lick on your candy and offer it to her. You don’t need to hear explanations from her, or him, really, there’s nothing to explain.
She stares at you for a moment, like she doesn’t know what to do with it. You nudge your hand, take it and she takes it, straight with her mouth. You shoot her a flirty smile, or well, you try to, at least, and she returns it. You try your best to not scream.
“Let’s go, the bell is about to ring,” You say to Hanni and turn your body towards your classroom.
You leave the corridor and you can feel her stare lingering on your back.
Hanni looks at you weird for the next 10 minutes and you just let her be, if she knows, she knows.
That weekend, Minji invites your dance squad to hang out at the skatepark and when you arrive there, Haerin is sitting on a skateboard in denim and a white headband, watching all the people playing in the park. You bite your lips to prevent yourself from screaming. She looks just too good today.
“Hey Danielle,” she says, grinning ear to ear when she catches you at her sight. “Seems like the others are late.”
“Hi there yourself,” you reply, returning her smile. You take a look at the skateboard beneath her. “I didn’t know you ride skateboards.”
“I never got the chance to show it to you.” You can see her breath hitch for a second before continuing her words, “Or the others.”
“You think you can show me now then?”
She smirks and gets on her feet. “Sure,” she agrees before rolling away with her skateboard to the bowl.
At first, Haerin is just skating back and forth in the bowl and you doubt her for a minute.
Which was a wrong thing to do.
Because then she pushes the board more forcefully and brings herself to the edge of the bowl, pausing and posing a peace at you. She goes back down and pushes the board to the other side of the bowl, making herself move even faster than before. And then along with her board, she leaps and she’s flying for a few seconds. The sun is shining on her, like it knows she’s the highlight of the whole park.
“Woah.” It was Hanni, deciding to appear right next to you. “Is that Haerin?”
You never thought you could fall harder for her.
The five of you are talking about the outfits you’re gonna wear for the dance performance at a party next week when notification bells ring, from your and Haerin’s phones. The discussion stops and the others put their eyes on the two of you. You take out your phone to see messages from him on your lock screen. On your side, Haerin is on her phone too, her face looking annoyed.
“You got it too?” you ask.
Haerin nods, showing you her phone. You read her screen just to find the exact same messages he just sent to you. “This man really has some nerves,” you whisper.
You show her your phone too, so she can know that fact too and you two start to read all the messages from before. The others look at you confused, so you pass Haerin’s phone to them so they can know what’s going on.
The more you scroll the messages up, the more it irritates you.
He sends you, both of you, at the same time, the exact same messages. Every. Single. Time.
“What’s with him? Is he really still trying to get close with both of you after that day?” Hanni says, sounding even more annoyed than the two of you.
“Who is he?” Minji asks, handing you back Haerin’s phone. It’s kinda shocking that Haerin never told her about him.
“He’s on the basketball team, a year above us,” you explain, “He’s been bugging me and Haerin for weeks now.”
“He even gave Haerin a heart candy right in front of Dani, after he gave Dani her own minutes before,” Hanni adds. “God, he's probably texting other girls too, isn’t he?”
“I don’t even respond to him anymore, I don’t get why he’s still messaging me,” Haerin says and in her voice, you can hear the annoyance, no, anger… hurt…?
Nobody knows what to say to her and instead, Minji says: “You know, maybe we should pull some pranks on him so he can learn his lesson.”
On Monday, the five of you sneak into the basketball team changing room when they are having a practice. There isn’t any plan, really, so you just mess the place up. You heard from some other girls that a lot of the basketball players are players , so they, too, deserve it, you guess.
You’re on your way to topple down some toilet paper when you feel someone pulling your sleeve, it’s Haerin. “We should steal something from his locker,” she whispers to you.
“Why are you whispering?”
“I don’t know, in case you’re against the idea,” she says, “I mean, at the beginning, it was between him and you and I.”
You wish there was never a him .
You grab her hand and pull her to the lockers, after toppling down the toilet paper, of course, and start searching for his name.
What was it again? Han Jiho? Jihoon? Jinwoo?
“Dan, it’s this one,” she calls you before opening one of the lockers. It’s Han Jiwon, apparently. You scan the inside and there are two pairs of jerseys, a pair of shoes, and a basketball.
“Guys, let’s go!” Hyein suddenly calls out, “They’re having a break! They might come here!”
“Let’s take the jerseys, he can’t play matches without these,” you say and quickly grab the white and blue clothings. You run to the door, following the rest of the girls.
It’s when you’re outside the building you realize that you’ve never let go of her hand since earlier. “Sorry,” you breathe, finally letting go of her hand.
“It’s okay,” she whispers, “I don’t hate it.”
You don’t have time to quite react to that as you hear noise from the inside, “Who the hell did this?!”
“Come on,” she says, this time, her hand grabs yours.
Saturday comes around and you’re now stuck at the party. Your dance squad finished performing a while ago. Minji and Hyein were already off to see their crushes, so it’s just you, Haerin, and Hanni left.
Well, until Hanni says: “Can you guys come with me?”
“Is it the no face guy?” you ask.
“Yeah, he’s just over there.” Hanni points at a guy in a white hoodie just across the hall.
“Girl, just go by yourself,” Haerin comments.
Hanni’s face drops. “What if he doesn’t like me?”
“He will,” Haerin says, smiling as she fixes Hanni’s hair carefully.
“Just go.” You turn her around and give her a little push. Hanni looks back at the two of you for a moment before finally walking to her crush.
“So,” Haerin starts, putting her arm around your shoulders, sending shivers throughout your body. “It’s just us singles, huh?”
Well, we can change it .
You don’t say it outloud, of course, because you’d hate ruining this friendship, so instead you say, “This party suck.”
She laughs, sounding so adorable. “The night is still young, Dan.”
“What do you think about leaving this place, though?” you ask. “I don’t really like parties.”
“Arcade?”
You nod and shoot her a smile, that’ll be more fun for sure.
The two of you change your clothes to the more comfortable spares you had on your backpacks before leaving the party to spend the rest of the evening at the arcade, playing every single game they have in there.
The two of you.
Just the two of you, laughing and having fun.
Like the world is just yours.
Like she is yours.
You two are taking a rest on a bench and you are in the middle of talking about a funny incident Hanni had when you two were younger when you catch her staring at you, a soft smile on her face.
“Haerin? Are you listening?”
“No,” she casually says, “I was distracted.”
“Wha–”
“Dani?” she calls, “I think I like you.”