Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hee Do doesn’t know how it got to this point. Maybe this was the only conclusion. She had seen the signs all along, and she was sure Yu Rim did too. From running away from training, getting stuck in the middle of a busy road, to skipping training, Ye Ji was firm on quitting. Now five of Taeyang High School’s fencers were in a single file line, standing firmly on the wooden floors of the gym. The gym that usually held the noises of shoes squeaking and sabres striking were replaced by the echoes of Coach’s scoldings. Accompanied by Yu Rim to her left, Hee Do feels extra confident and defends Ye Ji.

“All we’ve ever done is this. So for us, to give up is to face our greatest challenge.”

“Giving up is a challenge? That’s a nice way to put it,” Coach replies.

For a second, between the sentences, Hee Do and Yu Rim had the confidence to make eye contact with Coach. They hoped that maybe Hee Do’s determination had convinced Coach again, like how she did a million times before. But again, Hee Do’s determination was never contingent on words alone.

“Then is having grit… the same as being stupid?

A wave of embarrassment hits Hee Do. She wishes she could sigh right now to get rid of the heavy feeling in her chest. Loud scoldings and arbitrary attacks have been the norm for her. Or at least, ones from people she didn’t need validation from. She knows that Coach doesn’t mean it. This was something said out of anger — or maybe desperation. But she also chooses to back down and focuses her eyes on her shoes.

“Yu Rim, go to class and get Ye Ji.”

Hee Do sees it. How Yu Rim will fetch Ye Ji from her class and how Ye Ji will leave training with tears in her eyes again. No matter how determined she was, she was sure that she had done everything she could for Ye Ji. Not even Hee Do’s stubbornness could save them this time.

“Can’t you hear me?” Coach asks when Yu Rim lets the silence weigh too long in the air.

Yu Rim takes a breath.

“I’m sorry. I’ll also not take part in training until you let Ye Ji leave the team.” Yu Rim’s eyes match with Coach’s.

“What?”

Hee Do’s head snaps over to look at Yu Rim. Yu Rim is using the same polite but deadpan voice. The one she defaults to often. But it’s different this time. She doesn’t talk to Coach with hesitation — she’s sure this time. Hee Do watches as Yu Rim tells Coach about how odd it was that fencers can’t go to class just because they were on a sports team. She sees how she gains confidence as her eyes move up to go against Coach for the first time ever. She notices how her bow to Coach is still elegant, like her fencing.

“Did you all lose your minds? Stop right there. Ko Yu Rim!”

Hee Do stares at the lingering presence of where Yu Rim once stood. She’s made the opening move. There was only one right move for Hee Do to do.

“I’ll also not be training until you let Ye Ji leave the team,” Hee Do blurts out. She thinks her bow to Coach is dull compared to Yu Rim’s.

***

Yu Rim looks at her before she can. Her eyes follow Hee Do. She’s shocked as the other fencer slides into her seat at the very back of the class. In a small corner of her mind, she knows that she shouldn’t really be surprised. She hasn’t really gotten over the initial shock of her own actions just yet. It replays in her mind like a film reel constantly. But the thoughts dissipate when Hee Do grins from ear to ear at her. Her seat suddenly feels so distant from Hee Do’s. She could talk to Hee Do much better if she occupied the empty seat next to her — instead of being two tables diagonally away from her.

“What happened?” Yu Rim mouths.

Hee Do scribbles something on a notebook and crumples it up to be thrown to Yu Rim. Yu Rim catches it with ease. Yu Rim raises her head up to see if the teacher is watching before opening the note.

‘Actions speak louder than words. You did the right thing.’

This time, Yu Rim and Hee Do simultaneously catch each other’s eye. Yu Rim is reminded of the Asian Games, no matter the bad memories — she will admit that Hee Do and her are extremely in sync. Or They seemed to mutually understand each other without question. Not just fencing or school or manhwa, but also something more. Yu Rim just can’t quite grasp what it is yet.

Their shared gaze is disrupted when Ji Woong holds up a notebook, seemingly wanting to one-up Hee Do. The words read:

‘Eyes on me, I may not have standard good looks, but I’m your type.’

Yu Rim is not sure who to smile at, Ji Woong or Hee Do with her funny glare and eye roll combo against Ji Woong. Yu Rim is reminded that she is somewhat ‘going out’ with Ji Woong now. For some reason it felt like a huge… she can’t exactly put the words to it. She feels it's only natural that they get together, he likes her and she likes him. But is this really what love feels like? Yu Rim doesn’t want to go into the new century with confusion — and among all others, this felt like the most confusing one.

***

Once the school day ended, Hee Do is reminded why she doesn’t like going to class after all. Granted, her class experience had been a mixture of closing her eyes, telling the teacher that she needs to ‘heal’, and waking up to the sunlight blinding her or to Ji Woong putting a paper mustache on her face or Yu Rim’s “Hee Do-yah” that makes her wake up like a sleeper agent.

Yu Rim and Hee Do decide to walk to Yu Rim's mother's restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately, Ji Woong and Seung Wan have been forced back home by their respective mothers to study for the CSAT. Well actually, Seung Wan went home on her own accords. She said she didn’t want to ‘Third wheel’ or whatever that meant. When asked, she simply said:

“Tell me first when you find out.”

Cold air besieges the roads that lead to their destination. Some brown leaves land with a hush sound from the trees they used to call home. Stricken by this sudden cold weather, people walk down the street with their hands crossed. It isn’t even winter yet but Hee Do already wants to walk with a blanket outside. She has to keep reminding herself that it was only a fluke day, and that fall wasn’t even here yet. The tips of her fingers feel like they’ve lost their receptors, and her face feels like it’s going to turn rock solid if she doesn’t get indoors right now.

She turns to Yu Rim. It’s almost like a competition — who will look at each other first? But the moment she turns to Yu Rim, she realises she had lost this bout. Yu Rim looked completely fine. Not just fine, she looked great. There was this lighter feel to her today. Hee Do thinks the third person perspective would be quite funny: the juxtaposition between a shivering mess and the delicate, composed, elegant Yu Rim. With this, she lets out a chuckle with a faint mist following it. Yu Rim follows her. And soon chuckles that are seemingly about nothing fill the solemn street.

Despite their reconciled relationship, Hee Do decides there that she doesn’t know Yu Rim well enough. Hee Do had expected Yu Rim to walk out the gym doors and back in with Ye Ji. But Yu Rim did the last thing she expected her to do. This is different from the Yu Rim that let her senior stab her with a sabre. It’s different from the Yu Rim that stayed up until midnight to clean the gym floors. And she’s determined to find out more about this other, newly discovered side of her. She wants to know more about Injeolmi.

Chapter Text

Hee Do notices Yu Rim first by her silhouette. When she’s bored, her mind lingers and she wonders if Yu Rim plays this game too. Hee Do thinks that if there was a point system, she would be winning. That would be the first gold medal she’d ever gotten. She thinks has been winning since before she joined Taeyang High, when she would stay up until the moon has made its round just to watch Yu Rim’s international rounds, when she would ask her mother for the daily paper just to cut out Yu Rim’s pictures and plaster them on her wall, when she would wake up early on Saturdays in order to see Yu Rim train. Although, this is the first time where she isn’t sure if she wants to win or not.

Both of them are headed to the gym, Hee Do being just behind Yu Rim. They’re not far away, but also not close enough that Yu Rim feels her presence. Yesterday, Coach told one of their seniors to inform them that she had reached a conclusion about Ye Ji quitting. Hee Do remembers the immediate Yu Rim and Hee Do were ecstatic for today, because they thought that maybe their minor act of defiance against Coach actually worked.

Obviously it was never going to be that simple.

It felt like yesterday all over again. But the gym was substituted by the office Hee Do once traded her shoes in, and instead of five fencers there were three. Coach’s voice was once again booming and echoing through the room when she called them in. It was direct, strict, and more importantly — angry. She looked angier than she was yesterday, which Hee Do thought was impossible. Instead of their normal, or perhaps abnormal determination, the three girls all hung their heads down. There really was no way out of this now.

“Was it fun to skip training?” Coach starts. A leaf drop could shatter the silence in the room.

“Hey, Ye Ji. Look at what you’ve done to our team. Any thoughts?”

Hee Do pierces through the silence, “This isn’t her fault.”

“Then is it all my fault?” Coach snaps back, and Hee Do backs down. One point to Coach, zero to Hee Do.

Yu Rim nearly jumps when Coach turns to her and says, “Yu Rim, why are you a part of this? You’re not the type to be like this. Who changed you?”

Who changed you? The words fog Yu Rim’s brain. She knows this was just a rhetorical question, but something in her seeks for the answer. Why she seeks this answer is the real question. Was it maybe the way Coach emphasized those three words? Or maybe there’s something more to this? Yu Rim hates being confused. She’s felt a noticeable change these days, something feels lighter. The weight of her existence doesn’t feel so heavy anymore. Maybe it wasn’t getting lighter, but instead someone was lending her a helping hand to lift the burden.

Before she can think further about this though, Ye Ji interjects with a shaky voice.

“Coach, can you let the others go?” Tears were slowly building up in Ye Ji’s eyes as she continued, “This is all my fault, so you should scold only me.”

“Why? Can’t you handle this? And yet you’ve managed to tell me that you want to quit fencing?” Coach’s voice crescendos as she gets to the end of her sentence.

Ye Ji looks out the window for comfort. The insane weight of guilt bears on her. She doesn’t know if she should cry to latch on to any sympathy Coach has left for her or if she should stand strong, to prevent getting reprimanded by Coach further. So, she wavers between the two — looking for a way to make things right again. Not only for herself, but also for Hee Do and Yu Rim who have bravely stood up for her.

“I’m not going to let you quit that easily,” Coach states.

“Coach!” Hee Do and Yu Rim blurted at the same time.

“If you really want to quit, there’s only one way.” Coach lets the silence linger for a moment. Though she was in an angry headspace, she still appreciates some dramatics. “Get to the quarterfinals at the nationals. And I’ll let you go.”

“The quarterfinals?” Ye Ji replies.

“Why? Can’t you do it?” The words sounded demeaning, but the only thing Ye Ji feels now is motivation.

“Yes. I can. I will.”

“But if you don’t make it, you can’t quit. If you want to quit fencing and start a new life… prove to me how determined you are.”

Coach leaves the room and the three girls in it.

“Will I be able to make it?” A teary eyed Ye Ji asks, looking at Hee Do.

“To the quarterfinals?” Ye Ji asks, this time her eyes darting to Yu Rim.

Almost instinctively, Hee Do looks at Yu Rim. This time, again, she does it first. A message is sent without needing words. Yu Rim reciprocates, giving a small nod towards Hee Do knowingly.

“We’ll help you.” They say together.

Yu Rim shouldn’t be looking forward to this, it is, after all, in hindsight a lot of extra training. But something in her wants to help, so incredibly badly. She thinks of the look in Ye Ji’s eyes, she thinks about the happiness she would get when she finally got the green light to quit, the relief she would feel. But also, something else seeps into her thoughts, something about a certain determined girl, one who wants and strives to become her rival. Normally when these thoughts come, she would stop herself — but this was just her wanting to spend more time with her friend.

***

Hee Do and Yu Rim got to work immediately. Early mornings and late nights were filled with sounds of sabres clashing, laughter, and screams ringing in their ears. The cooperation that Yu Rim had with Hee Do felt incredibly natural. Yu Rim and Hee Do would take turns sparring and fixing Ye Ji’s technique. They were inseparable, having every meal together with Ye Ji. There was a closer relationship bonding between the three of them — Yu Rim wouldn’t mind if this carried on for more than the three weeks they had before it was nationals. Was it selfish to want a ton of time in a day where Hee Do looks into her eyes while she talks and no one else’s? When Hee Do would look at her, really look at her.

Sometimes, Yu Rim would come when the sun had barely risen, when the fog of the morning blurs the large windows of the gym. The first thing she would see was Hee Do alone in the gym — stretching while she admires the changing seasons outside. Yu Rim thinks the browning leaves resemble Hee Do’s eyes. Maybe this is the appeal of a fan admiring an idol. Maybe Hee Do has been her idol all along since that tournament when she beat her so badly. The roles have reversed.

Yu Rim loves the bright mornings, when the clouds separate to reveal the warm sun that reflects off the window and the sabres would glisten. When the floor was filled with squeaks from shoes that Yu Rim can’t afford. When they would work on the usual things — technique, strategy, and everything in between. When the gym would erupt with cheer if Ye Ji got a new technique down, with Hee Do and Yu Rim patting her on the back. But she loved the late nights more. When they would run on banana milk, water, and laughter. Nothing but crickets and the noise from the scoring machine accompanied them. Of course, motivational words from Hee Do and Yu Rim were constants. There was one night that Yu Rim really treasured, she remembers it was the 7th day of training.

Normally, Hee Do and Yu Rim would clean the floor until it glistened — and that night was no different. The only difference was that Ye Ji had to go home early because she had to have a family dinner with her elders. So, the clock struck eight and it was Hee Do and Yu Rim alone.

***

For some reason, cleaning isn’t such a big deal when Hee Dos doing this with Yu Rim. Well, crawling on the floor where sweat drips everyday certainly isn’t a particularly enjoyable hobby, but having a familiar person by her side is making it better. But there was a lump in Hee Do’s chest, an ever present wave of guilt that never really settled. She just got distracted. If there was a better, more intimate and genuine time to make it right, it was now.

Hee Do grabbed Yu Rim’s moving towel. “I’ll do it.”

Yu Rim had her mouth slightly agape, with her eyes staring up to reach Hee Do’s. It wasn’t unlike the expression she had when she saw Hee Do reading her Full House volume that one day in the lockers. Hee Do doesn’t look back, and just focuses all her energy on the floor she is cleaning.

“Oh? We’ve always done it together…?”

“We’re even after this.”

“Even… how?”

“Ah, remember the day where you stayed back to clean the floors on that late night? After you got stabbed in the stomach by our senior?”

Yu Rim said nothing, and just put her hand on her forehead while cringing. “Ah…” She looks away, at the large gym floor. The memories of the night came back to her, how she tried to look tough to Hee Do by arguing with her even though Hee Do was trying to help her. She even swung Hee Do’s sabre away. Lord, it was so embarrassing. And that low voice she used, she can’t stand it. No wonder Hee Do hated her.

“But we’re not even.” That was the only thing Yu Rim could say.

“What? You want me to put pine drinks in your lockers again? I mean now that you got Ji Woon-”

“I treated you so badly, if anything I should be cleaning the floors.” She tried to snatch the towel from Hee Do’s hand. Hee Do’s hand swung swiftly to her left, where it was unreachable to Yu Rim.

Yu Rim pushed herself up with her hands. With her legs still on the ground, she reached out for the towel that was sitting by Hee Do’s side.

“Wah! Yu Rim-ah! What are you doing!” Hee Do was laughing in between her words. She wasn’t backing down either, trying to block Yu Rim from obtaining the towel by constantly moving the towel.

A loud thud interrupted the struggle between them. Fluorescent lights that used to light up their faces were now gone, and the only thing Hee Do could see was how the moonlight shined on Yu Rim’s face. Remnants of smiles still stayed on their faces, but another emotion of shock overpowered it. Hee Do’s hand released the towel, and they both slowly got up.

“What’s this?” Hee Do asks.

“Probably a blackout, we used to get those pretty often… not anymore though.”

“What if… it’s a ghost?” Hee Do said with a taunting voice.

Hee Do knows that Yu Rim was frozen in place, so she deliberately went behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hee Do!” Yu Rim screamed and pushed Hee Do away. Gently, of course. But she made the effort to cling tightly onto Hee Do’s arm right after.

After a few laughs, Hee Do looked around the dim gym, and then her eyes turned to Yu Rim. Yu Rim was looking around as well, just not at her. 1 point for Hee Do, none for Yu Rim. Seeing Yu Rim’s slightly messy bangs in the moonlight felt so… Hee Do doesn’t exactly have the words to describe it but it felt like something she didn’t deserve to see. So, she decided.

“Okay, screw the cleaning. Let’s go! But I’m still going to help you clean tomorrow.”

“Go where?”

“We can’t- I can’t work like this, so might as well get out of here.”

Hee Do slowly released herself from Yu Rim’s tight grip. Her hand shifted to Yu Rim’s wrist as her feet moved to the gym entrance, guided barely by the moonlight. Like a moth to a flame, Yu Rim glued herself tightly to Hee Do, with her shoulder tucked behind Hee Do’s. Hee Do would be lying if the warmth generated between them wasn’t comfortable. Reluctantly, she let go of Yu Rim’s hand to push open the double doors. She missed the touch that lingered.

Just as they stepped outside, there was a rustling noise. It sounded like it came from one of the bushes to their left that hadn’t succumbed to the weather yet. Without a second to even react, another noise reached their ear from their right. Both noises sounded not far away, and Hee Do thought that she might have actually manifested a ghost into reality. Yu Rim squealed with a high pitched voice as they both flinched to the sound.

“Eh, who’s there?” Hee Do asks into the darkness. There was another sound from the bushes. Someone, or something was struggling in there.

There was no time to wait for an answer though, because in the second she heard the noise again, her hair was flowing through the wind and a delicate but tight grip was wrapped around her wrist. Her legs followed suit fast enough as they ran out the gates of the school. Yu Rim was running for her life, Hee Do is sure that this is twice the speed that Yu Rim runs in training. The ground felt uneven as her fencing shoes traversed over them, but the feeling was gone just as fast as it came.

***

Seeing the girls suddenly take off, he walked out of the shadows to get a better view. He shone the flashlight down the road. But he spotted something in the bushes as well, it seemed like a silhouette of a teenage boy. Illuminating the bushes with his flashlight, it revealed a Ji Woong that was stuck in the bushes with some banana milk with him. He had leaves all over him, with some of the fabric of his shirt wrapped around the sharp thorns of the bush.

“Eh, Ji Woong?”

“Hyung! Can you help me?” Ji Woong called out to Yi Jin.

Yi Jin blinked twice before doing his signature laugh-scoffing. “What are you doing?”

“Aish, this is so embarrassing. I wanted to surprise Yu Rim but…” Ji Woong trailed off.

Yi Jin wanted to surprise Hee Do after her training. It seemed like Ji Woong had the same idea for Yu Rim… just a slightly more unprofessional way of doing so. Why did the two girls run off though?