Notes: Bare with me if there's any mistakes lol enjoy
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Hanni's surprised when many people recognize her.
She's lost count of the amount of swimmers and coaches who have come up to her, excited to finally meet her. Her average approaches produce results of her fingers pushing her glasses up her nose at the amount of times she's had to bow.
It's been hours since the first half of the event took place, the second half beginning the next day. Her school wasn't going to start their events until the next day, so they were free to explore the area.
"Hanni Pham? Who would've known?" The brunette winces at the voice that calls for her. She turns around, meeting familiar faces.
The same girls from the locker room. What a jolly.
Hanni simply smiles at the girls, stuffing her hands into her pocket. "Hey girls, enjoying your time so far?" Her mouth feels sore from faking the motion.
The first girl scoffs, seeming annoyed by Hanni uptight approach. She cocks her head to the side. "While I enjoy your flattery, I think its best for you to know that this is not what we're here for." The girl faces Hanni, a smirk occupying her lips.
The second girl nods along, crossing her arms. "Our school is going to win and we'll make sure you feel every emotion possible when you lose to us." The girl laughs, whipping her hair.
Suddenly, a hand wraps around the brunette's arm, a familiar perfume scent engulfing her sense already.
"Like Hanni would ever lose to people like you." Minji chuckles with her signature, the one Hanni used to be at the receiving end of. It was one that easily riled people up.
Another girl steps up to approach the raven, but Hanni steps in front of Minji, towering over the other girl. The girl backs up, mumbling something under her breath.
The raven tugs gently on her team jacket, a silent message telling her that it was time to go. "See you tomorrow." Hanni smiles cheekily before turning around to walk away with Minji.
When they're faraway, swarmed in the mess of swimmers, staffs and coaches, Hanni squeezes the raven's hand.
"Thanks. Had you not been there, I would've gotten disqualified in the blink of an eye." The brunette nudges the raven's side with their knuckles.
Minji rolls her eyes. "I can't believe they're still mad about the last time we met when they were the ones who started it." She replies, eyes glimmering at an old friend who passes by.
The brunette follows the raven wherever she takes them. They appear in the natatorium, loud with cheers from the people filling the area. Minji pulls her up the stairs, walking toward the rest of their team.
They sit down, turning their attention to the huge pool. Hanni's heart speeds with excitement, in disbelief that they qualified far enough to participate in such an event.
Wonyoung points toward the pool. "Guys, look!"
Their eyes follow Wonyoung's fingers and Hanni sees a mix of red and blue jackets standing not too far from the pool, clipboards in their hands.
It takes a bit more squinting before Hanni figures out that they're staff from the national team.
"Coach Kim might be here."
"Shit, they're scouting people for the new roster of the national team. I heard they're making a second team because there's so many talented swimmers." Danielle explains to them.
Liz sits up straight. "If we win, do you think they'll take a look at our records?" She faces Minji and Hanni.
The raven tilts her head slightly. "Maybe. But I think it's better if they take a look at everyone individually. Once they see that there's a pattern of good swimmers coming from our university, and we win, there's a good chance they'd consider some of us."
There's a loud beep that sounds, stating for swimmers to be on standby. The natatorium suddenly goes silent, allowing for the swimmers to prepare themselves for their pullouts.
Hanni's stomach pools, waiting for the second beep that begins the start of the 200m medley relay. She has to watch carefully as she was chosen for a relay the next day.
A loud long beat goes off and almost immediately, a bunch of swimmers dive into the pool, multiple splashes being heard.
The crowd goes wild with cheers as the swimmers perform the first set of strokes as fast as they can. Hanni notices the national team's scouters jotting down notes onto their clipboard as they do. Constantly, they go back and forth with the representative on a table nearby. The brunette guesses the laptop in front of the representative holds the current swimmers stats.
The first set of swimmers finish their first stroke, kicking off the wall for their last one. Now, the crowd only becomes louder, cheering for their specific school. Hanni can see that the swimmer in the 6th lane was practically speeding, already halfway back across the pool while everyone else was somersaulting to switch direction.
Then, the rest were beginning to catch up, the 2nd and final set of swimmers preparing to dive as soon as the swimmers touches the wall. It isn't long before there's splashes for the start of the final 2 laps.
Hanni's heart hammers, unable to feel Minji's death grip on her arm from anticipation. There's no specific swimmer she wants to win, all of them are capable and talented. She figures that the mentally was what caught swimmers in the middle.
Tomorrow, Hanni has to be focused. In a huge natatorium like this, it's easy to let the large amount of eyes intimidate her.
Suddenly, the noise that was filling up the area becomes quiet. The final lap is nearing more quickly than the brunette expected.
The swimmers touch the starting wall with their feet, switching directions to finish the final lap.
"Number 3." Hanni says.
Her friends look toward her. "What?"
Hanni breathes out through her nose. "Number 3 is going to win." She repeats.
Bahiyyih tilts her head in confusion. "But they're 2nd to last?" She turns back to pool. "Wait, shit!"
The swimmer in Lane number 3 is speeding through the other, a huge gap between them and the other swimmers to everyone's surprise. Hanni's eyes narrow onto the screen with the time and speed.
She taps Minji's thigh. "Babe."
The raven hums, not turning away from the pool. "Yeah? What's up?" She asks.
Hanni simply stares at the raven. "You're my partner for the 200m medley relay." The brunette explains.
Minji nods, her fingers finding its way in between the brunette's. "I know. Remember? You said we're partners in crime. I wouldn't have it any other way." The raven turns to grin at Hanni.
The brunette chuckles. "So you wouldn't be afraid to try to break a world record?" She challenges teasingly.
The raven raises her eyebrow, ignoring the cheers from the end of the event. "With you? Of course not."
"Good, because we're going to break one tomorrow." The brunette announces with confidence.
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After a brief team meeting, they head to their respective rooms, cleaning up for the day.
Hikaru licks the frosting from one of the free cupcakes the hosts' offered. "You know, sometimes I think you're secretly a undercover spy robot."
The brunette fights the urge to giggle. "What makes you think that?" She asks, pulling out the bags of takeout they picked up.
Her best friend thinks for a moment. "Because, what type of person knows who's going to win in a 200m race 40 seconds before they actually win?" Hikaru's face is plastered with uttered confusion.
Her expression makes the brunette want to roll her eyes. "I don't know who's more dramatic, you or Danielle." Hanni glances at her other best friend.
Danielle gasps in feigned hurt. "Me? Dramatic?"
Hikaru and Hanni give her a look.
The raven slugs in her seat. "You guys are so mean." She pours, turning back to grab her order of food.
They sit together on the floor, giggles being shared as they binged watched Gilmore Girls. Hanni's nerves that had been occupying her the day before disappear over a simple hangout with the people closest to her.
It's easy to let resell relax and be free, messing around with the people she grew up with. She's sure they're destined to remain friends forever.
Danielle nudges the brunette. "So... if you and Minji win the championships as captains, we take you to LA." The raven tells her.
Hanni gives her a glare. "You can only dream." She playfully gives Danielle a shove.
However, Hikaru nods along. "No, she's telling the truth. The sports department agreed to let us go to LA for a week during off season if we win the championships or place top 5. We've already planned everything, courtesy to your lovely teammates/friends." Hikaru says with a grin and a shake of her shoulders.
Hanni's demeanor changes, her face going from disbelief to determination. She stands up, looking down at her friends.
"We're winning that championship."
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Hanni wipes her face of water from doing her skincare. As she places down her face towel, she feels arms slither around her waist. The brunette looks in the mirror, meeting Minji's smile.
She feels a slight wind of butterflies in her stomach, the brunette turning around in Minji's arms. "When did you get here?" Hanni asks, brushing strands of hair from the raven's face.
Minji ponders for a bit before answering. "Not too long ago. They just told me you were in your bathroom." She grins brightly at Hanni.
It was not too late, but it was approaching the end of the day, all of them getting ready for the big day. The nerves turned off and on in Hanni.
Hanni drags the raven out of the bathroom and toward her bed. Minji follows after her, shifting into the covers.
The brunette lays onto Minji's chest, the raven pulling the covers over them. "Are you nervous for tomorrow?" Minji asks as they get comfortable.
Hanni's head snuggles against the raven's jaw, her eyes closing as she allows the raven's scent to slowly lull her to sleep.
"No.... Well, a little bit. It's been off and on all day. I tries not to let it get to me that much. But yeah, I'm nervous." Hanni explains lowly, following along with comfortable silence.
Minji strokes her hair carefully before running her fingers through the brunette's soft brown locks. "I am too. I mean, there's going to be a lot of eyes on all of us, especially me and you, being captains. So people expect we do well and wow, I never thought there would be a day where there would be such a big crowd watching us." The raven pauses for a second, thinking more of what to say.
Hanni still listens, enjoying the way Minji's fingers feels in her hair.
Minji chuckles. "I mean, not only are people going to be watching us in the natatorium. It's going to be broadcasted all over Korea."
It's still hard to grasp at the fact that they're actually participating in the national championship. Many teams qualified after district, regionals, and quite frankly, it was easy for their school to qualify due to how well trained the swim team was.
For others, people call it 'overkill' to have the top rated swimmers on one team. Maybe it's the very reason why they have many eyes on them, even without their captains, their school would still be high in the standings.
Hanni's proud of that, they all worked hard for it, the brunette remembering the amount of times her teammates asked if they could extend the training times. They have passion for swim, and determinations all drove them to this point.
The brunette exhales lowly, "It's our chance to prove how good of a team we are. There's one thing that we have that the others don't. People treat swim as an individual sport, while we, use each other to improve our individual skills, that way we're always improving ourselves. We depend on each other when we can't figure something out. Most teams only rely on their coaches to teach them things when we can learn just as much from our teammates." Hanni chuckles, soon after opening and closing her eyes.
Sleep slowly takes over her body, the brunette letting out a sigh at gentle fingers in her hair. "We better get some sleep." She says lowly, lifting herself from Minji's chest.
She presses a few sleepy kisses against the raven's forehead, before pressing a long one onto Minji's lips. "We'll do our best, that's all that matters." She opens her eyes to stare at the raven.
Taking in the beautiful sight in front of her, Hanni only feels her breath hitch.
The raven nods, smiling when Hanni brings their foreheads together. "I promise I'll do my best." Minji whispers, sighing when their noses nuzzles.
Hanni lays back down onto the bed, letting Minji sneak into her hold as she turns off the light.
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Hanni enters the building with high hopes, her team jacket zipped up fully as she follows behind her coaches. There's nerves, alright, the brunette catching the eyes of some of the best swimmers in the country. Their eyes are fierce, full with passion and a goal to win.
"You're going to burn a hole into everyone that you stare at." Jinni elbows her.
The brunette bites the inside of her cheek, facing the girl. "This is how I normally look, though?" She responds, huffing out a breath.
Jinni squints her eyes. "Yeah, I know. But maybe just try to tone it down a bit? Even I'm getting scared."
Hanni simply shrugs, stuffing her hand into her pocket. It's only a few hours until they start their events. She has to get serious.
An arm links with her's, a shoulder softly bumping into her's. "Hi." Minji drags her voice playfully, smiling at the brunette.
Hanni really can't help breaking into a smile too, not when the raven is being so cute. "Hi." She faces the raven, eyes wide and sparkling.
Jinni feigns a disgusted face. "I can't believe that Minji, out of all people, managed to turn you into a softie." She mutters.
The brunette ignores her, pecking Minji's nose. "You're done with the meeting?" Hanni asks, watching as the raven pulls back to nod.
Hanni doesn't fail to grab the raven's gear bag, hoisting it over her shoulder with her own bag so she can lace their fingers together.
"It was awfully long. I don't know why they needed all the team captains. You left me in there all alone, all bored!" Minji whines.
The brunette shrugs. "They needed me to go over where we needed to go during our heats." She shoves Gyuvin and Sunoo forward to continue walking.
They reach the 1st natatorium, the girls and boys heading to their respective locker rooms. Even in the locker room, Hanni can hear the loud crowd watching the current events going on.
Placing their things onto a bench, Hanni sits onto it, leaning against the wall. Luckily, their team is the only ones in the locker room.
Hanni crosses her legs, wiggling her croc at the tip of her toes. "Some of you start your heats soon, get your swimsuits on but keep you sweatpants and jackets on to keep warm. You should be out the door to warm up a bit. The rest of you, change and help the others warm up. After you're the done, switch. I'll be out there shortly." The brunette instructs and the girls start hasting around.
Minji asks for her bag, Hanni grabbing it and handing it to the raven. The brunette stands up, taking over the two layers of clothing she has one.
Fumbling with the jacket and her shirt she wore under, she notices the raven staring at her. She's left in her gym bra and sweatpants.
"What?"
Minji shakes her head, turning away. "Nothing." The girl sticks her tongue out playfully, causing for Hanni to roll her eyes.
Suddenly, the locker room doors open, their eyes following the heads of the new visitors.
The brunette blinks confusedly at a few unfamiliar girls looking at her. "Um, can I help you?" Hanni asks, wondering if there's more people who disliked her than usual.
But one of the girls pull out their phone. "We've been seeing you around here a lot, we wondered if we could get your number?"
But before she can answer, Minji slips back on her team jacket, running over to the brunette. Minji wraps her arms around the brunette's neck tightly, capturing her lips for a long kiss.
Hanni stands there in surprise, staring at the raven when they pull away.
The raven grins. "We're heading out to start the warmups, see you later. Love you!" She presses one last kiss against the brunette's lips before running out the locker room.
The brunette lifts her arm that holds her shirt and jacket in one hand, hesitating and struggling to find words for a moment. She turns back to the girls, who sport sad frowns.
Hanni chuckles embarrassingly. "That was my girlfriend, just in case you didn't know." She tells them, smiling gently before walking pass them with her bag so she can head to the bathroom to change.
She enters the bathroom to see her teammates singing, swinging their jackets around. Hanni fights the urge to exhale in annoyance.
"You guys are supposed to be warming up, not jumping around to Miley Cyrus." Hanni pinches at the bridge of her nose.
Bae lowers the volume a bit, handing the brush thats was being used as a makeshift mic to the brunette. "Come on, sing it!" She yells, whipping her hair in a circle.
The brunette grabs the mic, waiting a bit. "'Prisoner, prisoner, locked up, can't get you off my mind, off my mind-" She sings loudly, earning shocked stares from her friends.
Hanni slowly lowers the brush down, clearing her throat as the music plays in the background. "Yes I can sing, now get back to changing." She puckers her lips, entering a stall.
"Why can't you just let me go?" Hanni sings loudly in the stall.
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She doesn't ever remember being this nervous about anything in her life other than placing first in an ice skating championship.
Hanni knows and understands that championships always have her stomach tumbling.
So far, they've been doing really well, climbing up the standings with enough points. It was yet Hanni's turn to go, as she has to perform well in the individual 100m freestyle. Then, a relay with Minji will be their last event before they call the teams rankings.
They've been swimming since the morning, all of them obviously exhausted from performing all day long. But they were almost done.
The brunette's eyes skims the leaderboard, Danielle on top with a huge gap. She's swimming fast, probably the fastest Hanni's ever seen her go. If she wins this one, it'll give them enough points to rack second. Then it'll be on to Minji and Hanni to gather enough points to win the table.
Whoever wins the table from the four group, would participate in one heat. One swimmer from each team will participate in the individual medley, top two move on to the next round. Whoever wins the relay medley between the two teams, wins the championship.
Hanni bites at the inside of her cheek anxiously, watching the swimmers slightly catch up. Danielle is almost done, she just needs to increase her speed by a little to finished win old.
Their team jumps up and down. "Go Danielle! Jang Danielle." They all clap loudly, watching as the raven splashes become stronger.
Hanni showed Danielle a video on her iPad. "If you kick backwards with a little bit more force, it'll give you like a boost. Small bursts of it can cause a difference." She turns to face Danielle, who looked at the screen with focus.
The raven eventually lifted her head up. "But when I try it, it never seems like to work out." Danielle huffed in frustration.
Hanni scrubbed through the video, slowing it down. "See here. It may look like nothing, but it's something all right. It's different here because she utilized both her arms and legs in a way that give her the slight edge." The brunette explained, setting down the iPad.
Danielle placed her goggles back on. "Okay, I'll try it." She nodded, lifting her fist to knock it against Hanni's.
The brunette backed up in order to prevent herself from getting splashed. She raised her thumb and a beep was heard.
"Come on, Danielle." Hanni whispers, her arms around her teammates.
She trusts her teammate-her best friend.
The rest of the team either were looking anxiously at the pool or unable to look, facing the ground as they wiggle their feet.
They hear screaming and suddenly, Danielle is jumping onto the brunette, absolutely soaking Hanni.
"It worked! I won, Hanni!" Danielle screams, throwing her arms around the girl.
Hanni hugs her back, the rest of them joining and not caring that they were getting each other wet.
She somehow manages to pat Danielle's mess of her hair, so proud and happy. Lifting her hands to grab Danielle's head, she presses their foreheads together. "I'm so proud of you. You did well." Hanni brushes the raven's wet hair from her face, blinking through her tears.
Danielle nods frantically, sniffling. "Thank you."
The team pulls away from Danielle, allowing her to walk toward the platform. She bows to staff that hands her a bouquet of flowers. Soon, a gold medal is let around her neck, the raven unable to let go of the wide smile on her face.
So far, her teammates had either place 2nd or 1st, securing enough points to definitely put the in the top 3.
Although, the other teams have falling into the same patterns, meaning Minji and Hanni would had to win their relay by an incredible time to win.
She had yet to go either, watching everyone else go and watching on how they next group of people could improve on their heats.
Minji finds Hanni, having just finished her heat. The brunette sees the gold medal around her neck, and it prompts her to grab Minji's cheeks, kissing her long and slow.
The raven laughs, slowly pulling away from the brunette. "I did it. I tried my best and won." She breathes, her smile never leaving.
Hanni lifts the girl up in her arms, spinning her around a few times before placing her on the floor again. "I'm so proud of you as well!" She yells out.
Their teammates join them again in a group huddle, all of them jumping up and down. It's a surreal feeling knowing they've worked hard to get up to this point.
Hanni knows they've started the competition well, and it'll be up to her to finish it.
Notes:
2 more chapters left gasps