**Wonyoung's POV**
After that relaxing (for the most part) day yesterday, today was the day; the Cheer Regionals. I quickly got up and showered. We were supposed to be at the venue by 10 AM. It was currently 8 AM. I called Liz to get up. Then I called again. And again. After the 5th try, she finally picked up with her raspy bed voice. I ran down to make myself cereal. My parents already left and Leeseo was still dead asleep. I didn't want anything too filling; if I eat too much then I feel queasy for these big moments. I was watching videos online when I got a text from Yujin. An unsettling feeling came over me. I clicked on the notification. It read: "yo you ready yet?".
I responded: "ye, bouta leave rn actually". I pressed "SEND" as I opened the door. I walked out to see Yujin sitting on the stairs. She wore a beige sweatshirt, ripped black jeans, and all white Nike shoes. She also wore a white cap and her glasses. I saw in the corner of her jeans that her keys held the turtle keychain that we bought yesterday. I had no choice but to try to ignore her and walked past her. I had to focus on Cheer... that's why I did that. Yujin seemed to understand and tried to take my duffel bag of supplies I carried like my uniform and basic necessities like water and protein bars. I was walking so fast that she eventually trying and gave up.
We reached the venue by bus. The outside was completely packed. Families were everywhere and there were so many pretty participants who were stretching or practicing. I desperately needed to find my girls and start getting ready, but with all the people around, navigating was like a maze. Yujin grabbed my hand and led us to where our team was waiting. All we needed was Liz whom came a couple seconds after me. She was accompanied by Rei. Yujin and Rei had to leave since we were about to enter the Participant's Area. I gave one last glance to Yujin before entering the door. She rose her fist in the air and mouthed: "HWAITING".
**Yujin's POV**
I realistically didn't need to wake up so early and go with Wonyoung to her competition. I definitely didn't need to be tossing and turning in my bed last night worrying either. She's got this. She's Wonyoung; she can do anything. Regardless, Rei and I spent some time wandering around the place. The competition didn't start for another two hours so we were basically stranded doing nothing because of our...friends. I was getting a bit hungry though so we walked to a convenience store. I bought a bag of chips while Rei bought a bottle of soda. We sat on a hill right next to the venue and just started talking, looking out at the sun and the people running around the venue. Rei is honestly a more fascinating person than I expected. I became intrested in her backstory.
"So why did your family move here?"
"My mom got a job offer here so we all came along. They're all back in Japan though. She got transferred back. I was supposed to go back too but they kept me here because of my football scholarship. They thought it'd be best for me to go to school here instead of in Japan." She seemed dispirited and sad talking about her family. She must not have seen them in a while.
"I-I'm sorry Rei, that must suck."
"It's really okay, I still videocall them often and sometimes we travel to each other!" Her smile came back. "I have a lot of great things going in Korea like you guys...and Liz..." Her smile was especially big when mentioning her girlfriend.
"So how did you actually meet Wonyoung and Liz?"
"I was actually bullied when I first moved here because I couldn't speak nor understand Korean. It took a while for me to pick up on the basics, but the kids in my class were ruthless. One day, there were these group of kids who kept hitting me during PE. I think we were playing dodgeball but they kept mocking me and targeting me even when I was out of the game." I saw a small tear form in her eye.
"Anyways, these two girls came to defend me and wiped all of them out. We became friends since they were the first people who were ever nice to me." She reminisced, more tears flowing. I ran back in the store to grab some napkins.
"Liz is my first crush and first love," Rei revealed "ever since I saw her cheering me on when I played football, I've fallen for her ever since. She's the main reason I started to play football y'know?". She started to smile while staring out in the horizon. "I'm unbelievably fortunate that she's also my first girlfriend. I just want to do anything and everything with her, just so I can make her as happy as she makes me feel everyday."
That hit me in the feels to be honest. The same girl that I met Wonyoung through by her confession note, talking to me about NOT CHOOSING WONYOUNG?!?!? The audacity of some people! I guess it is good that she didn't choose Wonyoung though. Because.... I wouldn't have met Wonyoung and by extension, most of my friends. Yeah... that's the reason.
Rei broke my concentration, "If you don't mind me asking: what about you? Why do you graffiti and mess around with the teachers all the time?" She looked a bit scared to ask me that.
I chuckled, "I do it for no particular reason I guess. I first started because my old teacher told me that I was a good artist; this was in like 2nd grade by the way. After she said that, I guess I became so confident that I started drawing all over the place. When she caught me drawing on the classroom wall, she sent me to detention and called my parents- the whole schabang. I was mad at her. I felt like she betrayed me...and ever since... I've done it to every teacher I had..." I felt tears dripping down my eyes. Rei blotted the napkin around my face.
I stood up quickly to end the emotional deep talk we just had. "Hahaha anyways... let's go in, it should be starting soon..." I trailed off.
I looked at Rei. She rose up giving me an understanding glance; for all intents and purposes, this conversation never happened.
~~
Anyways, by the time we threw away our trash, it was 11:46. We headed inside to find seats. As we were walking down the aisles to find somewhere, I spotted Wonyoung's family. And to the side, I also noticed Gaeul with a couple kids from school. We sat down between the two groups.
"Gaeul? What are you doing here?" Rei asked.
"I'm here to take pictures for the school news" she answered. Gaeul turned her attention to me her eyebrows dropping down angrily, "Yujin why didn't you reply to me yesterday?"
"Oh yeah sorry, I saw it but I didn't want to wake up Wonyoung so I couldn't reply," I responded, "When I got home, I completely forgot, and knocked out"
Gaeul nodded and commented "nah you're good, it wasn't anything important anyways, was just wondering if you wanted to go with me today." She trailed off at end, sounding unconfident, very unlike her.
We chatted some more as we waited for the competition to start. The loud horn beeped and the LED lights started blinking meaning it was time for Wonyoung to win. I mean... for the Cheer competition.
**Wonyoung's POV**
"We practice hard. WE WIN HARD." We huddled our hands in a stack, as captain I had the responsibility of doing the most important job. What is that task?
"WHAT TEAM?"
"WILDCATS"
"WHAT TEAM?"
"WILDCATS"
"GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME" we shouted in unison.
I don't know why we do that; we're not even the Wildcats.
We finished our routine and I must say we were absolutely flawless. In that moment of relief after it ended, there was nothing much to think besides worrying if we won or not. We practiced hard so no matter the outcome, we tried our best and that's all we could ever dream of and all that mumbo jumbo feel good stuff. They give the judge panel, 30 minutes to come to tally points and figure out the winner, so we went to go see our families in the back. There was a line that separated everyone from the participants, but it was quite easy to find my family since they're with Liz's family and they are usually the loudest people anywhere. We caught them on the far-right side. I saw my parents screaming out my name. Leeseo was jumping up and down filming everything with her camera. Rei was on the side, no doubt trying to hide from Liz's family (they haven't revealed anything quite yet). Yujin was nowhere to be found though. We met up with them. Our moms were holding giant bouquets of flowers while our dads were in the back talking to each other, probably about stocks to be honest. In the very back, I spotted a speck of Yujin's silhouette walking down. When she reached into my clear view she was... with Gaeul...okay...
"Wonyoung, you did amazing!!!" Gaeul hugged me. I gave her a pat on the back, "thanks." Yujin stayed quiet throughout the whole ordeal.
As I was talking with everyone, the announcement to come back into the venue came to see who won. Everyone rushed in like a zombie horde.
"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, THANK YOU FOR JOINING US TODAY FOR THE SEOUL HIGH SCHOOL CHEER REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS"
"NOW FOR THE MOMENT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR... THE WINNER."
"THE WINNER IS...."
"RRRRR- REMEMBER TO SILENCE YOUR PHONES LADIES AND GENTS" the announcer chuckled at his joke.
"OKAY REALLY NOW, THE WINNER IS......"
"STARSHIP HIGH"
We did it. We won. I didn't even process what he just said. I stood there dazed like I was lagging behind a whole minute after everyone. I only broke out of my trance when my teammates started going wild and jumping into me. I did it. I beat that brat Kim Seonwoo. I was given the championship trophy. It was heavy but it was the epitome of our work. This is not the end. There's still the Nationals... THAT will be the epitome of our work.
It was even harder to find our families this time around. This time there were no barriers holding people apart. There were also people congratulating us on the victory. It was a bit awkward hearing that while walking by some girls crying. After sifting through the horde like ninjas, we finally found them after texting and calling our locations. I saw everyone standing by a pole. Leeseo ran up to me and tackled me in a hug. From a distance I felt it was funny watching Rei and Liz awkwardly high-five to avoid attracting suspicion at their relationship.
"Good job...buddy...." Rei said.
It was a happy celebration for me but I noticed something.
"Where are Yujin and Gaeul?" I asked.
"Oh, they're over there" Leeseo pointed at the parking lot. I guess Yujin left already. Oh well, I wasn't gonna let that ruin my mood. I won for God's sake. My mom pressed the bouquet onto my arms. I was bombarded with hugs from all my family members. I was pushed around to take pictures with a bunch of people. Some of the people I took pictures with, I didn't even know; I just kept smiling and looking around at the cameras. In the scramble, I bumped into someone. I dropped my bouquet onto the floor. I bent down to pick it up, but the person beat me to it. I rose at the same pace with the flowers. I looked up to meet their eyes. It was Yujin.
"Don't be so clumsy silly" she joked as she handed back the bouquet.
"Yujin! You're here!?!?" I exclaimed.
"Well yeah, of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" she stuck her hands in her pocket. "Let's go eat."
We headed out to lunch with everyone; Yujin, Rei, my family, and Liz's family. We went to a barbeque restaurant. They had to combine 3 tables to accommodate all of us. Me, Yujin, Liz, Rei and Leeseo sat at one end of the table and the parents were on the other half.
I whispered to Yujin to satisfy my curiosity. "I thought you left with Gaeul"
Yujin scoffed, "Why would I do that?!?!?"
"Well aren't yo-...I mean don't you like her?" I bluntly stated. I desperately wanted to know the answer.
Yujin dropped the piece of meat she was holding. "What?" she shouted. She had to bow to the adults to apologize. An awkward air cruised through the table. She leaned back to me, much more calmly: "No, I don't. What gave you that idea?"
"Well I...I....I just thought you liked her. She's pretty, she's probably the smartest kid at school, and she's-"
"She's not my crush." Yujin confirmed. She put a piece of pork belly onto my plate. "Eat before it gets cold."
We stopped it at that. Although I was still a bit suspicious of their relationship. Regardless, after that confirmation, I enjoyed the rest of the lunch.
~~
Afterwards, we separated; Liz went back home with her family. I heard that she and Rei were planning on spending the day with each other, but with her family around, they had to cancel, so Rei went back home. Yujin and I decided to spend the rest of the day at my house because she supposedly forgot her keys and no one else was home. We all showered to get the smell out of our clothes. I gave Yujin my clothes to wear; an old T-shirt and shorts. Me and Leeseo sat on the couch waiting for Yujin to finish. She walked out the bathroom, towel wrapped around her neck, wearing my pink shirt, and white shorts, fluffing her fizzy wet hair, wearing her glasses.
She looked...so...
...hot...?