"Oh, Junho, hey!" I call out to the boy walking my way. "Kang Yeseul, hi. What are you doing?" He asks me, quietly. I tell him where I'm going and he does the same. Finding out that we're going to the same building, I suggest that we go together to which he nods. "How's swimming for you?" I ask him after a quiet minute. "It's okay of now, I have my first competition in two weeks so I've been working pretty hard and I will do my best." He answers with a small smile on his face, looking ahead of him. "What about you?" he looks at me. I shrug, "It's okay, I'm getting ready for a competition that's happening in like two months but our coach is so strict on weight." He nods, "Us two, he always makes us work out and is so strict on what we eat."
We continue our walk until we reach the building and separate ways. I turn around after remembering something. "Cha Junho!" I go up to him, "There's a soccer match on Sunday, I'm sure you've heard of it. I was wondering if you'll be going, it'll be fun." I tell him and he nods. "I'm going with Yohan so I'll probably see you there." He smiles at me and I nod, turning back around after we said bye to each other.
----------
My team and I walk over to the large gymnasium, getting ready to practice our routines in a bigger space but come face to face with the volleyball team. They glare at us and in this moment, I regret not having coach with us because if she were here, we would instantly have the space but looks like we'll have to fight for it. Literally.
"We're not letting you use this place, we're practicing.", one of the girls says, giving us a smirk. "I swear to god, I'm so close to hitting her." I hear Yoona mutter under breath and I try not to chuckle, sure that it's the freshman she spoke about last week. "Nice try, midget but we have to get ready for our competition and our coach said that we should come here. Now I'm sure you don't want to deal with Mrs. Hwang." I say, knowing that bringing up our coach will help us a lot. Unfortunately, the freshman doesn't seem to agree. "I don't care about what your coach says, now leave you skinny sticks." I roll my eyes and here a few of our girls groan and some let out not so nice comments. "First of all, you should talk with some respect, we are mostly your seniors." Yoona says, taking a step forwards. Hyejin tries to tell her something but she simply lifts her hand. "You know how much I hate when people don't use honorifics and you're no exceptions. Not being respectful doesn't make you look cool, it makes you look stupid. Now you and you little group should go somewhere else, you have another place to train." Yoona practically growls as she spits out her words.
In the end, I'm sitting in the headmaster's office along with my team and the volleyball team. I look around the room, completely disinterested in whatever he has to say. This isn't the first time and surely enough won't be enough. "How many times do I have to tell you that fighting inside the premise of the school is forbidden!" "She started it." One of our girls say and I nod. "That little girl fake crying - I don't know her name, sir - was being disrespectful and wasn't letting us practice in the main gymnasium and then dared to slap our team leader." I add. "But sir, you can't let them go! They hit back, look I even have a mark!" The girl complains and point to her cheek that is a saturated red and I accidentally let out a snort, trying not to laugh. "Kang Yeseul, this isn't funny." The headmaster warns me and my face distorts in disagreement. "We all have marks, you're not special." Yoona looks at the girl, whose name I later found out to be Lee Minhwa. Minhwa lifts her hand and the headmaster bangs on his desk. "Enough! You're lucky I'm not suspending you but you will be doing community service now. As you know we're having the winter ball in december and you'll be in charge of helping the organisers set up everything. Don't start complaining about how you have your trainings, I don't care, you shouldn't have fought in the first place. I huff, hating the punishment. "Twice a week after your trainings, you'll be going to the meeting room at eight p.m. to prepare the ball. Understood?" We all nod at him, "You're dismissed." Bowing, we all rush to leave the room.
I walk out after everyone and as I start walking, I hear my name being called. I turn around and see Seungwoo walking towards me. "Agh, you always catch at my worst moments." I say before greeting him. "What happened?" I explain the situation and he shakes his head. "When will this rivalry between rhythmic gymnasts and volleyball players end?" "Never." I answer back, "Don't act like you don't have a rival, I know how you are with rugby players." I nudge him and he hums in agreement, "You're right. Anyway, where are you headed to?" He asks me to which I reply with "I don't know, maybe I'll go to the field to run since I wasn't able to train much today." Seungwoo frowns, "Don't you hate running?" I nod with a pout, "I really do, Seungwoo, but coach is forcing me to run every night until I get her ideal weight."
We walk together out of the building and towards the field. "You're coming on Sunday, right?" I nod at his question with a smile, "I never miss your games." "You missed it once." Seungwoo recalls and accusingly points a finger at me. "That's because I had a competition the same day." I reply before apologising to him again. "I'm definitely coming on Sunday." "I have a feeling that you're not coming for me only. You and Seungyoun are getting pretty close." I roll my eyes, "Would you even believe me if I say no?" He shakes his head, "Nope."
----------
I enter my room after a tiring run around the field. It was that time of day where no one is on the field so I was able to be alone. I regret not eating a lot during lunch because now my stomach is grumbling like crazy. "Ugh, I don't know what to do." I cry out, falling onto my bed. A tear full of frustration slips down my cheek before I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and I reach into my back pocket and fish out my phone to see a familiar name displayed on the screen. I open Snapchat and my finger hovers over the picture icon. It takes me almost a minute until I press on it and my heart skips a beat.
Me
Thanks for the motivation :)
Me
Good luck on your game on Sunday
Cho Seungyoun
Why do you sound so depressed
Me
Do I
Cho Seungyoun
Yeah
Cho Seungyoun
How should I cheer you up?
Me
I'm fine you don't have to do anything
Cho Seungyoun
lol wow so believable
Cho Seungyoun
Do you want to come out?
Me
If I come out then I won't be able to resist not getting food
Cho Seungyoun
I can't believe you're still on that stupid diet. It's been like a week wtf
Cho Seungyoun
come out, I promise I won't let you give in to the temptation
----------
I pout at Seungyoun as the two of us sit at a small table in front of a convenience store right outside the campus. "This is torture. It's even worse that running." He gives me a sheepish smile, "Sorry, I got hungry." He stifles a laugh. "I'm also hungry!" I go to hit his arm but he quickly grabs it and shakes his head, "Nuh uh." "I'm leaving." I stand up from my seat and start walking away, stopping only when I hear him run towards me. "I'm sorry, that was mean. Here have a bite, it won't ruin your diet." I shake my head, telling him it's fine and that I wasn't being serious.
"When do you think your coach will let you eat dinner again?" Seungyoun asks me and I shrug, "Maybe by the end of the week. I lost a bunch of weight so that's good." "I guess I'll have to continue giving you daily motivation pictures." I scoff, "You only sent like three." "Oh, you want more? Does little Yeseul - or more like tall Yeseul want more?" He coos and I finally manage to hit his arm. He rubs it and feigns being hurt. "I only called you tall, why are you so aggressive." "You were mocking my height." I turn away from him. "If it makes you feel better, I prefer taller girls over short ones." I fake throwing up and he simply laughs, putting his arm around my shoulder and we start walking back to campus. "Do you forgive me?" "For what?" "Eating food in front of you." "No."
----------
Friday rolls around and I spend the whole day training, doing everything to finish learning my solo choreography. Coach comes into the big room after being away the whole practice. "I'll watch both of your performances, after that I'll check your weight and then you can go to your dorms. If by the end of next week, your performances will be perfect, I'll let you two participate in a small competition, it's not important but it's mainly to get you back into the competitive season because the one in two months is pretty important. I hope you two can work hard so that you can participate. Okay, Yoona you can start." I sit next to coach's desk and watch in awe as Yoona does her performance. Yoona is for sure going to be recruited to the olympic team, she has the talent. Coach smiles in satisfaction as Yoona finishes her dance. "That was good, you still made a few mistakes but by next week I'm sure it will be good enough for the competition." The senior bows and takes my spot.
I walk to the centre and get into position waiting for the music to start.
My breaths are short and fast and I feel like I'm going to fall anytime soon. But that means that I worked hard, I think. "Good job, Yeseul, that was great. You still need to work on your needle turns but other than that, you did a pretty good job." I bow and a small smile wakes its way onto my face. I walk over to where coach is, taking out the scale. "Yoona go first." She steps on the metal machine and the teacher nods, "Nothing to say, it's perfect." I take her place and focus on the screen waiting for the numbers to stop moving.
49 kg.
"That's great Yeseul. I'm sure that by the end of the week you'll be able to go back to having dinner. Maybe you'll start again on Monday, how does that sound?" Bad, obviously. "That sound good, coach, I'll work hard." She nods before dismissing us and I rush to the changing rooms, wanting nothing but to just be in bed.
----------
"How was your training?" Hyejin asks me as I enter the room. I tell her a brief summary of today including a few details about the class.
"Oh you know what I saw?" She asks me as I take a seat at my desk and take out my notes from classes, "No, what?" "I saw that guy you're friends with, Cho Seungyoun talking to Lee Minhwa." I shrug at her, "Seungyoun has many female friends so how is that - wait!" I turn to face her, "Lee Minhwa? The volleyball freshman?" She frantically nods her head, "That's why I was so surprised. I'm pretty sure she was trying to flirt with him, honestly she's not even smart or interesting, all she has is her nice butt and big boobs to attract someone. Damn volleyball players and their big butts. Why don't I have any of those?" Hyejin whines, looking at the mirror and grabbing her boobs through her shirt, and lifting them up. "Hyejin, you really shouldn't worry about that, who cares about that shit anyway, you're beautiful inside and out, there's literally nothing wrong with you, sure you may not have the same body as Minhwa but hey, Yohan still likes you and not her." I reassure her and she turns to look at me with surprise, "That was probably the nicest thing you've ever said to me, I'm so touched." She comes to hug me but I push her away, "That's a lie." "Whatever." She says before wrapping her arms around me and giving me a big hug.