part 7
krystal/seulgi/wonwoo/mingyu
angst, friendship
1337w
7.
“I never know Wonwoo play this good in basket,” said Seulgi absentmindedly, sitting in one of the bleachers in their school’s basketball hall, beside him Soojung was eating her apple instead of taking a Pringle from her big can of red Pringles.
“You should try this, once in a while,” she slid one of it into Soojung’s slightly opened lips when her mouth looked empty and she looked at her, deeply frowning and loathing the thing inside of her mouth, slowly munching on to the chip
“Then you should try mine too,” Seulgi took it without having Soojung shoved it to her mouth, biting on the other whole side of the apple with a victorious grin.
“I love apples, it’s better than pears,” she wiped the remaining sweet water around her lips with the back of her hand then turned to the field.
Sweats poured over Wonwoo's forehead down to his nose and to his jaw, also down to his neck, glistening all over his body in his orange basket jersey with the number ten as his number, above it was a cut of his last name 'Woo'. His bruise had faded away from last week but his lower lip was still healing.
Lame, Seulgi snorted at his jersey name, as she saw him dribbling the ball in his hand across the field, making a pass to his friend then he went pass his opponents swiftly, receiving the ball from his friend and excecuted a three point and made another score for their home team. He seemed to be the captain as he had this yellow band wrapped around his arm.
The crowd roared wildly, even Soojung rose to her feet, pulling Seulgi along with her. She wasn't a fan of these stuffs, but she could tolerate it since her friend was playing.
To be honest, even though she wanted to pay attention to his playing, her thoughts would always zone out somewhere. To Mingyu sitting beside her but he was busy talking to a teacher of theirs, and Soojung was so immersed in the game, to cheerleaders waving their pom poms by the side of the field, in their tennis skirts falling to the middle of their toned thighs and their tight fitting long sleeved tops that fell right above their skirts. All of them were mostly beloved crushes of their school, prettily formed and manicured from top to bottom when they were out of their cheerleading uniforms.
Their eyes met somehow, between Wonwoo and Seulgi, and he shot her a coy and boastful smile, slamming his fist to his shoulder twice then brought it to his lips and pointed at her with his index finger with a huge grin before catching the ball his friends passed him. But she wasn’t sure what he was doing, it could be Mingyu he was pointing at.
“What the hell did Wonwoo just do?” She exclaimed, munching another chip. She didn’t expect anyone to answer since it sounded like she was talking to herself, but Mingyu did, with a ridiculously teasing grin on his face.
“Do you want to know?”
“If it’s anything offensive, maybe you better keep it to yourself-”
“No, silly,” Mingyu cackled, canine teeth sparkling to her. “That shoot was for you. That goal right there was for you!” He slung an arm around her, turning her attention back to the field.
“What’s going on, Mingyu?” Sooojung bubbled in and his arm dropped to his lap, leaning across Seulgi to tell Soojung.
And right there, Seulgi between them, she saw how close of a distance they leaned in and how she felt the urge to push both of their heads to kiss. The look on Mingyu’s face made her want to do so, though they were too young for kisses.
Wasn’t it too young for her to lose her father? There was no such thing as limit for her. Various things could happen anytime, bending the norms that caged their behaviours.
And Seulgi didn’t believe him. “I don’t believe you.”
“It won’t hurt to believe. It’s Wonwoo, he’s unpredictable like that.”
“He was probably doing it for you, though, rather than for me,” Seulgi was just like that. She surpressed most of her feelings and that was why she was monochrome and toned down. She buried her feelings down whenever it was ready to hurt her.
Before it shot up to her face, she had already put it in a jar and covered it in a metal lid. She paid attention to other players instead, from the opposite team who was losing. It reminded her a lot how she always lost to Soojung, but it wasn’t a big deal because she lost to someone who was skillful enough to beat her.
Time flew by and then a loud ring marking the end of the game blew off. Seulgi snapped out of her scrutiny as the audience roared, this time Mingyu and Soojung’s hand brought her to rise and cheered for their school’s win. Seulgi didn’t really feel anything for celebration, she felt like she didn't suit this world, at all. Large confettis falling after someone shot it off like an explosion of flower petals.
Amidst it all, she caught Wonwoo smiling at her along the field of his teammates buzzing around the field.
It was strange, yeah, Wonwoo smiling at her like that in happiness didn’t look familiar. It usually was the usual coy smile with a slight upturn of his lips. It was either because of her bad eyesight or other things that she couldn’t tell who he was smiling at. Then one of the cheerleaders jumped and wrapped her arms around him, making him stumble back and broke their eye contact.
Wonwoo was smiling even though he hated orange and liked green and Seulgi knew that. He was in the arms of anoher girl and it made her turn away for unknown reasons.
Seulgi turned away without seeing Wonwoo pushing off the girl irritatingly, holding back his loud curses in front of so many people.
She came to look at Mingyu whose smile was no longer up there. “Guess that shot was for her,” Seulgi was way too laid back in responding this for Mingyu’s comfort. But there was hurt, and it was just hidden under everything that was visible.
Soojung tugged on her sleeves, eyes seemingly worried. “What’s wrong?”
“Are you okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” She found their reaction baffling to the event before her. It was Wonwoo and perhaps his girlfriend whom they never introduced to her and the only sensible reason for her to be not okay was the fact he didn’t tell her any of this.
Soojung looked sad, black orbs whirling worryingly for her and it was very puzzling. “But I thought-”
“No, whatever you think it is between me and Wonwoo, there’s nothing. Completely nothing,” she shook her head because her best friend’s eyes just spoke of everything. Her high ponytail swayed as she did so, then she sat down, collecting the trashes to throw it away in the waste bin. “Let’s go, shall we? We no longer have anything worth watching for. You’re coming, Mingyu?”
“Wait, we have to congratulate him first-” Mingyu stood up hurriedly, eyes asking them to stay, looking at his watch. “It’s not so late, Seulgi-”
“He already saw us. That’s what matters right? Since you seem to be staying, then send my words for him. We’re off,” her words came out vexed and irritated, Mingyu felt like taking a step back as the crowd around them were leaving. His teacher was nowhere to be found.
His eyes met Soojung’s beautiful, enchanting eyes, narrowing it to Seulgi’s turned back and she only shrugged her shoulders and waved a goodbye as she trailed behind her.
Mingyu's eyes fleet to his friend's disappearing figure as he was crowded with his team mates. With a sigh, he pushed himself off to deliver the news that was going to ruin his supposed to be perfect day.