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With a shaky breath, Handong placed her right foot just below the top screws of the board. It can’t be that hard right? She’d learnt it once before and she was sure she could learn to ride it once more… Except she wasn’t entirely sure whether she had actually learned it or not or if she had just sat down and rolled around on it for a few minutes before a driver beeped their horn at her to get off the road. But whether she’d learned it before or not didn’t matter - no, she was absolutely determined to do something in her free time other than mope about how she did nothing in her free time. She needed a break from her normal breaks from university life.
Anyway, she knew that it was going to be hard, but surely, it wouldn’t be that hard, would it? Or maybe that was the Dunning Kruger effect going on and she actually had a steep learning curve to follow. But no matter, if it was going to be easy, that was good, if it was going to be hard, then… It was going to be hard.
Another deep breath wouldn’t hurt though.
So with another deep breath in and a few light slaps of her face, she pushed continually with her left foot and jadedly rolled along the wide road.
This was it! She was doing it! Holy crap she hadn’t forgotten after all!
Now that she partially rolling, she’d just have to lift her kicking foot and put it perpendicular to her front one and then she'd be her way to skate-
She fell. As soon as she had dared to think about lifting her foot off the ground she fell. And with an embarrassingly loud, high pitched scream to boot.
Well, it wasn’t as if there were other people nearby to watch it, and if there was… Then it would be less embarrassing than it would be free entertainment for them, no? Plus, she didn’t really expect to pick it up quickly anyway.
Good practice makes perfect after all - not practice makes perfect, because bad practice develops bad habits, and that certainly wasn't something she didn’t want to do with something as injury prone as skating.
Anyway, if at first you don’t succeed, try try again.
So she set the board down on the road, shaking her limbs in preparation for another fall.
As soon as she put her foot back onto the board, she heard the dreaded bulk and squish of tires and the whirr of engines and she knew that she simply was not experienced enough to push on a board, let alone ride on a road with a car nearby - which she was sure was illegal, but there were no authority or police nearby anyway.
She picked the board up and waited.
Once the car passed by, she set the board back on the road. This time, for sure! She’d at least learn how to get on the board, no matter how fast or slow she was riding. Progression was never linear and she was determined to learn something cool and practical at the same time.
Her next attempt ended in her slipping and grazing a few too many layers deep into her knee.
Fuck. It hurt. Hey, at least it wasn’t bleeding. She ignored the pulsing pain in her joint and carried on attempting to get on the board until a sharp gust of wind made her convulse in pain and look down. Crap, she was bleeding. And fast. And all of a sudden, she could feel a stinging occur in the wound.
That was how she found her way back to the apartment limping and cursing under her breath.
There was always a next time she mulled over, wincing at how much it hurt as she wiped an antibacterial cloth over the scrape and placed a plaster over it. She’d get back on the board when it healed. In the meantime, she’d contently peoplewatch from her windowsill. Well, more like space out as she waited for that skater girl to roll around - literally.
Sure it was stupid to get back into skating just because of some random girl she had seen, but it was so cool to see her languidly ride down the street and ollie and kickflip and go down from a curb with no fear. She wanted to be like that one day. Or maybe she was developing a teeny crush on this random skater girl. But it was more in line with admiration than it was romantic feelings.
Yes, it was, to say, that she admired this skater girl. She was cool, and somehow, Handong had the feeling that if they were to talk they’d get along well. She wondered what her personality was like, if she was chill or hardcore, judging from her poker face though, she guessed that it was more of the former; if she liked boba or was more of a freshly brewed tea kind of gal; whether she was sociable or withdrawn; an introvert or an extrovert; a planner or a ‘go with the flow’ type of person; whether she was more of a strict scheduler or left things loose so she could adapt to changes easily.
Then she realised that she was getting way too over her head. Because as curious as Handong was about this skater girl, she was more content imagining her personality than she was to shatter her daydreams and find out she was, say, an insufferable airhead, or a rude brash idiot. Nope, disappointment in life was a natural occurrence, but for once, she wasn’t ready to risk her sort of idol being a jerk in real life, or would it be more fitting to say in person? Her sort of idol being a jerk in person.
So she waited a day or two for her knee to heal. In the wait for it to recover, she went shopping, no not the hobbyist window shopping of waltzing store by store and making criticisms of fast fashion and their shoddily put together shirts and jeans, a more practical type of shopping. She dropped by to a local sport shop (she didn’t know whether it was a sports shop or a biking shop that had skating stuff or a skating shop that had a variety of sports things strewn around, but she wasn’t about to go into specifics) and perused through the equipment, looking out for a cool helmet or two, maybe five. But what she was really looking for was a pair of elbow and knee pads, she wasn’t going to risk tearing a hole into another pair of jeans - no matter how rubbish she thought they were - and she definitely was not going to injure her funny bone - hitting it on the desk already hurt so much, she couldn’t imagine falling over on it from a high speed - and obviously, her hands hurt so the gloves that go over your wrists (whatever they were called) would be very much appreciated.
“Are you learning to skate?”
A low voice pulled her to the side.
She guessed her nervousness was not nearly as well hidden as she liked to think it was.
Handong turned to follow the voice. Huh, she didn’t imagine the skater girl to have such a deep voice. Wait. Skater girl?!
“Is my face that scary?” Her nose scrunched up (how cute) as she laughed at Handong’s shocked expression, which dissolved into panic.
“Oh - um - ah - I-”
“It’s okay, I was joking.”
She let out a sigh of relief, she didn’t want this person she had been staring at from her bedroom for what had to be a total of hours to misinterpret her shyness and awkwardness for dislike. If that did happen, she’d probably kick herself in the face.
“Well. Actually I learned a long time ago… But I dropped it. So I guess I’m relearning it? But I fell over so I guess I need more practice than I thought.”
Skater girl’s eyes flicked to the plaster and bruises blooming on her knee, which was put on display despite how long the dress she had chosen was, “How come you never had knee pads or elbow pads before then? It’s dangerous to skate without protection.”
Wow, she had never thought someone she’d regularly seen skate without anything other than high waisted shorts and an oversized t-shirt, the occasional snapback worn backwards, would be telling her off for not wearing anything protective, but here she was, being chastised for it.
“But - you don’t wear any either, all you wear is a pair of shorts and a tank...” Handong trailed off, realising too late that she had essentially outed herself as a stalker - her description of what skater girl wore no where close to the black skinny jeans and dark button down she was wearing now.
“... Have we met before?” The skater girl furrowed her eyebrows, wide eyes narrowing as a silence stretched between them.
Oh, that seemed more creepy than she had intended for it to be.
“Nothing. Ha ha, it was nice meeting you.”
Handong hurried off out of the shop.
Wait. She didn’t even buy anything. Crap. Good job anxiety, thank you self esteem and a huge congratulations to you social skills.
Great. Now she had dashed all her hopes of interacting and becoming friends with this girl because she had basically admitted she was a stalker.
But her less than well ended conversation had not deterred her from learning to skate.
She decided that the best way to avoid encountering skater girl ever again was to practice in a place far away from the street near her apartment, so she chose an empty car park and practiced there.
This time, she wouldn’t get injured - she was wearing the same elbow and knee pads she was staring at yesterday, coming back into the shop after waiting for skater girl to leave; which, yes, meant she spent half an hour or so glaring at the entrance of the store waiting for the familiar face of skater girl to exit whilst crouching on the floor - and she wouldn’t injure herself (badly) and she wouldn’t embarrass herself by screaming and she wouldn’t have to wait for cars to passby.
An empty car park was exactly what she needed.
Plus, she was kind of tired of being paranoid of people watching her - not that she expected anyone to watch her like she did with anyone else, she wasn’t nearly as interesting or funny as she thought she was, she knew.
It was, after getting the hang of getting on the board that she tried to push harder when starting to ride that she fell again. But that was where her safety equipment came in and saved her from imminent pain! And while she was loudly celebrating her almost pain-free fall, her board flew off and hit something with a hard ‘tack’ sound in the distance. Shit. That better not be a car… It sounded more like plastic though, so she doubted it would be expensive.
Except when she squinted off into the distance looking for her penny board, she discovered it being held by a pretty girl who was rollerblading towards her. Oh god, please don’t say she hit her with her board. Please don’t say she hit her with her board. Please don’t say she hit her with her board.
“Hey, is this board that hit me yours?”
She had hit her with her board.
“Oh - yeah?”
She laughed melodically, showing a dazzling smile that shone like the sun and blinded Handong, “Are you sure? You don’t sound so sure.”
Were all skaters pretty? She decided right then and there, staring at the purple haired beauty that yes, all skaters were pretty.
“Ah - I mean yes! Yes it’s my board - it’s mine.”
Then she laughed again. “Aw, you’re so cute, here, let me help you up.”
She wasn’t sure whether the rollerblading girl would be able to balance well enough to pull her off the ground, but sure enough, she did so without wobbling a bit. Damn that was cool - and Handong knew she was definitely a beginner through and through if she was amazed by someone’s ability to help pull someone else up.
“My name’s Minji, and you?”
“Umm. Handong! But you can call me Dongie.”
Minji handed her the board, “So Dongie, when were you born?”
And thus began her unlikely friendship with a rollerblading girl who also deemed an empty car park to be the perfect place to practice; well, Minji had stated that she wanted a quiet place to skate on without people interrupting her and stray boards or scooters in her way, but it was always nicer to do activities with other people anyway she offhandedly remarked when Handong began worrying that she ruined a perfectly perfect place of solitude.
They began hanging out weekly, outside of practice, and quickly discovered many things in common, fangirling about idols and girl groups being one of them. They’d even promised to go to a music festival one day, whenever that was.
So although she might have made a shitty first impression with skater girl, she had more than made up for it with a new friend!
They had sat down after receiving their orders and began to continue their conversation tangent of learning tricks and how hard it was to practice them. “Have you never tried going to the skate park?”
Handong shook her head, mouth currently busy biting down on an ice cube she had fished out from her iced coffee.
“Really?” Minji’s face had comically transformed into one of surprise, with her eyebrows raised so high and so quickly that Handong thought it was going to shoot past her hairline and into the sky, "That's the place where all the skaters hang out and practice.”
“Well. It’s just that I suck and I don’t want to do things that… you know... I just don’t want to embarrass myself. Plus, I prefer being alone anyway.”
Minji pointed at Handong blankly, “Assa.”
“... Hey!”
Minji happily took the light slap and laughed as Handong yelled at her for her gall to insult her so plainly.
And that small insult was how Handong had managed to get herself here: standing far away from the skating park and dauntedly peering at the half pipes and ramps and blocks and rails and stairs and this was a bad decision, she can barely turn on her board let alone carve on it fast enough to avoid oncoming people or even do a manual, she should just go back.
“Scared?”
Ah. She’d heard that voice before: skater girl.
It was a mistake for Handong to try and look for the source of the sound because when she did her fear settled in deeper, cutting off her airways and dilating her pupils.
“It’s okay, everyone’s scared the first time around, everyone here’s nice though, no’ll laugh if you fall over or something, except Jimin, fuck Jimin.”
All Handong could do was laugh quietly and gulp as her eyes trailed from each obstacle to each person and each board and scooter and bike and wheel and then to skater girl’s eyes. They were so hopeful and prideful and kind. She quickly looked away.
“I’ll leave you alone, sorry for making you uncomfortable.”
Ah. Wait. No. That wasn’t what she meant to do. But before she knew it, skater girl, very fittingly, skated away to a group of tall girls, some of which vaguely looked like people that Minji posted with on her Instagram. They greeted her with shy smiles and gentle pats on the back.
An insa.
So that was the type of person she was.
Handong came back to the park eventually. Late at night. With barely any lights and even less people.
Now this was the sort of environment she could work with.
“Oh. Dongie!”
Was that Minji?
It didn’t sound like her.
“Dongie!” She was very loud, noted Handong as she walked over to her.
It was coming from a young girl, younger than her, whose long black hair was in a low ponytail and who was wearing not only elbow pads and knee pads, but also a helmet and wrist guards - that was the proper name for the gloves you wore over your wrist, something Handong quickly found out when trying to describe them to an employee at the sport (?) shop. Next to her was a taller girl with an intimidating aura.
The girl calling her looked, to put it very discreetly and nicely, like a total dweeb. Handong mentally scolded herself for being so mean, but she laughed it off when the girl, who was on rollerskates, nearly slipped when she attempted to close the gap further.
“I’m sorry but, who are you?”
“I’m Gahyeon. Nice to meet you.” In a stark contrast to her shouting, she introduced herself shyly, quietening her voice and looking down after she finished speaking.
“How do you know my name?”
“Ah! Minji talks about you a lot.” She does? “The cute girl with the bright red penny board. And I was glad to hear that there was another newbie around,” Gahyeon gestured to her skates, “It kind of inspired me to get back on these. I’m not the best, but what’s the point in life if you’re good at everything.” Woah. That was deep.
Then the girl next to her finally moved, “Stop trying to sound so philosophical, Gahyeonnie, you cried over spilled milk this morning.”
Gahyeon screamed as she shot a glare towards the girl, “You ruined my vibe!”
“What vibe? The only vibe you have is adorableness.”
She sulked before quickly smiling and laughing it off, not before sending a few slaps to the girl though.
Then a loud cheering sound came behind Handong.
“How are my children doing!”
It was louder than Gahyeon - if that was even possible.
Handong turned around, surprised to see the voice coming from a rather petite woman, who was languidly skating on inlines whilst Minji was jogging lightly to keep up with her, a white plastic bag full of what she presumed were groceries in her arms.
“Where’s Yubin?” Said Minji, not sparing a second to catch up on her breath - Handong inwardly complimented her stamina and lung capacity for being able to do that - after surveying the lot.
Gahyeon spoke, not hesitating to reach for the bag, “Where else is she? She’s at Yoohyeon’s playing games.”
The short woman shuffled her way through the circle they had inadvertently formed and hooked an arm around the tall girl, though her skates made up for their height difference, before she spoke - surprisingly softly, though Handong suspected she was actually whispering rather than speaking quietly. “She’s always doing this. When will they ever join us?”
Handong thought that this was the perfect time to pipe up, “What is this anyway? It doesn’t look like you’re going to skate.”
Simultaneously, everyone, safe Handong, sat down as soon as the single-use bag was plopped onto the floor; although Gahyeon struggled to get down after putting the bag down even with the help of the tall girl.
Minji patted the empty space next to her, asking her to sit down with them. “We’re eating!”
Bemused and bewildered, Handong spoke slowly, “In the park? Isn’t that… Weird?”
The tall girl spoke up, “The skate park is what makes these gatherings so special! They’re in the skate park.” That didn’t help clear things up though.
Minji caught onto the surprise and confusion in Handong’s face and introduced her, “This is Siyeon by the way. The short one’s Bora- “ The recently named Bora immediately threw a scrunched up tissue into her face, which she quickly picked back up so as to not litter, “And this is Gahyeon, our newest recruit!”
“Re- recruit?”
The one who she thought was Bora spoke, “She’s not actually, we’re not a crew, Minji just likes to be strange and call us that.”
There was a short gasp, “We are a crew! We look like a crew! Don’t we Dongie?”
Not wanting to form a wedge between someone she had just met, she shrugged, not before adding a comment though, “Isn’t three -” She glanced at Gahyeon before looking back at Minji, “Maybe four - people too small for a crew?”
“Well,” The one that had to be named Siyeon via process of elimination, began, “It would look bigger if Yubin and Yoohyeon were here, but one doesn’t like eating late and the other is a total homebody.”
Handong nodded, trying her best to keep up with all the new names being thrown at her - sure, five new names weren’t all that many, but it was to her. Plus, she was trying to gather together their personality traits and habits and what type of people they seemed like, and that was when the piling of and eventual forgetting of new information began.
“Yubin… And Yoohyeon?”
“Ah, you’ll get to meet them someday, hopefully soon. But for now, let’s not waste any time and eat!”
Minji unpacked the bag and distributed the fried chicken and disposable chopsticks amongst the… crew? the group of friends - sharing laughs and jokes and enjoying their food together.
Handong went back home with an unexpectedly full stomach, she was glad that she had delayed dinner until after skating, not that she had gotten any done after meeting up with Minji’s friends. She wondered if she’d ever meet skater girl and her ‘crew’, or if she’d ever get over the embarrassment of their first meeting together.
Skater girl’s ‘crew’, she should really drop the word by now, it did not flow well with her thoughts, was tall and not one member had dyed their hair - that was how Handong found out, to her disappointment, that skater girl was not close to Minji and her crew - group of friends.
She sighed as she went to sleep, vowing to practice twice as hard and for twice as long tomorrow to make up for the fact that she hadn’t today.
Handong woke up late.
She hurriedly brushed her teeth, put light makeup on and grabbed her keys. Now that she had gained some confidence and experience, she rode partly on the road (only the sections that she deemed smooth and safe enough anyway) before stopping at curbs and the sight of people. She had, however, failed to take into account the small hill that followed the road.
Now, when she was walking up and down said hill, it didn’t seem so steep, barely registering that it was a slope in the first place, but as she approached the end of the peak, she realised that the buildings were dropping in height too fast and into a vanishing point too quickly; Handong realised that she really needed to pay attention to her surroundings more often.
At least she was well protected if anything too horrendous happened.
So she bent her knees and tried to ride it out, it was either that or jumping off, risking hitting a few civilians and potentially damaging her knee caps.
Except, she hadn’t registered that, in her panic, she needed to turn right. And, too late, she realised she needed to slow down now, and when she did, she did it too late and too fast and too hard and she swerved and she squeezed her eyes shut and she hit something soft - please don’t be a dog, please don’t be a dog, please don’t be a dog.
“Ow.”
Well. It wasn’t a dog at least. But it was a human! Arguably worse.
“... I - I - I am so sorry!” Handong did not have the confidence to lift her head up or even open her eyes. She did not want to see who she had just ridden into, well, more like fallen onto.
“You were doing really well at the beginning though! Good job!”
Somehow, their praise only made Handong all the more embarrassed.
“Your board’s rolling away right now, you know?”
“Oh - ha - right. I’ll just - I’ll go - I’ll go get…” As Handong got up the face of the person she had ran over came into focus and fuck why’d she have to be so pretty.
“Are you going to get it then?”
“Yeah… I am.”
As she warily planted her feet on the ground and stood up, she helped the girl off the ground; when standing, she had to be a full inch or two taller than her, and she had light hair. Her face almost looked familiar… Fuck, she knew her name! Tall, check. Not aware of her surroundings, (considering she had watched Handong stumble and skate towards her but didn’t move out of the way) check. Dorky sounding, check.
“Is there something on my face?”
It was at the tip of her tongue. There were two people left, right? And they both started with Yoo - Yoo.. “Yoo - Yoohyeon?”
“Ah?? How do you know my name?”
The two syllables fell out of her mouth naturally, “Minji.”
“Ohhhhh!” Realisation struck Yoohyeon, lighting up her face, “That means you’re Dongie! Fancy bumping into you like this.”
Handong laughed, not knowing whether she meant it literally or as a joke.
“I need to tell Yubin this later, anyway, I’m kind of in a hurry, let’s get to know each other properly soon, okay?”
Yoohyeon had stuck her hand out in a handshake, yep, a dork alright. And she took it of course. That meant that she had one person left to meet. Yoo… Y-something, she’d remember it later. Anyway, Yoohyeon, along with everyone else in Minji's group, had just confirmed that all skaters were pretty and Handong wondered why it was so.
Then Handong remembered she had to catch up to her stray board and she bolted for it.
Tired, and sweating, Handong was glad to have the cowardice enough to attempt to skate at the skate park late at night and to bump into most of Minji’s friends. She flopped onto the grass adjacent to a halfpipe.
“Tired?”
She looked at the side. It was skater girl. She was holding over an unopened water bottle to her face, which Handong took gladly without even questioning why she had one.
“Yeah.”
She was heaving, and so tired. Handong wished that this was not the state that skater girl saw her in; especially since they hadn’t seen each other for such a long time.
“I see you bought the gear.” She said whilst sitting down, legs outstretched and nearly touching Handong’s.
“Huh?” Handong saw that she was gesturing to the knee and elbow pads she was doning. “Oh, yeah, I didn’t want to stop skating even for a day just because of some injury.”
“Good, it’s been a long time since someone new came here.”
She didn’t know whether ‘here’ meant skating in general or just the skate park, but Handong wasn’t able to dwell on it any further because her train of thought of was cut short as Handong sat up and admired the skater girl’s legs; quickly looking away so as to not look like a creep.
“Well, enjoy your rest.” Was she going? Already? This time, tired of always missing her opportunity and too physically tired to think things through, she did something. The skater girl lifted her knee, ready to get up, but Handong pushed it down.
“Wait!” It was when she looked straight through Handong that she lost her confidence again, “Oh - um… It's just - ahh.” She trailed off her ‘ahh’ and awkwardly let her hand rest on the girl’s bare knee.
“‘Ahh’?”
“Ahhh-I’d like to get to know you better!”
She, along with even Handong herself, was surprised at her quick burst of frustration that was somehow able to be channelled into words.
“I mean - I’d like to take you out!”
“On a date?”
“Yes!” Crap. Not so soon. “I mean, no! I mean, maybe! I mean -”
The girl laughed, placing her cooler by comparison hand on top of Handong’s, which she hadn’t realised until now that she was squeezing - and quite hard too, so she loosened her grip on her knee.
“I was just joking.” The girl reaffirmed, “Coffee?”
Handong didn’t trust herself enough to speak after that disaster of a conversation, so she nodded.
“Perfect,” Yubin took out a pen and paper from her bag (had it been there the entire time?), scribbling some numbers down and giving it to Handong, “See you in a few days? Text me.”
Handong didn’t care if she was smiling like an idiot for the whole day and into the next morning as well, even when the clouds had started to darken and spill some rain into the pavement.
But a few days never came because Handong had been stupid enough to not only skate in the rain, but slip and eat concrete (getting a nasty scrape on her chin) and also get a cold at the same time.
Fuck. There goes not letting any injury stop her from skating.
She grumbled in her bed as she flipped the too hot duvet over. What hurt most was not the fact that she was in physical pain, but the fact that she had finally worked up the courage to talk properly with skater girl and she had arranged something with her only for her to not be able to go through with it.
She got a call.
“Dongie?”
“Minji?”
“Are you not coming today?”
“No. I can’t today, sorry.”
“Oh.” Now she felt even worse hearing the disappointment in her voice. “Yubin and Yoohyeon were going to come today as well.”
So the only person she hadn't met was called Yubin...
Well, the universe just couldn’t bear to see her all giddy and happy, could it? Stupid rain, stupid board, stupid face: stupid Handong for thinking that it was okay to skate in the rain with her board and hurt her face.
“Ah, no worries though, see you soon!”
Then she heard all the other girls say something along the lines of that too when Minji explained her situation to them - that was what she assumed anyway with the short muffled sound of Minji’s voice followed by a loud ‘hi!’ from Gahyeon and then ‘bye Dongie!’ from her, Gahyeon’s voice being the most distinct out of all of them; Handong guessed that Bora was not with them otherwise if she was, she’d be competing with Gahyeon for the loudest voice.
“Thank you guys! See you soon too.”
It was the next morning when she got a text.
Skater Girl: I didn’t see you yesterday or the day before that, is coffee still on?
Oh, no it is still on, I’m just sick is all :( :Handong
Skater Girl: It's okay, what's a few more days, right?
Handong didn’t know whether she was joking or not, though guessing from what she always says, it probably was. She decided that she should just take a nap and sleep the illness away, so she texted a short ‘ha ha’, not really worried if it sounded sarcastic or not and promptly fell asleep for five hours.
It was still dark outside when she woke up. She didn’t know whether her fever made her high enough to not care about anything, or her tiredness made her not realise that the skater girl was most definitely not going to pick up her call at three thirty in the morning, but she did so anyway.
To her surprise, she picked it up.
“Hello?”
God her voice was everything she needed to hear right now.
“Hiiiii.” Handong didn’t care that she sounded lucid and was sort of slurring her words.
“Are you okay?”
“It’s okay. I think I have a cold… Or the flu. I can’t really tell. I have a fever though.”
“Are you sure you’re okay? You don’t sound it.”
“Hehe, of courrrrrse I am.”
Her sleepy hand let go of her phone and as she caught it, she accidentally swiped to end the call. Oh. Crap.
Quickly, she typed down ‘sorry, by accident’ and ‘good night, am kind of sleepy’ and ended up falling asleep as soon as she pressed send.
Handong woke up to the sound of her phone receiving a text message. It was skater girl.
Skater Girl: where do you live?
In what had to be one of Handong’s unsafest moves so far, she quickly complied with her question, sending her address and floor number quickly.
Wait… Doesn’t that mean she was going to come over? Surely not so soon. But just in case, she freshened up, brushed her teeth, tidied up her room and then the bathroom and the living room but before she could check the state her kitchen was in, she heard the buzzing of her apartment door.
Fuck. Oh no.
When she opened up the door, she saw a familiar white plastic bag hanging onto skater girl's fingers. As expected, she was carrying her skateboard, though she was dressed in more casual, less oversized clothes than she'd usually wear - the biggest difference from her normal look being the black face mask she was wearing.
"Is it okay if I come in?"
Handong opened her mouth, which dried up very quickly when her eyes shot from the bag to her face to her body and then fixated on the tiniest sliver of exposed skin that exposed part of her collarbone.
Oh she was fucked alright.
"Hello?"
"Ah - yes! Come in, don't mind the mess, I haven't been able to clean up in a while."
When skater girl sat down in front of the sofa, crossing her legs as she did so, she quickly placed the bag down and slipped her mask off.
"I got you some chicken soup for your cold."
Handong sat herself down opposite her, and let the low table separate them, crossing her legs in the same fashion that she did and leaning towards the enticing smell of food.
The sound of plastic and container lids popping filled the room and before the two knew it, the room was filled with an awkward silence.
Crap. Come on Handong, think!
"Did you know that a blue whale's heart is the size of a Volkswagen beetle?"
Skater girl gave her a confused look before chuckling slightly.
"Do you have a spoon for us to eat with or are we just going to water bend it into our mouths?"
"Ah - right! Spoons. Everyone has spoons. Everyone knows you need spoons to eat soup."
Skater girl’s chuckle turned into a light laughter as she watched Handong quickly get up and rush to her kitchen, yelping at the sudden snap of the kitchen drawer she had pulled on too hastily and fumbling about with the utensils for a few seconds before taking her seat in front of skater girl and giving her the spoon.
"Thank you…” Skater girl replied, “oh, by the way, I never caught your name."
Damn. Had she really not introduced herself? Tch, inviting a person around to her home without even knowing their name - her parents would be disappointed.
"Handong. But you can call me-."
"Wait. Huh?" Handong paused, wondering if she had done something wrong, her mouth hanging open despite her spoon not having touched the soup. "Dongie?"
Wait. "Yubin?"
Simultaneously, they raised their eyebrows and stood up whilst speaking the name of their mutual friend and pointing at each other, "Minji!"
They both cackled at the ridiculousness and sheer coincidence of it all.
"No way." Stood Handong in disbelief.
Yubin cracked a smile, "You're the one that knocked Yoohyeon over and hit Minji with her board?"
"Ah." Handong deflated into the ground as she recalled those events. "Let's not talk about that."
Yubin followed suit and lifted her spoon, blowing down on the hot soup to keep it from scalding her tongue. "That's all they talk about when they mention you so I'm not the person that you should be telling me that."
"Ah… Really?" Handong sighed, she had all but rid herself of those memories and it always dampened her mood whenever she thought about her mistakes.
"I think it's cute though." Cute? "It's cool that you don't let your mistakes deter you, I think that I'd have quit if I had tumbled down a slope and crashed into a stranger."
Ignoring the heat creeping into her cheeks, Handong sipped on the soup to distract herself, immediately burning her tongue but attempting to swallow it down anyway. "It -" She blinked back the tears of pain that came from scalding her mouth. "Wasn't a stranger though.” She took a few deep breaths to cool herself down, causing Yubin to smile, “It was Yoohyeon - thankfully. I think I'd have died if it was actually a stranger."
“Such a strange coincidence. Isn’t it funny that we would have met either way?”
Handong looked from staring at her spoon to see Yubin peering at her. “Hmm?”
“I find it funny that even if we hadn’t met at the store or outside the skate park that we’d have been introduced to each other anyway through Minji. It’s like we were meant to be friends.”
Ha. Right. Friends. Handong nodded before solemnly drinking more soup, occasionally trying to catch a chunk of chicken and greedily eating it quickly with a sly smile of satisfaction on her face. She didn’t dare look up until she had run out of chicken pieces and her hungry eyes wandered over to Yubin’s tub and fixated on hers. Fuck, she really was hungry. Then, as if they had been pulled, her eyes were tugged from the chicken to Yubin’s supple lips and then her impossibly soft looking cheeks and then to her eyes and how round they were and wait if she was looking at her eyes doesn’t that mean she can see her staring-
“Is there something on my face?”
She guessed that Yubin and Yoohyeon, true to what the other girls said, really were like paper and glue, they even said the same things. Handong gulped down more soup in another poor concealment of her embarrassment catching up to her.
“No.”
Yubin’s cheeks started to push up into her eyes, closing them into a smile, “Then do you want my chicken?”
Handong paused, glad to know that her staring was being mistaken for something less… Possessive. “How did you know?”
“You looked like you were going to eat me if I moved.”
“Maybe I was.” She mumbled.
“What?”
Oh. She had not meant to say that out loud. Was there an undo button somewhere?
Handong wolfed the rest of her meal down, choking slightly on it, and quickly stood up with her tub in her hand and the spoon rattling about in the empty container. “Nothing. Ha ha. I’ll go wash the dishes now. Thanks for the meal.”
She bumped the right side of her stomach on the corner of the kitchen counter and swore loudly.
“FUCK.”
With a shaky hand, she chucked the plastic tupperware onto the kitchen sink before sliding onto ground, doubling over in pain. More groans of pain were let out before Yubin tip toed her way over to the curled up Handong on the floor.
“Are you okay?”
“I just ran headfirst into a marble countertop. Do I look okay?”
Yubin laughed at her aggressiveness, she certainly had not expected her to be so snappy, especially since she was so shy. Then she crouched down to her level, noticing something strange. She reached out and tilted her chin up.
“Did you fall over?”
“Yeah. I ate shit after slipping in the rain.”
Getting up, Yubin sighed, “You have a penny board, it’s not got grip tape like the other boards do, be more careful, okay?”
She walked away and returned with a large plaster, and covered the wound up after she cleaned it with an antibacterial spray. “How come you didn't dress it?”
Sheepishly, Handong looked away to the side, “I used my last ones when I first fell.” She couldn’t handle how close Yubin was right now, especially since they’d barely exchanged their names. “I forgot to restock them.”
“You can take mine.” Yubin helped Handong get up again and chucked her the half-used box of plasters.
Handong rifled through the ones that were left and noted the variety of shapes and sizes of them, reading ‘waterproof and breathable’ at the front in bold, “Are you sure? Won’t you need them?”
“Nah, they’re my spare pack anyway.”
She stopped inspecting the plasters and looked up, “‘Spare’? How many do you have?”
Yubin shrugged, “Enough for everyone in Minji’s crew and threefold.” Nonchalantly pulling out another two packs from her minibag.
The half-laugh half-inhale of disbelief Handong did forced her to take an extra deep breath in and it made the dull ache on her stomach hurt more, though she didn’t show it.
Yubin slung her bag over her shoulder, “Well, I’m off to meet them again, get well soon Dongie!”
A pang of sadness ran through Handong as she saw Yubin turn around, she picked up Yubin's skateboard ready to give it to her at the door, until her mouth started speaking against her will. “Ah, wait!” Too caught up in the moment, she grabbed her wrist, quickly letting go of it when she realised she did that. “Ahhh… At least finish your soup, or take it back. I don’t want you to waste your money, or your time.”
Yubin smiled at her words, returning to the table and putting the spoon she ate with into the basin and taking the now luke-warm tub of soup back in the plastic bag and waiting for Handong to hand her skateboard over.
“Also, before you leave… Don’t tell the others I’m sick. Please?”
“Hmm? Why?”
“Ah, well. It’s just that I don’t want them to worry, you know?”
“Strange request, but I’ll do it if it makes you feel better. Bye Dongie!”
And as Handong handed the skateboard over, Yubin leaned in to give Handong a peck on her cheek, sliding her black face mask over her mouth and nose.
“It was nice meeting you again.”
… Maybe getting sick wasn't the worst thing to happen to her.
When Handong plopped down onto the sofa, she looked down to see medicine and a sticky note next to it with a badly drawn emoticon.
‘don’t stay out in the rain for long next time! get some sleep, stay warm ~ Lee Yubin’
Now, Handong was not much of a romantic, but she swooned a bit when she read the note and the one underneath it that told her what each pill did and how to take it. Ah skater girl. She was as amazing on the inside as she looked cool on the outside.
Lee Yubin<3: don't be afraid to text me for coffee!!
I'll do it as soon as I feel better! (⌒ω⌒)ﾉ :Handong
Lee Yubin<3: don't rush though, I don't want a cold from you
What if that's my secret plan kekeke :Handong
Lee Yubin<3: ...then you just spoiled it for me
Lee Yubin<3: and it's not a secret anymore
Whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ :Handong
Handong felt stupid for clutching her phone in her hand and rolling around in her sofa all giddy and excited and grinning like an idiot; but she was doing it unashamedly as well - mostly because no one was there to witness it anyway.
Ah, skater girl, Lee Yubin, mystery woman, was the person of her dreams. And more.
It was, on a quiet Wednesday, that Handong woke up without a sneeze, or a fever, or a stuffy nose or the sensation of being clogged up by mucus and bacteria. Wednesday was the day. A part of of her felt bad for rejecting so many hangouts from Minji and Gahyeon and Yoohyeon, but they all understood and they said something along the lines of 'Yubin told me not to push the newbie too much', so she was extremely grateful that she had kept her word; not that she suspected her of going back on it that is.
She sent a quick text asking if it was okay to slip a quick date in today.
Then she regretted it after it wasn't even marked as being read in five minutes. Shoot. Did she sound too demanding? Handong looked over at her text and hovered her thumb over the message. Another minute had passed. Okay. No. This was it. She didn't have any more courage left in her. Handong pressed her thumb down on it and held onto the message until more options came up and her thumb warily floated above the 'delete message' button. There was no going back. On three. One. Two. Three.
'read'
Then she deleted it in shock.
Fuck.
Did Yubin have enough time to read it before she had deleted it?
Lee Yubin<3: what was that about?
………. : Handong
Pretend you didn't see that ^.^" : Handong
Lee Yubin<3: something about a date?
👉👈 : Handong
Lee Yubin<3: I'll come over to your place in fifteen minutes
Lee Yubin<3: I've been wanting to take you to this new café for a long time
Wait. Fifteen minutes? What? That was nowhere near long enough time to prepare. She needed to put on makeup and put together a stunning outfit and pick out matching jewellery and think about her order and - okay she should stop panicking and start getting ready already.
Handong did not get the time to pick out her complimentary bag, pair of shoes and jewellery because she heard her apartment door buzzing. It had been almost thirteen and a half minutes since the text had been sent. Yubin was no slacker, huh.
When she checked to see if it was actually Yubin from her monitor, she saw her face tinted pink and out of breath, with wind swept hair and her wide eyes looking expectedly into the monitor's camera.
Adorable.
Handong swung the door open, grabbing a black bag and shoes - because black was sure to go with anything she wore.
"Morning." She said. And as soon as she saw her face, she started smiling. Her eyebrow raised when her eyes landed on the skateboard in one of her hands. Was skating all she ever did?
"Good morning to you too, although it's more like 'good afternoon', no?" At that remark, Handong checked the time on her phone. It was nearly eleven thirty.
"Oh, well. Time is an illusion anyway." Handong stepped out of her apartment not bothering to double check that everything was in her bag and patted Yubin's back. "Lead the way, skater girl!"
Yubin stopped moving. "'Skater girl'?"
Their eyes met and Handong hoped that her face was not as pink as she thought it was. "Ah, that's what I called you in my head before I knew your name. Hmm, speaking of… what did you call me?"
For the first time, Handong got to see Yubin lose her cool composure and begin to get flustered. She tilted her face down and covered part of her face with it, mumbling something behind the curtain of hair.
"Hmm? I didn't quite hear that."
Yubin looked away, raising her voice and pitch ever so slightly, but it was enough for Handong to catch what she was saying. "Pretty woman."
Handong was sure that if she hadn’t put on foundation and concealer on that day, her face would have been a brighter shade of pink.
“What’s gotten you so happy?”
Minji’s question brought her back to reality as Handong began drifting off and remembering her date (was it okay to call it that?) with Yubin. She’d never have ever imagined that she’d be so happy and ditzy watching someone order iced tea and chocolate milk - fucking chocolate milk, what was she, a kid? - at a cafe, but was and had been for a long time even after they’d said their goodbyes and left to go to their respective homes.
Handong sighed, picturing waking up to Yubin’s face every morning all domestic and loving and stable, “Nothing. I’m in a good mood.”
That was when Yoohyeon dramatically whirled around from her phone, probably playing a game, and shot forwards with a toothy smile, “You have a boyfriend!”
It was when Handong nearly spat out her water that Yoohyeon spoke again.
“Then.. You have a girlfriend?”
Minji patted Handong back as she coughed and cleared her airways. “What?”
Yoohyeon pouted, “Was I wrong? It felt like you did.” Then she leaned back, putting a finger up, “You’re always smiley nowadays, you always check your phone and… Well, I don’t actually have another point, but you get what I mean!”
Minji let out a gasp and nodded. “Is that true?” Not her too.
“Ha ha… Well, it’s not that I have anything actually going on or not or anything but like I also kind of do but like it’s not actually a thing because I don’t know if it’s what they want or what I want or if I’m just overthinking things because there was some stuff and some things and like you know the word and like maybe it isn’t like anything and -” She stopped to see the two staring at her as if she had grown another head.
“Wow.” Muttered Yoohyeon. “That’s the most I’ve ever heard her talk.” Then she reverted back to being childish, “Someone’s in loooooove!”
Handong covered her face with her hands in an attempt to cover the flush of embarrassment she felt. “She’s - she’s not my girlfriend. Plus, I don’t even know if I like her that way.” Her last statement was not true. Handong definitely knew what she wanted from Yubin.
“We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” Oh Minji, her saviour! “But we’re all ears.” Of course, ever the one to push her agenda onto someone. It wouldn’t hurt to throw a bone or two to them though.
“She came to my apartment because I wasn’t able to go outside.”
“Sounds like a stalker.” Said Yoohyeon.
“Oh! No, no. She asked if she could come and I gave her my address. We ate together!”
Minji furrowed her eyebrows. “So soon?”
Huh. She hadn’t thought it to be that weird, but now that she did… Why did she come to her place?
“Well… We met before a few times, but it was like a couple of words? And then I asked her for a date but we never really went on one because I was busy last week - like, around the time I didn’t go to the skate park for a few days.”
“And you just let this stranger in? Wasn’t that scary?”
“Yeah, what if she was a serial killer?”
Huh. Handong was stumped. They were right in a way. What if skater girl hadn’t been Yubin? What if she was a serial killer, or a creep, or a jerk.
“Well, it doesn’t matter because she wasn’t one. At least I don’t think so.” Crap. Why did she have to say that? Minji and Yoohyeon looked at each other and then back at Handong, which increasingly made her suspicious of whether or not there actually was a second head attached or growing on her.
“That’s not what I meant! I mean, you’d never really know, you know? You could be a serial killer!” Handong pointed at Minji, “Or you could be a serial killer!” Her accusatory finger shifted to Yoohyeon. Then Handong broke into a small chuckle which becam a sinister smile as she whipped her hand onto herself, “I could be a serial killer! How would you guys not know that I didn’t invite her in to kill her or something.”
“Umm. Because we know you.” Said Minji, “You’d tell us if you were, right?”
“What kind of serial killer would she be if she told us?”
“True, if I was one, I wouldn’t exactly go around telling every single person or friend, no matter how close they were to me.”
And that conversation was how Handong had ended up cuddling with Yubin on the sofa interrogating her casually.
“Why on earth would you think I’m a serial killer?”
“That’s something a serial killer would say.” She pointed out.
Yubin hummed, turning the TV off as she shuffled closer to Handong. “What am I supposed to do to convince you otherwise then?”
Handong pursed her lips as she brain stormed what could possibly be said to avoid her suspicion; it wasn’t as if she actually thought Yubin was a serial killer or a stalker or anything of the sort. It was just an interesting ice breaker. Mindlessly, she listed outlandish things in her head or words that would actually prove anyone to not be one. “Kiss me.”
Yubin shot up and narrowly avoided hitting Handong in the face. “What?”
“Ah. Ha ha… I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Pretend you didn’t hear me.”
She pondered over it for a few seconds. “I’d kiss you.”
“Hmm?”
Yubin was careful to not touch the freshly replaced plaster on her chin when tilting Handong’s face to her. “I said that I’d kiss you.”
“To convince me that you’re not a serial killer?” Handong smiled at her ridiculousness, “Isn’t that too much commitment?”
“No.” Huh? “I meant that I’d just kiss you in general.”
Huh?
“I’d - I’d love that.”
Handong’s heart rate sped up and she finally understood the implications of what she meant. She wanted a kiss, right? That’s what she was saying, right? Handong looked into Yubin’s eyes, which were definitely not looking at her eyes, in fact, they seemed to be looking somewhere lower on her face… like her lips and- oh my god was she going to kiss her? As if by magic, Yubin’s eyes met hers and holy hell did they pull her in.
A hand came up and rested on the back of her head. Handong’s shoulders stiffened up as she realised just how close they were and she felt her breath tickle her face. Fuck. Shit. Here? Now? Because of serial killers?
Yubin stopped leaning in. “Ah. Is this too fast? I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” She started pulling back, only to be abruptly pulled back in position.
“Wait! No, it’s okay, I was just shocked - like a good shocked - is all.”
She didn’t hesitate to ask. “Can I kiss you again then?”
Handong couldn’t even collect herself enough to make fun of how cute and adorable she sounded because she was too busy nodding and leaning and tilting her head.
And fuck - one kiss shouldn’t have made her feel so hot and steamy and worked up, but it did. And if she wasn’t already bothered enough, Yubin pushed her down gently so she was lying with her back on the sofa and her hair was falling down and tickling her cheeks and the drawstrings of her hoodie was scraping against her neck; and damn it all to hell because she certainly wasn’t prepared for this because if she was, she’d have exfoliated her lips last night and put extra care into moisturizing them this morning. And-
Screw it.
Handong pulled Yubin into another kiss and let herself enjoy it and melt into it.
“So. Um. This is Yubin.”
Siyeon awkwardly waddled towards Handong a bit, tilting her bucket hat up a bit so they could make eye contact and rubbing one of her fingers along the rim of her longboard.
“Yubin, this is Handong.”
Ah. This was so awkward. How were they going to tell Siyeon, let alone everyone else, that they knew each other? Should they just roll with it, it’d be funny sure, but then it’d go back to being awkward and…
“It’s okay Singnie, we’ve met before.”
Siyeon shot Yubin with a questioning look. “Oh. Cool.”
A washed out silence widened with every second that they didn’t talk.
“So,” Started Handong, “Where’s everyone else?” She didn’t want to resort to small talk, god help her if she ever did, but she didn’t want to stay in this limbo of awkwardness for any longer.
It seemed that Siyeon was also quick to fill in the jarring silence. “They went to grab some food.”
“Ah. I see.” Crap. There it was again, the deafening quiet that only honed in on their seemingly unshakable incompatibility.
Yubin must have been tired of their stiffness because she decided to intervene between the two, “When did you start getting back on the board, Siyeon?”
Siyeon shrugged, not putting much thought into her response, “Well, since my sister started to learn, I thought why not? And it gets kind of boring just watching you guys have fun while I’m just spectating.” Sister? Siyeon didn’t strike Handong as the sibling type, she seemed more like herself - as in a single child.
Now all three were quiet and Yubin was proven to be just as awkward as the two.
During that time, Handong noticed that Siyeon was playing with her fingers, fiddling about with them with a sort of airy cautiousness. Was she nervous? She didn't show it much.
Then there was shouting.
She could only guess that it was Bora and Gahyeon.
She smiled as she finally saw Minji's group complete, and she'd say that they did look astonishingly like a crew - safe for herself and Gahyeon, because they still had that glint of fear in their eyes whenever their centre of gravity fell too far forward or back and they still hadn't learned to trust themselves.
(Also, the protective gear and heavy clothes they both wore drew a visual distinction between them and the crew - they were new to their respective sports, and it drew the two newbies closer together.)
Handong had never hung out with this many people at the same time. It was always three or four more people, but six? Six was a lot to take in. Six was a whole new level of relationship dynamics to learn (with there being hundreds of group combinations and units) and to figure out and six was four too many.
Still, she preserved with the calming encouragement of Minji, the loud laughter of Yoohyeon, the snarky remarks from Gahyeon, the stupid games from Siyeon and the motherly tendencies of Bora.
Not to mention the quick side eyes that she always shared with Yubin, they always seemed to know when the other looked at each other. It was comforting. Even during the whole two hours and a half the two didn't share more than a few words with each other. They'd have time to spend alone together anyway, for now, she just wanted to make friends.
“You two are dating?” Exclaimed Minji.
It was on one autumnal afternoon, when the sun had started to set and the children from the playground left one by one that the news had been dropped onto them. Yubin and Handong had both agreed that today had to be the day. Their little game of hiding their relationship had gone on for far too long and far too well, and it would have been awkward otherwise for them to go from suddenly barely talking with each other in the group to being all touchy feely.
“And you didn’t tell me?” Yoohyeon slammed her hands down onto Yubin’s shoulders and started shaking as if it was the only action that would stop the end of the world.
“Yah!” Shouted Bora, “This whole time you guys weren’t speaking with each other because you already knew each other and not because you hate each other?”
Gahyeon slinked towards Bora’s side, tapping her side, “You owe me 10,000 Won.”
“Knew it,” said Siyeon quietly, smirking to herself as she patted her back in celebration, “you owe me too Bora.”
“Why was I the only wrong one?”
“Because you’re too self centred, stu-pid Bo-ra,” teased Yoohyeon. Only for her to instantly regret doing so as Bora threw her purse at the woman and chased her around the empty skate park.
“So,” diverted Minji, “When did this all start?”
Handong felt a reassuring hand wrap around her waist as she began detailing the events that had led her to this place, this time, to this specific friendship.