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Iseul grumbles, crossing his arms. “I don’t know, Min.”
“I think– I think there’s something going on between them.” He admits, absent-mindedly fidgeting with his collar.
Min looks bored, well he always looks bored, but he doesn’t seem too interested in what Iseul has to say.
Not that Iseul blames him.
“Back when we confronted her, it was like the two of them had this sort of silent power dynamic.”
“You saw it, it was like she was speaking indirectly to Ryujin instead of us.” Iseul sighs slightly. “It’s weird!”
“Sayeon always acts weird around Ryujin.” Iseul mutters. “And Ryujin’s like the only person outside of Juni that’s able to tell her off.”
“What do you think?” Iseul asks, tapping his foot against the floor.
Min grunts quietly as he leans his head back. “I don’t know.”
Iseul groans as he flails his arms dramatically. “I think they’re a thing.” He whispers out the last word, as if even saying it was silly.
“A thing?” Min raises a brow. “Okay.”
Iseul stares at him blankly. “You do know what that means, right?”
Min stares back. “No.”
“Like–” Iseul coughs into his hand. “Like girlfriend and girlfriend.”
There’s a slight shine over Min’s eyes, as if he was processing Iseul’s words syllable by syllable.
“Ah.”
“Hey, Sayeon, I just wanna say that I support you.”
They were mid-spar, Iseul ducking a hit from Sayeon as he says that.
The sentence catches Sayeon off-guard, she looks at him puzzled. “With?”
Iseul tries to land a kick to Sayeon’s gut. “Y’know.”
“With the thing.”
Sayeon effortlessly blocks his attack as she wraps her arms around his leg, flipping him over onto his back. “Thing?”
He hits the ground with a thud, if it hurts then he doesn't show any pain. “Yea with, well, everything.” Iseul smiles with determined eyes.
Yep, I’m an ally.
Sayeon narrows her eyes, calculative eyes looking through him. “Thank you?”
Neither of them are focused on sparring anymore as Sayeon looks at him with confusion.
He picks himself up from the floor and grips her shoulder supportively. “I know everything.”
Your secret’s safe with me.
Iseul leans in close to her ear, whispering. “About Ryujin.”
He doesn’t miss the way Sayeon’s eyes slightly widen, she stills for a brief second. “Oh.”
By her reaction alone Iseul is now 88% certain that the two of them are, in-fact, a package.
Be who you are, Sayeon Lee.
Iseul saunters proudly as he approaches Min, there’s a beaming smile on his face counteracting Min’s indifferent expression.
“Yep, pretty much just got confirmation from Sayeon.” He states, levitating a piece of trash as he chucks it into a nearby trash can.
Min nods his head in response. “Mm.”
Iseul exhales happily as he sweeps the dirt in front of him with his foot. “I guess I’m not too surprised – I mean it was pret-ty obvious.”
“Notice how we’re the ones here first?” Iseul adds before frowning. “Hey, why is Juni always late anyway?”
Min doesn’t bother replying verbally or physically this time, only looking forward in front of him.
Iseul sighs as he begins kicking a rock in front of him, levitating it back, kicking it away again, he continues the process for a few minutes until he hears footsteps in the distance.
Looking up he spots Sayeon walking towards them, Ryujin trudging a few feet behind her.
“See?” He murmurs to Min. “They’re even arriving together.”
The two of them quickly fall into rank, Ryujin to the right of Iseul and Sayeon on the left of Min.
Ryujin yawns loudly, not bothering to cover her mouth.
Iseul glances at her through the corner of his eye, he can’t hide his smile.
She quickly takes notice. “What?”
A tear threatens to spill out of his eye.
Young love – how beautiful.
“I’m happy for you.” Iseul says, nudging her slightly with his arm.
“Hah?” Ryujin questions. “For what?”
Iseul shrugs. “Y’know.”
Ryujin glowers slightly. “Nah, I really don’t.”
“You tryna mess with me or something?” Ryujin grimaces. “I’m really not in the mood.”
Oh.
Maybe Sayeon told her that he knew – and Ryujin wants it to be a secret.
Yea, that makes sense.
“Sorry.” He whispers out, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone.”
Ryujin eyes him up and down, before grimacing. “What is it?”
Iseul tries not to look too elated, seeing love bloom and blossom was always such an exciting thing, he looks back between Sayeon and then back to her, raising his eyebrows.
Unfortunately for Ryujin, Iseul doesn’t have the chance to clarify as Juni suddenly comes flying down, her blue ribbons letting her hit the ground safely.
“Morning!”
Ryujin tries not to look too unhappy, she really tries.
But something was going on with Iseul – and worse, it included Sayeon.
She waits until their patrol finishes, doesn’t let her annoyance show, and follows Sayeon into the bathroom, quickly checking under the stalls to see if any eavesdroppers were inside.
“Hey, Glasses.” Ryujin calls.
Yeah, Sayeon was acting weird as well. For some reason she was more dodgy than usual and she was bothered by something.
Ryujin was being kept out of a secret that involved her and she needed to figure out what it was.
Sayeon turns to look at her. “Yes?”
“What’s up with Iseul?” She interrogates. “Why’s he acting all weird?”
Sayeon hesitates for a brief moment. “It appears he’s figured out of our…deal.”
Immediately Ryujin’s blood runs cold.
“What?” She sputters. “Wh–does that mean he knows about Yesol?”
Sayeon bows her head as she thinks. “I’m not sure – he seemed oddly supportive of something.”
Ryujin gulps.
Yea, she’d noticed that Iseul seemed happy about something, maybe he didn’t care?
Ryujin feels like she’s going to throw up – there’s a bitter feeling welling deep inside of her gut. “He’s not..”
“You don’t think,” Ryujin swallows back the bile in her throat. “That he’ll tell anyone?”
When Sayeon stays silent does Ryujin grasp her head around her hands. “We’re so fucked.”
“I don’t think Iseul knows the specifics.” Sayeon admits, moving closer to Ryujin. “It doesn’t make sense for him to.”
She towers over Ryujin, “Firstly, he wasn’t anywhere near our vicinity when we first discussed our terms – you would have sensed if he was.”
Ryujin nods slightly. “Yea–would’ve.”
“Which leads me to believe he’s become aware of something else – intentionally or not.”
Sayeon grasps Ryujin’s hands. “I think that we’re fine.”
Her hands feel oddly cold – it makes the hair on the back of Ryujin’s neck stand up. Even if Sayeon was trying to console her, it just came off as creepy. “After all, he’s not capable of devising an outcome like that.”
There wasn’t a hint of reassurance in Sayeon’s eyes; it was just calculative certainty.
Seeing her talk down about other people always made Ryujin feel uneasy – entirely because it wasn’t coming from a place of arrogance, but because Sayeon felt so correct in her opinions that she took it as fact.
Ryujin shudders.
“You just need to trust me, Ryujin.” Sayeon’s so close to Ryujin’s face she can almost feel her breath on her skin.
“Oh!”
Ryujin pushes Sayeon away from her immediately, spinning around to see who was in the bathroom.
Sayeon lets out a slight oof.
Ryujin’s relieved to find it’s just Dahee standing in the entrance and not some random straggler.
Dahee flushes slightly, covering her eyes. “I’m sorry!”
“Whu–” Ryujin wavers. “It’s not what it looks like!”
Taeho snorts in amusement. “So you found the two of them together in the bathroom?”
“It’s the girls bathroom – they’re girls, I don’t get it.”
Dahee clicks her tongue disapprovingly. “Gosh, I forget how dense you are sometimes.”
Taeho feels his cheeks burn slightly from her words. “What? Were they doing something weird?”
“Hmm….” Dahee hums, tapping his forehead slightly. “I don’t think you’d understand.”
“That Sayeon’s some sort of abnormal freak?” Taeho retorts, he doesn’t move her finger away from him. “Yea, I understand that.”
“Woah.” Dahee gasps as she covers her mouth with both hands, staring with concerned eyes.
Taeho shrinks slightly at her tone. “What?”
Dahee shakes her head in disbelief. “Taeho, I didn’t know that…”
Oh, come on.
Was it really that bad for him to call Sayeon a name?
“That you were homophobic.” She whispers out.
Taeho freezes – What?
Tsubaki perks up and turns to look at Taeho with surprised eyes.
He begins to stumble over his words. “That’s– Hold on – That’s not what I meant.”
“Tsk.” Jungwoo clicks his tongue disapprovingly, chopsticks cradling a piece of kimchi.
“I’m not–” Taeho starts, “Wait, she’s gay?”
Dahee frowns. “I thought you were better than that.”
He puts his hands up defensively. “Seriously I don’t care if she’s like– queer – or something!”
“She chopped my fucking hand off!” He exclaims. “I can’t call her a freak for that?”
“Also since when was she fucking gay?”
Dahee crosses her arms. “You don’t choose to be gay, Taeho, you’re just born like that.”
Taeho scoffs indignantly. “Oh I’m sorry that I don’t know everything about the community.”
“You should really stop talking.” Tsubaki mumbles under her breath.
The last thing Ryujin wants is for Iseul to follow her around like some sort of lost dog.
She spins on her heel, “What?”
Ryujin doesn’t bother hiding the agitation in her voice.
“Dude.” Iseul says with a twinkle in his eye. “Everyone knows.”
He puts a hand on her shoulder.
“Dude,” Ryujin parrots, shaking his arm off angrily. “What are you even talking about?”
Being around him made her feel awkward – Sayeon did say that he probably was none the wiser – but the implementations he made still stood.
“You,”
Ryujin holds her breath.
“And Sayeon.” He finishes.
Here it comes.
He bends down to meet her height, he places a hand on his cheek, whispering in her ear. “How long have you guys been dating?”
Oh what the fuck.
Ryujin feels like someone’s playing a prank on her.
Because there was no way in the world that someone could possibly even think that she would date that creep.
Right??
She grabs Iseul by the collar and brings him in. “Iseul, what the fuck are you talking about?” Ryujin seethes out.
“I swear I won’t tell anyone!” He says quickly. “I was just curious but I respect your privacy if you don’t want to tell me!”
Ryujin was going to be sick.
She drops him onto the floor.
“Uhm, Ryujin?” Iseul calls out. “Where are you going?”
Ryujin’s mouth felt dry. “I’m going to go murder her.”
Did she seem crazy enough to date that psychopath? And what did he mean “everyone knew”.
Did Iseul seriously spread that shit rumor behind their backs?
It was fine. She was fine. She’s just going to kill Sayeon, what a perfectly reasonable plan, that way – everyone would see that she does not in fact like her.
Because what she wants most in the world is for people to see her as that freak’s lover.
Ryujin marches through the building – she knows Sayeon’s in the dorm working in her notebook – she saw her hunched over on the floor an hour ago scribbling away.
In a few minutes she arrives at their shared room.
Ryujin slams open the door, Sayeon jumps at the loud noise.
“Glasses.”
Sayeon looks up at her, annoyed. “What is it? I’m busy.”
Ryujin laughs in distraught. “Don’t care – Are you aware Iseul thinks we’re dating?”
“What?” Sayeon drops her pencil.
“Oh.” Sayeon says calmly. “That’s what he meant.”
“I’ll tell him that he’s mistaken.” Sayeon sighs out. “You can calm down.”
Ryujin walks towards her, discontent written all over her face. “Please do.”
Sayeon starts to stand up, tucking her notebook under her arm.
“Apparently he went around tell–”
Ryujin then promptly steps on Sayeon’s pencil and trips.
Sayeon looks up in time to see Ryujin reach out a hand, gripping onto the hem of Sayeon’s suit jacket in an attempt to rebalance herself.
All it does is send Sayeon crashing over Ryujin.
Their bodies collide, and Sayeon hits her head on Ryujin’s nose.
“Shiit.” Ryujin hisses out.
Sayeon fixes her glasses as she rubs her head. “Are you okay?”
“Huh.”
Sayeon whips her head to see Juni standing outside of the door.
How in the world was everyone catching them in these compromising situations?
Their position is suggestive– there was no other way to describe it, Sayeon was fully on top of Ryujin, effectively pancaking the shorter girl.
Ryujin starts bunny-kicking Sayeon’s stomach, shoving her off.
Sayeon clutches her gut at the assault.
“Wow.” Juni says, her mouth is open. “Okay, use protection, I guess.”
They don’t have a chance to explain themselves as Juni slowly closes the door.
“This is all your fault.” She spits.
“You pulled me down with you.” Sayeon quips back.
“You left your pencil on the floor!” Ryujin exclaims.
Whatever – it didn’t matter anymore – there was no way either of them could come back from that.
Ryujin wonders if deserting the Corps would really be such a bad thing.