Inspired by nothing in particular
Gender neutral
Fluff
Requested by JichuAegi
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"Hey, you're pretty cute! Wanna be friends?"
Yena could still hear the excited tone in her voice in her head from that day. The sun was harsh and the ice cream cone in her hand was melting at a rapid pace.
She remembered how the world was put on mute the moment she laid her eyes on you. The adrenaline she felt when she approached you, who was sitting under a tree to avoid the harsh sun was ingrained in her mind. She no longer cared about the hard sunlight that was beating down on her skin. She could still remember the different ways she could introduce herself before scrapping all of them and going with the flattery option.
That was the day she made a friend who she would consider her lifelong best friend. The friend she could confide in and just be herself. The friend she thought she would be calling her best friend and maybe more.
Your smile was intoxicating and she knew the faintness she felt when you laughed at her introduction wasn't because of the potential oncoming heat stroke. She also knew the heat rising in her cheeks wasn't because of the sun either. She felt like she met the one and everything was going to change. Yena was ready to wait for this friendship to bloom into much more.
But that was six years ago and since then, the title of "best friend" didn't change but her patience did.
Yena was now sitting in her lecture, completely ignoring the seemingly endless babbling of the professor. Instead, she laid her head on her desk and from the corner of her eye, watched you.
With haste, you noted down everything the lecturer said into a word document. It was clear you were fighting the effects of another night of limited sleep. Dark circles were under your eyes and you looked like you could fall asleep at the drop of a hat. Still, you had a laser-sharp focus on the task at hand, something Yena was admirative of.
There were a lot of things Yena admired about you. Far too many to count.
This was something her friends, mainly Chaeyeon knew all too well.
_
When you, Yena, and a bunch of your friends entered the college phase of your lives, Yena's troubles started.
While you weren't a chatty person surrounded by an abundance of friends in high school, college placed yourself in the limelight and your popularity soared, much to your surprise. You weren't one to stand out in a crowd in high school, only befriending Yena and her friends thanks to the little duck surprisingly approaching your first.
Now, things couldn't be any different.
Within the first week, you had already doubled your friend count, though Yena would rather call them competition.
There was Sakura, a popular transfer student from Japan and a second year drama major who was rather vocal and wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Much to Yena's chagrin, the subject of Sakura's occasional outbursts were about you and it sickened her, mainly because it was about how much she admired you.
There was Hyewon, a quiet and quirky first year fashion design student who, much like Sakura, was extremely popular among the student body. Yena knew of her in high school since all of you attended the same high school and she knew how magnetic Hyewon's cute personality and innocent looks were. She was pleasantly surprised by the fact that you didn't know about Hyewon, but the worry of competition was still there.
There was Chaewon, a first year film student with a tendency to get a little awkward in certain situations and while she seemed rather cold at the start, warmed up to you rather quickly. From the moment she decided you were someone she could befriend, she started sharing food, making lunch plans and sending you new music she got hooked on recently. Very "more than friends" energy that Yena caught on to quickly and wasn't too thrilled about.
