When Hyerim signed up for her school's newsletter club and was placed in charge of sport photography, she didn't expect to form an unlikely friendship with the captain of the ice hockey team, Lee Haechan.
❆ High School Sport AU
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It had been a few days since Hyerim had interacted with Haechan. Three days, to be exact. No, she wasn't counting.
Ever since that Monday when they had lunch together, he hadn't come to find her again. She felt stupid, walking out of class, expecting to see a cheeky grin awaiting her outside, but to no avail. Their lunch session was probably just a one time thing.
She had slowly conditioned herself over these three days to stop waiting for him during breaks. She reverted back to her old spot at the rooftop of the arts building, not wanting to deal with the noisy, crowded cafeteria without him by her side. She had slowly conditioned herself to get used to loneliness again.
She didn't miss him though.
Of course not, she thought to herself as she marched to the the familiar C3 room where the club meetings were held to do some editing of her sports column. The past two editions of The Neoletter had done pretty well, the second one doing significantly better than the first as it had the warmup Haechan pictures that Hyerim took.
Opening the document, her heartstrings tugged a little as she looked at the picture she took of Haechan in the middle of his warmups. He was glowing - smiling radiantly as he looked to the left of the camera at something, in the midst of skating around. Hyerim didn't want to admit it, but she missed him. She missed him, his voice, his smile, his laughter, his touch.
In her 17 years of living, being with him was one of the only times when she truly felt alive.
❆
In the familiar cold rink, Hyerim sat waiting for the game to start along with all of the other students. Mark sat next to her, munching on a hot dog. Finally, the players entered the rink, skating around and interacting with the audience. Haechan was his usual flirtatious self, winking and blowing playful kisses towards the fawning audience. Several screams, squeals and "aww"s could be heard, mainly from the cluster of girls to their right as they stood up on their seats waving around their signs to get the boy's attention.
"Want a bite?" Mark asked next to her, offering the hot dog. She gratefully accepted, biting off a chunk of the hot food, fanning her mouth as she chewed.
"Hot," she complained while scrunching up her face, making the boy next to her laugh.
"Oh dude, I'm sorry I should've told you," he said in between giggles as she comically hit him on the chest. He feigned pain, leaning back on the bench while clutching his sweatshirt.
The two of them bickered and joked during the game, barely paying attention to the skaters. Hyerim would've forgotten to take pictures if it weren't for Mark hurriedly reminding her as the game was ending with the Gators once again taking home the win.
She hadn't laughed like that in a while. Mark was refreshing - his youthful nature, big grin and silly fits of giggles made her smile and temporarily forget her stresses. Hyerim was aware that he was quite popular amongst the girls, but he was popular for a different reason. He was genuine, always caring. He was the type that you would bring home to your parents, the type that your mum would tell you to marry when you were younger. She could see why Mark was attractive amongst other girls.
