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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Hyerim was currently seated on the hard green plastic chairs that lined the floors of the assembly hall. She fidgeted uncomfortably, her butt slowly growing numb.
Her eyes followed the seniors that walked across the stage in their black graduation robes and caps, shaking hands with the principal and accepting their high school diploma. They were already up to "Lee" in the surnames, and Hyerim watched with bated breath as the familiar name was called.
"Lee Haechan."
Hyerim watched as the figure made his way up the side stairs, striding towards the centre where the principal was stood. She shrunk down in the plastic seat, muffling the bottom half of her face with her sweatshirt. It wasn't like he would see her from up on the stage, but she hid anyway.
Haechan looked as confident as ever, posture straight, a dazzling smile on his face as he gave the principal a firm handshake, posing quickly for the camera before exiting the stage on the left.
He definitely did not look a wreck, or like he had been crying for the past week like Hyerim did.
The sight of him made her want to cry again, eyes welling up, and she squeezed them shut, praying for the graduation ceremony to end soon so she could cry her heart out again.
❆
"Mark, you're crushing me!"
Mark currently had Hyerim in a tight hug, rocking her side to side as he cried. She patted his bicep softly.
"Sorry," he wailed and released her, only to grab Jisung and Chenle on either side of him and capture them instead. Jisung squeaked, arms flailing to try get out of Mark's grasp.
After a few tearful photos, and a whole speech by Mark to keep the Neoletter alive and running, Hyerim bid goodbye to Mark who went off with his family for a celebration lunch. Jisung and Chenle also left, so it was just her.
Hyerim stood aimlessly in the middle of the sport field. Families surrounded her, with bouquets of flowers and big cameras out, ready to capture the special moment. She felt a twinge of jealousy and sadness, knowing that her parents were too busy in Hong Kong for business to take care of her.
Scuffing her shoe into the synthetic field, she looked around, wondering where to go next, when she spotted a very familiar figure walking towards her in his cap and gown. Her brain malfunctioned. She wanted to move, to run away from him again. Then she remembered his words.
"You keep running!"
That was enough to make her stay, avoiding his eye contact as he walked towards her, flowers and gift bag in hand.
"You graduated," she said lamely as he approached her.
"Yeah," he replied simply, analysing her expression instead. She tried to clear whatever grimace she had on her face, putting on her best attempt of a poker face. She hoped that he couldn't tell she hadn't washed her hair in 3 days, and that her eyelids were red and swollen from crying.
"How do you feel?" She tried to be amicable, resisting the urge to slap him in the face, to scream at him, to kiss him again. He nodded, tilting his head to think.
"Weird. I don't think I've processed it yet. It's bittersweet," he mused.
"Ah, okay..." Hyerim swayed around awkwardly, the conversation dying. "Well, I'll get going then, if there's nothing else-"
"Wait."
She peered back up at the boy, who now had his graduation cap tucked under his arm like it was his ice hockey helmet.
"You still have my number right? You know you can message me any time, yeah?"
Hyerim bit her lip. She had deleted it last night, along with the messages so there was no way to retrieve his number. But she nodded anyway, letting out a soft "yeah".
"Dang, look at the time...I should go. Good luck in university!" She raised her hand hurriedly as a farewell, not meeting his eyes before speeding off the field. It took all her strength not to look back as she exited, tears burning her eyes.
❆
ONE YEAR LATER
The 18-year-old nervously clicked on the tab. Her parents were displayed on FaceTime on her phone, the two of them nervously sitting at the dining table, peering into the camera.
"Rim-ah, hurry up and click on it!" her mother chided through the phone, impatient.
"No, mom, I need time! Don't rush me," Hyerim stressed, biting down on the sleeve of her jacket as she inhaled and exhaled deeply, steeling herself to click on her application status.
"I'm doing it."
Click.
A flurry of digital confetti and tiger emojis rained down her screen, with the large letters displaying CONGRATULATIONS, HYERIM!
The girl let out a squeal, yelling out at her parents.
"I GOT ACCEPTED!" She rubbed her eyes, and then reread the entrance letter that detailed her acceptance, as well as outlining her course, journalism and media, and telling her the semester starting date.
14th of February, Korea University 1st year.
Her mom excitedly chattered over the phone and her dad whooped as Hyerim raised the phone to show her parents her laptop screen.
"I have to tell auntie Kim!" Hyerim's mom raised her phone, immediately clicking on kakaotalk to message her relatives about the acceptance, and Hyerim's dad launched into an inspirational speech, saying "I knew you could do it".
Freshly out of highschool and now admitted into her dream course in her dream university, Hyerim was finally happy in a long time. The lingering thought of a certain hockey player was almost gone from her brain.
Life was good.
END PART 1 OF PUCKER UP
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short chapter bc im preparing for part 2
alsoooo :) i applied early action/pre entry/early acceptance whatever u call it to a university and i got into my dream course!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (psychology honours) IM SO HAPPY!!!!! its not my dream university but its still pretty good and im glad i have a safety to fall back on if i do badly in the final exam :)))))))) and i graduate highschool in 5 days so this chapter was pretty bittersweet for me to write lol i think i've cried 20 times in the past week
anyways a lot more exciting stuff coming up :) THANK YOU FOR 600 READS AND NUMBER 3 IN #NCTU??????? like i love yall wtf ok anyways
