She

Chapter 16

It was a little past 10 p.m. and Yeji was still in the basketball court, her entire shirt soaked with sweat, but it didn't bother her as she continued shooting shot after shot, doing everything she could to distract herself.

But it wasn't working very well.

Despite it being already a few hours since Yuna and Ryujin had left for dinner, Yeji still couldn't shake off the frustration she was feeling.

So much so that it culminated in her smashing the ball across the court and screaming as loud as she could, before she leaned back onto the wall, slumping to the floor, burying her face in her arms, doing all she could to escape reality.

She wasn't angry at Jisu, nor did she blame her whatsoever. 

None of whatever she was feeling was directed at Jisu.

It was all on herself.

All on the fact that she couldn't be happy that she was friends with Jisu once more.

But she didn't want to be just friends with Jisu.

She wanted to be more.

She didn't want Jisu to end up with someone else, not with Soobin, not with anybody.

Just her.

You're so fucking selfish, Hwang Yeji.

Unbeknownst to Yeji, while she was lost in her train of thoughts, someone had entered the gymnasium and was already standing in front of her.

She lifted her head, surprised to see that it was Chaeryeong.

"Chaeryeong?"

"Unnie ... what are you doing?" Chaeryeong asked, concerned, squatting down so that she would be on eye level with the silver haired girl.

Yeji looked into Chaeryeong's eyes, and was surprised to see her own pain reflected in them.

It broke Chaeryeong to see Yeji like this in front of her, so weak, so vulnerable.

Her hand instinctively began to gently pat Yeji's head.

"Leave me alone, Chaeryeong ..." Yeji managed to mutter out.

Chaeryeong instead flashed a soft smile at Yeji.

"You know I can't do that."

Somehow, the way Chaeryeong had said that made Yeji let her guard down, her heart softened as streaks of tears began to roll down from her eyes.

"It's okay unnie, let it out, let it out" Chaeryeong softly spoke, using her thumb to lightly brush away the older girl's tears.

"I ... why do I feel this way? I shouldn't be right? I should be happy, right? I should be happy that Jisu sees me as a friend again, right?" Yeji said, pushing through her sobbing, desperately looking at Chaeryeong for affirmation, for the girl to tell her to get her shit together, but Chaeryeong didn't respond, only continuing to caress Yeji's cheeks.

"Then why do I feel this way...?"

The two sat there for a moment in silence, before Chaeryeong opened her mouth to speak.

"It's because you're human, unnie ... ," she calmly explained, "... and humans feel."

"It really is the worst thing about being human, you know? We feel anger. We feel frustration. We feel sadness, rage, loneliness ..."

Yeji listened intently to what Chaeryeong was saying. 

She always thought Chaeryeong had a way with words, more so than anyone else she's ever met which accompanied by her soothing voice, made it all the better.