"You know, I never hated you, I was just scared that you hated me."
"I could never hate you, I just don't know what to do around you. I guess that, I dunno, I get nervous around you..."
.
.
Renjun Fencing AU coming soon!
The day has finally come. Nationals. I woke up, feeling a little bit queasy at first, but then I take a deep breath and remember that I will be doing the thing I love while surrounded by my best friends. It's a Thursday morning, and I had all my stuff packed into my suitcases by last night. I wake up, do my normal morning routine, and then head downstairs with all my stuff. Today, a shuttle will be coming to my house to pick me up. Since I'm pretty close to the school, I'll be one of the first ones getting picked up. After the shuttle picks everyone else up, then we'll be on our way to Daegu for Nationals. The actual tournament is Friday, followed by two days of celebration. I decide to make myself a smoothie while waiting for the bus. Just as I finish making my smoothie and cleaning out the blender, I hear the shuttle roll up to my house.
Outfit:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Suitcases:
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I head out to the bus and see that Julia, Mark, and Jaemin are already seated on the bus. I greet the bus driver as well as the others and make my way near the back of the bus. I get myself comfortable and put my AirPods in my ears and listen to some music. After a few minutes, the bus goes around and picks up Haechan, Renee, Renjun, Heachan, Minnie, Aera, and Jeno. Renjun is sitting besides me listening to music as well. Now our last stop is to pick up Coach Irene who will be riding on the shuttle with us. Coach Johnny and Xiaojun are driving together, so they'll meet us there.
After about a 3 hour drive, we finally arrive in Daegu. It's about 5pm right now. We get off the bus and make our way towards the hotel. We enter to see Coaches Johnny and Xiaojun waiting for us in the lobby.
"Alright is everyone here?" Johnny asks while Irene does a head count.
"Alright everyone listen up. First off, welcome to Daegu. Now, we have already picked who you will be rooming with during the trip. Please come up and take your room keys when your names are called."
Julia and Aria Room 700
Renjun, Mark, and Jeno Room 701
Minnie, Aera, and Renee Room 702
Haechan and Jaemin Room 703.
"Now Coach Irene will be in Room 704, Coach Xioajun will be in Room 705, and I will be in Room 706 so if at any time you need anything, please do not be hesitant to come and find us."
We nod our heads and then make our way to the elevators to head up to our room. "This is going to be a first, the two of us rooming," Julia says. "Yeah, it's going to be quite exciting huh?" I say while smiling at her. We laugh and then make our way out of the elevator followed by the rest of the girls' team.
"So what time do you guys want to eat dinner," Renee asks.
"Not sure yet. Maybe we should check with the boys when it gets closer to dinner time," Minnie suggests. We agree with the plan and make our way into our rooms.
"OMG ARIA COME LOOK AT OUR ROOM!"
I walk in to see a beautiful cozy looking living room with a tv and a mini kitchen. Julia and I have our own separate rooms with our own bathrooms. I must admit, but my room looks very nice. In fact, too nice for a hotel room haha.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
After unpacking, I go into Julia's room and just hang out with her on the bed for a little while. We talk about school, specific classes that we have with certain people (both to our liking and disliking), our first impressions of other fencing team members, and just how Nationals will be in general.
"You know what I'm most excited for," Julia asks me. I shake my head as a no.
"Well, after Nationals, there's two days of celebration afterwards. Now you may be thinking, oh it'll just be a casual pool party, but oh no! Apparently the first night is going to a super formal dinner where all the teams come together and honor the winners as well as exemplary members from each team. Then the second night is a mixer which is kind of like a huge dance party. People get dressed up, and dance the night away!"
"That sounds like so much fun," I say. "But I didn't bring any formal clothes."
"Girl, don't worry about it! We have two free days, so we can always take a run to the mall if you need to buy something."
We spend about an hour talking when we start hearing notifications go off on our phones.
Mark: Yo, what time were you guys thinking about having dinner? I think the coaches are doing something on our own, so we can go off and do our own thing.
Aera: Is 6:30pm dinner ok with u guys?
Jeno: Yeah, sounds good to me.
Julia: Do you guys want to go find an ice cream place or something after dinner
Renjun: Yeah, I can drive the guys in my car.
Aria: Okay, I'll drive the girls then.
Renee: Sounds like a plan. See you guys in the hotel restaurant at 6:30.
"Should we get ready?" Julia asks.
"Yeah we probably should," I say with a laugh.
After we're done getting ready, we head down to see the boys already there waiting for us. After Renee, Minnie, and Aera come down, we make our way to have our dinner. We get seated and then order. Today I decide to have pasta since it has the carbs that I'll need to perform well tomorrow. I sit next to Haechan and Mark tonight, and they've been nonstop making me laugh. They have the best humor of almost everyone I've ever met. The food eventually comes, and everyone wolfs down the food. I guess everyone was pretty hungry. After finishing, we head out to the car to go find a place to have dessert.
"Oh you guys wait a minute," I say. "I just looked up dessert places on my phone and there's a shaved ice place that's about a 5 minute drive from here."
"That sounds perfect," Mark says. "That'll really hit the spot." We all laugh at his comment and then make our ways to the cars. Renjun and I drive the members of the team to go get shaved ice. When we arrive, we order what we want, and then sit down to just enjoy the shaved ice and continue our crazy conversations. It's been the perfect night, and the fact that I get to be on the same team as all of these wonderful, amazing people is the best thing that I could ever ask for. I put my head on Renjun's shoulder as I continue to listen to the stories told my my teammates.
