𝗚𝗢𝗔𝗟 𖥻! seonghwa

( 8 ) no big deal

AFTER THE GAME, seonghwa didn't bother to shower or greet his parents or anything. it could wait while he had something more important to do.

with two knocks, he walked into the infirmary warily.

"hwa?" chaerim lifted her head up from her bed, wondering what the hell seonghwa was doing here. the nurse that was attending to her instructed her to keep her head stable and not turn her head suddenly.

"i'll leave you two to it," the nurse said.

seonghwa sighed and took a chair next to her bed, and she smirked, "hwa, what are you doing here?"

"you should've been more careful, chaerim." seonghwa told her sternly, keeping a piercing eye contact.

chaerim pursed her lips, "i know. i'm okay though, right?"

"chaerim," he laughed out of disbelief, "you don't look okay."

"hm. hey, did we win?" asked chaerim, eyes sparkling.

"of course," seonghwa smirked. he felt so proud to tell her that because he had scored the winning goal. chaerim exclaimed, "nice!"

he nodded, then stiffened his posture, "don't mention this to anyone, by the way. this whole being nice to each other..."

"oh, ew of course not. they'd make fun of us for this forever," she giggled, "why did you come to see me anyway?"

"i don't want to see you or anything, i'm just the captain so i have to." seonghwa said, looking away. lie.

"mhm, sure hwa." she knew; she always seemed to be able to see right through him. chaerim shocked him by holding her arms out for a hug.

seonghwa awkwardly and slowly leaned forward to hug her too. yuck.

"this should be against some sort of rule... for us to hug," he said quietly, shyly even.

she hugged and closed her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips, "technically, it's clause four in the contract, but we can ignore it just this once. just— thank you, idiot."

𖥻

chaerim stayed at home for two days as a precaution, but instead of rested, she felt restless. she was such an active person that it killed her to have to stay in bed and just lay there all day. so as soon as she could, she returned to class.

and even during the school days, where seonghwa wasn't even a captain or teammate to her and only her senior, he showed his soft side to her.

he didn't have to. he wasn't even in a single class of hers. but when seonghwa found her on her first morning back, hoodie and all, he went to her side.

"give me that, dumbass," seonghwa took her heavy backpack onto his own shoulder, "how are you feeling?"

"like shit. maybe a little tired. i get dizzy and nauseous too at times. my headaches are pretty bad still, too. oh and i can't sleep, so yeah i feel like shit." she shrugged, and cracked a smile.

seonghwa scoffed, "yeah, you look like it too." he noticed that chaerim wasn't even walking in a perfectly straight line, which was probably the dizziness and loss of balance, "but don't worry, with time you'll feel much better."

"are you feeling okay? you must be sick in the head or something too because it seems like you're being a little nice to me." chaerim teased. ah, good to see she was still the same, he thought.

"i may despise you, but i'm not heartless," seonghwa wanted to roll his eyes, but didn't, "what class are you going to?"

"physics. i'm sure i'll have an even worse headache after this..." said chaerim jokingly.

he nodded, "i hated taking that class. what classes do you have after lunch?"

"just english and art."

"ah, not too bad then?" he asked, and it made chaerim notice how civil he was being. it was... weird. these interactions aren't supposed to be possible."well, here's your class."

he transferred the books back into her arms gently, and chaerim looked at the ground awkwardly. she just couldn't shake off the strange feeling this whole encounter was giving her. enemies don't do favors for each other. enemies don't care for one another.

"thanks, hwa..."

"oh! and i have a water bottle in my locker. do you want some?" he offered.

"you do? well, sure. that'd be great actually," chaerim said softly, still looking at the floor.  "or whatever."

seonghwa told her to sit down in class and he would just bring it to her in a moment. so she did, taking a seat next to her best friends. she changed her bewildered and unsettled expression to a soft smile when she faced them.

"hi, chaer! you're back finally! how have you been?" asked yeeun with a smile.

"i've been fine! how about you?" she asked back as she put her textbook and pens on the desk, ready for class to start.

"i've been... curious! haha, i want to know what's going on between you and hwa! i saw him look after you when you got hurt at the game, and you two seem cute together now."

"seonghwa? cute?!?" chaerim did a double-take, "don't worry, i still hate him. i can't stand his stupid face—"

"here, idiot."

seonghwa placed the water bottle onto her desk, eyeing her down coldly. she, only then, noticed that the room had gone quiet as all eyes were on park seonghwa.

chaerim gulped, "oh. thanks."

he rolled his eyes as he turned around, and over his back, he exclaimed, "i spit in it by the way!"

normally, chaerim would've yelled back, but raising her voice too much hurt her head, so she remained quiet. but only this once.

yeeun put a hand over her mouth, "yeah, enemies my foot! he just brought you a water! that's like so sweet."

"the bar is really low then, huh?" chaerim teased. she reached for the water, but as her fingers wrapped around it, she noticed it was so cold that there were tiny water droplets covering the bottle. strange, she thought, seonghwa's locker must be really cold or something.

but as seonghwa left the room, he had a cute smile plastered on his face. he returned to his own classroom and sat by his buddy wooyoung.

"liar," wooyoung said, "you said you were going to the vending machine to get a snack and you didn't even get anything." woo pointed to seonghwa's empty hands.

seonghwa looked away, "oh, about that... i just finished it before i got here. i was really hungry, you know?"