Imperfectly Perfect 2

49 : The Ace's Crush (2)

"Where were you at the last summer vacation after our last year in junior high?"

"Huh?" Mina scrunches her eyebrows. "How could I remember that? That was like six years ago!"

"Ugh." Chaeyoung facepalms herself and shakes her head furiously. "I give up. Why did I even try? You're one of the most dense people I have ever met, Myoi Mina."

"Huh? What are you—" The council president purses her lips and slowly widens her eyes, stitching up the story she heard from RM in her mind and making sense of the questions that the other girl has just asked to her. "Wait... Don't tell me..."

The soccer ace puts her hands down and looks at her with raised eyebrows. "Yep. That's alright. Let it sink to you, my dear."

"I—" Mina pursed her lips again. She slowly raises her hand and points to herself while staring at Chaeyoung. "Me?"

The two girls are just staring at each other for a couple of seconds. Mina was wearing a surprised face while Chaeyoung had an unamused look plastered all over her face.

The council president asks again. "That was me?"

"Yes." The smaller girl nods at her while wearing a mocking smile. "You."

The council president was stunned for a moment. She looks down, staying quiet with her eyebrows scrunched. Then, she looks at Chaeyoung again, maintaining the disbelief on her face.

The soccer ace then flashes a soft, sincere smile to her. "Haven't I already told you before that even prior to when I met you trapped in the comfort rooms, I already liked you?"

"But— How could you—" The one and only Myoi Mina is now stuttering. "Me? You— You really had a crush on me even before you saved me from being locked inside the comfort rooms?"

Chaeyoung rolls her eyes, although stifling a smile to her. "I'm not sure which I should be more amazed by now. Your wide vocabulary that enabled you to rephrase the statement I just told you seconds ago or your clear refusal of what I have been telling you all this time despite all things you just heard."

"But— But—"

"What?"

"How could you— How could someone like someone from—" Mina ruffled her hair and started whining. "It's not making any sense at all!"

"Huh?" The soccer ace blinks her eyes slowly in wonder. "What do you mean?"

The council president shifts on her seat to directly face the girl beside her on the table. "How could you be interested in me at first?"

"Hu— Huh? Now, you're the one not making any sense, Minari."

"You liked my voice?"

Chaeyoung nonchalantly nods. "Yeah."

"And when you saw me back on the first day of our freshman year in senior high. You knew it was me who you've been mysteriously crushing on based on my voice?"

The soccer ace simply nods again in response. "Yeah. I knew instantly that it was you because I will never forget your voice."

"And when you finally saw me. When you finally witnessed who I was as a person when we became classmates. My appearance. My whole being. My behavior. You— You still liked me?"

"Yeah." Chaeyoung sincerely smiles at her. "When I saw who you were as a person... I even liked you more."

"How could you like someone like me back then?" Mina just can't stop defending her previous belief from back in high school. "Even when we were already hanging out after your soccer practices I always thought that it was just hopeful of me to think that you would see me that way in the slightest. I never thought that you actually liked me and now you're telling me that you were even interested in me even before I knew you?"

The smaller girl simply nods again to her.

"How— how could that be? I mean—" The council president ruffles her hair again. "How could that be? I was just a nobody back then. How could you set your eyes on me?"

The soccer ace now chuckles at her. "Minari."

"What?"

"Just accept it." Chaeyoung gently stares directly onto her eyes. "Why do you have to go trying and finding a logical explanation to why I liked you even before you knew me? Just accept it. Just accept that you were already the most likable person in my eyes back then. You have always been... and you will always be."

The council president was staying silent, seeming to finally begin taking in all the things that the soccer ace was telling her.

Chaeyoung took the chance to freely speak again. "RM is actually right, you know? I was really a wuss who didn't have the courage to approach my one and only girl crush at school. I was always just watching you from afar, wondering if I would ever have a chance to finally approach you." She faintly chuckles. "I can't just walk up to you and try to start some small talk, you know. That would make a total creep. Plus, it would expose me right away that I like you. As cliche as it may sound... I always wanted us to start with the basics. Being friends and all."

Mina scoffs and finally responds to her this time. "So that is why you oddly asked me to hangout with you the first time we were supposed to have just met?"

"Exactly." The soccer ace excitedly nods. "I was so nervous the night before! I was so sure you would reject me. I actually thought that you finally would think that I'm a creep. You don't know how happy I was when I saw you waiting for me at the bleachers the day we hung out for the very first time."

"You were good at hiding your feelings."

"Or you were just too dense to notice."

Mina tilts her head in wonder. "Was I?"

Chaaeyoung shrugs with a knowing smile. "Minari..." She speaks again in a sincere tone. "Back then when we were classmates... You don't know how many times I was unknowingly in a daze in class because I was too caught up in watching you and your every little behavior. Back then when the two of us would talk about how our day went... you don't know how my world seems to stop every single time you look back into my eyes and cheerfully do your mini story."

"Chaeng..." The council president stares lovingly at her.

Chaeyoung looks at Mina with the same delicate eyes that are hovering on her. "I have always been in love with you all this time. You innocently made me fall so hard for you every single waking up of the day that I don't even know now how to get out of your grasp."

"Chaeng—"

"And you have got to better take responsibility for me."