dot dot dot | winrina

connection

❝ tryin' to disconnect, 

thinkin' maybe you could show me

if there's so many people here

then why am i so lonely? ❞

‒ onerepublic, ' connection '

karina pov

Karina let herself be pulled up by a pair of strong arms as her legs left the floor.

She had been sitting idle, waiting for soccer practice to end as the minutes blew past her, scrolling on her phone. It hadn't even occurred to her that practice had concluded until she realized the sound of obnoxious male yelling was absent from the chilly air, and then she was looking up into the smirking face of her boyfriend.

Lee Heeseung. Famous for his eyes that apparently could make any girl fall for him, and for his charms that did basically the same exact thing.

"Rina," Heeseung said, pulling her up, giving her a bright smile. He was sweaty and dressed in a white shirt and shorts, practice having just concluded. She'd waited an extra two hours for him to finish. "I'm glad you waited. Wanna go out and get something to eat? Yeonjun's nearly done dressing, and he's gonna ask Chaewon to go with us."

Karina barely roped in the snicker threatening to slip from her lips. Anyone with half a sense for romance could see Chaewon Kim was absolutely head-over-heels in love with Huh Yunjin on the basketball team, and Yeonjun Choi- no matter how nice his hair was (Karina personally thought it was ridiculous, that curtain-bang thing was so overused, its novelty was dead)- didn't have a ghost of a chance.

But hey, if Karina and Chaewon were both going, they could gossip and ignore their boyfriends.

Karina and Heeseung, although seen as their local high school's power couple, didn't really have much to them. It was "beauty and beauty," as Wonyoung liked to say, but the feelings Karina had felt when Heeseung asked her out had basically fizzled out and vanished along the way, left with a simple appreciation that she had a boyfriend who was so good to her.

"Rina?"

Heeseung's voice startled her out of her thoughts.

"Oh. Yeah. Of course," Karina answered, plastering her megawatt smile on her face, causing Heeseung's features to light up in happiness. "When will Yeonjun be out?"

"How about now?" the curtain-banged boy grinned, rushing out of the changing rooms in a similar outfit to Heeseung's. He shot Karina an appreciative grin. "Hey, Rina."

Heeseung stepped towards Karina protectively, wrapping an arm around her waist, and Karina felt slightly trapped.

"Hi, Yeonjun," she answered with a smile. "Ready to grab your date?"

"Yep," he answered with a sickeningly sure-of-himself grin. Karina reminded herself to project her best puppy eyes in Chaewon's direction when she was asked, which she did; the black-haired girl ended up accepting with a reluctant, fake "Sure!"

Karina knew this would set Yunjin's morale back a few years, but at the rate things were going, she wasn't surprised if she'd see Purinz- the ship name for Yunjin and Chaewon among their friend group- becoming the next bathroom makeout couple.

The two girls gossiped on the way to the fast-food restaurant Heeseung had decided on, murmuring softly so the boys wouldn't hear them.

"Anything new with you?" the red-lipped girl questioned, looking up at Karina, who was two inches taller than she was.