earbuds (lipsoul)

3

Jungeun walked out of her precalculus class right as the final bell rang, earbuds already in her ears. Her feet carried her habitually to her locker like the end of any school day, her mind elsewhere. She arrived at her locker and opened the locker still on autopilot. The only thing that stopped her was the sudden stop of music in her left ear.

"Are you alright?" Jiwoo asked, confused at her friend's unusual unawareness.

"Oh, yeah! I was just thinking about something.." Jungeun replied, trailing off. Jiwoo thought for a second.

"I'm keeping my eye on you, Lip." She said with a smirk before walking across the hall to her own locker. Jungeun smiled playfully at the girl as she turned away.

Jungeun gathered her books and put them in her bag before closing her locker. She walked up to Jiwoo's locker and waited for her.

After a minute, Jiwoo turned and shut her locker loudly, a smirk stuck on her face. The sudden noise caused Jungeun to jump slightly, also catching the attention of a few other students nearby. Looking up at Jiwoo's expression and then glancing at the people eyeing them, the brunette grabbed her friends arm and lead her out of the school with a little slap.

...

"What are you thinking about so much, huh?" Jiwoo asked as they walked across the school lawn.

"It's nothing, really! I already forgot, honestly." Jungeun said in annoyance at her friend's persistence. Jiwoo was still a little suspicious, but shrugged. "If you say so."

"Ok, I'm meeting Heejin at the library to study today. Talk later?" The cheery girl asked Jungeun, to which she nodded. The two waves goodbye and heading in their different directions.

...

As Jungeun walked down the worn sidewalk to her house, her mind began to wander again. She couldn't stop thinking about her history class. She had never talked to Jinsoul before, but she seemed very genuine and kind like Yerim had briefly described her in the past. She was excited to see how the project worked out for them, to say the least.

At the end of the history period, Jinsoul had asked her for her number. Jungeun blushed at the thought. No pretty, popular girl like Jinsoul had asked for her number. Or any girl, actually.

She realized a few years ago that she was lesbian and got the confidence to tell her small circle of friends, but she hadn't really had an interest in anyone in a while.

Suddenly, Jungeun shook at the realization of her thoughts. She only asked for your number because of the project, nothing else. Don't be delusional. You don't have time for that. Besides, Jinsoul is definitely not thinking this much about having your number. The brunette continued quickly down the sidewalk before turning the corner onto her street, setting her mind on the assignments she had to do once she got home.

Something inside Jungeun wished her delusions could be true, though. I wonder what will happen tomorrow ..

...

Meanwhile, Jinsoul wiped the sweat off her brow and jogged to the sideline. She picked up the soccer ball bag and held it open for her teammates to but their balls in.

"Great practice, everyone. See you all tomorrow." Coach Park said and all the girls thanked him before getting their stuff and leaving.

Jinsoul and Hyunjin walked together to the locker room, catching up about school and talking about that day's practice. Hyejoo wasn't with them, which wasn't unusual since she usually missed practice a few times a week. As long as she was at the games, she was considered a player and her parents were satisfied. It did describe why she was usually on the sideline, though.

Taking off her cleats on the bench in the locker room, Hyunjin looked up.

"So, what do you think of Sooyoung and that girl Jiwoo?" She asked Jinsoul with a mischievous look.

"Sooyoung's being really oblivious lately. I think they'd be pretty cute, if she realized." Jinsoul replied.

Sooyoung had a few hookups with some of the pretty daughters of her parents' business partners she had met at dinner parties and meetings her parents made her attend. She had never really had anything other than that, though. Jiwoo wasn't like the other girls Sooyoung knew in the past; she was sweet, talented and actually liked Sooyoung for her. Sooyoung was sweet and somewhat protective, and her friends knew she got lonely sometimes. Jinsoul and Hyunjin wanted the tall girl to be happy, and Jiwoo seemed like a great person. It was evident to them that something was on her mind lately, though she never liked to open up much when things troubled her.

"Yeah, I think Jiwoo would be good for Sooyoung. I don't know her super well but, she seems like a nice girl that could make her happy." Jinsoul added to Hyunjin, the latter nodding in agreement. The two finished changing, zipped up their bags and left the locker room.

...

"Thanks for the ride! See ya tomorrow" Hyunjin said as she grabbed her bag from the backseat and got out of the car. The two waved and Jinsoul waited until the younger girl was safely inside before heading to her own house.

Jinsoul sighed. The beginning of the week was always hard. It wasn't too far into the season so they only had one soccer game that week, on Friday. The rest of the days were filled with practicing hard and fitting in schoolwork. Jinsoul's mind flowed over her work for the week after she approached her house and pulled in the driveway.

Oh right, that new history project. Ugh. Jinsoul grabbed her bag out of the backseat and headed inside. Knowing Professor Kim, it would probably be graded harshly and require a lot of work that Jinsoul didn't feel like thinking about, being busy enough. Well, maybe it won't be so bad. Jungeun seemed like a sweet girl. She was shy and not very talkative in their first conversations that day, but Jinsoul thought it was kind of cute. She smiled at the thought. Speaking of Jungeun ..

Jinsoul dropped her bag on her bedroom floor and flopped onto her bed in a similar manner, pulling her phone out of her pocket. Quickly typing something up, Jinsoul gave it one last read and sent it contentedly before sitting up to open her backpack and start her homework.

Jinsoul:
hey it's jinsoul ! do u wanna meet some day this week to work on the project? i know a really great cafe nearby !!
5:46pm

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hey! sorry, this update took longer than i wanted it to. i was going to finish and upload this morning but . bbc is trash and that preoccupied me so here i am now. im honestly surprised anyone found this story to begin with, but thank you so much for reading and i hope you enjoy! i'll focus and get some more updates out soon<33

p.s. i want to have extra parts in chapters that follow other characters briefly and build up other stories or ships maybe. what do you think? lipsoul is the main focus of this story but i have some other ideas too and they all can't be at the same place at the same time lol