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DAY 5 - CRUSH CULTURE MAKES ME WANNA SPILL MY GUTS
CRUSH CULTURE MAKES ME WANNA SPILL MY GUTS [OCT 5]
JIHEON/JEONGIN/YUNA
"You like him?" Yuna says, running to catch up with her from where she'd been leaning against the front gate. One of the off-season jocks doesn't stop at the sign, nearly runs them over as they try to cross the parking lot. "Jeonginnie?"
Jiheon narrows her eyes at the license plate before yanking open the passenger door of Yuna's hand-me-down sedan. "Say it a little louder and the whole school will know, you know?"
Yuna tosses her backpack into the back before collapsing onto the driver's seat. "Heol," she says to the car ceiling.
Jiheon knows Yuna knows Jeongin because they were both on track together first year, before Yuna quit after getting the most awful shin splits. She used up all the ice in Jiheon's freezer one afternoon when she came over to study and it left a little wet spot on the seat covers, where it'd melted.
"Is it because of the braces?" asks Yuna, after she's pulled up the steep driveway of Jiheon's house. Someone back in middle school had called Jeongin "metal mouth," and no one had quite forgotten about it. He came to class late two weeks ago after his last orthodontist appointment with the most perfectly even teeth Jiheon had ever seen.
It was love at first sight when, after his presentation in World History, Jiheon raised her hand to ask a question for participation points and he'd directed that faultless smile toward her, diplomatically.
Jiheon manually unlocks her door, pulling her backpack straps over her shoulders. "No way," she says as she lingers, carefully turning over each possible rebuttal for their respective pros and cons. "I'm not into teeth, okay?," and then she slams the door closed.
Jiheon is totally into teeth.
There's really no reason for her to like Jeongin, honestly. They didn't run in concurrent social circles, and there was that time in study hall sophomore year when Jeongin launched a paper plane into her neck after missing the mark on Jisung Han, the class clown. He pitted the blame on Hyunjin, who ended up with a two-day detention for trying to clear his name. Jiheon found it all mildly impressive, when she'd finally stopped being pissed.
Two days after Yuna bombards her with nonstop hey, so do you like him? texts worded five thousand different ways, Jeongin's leaning on the side of Yuna's car as they cross the parking lot. This time, Yuna flips off the jocks when they run the stop sign.
"Why're you here?" Yuna scoffs, pushing him to the side to get into the driver's seat. Jiheon stares like a deer in awkward-social-situation headlights, when all you could really do was wait for one of the obviously closer two people you were hanging out with to acknowledge your existence.
"I texted you, like, right after seventh period. Aren't you always on your phone anyway?" Jeongin nods his head toward her. "Hey, Jiheon."
"Hey," she says as Yuna hip-checks him again with a, Whatever, but Jiheonnie gets shotgun. He offers them both gum right before they turn the corner onto Jiheon's street.
Just as Jiheon's about to start her math homework, her phone dings. You totally like him, okay!!! Yuna had sent her with an obnoxious amount of heart emojis, the ones with the arrow through them. That really just made it worse.
No, I don't, because she shouldn't.
"I'm above high school romance," Jiheon told Yuna on their first day, over lunch. Yuna had brought a tupperware full of kimbap. She remembers because some of the seaweed was still stuck between her canines during P.E, and Jiheon didn't know whether they were good enough friends yet for her to mention it.
Yuna stabbed a roll with her chopsticks. "August twenty-sixth, twelve fifteen PM," she narrated, over-dramatic. "The day Jiheon Baek said something that would so come back and bite her in the butt."
Jiheon slammed a hand on the table between them. "Hey, I'm being serious!" but she'd been laughing.
"You just wait and see," said Yuna cryptically.
Jiheon had thought it was all a joke then. Now, she's not so sure.
Taehyun Kang ends up asking her to homecoming. He'd lost to her in their bids for student council president last month, and according to Yuna, who knew him from her youth group, he wanted – quote – nothing to do with her ever again. Jiheon had been so surprised that she accidentally told him yes.
"I don't wanna go," Yuna whines after school. "I thought you hated homecoming? Last year when you were on event-planning committee – I swear –" she holds up her right hand, "you called it 'the most useless school dance ever. They might as well throw money onto the boy's locker room floor.'"
Jiheon did say that. "Can't you ask one of your friends to go with you?" She makes her puppy dog face at her. "Pleeeease?"
Yuna groans and hits her head against the steering wheel. "I can't believe you said yes to Taehyun."
Jiheon laughs. "Who'd you think would ask me?" she teases. "Jeongin?"
Yuna turns her head so her temple's pressed dangerously close to the horn. "Well," she suddenly looks strangely pensive, "I don't know."
It's like this –
Yuna joined track because Jeongin did.
"I'm trying to get over him," she told Jiheon last year when they were eating lunch in the Quad. "Don't you think I've liked him way too goddamn long?"
Jiheon didn't have to follow her gaze to know who she was looking at. "Uh-huh," she replied.
She runs into Jeongin near the bathroom at homecoming.
"Hey, Jiheon," he says before she can miss him in the dim gymnasium lighting. The decoration committee wanted to stick up these glow-in-the-dark stars all over the walls, but they'd run out of paper halfway through. She'll have to address it at their student government meeting next week. "Do you know where Yuna went?"
Jiheon frowns, confused. "She's not here."
"Oh." Jeongin blinks, once, twice. His eyelashes are so, so long. "That's funny. She said she was going with you."
Rain check? ㅠㅠ, Yuna had sent her at the last possible moment. The car ride with her dad driving her and Taehyun had turned out to be incredibly awkward, and she'd lost him sometime after stopping to talk with Yujin from Physics when they'd handed her their used cups for recycling. "Yeah," Jiheon shrugs. "She told me she wasn't feeling well earlier."
Jeongin sticks his hands in his pockets. "Oh." Jiheon just smiles stiffly in return.
They stand on the fringes of the dark dance floor, filled with kids playing pretend at adults for a night. The spotlights catch in their hair, on their hands held up high, illuminates the sides of their faces. It makes them look even younger than they actually are.
"Did you wanna dance?" Jeongin asks suddenly. When Jiheon looks, he flashes a perfect-toothed grin at her. Those teeth really were something, up close.
Who could say no?
"Okay," she tells him easily, smoothing down her skirt. She can smell the school bathroom soap on her hands and wonders if he does, too. "Just one song." It can't hurt.
JIHEON/JEONGIN/YUNA
"You like him?" Yuna says, running to catch up with her from where she'd been leaning against the front gate. One of the off-season jocks doesn't stop at the sign, nearly runs them over as they try to cross the parking lot. "Jeonginnie?"
Jiheon narrows her eyes at the license plate before yanking open the passenger door of Yuna's hand-me-down sedan. "Say it a little louder and the whole school will know, you know?"
Yuna tosses her backpack into the back before collapsing onto the driver's seat. "Heol," she says to the car ceiling.
Jiheon knows Yuna knows Jeongin because they were both on track together first year, before Yuna quit after getting the most awful shin splits. She used up all the ice in Jiheon's freezer one afternoon when she came over to study and it left a little wet spot on the seat covers, where it'd melted.
"Is it because of the braces?" asks Yuna, after she's pulled up the steep driveway of Jiheon's house. Someone back in middle school had called Jeongin "metal mouth," and no one had quite forgotten about it. He came to class late two weeks ago after his last orthodontist appointment with the most perfectly even teeth Jiheon had ever seen.
It was love at first sight when, after his presentation in World History, Jiheon raised her hand to ask a question for participation points and he'd directed that faultless smile toward her, diplomatically.
Jiheon manually unlocks her door, pulling her backpack straps over her shoulders. "No way," she says as she lingers, carefully turning over each possible rebuttal for their respective pros and cons. "I'm not into teeth, okay?," and then she slams the door closed.
Jiheon is totally into teeth.
There's really no reason for her to like Jeongin, honestly. They didn't run in concurrent social circles, and there was that time in study hall sophomore year when Jeongin launched a paper plane into her neck after missing the mark on Jisung Han, the class clown. He pitted the blame on Hyunjin, who ended up with a two-day detention for trying to clear his name. Jiheon found it all mildly impressive, when she'd finally stopped being pissed.
Two days after Yuna bombards her with nonstop hey, so do you like him? texts worded five thousand different ways, Jeongin's leaning on the side of Yuna's car as they cross the parking lot. This time, Yuna flips off the jocks when they run the stop sign.
"Why're you here?" Yuna scoffs, pushing him to the side to get into the driver's seat. Jiheon stares like a deer in awkward-social-situation headlights, when all you could really do was wait for one of the obviously closer two people you were hanging out with to acknowledge your existence.
"I texted you, like, right after seventh period. Aren't you always on your phone anyway?" Jeongin nods his head toward her. "Hey, Jiheon."
"Hey," she says as Yuna hip-checks him again with a, Whatever, but Jiheonnie gets shotgun. He offers them both gum right before they turn the corner onto Jiheon's street.
Just as Jiheon's about to start her math homework, her phone dings. You totally like him, okay!!! Yuna had sent her with an obnoxious amount of heart emojis, the ones with the arrow through them. That really just made it worse.
No, I don't, because she shouldn't.
"I'm above high school romance," Jiheon told Yuna on their first day, over lunch. Yuna had brought a tupperware full of kimbap. She remembers because some of the seaweed was still stuck between her canines during P.E, and Jiheon didn't know whether they were good enough friends yet for her to mention it.
Yuna stabbed a roll with her chopsticks. "August twenty-sixth, twelve fifteen PM," she narrated, over-dramatic. "The day Jiheon Baek said something that would so come back and bite her in the butt."
Jiheon slammed a hand on the table between them. "Hey, I'm being serious!" but she'd been laughing.
"You just wait and see," said Yuna cryptically.
Jiheon had thought it was all a joke then. Now, she's not so sure.
Taehyun Kang ends up asking her to homecoming. He'd lost to her in their bids for student council president last month, and according to Yuna, who knew him from her youth group, he wanted – quote – nothing to do with her ever again. Jiheon had been so surprised that she accidentally told him yes.
"I don't wanna go," Yuna whines after school. "I thought you hated homecoming? Last year when you were on event-planning committee – I swear –" she holds up her right hand, "you called it 'the most useless school dance ever. They might as well throw money onto the boy's locker room floor.'"
Jiheon did say that. "Can't you ask one of your friends to go with you?" She makes her puppy dog face at her. "Pleeeease?"
Yuna groans and hits her head against the steering wheel. "I can't believe you said yes to Taehyun."
Jiheon laughs. "Who'd you think would ask me?" she teases. "Jeongin?"
Yuna turns her head so her temple's pressed dangerously close to the horn. "Well," she suddenly looks strangely pensive, "I don't know."
It's like this –
Yuna joined track because Jeongin did.
"I'm trying to get over him," she told Jiheon last year when they were eating lunch in the Quad. "Don't you think I've liked him way too goddamn long?"
Jiheon didn't have to follow her gaze to know who she was looking at. "Uh-huh," she replied.
She runs into Jeongin near the bathroom at homecoming.
"Hey, Jiheon," he says before she can miss him in the dim gymnasium lighting. The decoration committee wanted to stick up these glow-in-the-dark stars all over the walls, but they'd run out of paper halfway through. She'll have to address it at their student government meeting next week. "Do you know where Yuna went?"
Jiheon frowns, confused. "She's not here."
"Oh." Jeongin blinks, once, twice. His eyelashes are so, so long. "That's funny. She said she was going with you."
Rain check? ㅠㅠ, Yuna had sent her at the last possible moment. The car ride with her dad driving her and Taehyun had turned out to be incredibly awkward, and she'd lost him sometime after stopping to talk with Yujin from Physics when they'd handed her their used cups for recycling. "Yeah," Jiheon shrugs. "She told me she wasn't feeling well earlier."
Jeongin sticks his hands in his pockets. "Oh." Jiheon just smiles stiffly in return.
They stand on the fringes of the dark dance floor, filled with kids playing pretend at adults for a night. The spotlights catch in their hair, on their hands held up high, illuminates the sides of their faces. It makes them look even younger than they actually are.
"Did you wanna dance?" Jeongin asks suddenly. When Jiheon looks, he flashes a perfect-toothed grin at her. Those teeth really were something, up close.
Who could say no?
"Okay," she tells him easily, smoothing down her skirt. She can smell the school bathroom soap on her hands and wonders if he does, too. "Just one song." It can't hurt.