You were 16 years old when you first laid eyes on her. You were nervously pacing back and forth waiting outside the principal’s office for her to call you in. Your math teacher hadn’t told you anything other than the principal wanted to see you but you didn’t need her to explain to know why she had asked for you. After all, you had been waiting anxiously for this day for the last two weeks. Ever since the voting had closed for student body president.
It had taken you a lot of persuasion and, admittedly, some bribing but you were sure you had won. It also helped that the only other person running against you was Nick, the quarterback who nobody really liked, despite his popularity, because of his cockiness. However, no matter how sure you were of your victory, that knowledge didn’t help ease your nerves. After all, it had been your dream to be student body president since you first started your freshman year of high school.
“Hey, are you okay?” a voice asked, breaking you out of your thoughts. You turned to look at a girl who seemed faintly familiar. You vaguely recognized her as the girl who sat a few seats behind you in your history class. You barely heard her voice, to busy admiring her. She was quite taller than you, although almost everyone was considering your short height. She had long, straight hair and you suddenly wondered how it would feel to run your hand through it. She was smiling brightly at you and her smile made your heart start thudding. Her smile, however, started growing smaller as concern replaced it once your silence continued.
“Is something wrong?” she asked. You suddenly came back to your senses and started blushing furiously once you realized you’d been caught staring at the stranger. You resisted the urge to facepalm at your idiocy. “Sorry. I was just thinking. I’m waiting on some news”, you explained. The girls’ smile returned at your answer. “Oh, me too actually”, she said.
You opened your mouth to ask her what exactly was she waiting on when you were interrupted by Ms. Seungwan, the school secretary. “You can go in now”, she told you. Or at least you assumed she was speaking to you but it was the girl who’s name you still didn’t know who answered. “Thank you”, she told her before looking back at you. “Good luck”, she told you, much to your confusion before opening the door to the principal’s office and stepping inside.
You hesitated for a moment more, perplexed at the turn of events, before following after her. “Aah Minji, Y/N, it’s good to see you”, Principal Bae exclaimed. “Thank you, principal Bae”, the girl who’s name you know knew to be Minji responded brightly. “I asked you both to come as the news I’m about to give you affect you both”, she continued. “It seems that against all odds, the votes have come to a head. You both had the exact same number of votes. Your classmate, Nick, wasn’t as lucky. As thus, we have decided that instead of going over the whole process again, you will both be co-student vice body presidents. You will share the responsibilities that comes with the job. Congratulations”
She finished her statement with a flourish of her arms, obviously expecting a grateful response. Grateful, however, was the last thing you were feeling. “How exciting. Thank you so much”, Minji exclaimed, excitedly clapping her hands. The cute display, however, only made you even angrier. You couldn’t believe you hadn’t even been aware of the other girl running for the same position. You managed to thank the principal before walking out the door. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other now.” Minji said, once outside.
She smiled the same bright smile she had been wearing earlier but this time, your heart thudded for very different reasons. You saw past the smile to the manipulator that laid beneath it. “Yeah. I guess we will.” You mumbled before leaving the girl behind, feeling annoyed at knowing you would be seeing her again soon.
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Your math class had finished while you were in the office and it was now time for lunch so you walked into the cafeteria looking for your friends. You made your way to your usual table where they were sitting. They were discussing something that had happened with some senior but quickly shut up once they saw you sit. “So? Do I have to call you madam president now?” your friend Chun-hei asked. You rolled your eyes at her antics. “Madame co-president actually”, you said.
“It seems that the exact same number of people voted for two of us”, you explained once you saw the visible confusion in both their faces. “Wait, seriously? People actually voted for Nick?” Aera exclaimed. “No actually. Apparently, some other girl had been running and I hadn’t even known about it. God knows how she got so many votes without me even knowing she was running”, you explained, remembering the many long nights you’d spent working on your many signs in order to hang them all around school. Even Nick had hung dozens of posters even thought you were sure he had paid someone else to do them.
“Who is it?” Chun-hei asked. “Some girl named Minji”, you answered. Both your friends stared at you wide-eyed. “What?” you asked. “You aren’t by any chance talking about Kim Minji, are you?” Aera asked. You shrugged your shoulders, not knowing the girls last name. “Tall girl with long, beautiful hair and a constant smile?” Aera said. The description definitely described the Minji you had met. “I guess so”, you responded, not knowing where your friends where going with this.
“Well I guess that explains how she got so many votes”, Chun-hei said. You felt your confusion growing at the bold statement. “What are you talking about?” you asked her. “Don’t you know who she is?” Chun-hei asked. You shook your head, pushing down your bubbling annoyance, hating feeling out of the loop. “Should I know her?” you asked.
“Of course. Everyone knows her. She’s like the most popular girl in school. She’s supposedly super friendly and friends with everyone. That’s how she won. She has so many friends she simply asked them to vote.” Aera explained.
You felt yourself grow even angrier at the other girl, remembering how much work you had put into trying to win the election just so some popular girl could appear out of nowhere and get the same votes as you without even working for it. You were, what some would call, a nerd. You honestly didn’t care much for the social part of high school. You were happy with your two best friends and you were to busy anyways being top of your class to make any new friends.
What you did care about, however, was actually using your position as student vice president to make your school better. And you definitely didn’t appreciate some popular girl sweeping in and treating it as some kind of popularity contest. And now, you were stuck with her for the next two years.
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After school had ended, you approached Minji who was standing in front of her locker surrounded by friends. Aera was definitely not joking when she said Minji was popular, you thought to yourself. You did not want to deal with so many people so you decided to wait for them to leave. You leaned against the wall, waiting for the girl to be left alone. It was almost ten minutes later by the time Minji had finally said her goodbyes and started walking towards the entrance of the school. You quickly followed after her. “Hey Minji”, you called out. She immediately stopped in her tracks and turned to face you.
“Oh, hey Y/N. What’s up?” she asked. You couldn’t help but roll your eyes at her, dislike rolling through you, along with something else you couldn’t quite decipher. “Give me your phone”, you stated bluntly. Minji simply raised an eyebrow at you, confusion clear in her eyes. “If that’s your way of asking me out…” she started but you quickly interrupted her. “Of course not. But if we’re going to be working together, we need to be able to contact each other”, you explained. “Oh” she answered. “Here.” She handed you her phone.
You entered your number into her phone, looking down the whole time while you fought of the blush that had formed at her earlier implication. You were sure she was just joking around and didn’t appreciate being made fun of. A feeling you couldn’t quite understand formed in the pit of your stomach but you ignored it, taking it to be annoyance.
You handed her her phone back a few seconds later. “I’ll text you”, she said but you were already walking away and didn’t bother responding.
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As promised, Minji texted you later that night. You both agreed to meet up regularly on Mondays after school in order to go over any issues and all the things you had planned for the school.
It didn’t surprise you at that first meeting that Minji had no real ideas of her own and she simply hovered over you as you explained yours. Your annoyance at her grew every week after each meeting as she continued spending the whole meetings staring at you. It was made quite clear that your earlier assumption about her just wanting the job to prove her popularity was right.
You would be trying to come up with ideas of how to convince the principal to listen to your ideas when Minji would just start talking with you about something that had nothing to do with what you were supposed to be doing in the first place. She would start asking you about yourself and what you liked doing. It annoyed you to no end that you were stuck with someone who clearly didn’t want to be there and so you soon took to simply ignoring her.
She would pout at you but would then continue talking with you even when you refused to answer her. It looked like nothing you did brought down her mood. The feeling you couldn’t quite recognize continued to grow and as someone who was used to being very in control of her life, you hated the way her presence made you lose control of something as simple as your emotions. That just ended up in your annoyance at her growing and when the school year finally ended, you were relieved at not having to see her during the summer break.
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For some unexplainable reason, Minji continued calling you during the break, asking you to hang out. You continuously ignored her calls and soon they turned to messages. They would range from asking you to hang out to venting about something to simply wishing you a good day. You never answered any of them. You were confused about why Minji continued to bother you even when you weren’t being forced to see each other, sure that it was just her way of annoying you as payback for ignoring her.
You ignored how bothered you felt when the messages and calls stopped coming about half-way through the break. Once you were finally back at school, ready to start your senior year you realized Minji was nowhere to be found.
As much as you didn’t want to see her you reasoned that you had to since she was still your co-president. After looking for her the whole day, you finally made your way to the principal’s office to ask if she had any idea of Minji’s whereabouts. You were shocked when she told you that Minji had left the school. Apparently, she had moved to Seoul in order to become a trainee. You hadn’t even known Minji wanted to be an idol and your stomach churned uncomfortably when you realized she’d probably told during one of her long rants and you had simply ignored her.
You told yourself you were relieved at finally being able to do the job the way you wanted. Relieved at no longer having the annoying girl hovering over your shoulder, watching everything you did and trying to distract you from the job. You swore you were relieved.
You couldn’t understand, then, why you kept turning to ask Minji her opinion whenever you had an idea only to be disappointed when you remembered you were alone. It didn’t explain the loneliness that started growing inside you or the way you would look at her contact in your phone, your finger hovering over the dial option.
Your senior year passed quite quickly, the feeling that you were missing something never leaving you. Before you knew it, you had left Daejeon and had moved to Seoul, ready to start your first year at the University of Seoul.
You were majoring in Political Science and where quite enjoying it. You had quickly made new friends, something which had never been easy for you. It helped that you had met in one of your classes and you all had shared interests. You still kept in contact with Chun-hei and Aera, both who had stayed in Daejeon.
It was at the beginning of your second year when the feelings you had kept hidden for so long came rushing back in. You were studying for an upcoming exam in your dorm room when your phone pinged, signifying a new message. You opened your phone to see that Chun-hei had sent you a link, along with about a dozen heart emojis. You let out a small laugh at your friends’ usual dramatics before clicking on the link
The last thing you were expecting to see was the face you hadn’t seen in more than two years but was still present in your mind. Minji looked much the same, although her face showed a new maturity. She was dressed in dark robes along with six other girls and the title declared them to be Dreamcatcher, a new group who had just debuted. You felt the same annoyance you had felt so many times during your Junior year of high school although for some reason the feeling wasn’t unwelcomed. You actually found yourself to have missed it.
Minji’s usual smile was nowhere to be found on the poster, a serious expression on her face instead. Considering it was the same matching expression on all the girls, you assumed this had something to do with their concept. You spent that whole night watching their pre-debut videos on youtube and all the interviews they had done since their debut. You found yourself constantly listening to Chase Me during the next few weeks but you justified it to yourself by saying you were just listening to it because it was catchy. Not because you had missed her voice or anything like that.
Soon, you had become a dedicated Insomnia, watching all their vlives and staying up late for each and every one of their comebacks. You brought a ticket for their next concert and spent the whole concert looking at the person who had once been your school rival, wondering how come the empty feeling that had been a constant in your life since she’d left felt like it was disappearing.
It wasn’t long before you found yourself buying another ticket for their next comeback and soon, it became a custom, to go to their first concert after each comeback. You wanted to go to more of their concerts but you were to busy with school. Without even noticing it, you had started buying each ticket closer and closer to the stage.
After being a devoted Insomnia for so long and watching the way she interacted with her members, you started thinking back on your time together. Her kindness and constant smiles seemed so genuine and you felt bad thinking back on how coldly you had treated her during your time together, assuming her to be just another typical popular girl.
It was right after they had released their second EP, Escape the Era, that everything changed. As always, you had brought a ticket to their first concert in Seoul, not thinking much about finding yourself in the second row. It wasn’t until Dami’s part in You and I that you felt a pair of eyes staring into you. You turned towards where you felt the gaze coming from only to find yourself staring right into Minji’s eyes. You could see the recognition flowing through her eyes and quickly looked away, feeling embarrassed at being caught by her. You spent the rest of the concert avoiding her gaze which you could feel burning into you.
The moment the concert ended, you pushed your way outside the venue, in a hurry to escape from the uncomfortable situation. You weren’t sure why but you felt extremely embarrassed at her knowing you had brought a ticket for her concert. You quickly made your way back to your dorm, feeling ready to go to bed and sleep the embarrassment away. That was definitely the last time you attended their concert, you decided sadly.
You opened spotify on your phone and clicked shuffle on your dreamcatcher playlist, knowing their music always made you feel better. While the music sounded around the room, you changed into your pajamas and got your things ready for class the next day. You were just about to turn of the lights when a knock on your door made you stop.
You looked at the alarm clock on your nightstand, noting that it was almost 1am and wondering who would be knocking on your door at such a late hour. You hesitated briefly before the knocking started once more. “I can hear you in there”, a voice which you immediately recognized as Minji’s called. “I can also hear the music”, she said. You then remembered you had your dreamcatcher playlist playing and hurried to turn it off.
You could feel the other girl waiting on the other side of the door and you briefly weighted the pros and cons of jumping out your window in order to avoid the awkwardness that was about to happen, assuming Minji was her for an explanation on why you were in her concert in the first place. Unfortunately for you, your room was located on the top floor and as much as you wanted to avoid the situation you also didn’t fancy dying.
“You’re going to have to leave eventually and I’m happy to wait”, Minji called, making you sight in defeat before making your way to the door and opening it, coming face to face with the taller girl for the first time in years. Minji was wearing pants and an oversized hoodie, having changed after the concert. Despite her lazy wardrobe, the sigh of her still made you catch your breath. She was smiling at you brightly as thought her showing up at your dorm at one in the morning was an everyday occurrence.
Without a word, she pushed past you and made her way into your room. You wordlessly closed the door before turning to face her. “Um. Hi.” You said, breaking the tense silence. By the bright smile on her face, however, you guessed that you were the only one feeling the tension. She ignored you, walking over to your desk and looking through your collection of all the tickets you had brought, proof of all the concerts you had gone too. You had completely forgotten about them.
“So this wasn’t the first time”, she stated. “How come you never said hi?” she asked. You stared at her weirdly, having thought she would have been creeped out and thinking you were some kind of obsessed stalker or something. Instead, she looked quite pleased at your collection. “I don’t know. I mean, I assumed you wouldn’t even remember me”, you answered. Your answer was only the half truth thought. You’d also hadn’t wanted to talk to her because you found your feelings for her so confusing. Half the time, you weren’t sure whether you wanted to annoy her or kiss her.
Minji let out a small laugh at your answer. “Not remember you? That would be quite hard considering not a day has gone by when you haven’t crossed my mind”, she admitted. For a second you felt envy at how easy Minji could say what she was feeling, so unlike you who always tried to hide your feelings. But then her words registered and you surprise course through you. You were still trying to think on what to answer when Minji suddenly took a few quick steps towards you, quickly closing the space between you too. You stood there motionless as she invaded your personal space, so close to you that you could feel her warm breath on your face.
“Why now? Why after all this time?” she asked, her voice no more than a whisper. The smile was long gone as a serious expression crossed her face. “What are you talking about?” you asked her, trying not to stumble over your words as your thoughts were a jumble at her close proximity. You found yourself resisting the urge to look at her lips. “Why bother coming to so many of our concerts. Why show up in my life again. Just when I was finally starting to move on. Why?”
Her voice got louder with each sentence. She stepped back, giving you space once again, as she ran her hands through her hair in frustration. She turned to look at you once again. “Why”, she repeated, her voice sounding unusually stern. This was the first time you had seen the usually happy girl so frustrated. Even when you had spent so long giving her the cold shoulder during your junior year of high school, her never-ending smiles and positivity had never wavered.
“I wasn’t trying to bother you. You weren’t supposed to see me”, you explained, trying to calm the slightly older girl down. Your words, however, only served to anger her even more. “Is that supposed to make it better?” she spat out.
You were extremely confused at what was happening. “Minji, I’m sorry if it seemed weird that I go to your concerts. I won’t do it anymore if it bothers you so much”, you told her, trying to regain control of the situation. Minji turned to glare at you, anger visible on her face. “What bothers me is why would you even come when you hate me”, she said.
You sputtered a few seconds, trying to find a reply to the sudden accusation. “I don’t hate you. I’ve never hated you.” You said. Minji let out a dark chuckle. “Yeah right. Then how do you explain you ignoring me and clearly being annoyed by me for a whole year?” she replied. You felt guilt coil in your stomach at the truth in her words. You could understand why the older girl had thought you hated her but you didn’t. You never did. You were just to stuck on your misconceptions of her to see who she really was.
“I’m sorry. The truth is I was just annoyed at you for the way you seemed to always get what you wanted without even working for it.” You admitted. Minji looked confused at your words so you continued explaining. “I worked my ass off for that position and you just came in and got it without any effort. And don’t say it was because you cared about our school and wanted to change things. Most of the times you just stood there and did nothing. I was angry that it was just some popularity contest to you.”
You took a few seconds to catch your breath after your rant. You hadn’t expected to let all that out but you were just so confused by Minji. You hated the way you never knew what to say to her. Understanding seemed to dawn on Minji and you were surprised by the familiar smile that once again made its way to her face. “Seriously Y/N? I knew you could be oblivious but this is ridiculous”, she said.
You felt offended at being called ridiculous and where just about to say so when Minji surprised you by one again stepping into your personal space. This time, however, you took a step backwards only for her to follow after you. You were confused by the look in her eyes which you’d never seen before. You continued backing away until you hit the wall. She stood inches away from you, an almost predatory smile making its way into her face. She leaned both hands against the wall, caging you in.
“You’re right. I didn’t run for student body president because I wanted to change things. I ran because I wanted to get to know you”, she confessed. She didn’t give you time to respond as a second later a pair of lips met your own in a hungry kiss. Your lips started moving along with hers immediately, almost as if you had done this before. The taste of apples lingered on her lips and the smell of vanilla immediately filled your senses. You immediately forgot all your previous worries, too consumed by trying to get closer. The weird feeling she’d always caused you finally made sense.
She pulled away first, a small smile on her face as she looked down at you. “Do you get it now?” she asked and you finally did. You felt stupid for not noticing her feelings years before. Then again, you hadn’t even noticed yours. What surprised you even more than the fact that she had had feelings for you was that those feelings seemed to have remained. “Even after all this time?” you asked her. Minji didn’t respond. Instead, she leaned down and kissed you again. And for the first time since you first laid eyes on her, everything finally made sense.