matching with my gf
Yerim practically skipped her way to chemistry. Her brain was buzzing with happiness. She had no idea why this would ever work but Yerim wanted to try anyway. Once she put her mind to something there was no stopping till she achieved it.
Yerim wondered for a moment if this whole thing was hopeless. She was doing this for a number of reasons, which she may have neglected to tell Yeojin, so she was surprised and delighted when the girl agreed so quickly. Maybe she just wanted a friend, Yerim thought to herself. After all, Yerim had only ever seen Yeojin hanging around by herself, and she could only name one person the Yeojin was definitely friends with, Jo Haseul, the senior two years above.
Yerim decided that even after they stopped ‘dating’, she would definitely remain friends with Yeojin. Yerim felt guilt creeping up behind her as she thought about why she hadn’t befriended Yeojin in the first place. She didn’t want Hyejoo to, well, realise her feelings for her.
They were in 8th grade at the time when Yeojin came out, and although Yerim immediately wanted to befriend her, after all, they both liked girls and Yerim was feeling pretty lonely during that time period, as she was just in the process of coming to terms with her feelings for her best friend and her obviously not-so-straight sexuality, but she didn’t want anyone to think she was, well, a lesbian. Which, of course, she indeed was. Years of ignorant pre teens using gay as an insult and her female peers calling lesbians ‘gross’ could do that to a person, she figured.
Now that they were sophomores in high school Yerim didn’t particularly care what people thought of her, thank god. She just didn’t want Hyejoo to stop hanging out with her, even if she was secretly homophobic. Which she obviously wasn't, given the fact that she now had a girlfriend. A popular, pretty, kind, quiet girlfriend.
Which is exactly what Yerim wasn’t, she thought miserably to herself, the spring in her step turning heavy as she dragged her feet along the hallway, suddenly in no rush at all to get to her chem class, which she was already late for.
Yerim plastered on a bright smile and tried to fill her mind with positivity as she entered her chemistry classroom and she quickly apologised to the teacher for her lateness and slid into her seat next to none other than the girl she is trying to move on from. Hyejoo immediately began whispering to her
“Yerimmie, what was that about?” She whispered. Yerim turned to face her, her smile real and wide. Her smile dropped a little. Was she annoyed?
“Huh?” Yerim asked, her forehead creasing as she tried to remember what she had done. Oh god, maybe she was rude to Chaewon. Oh god, maybe Hyejoo hated her and didn’t want to even be her friend anymore, what if-
“Yeojin grabbing you and walking off? How do you two even know each other?” She whispered, albeit loudly. Yerim quickly wracked her mind for what her and Yeojin agreed on earlier.
“Um.. i’ve known her for absolutely ages, how did you not know? Haha.” She said, realising that they had not in fact discussed any of these facts. Jesus, she would have to grab her at the end of school and discuss it with her or something. God.
“Because you never told me?” Hyejoo hissed, her frown getting deeper as she became visibly more upset.
“Um, sorry? In my defense you never told me about your girlfriend either!” Yerim retaliated, forgetting to whisper.
“Excuse me? Girls? I’ll wait.” The teacher huffed and crossed her arms. The duo muttered out an apology, Yerim thinking, well, worrying about if she would be able to catch Yeojin before the end of the day, and Hyejoo staring confusedly down at her exercise book, mind elsewhere.
Yerim suddenly grinned as she realised she shared her next english lesson with Yeojin. Hyejoo looked up to see Yerim grinning, quickly looking back down before Yerim caught her staring, as her mind swirled with confusion. Does that mean… No, no, it can’t. Yerim doesn’t have a girlfriend. She would have 100% told her. Unless…
Yerim practically sprinted to English, quickly running up to Yeojin and pulling her aside, not seeing Hyejoo standing at the end of the hallway, looking rather lost, a small frown of confusion on her face. Why were they so chummy all of a sudden. It just seemed out of the blue. Then again, Hyejoo reasoned with herself, so was her relationship with Chaewon, she had only told Yerim yesterday, so it was natural that Yerim had some secrets of her own.
Hyejoo just didn’t want Yerim to have a new best friend. It was selfish, yes, but Hyejoo had known Yerim so long and they were so close, Hyejoo felt that ever since she came out to Yerim yesterday, she had been slipping from Hyejoo’s grasp. Wait… What if Yerim really was homophobicWhat if Hyejoo was making her uncomfortable. Hyejoo shook her head lightly, remembering that Yeojin had been out since middle school. So Yerim wasn’t homophobic then, why? Hyejoo decided to just ignore it for now. Acr as if nothing was weird and wrong between them. They were best friends. You can’t throw away a friendship like that in one day. You just can’t. Hyejoo bit her lip and headed off to her gym lesson with Chaewon.
Meanwhile Yerim, unaware of Hyejoo’s internal debate with herself, had pulled Yeojin aside to discuss their cover story.
“Okay, so we need a cover story because today in chemistry Hyejoo was asking me about you and i had literally no idea what to say. So we need a cover story like, right now. Any ideas?” Yerim basically begged Yeojin.
Yeojin waved a hand as if telling her to calm down, and gave the older girl a relaxed smile. “Chill out Yerimmie,” Yerim eyes widened slightly. Hyejoo was the one who usually called her that. “Oh, sorry, was that weird? I thought nicknames would make sense.” Yeojin mumbled, a light blush spreading across her face.
“Oh, what, no! No, that makes sense, Yeojinnie!” Yerim smiled back, her face mimicking the blush on Yeojin's face.
“Ah cool,” Yeojin’s smile widened, and she resumed her relaxed posture. Yerim wondered how she managed to do that so easily. Ah yeah, they also had drama together. Along with Park Chaewon, coincidentally.
“Anyway, we have english right now,” Yeojin explained, eyeing the kids shuffling into the stuffy english classroom. “So it would be easier if we quickly exchanged numbers so we can discuss the details.” She finished, the blush returning slightly at the mention of phone numbers.
“Of course!” Yerim smiled, handing Yeojin her phone as Yeojin did the same and they quickly input their respective numbers into one another's phones before quickly slipping into their English classroom.
Yeojin’s phone buzzed in her pocket as she was walking home from school
xxx-xxx-xxxx
Hi Yeojinnie! This is Yerim!
Yeojinnie ♡
Heyyy! Let me just save your display name!
Yerimmie ♡
Ah okay!
Is it saved?
Yeojinnie ♡
Okay i saved it as
Yerimmie ♡
That okay?
Yerimmie ♡
Yup! I saved yours as Yeojinnie ♡
Yeojinnie ♡
Omg cute i'm matching with my gf
I can call you that right?
Even if it’s just pretend
lol
Yerimmie ♡
Yeah ofc! We need to get in character after all haha
That’s right, Yeojin reminded herself, get in character. This was all pretend. No need to go falling in love or anything drastic like that. Not that she would. Yerim was just a friend. A friend. Yeojin wasn’t going to lie, having a friend was nice. She had never really had a proper one since she came out in middle school, unless you counted Haseul, but Haseul was more like a sister who took Yeojin under her wing when she just came out. Her and Vivi decided to basically adopt her when she came out.
They were literally the perfect couple. Maybe one day Yeojin would have what they have, at least she certainly hoped so. And she had a friend now, that was a step in the right direction! A friend who also likes girls, a small part of Yeojin reminded her. But they weren’t like that, so Yeojin should stop thinking about it, because she’d only get hurt in the end. Yeojin forced herself to think about something else, for the mean time at least.