The Beginning
Eunjeong was lost. No, that was an understatement. She was completely adrift.
Pyramid Game. The competitions. Baek Harin. Kim Dayeon.
And Im Yerim. Especially Im Yerim...
The girl who had changed her life. Their first meeting had been the beginning of everything. The origin of the world. It had been love at first sight.
But back then, everything was still confusing for the swimmer. Her feelings for Yerim existed, but did she have the right to feel them?
Then everything was turned upside down again. Just as suddenly as the first upheaval, the second one had the benefit of answering Eunjeong’s relentless questioning.
Yerim had become a trainee.
No matter what Eunjeong felt, it was now too late. She could never even think about confessing anything, refusing outright to become a shadow that would darken the light of the future idol.
When this reality hit her, she pushed it to the back of her mind and focused on swimming. She poured everything she repressed into it, and her young yet intense love allowed her to stand out. To shine in her own way. For her. Always for her.
If she could never live under the same sun as Yerim, she would do her best not to harm her. Just to be able to stay by her side, even if her admiration could never be more than that.
In middle school, Eunjeong had tried to distance herself from Yerim. But, against all expectations, the latter did not react with the indifference that often characterized her.
Sim Eunjeong was her friend. Hers.
Yerim had noticed the way she got closer to a group of girls. What she remembered most vividly was how one of them would come and snatch her swimmer away, walking off with her arm draped around the taller girl's shoulders, throwing a proud and satisfied glance back at her.
That day, Yerim realized that she didn’t like Eunjeong leaving her, especially for someone else.
So that very evening, she called her in a panic, saying she was locked inside the locker room.
The young athlete rushed there immediately, not taking a second to think about how her friend sounded way too calm for someone trapped.
When she arrived, the door—completely unlocked—offered no resistance.
"Yerim-ah? Im Yerim!" she called out, worried.
She didn’t have to search for long. Yerim was there, leaning against the wall between the benches and the lockers, staring at her for long seconds, waiting for her with arms crossed over her chest.
"Yerim…"
Eunjeong was about to question what was going on, but she couldn’t. She stood still and silent under the unsettling gaze of the other girl. She barely dared to breathe.
Yerim was the one setting this suffocating tension. She was the one deciding what would happen next in this room.
She had never said anything about Eunjeong’s strangely protective behavior toward her, never said anything when she caught the side glances the swimmer thought she was stealing, never said anything about the blushes she failed to hide as much as she wished.
She had never said anything, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware. That she didn’t know exactly what was going on in the heart of the girl standing before her.
After long minutes, Yerim took a slow step forward. Time seemed to have stopped for Eunjeong. She already couldn’t handle the thick atmosphere; a bead of sweat even formed and trickled down her back.
"Ye… Yerim-ah…"
Eunjeong stumbled over her shoelaces when she tried to step back—shoelaces she hadn’t bothered to tie when she had rushed here. She barely managed to catch herself against the wall behind her, dreading the unpredictable behavior of the other girl.
Their bodies almost touching, Yerim finally stopped, an innocent smile on her lips. Eunjeong swallowed hard, unable to tear her eyes away from hers.
"Sim Eunjeong. Do you think I don’t see what’s going on?"
She spoke slowly, dragging out her words. It was as if she knew something Eunjeong didn’t.
"What are you—"
"I don’t want you hanging out with those girls anymore. They’re a bad influence on you, and it’s not good for a swimmer to smoke," Yerim interrupted without remorse.
The shock left Eunjeong completely speechless. She had not expected such a demand, nor for Yerim to know about what she did when she isolated herself to clear her mind—especially when she was trying to stop thinking about a certain someone.
Eunjeong cleared her throat, finally able to look away after such a brutal return to reality. But no words left her mouth. Eunjeong was honest, and lying when she had been caught red-handed felt pointless.
"You know that the only thing that matters to me is swimming. I won’t let something like that ruin my future," she said truthfully.
Yerim lifted Eunjeong’s chin with two fingers.
"And me. What matters to you is swimming and me."
Her smile remained, a princess-like smile—untouchable, beautiful, and cold.
The kind of person you didn’t want to argue with. The kind of person you wouldn’t even think to contradict.
"Hu… Hum…" she nodded.
The truth was, she didn’t even realize how problematic Yerim’s words were.
The truth was, she was already her priority—she had been long before her sport.
But the truth that mattered the most to her was that Yerim wanted her to look at her and her alone.
And that, that outweighed everything else it could mean.
Her eyes gazed at Yerim with all the warmth of the love she held for her, and in that precise moment, Eunjeong wanted to believe that a similar spark was shining in the ones staring back at her.
A moment passed before Yerim let out a small, joyless laugh.
"You’re an idiot, Sim Eunjeong."