Color Outside the Lines

Chapter 7: The Third Color

Wonyoung let out a laugh from her nose. 'It's not deep, I just have a question.'

'Well, fire away.'

Wonyoung turned so that she was facing Yujin as well. 'You said before that you've liked me for a long time. How long exactly is that?'

Yujin's eyes were only beginning to adjust in the darkness and she took the moment to try and make out Wonyoung's silhouette.

'Do you remember the beginning of Freshman year? You spray painted the soccer field the first week into High School.'

Wonyoung chuckled. 'I remember. Nobody found out who it was but 6 months later everybody instantly knew it was me.'

'I knew it was you. I saw you.'

Yujin could remember the moment like it was yesterday. She remembered the significantly smaller Wonyoung who had hit her growth spurt later than Yujin.

'Really?' Wonyoung said. 'Why didn't you rat me out, then? They announced it to the whole school and everything.'

'It's kind of embarrassing.' Yujin said.

'Tell me!'

Yujin smiled. Wonyoung had a mad expression on her face but Yujin was unphased.

'Why didn't you say that it was me?' Wonyoung tried again.

'Because...' Yujin said.

'Because?'

'I...

'You...'

'I couldn't...'

'You couldn't? Yujin just spit it out, please.'

Yujin pursed her lips.

'Fine.' Yujin said. 'I didn't want to because I thought you were cute. There I said it.'

Wonyoung burst out laughing.

'Don't you laugh at my patheticness! I was a young girl.'

'Yujin, freshman year was like a year ago. It's not a very long time.'

'And? A lot can happen in a year. Look, just hear me out, okay?'

Wonyoung let out one more chuckle before letting Yujin proceed with her storytelling.

'When I first saw you spray painting the first thing I thought was that you were a delinquent and I couldn't wait to report you to the principal. Would have gotten me massive brownie points seeing that I've only been there for a week.'

Wonyoung had to resist the urge to mumble out 'ass kisser' after hearing what Yujin had just said.

'But, then I saw you concentrating really hard. Your eyebrows were furrowed and you were doing that tongue thing you always do.'

Wonyoung stuck out her tongue to try and look at it in the dark. 'What tongue thing?'

'The one where you stick it just past the side of your top lip cause you're focusing on what you're doing. I could tell you were focused. You kept rubbing out the whole thing with green spray paint and redrawing so many things. You looked happy.'

'And then I saw your face when the principal came on stage during assembly, demanding who did the treacherous vandalism.'

Wonyoung said nothing but Yujin could hear her breathing getting a little heavier.

'Wonyoung, you never meant for it to be trouble, didn't you? You meant it as a welcome gift, right?'

Yujin could feel Wonyoung nodding slowly in the dark. 'Yeah. But it doesn't matter anymore, that was a long time ago.'