Nagyung (Fromis9) x Karina (Aespa) x Winter (Aespa) x Yunjin (LSFM)
A/N: New series separate from Racehorse, longer chapters so longer times between new chapters, YES it's still Uma Musume themed, Mid, Huge shoutout to @leafostuff for the goated idea hopefully I can do it justice.
Tags: Uma Musume, slice of life
Nagyung fawned over the city landscape of Gangdong-gu, Seoul from the subway car window. It was different from the neighborhoods of Gwangju. She was so caught up in it all that she neglected to notice a kid staring at her until just now. Then, she turned and EVERYONE was staring at her.
Ah, it probably wasn’t normal to gawk out the window while riding the subway. She turned around and sat down, blushing from embarrassment. It’s my first day out in the city and I’m already making a fool out of myself… she thought.
“Are you going to Tracen Academy?”
Nagyung snapped out of her self-conscious daze and traced the source of the sound. It was the mother of the kid who was staring at her just previously.
“That’s right~!” Nagyung replied excitedly, "I'm starting tomorrow.”
“Wow, that’s impressive!” The mother replied.
“It is?” her daughter asked
“That girl there is one of the chosen horse girls” her mother answered, “She’s very fast”
“Wow” her daughter cooed, staring at the horse girl with newfound appreciation. Nagyung blushed again, a gentler warmer glow than the harsh burn of embarrassment from before. “Well, I’m not sure how fast I am, but..”
The speaker cut her off as a voice was amplified throughout the subway car, NOW APPROACHING EAST GANGDONG, EAST GANGDONG.
Nagyung’s head perked up, “Excuse me” she said, getting up and grabbing hold of her bag.
“What’s your name?” the little girl asked from behind her.
She turned around with a smile, “My name is Sparkling Joy!” before turning back around and stepping out of the opening subway doors.
She could hear a faint “Her ears were so cute” behind her and she again felt a blush creep its way onto her face.
The announcer’s voice came to life on the speaker again, THE DOORS ARE CLOSING. PLEASE BE CAREFUL.
Nagyung snapped out her daze again and moved her tail just in time to avoid it getting caught in between the closing doors.
With the disaster avoided, she turned back around to the station.
I’m here, she thought, breaking off into a run This is where my dreams will come true!
The gate to my dreams will open!
Nagyung crashed into the closed gate, knocking the wind out of her. Ah, so the gate is closed… she thought.
“Miss, touch” said an elderly man, dressed in a uniform.
“Touch…?” she said, panicked “W-wh-where I am getting touched?! Mom told me to watch out for perverts like you!”
“No!” The man held up his hands and pointed at the gate, “You are supposed to touch your IC card there.”
“Ah, okay I see” The harsh burn of embarrassment flooded Nagyung’s face again as she took out her IC card.
“Thank you so much!” she said, after crossing the gate.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s fine really.” the elderly man replied, waving his hand.
Nagyung broke into a jog before checking the map of the subway station. Now, where was Tracen? No, that’s not it. Nope, that’s somewhere else. Uhh, it might be there…
The elderly man, seeing her plight, broke her out of her confused stupor “Tracen’s the next station over.”
“Did you make a mistake?” he asked.
She paused, she must’ve gotten on the wrong train. She recalled the call she had received when she was accepted.
PLEASE BE AT TRACEN ACADEMY BY 6:00 PM TOMORROW.
I'M SAYING THIS AGAIN. YOU CAN'T BE LATE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES.
She couldn’t afford to be late, on her first day no less. She turned to meet the elderly man’s eyes once more, “It’s fine, I’ll run there.”
“Are you a new student here?”
“How about taking a look at the race track? It's the start of the series.”
She contemplated it, remembering that call she received before she left. Ultimately, she came to her decision.
The subway attendant smiled and pointed to a place on the map, “It's right here.”
Nagyung smiled back, breaking off into a jog “Thank you. See you later!”
The elderly man extended his arm forward, calling after her “Wait! It's kind of far!”
She turned back to respond, jogging in place “I'll be fine! I love running!”
Nagyung breezed through the people and cars, even getting a surprised look from a woman when she overtook her car while caught up in the excitement.
The Twinkle Series… she thought as she ran I finally get to see the real thing in person!
She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice when she arrived at Tracen for a while until she noticed the changing scenery. She stopped for a second to look around and take it all in.
That's amazing! She thought There are so many people here! It's totally different from my hometown!
Then, she wanted to see more. She ran from place to place to fully experience everything before she had to check in at 6.
She gawked at everything before coming to the areas where the stands were. People and tents up selling various items. There were people selling horse girl merchandise like t-shirts, plushies, fake horse ears, and more.
And the food was wonderful! She stopped at a Kimbap stand, a Sotteok stand, a Hotteok sta-... maybe that was enough food.
She had just finished her last roll of Kimbap when she saw the track. She was in awe of it for a second, that she was really here and really about to see it in person. Her heart bubbled with excitement as she raced towards the stands for a better view of the track. She arrived to see some of the horse girls up on a red, green and white stage.
The announcer’s voice caught her attention as it boomed through the speaker
THE NEXT HORSE STEPPING UP TO THE PADDOCK FOR THE 11TH TOKYO RACE IS...
Frozen Rose took off her jacket to reveal her uniform with her racing bib engraved with her number on it. She looked unintimidated by the crowds, bored almost.
“She's so pretty…” Nagyung whispered, unknowingly out loud. The speakers boomed once more.
SHE WAS VOTED MOST POPULAR AMONG THE FANS.
Nagyung watched as the racers stepped into their brackets but her main focus was on Frozen Rose–the #1 ranked racer in the country. The announcer finished introducing the racers and was now waiting for the final countdown to begin.
OKAY FOLKS IT’S ALMOST TIME FOR THE RACE TO BEGIN, THE 10 SECOND COUNTDOWN WILL START SHORTLY.
Almost instantly the robotic voice started counting down from 10, Nagyung’s heart was almost beating out of her chest in anticipation. She was finally here, finally watching her idol race.
Racers began to dig their feet into the grass getting ready to kick off as soon as the gates opened.
Karina breathed through her nose slowly, steadying herself in the final seconds of the countdown. This was just another race she was expected to win.
Everything happened extremely fast. The gates flew open as the starter pistol was fired, all the racers flew from the gates and immediately started jostling for position. All the action drew loud cheers from the crowd, Nagyung joined in yelling Frozen Rose’s name in support of her favorite racer.
On the grass track the race was slowly heating up. Racers in the middle of the pack were already in intense battles for positioning while Frozen Rose had already taken an early lead of 1.5 lengths right out of the gate. The pack was still bunched together so there was ample opportunity for overtakes and mistakes to happen.
Frozen Rose had no real competition, still soaring ahead widening her lead to 2 lengths and hitting the 1000 meter checkpoint at 57.5 seconds. The entire stadium including the announcers were gobsmacked at the rocket fast pace she was setting. Nagyung’s eyes sparkled with wonder as she watched her idol make quick work of the course and her fellow racers that were still jostling for position behind her.
FROZEN ROSE JUST HIT THE 1000 METER CHECKPOINT AT 57.5 SECONDS FOLKS, AND SHE’S STILL 2 LENGTHS AHEAD OF 2ND PLACE BUT THEY’RE SLOWLY CATCHING UP TO HER!
Karina barely paid attention to the 2 racers coming up behind her on both sides. They thought they had a chance to catch her in the final straight but they were sadly mistaken, Karina pushed off the grass hard from her left foot and boomed away down the remaining distance of the straightaway leaving them both behind shocked at her speed.
Nagyung was so enthralled in the race that she didn’t even notice the man walking up to stand
beside her. “She’s good right?” no response. The man frowned a bit before repeating himself,
“She’s go-” the announcer's voice echoed through the loud speakers cutting him off.
FROZEN ROSE HAS COME ACROSS THE FINISH LINE IN FIRST WITH A FINAL TIME OF 1 MINUTE 3 SECONDS. SHE JUST CONTINUES TO DOMINATE IN HER 2ND YEAR.
“Wow she’s so…..AWESOME!” Nagyung squeals in excitement, the man beside her smirks slightly. “Yeah she’s awesome.” he turns and walks away. Nagyung, puzzled–looks at the man as he walks off realizing he was standing next to her before leaving.
The top 3 racers are called up to the podium as the announcer speaks into his microphone held in his hand introducing the 2nd and 3rd place racers are called up to the podium first. Karina waits for her name to be called behind the podium curtain, all she can think about is getting back to the dorm and eating dinner.
AND NOW INTRODUCING THE 1ST PLACE RACER, PLEASE WELCOME FROZEN ROSE TO THE PODIUM.
Loud applause exploded through the crowd with shouts and whistles being heard throughout. Nagyung looked at her watch and saw that she was going to be late to meet her dorm manager, she immediately sprinted past the people in front of her and out of the stadium. As she sprinted down the sidewalks surrounding the Tracen academy towards the Dorm buildings Nagyung couldn’t stop thinking about the race, the image of Frozen Rose basically abandoning the other racers at the start of the race still extremely fresh in her mind as she came to a stop at her destination, the dorms.
Nagyung stepped up to the double doors and stood on her tiptoes to peer inside the small glass window on the exterior. Nobody was around so she tried to open the door, locked, she tried the other door but it was also locked. Looking around the area seemed to be a ghost town with nobody in sight before someone loudly cleared their throat,
Startled, Nagyung quickly spun around coming face to face with an unfamiliar person.
“You are Lee Nagyung I presume”, the girl spoke with an authoritative tone, “Y-yeah that’s me.”,
she said, slightly nervous. “Well Nagyung you are slightly late but I guess we can start the tour now.” she said with a lighter but still firm tone.
“My name is Yunjin, I am the dorm supervisor” She stood tall, radiating authority and confidence as she led Nagyung away from the dorms and towards the outside common area, “It is my job to give all the new students a tour of the academy and explain the rules to you. Do you understand?”
Nagyung nodded, slightly distracted by the parts of the academy she hadn’t seen yet. Yunjin turned forward and started speaking.
“First off, you have to always be back in your dorms by 9:30pm for lights out. Any exceptions and you will be forced to sleep in the nap room and be written up the next day. Secondly, all appliances not specifically approved by a faculty member are strictly…”
Nagyung zoned out, tuning out Yunjin’s monotonous drone while staring into the windows of the academy. It was just hitting her again that she was really here, that she was really going to achieve her dreams finally.
And then she was hit literally by walking into a pole, knocking her on her bottom. Yunjin stops her detailed explanation of approved dormitory snacks to turn back to the tumbled trotter.
“Are you okay?” A voice asked from a distance, slowly getting closer.
As Nagyung’s vision cleared, she saw two people standing over her. One was Yunjin, looking concerned and asked her if she was alright. The other was someone Nagyung hadn’t seen before, and they seemed to have…4 legs?! Wait, no…those weren’t two extra legs, they were crutches! The girl standing before her was using them to maneuver around and had a cast on her left leg.
“A-are you OK?” she repeated, trying to lean in closer while also trying not to fall over.
“Yeah,” Nagyung said, rubbing the front of her head where a red bump was starting to form at the point of impact, “I’m fine”
Yunjin outstretched her hand to help her up and Nagyung took it, lifting herself up. She was then face to face with the limping bystander, and she stretched out her hand towards her.
“Hi, my name is Nagyung and my racing name is Sparkling Joy! This is my first year here. What about you?”
The girl smiled sheepishly, leaning on one of her crutches to fully extend her hand and firmly clasp Nagyung’s “My name is Winter, and my racing name is Silent Snow. I’m a second year here.”
Nagyung gasped, “I had a feeling I knew you from somewhere. I read your trainer wanted to take part in the G3 race as a warm up…what happened?”
Winter giggled and gestured towards her cast, “Me and my trainer were doing tire sled training when I got a Tibia fracture. I guess I have to be more careful next time. I am disappointed though because I really wanted to race against Frozen Rose…”
“Same here! I want to race against her too!” Nagyung said excitedly, stars practically beaming in her eyes, “I want to race against you as well! I’ve heard so many things about your speed!”
Winter chuckled, “The doctor said my leg won’t heal for at least another 3 months, but after that? Sure, you’re on!”
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