a/n: I know this is supposed to be a one-shot but god I was so bored and I really wanted to write something…so here’s a part 2 no one asked for because I had so many ideas after I wrote the previous chapter and I just couldn’t resist writing more. this one doesn't get heated lol and it's more fluff, so enjoy :) and if you haven’t yet, pls read chapter 1 first so this makes sense! doot

Jieqiong’s eyes flutter open when she feels light taps on her shoulder. She finds Nayoung greeting her with a small smile as the older girl crouches by the bed so they’re face to face.

“I’m going to go,” Nayoung whispers, as if they aren’t the only two in the room. Jieqiong smiles at her; a lazy and still half-asleep smile, the relaxed blissful kind. Nayoung taps her shoulder one last time as a sort of goodbye gesture before standing up.

During their beginnings, the older girl used to always leave first and leave quietly. Jieqiong hated waking up to an empty space beside her, as if no one had ever been lying there at all. So she approached Nayoung about it one day, casually of course, over a cup of coffee.

“Why do you always wake up so early?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I just naturally wake up early, I guess,” Nayoung had answered.

“You slip out so quietly that I don’t even notice,” Jieqiong had said. “I wake up and you’re not there.”

“Then I will make sure you don’t wake up to an empty space anymore,” Nayoung said before taking a sip from her coffee.

And so every morning, or whenever she woke up first, Nayoung would wake Jieqiong up to tell her that she was going to leave. Initially, Jieqiong began to feel like she was inconveniencing Nayoung, like waking her up was too much of a favour.

But Nayoung has always insisted on doing it and Jieqiong is forever appreciative of her considerate ways. They may be friends with benefits, but they were friends first after all (and the benefits came after).

Jieqiong watches Nayoung slip out of the room before comfortably nuzzling her head into her pillow, falling deep into the waves of her blanket. She lets out a content sigh, wondering if this is what it feels like to be on cloud nine.

+.

This time around, it’s Jieqiong who wakes up first. But instead of getting up, she remains on the bed and watches Nayoung in admiration. Jieqiong hasn’t seen many sleeping faces, but she’s sure that Nayoung’s is the prettiest she has seen.

Her silent delight ends when Nayoung finally awakens, stretching her long limbs above her head.

“Good morning,” Jieqiong says.

The older girl suddenly turns her head to face Jieqiong. “Oh, you’re up.”

“Yep. I woke up before you. One point to Zhou Jieqiong!”

“Don’t make waking up first into a competition, you know I’ll win most of the time,” says Nayoung with a chuckle as she gets up. Bending down to grab her shirt from the floor, Jieqiong suddenly shoots out of bed and runs into the bathroom.

Nayoung hears clattering noises as Jieqiong rifles through her cabinet, emerging out of the bathroom a few moments later with something in her hand.

“Take off your shirt,” Jieqiong says after gently turning Nayoung around so she faced her back.

“Why?” Nayoung questions over her shoulder. Nevertheless, she lifts her shirt over her head anyways instead of waiting for a reply.

Jieqiong moves the older girl’s hair out of the way as she looks at Nayoung’s with a slight frown. She promptly takes the cap off the ointment, squeezing it on her finger before applying the cream onto the red marks on Nayoung’s back.

Realizing what Jieqiong is doing, Nayoung laughs. “I told you it doesn’t hurt.”

“Even if it doesn’t hurt, the scratches don’t go away!” says Jieqiong as she concentrates on finding the scratch marks she has left on Nayoung’s back.

“They will heal on their own,” replies Nayoung. “They’re like souvenirs, don’t worry about it.”

Jieqiong scoffs as she continues to apply ointment. “Hickeys are souvenirs. Scratches are not. It looks like an animal attacked your back.”

“It did. You did,” teases Nayoung. Jieqiong replies by playfully hitting her on the shoulder (only after making sure there wasn’t a scratch there, of course).

Nayoung turns to smirk at her. “I like it when you dig your nails into my back. It lets me know I’m doing a fantastic job. Also, scratches are arousing.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a masochist, I get it,” jokes Jieqiong as she puts the cap back on the ointment. “Now don’t you have somewhere to be? Get out!”

Nayoung laughs as she puts her shirt back on. When Nayoung leaves the dorm room, Jieqiong places the ointment on her bedside table. She knows she’ll need it again someday.

+.

Much to Jieqiong’s ignorance, the alarm goes off for the fourth time that morning. An arm lazily sticks out from under the covers as a restless hand searches for the phone, tapping the side table until she makes contact with the device yelling at her to wake up.

When Jieqiong finally feels her phone with the tips of her fingers, she raises her head up and glares at the screen with eyes half-closed.

With a gasp and widened eyes, she realizes that class starts in fifteen minutes and if she doesn’t move her right at this second, she will be late. And Zhou Jieqiong has never been late.

Jumping out of bed, she steals a quick glance at the motionless body on the other side of her bed. Nayoung lies fast asleep with her exposed. Jieqiong takes a second to pull the blanket up to cover the older girl’s upper body before rushing into the bathroom, hopping over discarded clothing scattered on the floor on her way.

Not wanting to interrupt the older girl’s slumber, Jieqiong quickly scribbles a note about her whereabouts and sticks it on Nayoung’s forehead before hurriedly rushing out of the room.

+.

As the few remaining students file into the lecture room, Jieqiong drops her head on the desk in exhaustion. She had made it in time for class, which she found surprising because fifteen minutes seems like fifteen seconds when you’re in a rush.

“Who’s ‘Im Nayoung’?” says Minkyung as she eyes Jieqiong, sliding into the seat directly behind Eunwoo. The latter, upon hearing the seemingly random question, spins around to face her friend. Beside Minkyung, Yebin narrows her eyes as she looks at the girl in front of her slumped over, head resting against her arms on the desk.

Yebin leans over her own desk and cranes her neck to look at the sleeves of the tired Jieqiong sitting in front of her. Suddenly, she lets out an overdramatic gasp (Kang Yebin, always with the theatrics) as she brings her hand up to cover . “Why on earth is Jieqiong wearing Im Nayoung’s sweater?” she asks incredulously.

Eunwoo furrows her eyebrows, momentarily confused as to what her friends are talking about before Minkyung points at Jieqiong.