If you make a friend you get one blue mark. If you fall in love it turns red.

If you fall out of love it dies.

It’s ironic how everyone bet Jieqiong would be the first to fall in love — she has evidence of the exact conversation (It’s saved on Minkyung’s phone because the girl never clears her gallery.)

“10 bucks say Jieqiong will be it.”

“Hey!” She hears herself protest in the background. Eunwoo laughs and slaps her, hard, on the shoulder. It sounds painful even through the video. Jieqiong winces. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Eh.” Yebin ponders. In the video, she shrugs. 

“I’m in!” Minkyung’s voice rattles through the speaker as the video shakes just before cutting off. “Make it 20!”

She snickers at how ironic they sound. Those two losers got their marks six months later. And for each other no less.

Even better: she was there to watch it all happen, watched them make the transition from friends to best friends to something more, watched them stare, eyes wide with wonder, at each other as the red line burned itself into their skin and how everybody except for them knew they had it coming.

Best friends falling in love. 

Huh.

“What are you doing?” 

Eunwoo is watching her from the entrance to the living room, back leaned against the bannister and teasing smile set on her face, and Jieqiong feels warmth curl at the bottom of her stomach.

“Watching old videos on Minkyung unnie’s phone.” She grins but it feels wrong. She hates this feeling. “Wanna watch with me?”

“Sure.” The blonde grins and flops onto the couch, close enough for their knees to touch. Jieqiong almost immediately pushes closer out of habit. “As long as it’s not our old audition tapes.”

“Picky,” Eunwoo leans over and she finds herself moving closer anyway. “But alright.” 

The irony of this domestic situation isn’t lost on her either. For all the fun she makes of Minkyung and Yebin falling in love, she’ll have some explaining to do when they find out about her falling in love as well.

“What do you wanna watch first?” She finds herself saying but she doesn’t look Eunwoo in the eye, just stares straight at the screen and thanks the gods above that she’s wearing a jacket and not just her tank top. Ignore how close they are today, just as they are everyday. Ignore how good Eunwoo smells. ignore the realisation that comes with it all.

Ignore the jolt that runs through her skin and the mark she knows has definitely, definitely just turned from purple to red.

Minkyung, Yebin, [Jieqiong, technically], Eunwoo, Jieqiong. that’s the order.

“What is it like?” She asks.

“What is what like?” Eunwoo replies even though Jieqiong is 100% sure she already knows what she means.

“To…you know. Have this.”  she runs her thumb along the single crimson on Eunwoo’s forearm, and Eunwoo lets her. “Fall in love. Whatever.”

She doesn’t receive an immediate reply but that is fine. Questions like these are hard to answer.

Besides, she already knows enough. It goes a little something like this:

1. her best friend leaves for extra training with yewon and xiyeon under nayoung’s supervision.
2. her best friend comes back from extra training early, without yewon and kyla, under nayoung’s supervision.
3. there is a red mark on the back of her left forearm, next to her the old blacks and blues. Yebin sees it first and promptly loses her .
4. ???????? ?????? ?????

“Good i guess.” Is the final reply she gets and she takes it for what it is. Eunwoo is clearly a little uncomfortable. “It’s for hansol.” 

Oh. “During your recording?”

“Yeah.” She looks so fragile, fidgeting in her oversized white shirt. Jieqiong elects to leave her alone and let her calm down after this. “He has one too.”

Oh. She supposes there is only one course of action to choose. “All the best i suppose.” She pats Eunwoo on the back and stands.

The girl looks up in surprise. “You aren’t going to say anything else?”

“Anything in particular you want me to say?” she grins.

Eunwoo stares but she eventually breaks into a small smile. “No,” she turns away and to the window, staring into the distance. Jieqiong can see she is already miles away. “Thank you, though.” 

Something itches in her brain, telling her to stay. She vehemently ignores it. 

“You’re welcome. i’ll see you in a bit, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Jieqiong is there for Eunwoo when it starts and there for her when it ends. Love is complicated and it can crumble as fast as it had begun. She’s experienced it herself (not that anyone knows.) 

Nonetheless, it’s what makes her so good at comforting the blonde when the latter comes home with a red-rimmed eyes and a line that had lost it’s colour. She holds Eunwoo close, lets her cry into her shoulder and hugs her until her sobs stop and her breathing evens out at three in the morning, soft and slow. 

“Did you sleep at all?” Kyungwon asks her as the first to stumble upon them two hours later, and Jieqiong shakes her head.

“Not really. But it’s fine.” 

“You have so many marks,” Eunwoo’s press into the lines on her arm, etched in neat little rows like a band. They don’t talk about hers, only Jieqiong’s. “but none of them are red. I’ve never seen you with a red mark.” 

She’s right. Most of them are black and the ones that remain are blue, some more saturated than others. The unspoken question is received loud and clear. Why?

What is the best way to answer this?

“I don’t know. Guess I haven’t really found anyone yet.” Jieqiong shrugs, eyes momentarily flickering. There is nothing else to say. She hopes she can mask it with a playful glint when she turns to Eunwoo and smirks. “Why does it matter? You interested?” 

Her best friend scoffs and makes a face. “You wish.”

“What if I do?” She giggles when Eunwoo shoves her lightly but it doesn’t come out right. It’s not so much a joke but the truth, after all. It all came together last night. She’d thought about it before, small what-ifs floating through her mind when there’s nothing better to think about in the past and thoughts coming back more and more often to haunt her as of late while the signs gradually got clearer and clearer until she’d realised what was happening just last Tuesday. “You’d never know.” 

One day, this will all come back and hit her hard. She’ll slip up eventually, let out too much and that will be the end of it. Even if by some miracle her actions don’t betray her, the stupid marks that always show up will and there will be nothing to hide. And it will happen sooner or later, she knows it will.

Later, when the two of them are still pressed together in her bunk watching a Korean drama she doesn’t care about enough to remember the name of, surrounded by warmth, Jieqiong sneaks a peak at the marks again. One of them is a violent dark purple.

“Any chance you’re free next saturday evening?”

Jieqiong drops her gaze from the television to the blonde lying on her lap. Eunwoo looks good from this angle. She likes the way her jaw curves and how the tendons in her neck strain with her head turned to the left. “Depends on who’s asking. If it’s you? no.”

The girl underneath her fingertips only scoffs and turns a page. “Suit yourself. I was going to invite you to a party, but you know, you do you.”

“A party? And you were invited first?”

“Yeah. Yebin wanted to have a proper get-together,” Eunwoo hums. Jieqiong watches the way she tilts her head further into her touch when she runs her fingers through the blonde strands, watches Eunwoo's lips part slightly with a content sigh. “But you weren’t around last night for her to ask both of us at the same time.”

“Where?”

“Outside lotte world at seven. Thought you weren’t free though?” Eunwoo sits up slightly and teases. The smug look on her face is almost as annoying as it is attractive. 

Jieqiong grins. “Now that I think about it, I’m pretty free.”

“Is that a band-aid?” Kyla squints. 

“I fell. Cut my arm.” Kyla only squints more. Xiyeon glances up from her phone, raises an eyebrow and smirks. This is unfair. Why is everyone smirking all the time? When did the dorm get so shady? “What? Are people not allowed to fall down?”

“They are!” All three turn. Eunwoo strolls out of the bathroom, towel slung over one shoulder, straight to their shared fridge. She pours herself a glass of juice. Jieqiong wonders what the skin on her collarbone feels like. “I know I do. Also Yebin. What are we talking about?”

“Jieqiong has a band-aid conveniently where her lines are!” 

Oh, God.

Nobody needs to know about the first time she fell in love.

No, that secret is only for two to hold.

She reaches out and pushes Nayoung’s jacket down enough to expose her bare shoulder, traces the line etched into skin just above her tank top. It is easy to locate. Nayoung only has two black marks, and the one of the left is from her. At her touch, it flares the faintest red.

Nayoung shivers next to her. “Something on your mind?” 

“Not really.” The older girl folds the corner of her page and lowers the book. Their eyes meet. Nayoung is obviously suspicious. “Your mark still flares red sometimes.” she says instead. They both know what it means.

Nayoung nods. Her head tilts to the side. “I’m not surprised.” 

Jieqiong wonders how their leader deals with it so comfortably, deals with things like emotions and residual feelings so calmly. “Would you rather it not?”

“Wouldn’t you?” They both eye the goosebumps that rise when Nayoung touches the matching line and trails a finger down her arm. The leader raises a brow when it glows.

Perhaps, things would have been different if they were a world away. If they hadn’t fallen in love and fallen out of it so fast nobody noticed at all. If they hadn’t been so fearful of it all.

“Not really.” Nayoung reaches out and ruffles her hair. It is affectionate but platonic. “I like it. You have to accept things as they are, not as how you want things to be. Learn from experience too.” She glances pointedly at Jieqiong’s arm again. 

“…Also. Tell them before you regret it.”

So, she may have done the opposite.

“I just don’t get why you won’t tell me what I did wrong.”

“It’s not that.” Eyes bore holes into her back but Jieqiong doesn’t bother turning around. She can’t deal with this right now.

“Then what? Because suddenly you’re always here and then you’re gone and I hear nothing from you at all. For days.” 

She can’t deny Eunwoo’s accusations, either. How can you explain separation when you’ve been stuck at the hip for so long? They have (had?) an unspoken agreement, the two of them. Stay together. Stick together. Tell each other everything, all their thoughts and worries and concerns and fears. It’s easy to notice how attached you were when you are suddenly apart.

“Zhou Jieqiong. Joo Kyulkyung. Look at me.” She hears footsteps and sees a girl loom over her.

She hates these moments the most, when Eunwoo is uncharacteristically soft and forgiving and she has that look in her eye. The one that makes her believe nothing matters more than her.

“We tell each other everything, don’t we?” Eunwoo’s hands are on her shoulders, then the sides of her arms. “What’s wrong?”

She hates running. Nayoung is right. Maybe it’s time to stop.

“We do.” Her eyes dart over to her arm and back, “I guess. Yes. I…”

Eunwoo is quick to follow. “Is it this?” She reaches out and thumbs at the band-aid, picks at the edges. “Can I?” At her nod, she gently (slowly) peels it off. Jieqiong shivers. “Is this…oh.”

The moment fingers ghost over her skin, the line flares bright red. Jieqiong whimpers. 

Her secret is out. 

She prepares for the worst.

The room is awfully silent.

“I…” She hears the confusion in Eunwoo’s voice. Maybe shock. All the same. “…I don’t know how to feel.” 

“It’s alright.” The words don’t feel like hers either. Everything just feels numb. “I wasn’t expecting you to.”

More silence. Eunwoo looks conflicted, as if there is something she wants to say or do but cannot. Jieqiong doesn’t miss the way her eyes rake over her body. Intentionally? Unintentionally?

“…Do you want me to go?” 

“I don’t know.” Something isn’t right. She feels a connection.

“I’ll get someone else if you want me to.” Eunwoo begins to stand. “I’ll talk to you some other-“

“No.” Her arm shoots out to hold her still, pull her back. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Jieqiong doesn’t know what’s happening, only hears ringing in her ears and feels desire so strong the world seems to spin. “Stay. I just want you to—“

Eunwoo’s lips are soft and she smells even better up close. Someone gasps (she can’t tell who) and suddenly she feels a hand cup her jaw and another on her neck as Eunwoo kisses back. 

Hands skate up her sides, underneath her shirt, and Jieqiong doesn’t stop the groan that forces it’s way out of her lips.

When they pull apart she is short of breath and so is her best friend, eyes wide and lips red and all kinds of beautiful. She expects to see regret but surprisingly sees none.

Jieqiong thinks of something to say but another gasp interrupts her before she can. A red line has appeared on Eunwoo’s skin.

“Oh,” is all she says, and when Jieqiong looks up there is realisation and affection in her eyes. “I see.” 

They can settle the intricacies later. 

This is all that matters.

“Do you love me?" Jieqiong murmurs, painfully soft against her lips, when they have everything sorted out and come together again and again, and Eunwoo shivers.

“You know I do." She runs a hand through dark hair, clothed bodies pressed together, and melts at Jieqiong’s gasps. “I’d do anything for you."

---

IT IS OVER YES WOW sorry if the ending is a little abrupt i guess i've spent so much time on this it just got...tiring at the end

haven't proofread this and i can't stand the thought of proofreading it i'm sOrry but this has been eating me up on the inside and now it's out so it's all good...feel free to find me on twitter @wooeuns i love talking about pristin and rv

also...this was so close to containing so that...might be...next....

this was fun!! ok peace out