WARNING: Bumping the rating up, though not quite all the way up to M for this chapter for some ual content.

Jisoo sat back in her chair and turned her wrist, stretched her fingers. 

It was a Saturday night, and she had been hunched over her desk all day, furiously copying words from a dusty old Embrace issue. Julie aimed to put the plan into action before the redesign unveiling meeting with the editor-in-chief of Embrace, which was coming up fast, but she wanted this portion of the scheme finished before Wednesday.

Jisoo looked down at the box of old issues that Julie had pulled for her from Archives. It was every issue from the past year that contained work that Dara had written, and some drafts from her days as a junior staffer. Julie was making her copy every single one, almost word-for-word into the notebook.

She grabbed a newspaper from her desk and tossed it over the box so that she didn’t have to look at it. She already felt like enough of a crook without being reminded that she still had two issues’ worth of Dara’s work to steal.

Jisoo was in the eye of a moral hurricane. For the past two days, she had been copying words into a notebook and feeling more and more consumed by her own guilt. But what could she do? Julie Kiyoko was the managing editor, the highest ranking person at Embrace after Mr. Jeon himself. Her career was stake. Her dreams of touching the lives of millions of people with the written word were at stake if she didn’t comply. 

But complying made her feel like a dishonest crook. Made her feel like someone she didn’t want to know, let alone be. 

The doorknob turned, and Jisoo stood to hide the boxes and her work, but it was just Lisa who stuck her head in. She was wearing a sequined body-con dress and clutched a pair of strappy high heels in her hand. She had on a face full of makeup.

“What are you doing tonight?” Lisa asked.

“Working!” Jisoo snapped, moving in front of her desk. 

“Still?” Lisa said. “You’ve been shut up in here literally all day. You never even changed out of your pajamas from this morning.”

Jisoo was aware that she looked like a slob, but mostly because she felt like one. Her work was making her feel like one. She had tied her hair into a messy bun and still wore the cotton shorts and the worn, loose shirt that she had put on to sleep in the night before. 

“I’m… writing,” Jisoo said, putting her palm down on the notebook’s open page to keep Lisa from being able to read her words. Her roommate crossed her arms. 

“But it’s Saturday night!” Lisa whined. “Rose and I are going to the Lambda Chi party, you should come with us! Or at least pre-game with us in the kitchen.”

“I can’t,” Jisoo said, wishing the Lisa would just turn around and leave her to commit fraud in peace.

“But it’s no fun with just the two of us,” Lisa said. “Jennie is out with Jackson, and you never hang out with us anymore.”

“I’m sorry,” Jisoo said. Lisa stood there, pouting at Jisoo for another minute, but then seeing that she was fighting a hopeless battle, she sighed and then bid Jisoo goodnight as she left the room.

“Close the door, please,” Jisoo said and Lisa did as she was told. Lisa walked back to the kitchen, where Rose was pouring herself another shot of coconut rum. 

“So, is she coming?” Rose asked.

“No,” Lisa said, crestfallen. Rose held the bottle of rum out of Lisa, and Lisa took it. 

“Aww, but why?” Rose said. “She never hangs out with us anymore. She’s always busy writing her novel or going to her job.”

Lisa tipped the bottle and drank a little. “It’s fine,” she said. “There’ll be other parties. Let’s just go on our own this time.”

“Ugh, fine,” Rose said, hopping off the counter and zipping up her thigh-high boots. “But next time, she’s our DD.”

Lisa bent over and put the scrappy heels on her feet. After they both grabbed their jackets, they screwed the cap back onto the rum bottle and then stored it on the shelf. Then, they headed toward the door. Lisa was just in the middle of telling Rose the beginning of a funny story when they opened the door and tried to step out but found their paths blocked by Jinyoung. 

He had his arm stretched out like he was just about to knock on the door, and he looked a little stunned to see Lisa and Rose standing there. He smiled nervously.

“Hi,” he said.

“Are you looking for Jisoo?” Rose asked. 

“She’s in her room,” Lisa said as Jinyoung stepped aside and let the girls walk out of their apartment. “But I think she’s working on her book or something since she blew off our invitation to go out tonight.”

Lisa stepped past Jinyoung, walking towards the elevator lobby, followed by Rose.

“Just make sure you lock the door when you leave in the morning,” she joked, and the two disappeared down the corridor, giggling. 

Jinyoung felt amused. Taking their quick retreat as an invitation to let himself in, he stepped in and closed the door as he removed his shoes. The last time he’d been in this apartment was when he picked Jisoo up for the Scholars’ Gala, which wasn’t too long ago. He still remembered which room was hers. 

“Hello?” he called out cautiously. When no one answered, he took another step into the living area. “Jisoo?” he called again. Still no answer. He swore Lisa told him that she was here, but then he remembered that she also said that Jisoo was probably writing. He guessed she was probably too deep in focus to hear him. 

He walked down the hall and found the door that led to her room and knocked.

Inside, Jisoo’s head shot up at the sound. “Lisa?” she called out. The knob turned, and Jisoo’s heart stopped seeing Jinyoung walk in instead of Lisa. 

She jumped up and tried to cover her work, more out of reflex. Her first reaction should have been to say hello or be more happy that the boy she liked came to see her. Instead, she was more concerned that Jinyoung was here and she was still wearing pajamas, her hair was a mess, she didn’t have a speck of makeup on, and she didn’t even bother to put on a bra that morning. 

And now Jinyoung was in her room, staring at her. She crossed her arms over her chest as if to hide herself.

“What are you doing here?” she asked. Jinyoung looked taken aback.

“I… I came to… sorry, is this a bad time?” he said.

He looked like he was about to back out the door, and Jisoo suddenly felt sorry.

“No!” she said. “It’s… I mean…” she side-eyed the notebook that was still open on her desk, along with the draft Dara had written. She hurriedly tucked the paper into the notebook, closed it, and then put it aside. 

“Were you working?” Jinyoung said.

“Uh, no… uh, not really,” Jisoo said. She mentally scolded herself for being rude, but she couldn’t help how her nerves flared up. She looked back at Jinyoung. He was wearing an oatmeal-colored crewneck sweater over a pair of jeans. His hair was left tousled by the wind outside, and his eyes looked a little tired. She guessed that he must have gotten off a shift at work and then came to see her. Butterflies awoke in her stomach at the thought.

She cleared . “Sorry,” she said. “But… seriously, what are you doing here?”

Jinyoung was studying her, too. He took in her unkempt hair bun and her comfortable clothing and guessed that she must have been holed up in her room all day. He looked over at her desk and was momentarily curious about what she was working on. But her voice called him back to attention and he remembered why he came in the first place. 

He held up the envelope he received two days ago. Jisoo took one look at the insignia on the corner and her hands flew up to cover .

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “This is it. Right?”

Jinyoung nodded silently. He saw her smile behind her fingers, but Jisoo noticed that the seal hadn’t been broken yet. 

“Haven’t you opened it, yet?” she asked.

“Not yet,” Jinyoung said, shaking his head nervously. “I… I was too nervous when I got it, I couldn’t do it.”

Jisoo pouted. “Jinyoung!” she said. “What the hell? Open it! Why would you put yourself through all that tension? Open it!”

Jinyoung looked down at the unopened envelope and bit his lip. His heart was thrumming and his nerves were ripe with anxiety. He tried to slide his thumb under the seal and break it open, but he sighed and then handed it to Jisoo.

“You open it,” he said. Jisoo wrinkled her brows.

“What?” she said and then pushed the envelope back at him. “No, I can’t! You do it, I’m too nervous.”

“You’re nervous?” Jinyoung said, and then laughed. “How do you think I feel? Jisoo, just do it. If it’s bad news, I’d rather hear it from you first than have to read it on my own.”

“Oh my god,” Jisoo said, relenting and taking the envelope from him. She looked down at the logo on the corner: the School of Medicine at Cheonbyul University. 

, she thought. That was a really good school. A tough school. She’d always had faith in Jinyoung’s academic prowess, but seeing just how big he’d dreamed, she became scared—what if he didn’t get in? He’d be heartbroken. How could she tell him if the letter inside was one of regret? She couldn’t bear to be the one to tell him he’d failed. This was a small envelope, she thought. Aren’t acceptance letter usually mailed together with acceptance packages and brochures and a little more fanfare? 

Jinyoung turned around and ran a hand through his hair and huffed his breath in exasperation. Jisoo sighed as she tore the seal open and pulled the letter out. She started to read aloud:

“Dear Park Jinyoung, Congratulations— Jinyoung!” she shouted happily before she could even finish the sentence. “You got in!”

“What? Let me see that.”

Jinyoung turned back around and Jisoo handed the letter to him. His eyes scanned the first line, reading the words “congratulations” again and again just to make sure that was what it really said and his powers of spelling weren’t just failing him. After confirming that, yes, he really had been accepted, he suddenly found it hard to breathe.

“Holy ,” he breathed.

The smile that spread across his face was so wide, it made his cheeks sore. Finally, he thought. Things were starting to look up.

After he finished reading the letter, he lowered it, and immediately Jisoo threw her arms around his torso and started hugging the life out of him. He laughed just because he felt so damn happy in that moment, and Jisoo felt his laughter rumbling in his chest. She let out a sigh of relief.

“I’m really happy for you,” she whispered against the cloth of his sweater. 

She was squeezing him a little too tight, but Jinyoung didn’t care. He liked the pressure against his chest. After reading the letter, he was feeling weightless and airy and her arms around him felt like she was keeping him from floating away. Jinyoung couldn’t stop smiling, couldn’t stop laughing. He lifted his arms and returned her embrace. 

“Thank you,” he whispered against her hair.

Jisoo relaxed her arms’ grip around his chest and closed her eyes a minute, savoring the feeling of being held. The first time he hugged her was when she finally apologized for stealing his test, right after her confrontation with Nawon. Tonight, though, there’s none of that stiff awkwardness between them. Tonight, she feels perfectly at home in his arms. After a minute of breathing in his scent, however, Jinyoung started rubbing her back soothingly. Or at least he did, until his hand paused for a beat too long as it ran down her spine. 

Jisoo’s cheeks colored. Oh my god, she thought. He’s probably realized I’m not wearing a bra.

She pulled away from him suddenly and then crossed her arms over her chest, again, trying to do so without making too big a fuss. When she looked at him, he looked flustered and confused and a little pink in the face. 

“Umm… anyway, congratulations,” Jisoo said, trying to salvage the momentousness of the occasion. Jinyoung smiled again and looked back down at the letter, sighing.

“This is a huge burden off my shoulders,” he said, folding the letter back and sliding it into its envelope. He sighed again. “Now there’s just final exams and graduation left. Then the future starts.”

Jisoo smiled. The future starts. What a simultaneously comforting and alarming sentence, she thought. Jinyoung was still looking down tenderly at the envelope. His eyes crinkled when he smiled, and he looked so content.

She remembered how they used to be in high school. The competition between them was so cutthroat and tense. When his speech beat hers out and he took the valedictorian spot from her, she had been livid. Her high school self never could have imagined that one day she’d be congratulating him on getting into med school and feeling wholeheartedly and genuinely proud of him, her old arch nemesis. 

We’ve come a long way since then, she thought.

“We should… have a toast or something,” Jisoo said, clearing . She stepped past Jinyoung and walked out the hall and toward the kitchen. It felt a little weird, at first. It was the first time she’d left her room that day. She knew that there wouldn’t be champagne in the fridge, but Rose always kept a bottle of rosé in the fridge. She snatched it from the bottom shelf of the refrigerator and grabbed two glasses.

When she returned to her room, Jinyoung was sitting on her bed, holding the rabbit plushie that always sat faithfully by her pillow, and the image startled her. She’d never had a boy sit on her bed before. 

“Ahem,” she said, sett