Byulyi wakes up the next morning at the crack of dawn. The warm rays of sunshine streaming through her curtains just about split her head open.

She thinks about trying to sit up but a wave of pain and nausea sweeps over her and it’s all she can do to pull her pillow over her face to block out the light. Did she go drinking last night? With who? She can’t remember the last time she woke up this smashed. She lays there for a couple of minutes trying to recall exactly what happened yesterday, but things get a little fuzzy after dinner with

Yongsun!

That’s right, the unreal beauty that turned out to be a complete dork. She and Byulyi had gone out to dinner together and ordered a couple of rounds of drinks. Damn, Byulyi really really liked her.

But things start to get fuzzy after her second bottle of soju. Byulyi’s got a decent tolerance for her size, but once she gets pushed over the edge her memory blacks out hard (the cause of many embarrassing moments during her college years).

She dares to peek at her nightstand and she’s thankful to her drunk self for not losing her phone. Her arms groan in protest when she reaches for it. What did she do last night? Lift weights? The flashing notification light seems ten time as annoying as usual so she turns on the screen.

7:16AM

Work in an hour?

Saturday, Oct 21^st

Saturday, thank god.

New Message from Wheerun (3)
Wheerun took a screenshot!
Seulgi sent a snap!
New Email from Esna
-Subject: Trip

Byulyi closes her eyes in relief. If she only has three messages that probably means she didn’t do any drunk texting this time. She opens the email from her boss

From: Esna (October 21^st at 6:04AM)

Hi Byul,

I see that you’re home safe, hope your trip went well. Remember the article should be done by Monday.
           

Regards,
Esna

She chuckles. For such a charismatic woman, her boss sure is a stiff in her emails. But how did she know Byulyi was home already? She checks her texts.

Wheerun:

            Unnie! who is that!!!! why did i not kno about her >:(

Wheerun:

            Unnie answer me oh my gdo

Wheerun:

Okay well she looks really pretty and U R the a loser :c pls give me deets when ur SOBER i GUESS

Byulyi’s brow furrows. It’s hurts to think but she scrolls up in their conversation and the last message she sent was a picture of her hotel view with the sunglasses emoji. Wheein was probably definitely talking about Yongsun, but how did she even know she existed?

Wait.

She opens up Snapchat. Her log doesn’t show anything new. She swipes to her story and lo and behold, five new snaps added.

The first snap is a shaky video of her half-eaten chicken skewer plate captioned “winner winner chikcen dinner”. The tinny sound of Winner’s Really Really accompanies the video. She takes a moment to commend her drunk self for still being hilarious and clever.

She freezes at the second snap. It’s a picture of Yongsun sitting across the table from her, chopstick held up with a ddeok. Her cheeks are flushed and she smiling so hard her eyes are crescents. The caption reads “LOOK at her”. Byulyi fumbles for a moment before clicking ‘save to camera roll’.

The third snap is seems to be outside in the market center. It’s only darkness and the blur of streetlights.

She plays the fourth snap 3 times before she understands what the she’s doing exactly. Someone else is filming. She incredibly grateful they didn’t just jack her phone because she has no idea who’s behind the camera. It seems like she’s chasing Yongsun when she catches her and somehow lifts the older woman all the way over her head. No wonder her arms hurt, she didn’t think she had the strength to do that even while sober. She spins Yongsun around and around and then the video ends.

The fifth snap is a selfie of their cheeks squished together and captioned “shes MY gf n ow lsoer”.

5 hours ago
Wheerun took a screenshot!

That damned girl. But she saves that picture to her camera roll too. Byulyi opens the snap Seulgi sent her. It’s a selfie with one of those weird filters that makes her head look like a pear.

Nice catch unnie lololol

Byulyi sighs and throws her phone to the other side of her bed. Way to make a good first impression. It was like a blessing from heaven to her that the angel Yongsun even wanted to be friends. Now she’s gone and went on a drunk rampage and Yongsun probably had to drag her home. She hears a jingling sound moving around her bed and remembers it’s almost time for Daebakkie’s breakfast. She grabs her phone again to check the time. 7:34AM. Might as well get out of bed.

Byulyi stumbles into her kitchen, Daebakkie strutting around behind her and she scoops a cup of food for him. Satiated, for now. She digs around for something to eat for herself, but the light of her fridge is too blinding for now. She retreats and decides to just take some painkillers, grabbing a piece of bread from the counter while she’s at it. Byulyi downs a glass of water and it helps to clear her head a bit, but she’s still feeling nauseous.

“I should make something more to eat…” She croaks, and the sound of her own voice crawling out makes her grimace. Ddaebakkie pauses in his crunching to look at her. She pats him on the head.

That’s when an idea hits her. From what she could tell, Yongsun seemed pretty drunk last night as well. They’d gotten back only fives hours ago at the most, the older woman probably wasn’t feeling too hot herself. What better way for Byulyi to save face than to make her some hangover soup? With new motivations, Byulyi braces herself to the light of her fridge once more.

-

Over an hour later, Byulyi stands in front of apartment 512 and knocks four times. She hears a faint skittering and leans into listen better when something slams into the door with a BAM and she nearly drops the hot container of soup she’s carrying. She stumbles backwards in surprise and lucky for her, because the door swings open right where her face was and she’s greeted by a seaweed monster.

After warring with her fight or flight instincts she realizes it’s just the matted strands of Kim Yongsun’s hair. Byulyi takes a step forward to say something but she’s thrown off by a weird odor and a croaking noise. It’s coming from Yongsun.

“Who…who’s at nine…it’s morning.” She coughs before running her hand through her hair and squinting up at Byulyi.

And looking in to her large, brown, bloodshot eyes, things click together and Byulyi understands.

Somehow, Yongsun is still drunk.

“Moon Byulyi?” Yongsun looks at her confusedly. She drags out the sound of her name. “Oh.” She tries to stand a little straighter but it only succeeds in making her sway the opposite direction. “Are you okay? Wait hold on sorry I just have to –“ Yongsun braces herself on the doorframe and closes her eyes, taking in a deep breath.

Byulyi holds her breath too.

Yongsun exhales loudly and when she opens her eyes again her gaze isn’t as hazy.

“I…I’m still a little drunk.”

Byulyi smiles wryly. “So I can tell.” She really didn’t expect this turn of events. Yongsun looked young but she was still older. Byulyi had somehow assumed she was better at dealing with alcohol.

“This is a horrible second impression.”

“It could be worse.” Byulyi shrugs. She holds the soup up. “Can I come in?”

“Oh, yes! Sure, sorry my place is a mess right now.” She pauses. “I’m a mess too, haha.” She sways out of the way and invites Byulyi in with a ‘here it is’ gesture.

The place isn’t messy at all, only when Byulyi looks around, she sees the kitchen cabinets are all thrown open and there are cleaning solutions strewn about. She’s curious about what exactly Yongsun was doing so early when she’s clearly still intoxicated.

Yongsun gestures for Byulyi to have a seat in the living room as best she can. “You can sit, the, ah, TV’s…I have cable.”

Byulyi can’t decide if she should laugh or help her. “It’s okay Unnie, you don’t have to play host. Are you alright? I brought you some hangover soup.”

She gasps. “Byulyi, you are so good to me.” Yongsun looks at her like she’s just realizing Byulyi is in her living room. “Wow, you’re so – you’re here. You’re in my living room.”

Byulyi can’t help but crack up at that. “Do you want me to leave?”

Yongsun looks completely blindsided by her question. “No! I’m glad you came to visit. I thought I scared you off. Actually I probably scared you off now. You can leave if you’re scared. I think I’m a little scary right now. I’m…” She pauses and takes a breath again. “I’m confused myself again. Do you mind if I take a shower so I, I’m not uh, this?” She gestures to her messy hair and the clothes she’s still wearing from last night. Is that a wet spot on her back?

Byulyi smiles at her reassuringly. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just wait in the kitchen.” She holds up the soup again.

Yongsun sighs in relief and bolts to her bedroom. Byulyi is halfway sitting up from the couch when her head peeks out from behind the door and Byulyi can see the top of a bare shoulder for a second. Eyes up, Moon Byulyi.

“You aren’t gonna ditch me?” Yongsun asks just to be sure. Byulyi feels a smile cracking at how cute she is.

“I am. You’re so horrid I’m even going to move to a new apartment building.” Byulyi jokes and she’s glad Yongsun’s at least sober enough to realize she’s being sarcastic. She gives Byulyi a hard look but it’s softened by the puffiness of her cheeks when she pouts. She shuts her bedroom door with a ‘hmph!’

Byulyi heads towards the kitchen, but the soup is still hot, so she just leaves it on the breakfast table. She closes all the open cabinets and squats down, placing the cleaning supplies in the space under the sink.

“I hope this is where these go…” She mumbles to herself when she hears the same skittering from earlier, but more clearly now. She turns around and there’s a cute little gray schnauzer staring at her from the living room.

“Oh? You must be Jjing Jjing.” At the sound of her name the small dog starts wagging her tail and trots to Byulyi. “Hey there girlie, have you been hiding this entire time? Oh you’re so scruffy.” Byulyi coos as she scratches Jjing Jjing behind the ears. When she stops and stands up, Jjing Jjing stands up on her hindquarters, begging for more.

“You’re a lot more energetic than I thought. Yongsun-unnie told me you were a grandma.”

She finds a random toy and shakes it in front of the dog, then tosses it to the other side of the room. Jjing Jjing doesn’t even turn to look. She puts her paws on Byulyi’s knee, asking for pets again.

“Okay, maybe you are a grandma.”

Byulyi sits down at the breakfast table and spends the next few minutes playing with Jjing Jjing’s paws, who seems okay with whatever as long as she’s getting scratches.

She’s texting Wheein when she hears the shower turn off.

She’s not my gf

Wheerun:

That’s not wut ur pic looked like

I literally met her yesterday, went drinking with her b/c her ex’s an

And she saved me from the ocean

Wheerun:

Wtf? u went into the ocean? unnie u can’t swim…

Ex means she’s single ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

She literally just got dumped

Wheerun:

Whatever u say

Btw you’re still coming today right?

“Coming today?” Byulyi wondered out loud. She sifted through her still slighty hungover brain for what Wheein could be talking about before it struck her. “Ah….” Wheein’s show was opening tonight and she promised she’d be there.

Yeah. 5 right?

Wheerun:

Yep ~<3

“Sorry for the wait.” Yongsun apologizes as she walks back into the living room, her hands busy drying her hair with a towel. “I think I’m a little more sober now though.”

Byulyi puts her phone down. The weird stinging smell is gone now and replaced with something she can’t discern, but it’s nice. The faint scent reminds her of springtime. She flashes Yongsun a reassuring smile, but the older woman has an intense look trained on her thighs.

“No worries…?” Byulyi is a little uncomfortable, but highly amused when she notices the little dog she’d been petting absentmindedly has scurried to hide behind her legs. Ah, that was why Yongsun was staring, of course.

Yongsun snaps her gaze from her dog back to Byulyi. “I smelled pretty bad earlier, huh?”

Byulyi’s face twists into a not quite grimace and thinks about buttering her words but decides against it. “Yeah, you kind of did.”

Yongsun sighs and pulls out the other chair to sit in, staring at the Jjing Jjing again. Byulyi can’t shake the feeling that comes with her legs being in Yongsun’s direct line of sight.

“I don’t usually drink that much, or at all really. It was the break-up I guess.” Byulyi nods. “I don’t know if you’ll remember from last night, but I’m horrible at drinking. Yesterday was actually one of the better nights I spent drunk.”

“Of course, I’m great company.” Byulyi interjects. So Yongsun was a bad drinker after all. Byulyi sighs inwardly in relief. That means she probably didn’t remember how embarrassing Byulyi was last night.

“Of course.” Yongsun rolls her eyes. “I don’t usually wake up before noon when I get smashed though. This is the first time I’ve woken up drunk. Don’t worry, you didn’t wake me up.” Yongsun reassures Byulyi when she looks like she’s about to apologize. “I actually, ah, fell out of my bed a bit before you knocked. And I guess since I was so drunk last night I forgot to let Jjing Jjing out so, so she peed under my bed. And, well, since I have floors…”

Byulyi recoils at the thought and breathes out past her teeth. That explains the cleaning supplies. “You fell in dog pee.”

“I fell in dog pee.”

A beat of silence.

“That’s not Jjing Jjing’s fault.”

Yongsun pouts. “I know! But you would be grouchy too if you were hungover, and drunk, and covered in piss.” She turns her attention to Jjing Jjing, who is still avoiding her gaze.

“Jjing, I’m sorry. I won’t yell anymore and I’m not mad. I love you.”

Jjing Jjing doesn’t move. Yongsun lets out a choked cry and reaches towards the dog, who backs up further behind Byulyi’s legs.

“Jjiingggg…” Yongsun whines.

Byulyi chuckles at how dramatically pitiful Yongsun looks and pushes the soup towards her. “Here, have some. It’ll make you feel better.”

Yongsun directs one last sniffle at her dog before she straightens up and reaches for the food in front of her. Byulyi tries to be casual with her glances, anticipating what the older woman will think.

“Wow, this is just what I needed.” Yongsun smiles as she takes a spoonful. “And just how I like it. How did you know?”

Byulyi shrugged. “I guess we have similar tastes.”

Yongsun simply nods as she takes more spoonfuls. They lapse into an easy silence after that. Yongsun seems solely focused on eating, but after a while Byulyi begins to feel antsy. She can’t mess around with Jjing Jjing anymore now that the little dog is set on hiding under the table , and she feels a little weird just watching Yongsun eat. She’s about to say something when a ringtone cuts through the quiet atmosphere and Yongsun physically jumps, almost splashing soup everywhere.

“Sowwy le m ged ad.” She speaks through a mouthful and bounces out of her seat to find her phone.

Byulyi closes and leans back into her chair, watching Yongsun patiently as she flutters around where the sound is coming from. She finds her phone between her couch cushions.

“Ah, there you are.” She flips it around to see who would caller her this early. The caller ID says ‘The BAE’, which is strange, because Joohyun never calls her. Then she sees she has 18 new text messages. That can’t be good.

“What happened?” She answers the call without a hello.

“That’s what I want to know. Are you gay?”

Straight to the point, as always, but Yongsun has no idea what she’s talking about.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Are you serious? Go look at your Facebook. Principle Baek is going to have words for you.”

Just at those words Yongsun is dreading what she’s about to see. She opens the app on her phone and goes to her page and sure enough, it’s not pretty.

The first post on her page is an extremely blurry selfie of her sipping on a beer (already horrible) with Byulyi in the background taking a shot. Very classy. To make matters worse she captioned it “foudn my soulmate.”

“Oh, fuzz it all.” She half-curses.

2 likes, Joohyun and her sister. No comments.

Yongsun deletes the post as fast as she can and hopes it wasn’t seen by any parents that she’s friends with.

“Fuzz?” Byulyi speaks up finally. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh, Byul, no I’m fine it’s just-“

“Yongsun? Hello? Is she with you right now? What the is going on?”

“Sorry Joohyun, I’ll tell you about it tomorrow. Don’t worry about it.” Yongsun hangs up before her friend can ask any more questions and she checks her email. Sure enough, Baek Jiyoung is at the top of her inbox.

From: Baek JY (October 21^st at 8:46AM)

Miss Kim Yongsun,

If, by the time you see this email, you have not already cleaned up your social media outlets I highly suggest you do so. While I cannot keep you from indulging yourself in adult activities, please be mindful of your situation as a teacher.

And while I make no judgements about your lifestyle, again, you are a teacher. Please do not flaunt your alternative preferences if you have such.

I will see you on Monday.

Cordially,

BJY

Byulyi has gotten out of her seat and is now standing next to her. “Are you okay?” Her hand hovers around Yongsun’s shoulder before it lands on her lower back.

“Yes, sorry, I just got in trouble with my boss. Kind of. It’ll probably be fine.” She feels the headache from earlier coming back, and pinches the bridge of her nose to ease it. Byulyi’s reassuring touch helps.

Byulyi purses her lips, thinking about her Snapchat pictures. “Was it something I did?”

“You? No no, you haven’t done anything wrong. I just made a drunk post last night and it had us drinking in it. And insinuating that we were a couple or something, which is pretty ridiculous, since it’s not like we’re gay or anyth-“

“I am.”

Yongsun freezes.

“Pardon?”

“Uh, I’m gay.”

Byulyi’s hand leaves her back and Yongsun has a second to miss its warmth before the shock settles in.

“I’m sorry – I didn’t – I mean – I wasn’t—”

“Calm down Unnie, breathe.” Byulyi smiles awkwardly and leans slightly away from the other woman, prepared to take a step back.

Yongsun takes a long breath in through her nose and exhales through . “I’m sorry, Byul, I just didn’t expect that at all.”

Byulyi shifts her weight. “Does it make you uncomfortable now? I can go.” She can, she’s tensed to bolt out the door and never look back.

Yongsun waves her hands and shakes her head at the same time. It, among other things, makes her feel a bit dizzy. “No, just…we only just met. You told me something very, ah, delicate.”

Relief washes over Byulyi but she keeps her cool, despite her nerves being set on fire. She hadn’t actually meant to blurt it out. For some reason, she really needed Yongsun to know. “I felt like I should tell you, Yongsun.”

But Yongsun notices how Byulyi’s stance changed to something more defensive and she takes Byulyi’s hand to let her know that her acceptance was genuine. She takes a moment to think of what to say. “Byulyi, you’re very brave. Thank you for trusting me.”

Byulyi doesn’t look at her but a shy smile creeps on her face and Yongsun feels her insides melt at Byulyi’s more vulnerable side. Byulyi chuckles and the atmosphere shifts back to something less suffocating.

“So, your boss keeps tabs on you like that?” Byulyi changes the subject as she guides them back to the breakfast table.

Yongsun pauses to think about it. “It’s not really like that. We’re friends on Facebook. She just tells me to be mindful of what I’m posting, since I teach elementary kids.”

Byulyi is awed. “Beautiful, kind, and loves children.” She pinches the edge of Yongsun’s shirt sleeve and rubs it between her fingers. “What is this made of?”

Yongsun tilts her head in question at her non-sequitur but Byulyi continues.

“Ah, 100% wife material.”

Yongsun’s shrieking scares Jjing Jjing enough she bolts from under the table back to her hiding spot behind the couch.

“Watch it. You’re going to make me throw up all the soup you made!”

Byulyi’s hands fly up in surrender. She obediently lets Yongsun finish her breakfast in silence. When Yongsun thanks her for the meal and stands up to put the empty container in the sink, Byulyi leans forward on the table with an idea. Yongsun said she was straight, but she seemed pretty open-minded.

“Yongsun-unnie, are you doing anything today?”

Yongsun starts the tap, filling up the container to let it soak. “Not really, why?”

Byulyi grins. “Want to go to an art exhibition with me?”

“What, like a date?” Yongsun glances back at her guest.

“Maybe.”

“I’m not gay, Byul.”

“Friend date.” Byulyi pushes, undeterred. “It’s my friend’s show. The more the merrier.”

Yongsun pretends to think about it. “Sure. I’ve never known an artist before.”

Byulyi’s face lights up, and Yongsun’s glad she agreed. “She’s great, you’ll love her. It’s at five, I’ll take us.” She takes out her phone to shoot Wheein a quick text.