A/N: As promised, here's an update for Kyulkyung's and Nayoung's birthday as well as Napink day! Yaaaaay! I won't say more here. Just see the end for more notes. Enjoy and please (please) leave comments! :)

Word count: 3.631 words

-------------------------------------

It’s Saturday morning and Kyulkyung has every right to sleep in but she chooses to busy herself with organizing her room as soon as she wakes up. Yes, she knows that housekeeping can do the cleaning for her but she wants to make sure that everything is in its proper place before she leaves because when she comes back, Nayoung will be with her and she wants everything to be perfect for her.  With that in mind, she fills a laundry bag with her dirty clothes and clears the coffee table of empty cola cans and snack wrappers. She calls housekeeping and requests for new towels and new sheets. Just as she’s planning to drop off her laundry, her phone rings and she races to the bed-side table to pick it up.

It’s Yebin.

Her disappointment comes out as anger without her even knowing. “What do you want?”

“Oh, good morning to you too, Miss Joo Kyulkyung.” Yebin replies, sounding offended.

She sighs, tries to soften her tone a little. “I’m busy. Make it quick.”

“You know, you’re starting to sound like Nayoung unnie.” Yebin huffs. “Anyway, I’m just calling to ask what time you two will be at the venue? ‘Cause I’ll be busy with setup and Minky probably won’t be able to fetch you at the entrance so…”
 

She perks up quickly. “Around 10, maybe? Nayoung said she’ll get off work at 7 tonight. We’ll still be having dinner somewhere and I bet she doesn’t really care about the other bands playing so we’ll be cutting it close to the time you guys are supposed to be on.”

“Okay. Your names will be on the list anyway so just tell the bouncer who you are and then look for Minky and Kyungwon unnie. See you later, Juju!”

“Yeah, see ya later. Good luck, Yebs.”

Kyulkyung puts her phone down, sets it next to her journal. A smile spreads on her face as her hand automatically flips through the pages and her eyes skim through the entries. She and Nayoung met last Sunday and tomorrow would be Sunday again, meaning, it’s already been a week since they’ve met. The week had gone by in a flash and she regrets that most of it was spent apart. They did meet up for dinner every night since Monday but it’s not enough for Kyulkyung. If it were up to her, she would spend every minute of her time next to the older girl but that’s not realistic given that they both have work to do.

She had hoped that they would get to spend more time together over the weekend but was disappointed to find out that Nayoung has work on some Saturdays too. It crossed her mind that she could ask the girl to sleepover or she could come over her place (four blocks down from the national science museum, heading to the direction of the river, the building with a 7-Eleven, unit 405!) but she didn’t have the courage to ask.

Nayoung might say no. Or she could say yes. And that thought is really tempting but Kyulkyung thinks it would be counterproductive to her aim of, to put it simply, slowing things down. She still kind of thinks they had an unusual start, still fears that’s she’s given too much of herself away too early. The thought of having Nayoung grow bored of her is just so despicable she figures she should at least hold herself back.

And meeting for dinner every night is already a stretch in her opinion. She doesn’t want Nayoung to get tired of her, like, ever but at the same time, she can’t stop herself from wanting to see her and wanting to be with her. That’s why she’s going to treat tonight as a reward of sorts.

Her phone vibrates again and this time it’s a text message from Nayoung, causing her face to light up.

Can we just meet at your place first? I think I need to drop off my stuff there. That way, we can eat at that pizza place you were telling me about before heading off to Yebin’s gig. Sounds good?

Kyulkyung doesn’t have to think about it as she types down her affirmative reply, because frankly speaking, anything, where she gets to be with Nayoung, sounds like a good plan.

&&

Half and Half (inspired by the band’s habit of ordering fried chicken late at night, according to Yebin) is set to play alongside some of the rising stars in the indie rock scene tonight, which explains the long line of people trying to get inside the bar. Since they’re on the list, they skip the long line and are given entrance just like that.

Nayoung takes Kyulkyung’s hand and pulls her close as they walk inside, going through people who seemed to have gotten their drinking on hours ago. Kyulkyung notices Nayoung stiffen at her side when a man hollers a rude comment at them. Her fists clenches like she could be preparing to throw a punch if needed. Kyulkyung slips an arm under Nayoung’s to calm her down. The older girl’s stare noticeable soften as she looks into Kyulkyung’s eyes and her heart picks up speed at the realization that she just placated the beast. However, she doesn’t get the chance to gloat because they catch sight of a tall girl (black hair in a long bob and looking handsome in a muscle tee printed with a rock band name, a total rocker chick) waving enthusiastically at them from across the room. Nayoung lets out a sigh and then leads the way over to the said girl.

As they approach, Kyulkyung realizes the girl is with Minkyung who greets her with a smile.

“I was thinking you weren’t going to show.” She gestures for them to take the empty seats and they do.

“Would we ever? Yebin isn’t going to forgive us.” Kyulkyung replies.

Minkyung shakes her head then nods to Nayoung. “Not you. I meant unnie. She never comes to places like this. Even for us.”

“Yeah, that’s right. She’d rather stay holed up at home on weekends. She doesn’t like this atmosphere, you see.” The tall girl says to her with a smile and her eyes drift to her.

Nayoung notices her curious look and steps in. “Oh, right. Kyulkyung-Kyungwon. Kyungwon-Kyulkyung.”

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Kyulkyung.” Kyungwon says, adds in a wink before she offers her a beer, which Nayoung intercepts and continues to take a sip off. Kyungwon rolls her eyes at Nayoung. “Protective, aren’t we?”

Kyulkyung can’t fight the smile that makes it way to her lips.

“I’m just watching out for funny tricks.” Nayoung replies nonchalantly before turning to Kyulkyung with a serious face. “I’ll get you a drink. So just make sure you don’t take anything she gives you, okay?”

Kyulkyung nods and Kyungwon scoffs.

“I’ll have Soonyoung bring us a bucket then.” Minkyung says. She then disappears for a bit but returns quickly.

“They’ll be up in five.” She says this to Kyulkyung, nods off to the stage where Yebin is, sticks in hand and looking like a child surrounded by her humongous drum set.

Kyulkyung eyes her other bandmates and recognizes only one, Jung Eunwoo, their friend from high school. She waves enthusiastically at her when their eyes meet and Eunwoo waves back. Yebin never mentioned that they were in the same band.

“Are they any good?” Kyulkyung asks, genuinely curious. She knows Eunwoo is a good vocalist and Yebin is decent with the drums but she doesn’t know much about the others.

Kyungwon and Minkyung respond at the same time.

“Of course, they are!” Kyungwon slams her fist in the table.

“See for yourself.” Minkyung reaches for a bottle from the bucket a friendly bartender just placed on their table.

Nayoung snorts as she too grabs a bottle, uncaps it, and hands it to Kyulkyung. “Kyungwon’s rather biased. Minkyung’s whipped but she can be objective with this since she takes her craft seriously.”

Minkyung nods in agreement at Nayoung’s statement.

“Hey, I’m not biased!” Kyungwon exclaims in her defense. “And I take my craft seriously too! Yewon and Sungyeon are prodigies. Yebin’s improved a lot and Eunwoo is just… really talented.”

“Yeah, sure. If talented is code for shameless but adorable.” Minkyung adds teasingly.

“Eunwoo’s hyper and not my type but she has her own charms, I guess.” Nayoung even joins in.

“Y-yeah, I guess she does... I don’t really notice.” Kyungwon looks away as she takes a drink off her bottle while Minkyung and Nayoung share a cheeky look of understanding.

Kyulkyung watches them all the while with a smile on her face.  An earsplitting feedback from the mic catches their attention and Kyungwon is saved from further teasing as the set finally begins. Yebin starts her spiel and Kyulkyung really does try to pay attention but Nayoung’s arm draped around the back of her chair, brushing her shoulders, distract her.

Before she knows it, the first song begins. “We’ll start off with a cover. This is for our friends, Nayoung unnie and Kyulkyung!”

Kyulkyung narrows her eyes at Yebin as the intro to Twice’s Signal (Rock version!) plays. Nayoung’s laughter gets drowned by the speakers but Kyulkyung doesn’t miss it as she turns to look at her.

“They really chose a girl group song for the first song.” Nayoung comments with a shake of her head but her smile proves that she’s not disappointed at all. “Oh, these nerds.”

“I think it’s a good choice.” Minkyung nods off to the beat of the song, even mouths the lyrics along with the singing of the crowd.

Kyulkyung turns to Kyungwon for her reaction but only finds her busy taking pictures to say anything. By the way she hovers over Eunwoo’s general direction, Kyulkyung can tell that she’s taking pictures of mostly Eunwoo (like how those idols have fan-site masters).

When the song ends, the crowd is hyped enough to hear more from them. Kyulkyung included. But more than that Kyulkyung feels at ease, feels the warmth at having friends like them. Nayoung’s hand finds hers under the table and gives hers an assuring squeeze and she thinks, for the millionth time, that she made the right choice spending the summer in Seoul.

&&

The last song Yebin’s band played is still ringing in Kyulkyung’s ears and she hums it under her breath as they walk. As she skims over the slightly racy (trust Yebin to dedicate the last song to her ’one and only love’, Minkyung) lyrics in her head, a thought comes to her mind and she turns on her heel, choosing to walk backwards so she can keep her eyes on Nayoung who was right behind her. The kids’ set was a good one and they could’ve stayed more to chat but she’s had more than enough to drink and Nayoung was insisting that it’s time for them to head to the hotel.

“You’re gonna hurt yourself walking like that.” Nayoung voice comes out rather stern. A little frown is visible on her forehead. This isn’t the first time Kyulkyung’s seen this side of her.

So she only smiles in reply as she takes both of the older girl’s hands. She lets out a giggle at the surprised look on her face, intertwines their fingers together.

“If you’re worried about me getting hurt, you can guide me this way.” She says, purses her lips before continuing. “You know, you’re quick to get worked up about the small things. I’m worried that it’s hindering you’re potential.” She pouts.

Nayoung’s a strict follower of the rules. It shows in the way she always makes sure they both go home early, only contact each other during break times or when it’s almost clock out time, and in some other things too. Not that it’s a bad thing. Kyulkyung finds it a little endearing.

The older girl scoffs. “So, walking backwards like this is you living to your potential?”

“No, doing what I want to, when I want to, and where I want to - however trivial - is.” Kyulkyung replies, grins widely at her.

Nayoung pouts a little as she looks away. “I like to think that I live up to my potential.”

“Mhmmm.”

“You don’t believe me?” She asks, eyebrows raised.

“Nayoungie,” She pauses, drinks in the look on Nayoung’s face upon hearing the endearment. She decides she’s going to call her that more often from now on. “I do. I just think that we have different definitions of… things.”

Nayoung becomes silent for a bit and Kyulkyung just resumes her humming.

Let’s go to the park… I wanna kiss you underneath the stars

“I want to kiss you underneath the stars.” She says aloud.

Because like everything about Nayoung, her kisses are amazing and hard to forget so who can blame her?

“It’s too bad there aren’t any tonight.” The weather forecast on her phone indicated 60% chances of rain and it must be accurate for once.

Something in Nayoung changes and it manifests in the way she tugs at Kyulkyung’s hands. All of a sudden, they’re changing directions, heading back west instead of going east.

“Nayoung? Where are we going?” Kyulkyung asks, alarmed (or as alarmed as she can get in her tipsy state).

“You said you wanted to kiss me under the stars but there aren’t any in the sky. I might just have the solution to that.” She smirks a bit. “Besides, I think I have to somehow prove to you that I am living up to my potential.”

Kyulkyung rolls her eyes at that.

The two of them cross over parking lots and turn a couple of corners before the national science museum comes into view. Nayoung leads her to a backdoor, opens it with the swipe of her ID card.

Kyulkyung’s eyes finally widen in realization – Nayoung is sneaking her inside the museum.

She feels an urgent pull on her hand and they’re off to a dark hallway, occasionally pausing to look around for security cameras and personnel.

“Admin’s on a tight budget. All security cams on this side are turned off.” Nayoung whispers. “But it wouldn’t hurt to check. Mr. Yoon’s probably making rounds this time. That is if he hasn’t gone home yet.”

Adrenaline rushes through Kyulkyung’s veins, counteracting the drowsiness she feels from the alcohol. They’re really about to do something they shouldn’t. Nayoung’s really about to do something risky like this. For her. For her.

Moonlight streams in through the glass windows, illuminating their path. Nayoung takes her through machineries and small robots, past fake fossilized creatures, a life-sized T-Rex display, and several molecular models. Somehow, it feels like they’re traveling through time, going back to where the whole world began.

The older girl slows her pace as they reach the space section. Kyulkyung watches her push a door open and lets herself be pulled inside the room. It’s pitch black dark and she almost screams in fear when Nayoung lets go of her hand.

“Close your eyes and stay put. I’ll be back. I promise.” Nayoung whispers to her.

Kyulkyung does as she’s told, patiently so. She hears a noise of a switch being and of machines whirring to life. When she feels arms wrapped around her waist she nearly screams again, thinking that they’ve just been caught but Nayoung speaks and she calms down.

“Open your eyes.”

Kyulkyung’s eyes flutter open and she finds herself standing in the middle of a dome theater. Twenty or so seats are on either side of her and a huge screen fills the entire dome. Right now, the screen is littered with millions of sparkling bits of light across the dark background of a night sky. They’re in the museum’s planetarium.

A sigh escapes her lips and she smiles.

“Well, I’ve got the stars covered.” Nayoung says, voice light and playful. “So… you can kiss me now.”

Kyulkyung turns in Nayoung’s arms, her hands cupping the older girl’s face as her eyes look into those deep brown orbs. Oh, how she’s longed to do this for what felt like the longest week of her entire existence. She draws in a shaky breath and dives in, her lips taking Nayoung’s, slowly and gently, opposite the erratic beating of her heart.

She thinks of tragic tales of constellations and lovers from faraway galaxies, separated by time and space and she marvels at her luck. Finally. Finally, someone’s here to make her world a little less lonely. Finally, one thing that’s right in her never-ending list of wrongs.

Kyulkyung belatedly realizes that Nayoung has pulled away and is laughing. And, goddamn, the sound of that laughter never seems to not make her heart flutter.

“What’s so funny?” She asks, trying to catch her breath.

“Nothing. I just… I could get fired for doing this but I don’t really care.” Nayoung replies with a smug smirk. What a kid.

Kyulkyung smiles. She lowers herself on the floor, pulling at Nayoung’s shirt, taking her with her until they’re both lying on the carpet. Nayoung leans in and they’re kissing again, deeper and rougher this time. But Kyulkyung breaks it apart before it gets too heated and Nayoung holds her, lets her use her arm as a pillow as they both look up at the stars.

“You know that one, right?” Nayoung’s free arm comes up to point straight ahead of them, traces a pattern across the Milky Way galaxy.

Kyulkyung recognizes it at once. “Altair and Vega. Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo. A couple so unfortunate even the crows and the magpies took pity on them.”

“I’ve always wondered how the sky looked like from China. I mean, it must’ve looked different somehow for those people – Shi Shen, Gan De, Wu Xian and all of them who catalogued the stars thousands of years ago – to come up with all those tales.” Nayoung’s eyes focus on her and Kyulkyung can see that there’s a different twinkle in her eyes. “Did you ever look at the stars from there?”

“No, can’t say I have. I don’t really have anyone to look at them with.” Kyulkyung says honestly.

Nayoung smiles. “Well, now that you have someone to look at them with, maybe you can consider looking more often?”

Kyulkyung doesn’t fight back her smile as she looks back at Nayoung. “Mhmm. Maybe. As long as I get to kiss you underneath them.”

“Baby,” Her stomach does an entire backflip at the term. “Kissing underneath the stars is good and all but, really, we don’t need them to kiss. You can kiss me anytime you want to.”

Nayoung’s smirk is absolutely driving her crazy and she finds herself leaning towards her to take up that offer.

But the door suddenly creaks open and a voice calls out. “Is somebody there?”

Nayoung quickly rolls over her, whispers in her ear to hide and stay down as she stands up to reveal herself.

“Mr. Yoon? It’s me, Nayoung.” Nayoung calls out tentatively. A flashlight beam falls on her and Kyulkyung breathes a sigh of relief, now safely hidden behind some seats to the right, completely hidden from view.

“Oh, miss. You haven’t left?”

“Uh, actually I did. I just came back because I remembered that I was supposed to check up on the new footages. But I fell asleep so…” She comes up with an excuse, scratches the back of her head, trying to look sheepish.

“Oh, is that so? Well, I was about to go. Just finishing up my rounds. You should probably head out too.” Thankfully, the man sounds convinced.

“Ah, yes. Mr. Yoon. Thanks. I’ll just, uh, do that.”

As soon as the man disappears, Nayoung hurries to turn off the projectors and grabs Kyulkyung’s hand to run.

They run fast and don’t look back. Nayoung’s laughter becomes the soundtrack of her humid but mostly teenage dream summer night. The older girl’s wide grin is the centerpiece of the montage of memories. she’s secretly building. And the touch of her hand holding hers starts to feel like it’s her very lifeline.

Within minutes, they’re at Nayoung’s door, forgetting that they’re supposed to go to her hotel room from the thrill of almost getting caught.

Nayoung pulls Kyulkyung inside her apartment and they find their way to the bed in the dark. They fall on it, side by side, lying down on their stomachs, heads turned to look at each other. They don’t even bother to take off their shoes or to slip under the covers. The clock on the bedside table reads 2AM and Kyulkyung starts to feel the weariness of the day get to her but it all goes away as Nayoung scoots closer to her, her hand finding hers, their fingers loosely intertwine.

For a good moment, they just look into each other’s eyes with light smiles on their faces. Nayoung doesn’t have to know about the way Kyulkyung’s heart is threatening to break free from her chest with its eager beating, only intensifying when the older girl bridges the small space between them to let their lips touch for a gentle kiss.

“Nayoung?” Her name rolls off her lips like it’s the very air she breathes.

“Hmm?”

“Thanks for taking me to see the stars.” She says.

“You haven’t even seen anything yet.” Nayoung stifles a yawn, tilts her head to show her a confident smirk.

“Then I’ll be looking forward to seeing more with you then.” Kyulkyung says as she presses her forehead against Nayoung’s, surrenders to the repose.

“And I’ll gladly show it all to you, Kyulkyung.” Nayoung replies, wrapping her arms around Kyulkyung and pulling her even closer.

“I’ll see you in my dreams?”

“And I, you.”

-------------------------------

A/N: Well, what did you guys think? :) I'll be bringing in the angst in a couple chapters or so. But I'm having trouble with the transition because ugh maybe my brain is refusing to write the tragic parts because we all could use some napink fluff am i rite. lol. Leave comments please. I'd like to engage in discussions with y'all. And thank you so much for 97 subs and 23 upvotes! Yaaay! Blessedt. Stick with me until the end, okay? Thanks for reading! Have a great week ahead! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO NAYOUNG!!!! :)