Author's Note: Hey all! Sorry for the short update. Midterms are rolling around and I'm currently drowning in work :( I'll be back with another *longer* update soon though! Anyways, thank you for reading and pls enjoy this update while I continue to drown in the mysteries of ochem and biology :')

Eunji’s house reeked of alcohol. Several cans of beer and cola littered her kitchen counter, scattered among half-empty plates of fried chicken. Eunji’s head spun too much to count how many cans crowded her kitchen, which was probably concerning, considering how only one other person accompanied her.

Eunji tipped the remainder of the beer in her can into . “Catch up, Unnie. You’re lagging behind.”

“I didn’t realize how much you could drink,” Lee Jieun lamented, then drained her own can of beer. The smaller woman’s cheeks were glowing red, and her hand wavered unsteadily in the air as it reached for the plate of chicken. Though she had pulled her long dark hair back into a bun, wisps of hair still fell across her face and over her circle-framed glasses. Like Eunji, she was dressed comfortably in an oversized sweater and track pants.

“You came with a whole unopened pack of beer,” Eunji said. “I assumed you knew.”

Though they rarely had the chance to meet, Jieun and Eunji had been good friends for a while. They kept in close contact, and whenever the opportunity to meet arose, they took it. Tonight was one of those taken opportunities, and when Jieun had arrived about an hour ago, she had presented to Eunji a pack of beer and chicken. “I knew that you liked beer, but I didn’t know which one,” she had said with a sly smile. “I brought the one that looked the best.”

Eunji had accepted it gratefully and replied, “All beer tastes the same. We just drink it for the feeling.” That hadn’t been entirely true, but at that moment, Jieun hadn’t been holding a pack of beer; to Eunji, she’d been holding a much-needed and welcomed distraction.

“I didn’t know we’d end up going through half of it,” Jieun said.

Eunji peeked at the remaining cans of beer. “We’ll probably get through more than that.”

“If we do, I might end up drunkenly posting a selfie of us on my instagram.”

“It’ll be the IU and Jeong Eunji collab our fans have been asking for.” 

“I don’t think that’s the kind of collab they want.”

“I’m sure they’ll love it anyways,” Eunji laughed. “Are you okay, though? Don’t force yourself.”

“Oh, I’m fine. You’ll know when I’ve had too much to drink.”

Eunji rose her brows, beckoning Jieun to elaborate.

“I get loud.” Then she added the next part quietly, “And touchy.”

“Why do I sense that there’s a story behind that?”

Jieun chewed on a chicken bone and diverted her gaze. “Maybe because there is.” She dropped the clean bone onto the plate of other discarded bones. “What about you?”

Eunji’s mind was abuzz from the alcohol, and she knew that she was nearing her limit, but she still cracked open another can. “I get distracted,” she answered simply.

Jieun’s smile faltered for a split second. “I guess that’s why I’m here.”

Eunji slowly sipped her beer. “Yeah.” She knew that part of the main reason that Jieun had asked to come over was to check on Eunji. Though she hadn’t explicitly said it, Eunji appreciated her efforts nonetheless.

“How are the others?”

Now it was Eunji who wavered. She hadn’t been talking to her other members much; her daily text conversations with them had reduced to short individual messages. Their group chat that had once been so lively with memes and pictures of puppies had not been touched since the argument with Bomi. She also hadn’t reached out to Bomi since the fight.

“They’re fine,” Eunji said tightly. She took a large gulp of beer to wash away the thoughts of Bomi and her betrayal. When she put the can down, her hand wobbled a bit. She hadn’t realized it before, but she had begun to rock in her chair, unable to keep her head straight. She looked at Jieun to see if the other girl had noticed, but Eunji saw that she was also unsteady in her chair. One more can and they’d be done for the night. “You know what we should do?”

Jieun swayed in her seat. “Hm?”

Eunji took her phone and placed it in the middle of the table. “Let’s exchange phones.”

“Jeong Eunji, are you trying to steal my phone? We have the same model, you know.”

Eunji chuckled, and she could feel her thoughts swimming loosely in the sea of her mind. “No, I mean we should exchange phones so if one of us tries to use our phones, we won’t be able to.”

“Are you scared that you’ll do something you’ll regret?”

Yes. Frightfully so. Among her free-floating thoughts, that one was perfectly clear.

“Would you like to wake up tomorrow morning with an ugly selfie of us circulating all across the internet?” Eunji asked.

Jieun pursed her lips, considering. “No, I don’t,” she eventually relented and traded phones with Eunji. 

Eunji pocketed Jieun’s phone, then lifted her almost-empty can of beer. “Cheers?”

The other singer clanked her newly opened can against Eunji’s, hooting, “Cheers!”

After another hour of drinking, Eunji came to discover the different levels of Jieun’s drunkenness. First, she was loud. She laughed and shouted like her own ears couldn’t hear how elevated her voice had become, and oftentimes, Eunji had to cover her friend’s mouth in fear that her neighbors would complain. It never ended well, though, because Eunji would just wind up laughing loudly with Jieun.

The second stage was the touchiness that Jieun had been so shy about. She became overly affectionate and would constantly try to wrap her arms around Eunji. In the end, Eunji realized that it was no use trying to avoid Jieun’s hugs, and frankly, Eunji was too drunk to try. At one point, Eunji reciprocated with equally overblown drunk affection, and they were just rocking back and forth with their arms around each other, laughing at the smallest things with not a care in the world.

It was past midnight when Jieun reached the last stage: drowsiness. She collapsed on Eunji’s sofa, fast asleep, and Eunji had to stumble over her own feet to fetch a blanket for her friend. When she finished rolling Jieun into a more comfortable position and pulled the blanket over her small body, Eunji sat back against the sofa.

Her mind was an untamed sea, her thoughts just fish swimming aimlessly in the swaying waters. She could barely keep her head upright. Her body felt so heavy, but at the same time, she felt so light, like she could just float away from the chains that had been weighing her down for weeks now. She felt oddly giddy and restless, and her hands ached to do something.

She shifted her position on the floor, and when she did, she felt a sharp jab in her bottom. Frowning, she reached into her back-pocket and pulled out her phone. She broke into a quiet giggle as her hands found something to do. They lazily danced across the screen, trying to input her password, but after a few failed attempts, they simply swiped up to reveal the emergency phone dial.

The world swam around her and her vision was too blurry to see what her hands were doing, but it was like her fingers had a mind of their own. They moved without much thought, punching in a phone number that Eunji couldn’t see. When they finished dialing the number, one hand dropped and the other lifted the phone to Eunji’s ear, where she could hear the phone ringing.

She sat there, oblivious to the world around her, smiling dumbly to herself as she listened to the steady ringing of the phone. Her head still swayed side to side. After a few seconds, the phone stopped ringing and a voice, crisp and clear, cut straight through her muddled thoughts.

“Hello?”