After what happened, Eunbi and I started to actually converse like regular people. We help each other with stretches and drills, and we walk back to the dorms together. We don't always exchange words, but the company is nice. 

But Yuna was right. We do have more in common than I thought. 

We have a similar sense of humor, though questionable at times, which has us laughing whenever the other looks stupid. We also like the same kinds of movies and dramas, though I can handle scary movies (but not as good as Yuna). We like the same kind of coffee? 

I don't know. Whatever comes up in conversation is all I know about her. The good thing is that we haven't fought or had hard feelings with each other in a while. 

It's the last day of training before winter break, and we practice our balance so we don't fall too much during matches, and to practice falling the right way. I go to Eunbi after changing out of my uniform, but I find her massaging and rolling her shoulder.

"You okay?"

"I think my shoulder's bruised." I poke it, and she snaps her head towards me with a glare. "Never do that again."

"I can take a look." I was expecting her to pull her sleeve down just a little, or even have me look down her shirt, but nothing could've prepared me for when she fully takes her shirt off.

I look away for a second, but then remember I'm supposed to be examining her injury. She shifts her body so that her back is towards me. Covering her front with her shirt, I go ahead and take a seat beside her. Her back is spotted with red, and some parts already turning purple and yellow. My eyes travel to her shoulder, and right next to her bra strap is a red mark. 

My hand comes up to touch it, but I fear I might get a bruise. "Can I...?" After a moment, she nods. My fingertips touch her skin, and it's cold in contrast to mine. I press  lightly, and she sends me that glare again. Okay, so it is a bruise. My hand glides across her back, lightly pressing here and there and asking if it hurts. 

Under the overhead lights, I can see the light markings of muscle, and her shoulder blades stand out, casting a shadow. Her well-curved spine is like a deep trench: well guarded (yet battered) by skin and muscle. 

My eyes and fingers make it down lower, and while there's no sight of injury there, the dimples on her back remind me of just how skinny she is. Does Eunbi always bruise this easily? Has she always been this small? Has her back always been this smooth?

My fingertips graze her lower back, but I shake my head and pull my hand away when I notice her shiver. "You should do an ice bath, or put pain relief patches."

She puts her shirt back on, and starts fixing her things. "You want me to do an ice bath in the middle of winter?"

"You can always lay in the snow," I try to joke.

-

Sojung invites us to her home for a sleepover before we all go back to our respective places. "To start the break right," she said. She drives us with her car that I didn't even know existed. 

"Yuna, are you going to be in the front?" Sojung asks.

"I always am. No one is going to take that privilege away from me," she huffs. "Plus, I want to be in charge of the music."

"You don't want to sit with me?" I pout, loading my bags into the trunk.

"Yen, it's only a half-hour drive. You can survive that long without me." Yuna pats my stomach and pecks my lips.

When she enters the car, I see Eunbi walking our way from the dorms. I stop her when she starts to lift her carrier. "I got it," I tell her. She raises her brow, but I proceed to load her bag into the truck anyway. I thought she would at least fight me a little, but I guess when it comes to the handy work, she'd rather pass.

Sojung inspects the car once, then starts the engine and drives off. As we leave campus, I feel a tap on my arm. 

Eunbi points at something with her eyes. When I don't understand, she sighs then says, "Put your seatbelt on." I don't make a move, and her eyes change. "Don't make me say it again."

"Okay okay," I say with my hands up in defeat.

"Eunha and Yewon are already at my house. My parents already met Eunha, so they didn't mind them going there first," Sojung announces.

"I thought your parents leave for Busan?"

"They wanted to see us first before leaving. I've told them about Yerin, so of course they would want to meet her."

Yuna turns back and gives me a smile. She looks to Eunbi too, then visibly presses play on her phone.

"I love this song!" Sojung tells her to make it louder as the intro plays. The best friends in the front sing along to Lee Hi's first verse dramatically, and I laugh at the gestures they do along with it. When the chorus comes on, even Eunbi starts singing along.

"머리어깨무릎발 (head, shoulders, knees, toes)

순서대로 yeah (do it in that order, yeah)"*

I watch Yuna point at her head, shoulders, knees, and toes together with the lyrics. My eyes travel to Eunbi beside me, and she does the same move. Knowing that she has dance experience, I notice the difference in the way she moves. It's a simple movement of her arm and finger, but how can she make it look so... 

She lip syncs to the lyrics, and the memory from earlier today flashes through my mind. Eunbi's head... shoulders... back... le—

OKAY that's enough. I have a girlfriend. Who  is sitting right in front of me. Yuna has a pretty head, pretty shoulders, pretty back... Yeah. Yuna's a lot prettier than the devil beside me. 

For the rest of the ride, I keep my eyes looking out the window.

-

"Don't you think Eunbi and Yewon would be cute together?"

Yuna and I sit on the couch with the other couple on the floor choosing games, and the two youngest washing the dishes.

"Why so?" I ask. Yewon is a nice girl. She's smarter than Eunha, comes from a rich family, and is said to have never insulted anyone in her life. I wouldn't think of Eunbi as a perfect match for her, because she's not. Yet looking at them now from across the room, they look adorable. 

"They just kinda click. Yewon likes to be babied, and Eunbi likes to baby. It's weird considering they're the same age, but it's cute." Yuna leans her head on my shoulder, and sinks deeper into the couch. "I haven't eaten that much in a while. But it's nice to pig out once in a while."

"I'm going to be so out of shape when school starts again." 

"What do you guys think of truth or dare?" Eunha asks us.

"I'm not creative enough to think of good questions. It ends up being boring," I voice out.

"But I found this website loaded with truths and dares. We can play the drinking version!" 

"What's the drinking version?"

Sojung comes back with bottles of soju in on hand, and shot glasses in the other. "So when it's your turn, you're the only one that knows the question. You say your answer or do whatever, and if someone wants to know the question, they have to drink."

"All of the truths and dares have something to do with someone," Eunha says, scrolling on her phone. "I'm looking through it right now, and one of them says 'I dare you to flick the most stubborn person's head.' Another says to shout out the name of the person you find least attractive in the room."

"Sooo don't be nosy, or get drunk?" I hear Yewon ask from the kitchen. 

"If someone says my name or does something to me, I'm drinking. Not knowing would make me explode," Eunbi sighs.

"It's not really truth or dare then. Doesn't matter as long as it's fun." I pull Yuna with me to sit on the floor.

The maknaes finish up and join us in the living room. "Eunbi's the last to sit down, so she'll go first!" Eunha excitedly hands her the phone, telling her to press either truth or dare on the screen. With Eunbi sitting next to me, I hope I don't go next, because I don't want to do something potentially embarrassing this early in the game.

After a few seconds, Eunbi leans forward and slaps Sojung's knee audibly. "Ow? I'm going to assume it's something negative." 

My teammate looks at me, and for a second I think she's going to give it to me next. But she turns to her other side and hands the phone to Yewon.

Phew. That means I'll be last.

Eunha shoots me finger hearts when it's her turn, and Sojung drinks. The latter explains that she's just really curious, not jealous. None of us believed her. 

For Yuna's turn, she says my name. She whispers me the question to save me from drinking, and I blush. "Who's the most likely to be a good wife?" she told me. 

"Oh come on, that's against the rules!" Eunbi objects.

I grab my glass and down the shot. "There. Happy?" In my staring contest with her, I almost forget it's my turn. I click 'dare', because I think it's more interesting. 

I smirk when the dare appears. That's too easy. But when I hear Eunbi laugh at something Sojung says, all my thoughts scramble. It's easy. It should be easy. Why is she making it not easy?

I look to Eunbi, then realize everyone is watching and waiting for me. Don't complicate things, I hear in my head. 

Turning the phone off, I quickly turn to my other side and kiss Yuna hard and fervent that she almost falls backwards. When I bite her lip, Sojung pulls us apart. "I did not need to see you do that to my best friend." She downs a shot. "Alright, 'fess up. What was the dare?"

"To kiss the prettiest girl in the room, of course," I smile innocently. Yuna slaps my chest lightly, saying I didn't need to go that far. 

By the end of two rounds, Eunbi is the only one that's sober.

We decide to end the night by watching a movie, but everytime they say the main character's name, we have to drink. Sojung falls asleep easily in the first ten minutes, and Yewon decides to wash up and head to bed after thirty minutes. When I go to sip, I notice only one other person lifts their cup with me. Turns out the couple are asleep in each other's arms, and so is Yuna with her head in my lap. Eunbi and I exchange looks, and she tells me I should go to bed too.

I kiss Yuna's cheek to gently wake her up so I could take her to the bed in our room. After putting her to bed and brushing my teeth, I go to the kitchen for a glass of water. Sojung and Eunha are gone, and the lights have been turned off except for one lamp. I almost jump when I realize Eunbi is sitting at the table, staring at me. She staggers towards me with an almost empty bottle of soju in her hand. 

My heartbeat quickens when she steps right up to my face, letting me feel the warmth radiating off her. "Why are you still awake?" I manage to ask. 

She doesn't answer. Her eyes wander my face, and she puts the bottle down. "It was supposed to be me, wasn't it?" The smell of alcohol is strong in her breath, and my eyes droop. 

"What?"

"You wanted to kiss me."

"What?!" I cover my mouth when I say that a bit too loud. Eunbi pulls my hand down, and her breaths get heavier after each one.

"Jung Yerin... I want to kiss you too." Her voice seemingly fades into the air as she says that quietly. It barely registers in my head that she's so close to me.

"Why?" I question. I want to know more. Why do I want to know more?

"Why?" She pauses. "Because I want to know if you kiss as well as you look." There's several alarms in my head telling me to get out, but I can't help but hear more of what Eunbi has to say. "Because you kick so well. And take care of me so well." She puts her hand over my heart, and she smiles languidly. "Does Yuna make you feel like this?"

I hear a door open, and I step as far away as possible from Eunbi.

"Oh. You're still awake." Sojung appears, half-awake.

---

I love Christmas. The gifts, the lights, the colors, and the atmosphere give me joy. I really wanted to go to this Christmas Eve party thrown by the taekwondo team, so I promised my parents I would spend Christmas day with them. 

I bring Yuna with me, as well as a gift for my coach who is the host of the party. When we arrive, it seems more of an intimate get-together than a college party. It's a nice change of pace, and probably because again, my coach is the host.

Instead of soju and beer, it's champagne and wine