Jinri wasnt sure when or how she had fallen so deeply for Soojung. She'd never even voiced it, immediately squelching it down as best she could when she felt herself slipping up. It was taking a toll on Jinri's nerves, this pact of secrecy she had sworn herself alone to, she'd recently started to notice. She was becoming more unconsciously snappy and always found herself on edge.

"Can you remind me again why we’re doing this?" Jinri complains from the sink, where she scrubs at the red dye stains on her hands with a grimace and the afterthought, why did they do this without gloves?

"Because," Soojung drawls from where her head was submerged in the tub, her voice bouncing interestingly against the porcelain, leaving Jinri with the desire to hear it more and more. "Do you think we'd get noticed otherwise?" She shut the noise drowning faucet off, ironically after she had spoken.

It was hard not to notice Soojung, contrary to her own insecurities. Jinri herself liked to believe that before she'd met Soojung, Jinri's existence was in no way extraordinary, which always made her wonder why Soojung decided to talk to her in the first place, for Soojung was the first thing anyone could notice in a room.

Jinri sighs. "Well no one is going to miss your bright red hair if they tried," she voices instead.

"Thanks, doll," Soojung shot her a wink before wrapping her hair in a thick towel.

"And you know, we've gotta do something about you." Soojung walks up and lazily eyes Jinri's appearance. Soojung tucks a few stray hairs behind Jinri's ear before smiling slowly, her fingers lingering in between the strands. 

"Why are you looking at my hair like that?" Jinri eyes her suspiciously. 

"You know it’s like my favorite canvas. Its so.. al," Soojung says with insistent eyes.

Jinri makes a high-pitched gurgling sound in the back of before snatching her hair back from Soojung's grasp. "And it’s staying that way," she warns.

"I knew you'd say that," Soojung stands up suddenly, retrieving her shopping bag from earlier. "Which is why I got you these."

She pulls out a few packages of colored hair strips and proceeds to stick them haphazardly all over Jinri's head despite her complaints. She finally pulls her arms away from Jinri's scalp, and sits back to admire it. "Can I try something else, too?" Soojung asks while "blending it in."

"Sure," Jinri sighs. She really didn't want to see Soojung pouting, which would inevitably happen. Soojung chirps happily and continues with priming and polishing and plucking and shading Jinri until she could hardly take anymore, though some part of her that longed for Soojung's touch and attention was contented. Soojung finally looks satisfied and stares at Jinri admiringly.

"What?" Jinri asks impatiently.

"Nothing. You clean up good, kid." She smiles and moves away with a pat of Jinri's cheek.

Jinri rolls her eyes when she though Soojung wasn't looking, earning her a provocative slap to the rear to which Soojung pleads the fifth on committing. Soojung busies herself with throwing Jinri's dress at her and moving into the next room to change into her own, calling out that they were going to be late, (when weren't they?) prompting Jinri to wipe the dumb look off her face and throw everything on, trying deftly not to disrupt Soojung's hard work on her hair and makeup. Despite all of Jinri's complaints and how eccentric and impulsive Soojung behaved in comparison to herself, she was undeniably attracted to her all the same.

~~~

Maybe she did remember when she first realized she had a thing for Soojung. It all started a month ago, when Soojung asked Jinri for a little favor, that started the downslide in Jinri's sanity.

"Jinri, you have to ask him if he has a date to prom for me." Soojung had set her pleading eyes on Jinri and in the next moment, Jinri was walking up to him, sulking. He was alone, a rare occasion, at least.

"Hi.. Taemin, right?" He smiled fondly at Jinri, his eyes growing bright which she assumed he reserved for everyone.

"Hi, Jinri? You're friends with Soojung, right?" He was so friendly and likable it nearly made her squirm.

"Yes, thats me," Jinri confirmed lamely.

"Do you mind if I ask you something about her?" He took her silence as a cue to continue. "Does she have a date to prom yet?" 

Jinri blinked herself out of her surprise fast enough that she didn't look like a complete idiot. "Y-yeah. Totally. He's totally hot too, she'll be the envy of everyone at prom." Jinri stuttered out an impulsive lie and threw on a haphazard cheery expression. She didn't have much to worry about, Taemin wasn't the brightest bulb on the christmas tree after all.

Taemin frowned shortly, habitually perking up a moment later. "Um, okay, I'll see you there then, I guess." He gave Jinri a hurt-masking smile, not nearly the blinding one he'd normally have given, she had to admit to herself silently. She waved awkwardly and turned away from the scene, not allowing herself the chance to lift her guilty gaze to his, for fear she'd break down and tell him the truth.

"What the hell did I just do.." Jinri worried her lip between her teeth as she walked back to where she'd left Soojung.

Soojung grabbed onto Jinri's arm anxiously. "So, what did he say?"

Jinri swallowed down the guilt in her chest and avoided Soojung's eyes. "He already has a date." She threw on what she hoped was a half-convincing comforting expression.

To Jinri's surprise, Soojung threw an arm over her shoulder with a sigh and walked them lazily towards her car. "All's well that ends well, my friend. At least I can still go with you, right?"

"Sounds like a plan." Jinri squeaked out over a gulp.

~~~

The two clambered into Soojung's car—or rather, it was more of Soojung hauling Jinri most of the way because she claimed she hated heels, to which Soojung barked back that she was being ridiculous, they were platforms for crying out loud.

Upon settling into the passenger seat, Jinri notices a few things that were different this time. One, Soojung normally kept the windows rolled down no matter what temperature it was outside; she couldn't afford to mess up her hair tonight, she'd explained. Which added to the second, the stifling feeling Jinri felt in the space, but she didn't even crack a window lest Soojung nag at her. But it wasn't the air that was suffocating her, a small voice told her, it was her heart. Lastly, Jinri was noticing too much about Soojung; the tensing in her thighs when her leg moves between interchanging the pedals, that she knew Soojung was wearing her "y perfume," and since she'd announced earlier when Jinri tried to get her out of the bathroom, "calm your and let me get my on," she just couldn't help imagining Soojung in such an intimate state. Jinri in a breath and angled herself as far away from Soojung as she could without being detected, distracting herself (or attempting to) with staring out her window the rest of the way.

When they'd parked and made their way to the entrance, the ticket woman giving them a haughty look-down at their questionable garb and fashionably late entrance, but really who expected anything other than black, lacy, skin-tight clothing and dyed hair when it came to Soojung? She tossed the tickets at the woman with an amused glance and pulled Jinri right along with her into the building, a dramatic flip of her hair leaving the attendant dazed. Jinri rolled her eyes and her heart gave a little flutter when Soojung didn't let her go until the two got to a table, where Soojung pushed her into a chair and prompted her to wait there. Jinri's eyebrows furrowed, looking idly in the direction Soojung left and fiddling with the ornamented tablecloth until she strutted her way back with two glasses in her hands.

"Champagne for the lovely lady?" Soojung waggles her brows as she holds the glass out to Jinri. 

"Thanks," Jinri takes the sparkling cider with an amused twirk of her lips.

She lifts the glass to take a sip just as Soojung blurts, "Hey, theres Taemin with his date."

Jinri inhaled so hard the drink nearly spewed through her nose, and Soojung erupts into laughter. Soojung offers her a napkin and a pat on the back. "It’s not that strong of a liquor is it?" She smirks.

"N-no, I—" She glances to the side to see Taemin and his date facing their direction and Taemin eyeing Soojung longingly. Jinri thinks she’s going to hurl.

Soojung squints and follows Jinri's line of sight. "Oh, its Minzy. They're gonna hog the dance floor all night, knowing them."

Jinri looks at her incredulously, and back to Taemin when he waves and looks like he's going to walk over. Jinri sets down her glass shakily and plots a way to get out of there because Soojung's going to find out what she did and she knows it.

She counts to three and bolts when she thinks Soojung won’t notice, but shes the noisiest walker and Soojung could always feel when she was near or far at any time, there was this empty feeling when she wasn't there. Jinri's heart pounds a thousand beats a minute as she floors it the hell out of there, and doesn't care if Soojung's right behind her, but her arm is caught as shes scaling the wall attempting to escape through the doorway up ahead.

She heats up and her blood runs cold all at the same time. She gulps and turns to face Soojung's stern expression, which she doesn't find all that uny in the least (thoughts like this was wrong, and were both girls flood her mind and suffocate the fleeting feeling.)

This isn't supposed to be happening, Jinri thinks, feeling woozy. "Jinri, are you okay?" The concerned look in her eyes causes Jinri's thoughts to stop swirling.

Jinri opens , and she swears shes going to be brave and admit to everything and pray that Soojung will still want to talk to her.

"Soojung!" Jinri and Soojung both started at the sound.

"Hey Taemin," Soojung smiles as the skinny boy approaches. Jinri averts her eyes, taking almost unrecognizable steps away from the two. Soojung fills them instantly and Jinri huffs in complaint.

Taemin looks between the two, oblivious. "Did you leave your date all alone? Poor guy." Jinri nearly plants her face in her arms.

Soojung blinks confused for a second but smiles secretively, thinking Jinri must have covered for her so she wouldn't look lame when she got rejected. "My date ditched me at the last minute. I came alone." Soojung nods to Taemin's date as she sidles up to him and takes one of the glasses from his hands.

"That’s unfortunate.. And to think I thought he was lucky." Taemin’s date nudges him and Jinri makes a noise in the back of . "Anyway I should get going, Minzy wants to dance.. I hope you have fun, anyhow, you know, without a date.." he trailed, sounding almost wistful.

"Will do," Soojung smiles and waves them off, not before making them promise they'll have a good time, but not too much fun. She sighs before turning to see that Jinri had slipped away while she was distracted.

"Jinri, come on," She repeats under her breath as she scrambled around the lobby, bathrooms, and halls for her best friend. She finally finds her out on the side of the building in a shady area lighting up a cigarette with a couple of those grungy kids from their grade, she was surprised they were even there honestly.

"Jinri," Soojung breathes when she gets to them. The two boys eye her up and down approvingly, to which she tells them to scram. She turns to Jinri when they're left alone in a cold silence. "What the hell is wrong with you?" She demanded.

She clicks her teeth when Jinri looks anywhere but at her, snatching the cigarette from her hand and throwing it to the ground before it can even touch her lips.

"We need to talk." Jinri sighs and leans against the wall, sliding down slowly.

Soojung silently joins her on the ground, pulling her knees to her chest and pressing her back against the wall. She waits for Jinri to talk because she has her where she wants her and doesn't want to scare her off now.

"You know how you asked me to ask Taemin to prom for you? Well I was all ready to, but he interrupts me and asks me if you had a date first, and I was surprised and it could've been really easy for everyone if I had just told him to ask you out."

"But you didn't.." Soojung pieces it together in her head.

Jinri gulps. "No.. I made up some dumb thing and I don't know what was wrong with me it just came out on its own. And I'm sorry. You would've probably come here with him tonight if I hadn't been stupid and I think he probably really likes you and I'm so stupid and sorry, you don't have to talk to me ever again if you don't want to."

Soojung blinks and stays silent for a few seconds, and Jinri wants to gnaw her own nails off. "You ruined my chances with Taemin.. on purpose?"

"I know, it sounds so frenemy-like but it’s not like that, okay, I actually hate him," Jinri explains in a flurry. "Its.. I like you okay, and I was scared I guess because you don't like me and you're interested in him and if he liked you then I would just be a miserable third wheel. But now I'm probably just miserable," she adds the last part under her breath.

"Who says I don't like you?" Soojung looks at her seriously and Jinri freezes.

"You.. you don't hate me?" She sputters, awestruck.

Soojung shakes her head and chuckles. "Let’s go back inside." Soojung stands and Jinri looks up in surprise at the hand outstretched towards her. She allows Soojung to pick her up and she doesn't let go (as usual) but this time she laces their fingers together.

Somewhere on their walk back, Soojung reaches behind and her hand lingers on Jinri's , to which Jinri flusters up and Soojung passes it off as dusting some dirt off for her, but her lingering smile gives her away.