lip gloss liquor
shot glass girls
Apologies for the wait! I was working on two other fics for the RV ficfest + being slayed by The Velvet girls + finals are coming up ∴ no time for betaing hohoho
I feel like it's a mess, but considering pretty much everyone is drunk in this…yeah. This is actually a twoshot that might end up as a threeshot if I get more things out of the way :P
(psst someone give more life to this renestal ship, it's lonely ㅋㅋㅋ)
edit: made corrections to the typos I overlooked, as well as other unsatisfactory bits…
Joohyun is drunk out of her mind when she's dragged into playing spin the bottle.
She has no idea how it happened, but she does know that the rank liquid sitting in front of her is a less than appealing forfeit right now. Honestly, she can't comprehend how mixing Jack Daniel's, beer, and soju together can create something that smells like death and looks like Satan's tears, but apparently Park Sooyoung can accomplish the impossible.
Looking around the circle of shameless leers and growing anticipation sent her way, she mumbles a quiet "Pass," before downing a shot of it with a grimace. Someone cackles, and Joohyun throws a glare in Sooyoung's direction to avoid looking at the eyes of the chestnut-haired girl who she might have just offended. She's tempted to explain herself, to tell her it's nothing personal and Joohyun's definitely into that — maybe a little too into that for her spotless Daegu girl reputation. And truthfully, it's not because she's not attracted to her at all, since Joohyun's pretty sure she's just lost her chance to kiss a supermodel.
It's more just that when she's too drunk to feel the weight of alcohol yet sober enough to make some sane decisions, she finds that avoiding all intimate contact is the best way to not end up in bed with a stranger via her embarrassing drunk libido.
(In hindsight, Joohyun thinks briefly that drinking away her problems wasn't exactly the brightest idea.
She passes her turn with two eager-eyed frat boys and takes the penalty shots anyway.)
Everyone else is pretty hammered too as far as she can tell, but then again it's an Amber Liu party, so it's a given. Still, she has no idea how she got there or why, just that it involved a certain annoyingly persuasive llama and unjust peer pressuring from her friends.
("Jinah's going too, so at least you'll know what, four people now?" Seulgi had offered alongside her best friend's puppy-dog eyes.
"Plus two, counting us," Wendy had added, and Joohyun could only sigh.
"Stop pouting, Seungwan," was all the older girl replied with, only to give in a minute later when the duo presented her with five bottles of Downy, all in the largest size possible and complete with different scents — two of which were limited edition.)
Curse them and their devious methods of persuasion.
Joohyun scowls to herself and announces she's leaving the game, ignoring the slurred protests trailing behind her as she pulls herself up with the help of a nearby countertop. Stumbling out of the spacious kitchen, she narrowly avoids colliding with a hulking lump of jock and muscle as she grabs a cup from the punch table, lamenting on her poor friend choices as she goes.
"Hey, you're here!" Someone calls all of a sudden, and then the party host herself is appearing out of nowhere and pulling on the shorter girl's sweater. "Come on, sit, sit!"
"Sit where?" Joohyun mutters back, eliciting a laugh from her friend as she directs her to a couch that's somehow magically appeared behind them. Joohyun swears it wasn't there before, but whatever.
"Man, you're hammered," Amber chuckles, prying the cup from her hand and placing it on the coffee table. "It's only nine, how much have you had to drink?"
"Spin The Bottle," is all the older girl says in explanation, sinking back against the sofa with arms flopping out carelessly at her sides. "No kisses."
“Geez, you forfeited? How many times?"
"Three," Joohyun hiccups, holding up five digits. She pauses, scowls at her hand, and stares at a cup on the table in front of her. “Not including pre-party drinks, so…I think I'm drunk."
"I think we already established that," Amber replies, earning herself a long-suffering groan as her inebriated companion decides to slide down sideways against her. She laughs and pats her shoulder, and Joohyun attempts to mumble something into her sleeve.
“What was that?” the tomboy asks, waiting patiently as she sits up again with a scowl.
“I'm also broke,” she states sombrely. "I'm broke and single and I'll probably remain like this forever."
“No. Hyun, come on.” The younger one snorts, nudges her elbow. "Okay, you might be kinda broke, but you won't be broke forever. And as for being single, well — you do know you're kind of the campus goddess, right?"
Joohyun scoffs loudly, downing the rest of her drink in one go then setting it down with a slow shake of her head. "That doesn't matter when the only people who seem to appeal to me are straight girls who want to either impress their boyfriends, or just have a one-time experiment. Because, you know, ‘college’ and all that."
“College is a place of opportunity,” Amber says sagely, taking a bottle of beer out of nowhere (or has it always been in her hand? Joohyun squints) and swigging it. She pats her shoulder sympathetically, and in that moment Joohyun feels like snatching the damn thing and chucking it at the head of some guy across the room. “Your time will come, Joohyunnie."
“And I thought I was the only drunk one, here,” the older girl mutters, eyeing the bottle cautiously.
Amber shrugs. "Well I'm just tipsy really, but —"
“Liu."
They both turn at the voice, Joohyun starting slightly at the intrusion before looking up.
It's the brunette from Spin The Bottle, come back to haunt her for turning down those really attractive lips that may or may not be lined with some kind of warm carnelian sheen. Joohyun purses her own lips. She doesn't know what flavour gloss that is, but she wants to find out.
(For the sake of buying some for herself, of course. After all, if it looks that attractive, it's something worth getting.)
Those very lips open and close around words that seem to be directed at Amber, so Joohyun settles for watching them in quiet fascination. The way they move, mold around syllables, flashing pearly whites every now and then in the darkness of the room. God, she could probably write a whole thesis about them. Probably. Maybe when she's sober.
But seriously, lip-reading seems like a really interesting skill to learn right now.
"— is Joohyun. Say 'hi', Joohyun-unnie!"
She's pretty sure she's missing something, but she understands a social cue when she sees one in their expectant eyes, now turned towards her. So she levels her gaze, mentally replays Amber's words, and tries for the most appropriate response she can think of.
"I'm drowning.*"
There's a brief pause where someone stops the pop music previously playing and switches on something even louder, even more energetic. Then Amber says something like, “Gold star for trying!”, but Joohyun doesn’t register it as she watches the pretty girl blink before opening and —
"Hey, Am!” Henry bursts in then in a frenzied panic, effectively halting her. "So Kevin can't find Jack Jack and we think he might have slipped out back into the neighbour's garden but I’m not really sure so you might wanna —"
“Whoa okay, I’m coming, hang on.” Amber scrambles to her feet, moving to follow him just as she remembers her company and turns back to her two companions with a raised eyebrow. "I can leave you guys alone, right?” Joohyun stares up at her, tries to read words from , and fails. "Great! Try not to eat each other up while I'm gone? Catch you later!"
“Wait, Am —“ she disappears into the crowd of bodies in the next second, and the brunette stranger deflates, “— ber. Damn jumpy llama."
Silence reigns between them for several moments as the heavy bass of house music rings in Joohyun's ears. Her fight or flight instincts battle fiercely in her drunken state, and she contemplates excusing herself from the awkwardness under the guise of having to meet a friend. Or something.
Her body is a traitor to her rationale though, and the fight instinct — the one intent on digging her into a hole called 'socialising', apparently — is the one that wins.
“Well," she hears herself say over the noise, and she really needs more alcohol in her system for this. “Loud party."
“Noisy,” the other girl responds, and at this point Joohyun settles for nicknaming her 'lip gloss girl' for the sole distraction that is her insanely attractive lips. She also decides that if they're going to carry on talking, then she doesn't want to be yelling over the music.
"Agreed," she nods, finishing off her cup before standing up on precarious heels and reaching for Amber's beer, abandoned half-full on the table. "You're a friend of Amber's?"
"Yeah." The girl's voice is closer now; a soft, warm tone that sounds almost ehetereal against the thumping beat of club music. Joohyun doesn't notice she's wobbling until the taller girl puts a steadying hand on her arm. "You too?"
She glances away from cherry lips and spots Seulgi and Wendy doing body shots for a small crowd; a new party trick of theirs that's more of a growing habit between them than anything. Even from afar Joohyun sees that it's as if they were in their own world, laughing against each other's slick, salt-lined skin and lemon rinds from one another's bared teeth as overexcited onlookers watch on.
(And Joohyun's happy if they're happy doing that, but some help in the social field would be very much appreciated, right now.)
“More like her free part-time Korean tutor," she burbles eventually, tearing her eyes away from her friends as she lets herself lean into the other girl, waiting for her stomach to stop swishing and her heart to stop dancing. The brunette sways a little with the weight until she steadies herself, and suddenly they're leaning on each other; sides pressing against one another in a way that's as comfortable as it is distracting.
“Hey," the stranger shifts, her hand brushing Joohyun's lightly. Her fingers are cool, wet with the condensation of her bottle of cider. Joohyun tries not to catch them with her own. "Do you want to go somewhere a little quieter?"
The shorter woman feels herself getting hot and it's another case of mind versus body, because logically she can't do this — can't talk to pretty girls with dangerous lips and -me eyes when they could just as well be outstandingly more heteroual than Joohyun can ever hope to be.
Their stares linger on one another for a few seconds longer than what's normal then, but Joohyun pins it down to the alcohol.
Which, as usual, will be her saving grace.
Come on. You can do this.
“Sure," she utters eventually, and when she realises she can't be heard over the music she nudges the girl's arm with a nod. A slender hand cups the back of her elbow in reply, holding it to keep Joohyun steady as the latter ends up guiding them down the most familiar route she knows from muscle memory.
A few stumbles and a near miss with the punch table later, and they end up standing in the middle of Amber’s poor excuse of a laundry room, complete with the smell of dog and dude from all her fellow housemates.
And yet Amber still refuses to let Joohyun at least help take care of some of the laundry. She makes a mental note to address that later, but right now she's regretting her decision to navigate around when drunk, since the laundry room itself is barely big enough to accommodate a washing machine and a tiny pup of a dog, let alone two drunk women. The whole notion of even talking is almost thrown out of the window completely when her compnaion moves to lean on the wall opposite her, leaving only millimetres of space between them.
Joohyun doesn't run away like she so desperately wants to though, because apparently her brain-to-leg functions have completely shut down. She settles instead for taking a large mouthful of beer before setting it down on the counter behind her, holding the liquid in to let the alcohol soak on her tongue.
More alcohol. You just need more alcohol.
“So." She swallows it all in one go and nods, mindful of keeping her hands to herself. "Name. Your name." A beat follows where Joohyun gets sidetracked by those lips again, and only just manages to add, superfluously, "Since you know mine."
The brunette takes a moment to process the request as she sets her drink down on the counter as well, almost spilling it in the process. "Soo…" The girl begins, tilts her head to the side, then straightens up again.
"Sooyoung?" The shorter one tries to guess, but as soon as the name slips from her lips her mind goes straight to the other 'Sooyoung's she knows, and comes to the conclusion that there's no possible way that this person is anything like a giant shikshin or a chicken lover from hell. So she's relieved when the other girl shakes her head, and instead attempts again.
“Okay, uh…Sooyeon?"
"Jessica-unnie," the girl immediately mumbles as she reaches for her drink once more, and Joohyun blinks blankly at her. She smiles at her expression, waves her hand dismissively. "Not me."
"Soomin, then?"
"Only if you're Sungji."
"… I don't understand…"
Another shake of the head, and a sip of her drink. "…It's Jung."
"Who?"
"Me."
"Your surname?"
She pauses, nods. "That too," the taller one murmurs into her bottle. "Add 'Soo'."
"Soo?"
"Jung."
"Jung. Soo." Joohyun claps once in realisation. "Ah! Soojung?"
A quirk of the lips. "Yeah, that one."
Joohyun beams at her. "Jung Soojung." Then as they share a smile, a lightbulb seems to flicker on inside the older girl's head. "Hey, it's the same both ways. Jung Soojung forwards —"
"— And Jung Soojung backwards."
Said girl blushes as she says it, and Joohyun finds herself giggling; the feverish thoughts of too close, too hot, too pretty momentarily replaced by cute, cute, adorable.
"Call me Hyun," she says then, because talking is easier now with more alcohol in her system and a pretty name to put to a pretty face. "My friends call me Hyun." The room spins a little when she nods, so she shakes her head to balance it out. "I have weird friends."
"Ditto," Soojung says immediately, then when Joohyun gives her a quizzical look she reiterates, "I, too, have really weird friends. They're nice."
"That's good," Joohyun says sincerely, reaches back for her drink. "Very good. A toast to nice weird friends."
Their bottles clink together with a little too much force, and Soojung ends up laughing as the resounding clang startles Joohyun and causes her to knock over some old container of detergent. When her laughter dies down against the music from the party, the silence that settles around them is a lot more comfortable than before. Joohyun finds it calming in a strange way; drinking with someone who's as quiet as she is and just as awkward about it, too. It also helps that the EDM music that Amber insists on playing is muted slightly by the walls, so the constant pounding is just in her chest and not in her head, now.
There's a sound of a crash a few rooms over — either a fight or an overzealous frat boy, no doubt — and Joohyun jumps again. The taller brunette doesn't laugh this time, just smiles softly at her. Joohyun has to look away as another moment passes, and suddenly there's a word on her lips; a name that has her staring intently down at the floor.
"Soojung."
Her reaction is a little delayed, but Joohyun is patient. "Yes?" Soojung replies, quiet in response to the sound of her name being called so hesitantly.
Joohyun shakes her head, smiles down at her stilettos. "Nothing. Just testing how it sounds."
She chances a glance upwards at the silence that follows; sees Soojung tilting her head to the side again with a different kind of look in her eyes. It's the same quiet mirth from before; except now it's somehow darker, more open, and Joohyun has no idea why or what it means.
Soojung moves then, and the emptiness of her bottle is only apparent when she leans forward to set it on the counter beside Joohyun. Their arms brush fleetingly then, and the focus in the shorter girl's gaze increases tenfold on the checkered linoleum floor.
"Hyun." Soojung speaks first this time, and she tries not to be too startled.
"Mm?" she murmurs, notes the tiny remainders of her drink.
She expects a mimicked "Nothing," from her, but the other brunette shifts her weight and rests back against the wall with a hum. "You've been staring at my lips a lot," she says instead, and Joohyun almost drops her bottle.
She drums her fingers along the edge of the counter, in a breath, and begins evasive manoeuvres. "Have I?"
"Yes," is all that needs to be said to dash her attempt at innocence.
"Oh." The alcohol is a little harder to swallow this time because Soojung's staring at her with this intense look, and Joohyun just manages to cough out a bashful, "Sorry."
It doesn't help when the girl leans closer, raising her eyebrows curiously. "Is there something on my mouth?"
A second passes as the need to close the distance between them is shoved down mercilessly. "Yes," Joohyun answers honestly, staring pointedly down at her feet. "Where did you get your lip gloss from?"
"Etude House," Soojung replies easily, foreign words rolling off her tongue in perfect pronunciation.
(Joohyun’s never heard anything more attractive, and seriously —
She reckons she deserves an award for all this self-control.)
She gulps, letting out a breath she didn't know she was holding, and clutches tight at the countertop. Another long pause, and Joohyun almost thinks she's gotten away with just that — end of conversation, and all — when Soojung speaks up again with a hushed, "Hey… you know earlier?"
Joohyun frowns in confusion, watches the way the dim lights accentuate the line of her jaw. "During spin the bottle?" Soojung clarifies, and hot blood immediately rushes up to her neck at where this seems to be going.
"Yes…?" the shorter woman replies tentatively, inwardly cursing her inability to lie.
Soojung waits just a moment, worrying a lip between her teeth before finally blurting:
"Why didn't you kiss me?"
It's simultaneously the most and least expected thing to come out of , and for a few long seconds Joohyun's too taken back to answer.
"I—I…"
Soojung doesn't look away from her, so Joohyun averts her gaze to the ceiling, the wall — anywhere but those god-forsaken eyes and those damning lips.
"I…panicked?" she stammers out eventually, relinquishing her hold on the counter. A single "Oh," falls from Soojung's lips, and Joohyun inhales. The simple syllable sounds almost disappointed, but even while drunk, she knows not to be so delusional.
Still, it doesn't stop her intoxicated brain-to-mouth filter from blurting out a stupidly desperate, "I can make it up you now, though."
The sentence drops like a rock in the ocean, and Joohyun stutters for a moment, mortified. "Or, like —" she fumbles for an easy escape, but the only thing thing she manages to do is set her bottle aside lest her hands give up, much like her brain already has. "Sorry, I'm —" Too gay to function and a stupid mess of —
"Would you?"
All thoughts and excuses clamour to a stop at those two words, and somehow Joohyun ends up more awkward and unresponsive than she was before. Soojung continues to stare at her with that curious glint in her eyes though, and it takes barely another second for Joohyun to respond with a single nod of the head, her lips suddenly too dry and way too eager to kiss someone she's just met.
The small, shy smile that she receives is all the signal she needs, so she pushes off the counter and leans up only slightly so that they're face-to-face. She reckons that without her heels Soojung would have to bend down more, which would probably be kind of cute in any other situation if they weren't both piss-drunk. As it stands, Joohyun finds herself almost grateful for the five-inch death traps on her feet that kill her ankles as much as they boost her height.
"Have you done this before?" Soojung mumbles, and Joohyun pauses. The question turns over in her mind, going from "Done what?" to "Kissed a girl?" to "Kissed a girl who's probably never kissed a girl?" in a split second before she decides — it, straight or not-so-straight, she's too drunk to care now.
"I've done more," Joohyun says honestly, flashing a crooked smile up at her as she cups her jaw. Deep chocolate browns flutter closed in response, and Joohyun purses her lips, presses closer so she's only inches away. Her senses are aded by the smell of her hair — a light mixture of pomegranate and rose — and the faint wash of perfume on her neck. There's a flit of fingertips settling across Joohyun's waist, a hint of vodka and mint and cranberry on her breath; the scent of the special cocktail Eric was making rounds of earlier. It brushes warm against her lips, burning like the heat that seems to radiate off the taller girl when their noses brush, hesitating briefly as Joohyun angles her head slightly and —
The door to the kitchen adjacent to them bangs open as the handle collides with the wall, and a muttered curse follows as Sooyoung enters the room mid-stumble. Joohyun only just finds it in her to pull away as her friend looks up and spots the two of them in the laundry room, her distress morphing into something like bemusement as she her eyebrows.
"Am I interrupting something?"
Joohyun frowns, tries not to notice the sudden absence of warmth when she settles back against the counter. "Well —"
"Whatever, if I wasn't," Sooyoung waves dismissively, trotting over to the refrigerator without another glance at the pair who she just caught almost red-handed. "Then I will sit here consumed with anger for the rest of the evening."
She grabs some milk from a compartment and hops up onto a kitchen counter with unusual ease, considering how much Joohyun's seen her drink tonight. It's quiet, and no one bothers to tell her not to have someone else's milk straight out of the carton, because the only other people around are too busy trying to act as if they hadn't just been about to kiss in a laundry room. As the concerned friend she is though, Joohyun collects herself enough to attempt an enquiry into her younger friend's current mood.
"What?" had sounded a lot more wordy and sincere in her mind, but out loud she just winces. Sooyoung doesn't answer her anyway though; just lolls her head to the side before glancing over at the doorway as the clicking of heels approaches the kitchen.
"Well, here comes the wine mom brigade…"
"Hey, all!" Wendy greets jovially, looking annoyingly chirpy with her cup of what's probably just straight-up merlot. "Oh Soojung, I see you made it this time!"
"Thank Amber," Soojung grumbles, and Joohyun gives a start as the taller girl sidles out into the kitchen and pulls her along too. "And Jinro. They're annoyingly good at making me agree to social events."
Wendy grins, eyes flitting over the dazed looks that stare blankly at her. "You guys look completely plastered."
Joohyun bites back a "You're one to talk," as Soojung hands her a cup of water out of nowhere. "And you look positively banging," Sooyoung drawls. "Out to impress tonight?"
Wendy laughs a little, picks a finger at the hem of her dress with a small smile. "Seulgi picked it out."
Sooyoung cackles into her carton of milk. "Fashion terrorist Seulgi? Our Seulgi?"
"Whose Seulgi?"
The girl in question appears behind Wendy with her 'fashion terrorist' flannel shirt and a bottle of pinot grigio in hand, exchanging a wave with Soojung before turning to Wendy and frowning.
"Hey, I thought you were with your boyf —" she stops herself, rolls her eyes slightly, and nods, "— Eric."
Wendy scowls, takes a long sip of her wine. "He's not my boyfriend."
"Could've fooled me," Seulgi mutters, and Wendy looks like she's going to say something back, but holds it in with a pained frown that Joohyun's becoming way too familiar with seeing between her two closest friends. She finds herself glancing at Soojung beside her, and for a moment they both share a knowing look. The tension becomes a little too stifling eventually, so Joohyun decides to act like the grown-up that she should be and tries to grasp a handle on the situation at hand.
"Sooyoung," she calls then, as stern as possible. "Stop drinking from other people's fridges."
The younger girl instantly scowls, clutching the carton to her chest. "I'm mad and drunk, I can drink whatever I want," she protests, only to grimace a second later at the small leak in the bottom that she's unintentionally made. "Actually, you know what? I'm sick of milk. Here, catch."
There's barely an opening for Joohyun to react and actually catch it in all her un-athletic glory, and it's made nigh impossible while inebriated. "Sooyoung!" is all Joohyun can cry, jumping back in time to miss the splash of dairy that grazes her right arm. "What the hell are you doing?!"
Sooyoung looks just as surprised as she is, except less angry about it. This, Joohyun recalls later, is when Wendy dissolves into an emotional mess.
"She — She ing spilled it," the music major stammers, suddenly falling to her knees with a hand to her head. Seulgi draws a long breath in response, crouches beside the girl, and pops open her bottle of wine. "Joohyun-unnie, how could you — How could you?"
Joohyun gapes at her, then at the giant puddle on the floor, before realising that she's sobering up way too fast to actually be dealing with this.
Jesus, Seungwan just gives a whole new meaning to crying over spilled milk.
"Ew."
The voice next to her sounds a little less slurred than she remembers, and Joohyun whips around to see Soojung holding her shirt out, her face screwed up in mild disgust and distress as cold, spilled milk drips off her front.
"Oh my God," she mumbles. "Soojung."
"It's okay," Soojung winces, tugs at the dark stain and the white rivulets spreading along her shirt. "It's perfectly fine."
Joohyun shakes her head adamantly. "No, no, take your shirt off, I'll fix it."
Sooyoung squints, kicks her legs against the counter as she leans forward in her seat. "Not that I wouldn't mind the free strip show, but are you sure that's —"
"I can fix it," Joohyun resolves just as their party host appears, hair dishevelled and breathing a sigh of relief at the sight of Joohyun and Soojung standing across from the doorway.
"Found you!" she exclaims, stepping into the room with a grin. "I couldn't see you guys anywhere, I was getting worried that — why is Wendy on the floor crying? Wait, Seulgi, don't do that!" The tomboy snatches the bottle of wine from the girl's hands before she has a chance to pour it over her companion. Seulgi sits back in defeat and just watches Wendy sob some more as Amber stands again, running a hand through her hair. "Christ. So, what else did I miss?"
Sooyoung points at the spilled milk on the floor, and Joohyun points at the girl holding part of said milk on her shirt.
"Okay." Amber cringes, scratches her neck. "Well at least you didn't set fire to anything this time."
Sooyoung shrugs, mutters a "This time," under her breath that Amber either doesn't catch or just ignores, as she steps over the milk and pokes at the tent that Soojung's managed to form by holding her shirt out.
"You're going to need a new shirt, Princess," she quips, and Soojung immediately pouts.
"But I like this one…" she murmurs sadly, looking so much like the picture of a forlorn kitten that Joohyun almost offers to buy all kinds of shirts that she most definitely can't afford right now.
"I mean for replacing this one temporarily," Amber laughs, scrunching up her nose. "Trust me, you don't want to go home stinking of milk."
"I can clean it," Joohyun volunteers, but the tomboy shakes her head.
"You don't have to go through the trouble, unnie —"
"But I want my shirt fixed by Hyun," Soojung whines, clinging onto Amber's arm now.
"I haven't got enough alcohol in my system for this," the poor girl groans, and Joohyun lifts her cup of water to her in silent agreement. "Look, Seulgi'll give you her shirt to wear for now, alright?"
Seulgi pauses in patting Wendy's head as she looks up with a blink. "I will?"
"Yep," Amber smiles. "So Seulgi can use Wendy's jacket while Krys uses Seul's shirt, and Joohyun-unnie can wash Krys's shirt in the meantime."
"That's so confusing," Sooyoung moans, leaning her head back against the cupboard behind her. "And who the hell is Krys?"
"Moi," Soojung raises her hand, wiggling her fingers. "Je m'appelle —"
"Alright, Frenchie," Amber cuts in, taking her by the shoulders and steering her into the laundry room. "Let's get clothes-swapped, people!" she yells, ignoring her friend's yelp of protest as she bundles her into the tiny room and turns to Seulgi. "Just need your shirt. Your tank top looks hella great, by the way."
The art major shoots her a lopsided grin in thanks, shrugging her flannel off with Wendy's help as she wipes the last of the tears from her cheeks. There's a brief lull in conversation as she aids in tugging one sleeve off, only to stop with wide eyes as her hands come to rest on the other girl's bicep.
"Were your arms always this nice?" Wendy mumbles in awe, squeezing gently as Seulgi stutters and allows Amber to take the rest of her shirt off from her free arm. Amber sniggers to herself as she walks over and passes the shirt through to Soojung, and Joohyun goes to refill her water at the sink to save herself from having to watch another round of Wendy and Seulgi being overaffectionate idiots. Honestly, she gets enough of it when they're sober — and they're not even a couple, for Christ's sake.
Sooyoung seems to read her mind at that, and makes this loud noise between a grunt and a growl as she waves a hand at them. "Save the sweet talk for later in the bedroom, you guys."
It works in having them jump apart, looking like they've just been caught doing something a lot more taboo than just giving everyone in the vicinity cavities. Then there's a knock on the door, and Joohyun supposes dying of WenSeul-induced diabetes may be a better way to go than having a heart attack over every little sound that startles her.
"Whoa, didn't know there was a lady party going on back here."
The more sober ones in the room look up to see one Lee Hyeri poking her head around the doorway, and Joohyun silently wonders if Amber's kitchen has just become a place for drunk lesbians to congregate. She corrects herself quickly in that technically only three that she knows of are purely gay, including herself. Soojung is, of course, a blank space, and Amber and Wendy have always been more for liking people in general.
(Then there's Satan's incarnate Park Sooyoung, who still stands at a null for her devil-may-care attitude towards romance and uality.
Joohyun's long given up on trying to understand that girl, honestly.)
"Just some minor altercations," Amber shrugs when no one else answers, reaching for the milk carton on the floor and frowning at the contents — or lack thereof.
"Oh yeah, and you!" Hyeri points at Seulgi, trudging over to her with lethargy. "Ahyoung's been looking for you. She's tired of being the only sober one here, so if you still want a lift then you should get going before she leaves without you."
"Sojin-unnie has her truly whipped into a life of sobriety," Seulgi muses, then at everyone else's curious looks, she explains, "I asked if she could give us a lift back. 'Us', being me and Wendy."
"Eric's taking me back with Kevin and Jimin," Wendy says as she clambers to her feet, avoiding Seulgi's gaze as she sniffs and turns to the girl emerging from the laundry room just then. "Soojung, are you staying?"
The taller girl immediately shakes her head as she comes to rest beside Joohyun. "I'm actually —" she glances up at the one AM reading on the clock beside the door, and her content expression falls in that a split second. "Wait — , I have class tomorrow."
Joohyun almost slaps her own forehead, but settles for shutting her eyes at the reminder.
Class. How could I forget?
…Actually, do I even have a lecture tomorrow?
"You coming with, Baechu?"
Seulgi's voice tears her out of her thoughts in all it's jolliness, and Joohyun chooses not to comment on how forced the girl's smile looks as Wendy slips out of the room in search of her ride home.
"I'll stay a little longer, thanks," she answers in the end, chugging the rest of her water as the alcohol in her system becomes more diluted with each second.
"Just me and Soojung, then," Seulgi tells Hyeri, before adding, "I'll catch up in a minute. Let me just take care of something really quick and we can meet up at the front, okay?"
"Whatever you say," Hyeri drawls, and Seulgi barely hangs around to wave goodbye at the others before darting out of the room and disappearing into the crowd. Joohyun presses her lips together and hopes she doesn't do something stupid — like, perhaps, start a fight with Wendy's chauffeurs for the night.
"Soojung?" Hyeri turns to the girl beside her, and Joohyun can't help but chuckle at the startled look that crosses her face as she helps herself to a cup of water.
"Oh. Right." The cup is set down on the counter a little unsteadily, before Soojung pulls herself away and straightens up. She wobbles slightly and manages a bashful smile as she leaves her side, and Joohyun can only wonder why on earth she didn't just kiss her earlier; interruptions be damned. "Bye, 'Ber," the taller brunette waves, ignoring Hyeri's amused snort as she looks over her shoulder to reach out and waggle her fingers at Joohyun. "Bye, Hyun."
She smiles, reaching forward and squeezing her hand gently before letting go with a wave. "Bye, Soojung."
There's an aura that seems to light up the room when the girl curves her eyes back at her, and minutes later Joohyun's still grinning to herself and her empty cup as the pumping bass of music becomes muted under the pleasant thrum in her chest.
It's only when she sees movement out of the corner of her eye that she notices Amber still lingering around with a mug of coffee in hand. Sooyoung's disappeared at some point after their farewells, and suddenly the clock on the wall is nearing half-past one. The tomboy wordlessly offers her the mug, and despite her own distaste of the drink she takes a sip, and hums at the bittersweet liquid as it trickles down .
"…So." Amber grins after a quiet moment, and Joohyun puts her hand up before she can get any further.
"Don't start," she mutters, and decides to retire for the night in the upstairs gaming lounge because she can, and because she shouldn't logically try to make her way home half-drunk. As she makes her way upstairs the tomboy follows her, and Joohyun makes a low sound of gratitude when her friend automatically heads to her bedroom and brings back a blanket to settle over the couch.
She stands there for a moment with a poorly hidden grin as Joohyun wraps herself in the blanket and snuggles in, and when the older girl gives her a pointed look she just snickers.
"I wasn't going to say anything," Amber proclaims with faux innocence, and Joohyun rolls her eyes. "But I do apologise for ditching you."
"Apology accepted."
"Awesome," she smiles, sitting down on the sofa beside Joohyun's feet with a raise of an eyebrow. "I left Krys's shirt hanging in the bathroom downstairs, by the way. If you're really gonna take it."
"I'm really gonna take it," Joohyun yawns, stretching her legs out.
"Right," Amber laughs. "And she wasn't too clingy?"
Joohyun chuckles, thinks about the warmth that was stuck to her side earlier that evening. "I'm clingier, you know that."
"So that means you got on okay?" The eyebrows are still waggling, so she decides to cover them up with a cushion to the llama's face.
"Of course," she replies, bunching up the rest of the cushions beneath her head. "Now can you leave me in peace? I can feel you making my morning hangover worse."
"Aw, our Joohyunnie's such a big baby!" Amber teases, prodding her side and laughing as she swats her away. "Seriously, you can't have drunk that much, you lightweight."
"I had more than you think," Joohyun grunts, turning over to snuggle up comfortably on her side. "And I'm pretty sure it's going to feel like a jackhammer in my brain tomorrow."
Amber snorts, standing up from her seat with a stretch of her limbs. "Let's just hope that for your sake, there are no classes tomorrow."
The older girl nods as her friend walks away with a chime of "Sleep tight, unnie," and a click of the lights being switched off, before resting her head against the cushion with a sigh as her eyes droop down to the sound of somebody singing loudly downstairs.
"Class is good," Joohyun murmurs belatedly as she drifts off, the image of cerise lip gloss staining her mind. "Class is nice."
*If I've translated correctly, to 'say hi/greet' is 인사 & 'drowning' is 익사, so drunk Joohyun heard it just a consonant off.
Bonus points for those of you who can recognise three (or four, counting the meme…) of the references I've used, as well as being able to name where they're from. Winner gets a special prize? A special mention? Something…?
Comments