“Oh my, I just can’t.” Hyejeong said as she stood up and came closer, wrapped one arm around Seolhyun’s shoulder and grabbed her chin with her free hand. “You’re so cute omg, it distracts me from work.” Bringing her eyes level with hers, she leaned forward and gave a few pecks on Seolhyun’s cheek. 
Seolhyun chuckled, because Hyejeong did the same thing for at least 4 times that day. She would always randomly blame Seolhyun for making cute faces (even though Seolhyun was not doing anything at all) and how it distracted her from working. Seolhyun took the timetable and looked through it carefully. “Ow, your schedule seems tense…” 
“Ugh, I don’t want to do any of this or deal with any of it.” Hyejeong sighed in complaint and pushed the calendar away, turning her gaze to Seolhyun. “I just want to be with you and hold you and run away and be happy and peaceful and make sweet love to you and eat a lot of food and take naps and…” she let out a sigh of desperation. 
Seolhyun laughed at Hyejeong's wishes and wrapped her arms around her. "I want to go to a place where people around won't be lost in hopes that they can get your affection." she commented with a half-smile.  
"Says who! You're surrounded by all those male celebrities picking you as their ideal types and the ones having movie scenes with you and the ones having CF shoots with you and... ugh, and that designer eonni touches you a lot more than she's supposed to, seriously." Hyejeong grumbled. 
"She has to, she's measuring." Seolhyun noted, a grin spread all over her face because of Hyejeong's jealous notes. 
"I couldn't care less about that, oh and that choreographer eonni almost bashes us up when we make mistakes but she never scolds you, she even seeks an opportunity to stand next to you and touch you while showing the moves." Hyejeong observed, fervency getting more and more evident in her voice. "I'm not even going to talk about that makeup artist. She stares at your lips all the time!" 
"She's just applying the lipstic--" 
"It doesn't matter!" Hyejeong interrupted. "You're only justifying them." Hyejeong kept on rambling about every single person she knew who got closer than 50cm to Seolhyun, until she finally sighed and looked at Seolhyun. "You think I'm being reasonless, right?" 
"Kind of..." Seolhyun chuckled, followed by Hyejeong. 
"Well, this is exactly how you look when you start hating on everyone around me." Hyejeong laughed.  
Seolhyun took that as a hint, though she kept her calm and laughed. Maybe she was indeed over-exaggerating, but she somehow had the certainty that the person Hyejeong hinted at liked Hyejeong a lot more than a simple 'best friend'. 
. . . 
Hyejeong wrapped her arms around herself as they left the building: her and Miyoung. 
In fact, she had cancelled the "bedtime movie" plans with Seolhyun to stay at work by Miyoung's request. They had some stuff to do and Hyejeong couldn't talk Miyoung into postponing the work, so she had to inform Seolhyun about the way she'd be late. She knew it would be very disappointing to Seolhyun, since they chose that day to spend with each other as other members wouldn't be home, each of them immersed in her own work. Still, she had no choice. 
"It's cold..." Hyejeong grumbled, but before she could do anything for herself, Miyoung wrapped her arm around Hyejeong with the intention of 'warming her up'. Hyejeong wouldn't normally mind that, but this time it was a little different. Seolhyun actually had succeeded in dropping a piece of doubt into Hyejeong's thoughts about Miyoung. What if she really liked Hyejeong and disliked Seolhyun for that? 
Before Hyejeong could lean back and insist that she was fine, something stopped her on her track. As she moved her head to the right side of the street where AOA's dorm was located... her eyes met Seolhyun, standing a few feet away from them. Hyejeong trotted off Miyoung's half-embrace and all she could feel was her pounding heart. It looked so wrong. Her walking side by side with Miyoung, with her arm around her... Seolhyun certainly had every reason to get angry now. And she obviously was. Her customary warmth had vanished and she was leering at them now. She herself could feel the blood pounding in the back of her head, and so did her heart: it felt like it might have teared out of her chest. And she was certainly unaware of the devastating effect her facial expression and stormy eyes had on anyone looking at her at that moment. 
"Seolhyun..." Hyejeong quickly moved closer to Seolhyun and held her hand. Surprisingly, instead of taking her away as if burned, Seolhyun only tightened the hold of her hand possessively, and even protectively. 
"Hi there, Miyoung." Seolhyun smiled and emotions played on her face. There was no doubt that her acting skills were beyond perfect. She managed to hide her whole rage, malevolence and spite under that tiny smile, which didn't even look fake at all. Miyoung only smiled hesitantly and bowed in return and the three stood in an awkward silence, which swallowed them into its depths before Hyejeong managed to pull the two out of their internal war. They looked like they were speaking, cursing, slaying each other by a simple eye-contact. 
"I think.. we have to go.. see you tomorrow, Miyoung-ah." Hyejeong told. 
"I'll call you later. Good night." Miyoung said before heading out toward the opposite direction. 
'I just dare you to call her later. I'll make you wish you were never born in my evil sadistic demon spawned slayer form.' Seolhyun blasted inside in the meantime. 
Needless to say, Hyejeong felt humiliated to be caught like that. She knew that she would have to try extra hard to thaw Seolhyun's anger and return that loving spark to her eyes, but how? Seolhyun turned a blind eye to her and was silent for the entire walk. She either ignored Hyejeong's questions and pretended to be engrossed with personal thoughts, or just sighed to show that she didn't want to talk. 
When they at last reached the apartment, everything seemed worse for Hyejeong. The silence within the house was suffocating since no one was home, and Seolhyun wasn't in her cheerful mood. Hyejeong tried every possible way to get Seolhyun's attention but nothing worked. 
"Uhm, it's not too late so we can watch the movi--" 
"I want to sleep." Seolhyun snapped up as she took off her clothing to wear the nightclothes. 
"Seolhyun, about what happened earlier-" 
"Please, turn off the light." Seolhyun cut her off. 
"Let me at least explain-" 
"I'm tired. Get in the bed." 
"Will you listen to me or not?" Hyejeong snapped. 
Seolhyun rolled her eyes and gave an obvious sigh of annoyance. "I know." she gazed over at Hyejeong with some tetchiness. "She has the right to hug you because she's a friend of yours. I'm happy to know that. What else?" 
Hyejeong shook her head and heaved a sigh, coming closer to her lover. "There's indeed nothing wrong with--" 
Whatever she was going to say was silenced when Seolhyun pressed her lips against the other girl's. It was more rough and harsh this time though, unlike Seolhyun's usual tender and gentle kisses. Her lips soon moved down to Hyejeong's neck and grazed her skin. "This..." she whispered before fiercely slanted again across Hyejeong's. She soon broke apart, and nothing seemed to have changed. Anger hadn't left her, neither did jealousy nor frustration. 
"This..." she repeated. "This is what she wants to do to you." she stopped for a moment to catch up her breath as she watched Hyejeong do the same. The only thing that newly revealed itself on her face was pain. She looked like she was hurt beyond reparation. 
"I can't stand it. I can't let her have this. I can't let her have.. you." she said with tremor in her voice. Hyejeong took a moment to intercept the information based on assumptions, but then grabbed Seolhyun's waist, tightly wrapping her arms around her. 
"Why do you care about what she wants?" she asked with a smirk, while Seolhyun looked up, bewildered. "All I have ever wanted is right in front of me." she whispered as she pulled Seolhyun in for a hug and leaned down to nuzzle her nose before pressing her lips to Hyejeong's. At first Seolhyun responded to the kiss, but suddenly broke away from her. "Is that why you prefer to spend your time with her more?" she asked, accusingly. 
Hyejeong was so busy thinking that Seolhyun was angry because of that half-hug that Miyoung shared, she didn't even get the time to think about the way Seolhyun was also angry because of the cancelled plans. She had to make extra apology for that, as well. But before she coud decide, Seolhyun had already gotten into her bed and was now ready to sleep under the blanket. Hyejeong followed her, but instead of sleeping on her side of the bed, she rolled over to Seolhyun's territory, who was facing the opposite direction with her back turned against Hyejeong. Hyejeong quickly moved Seolhyun's hair from her face and hugged her from behind. 
"Okay, I understand that as my girlfriend you have the right to be angry. But don't forget that as your girlfriend, I too have the right to pamper you until you accept my apology." she told as she started whispering sweet nothings and apologises for the misunderstandings that took place today. But Seolhyun still pretended not to hear her. 
"Fine, Seol, I admit I'm an utter colossal gigantic idiot but you love me, don't you?" 
Still hearing nothing in return, she sat up to plant a kiss on Seolhyun’s cheek, but she didn’t move her lips away. 
“I’m not going to move until you turn your head.” she maintained. That was the point. She wanted Seolhyun to move her head to make their lips meet. All she wanted was to hold Seolhyun and kiss away the hurt she had caused, but Seolhyun didn’t respond. She was consumed by a torturous struggle within her between the side of her that felt the urge to roll over and embrace Hyejeong and the side that screamed and ranted, forcing her to keep sulking until Hyejeong realized her mistake to its full extend. That’s when Hyejeong jumped off to the Option #2. She tenderly grasped Seolhyun’s ticklish spots and began to lightly tickling and poking her tummy. Seolhyun began to squirm as much as she could, but it was of no use - Hyejeong wouldn’t let her go.
“Okay, stop! I’ll do it!” she barely pronounced at last. Her eyes were already covered in tears from laughing. 
“I’m waiting.” Hyejeong closed her eyes and smiled in anticipation. Seolhyun pecked her lips playfully, not staying long enough for Hyejeong to pull her closer.
“Good night.” she turned back to her spot. 
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Hyejeong protested, but Seolhyun got in her ignoring state again. “Okay, your choice.” Hyejeong changed her position and rolled over Seolhyun to sleep next to her, facing her. 
“You’re going to fall off…” Seolhyun muttered as soon as she realized that Hyejeong was on the edge of the bed. 
“At least I’ll get to see you.” Hyejeong smiled and rested her palm on Seolhyun’s hand, thus locking their hands. 
“You won’t give up, will you?” Seolhyun already moved a little to prevent Hyejeong from falling off the bed sooner. 
“You know I won’t.” Hyejeong smirked as she moved closer. 
“Don’t mind my stupid smile.” Seolhyun admitted, but before she could go on, Hyejeong ran a finger over Seolhyun’s lips, which caused her to blush. She wrapped Seolhyun into her arms and kissed her tenderly. They continued to share sleepy kisses until they fell asleep in one another's arms. 
. . .
“Seolhyun… Seolhyun!” Hyejeong’s voice filled Seolhyun’s senses. “Get up, we’re already late!” 
‘Morning already, huh…’ Seolhyun still wanted to sleep, but she knew Hyejeong wouldn’t let her to. Neither would the members, nor the managers. So she slowly reached out her hand and rubbed her tired eyes with the insides of her palms. She finally let her eyes roll open, glazing over the room. And that’s exactly when she felt some object hit her. 
“Seolhyun! Get up!” Hyejeong continued throwing the clothes at her to wear. 
“Argh…” Seolhyun groaned as she sat up. Hyejeong was not necessarily romantic in the morning. She would either wake her up by throwing pillows at her or throwing clothes or worse, pouring some cold water. “Can’t you say nice things to me, like other girlfriends?” Seolhyun complained. 
“...Other girlfriends?” Hyejeong froze, irony sensed in her voice. Indeed, that sounded a bit wrong, so both shared a cheerful laughter. 
“Okay.” Hyejeong leaned over and smiled. “Seolhyun, darling, rise and shine…” 
“Not that way, ugh!” Seolhyun laughed and pulled Hyejeong closer to kiss her softly, and soon stood up to go to the bathroom, while Hyejeong grabbed her own phone sitting beside the alarm clock and read the first message. 
"Seolhyun, uhm, I think... I have to tell you something..." she said with a considerable amount of apprehension in her voice. 
"Yes?" Seolhyun replied from inside the bathroom, where she was already busy with make-up. 
“Miyoung will have to.. stay with us.. for some time..” Hyejeong mumbled. 
“What did you say?” Seolhyun asked in a strangled voice as soon as she burst out of the open door of the bathroom. 
Hyejeong had expected that reaction, but she kept her cool and explained the situation calmly: since the assistant eonni was sick, she obviously needed some help for herself when the girls were gone. Miyoung, as the new employee, had obviously volunteered for the 'position'. One thing Hyejeong could see when she told Seolhyun the details of the situation was that Seolhyun didn't care and she was already far away, lost in her thoughts. She showed no interest in the conversation and didn't even look like she was listening after some moment. Hyejeong realized that when she shot a final glance at Seolhyun's furious eyes. It seemed like her inner serial killer had the last word and she was ready to slay everyone on her way.
In fact, Hyejeong couldn't blame her. She herself was getting a little suspicious over Miyoung's behaviour. But she had to hide it from Seolhyun before Hyejeong's own suspicions would give her an access to officially launch an attack on Miyoung.