The Final

Constantly being around someone, acting intimate with someone, or even expressing interest solely in that someone didn’t mean that you were suddenly void of all love confessions.

Seulgi stared blankly at the love letters pouring out from her locker the second she opened it. The stack of letters, that she was amazed was even able to slip through the tiny slits of her locker door, slipped down onto the ground and dispersed on impact.

Sigh.

She remembered a persistent person who would leave her letters on the days that she would have dance practice. They were all signed as “anonymous,” but it didn’t take a genius to know that they were all coming from an individual by the likes of the same pastel blue envelopes and signature pink rose stamp on the front above the words, “To my love: Seulgi.”

Not wanting to seem rude, even in the privacy of her room, she would read all of the advances from her peers on campus. Some were asking her out to a date. Some were asking her to be her girlfriend. Some were asking to meet her in secrecy by “x” day at “x” place. But she still ended up ignoring them all together in the end, thinking of worst case scenarios if she was to suddenly respond to their advances. Regardless if the response was positive or negative, these admirers would still bask in the glory of receiving attention from their almighty crush.

Jung Soojung replied to one of her confessions once, but only because they were getting bothersome and would not stop filling up the cheerleader’s poor locker with thick envelopes and cartons of chocolate. As much as Soojung loved eating sweets and chocolates of all kinds, she had a diet to maintain for being on the cheerleading team and always ended up sharing it with the others at the lunch table. But with those thoughts aside, when she finally replied to one of the latest love confessions she had from a very strong-minded and persistent boy, she taped the response onto her own locker, thinking that the admirer would surely see it the next day when he would continue his conquest on getting Soojung’s love.

He saw it, alright, and made a scene by running down the locker hallway with the letter up high, screaming, “Soojung responded to me! Soojung responded to me!”

It didn’t stop Choi Minho with the love letters. In fact, it only encouraged him more because Soojung finally noticed him, and being noticed meant that he was able to somehow continue his advances.

Jongin had to step in once and for all, unfortunately, declaring him as Soojung’s “boyfriend” to the persistent Minho in person.

If there was one good thing that came out of that, it was that Jongin finally realized his feelings for Soojung and legitimately became her boyfriend.

So, having witnessed and heard of Soojung’s method of trying to get rid one of her confessors, Seulgi found it in herself to ignore all of them. It increased ever since the day of the dance team’s performance at the pep rally, but more so from the same pastel blue envelopes.

When she bent down to pick up the fallen love letters, she noticed from her peripheral a pair of hands stacking them up as well.

“Oh, thank you…” Seulgi glanced at the newcomer. “…Jimin.”

Jimin smiled at her, eyes disappearing almost instantaneously. He handed the stack. “No problem. Got a lot of confessions there, huh? I got a few myself the other day.”

“Yeah. They just can’t seem to stop,” she said, stuffing the letters back into her locker in a fashion where they would not fall when she opened her locker next time.

“Hm, I think it’s nice—feeling wanted and admired by other people,” he said, peering inside Seulgi’s locker. “You have a lot of the same color. Are they from the same person?”

“Most likely.” Seulgi shut her locker closed. She forgot why she opened it in the first place—love letters replacing her initial need. Did she need a textbook? “Anyway, are you heading home now?”

Jimin scanned his surroundings before landing his hard gaze on her. He was gripping onto the straps of his Herschel backpack tightly, an embellished pink rose pin tacked onto the left strap just slightly above his hand.

“Actually, I wanted to ask you something.” Seulgi raised an eyebrow, small, polite smile playing on her lips and waiting for her fellow dance member to continue. “There’s that dance coming up and I was wondering if you wanted to… go together?”

Oh.

The dance.

The horrendous dance the school administration put up every year as one of the festivity requirements they had to fulfill. She would much rather go to the school carnival that occurred her first year instead of the dance because playing arcade games and enjoying booths of food was much more enjoyable, but some reason they thought having students mingling with each other in the gym, which could get grossly humid, was a better idea.

Once she first heard the dance announced over the PA system, she didn’t even think about going at all. As much as she liked dancing, having it at the gym wasn’t her cup of tea.

“Oh, I—”

“Seulgi-yah, Seulgi!”

Seulgi perked up at the sound of the unusually cheerful yet familiar sounding voice rounding from the corner. She and Jimin turned to where the bubbly voice was coming from, spotting a petite, grinning girl popping out from one of the connected hallways merging into the locker hallway.

Joohyun saw Seulgi first, big, fat grin widening by the second, but at the sight of a not-so-familiar boy standing beside her, it immediately dropped.

“Joohyun unnie!” Seulgi exclaimed, and Joohyun reverted her gaze back to Seulgi, the smile somewhat forcing its way back onto her lips. The dancer turned to Jimin. “Um, sorry, Jimin, but I have to go!”

“Oh, okay…”

Seulgi rushed over to Joohyun and linked her arm with her, briskly pulling her back into the connected hallway that the latter came out from.

“Who was that boy?” Joohyun immediately asked when he was out of earshot. She probably did not mean to drop her tone so low, so venomous, but Seulgi picked up on it anyway. “Is he your friend?”

“We’re on the dance team together,” Seulgi said, their pace gradually coming down to a normal one. She had no idea why she was pulling Joohyun back to the direction where the latter came from, but as long as she was able to be with her. “Why?”

Joohyun hurled a quick glance at the taller girl. “Just wondering.”

“Hm, okay.”

“What?” Joohyun raised an eyebrow. “I was really wondering.”

“And I said, ‘okay,’ unnie,” Seulgi replied, smiling.

Joohyun didn’t seem convinced in the slightest, but she chose to drop the topic anyway, by the sight of her remaining silent for the duration of their walk in the quiet hallway. All they could hear for a moment were the light scruffs of their heels brushing against the tiled floors.

“Oh, right!” Joohyun halted in her tracks, hand still gripping onto Seulgi. The latter turned around at the sudden exclamation. “I have to head to the PA room really quickly. Do you have to go home right away?”

Seulgi immediately shook her head. “I can go with you.”

“Okay!” Joohyun piped up, automatically jumping on the chance to drag Seulgi by the arm again to the announcement room. “I accidentally left my book there yesterday and didn’t remember until now.”

That was right—Joohyun was one of the announcers of the school. So far the administration only allows seniors to take on the role, grabbing at least two or three well-liked individuals to make announcements during certain periods of times, usually homeroom. The principal mentioned something about the student body would be more willing to listen and take action if announcements were made by people of their own age rather than hearing a grumpy, monotone voice every day.

As if they didn’t get enough of that already.

But Seulgi couldn’t agree any more with their choice of appointing Joohyun as one of the school’s announcers. Her voice was soft and soothing—like she was caressing your ears and whispering sweet nothings.

Unnie should start an ASMR channel, Seulgi thought.

She would listen to her all day.

It was too bad she hadn’t been making announcements lately compared to the other two, though, for some reason unknown to Seulgi. She just recently got back on the job.

They reached the PA room, blindly walking into a dark setting with their only source of light coming from the small tinkles of red and green on the boxes of machines that were pushed against the far side of the wall. Joohyun led them more into the room, expertly weaving her way around as if she had been here one too many times in the dark.

A thin streak of sunlight peers through from the top where a lonesome window was plastered, shining down onto a table with a microphone, headphones, and strewn of white papers. The announcement table, Seulgi assumed.

As Joohyun busied herself by rummaging around the table for her textbook, Seulgi scanned her surroundings, drinking in the sight of the PA room as much as her eyes could allow. This side of the room was pretty bare, it seemed, and Seulgi wondered what more it could look like with the lights on. But they were just coming in and out for a minute or two, so she didn’t really dwell on it any longer, and settled her gaze back onto a hunched over Joohyun, sunlight painting one side of her face with a glow.

Beautiful.

Dust particles might be the other thing in sight, but all Seulgi could see was how much more ethereal Joohyun looked with the rays shining down on her. The sun made her features glow, made her eyelashes seemingly much longer and her side profile one of the most attractive things Seulgi had ever seen.

Joohyun tucked a fallen hair strand behind her slightly protruding ear, and Seulgi’s heart stopped.

She truly was the epitome of beauty.

“…Where is that book?”

Seulgi didn’t even think about helping Joohyun look for her book. She was still in a trance, eyes fixating onto Joohyun as much as she could without getting caught. It was one of the few times that she could anyway because lately Joohyun had been looking at her way too often for her to do the same without being questioned. She didn’t even ask why Joohyun had been doing so, thinking of it as a trait of hers to have eyes on others as some form of compromise for her lack of words.

Her gaze darted elsewhere immediately when Joohyun faced her direction. In her range of sight, albeit just a plain, white wall, was an outline of a few textbooks on the floor. Joohyun’s book might be in that pile, but Seulgi didn’t say anything in regard to it, and averted her eyes back onto the older girl, who was now sitting down onto the black rolling chair after hunching over the table for too long.

“Okay, I swear I left it here the other day,” Joohyun muttered. “Sorry, Seulgi. There’s like, stacks of papers all over the place.”

Seulgi didn’t mind, but they probably had been lingering around longer than planned.

“Is that it?” she asked, pointing to the stack of books behind Joohyun. It had to be, considering that nothing else in the room was thick enough to contain multiple pages like a Biology textbook.

Joohyun swiveled around in her chair and gasped at the sight, hands slapping her thighs out of exasperation. She padded her way and bent down to retrieve the second book of the stack—Biology.

“Yeah, it is!” Seulgi smiled at the sight of Joohyun heaving the hefty book into the crook of her arm. “I was about to freak out… I have a test next week.”

“I doubt anyone would want to steal it anyway.”

Joohyun raised an eyebrow. “You never know. This book can sell for hundreds! I heard books are super expensive in college now.”

Oh, right.

College.

The next destination for Joohyun once the school year was over.

Seulgi almost forgot that graduation was closing in, that Joohyun was soon going to be in a cap and gown, receiving her diploma, that Joohyun was going to embark on a new journey, become busier, get new friends, maybe find a boyfriend. She still had one more year in this hellhole before she could follow Joohyun’s footsteps, but that was one year too late. One year suddenly seemed too big of a difference to her now.

“You’re graduating soon…”

Last time Seulgi said that, she was the excited one.

Now it just seemed too good to be true, for her voice was a mere whisper, almost like a sudden realization hit her to know that she was going to be Joohyun-less next year.

A corner of Joohyun’s mouth tugged up with minimal effort. They were still in the PA room, whirring of the sound equipment on the other side suddenly so loud to Seulgi’s ears. The sunlight was gradually dissipating and turning into the orange afternoon glow, indicating that it was near evening time, but Joohyun was now slightly leaning on the edge of the table and Seulgi had been rooted in her spot in front of her since the elder started digging around.

“Yeah…” Joohyun finally said. “It’s just two weeks away.”

“…Are you… excited?”

“Funny. The last time you asked me that, I wasn’t really aware that I was graduating soon.” Joohyun lifted the Biology textbook in her hands. “This kept me from thinking that and still is.”

“So, I take it that you’re still as stressful as ever, huh, unnie.”

Joohyun cracked a giggle into the empty PA room. Small and sweet sounding yet loud and fighting against the constant noise from the machines.

“I’ve been… I’ve been okay… actually.”

Joohyun sat the textbook down onto the table behind her and looked up at Seulgi, who still hadn’t moved an inch, yet her eyes had been darting all over the place. It felt intense—Joohyun’s stare. She was doing it again. How she couldn’t seem to do anything but stare. How she couldn’t really look at her while talking. It was like she had to do one or the other, rarely ever both.

And Seulgi didn’t really know why, only thinking of it as Joohyun’s just being as attentive as ever or carefully thinking about her word choices.

“Seulgi, I… I have something to tell you.”

“Yes?”

Seulgi noticed how Joohyun shifted around and her gaze was elsewhere now. As per usual.

Joohyun scraped her teeth against her lower lip before clearing , hands coming up to grab onto her elbows, crossing her arms in such a fashion where it looked like she was shielding herself.

“Last Friday… when we watched a movie at your house…” she started, leg now bouncing up and down lightly. “Or Saturday morning, actually… I forgot that I stayed over.” A smile etched across her face. “Um… your mom talked to me when you left to shower and… um…”

“Oh, God,” Seulgi quietly interjected, but Joohyun heard it and stopped talking immediately, orbs shooting back to the younger. As if all the force suddenly rushed down onto Seulgi’s being, she was finally ripped away from her frozen state and took a step toward Joohyun. “Do you know everything?”
“Everything? Like… what…?”

“Oh…”

Seulgi mindlessly paced around in her spot, a hand reaching up to rub onto her head. She should had known how big of a mouth her mother had! It was already a sign of how much her mother loved gossiping when she would be talking on the house phone after cooking dinner, laughing loudly every now and then as she ranted about her children, someone else’s children, or her husband. There was one time where she went on and on about her brother’s little mishap as a child that probably should have been kept just among the Kang family. It was pretty embarrassing. Nowadays whenever their mother’s friends came along and saw Seulgi’s brother, they would coo at him and ask about his bed sheets.

So, whatever Seulgi had been telling her mother the past few weeks suddenly rained down onto her, and she regretted it.

“My mom told you about me,” Seulgi said inaudibly. “Right?”
Joohyun was clenching her jaw now. Her hands released its hold on the elbows, curling her fingers around the ends of her skirt.

“Yes.”

Seulgi winced and closed her eyes. She needed some sort of support, a comfort of any kind, but she opted to gripping tightly onto her backpack straps, forcing herself a few steps away from Joohyun just in case she needed to bolt out first, if anything.

Oh, God, Joohyun should know by now.

She should know how much of a little schoolgirl crush she had on her unnie. The days that she came home with a smile on her face, a curious, questioning gaze from her mother, she ended up spilling whatever happened that day to her. She felt comfortable letting her mother know about whatever made her feel so alive that day, whether it was dancing, receiving high marks on exams, or going on a friendly date with the one person she truly had feelings for at this very moment.

But she didn’t expect Joohyun to know so soon. Actually, she didn’t even expect her to know at all.

“I-I’m sorry, unnie,” Seulgi stammered, feet already pointing to the direction of the door. “I… you can just forget about what my mom said. I can kind of guess how you feel about it. I mean, it’s not every day you get to know about someone liking you, right?”

Silly Seulgi.

Of course, Joohyun didn’t feel that way.

This should’ve remained a secret between herself and her mother.

It was probably that day where they slept together on the couch that made Mrs. Kang think of them as an item, and that it was probably okay to spill all the beans about how this started off as a small, little crush on a senior. But now the crush had grown immensely to the point where she could barely form coherent, clear sentences around her sometimes.

Seulgi would’ve been fine just basking in this crush all by herself—fine with the very slim chance of Joohyun reciprocating.

But now that she knew, it was as if all her walls had broken down, as if the heaviest, shiniest armor on her back suddenly broke, leaving her vulnerable enough for a jab, which could be easily done by a mere flick of a pair of dark orbs or carefully chosen words.

All by Joohyun.

But Seulgi, as much as a closeted coward she was, was going to make this opportunity to escape and cope until the next day where she was better mentally and could take any damage that day before heading back home to do the same routine again. It was not healthy… always thinking of Joohyun, always imagining herself next to her, but then quickly reverting that thought to thinking that she didn’t deserve to even be with her, that Joohyun was obviously going to like someone else her own age, in her own league—just someone who was not seen as a junior.

“I’m going to get going now, unnie. It’s getting dark...” Seulgi’s voice slightly faltered no matter how hard she tried to muster up a strong front.

She took a few steps in the dark but was suddenly tug back into position.

“W-Wait, you—y-you didn’t, you didn’t even let me finish talking!” Joohyun sounded too much like a broken record, fingers shaking yet gripping tightly around Seulgi’s wrist. When Seulgi hurled a glance over her shoulder, Joohyun’s head was lowered, ridding of any chances to look at her face. “Did you even ask me how I feel...?”

“What?”

“You’re so quick to assume my feelings, but you didn’t even ask me!” Seulgi could feel Joohyun’s grip around her wrist tightening by the second. She fully turned around to face Joohyun, whose body was now slightly shaking, but her head was still lowered.

“Unnie, I—”

“I like you…” Joohyun shook her head. “N-no, I… I love you.”

The whirring of the sound equipment came back to life, but it was not as noisy. Instead, all Seulgi could feel was her heart beating rapidly against her chest, blood pumping and coursing through her veins. Her head was pounding like it wanted to split apart—she couldn’t really hear anything now, couldn’t hear her own breathing, couldn’t hear Joohyun’s quiet whimpering.

Joohyun shakenly released her hold on Seulgi’s wrist only to bring it up to her face. Seulgi’s waiting for the elder to continue, to maybe, in the dark depths at the back of her possibly cruel mind, to say that this was a joke, that it was a way for her to immediately shut up. Well, if it was, Seulgi was shut up, all right. At that moment, all she could think about were endless opportunities of Seulgi and Joohyun being together as an official pair. But it was quickly scratched out of her mind because Joohyun usually didn’t burst out like that. That was Seulgi’s job.

“Unnie, what…?”

Joohyun clutched at her chest and said in a whisper, like she was talking to herself more than anything, “God, my chest feels like it’s going to explode…” She heaved a heavy sigh, attempting to calm herself down before wiping away her tears again. “I didn’t expect to confess like that.”

I didn’t expect to be confessed to like that…

Seulgi didn’t exactly know how to feel—this all came too suddenly, rushing down onto her like a wildfire that started from a mere spark. She was too focused on her own well-being and trying to think of methods of healing herself from all worst possible scenarios, but never did she expect for her own feelings to be returned in a manner of scattered words and lowered gazes.

All in a dark PA room, so to say.

“I’ve liked you… for as long as I can remember,” Joohyun started to explain. “It’s not hard to notice someone like you, you know…? With the fact that you’re on the dance team… hanging around in the same circle of friends… You’ve caught my eye almost immediately with how… how… just how you are—always smiling, laughing, playing around. Our friends… we’re usually just so mean to each other—for fun, of course—but you’re always so nice and cheerful. It’s no wonder why people like you so much. Of course, I wasn’t able to escape from that either.

“Your mom told me I’m someone who makes you happy… I’m the one you talk to her about when you come home after a long day of school and dance practice. When she said that to me, I couldn’t help but flip out in joy—all in my head, of course. To hear that from someone, from their own mom, that the person you like also likes you back is reassuring, you know…? Granted that was probably not the way I expected to know about my feelings being returned, but… whatever works.”

It was quiet again, save for Joohyun’s less erratic breathing now. The sun was still coming down and the light almost dissipated into nothing, turning the PA room into the state of near pitch black. They couldn’t really see each other in this light, but the words and the tension in the air was just enough for them to guess what the other was thinking or feeling.

Although at this point, Joohyun probably didn’t.

“Say something…? Anything…? Please?”

Seulgi opted to reach out and gently grab Joohyun by her slim waist, not exactly trusting herself to say anything in case she rambled off and jumped to conclusions once again, and pulled her into her own tensed body. The elder’s breathing hitched upon contact, hands carefully settling onto Seulgi’s backpack.

Unnie likes me.

Oh, my God… unnie likes me!

Joohyun unnie…

Joohyun unnie… likes me…

Seulgi’s arms fully wrapped around Joohyun’s small frame, pulling her even closer into her own body. She buried her face in Joohyun’s silky hair, breathing it in, breathing her in, smelling of sweet flowers.

This had to be too good to be true.

So, she tightened her hold even more to the point it might be a bear-crushing hug, but Joohyun didn’t seem to mind, only gripping tightly onto the backpack now, almost as if she wanted it off.

“Well, you know already… but I like you, too.”

Joohyun had been breathing on her neck ever since, but as soon as those words came out of Seulgi’s mouth, the breathing became more apparent, as if a smile cracked over her lips. The elder lifted her face and strongly tugged onto the backpack.

Oh, right. She had been wearing it this entire time. Seulgi broke off the embrace and threw her backpack off to the side, hands finding its way around Joohyun again.

She breathed. “God… I like you so much.”

There were a pair of dainty hands lifting her face away from Joohyun’s hair, caressing her burning cheeks, thumbs over smooth bones. What was left of the sunlight managed to peer gently over the side of Joohyun’s face, granting Seulgi the view of what looked like an aftermath of a confession—tear brimmed eyes and remnants on fair cheeks, only to be ruined by streams once again. She still looked beautiful, nonetheless. Her dark brown orbs, which were recovering from a state of red, burning fear, were now gazing gently into Seulgi’s own, loving her in the most absolute pure way that Joohyun could.

“Seulgi…” she whispered. Her eyes slightly blinked, but tears were still flowing. “Be... my girlfriend…?”

Seulgi broke out into a bright grin. She wiped away Joohyun’s tears and tucked the loose, messy hair strands behind her ears, once again giving her a personal view of the beautiful face that could work wonders.

Joohyun was a wonder in of itself, though.

“Of course, unnie. I’ll definitely be yours.”

A tearful smile etched across before disappearing into the crook of Seulgi’s neck, hands gripping oh, so tightly onto the back of her shirt. They remained in that position for a few more moments until the sun decided to make way for the moon, blinding their vision of the small trek back to the door.

“You’re awfully cheery today.”

The setting was no longer a classroom, but Sooyoung would always remain to be the make-believe professor she was days before.

She managed to catch Joohyun on the way to the next class of the day, eyebrows raised and tone suspicious.

“Am I?” Joohyun replied, toothy grin and all.

“Um, yes? What’s up with you, unnie?”

Joohyun turned to her. “I passed the final.”

Sooyoung stopped dead in her tracks, but Joohyun didn’t seem to care, smiling so wide as she continued to walk down the hall.

“Wait, what!? Unnie, you passed what!?” Sooyoung chased her down the second she walked faster. “Hold up! You have to tell me everything! You have to tell me where you did it, what you said, how she reacted! DID YOU TWO KISS!?”

“Yah, Park Sooyoung! You’re too loud!”

Sooyoung stopped the chase. Joohyun was walking too fast for her at this point, so all she could do was make her voice be heard.

“Wait a second here… WHERE’S MY CHICKEN!?”

I'm procrastinating on my finals, as per usual... But at least I was able to complete this story! I hope you all enjoyed it! This story is too fluffy that the only thing getting in the way of their relationship is their inner turmoil--well, that's if their inner turmoil qualifies enough as something getting in the way, haha.

I think some of you might have realized that I wrote this chapter in Seulgi's POV. This is so you can definitely get a surefire way that they both really like each other and it's not just Joohyun pinning after Seulgi. I personally thought it was better to write the last chapter in Seulgi's POV anyway, but if some of you thought differently, then let me know in the comments below! I'm always looking to see how I should write in terms of whose story we're following, in first person, third person, etc. :)

With this story completed, I can place all of my attention into my other, and only, on-going now.

Thank you all so much for reading! If you want to chat or anything, you can inbox me or DM me on Twitter <3