Nayeon watches on as the icy cold water drip down her long fingers, only making a sound once the droplets hit the sink.

Her trimmed nails seemingly glow in the somber athmosphere of the bathroom nurtured by the small light coming from the small, squarish window.

It’s calm.

It's too calm even, very different to what she lived lately. Truth to be told, Nayeon bears a dislinking to being alone.

Now, she has an older brother (but he's never there) and her parents are just... parents. So she is meant to find herself alone at some point of the day.

And she just hates it. But Jihyo is a fantastic bestfriendenough to not let her be just that by either calling her or coming over. Other times when the girl isn't there to save the day, Nayeon busies herself with something, anything that would get her out of her own thoughts: she tends to be destructive with herself.

She stares at the reflection of herself in the mirror and mindlessly reaches to slip her glasses up her nose.

Nayeon doesn’t know what exactly happened, at which point in the year, when, or how she fell in love. It's a feeling so strong that even when she’s alone, she feels it. Isn't love supposed to be nice and pleasant? Ah, here she goes again. Another reason to hate being alone, she thinks.

Overthinking really is her forte.

“Hey,” Jungyeon’s voice echoes in the empty bathroom, startling her away from her own little world. She furiously blinks, putting a hand on her chest.

When did the girlget in here?

“God, did you take stealth classes in your childhood or?” She greet back a little too shakily, fingers clamming over the sink or straightening a strand of black hair out of her face. Her eyes fall on the culprit of her double of a heart attack. Jungyeon is eyeing her surroundings as she steps beside her and rinces her hands.

“I might have,” And Nayeon wouldn’t be surprised if she did. “Where’s Jihyo?” The taller girl asks, wary of something that she can't put her finger on.

“With Mina, she left me for Mina again,” She explains and Jungyeon laughs under her breath.

"No wonder she leaves a rabbit for a swan. I mean they're a lot more graci--"

Nayeon doesn't let the teasing girl finish her sentence and harshly pushes her with both hands, leaving a stain of water on her sleeve and sending her to stumble back to equilibrum.

"You're mean!"

And Jungyeon simply smirks. "I know,"

They fall in a silence and Nayeon decides that rewashing her hands is a good idea not to look like she’s just waiting for the next epiphany to occur or something along the range.

She wonders what’s Jungyeon thinking about, because she manages to catch the short haired girl’s rapid glances toward her even with a lowered head; and while she’s feeling a crumbling tension in the air (Nayeon doesn't do well with lifting weights), her fingers move on their own accord to turn off the sink,. Suffocating in a stinky room filled with toilets and darkness with only Jungyeon present doesn’t exist on her bucket list. Kissing Jungyeon does, however.

Her breath cuts shorter and shorter as she readies herself to talk. "Why didn't you greet me earlier?"

Jungyeon throws her a glance that doesn't last as long as a second. "When?"

"In the corridor,"

She feels how her words fall in the air like bricks. They fall so hard, and so loud, even though the bathroom is just completely silent. Not a single move from either of them. It seems that they're even holding their breath.

“You know,” Jungyeon throws her a glance again, this time through the mirrors. “There’s… something that’s been on my mind lately.”

She nods. Chewing on her lips really isn't any good, but that is what was getting her through the stress. “Am I involved?”

“Y, yes.”

The confident facade of the short haired girl beside her weakens, slips and crumbles down under Nayeon’s eyes as worry and hesitance lace her words. It's not usual to see Jungyeon like this, so Nayeon can't help the feeling of insecurity and urge settling in her stomach.

“It’s just… I’m confused, you know.” Jungyeon turns to face her, and Nayeon keeps her eyes trained on her pastel blue nails.

“How so?” Her voice sounds distant and frail. Jungyeon furrows her eyebrows and Nayeon sees-- no; she feels the frustration oozing out of the other girl. But she doesn’t even get it, she doesn't get why Jungyeon is frustrated, and why it involves her, because she is the one supposed to be frustrated if she likes her and…

“You- you know I’m… not straight and yet,” Jungyeon stops, abruptly, and Nayeon’s heart not only skips a single beat.

“And yet, you still… How are you so comfortable with me?” It hurts Nayeon to hear some conflictuatily in Jungyeon’s words, how they sound small and wary. Nayeon has an idea as to why, but reason wins against heart and she purses her lips in an unsure smile.

“I mean, you’re… Jungyeon. Like you're just Jungyeon. And you happen to have a...” No, different isn’t the right word.

“A specific uality. Which doesn’t… matter, I guess.” Nayeon curses her inability to make a proper speech when her heart is beating to the rythm of an agitated song. What comes next doesn't help her at all, and really, she starts to wonder if this bathroom held super natural powers that fall within Cupidon's grasp.

“Then,” Nayeon watches as Jungyeon swallows, gripping the edge of the sink right next to her hand. She is surprised, but doesn’t move. She doesn’t want to move.

“Why are you so loveable?”

“L- Loveable?” Nayeon whispers through a suddenly dry throat. Her body reacts to the words in a strange way, it tingles all over and basically everywhere but not in the allergy type of way, but in the I'm-suddenly-feeling-warm one, coupled with weak knees and a tied tongue.

Jungyeon steps beyond what she calls the safety line, a mental limit that Nayeon made up herself when she met Jungyeon; one that isn’t by any means supposed to be crossed. Yet she lets the taller girl do just that.

“Yeah,” Jungyeon exales as she rounds Nayeon and puts her second hand on the other side of Nayeon’s waist, on the sink. Nayeon blinks, and realizes that, in fact, Jungyeon is trapping her between her body and the long washbasins.

She instinctively bends backwards, inching away of Jungyeon’s burning stare.

“You know I could like you, right?” Her voice comes low, softer and... smoother than velvet, and Nayeon constricts her hands over the edge of the sink, both beside Jungyeon’s. Both her pinkies graze with her forefingers.

It’s not normal. This isn’t a normal situation.

Nayeon swallows, blinking the surprise away. It doesn’t help, the fact that Jungyeon’s hipbone is pushing against hers.

“W- What are you doing?”

“Figuring you out.”

Nayeon chuckles, too much of a wreck to think properly. She feels herself throbbing for absolutely nothing and she’s ashamed of it; while trying to think about something becomes too hard to achieve.

“That’s, that’s an i- innovative way.” She blurts out the first thing that she catches in her head, and Jungyeon raises an eyebrow.

“You know I could… I don’t know, fall for you; right?”

It happens in slow motion. Now that the words are out, Nayeon feels herself flying above the ceiling, above the school, above the clouds and even above the stars; above anything that she ever saw with her eyes and anything she can imagine. Just like that, she thinks, Jungyeon manages to own her heart.

She stutters, barely holding under the thunders of her heart. “I k- know.”

“And do you want me to, Nayeon?"

She gulps at the way Jungyeon tilts her head to the side, a new glint dancing in her eyes. She’s a mess, and a mess under Jungyeon’s eyes; a mess only if Jungyeon makes her be. Her mind is reeling, telling her to back off for an obvious reason that she doesn’t want to know about.

“Maybe I--” Nayeon’s words die down under the noise of the door opening.

“Nabongs you sure took your time,” Jihyo slides to a stop right at the doorway, eyes bulging out of their sockets when she properly sees the two of them.

Nayeon stares at her, fear blossoming in her heart. Jungyeon immediatly detaches herself from the sink, away from Nayeon’s body; and a newly found form of coldness settles on Nayeon’s skin. What was that?

“Am I interrupting something?”

“No,” Jungyeon speaks a little too fast. “I’m sorry.” She whispers in the coldness of the bathroom, not really meeting Nayeon's eyes and rushes out of the bathroom as mum as the heavy air surrounding them.

Nayeon takes a deep breath after what feels like a decade of apnea, and Jihyo stays where she stands, eyes never leaving her unfocused ones.

“Im Nayeon,” She’s awaken by Jihyo’s loud voice. “You went from clueless to almost getting laid in the school’s toilets?”

Nayeon whines, loudly, but Jihyo doesn’t laugh. “I’m serious. Are you okay?”

She turns around and takes off her glasses. “I- I am, I… don’t understand what Jungyeon wants, that’s all.”

Nayeon shakily follows Jihyo out of the bathroom, and they both walk back to their classroom, in complete silence.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: Here you go, the huge mess. Did you see that one coming? We're nearing the end folks ;)