Of course after two years and three months she’d eventually run into E’dawn again. However she never pictured him the tied down type. He was more of a player, only stuck around long enough to get into a girl’s pants then he bounced. At least that’s all she knew when they dated. Eunseo rubbed her temples. The new tenant, Lucy or Lulu had only just arrived and she was already annoyed with her. She wasn’t sure if she was more annoyed with E’dawn’s sudden appearance or the fact that the new girl rented out the room before her girlfriend Cheng Xiao could. She spent hours pouting to Xuanyi in an effort to get the girl to lie and say she made a mistake and that the room was no longer available. But Xuanyi had a rule, and it was that no roommate could be dating the other. A stupid rule, but a good one she supposed. Eunseo stood in the middle of her room, the floor was covered in a white sheet for protection. She was enjoying herself painting the different constellations and a few of her goto animated characters adventuring through space.

E’dawn used to watch her draw when they dated, she’d be shy when she showed the little scribbles meant to resemble him. He was very calculated in all his responses, like he could never give her a straight criticism, she often wondered if he ever had a clear opinion on anything. Staring at her mural she huffed. Stupid E’dawn always had to ruin her creativity. She’d have to give up on her art for today. Eunseo turned to face her door, she hated that it creaked announcing her movements to the entire house. It really killed her sneaky persona. She’d find some oil for it when she had the money, she was working off of commission to pay for her art supplies and school books. Oil wasn’t really that big of a priority. She slowly turned the knob pushing ever so slightly to open the door. The creak practically echoed through the house. Eunseo squinted her eyes shut, she really hated announcing herself. She could hear Xuanyi humming in the kitchen so she slid out of her room and trotted toward the girl in hopes that dinner was ready.

“Hey Xuanyi what’re you making?” Eunseo skidded to a stop in front of the kitchen stools where Luda sat.

Xuanyi was sitting on the counter swinging her legs back and forth.

“Eunseo join us,” Xuanyi purred in excitement.

Eunseo hated introducing herself to someone more than she hated announcing herself. The only seat available was on the left of Lulu since Xuanyi just had to drape herself all over the other side of the counter like an idiot. Eunseo slid next to Lulu and stared till the girl looked her directly in her eyes. Eunseo never backed down from a stare off. This girl had something in her eyes, she looked drained probably due to the exhaustion of moving but she also had a bright glow. Xuanyi laughed silently to herself at the childish stare off. These two were really something, the year was definitely going to be fun. Xuanyi hopped off the counter landing gracefully on both feet. Luda looked like she was in a dream, Eunseo looked curious. She hadn’t seen Eunseo’s curious head tilt since the girl had first moved in a year ago.

“Are you two just going to stare at eachother.”

Eunseo pursed her lips, she debated with herself whether to let this Lulu girl win the first time or wait for her to falter and lower her gaze. Luda sat there transfixed. It wasn’t that Eunseo was more angelic than Xuanyi in a messy way, that caused her to stare, it was that she had paint on her face. Luda was busy writing a poem about painting. Each line drifting through her head before settling on an imaginary page. Who was she kidding though, being in such close proximity to quite possibly one of the most attractive girls’ she’d ever seen had her head spinning. They were still staring at eachother. It occurred to Luda she hadn’t ever introduced herself to Eunseo, but to be fair Eunseo hadn’t officially introduced herself either. Luda leaned forward causing Eunseo to pull back before breaking eye contact.

“Hi,” she said shyly.

“My name’s Luda.”

Xuanyi swore they were going to kiss. She had retired herself to her favorite resting place. The brown suede couch made their rundown house seem a little more classed up. Here she could observe the entire layout of the home. Eunseo only pulled back when Luda finished leaning forward. Stubborn till the end, even if she’s the first to accept defeat. Xuanyi loved the electricity between the two. It reminded her a lot of Bona when they first met. Eunseo decided she hated Luda. The second Luda exerted a sign of dominance over the situation she hated her. Overstepping her bounds on the first day? This girl was really something.

  “Mine’s Eunseo,” she replied through gritted teeth.

She was almost taken aback by it. Almost. Xuanyi watched Eunseo from the couch bare her teeth like a dog. It really amused her that Luda’s expression never changed through the entire altercation.

    “So kids, now that we’re all acquainted who wants to order Chinese food?”

Eunseo and Luda turned to an excited Xuanyi they couldn’t help but indulge her. While Xuanyi practically ordered everything off the takeout menu Luda traced shapes on the granite counter and Eunseo watered the paint splattered potted succulent. Night 1 in the Babe Cave was finally going to begin.

E’dawn stared at the ceiling of his apartment. Sometimes he wondered why he took on his older brothers ‘part-time job.’ He never imagined himself being ‘that’ guy. His older brother had passed down the idea of ‘influential conversion’ when E’dawn was a freshman in highschool. He originally hated the idea. People loved who they loved, he was under the impression from his older sister Hyuna that it was no one’s business to meddle in others love lives. The idea only began tasting sweeter when E’dawn couldn’t pay for his school supplies. It ultimately came down to money. The first girl he helped fix was a girl younger than him named Meiqi. She didn’t know what she wanted, so he kissed her and bought her flowers. He treated her as kindly as he could. Her parents paid him $200. The end of their contract was when E’dawn got the go ahead for intimacy. He lost his ity to Meiqi, a girl two years younger than him at the age of 18, and then he broke her heart.

E’dawn was pulled from his reminiscing when the apartment door slammed. His roommate Mark worked part time as a Chinese food delivery guy. E’dawn sat up in bed. He didn’t know when he fell for Luda. In the beginning she was the hardest to crack. Her best friend Dawon was the reason the Lee family called him. He remembered the phone call more than the Production Possibility Curve in economics.

“Hello Kim Hyojong speaking how may I help you?”

“Yes hi, I need you to fix my daughter,” the woman’s voice sounded frantic on the other end.

“Sure thing we can negotiate a price later-- but what’s the issue?”

“Money isn’t a problem-- It’s her best friend, they’ve been too close, way too close. I saw my daughter sneak the girl into her room last night and I’m afraid of the worst. She’s too pure to be corrupted, it’ll affect her poetry.”

“Just give me an address and I’ll be there.”

It had been two years and three months since E’dawn had accepted the Lee job. He went in with no emotion and the girl he met up with, Luda, shared in the non emotive atmosphere. She didn’t want to associate with him. He played every trick in the book, he was worried that the Lee’s would stop paying his apartment rent if he didn’t catch her soon. Her best friend really was the issue. He watched Luda and Dawon interact one night in the shadows. They were at a park, having snuck out for the third time that week. They were just swinging on the playset telling stupid stories. Luda was free, she laughed louder than he ever heard her before. She smiled genuinely. He fell for her unknowingly. It was dirty what he did. He had no proof, he only knew that this Dawon had very unaccepting parents. Thinking back on it now, E’dawn almost regrets selling Dawon out to them and causing the Nam’s to move 3 hours away. It was the only way to get the first girl he actually liked to eventually like him back. He stood up hearing his stomach growl echo through his empty room. Hopefully Mark would be back soon with leftover food. Mark always came through, E’dawn learned to survive off of eggrolls for a week once. It was last years Finals week and that was the first time E’dawn aced every final. He dove onto the couch awaiting Mark’s bountiful return and thought up ways to get Luda to move.

Luda fell asleep on Xuanyi’s lap, the girl had magic fingers. Luda never knew she loved her hair being played with that much. Eunseo had barricaded herself in her bedroom claiming her artistic flow would be permanently disrupted if she stayed in close contact with two losers like Xuanyi and Luda. That comment enticed Xuanyi who played a bit of a devil’s advocate and responded quickly with,

“You live with us, that makes you a loser too.”

Luda awoke to a growling stomach, not her own though. Xuanyi was starving. She had ordered the Chinese food a half hour before and it had yet to come. She scoffed outwardly at the takeout menu on the coffee table. The front advertised crazy fast delivery. Luda heard a creak and glanced down the hall. She was met with two eyes staring back at her through the dark, it was oddly eerie till she noticed the glowing star socks that began shuffling toward her.

“I’m starving,” Eunseo groaned pretending to pass out on the arm chair to Luda’s left.

“Eunnie, we all are, now shut it,” Xuanyi responded.

Luda giggled into Xuanyi’s thigh at Eunseo’s pure disgust at the nickname. Xuanyi began Luda’s hair again before the doorbell rang. In a second Luda was thrown to the floor while Eunseo and Xuanyi rushed the front door. The floor was nice, Luda felt at home with hardwood. Xuanyi stared at the usual delivery guy. He was the fastest, she often requested him, all her prior rage dissipated when she noticed his unkempt appearance.

  “Hello Yixing’s Feast Delivery, I have an order for a Wu Xuanyi,” the delivery guy was out of breath and Xuanyi felt bad.

     “Hey Mark.. are you okay?

The delivery guy looked through Xuanyi, Luda had written so many poems about heartbreak that it was textbook to know that look.

“That’ll be $24.50,” the guy replied without blinking.

Xuanyi handed him $30 before closing the door. It was clear he didn’t want to talk and only wanted to leave as fast as he could. Soon the house was filled with the smells of lo mein, crab puffs, and steamed vegetables. Luda ate very little, instead choosing to focus on the two losers at the table using their chopsticks as lightsabers and fighting for the last eggroll. For Luda she thought that moving away from home would be her actual end. It seemed that way for 80% of the day until now. She had some serious bonding to do with Eunseo, and she felt inspired by Xuanyi. Eunseo caught Luda staring off into space and for the first time that night decided to include the girl in one Babe Cave activity. Eunseo lunged toward an unaware Luda chopstick upraised. Xuanyi gasped as Luda, with reflexes like a fox, blocked the oncoming attack without even looking away from where she stared. Eunseo was taken aback, surely her attack had not been projected. Luda smirked at Xuanyi with a knowing look before staging her own surprise attack on the taken aback Eunseo. The three ended up compromising over who got to eat the last egg roll. They split it up into three equal pieces and toasted.

     “To Luda, I hope to learn more about you,” Xuanyi announced.

     “To fresh starts,” Luda cheered.

     “To a new and improved Babe Cave,” Eunseo finished.

The three housemates crashed their eggroll pieces together and began cleaning up. Luda grabbed all the takeout boxes and deposited them in the trash while Eunseo collected the silverware and cups. Xuanyi cleaned off the table and helped fill the small dishwasher. They made a pretty good trio, if you forgot about how Eunseo still found Luda annoying. Luda retired to her new sanctuary first. She flipped on the fairy lights in her room and took off her pants before jumping into bed. Third year officially started in two days. Luda still a poem to write for her summer project. She had put it off all summer to focus on E’dawn and be a good girlfriend. Now that school was in two days she could physically feel the pressure push her further into bed. She was good at writing, to the point where even her bull trounced other people’s bull. She let that ease her into slumber, tomorrow she’d write the poem.

     When the kitchen was cleaned up and both Eunseo and Luda had gone off to their rooms Xuanyi let out a breath. The quiet parts of the night were always her favorite. She got to sit down and analyze each detail of the day, or if she was too tired for that she’d grab a book from her collection and fall asleep to the story. Xuanyi smiled toward the succulents, before heading down the hall to her own room. She didn’t feel like analyzing the day she’d taken all of it in as it progressed and felt no need. She could hear the music from Eunseo’s headphones, as she curled up on her bed for the night. Xuanyi was half dreaming when she awoke to her bedroom window being jimmied open. The cold danced its way into the room and settled on Xuanyi as if magnetized. Xuanyi stretched and pulled her comforter up Cheng Xiao never got the right room when she tried to come over. Xuanyi waved hello as the familiar intruder came in.

     “Sorry Xuanyi,” the girl whispered.

     “You should know where Eunseo’s room is by now,” Xuanyi replied back before succumbing completely to sleep.

Cheng Xiao tiptoed past Xuanyi as sneakily as she could before tripping over Xuanyi’s collection of F. Scott Fitzgerald and landing on her face. Hardwood is probably the worst thing to knock your head against. Xuanyi barely stirred as Cheng Xiao picked herself up and exited the room. Eunseo was wide awake now. She had fallen asleep to the song Sketch by Hyomin it was still blaring through her headphones when she heard a slam from Xuanyi’s room. The graceful Xuanyi would never make a loud noise like that so she only assumed it was her clumsy girlfriend. Her assumption was right when Cheng Xiao creaked Eunseo’s door open. It wasn’t often that her girlfriend visited in the middle of the night, but it was always welcomed. Eunseo lifted her comforter up enough for Cheng Xiao to slide her body in. She kissed Cheng Xiaos neck and nuzzled her waiting for her girlfriend to explain what was wrong.

     “I missed you.”

Eunseo pressed her body forward as Cheng Xiao relaxed into her. They often lay like this for hours before sleeping just talking to each other about their day. It was probably the most comfortable for Eunseo, not necessarily the position. She loved just having little night chats with her girlfriend. She was usually stuck up in her head and only expressed how she felt through painting which she hadn’t really gotten to do lately.

     “I saw someone I used to be close with earlier and we got in a fight,” Cheng Xiao whispered.

     “Are you okay?”

Cheng Xiao nodded in response.

     “I missed who that person used to be, I haven’t stopped thinking about the fact that when we saw each other we were looking at dead copies. Older versions of the other ya know?”

Eunseo kissed Cheng Xiao's neck again softly. She had experienced the same thing earlier seeing E’dawn. There was familiarity there, but none at the same time.

     Luda woke up to the sound of Eunseo’s door creak. Glancing toward her phone she saw that it was 9:17am. She might as well get up too. Figuring that the rest of the house had arisen Luda changed into a baggy t-shirt and running shorts. This was her go to lazy morning outfit. It required minimal effort but she still looked good in the end. She smelt coffee, while finger combing her hair. She didn’t care too much for coffee, but the smell was always a pleasure. After fixing herself up just enough to look semi presentable Luda ventured out into the hall and stopped short of the kitchen. A girl was standing at the sink. A girl she didn’t know. Luda panicked, half hiding herself in the hallway. The stranger turned away from the kitchen window and pulled out two coffee mugs from the cabinet. Luda relaxed a bit, the strange girl was probably just a guest and not an intruder. Although seeing that the girl wasn’t wearing any pants Luda should’ve known her life wasn’t at risk.

Eunseo stretched her legs out, Cheng Xiao had left to make coffee but she herself wasn’t ready to greet the day. She listened to the sounds of their house a lot for art inspiration. Right now she could hear Cheng Xiao’s soft steps and a door open. Xuanyi was usually an earlier riser, and she made killer pancakes so Eunseo slipped into a pair of sweats in anticipation to be fed. She pushed her door open slowly, she was used to minimizing the creak as much as possible. Stepping out into the hallway she could smell the coffee. She noticed Luda half crouched, peering around the corner into the kitchen. Figures the new girl would be scared. It was only the morning but Eunseo was feeling particularly devious. She crept up behind Luda as silent as possible.

“Why’re you eyeing my girlfriend,” Eunseo whispered at the back of Luda’s neck.

Luda pulled herself back into the safety of the hall. Her cheeks were warm, probably red by now. She looked up at Eunseo’s sly grin before shaking her head and stepping around her. Eunseo watched Luda retrace her steps back to her room before making her presence known to Cheng Xiao. Luda hated her. She closed her door softly. There could’ve been a very dangerous intruder in the home yet Eunseo treated her as if she should’ve known they had a guest. Luda reached for her phone. E’dawn had sent her a cute goodmorning text which calmed her heart a bit.

    L: Can you come over today?

    E: I’d love to, but is it okay with your roommates?

Luda really needed a pick me up. E’dawn was always there to give her that so she didn’t necessarily care if her roommates were okay or not with her boyfriend visiting. She thought Xuanyi wouldn’t mind, and since Eunseo clearly had her own guest she thought it’d be fine.

    L: They don't mind.

    E: Be over in a bit :))

E’dawn smiled at his phone screen. Last night was an unnecessary torment remembering all those memories. Maybe he was thinking too much about Luda, clearly she wanted him around and wasn’t distancing herself. Just in case he’d have to look into Eunseo’s life again. He couldn’t deny that a part of Luda woke up in a sense after seeing Eunseo. A part he was trying to keep dormant. All he’d need to do was do a bit of reconnaissance, just to understand where he stood with the girl. If worse came to worse, he’d like to know Eunseo’s weak point. He may have hated what he did to Dawon, but it did come in handy. He wasn’t going to lose Luda now, and not to his ex.

a/n I dont have someone to help edit this for me yet so bare with the raw versions of these chapters for a bit :)