Today:

   For once, Seulgi awoke before her alarm. She stood up from her bed, stretching out and yawning, unwilling to self with ten paltry more minutes of sleep. As had been standard for the past couple of weeks, something felt amiss, an air of heavy loneliness hanging over the room. There was no smell of coffee, no sound of breakfast being made, no Joohyun. Since the older girl began working nights, Seulgi had seen her partner for a cumulative time of roughly ten hours. Their schedules simply didn’t match. Even in the time they saw one another, one of them would be either busy or exhausted. Seulgi carried the heavy burden of heartache everywhere she went now. She knew she was overreacting. She knew that it was the way things were, and that she just had to fight it out, and that despite how much she missed seeing Joohyun, she needed to it up and accept it for the time being. Joohyun had said it was only a temporary measure, and that she’d be back to her regular shift soon enough.

   Seulgi took her time in going about her morning routine. School had ended, and summer camp had begun. Her days were slightly longer, ending at around five instead of the usual three thirty, but they started a bit later than usual. She could afford to be slow in the mornings now.

   As she was finishing up in the shower, she noticed that she’d received a text. To her surprise, it was from one of her old university friends, a girl named Kim Jisoo. Seulgi wondered what she could possibly want. The two of them hadn’t spoken since Jisoo moved away to pursue a career teaching Korean in the U.S. Prior to that, however, they had been very close. At a point, they’d been sort of a couple. She was the first girl Seulgi had ever been with, and the first person in general that she’d ever had with. Some people had even said that, had Joohyun not come along, or perhaps in some alternate reality, they would have ended up together for good. Naturally, Joohyun was not a big fan of Jisoo.

   “From Chichu: What are you up to tonight?”

   Seulgi’s heart dropped. What was Jisoo trying to get at? Didn’t she know that Seulgi and Joohyun were living together now?

   “To Chichu: Idk, prob staying in and hanging out with Joohyun”

   Although this was a lie (Joohyun was, of course, working tonight), she felt the need to mention her girlfriend so as to let Jisoo know she was still taken.

   “From Chichu: Haha okay, was just wondering if you wanted to come out tonight w me and some of the girls from uni. Chaeyoung, Jennie, and Lalisa will be there”

   Seulgi let out a sigh of relief. At least Jisoo wasn’t asking her on a date. But still, she couldn’t go, because… wait. Why couldn’t she go? Joohyun was going to be working tonight anyway, and it would certainly be better than just sitting at home and getting drunk alone like she’d planned on doing. It was a Friday anyway. She didn’t have to wake up early for anything tomorrow.

   “To Chichu: I’ll let you know in a bit. Gotta ask Joohyun”

   “From Chichu: Lol, you need to ask your gf for permission to go out?”

   Seulgi ignored this and continued getting ready for work, making herself a simple bowl of cereal due to her severe lack of cooking skills. She was midway through her breakfast when Joohyun came through the front door, looking flustered and exhausted, as usual.

   “Hi, Hyunnie,” Seulgi said through a mouthful of Lucky Charms.

   “That’s hands down the worst nickname you’ve given me so far.”

   Joohyun put her things down and walked over to Seulgi, giving the younger girl a swift kiss on the cheek as she passed. Seulgi reached over and stopped her by wrapping an arm around the older girl’s waist, pulling her close enough so that Seulgi could rest her forehead on Joohyun’s hip. The blonde reached down and began Seulgi’s hair.

“I missed you too, sweetie.” Joohyun whispered. She had the uncanny instinct of knowing exactly when Seulgi was feeling needy.

“Enough to skip work tonight and go out to a club with me?”

“Uhm, no, that would be patient abandonment,” Joohyun said, laughing and detaching herself from her girlfriend, “Since when do you like going out to clubs?”

“Since never,” Seulgi paused, trying to figure out how she should word her question, “But a few old friends of mine are going out tonight and I was thinking of joining them.”

Joohyun turned away from the shelf of the fridge she had been probing, her eyes filled with curiosity.

“Which friends?”

“Uhh… well… you know, the ones from uni. Like Jennie, Lalisa, Chaeyoung, Jisoo.” Seulgi said the final name as swiftly as possible, hoping that Joohyun wouldn’t realize, but the older girl turned around fully, hands reflexively settling themselves on her hips.

“Kim Jisoo?”

“Y-yeah.”

“The same Kim Jisoo that you used to hook up with before we started dating?”

“...Yeah.”

Joohyun fell into an expectant silence, awaiting Seulgi’s explanation.

“Well, we haven’t seen each other in literal years,” Seulgi said, looking down at her half-eaten bowl of cereal, “And she’s just my friend, now. You have nothing to worry about.”

“But you’ll be at a club. With alcohol. You never know what can happen.” Joohyun sounded angry now.

“I get why you’re worried,” Seulgi said carefully, “But I can promise you that nothing will happen between me and her. It’s just a few old friends meeting up for drinks.”

“Seulgi, she was the first girl you ever had with. Do you really think there’s no residual feelings there?”

Seulgi felt her temper rising a bit now. Under normal circumstances, her patience with Joohyun was near-infinite. But given the stress of not seeing her significant other almost at all, coupled with her lack of proper sleep, she was nearly on her last nerve.

“There aren’t any residual feelings at all. She’s just a friend. And for all I know she could be dating someone else right now, too. We’ve both changed a lot. I’m in love with you, Joohyun, not her.”

“You aren’t the first one to say something like that to me,” Joohyun said, her voice becoming louder with each word, “What if you’re both too drunk, and you’re dancing, and you happen to get a little too close...”

"Then I'll politely tell her that I'm not interested, because I'm taken."

"No you won't, because you'll be drunk, and she's beautiful, and I've seen her in action, when she wants to get with someone she does it, and I know how you are when you drink-"

"'How I am when I drink'?" Seulgi shouted, standing up, unable to contain herself, "What does that mean?"

"It means you're a lot looser when you drink. We went to college together, don't act like I don't know about your past!" Joohyun shouted back.

Seulgi’s anger was fully ignited now. How dare Joohyun bring such a thing up? Of course she was loose, she was at a pivotal point in her life, one where she'd stopped dating men and had exclusively started dating women. She had made mistakes, just as anyone else would do in such a conflicting situation.

"I've never given you a reason not to trust me! We've been together for five years and there hasn't even been a hint of doubt!"

"But in the past-"

“Is it because Taeyeon cheated on you before?! It’s been over seven years since then, why don’t you get over it already?”

Joohyun recoiled as if she’d been stung. She visibly deflated, her anger melting away into pure hurt. Seulgi instantly regretted her words.

“Fine,” Joohyun said, her voice low and hollow, “Go out tonight. Have fun. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

She then hurried out of the kitchen.

“Joohyun, I didn’t mean to say that, it was too far!” Seulgi called after her.

Joohyun stopped at the entrance to the hallway and turned around. Her pale cheeks were stained by two long tracks of tears.

“Yeah, it was.”

She walked away, ending their argument with a slam of the bathroom door.

Seulgi sat in the kitchen, no longer hungry, staring down at her soggy cereal in heavy silence. She knew that Joohyun had problems with her and other women, but it had never been this bad. She felt terrible for saying the things she did, and she wanted to apologize, wanted to run up to the bathroom door and bang on it and tell Joohyun how sorry she was, and that she’d stay in tonight, and that she’d never talk to Jisoo again. But she couldn’t. Because another part of her told her that it was her life, and Joohyun had no right in dictating who she could or couldn’t see, and Seulgi should go out anyway instead of moping at home alone with another bottle of wine.

She picked up her phone.

“To Chichu: Lmk what time you guys are going out. I’ll be there (:”

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Alright, last update this week, I promise. I wanted to get all the setup out of the way before I started spreading out the updates. So here we are. We'll meet Wendy in the next chapter (:

Thanks for reading<3