[italicized texts are events from the past]

IV.1

Joohyun wakes up from the sound of her phone alarm. She rubs her eyes as she struggles to get out of bed. She still wanted to rest but she knows herself, she can’t sleep once she’s awake.

She exhales. She checks the time and it was already 7 am; it was a Sunday. She opens her phone to check if Wendy had messaged her.

(Yes she got Wendy’s number because she was still dead worried about Sooyoung and she wanted to get updated if everything was fine.)

There were no messages so she’s the one who messages Wendy.

[xxx; 7:15 am] Hey it’s me Joohyun, how’s Sooyoung?

She gets out of bed and gets the basket of her toiletries. She needed to take a shower now so that she won’t feel weary. She remembers their adventures from last night aka the craziest night of her life.

Crazy was an understatement. A night for a lot of firsts but also a night for new doors to open. All thanks to Seulgi. Then she remembers that she had made a mental note to make Seulgi breakfast today as a thank you.

It was crazy but it was all the more fun.

She smiles as she assumes Seulgi might still be asleep because the shared space they have was still completely empty.

Breakfast in bed it is! Or maybe not, maybe she’ll just go bug Seulgi to wake up so the food won’t get cold.

Before she could even act on it she notices that there was a post-it-note stuck on their fridge. She chuckles at the thought. It was her thing to post notes like that. Seulgi’s wit can sometimes be a funny thing–even a sort of beacon for realization. It makes her see things in a new perspective.

-------

Seulgi sees a post-it-note stuck on their refrigerator door upon entering their apartment. It was easy for her to spot the neon paper as it stands out from the mostly plain, almost grayscale tone of their shared space. She takes a look at it and the note written was in all caps bold letters, it almost felt like someone was screaming at her.

PLEASE WASH THE DISHES, THANK YOU

-HYUN

Seulgi sighs. She might've pissed her roommate again. She knew Joohyun was quiet so this might be the reason her roommate never approached her about the apartment chores. Post-it-notes were Joohyun’s way of expressing her annoyance towards Seulgi's laziness.

Although post-it-notes were a rare sight, Seulgi would still be scared as hell about her roommate being pissed. She was a firm believer that Joohyun might just explode like a dormant volcano suddenly erupting if she still did not do whatever Joohyun told her to do on the note.

So even if how tired she was from school she'll try her best to at least clean up or do apartment chores when a there’s a post-it note. Besides, she feels a little embarrassed about Joohyun being the only one doing chores, the girl must be tired from doing school work too.

She also feels a little embarrassed because most of the time Joohyun was understanding. Tending to her when she’s drunk and wasted and all, but maybe Seulgi might've abused Joohyun's niceness, so sometimes she tries too.

She tries her best to do those chores, sometimes even without seeing post-it notes, because somehow she knew it made Joohyun happy. At least she could rest a bit from being the mother figure in their apartment. Seulgi just convinces herself that it was her way of thanking Joohyun for always being nice to her, for always taking care of her despite the fact that she lives with an annoying messy roommate.

But she knew it was something more than just thanking Joohyun or something more than just expressing gratitude. It was that smile when she sees Seulgi doing the rare things she does. Somehow, it was that smile that made Seulgi do those chores even without Joohyun asking. She wanted to see it as often as she could.

But Seulgi wasn't really consistent because habits are hard to drop.

Joohyun knew that since Seulgi rarely attends some of her classes it required Seulgi to do a lot more work when exams are near. She knows how tired Seulgi is when the girl gets home. How she would just go straight to bed despite probably not eating dinner or going home drunk because of a night out with her friends. Somehow even though she knows that Seulgi cramming isn’t entirely her fault she still liked taking care of her, maybe because Seulgi makes her smile and she just misses the times were she could do that.

But sometimes Joohyun would get pissed off because of how messy and lazy Seulgi was. So despite being patient, sometimes she finds herself sticking post-it notes on their fridge door asking — demanding — Seulgi to do chores.

She was happy that Seulgi would try to at least do it sometimes, but she finds Seulgi's inconsistencies annoying but somehow funny at the same time. Somehow she loved playing with Seulgi. She posted notes randomly at times even if she wasn't pissed just to see how Seulgi would react. As expected Seulgi has associated post-it notes as threats from Joohyun. But at the back of her head, caring for her lazy roommate was something on top of playing with her so she just does all those things by herself. She is happy doing them for Seulgi anyway.

They both knew that living with each other was supposed to be burdensome for the both of them, Joohyun being the clean freak and Seulgi being the messy roommate. But at the back of their heads, they knew that the two of them made an oddly good pair. But none of them really acknowledged that fact because for some reason they were afraid to approach each other.

That was the case but then sometimes either one of them breaks the other’s expectation of the other’s character. They get along like that.

-------

Joohyun grabs the note stuck on their fridge. She was smiling like an idiot once she noticed that the color was completely different from the bright pink ones she had. It was rather simple, plain even, which contradicts the whole purpose of a post-it. It was beige, an unusual color for something whose purpose is to grab attention. Sometimes, it confuses her how Seulgi’s taste in things completely contrasts her personality. How can an outgoing girl like such boring things? But maybe, she just hated the color. Or maybe, she decided that if she’ll copy Joohyun, she just has to find other ways to make it a little more different– a little more Seulgi.

There are perks of being lazy. In this case, I didn’t have to pack again.

This time for real Hyun-ah, let’s go on a trip. I’ll wait for you downstairs.

That was definitely Seulgi’s handwriting and even though Joohyun wanted to oppose, she didn’t–she doesn’t want to. She could imagine Seulgi having that smile on her face while writing it. Then she knows that she didn’t have it in her to turn the girl down.

-----

Shock. That was the word for it. After Joohyun had packed her bags and went downstairs being all excited about the whole out of town trip, she saw the old blue pickup truck parked right where it always was. Worse, Seulgi wasn’t even there.

Her face immediately drops. Did Seulgi prank her? Maybe even ditched her. She really can’t believe it. She had imagined seeing that bright smile the moment she went downstairs. But all she can see now is a pick-up truck and she feels that it was mocking her, telling her that Seulgi wasn’t where she had expected her to be.

Life has its way of always disappointing her. Or maybe, more of it was on her since she always has her hopes up.

Out of frustration, she approaches Seulgi’s car. She reaches for her phone and was about to text Seulgi when a piece of paper distracts her brewing rage. She had expected it to be a parking ticket. Somehow, she thinks that exhaustion had gotten to Seulgi last night and she might’ve been a little bit reckless about parking her car. Though as she takes a better look at it, it proves to be not a receipt of how irresponsible of a driver Seulgi is but rather how irresponsible of a person she is as a whole.

Is she not kidding? It’s the same boring beige paper posted on their fridge.

Hey Hyun. Heh gotcha. Don’t worry I’m really somewhere that I think you’ll enjoy. Though a little challenge wouldn’t hurt right?

How irresponsible. The second page proves that Seulgi could be really reckless when it comes to decision making.

I’m quite sure you can find your way there. I believe in you! See you : )

-seulgi

There was a third page and it contains an address–not really. She would want to believe that Seulgi’s just bad at directions because a name of a place doesn’t really look like directions to her. If this was some kind of trick she would’ve killed Seulgi for it. But the drawing of a bear standing next to the place written there with the words “I’m here Hyun-ah!” proves to be much more than just a silly old prank.

Yet again, maybe it was another silly antic. Another move to make her realize that she could make it her on her own. Seulgi kept telling her that. She kept on making up ways for Joohyun to realize that getting out of her shell meant so much more than just making her happy or forgetting that supposed break-up. It was more for her sake. To make her see that she would be fine and that there’s nothing to be scared of.

It was more of an unspoken advice. Seulgi never really like to voice it out a lot but Joohyun gets it now. This was the purpose of it.

Though her heart was set on doing whatever this was, her brain tells her otherwise. Her rationality sets in and the expectations she had from the start flashes in her head.

What if the only thing that kept her from harm last night was the fact that Seulgi was there with her. She thought that this really was some sort of unsolicited move, for the other girl to feed her to the sharks immediately.

She didn’t want to doubt Seulgi’s intentions but her brain tells her otherwise. This wasn’t something she could do overnight. Maybe Seulgi had miscalculated her. She wasn’t the type to easily let go of something that haunted her for the most part of her stay in the city.

Then her phone vibrates and she sees a text from Wendy and another from an unknown number.

[Wendy Son; 9:10 am] mornin’ hyun (can i call u that?). just wanna say that sooyoung’s pretty much alright. i told her to send you a text personally. thanks again!

[unknown number; 9:12 am] heya! it’s me sooyoung (u can call me joy too). just wanna say sorry for the trouble and much thanks for everything! the soup’s great btw. thanks again sis *mwah

A little bit of trust and timing was all she needed. It could’ve not been any better. She was being spoon-fed at this point. Faith, destiny, or whatever was controlling her life was giving her all the reasons why she should, for this once, let go of the things that have haunted her for so long.

Though fears are hard to face, life would be a lot easier if for once we try to see it in a much simpler perspective. Try to face it and get it over with, it sounds complicated but trying never really posed much of a threat, especially in Joohyun’s case. Maybe it really isn’t so bad.

She types in quick replies to the two girls from last night. She sends a quick you’re welcome and thinks that she might’ve, because of some weird circumstance, made friends. She never really had that much friends since she got here. As for the most part of her stay, she had Sehun to keep him company. She never actually realized how much she had closed her door shut the moment he entered her life up until he left.

Then her mind takes her to the words Seulgi had told her the other night at the restaurant. For the most part, it seemed like nonsense word vomit. It had been too much for her to process during that time but she did admit that it gave her something to think about. Now she realizes what the other girl meant.

Now she understands all the more why Seulgi wanted her to do this. It wasn’t Seulgi forcing her to be someone she’s not, it was Seulgi making her realize that’s there more to life when she starts to see things outside the comforts of their apartment.

Little did she know that she had already convinced her brain to actually consider doing this. With a little help from Seulgi that is.

The pieces of beige colored notes find their way into the pockets of Joohyun’s jacket. She checks her phone and types in the name of the place that was scribbled on paper on to her GPS.

It didn’t show any results. She tries again but nothing really showed up.

Annoyance was somehow starting to get to her. After all the thought she had put into it, it actually turns out to be a prank like she first thought. Before she lets her emotions get the best of her, she exhales and tries to message Seulgi. She better get answers and not some vague clues. She’s not going to play detective.

[xxx; 9:20 am] the place doesn’t even exist!!!!

She hopes that Seulgi gets the frustration in her message. Seulgi was asking her to do something she hasn’t done for the longest time and she gives her sketchy clues and locations–that’s overdoing it. Certainly, she was a bit annoyed and frustrated, at least giving her the directions would be a proper pat on her back for trying.

She receives a reply not a while later.

[Seulgi the roommate; 9:23 am] ah! wow ur doing it? u don’t have to if u dont want. I wont force u anymore

[xxx; 9:24 am] still can’t believe it? i want to.

[Seulgi the roommate;9:25 am] yay!!! ok. ill call.

Seulgi the roommate calling………

Joohyun picks up the phone with a smile on her face. She was feeling a little bit excited hearing Seulgi’s voice now that the other girl knows that she had agreed to wha