"Hey Kyungwon..."

Hearing her name being called, Kyungwon hums. Her eyes are still fixated on her phone screen and her thumbs are still typing fast, a small smile tugs at the corner of her lips. Kyungwon is visibly too engrossed in whatever conversation she's having with that cute girl from her math class.

 

"Kyungwon," comes another call, this time laced with a certain annoying whiny tone, and a foot poking at her side.

Kyungwon types another reply and hits the send button before turning her head to her left to look at the girl who's been bothering her. “Minkyung. What?”

Minkyung retracts her left foot, tosses her body and turns to face the ceiling. “I’m bored. I’m so bored. I’m so bored I could die.”

Kyungwon raises one of her eyebrows at her roommate.

“Well, you could take a nap,” her phone buzzes, “and you wouldn't be bored anymore.” Kyungwon goes back to texting, clearly doesn’t want to deal with a bored Minkyung.

“But I don’t want to sleep!” Minkyung wails loudly, unimpressed with her roommate’s lame suggestion.

 

There’s only silence afterwards. And Minkyung is dying. So she brings herself up and with a smooth, fast motion, she snatches Kyungwon’s phone away.

“Hey! I’m using it!” Kyungwon tries to grab her phone back but Minkyung is faster and stronger, she pushes Kyungwon so hard that Kyungwon falls backwards onto her bed.

Minkyung turns off the phone that she just successfully snatched and slides it into her back pocket. “When your best friend says she’s bored,” she crawls to Kyungwon’s side and straddles her, “you either get bored along with her or you try your best to entertain her.” She finishes with a huff and crosses her arms.

Kyungwon could only glare, folding her arms as well. “So what can I do to entertain you, best friend?”

“I don’t know. That’s your job to think.”

Kyungwon brings her thumb and index finger to her chin, making it as if she's thinking hard. "Watch One Piece?”

“I just finished it half an hour ago.”

“Do your nails?”

Minkyung offers her newly done nails for Kyungwon to see.

“Do you want to facetime with Kongie?”

Minkyung stares at her in disbelief. “I don’t want to talk to your dog. He barks at me.”

“He was talking to you! And you ignored him!”

“He stole my nuggets the last time I visited you in Gwangju!”

Kyungwon just stares blankly into space. Minkyung is getting impatient.

Finally, Kyungwon looks Minkyung in the eyes after a whole minute passes, “Get dressed. We’re going out for chicken.”

“Your treat?”

“Well, it’s not like you ever willingly paid for our food whenever we went out to eat.”

 

It’s true.

Minkyung is one stingy woman. She doesn’t share. She only does when she’s in an extremely good mood, and that’s an extremely rare occasion. She treats Kyungwon to food only when she does something bad and is desperate to be forgiven; being ignored by Kyungwon kills her.

While on the other hand, Kyungwon doesn’t mind buying Minkyung food.

Of course she doesn’t mind.

How could she? When Minkyung always smiles that smile every time she takes her out to eat.

 

––

 

“I feel like puking…” Minkyung mumbles.

“Why am I not surprised?” Kyungwon glances at the girl beside her as she walks. She still gets horrified every time she’s reminded of the way Minkyung eats. Their earlier eating session – Minkyung’s eating session – at the KFC is not an exception, Minkyung sure as hell is amazing.

Minkyung groans as she feels nauseous again. She shouldn’t have devoured that whole bucket of chicken by herself. She should’ve shared it with Kyungwon when she’d offered to help her to finish it. She feels a sudden wave of dizziness strike her when she pictures the image of the chicken she just had.

“Hey, are you okay?”

She feels a hand grabbing her elbow. She looks up at the owner of the hand and catches a look of concern on her roommate slash best friend’s face. She wants to answer her with spite because she’s clearly not okay at all and she still feels like puking. But Minkyung gets distracted.

 

She gets distracted by how Kyungwon looks so stunning with her shoulder-length black hair that glows different hues of sunset…and her face too, it glows. Her usual pair of dark brown eyes looks even more enticing.

 

God, she is so beautiful.

 

“Minkyung, I don’t think you’re okay,”

Of course, Captain Obvious.

Minkyung is totally not okay. Now with a completely new reason.

“I’m banning chicken from my life.” Minkyung manages to throw back a response after diverting her gaze away from the godly sight.

Kyungwon chuckles, then continues to shake her head with an amused grin. She sighs and walks to stand in front of Minkyung, back facing her. Minkyung is confused, and gets even more confused when Kyungwon bends down in a squat.

“Hop on, stupid,” Kyungwon calls her as her arms flails slightly, signaling for Minkyung to get on her back, “I’m giving you a piggyback ride. You look pale and sick, and I don’t want to carry a passed-out Minkyung back to home.”

Minkyung is dumbfounded by the sudden act of kindness. Stupid kindness. It makes her heart flutter like crazy. Stupid Kyungwon.

She also thinks Kyungwon doesn’t make sense, because, what difference does it make? She’s still going to carry her back to their apartment anyway.

“I’m taller than you,” Minkyung finally says, “and I’m heavy. I just finished a bucket of chicken.”

A familiar and oddly sweet laugh rings through her ears. “I’m not gonna change my mind, Minkyung. I’ll force you if I need to. Now quick get on, before you throw up for real.”

Frankly, Minkyung doesn’t really want to turn down the offer either. When will she ever get the chance to be carried by Kyungwon again?

She closes the distance between them and slowly snakes her arms around Kyungwon’s neck.

After making sure Minkyung is safely secured in her hold, Kyungwon rises slowly and starts walking.

She turns her head sideways, attempting to look at Minkyung. “What is this? You’re as light as a baby,”

Baby

Minkyung knows that it means the actual baby – toothless, harmless baby. But she can’t stop her heart from fluttering even further and can’t stop the funny feeling inside of her stomach at the sudden thought of something.

She’s an absolute mess right now.

She tries to calm down, tries to think of anything other than what she’s currently thinking. She takes a deep breath but immediately regretting doing so when all her senses are filled with only Kyungwon’s scent.

“Minkyung? You're uncharacteristically quiet. Is it getting worse?” Although Minkyung can’t see it, she can feel that Kyungwon’s frowning. Kyungwon’s worried about her.

 

Minkyung is scared.

She feels too overwhelmed, too much in love.

She lets out a shaky breath...and drops her head down, her forehead on top of left upper arm.

“Just keep walking, gretin..” it comes out soft and sounds weak.

Kyungwon tightens her hold on her thighs, still steadily walking along the pavement back to their apartment.

“Just,” Kyungwon trails off, looking ahead at the street, “don’t puke on me…or I’ll drop you.” She finishes with an ugly loud laugh which still sounds oddly sweet in Minkyung’s ears.

Minkyung nuzzles the side of her neck as a reply.

Kyungwon's back is warm. It's comfortable. 

 

It all feels so in place, with her being held like this by Kyungwon.

It all feels perfect at the moment. 

And she hopes this won’t be the last time she gets to feel this.

Because walking like this – like they’re in their own world – is one of the things Minkyung wants to keep doing with Kyungwon for as long as she lives.

 

No. It won’t be the last time. She’ll work on it.

 

Minkyung is determined.