A/N: Hello, my fellow napinknators! How are things with y'all? Friends in uni, I wish y'all luck with your finals. Friends in the working sector, may we all survive this goddamn holiday rush. Without further ado, here's this week's update! Enjoy and don't forget to leave comments! 

Word count: 3,094 words

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Kyulkyung’s eyes flutter open and her body slowly registers the feeling of arms wrapped around her waist and legs half tangled over hers. A smile escapes her lips as she fights back a giggle with all her might. Her eyes drink in the look of Nayoung’s sleeping face – strands of her long brown hair falling to cover her closed eyes, fluffy cheeks squished against the pillow, that cute nose scrunching up, and those pouty lips that she has to resist the urge to kiss.

An alarm goes off loudly which breaks her off her reverie. She sits up to turn it off. The noise and her movements are enough to stir Nayoung to a half-awake state. She holds her breath in anticipation as the older girl looks around the room once before zeroing in on her. For a moment, she fears that Nayoung had been so hammered last night that she forgot about everything that happened but the older girl gives her a smile and that bursts her doubts into nothing like a bubble.

“Hey,” Kyulkyung hears herself say, feels herself breathe. Nayoung sits up on the bed and keeps her eyes on her. It honestly makes her want to push the older girl down on the bed again and kiss her until she’s out of breath, until they’re both out of breath, but she knows she shouldn’t. “Did you sleep well?”

“I did. Just feeling a bit hungover now. Nothing aspirin can’t cure.” Nayoung replies, stifles a yawn behind her long fingers. Kyulkyung feels her cheeks warm up at the sight because how does she manage to make even yawning look so hot? “What time is it?”

Kyulkyung looks at her phone then back at Nayoung. “7:15,”

The older girl’s eyes widen and she throws off the covers. Jumping to her feet, she feels under the bed for her underwear. Doubts, much stronger than she had over Nayoung not remembering last night, fill her mind and Kyulkyung can only watch the other girl find her clothes fast and get dress even faster. She’s feeling a little lost at the sudden turn of events and finds herself wanting to say something but can’t.

Nayoung spares her a look as she’s zipping up her jeans and that’s when she catches her staring. She slows down a little to explain. “Sorry. I have to be at work by 8. I still have to go home to shower before that so… I gotta run now.”

But that doesn’t make the weird feelings go away. Instead, it intensifies as Kyulkyung watches Nayoung skip to the hall, slipping on her shoes as she goes. She’s standing under the light in the foyer when she looks back at her and sees her still staring.

And really, Kyulkyung doesn’t understand why the words won’t come out of to ask but she’s relieved that Nayoung knows what to say somehow.

“I get off work at 6.” The older girl looks at her as she stands by the bed, using the duvet to cover herself. “We can meet for dinner if you want?”

“Oh, o-okay! Yes, I’d like that!” Speech finally finds her. Nayoung smiles at her and waves as she turns to exit the door. Kyulkyung takes a couple of steps towards her, hesitates on seeing her off as she’s still but then she remembers a more important detail. “Wait! I don’t have your number!”

Before she knows it, she’s running towards Nayoung and she actually steps foot outside the room. The older girl laughs as she catches her by the shoulders and pushes her back inside.

“Don’t come out, silly.” She says with a shake of her head, looks around the hallway for good measure, but she’s smiling so Kyulkyung knows it’s all good. “I’ll have Yebin give it to you so you can call me. Don’t worry. I’ll see you later.”

Nayoung looks into her eyes and pats her cheek once. With another smile, she goes, taking something more than just Kyulkyung’s breath away with her.

&&

It’s the second week of her internship at her uncle’s company and a mountain of paperwork awaits her in her desk. Kyulkyung swears this mountain is much larger now than when she left the office for the weekend. Still, she isn’t going to let it get her down. She feels like nothing can get her down anyway.

So, she places her coffee on the table and hangs her pursue on the back of her chair. She stretches her arms over her head and cracks her neck. She puts her game face on and gets ready to dive into the fray but the sound of fingers tapping on the edge of her desk catches her attention. She looks up slowly and a smile breaks on her face, seeing none other than her greatest, bestest friend in the world (which she decided last night and confirmed this morning), Kang Yebin.

Kyulkyung immediately jumps off her seat and throws her arms around the shorter girl. Yebin laughs over her continuous yelling of ‘thank you, thank you, thank you!’ in her ear as she twirls them in a very happy circle.

“Slow down, Tiger!” Yebin gets Kyulkyung to calm down, puts a finger to her lips and looks around the room. The other employees are yet to arrive but they still shouldn’t draw attention to themselves like this. They’re both interns after all.

“Okay, sit down and tell me everything. Everything.” Yebin starts, gets comfy on an empty chair nearby.

Kyulkyung sits, just as she’s told, but gives the other girl a rather incredulous look - a raised eyebrow and slightly narrowed eyes. “Okay, let’s get this clear. I’m not gonna tell you everything, you… ert.”

Yebin leans forward, scoffs dramatically. “Did you just call me ert? I meant skip that part! I already know something like that must’ve happened anyway. Kyungwon unnie called Minky and said that Nayoung unnie was a no-show for their run this morning.” She crosses her arms over her chest defensively.

“I-” Kyulkyung pauses, frowns. Yebin had said a name she didn’t know. “Who called Minkyung unnie?”

“Kyungwon unnie, their college buddy.” Yebin waves her hands impatiently and Kyulkyung pushes down the weird feeling bubbling in her stomach at the thought of Nayoung going on runs in the mornings with someone she didn’t know. She shouldn’t be feeling that way anyway. “Tell me about everything else.”

Kyulkyung purses her lips, bites back a smile when Yebin whines. “Okay, okay. But you better not tell her any of this, you hear me?” Although she’s pretty sure she’s given a lot of herself away already, she still wants Nayoung to find her mysterious.

“I won’t! I swear it on my gayness.” Yebin holds her right hand up as if taking an oath. “Well?”

Kyulkyung lets out a defeated sigh and then chuckles weakly. “She’s… I don’t know where to start, Yebin. Nayoung’s… she’s… she’s amazing.”

Yebin claps her hands together and pumps a fist in victory. Kyulkyung rolls her eyes at her. “Tell me more.” Yebin waves her hands at her again.

“Well, first off, she’s stunning! How come you didn’t tell me she was that pretty? I mean, you showed me pictures of her but still-” Kyulkyung curls her fingers into fists, trying to find the right words but can’t. She remembers clearly how Nayoung looked – calm and chic and gorgeous – just sitting on the café and writing in her journal and how nervous she felt as she was walking up to her. She remembers how she felt electricity climbing up her spine when Nayoung looked at her with those warm brown eyes.

“Earth to Kyulkyung!” Yebin thumps on the desk impatiently with her hand.

“She keeps on this straight face like half the time but every now and then I’d catch her puffing out her cheeks or smacking her lips together and it’s so cute. She doesn’t talk much but when she does… her voice is like music to my ears. And when she laughs it’s mostly soundless but her eyes disappear and-”

“Oh my god, wait,” Yebin grabs her by the arm and shakes her. “You made her laugh? Even her friends find it hard to make her laugh!”

“They do?” Kyulkyung feels her heart soar with pride as Yebin covers with her hand in awe.

The shorter girl wipes away fake tears at the corner of her eyes. “Oh God, Minky and I were right. You guys are good for each other.” She fans her eyes with her hands for a few seconds and then she stops.

She leans closer to Kyulkyung and drops her voice to a low whisper. “Okay, I know I said to skip that part but tell me this at least. Who came onto who?”

“Honestly?” Kyulkyung waits for Yebin to nod. “I came onto her.”

She laughs over Yebin’s exclaims of outrage. “Oh my god!!! You seduced our Stone Buddha unnie! You evil temptress!”

When Yebin quiets down, she replies with all honesty, her sheepishness coming out a little. “I don’t know why I did it either but it seemed right to at that moment? And, hey, she’s not a stone buddha! She’s… she’s a warm stone.”

A look that calls for punch appears on Yebin’s face. “Oho, Joo Kyulkyung. You know I can tell if you like someone a lot, right?” She even wiggles her eyebrows at her suggestively.

Kyulkyung regains her composure, glares at her friend. “You promised me you won’t tell. If you break that promise, I’m afraid you’d have to break up with Minkyung unnie and swear off girls forever.” She reminds her.

Yebin scoffs again. “Well, it’s not like I’d break that promise.” She jumps to her feet and checks her watch. She pulls out her phone from her pocket and taps away. “I gotta go back to the studio now. But before that, Nayoung unnie asked me to give you something.”

Kyulkyung perks up in her chair, pulls her own phone out excitedly and opens the message Yebin had sent – Nayoung’s number.

She smiles widely, hears Yebin tsk loudly and say “Don’t knock yourself out. At least not until work is over.”

&&

Kyulkyung spends the next few hours distracting herself with work, distracting herself from the urge to call Nayoung that is. She reminds herself that she has that much pride left in her to not call when it hasn’t even been twelve hours since they parted. And she really doesn’t want to scare Nayoung with her, um, enthusiasm. However, when Yebin videocalls Minkyung during lunch time, she can’t help but to stick by her side to casually ask about Nayoung, while discreetly trying to get a peek at Yebin’s phone.

“Nayoung unnie’s with the young ones. She’s basically their mother hen.” Minkyung replies.

Kyulkyung wants to ask what she means by that but stops herself at the look Yebin throws at her. Right. Yebin and Minkyung time is Yebin and Minkyung’s time. She looks away and goes back to eating her lunch.

“What are you doing after lunch?” She hears Yebin ask Minkyung.

“The usual. We’re expecting three buses of middle school students at 1:30pm. I’m OIC on guide duty with the interns.”

She wonders what Nayoung’s doing right now. If she’s done eating her lunch. If she has a lot of work to worry about like Minkyung. If she’s thinking about her because Kyulkyung can’t stop thinking of her.

“And then after that?” Kyulkyung looks up and sees Yebin look intently at her phone screen, like Minkyung’s actually right in front of her, looking into her eyes and not into a small screen. Suddenly, she’s looking at herself instead of Yebin. Suddenly, she’s the one talking on the phone and it’s Nayoung she’s talking with.

“I’ll help set up for the shows tomorrow morning. What about our Yebinnie?”

Yebin lets out a high-pitched giggle that brings Kyulkyung back to reality. She catches herself in time, pretends to throw up on her salad for the sake of teasing her friend which earns her a kick under the table from the shorter girl.

Yebin straightens out, focuses on talking with her girlfriend again. “We’re still archiving the demo tracks from studio B. I really wanna finish doing that by today so that I can stick around Producer Kim tomorrow. Word is she’s working on a new song for a mystery singer.”

“That’s great news, babe. I mean, I know you really like Producer Kim’s work. So you do that but make sure you don’t overwork yourself, okay? You still have a couple more practice sessions until the gig. I don’t want you to be sick.” Minkyung’s voice is soft and sweet.

Yebin smiles widely as her eyes take on a soft look. “I won’t. I’ll take everything in stride. I promise.”

“Okay. I gotta go now. I’ll see you at home?”

“Mhmm. Bye, babe! I love you!”

“I love you too, babe!”

Kyulkyung puts on a disgusted face and makes sure that Yebin sees it once the girl puts her phone down.

“Do you really have to do that every freaking lunch break?” She asks as she rubs the spot in her leg where Yebin’s foot connected.

“This comes with being in a relationship, Kyulkyung.” Yebin deadpans.

“Being gross?”

“No, communicating and showing affection for your significant other!” Yebin rolls her eyes at her, hard. “You know what? I’ll let you be jealous for now because sooner or later you’re gonna be even more ‘gross’ than me. Mark my words.” Kyulkyung pouts at Yebin as the shorter girl picks up her tray and heads off to the bussing area.

She watches her until she disappears around the corner. With a sigh, she mindlessly tosses the remains of her lunch around her plate with her fork, annoyed at the fact that deep down, she knows that the girl is right.

She wants what Yebin and Minkyung have. (Not that she’s going be blatant with PDA, that part is arguable.) And really, who doesn’t? She wants to have someone to talk to over the biggest things and over the littlest things. She wants someone who will ask her what she’s up to even though she’s just reading through dull proposals. She wants someone who will worry about her and, with the sweetest voice, tell her not to overwork herself. For some reason, her mind keeps on telling her that it could be Nayoung, that she hopes it will be Nayoung which irks her to no end.

She wonders how she got so deep into this so fast when she remembers only agreeing to meet the older girl on the whim that it would provide her company for the weekend (when she’s loneliest) and would probably get her some (Nayoung is Yebin and Minkyung’s friend and is therefore someone who won’t do weird things to her). But last night was different. It was so much more than what she thought it would be. Nayoung was so much more. Which is why she kind of regrets coming onto her like that. Maybe it was too soon. Maybe it was too sloppy. She hopes it didn’t make the older girl think less of her. She asks herself again why she did that. Was it because of the alcohol? Was it because she really wanted her? Or was it because she thought it was the only thing that would make her want to come over, that would make her want to stay?

All of that gets the warning signals in her brain flash code red because she’s never felt this way about anyone before. And when she remembers how Nayoung made her feel safe and how she understood without her having to say anything, all she can really think about is that she wants the day to end faster just so they can be together.

&&

Nayoung texts her to meet in front of Myeongdong station half an hour before clock out time. The fact that the older girl texted her first is enough to get her skipping out of the building and running down the block in glee, pretending to be deaf to Yebin’s snide remarks about protected .

The streets are packed with people getting off work and heading home or else hurrying off to meet friends as it’s the evening rush-hour, and Kyulkyung can’t explain how she can’t seem to see anything or anyone other than Nayoung because she spots her immediately in the midst of the crowds streaming in and from the subway. She’s standing next to a makeup ad board and it’s totally nothing out of the ordinary but the mere sight of her already sends butterflies fluttering over every inch of Kyulkyung’s stomach.

“N-Nayoung unnie,” She steps up to her, nervous like she was yesterday, like she was this morning, like she thinks she will always be.

“Oh, hey, Kyulkyung.” Nayoung looks at her, a smile lighting up her face, making Kyulkyung’s heart skip a beat. “Have you thought about where you want to eat or what you want for dinner?”

She blinks because, in all honesty, she hasn’t thought that far yet. She’s only been thinking about seeing Nayoung again. “No, not really.”

Nayoung purses her lips and her eyebrows furrow in concentration as she thinks. “Then should we just walk around first? We can decide once you see anything or think of anything you like. Although, I’d like it we abstain from any alcohol tonight. I’m still feeling a bit fuzzy from... you know, last night.”

Nayoung lets out a giggle at the blush coloring Kyulkyung’s cheeks. She nods still and smiles shyly at the older girl.

Something about the way Nayoung smiles back at her makes her feel certain that this thing between them, no matter how quickly things escalated last night, no matter how sloppy she thinks she was, is bound to be good. So, maybe she doesn’t have to feel scared about this. Maybe she doesn’t have to feel guilty about this. Because for once, something actually feels right. Like nothing could go wrong. Everything about Nayoung just feels right.

They’re walking side by side on that crowded street, the back of their hands brushing together, never taking hold of each other, but Kyulkyung might as well think that she’s walking on the clouds. The winds have changed directions and fate is finally (finally) on her side. And Nayoung might just be what she’s looking for all this time. No, scratch that. Nayoung is everything she’s looking for.

A/N: Can you smell the trouble brewing? JK. Like partly. Anyway, things are hectic with me as of now but in celebration of the season (Kyulkyung's and nayoung's birthday, the so-called napink day, and Christmas too), I will be updating again within the next few days! Look forward to it! Again, leave comments :)