A/N: Dropping this here to let y'all know that I have absolutely no intention of abandoning this fic and that I am still alive.

Word count: 3,135 words

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The incessant buzzing of her phone against the wooden surface of the nightstand is what causes Nayoung to wake up from her slumber. She reaches over and feels around for it, still too sleepy to open her eyes and look for it properly. When she’s able to pick up the said device, she finally opens her eyes and they nearly pop out at the number of missed calls and unread messages she has, all of which are from Kang Kyungwon.

The first half are spammed messages asking for her whereabouts and the next half are clearly death threats, cursing her for not showing up to the morning jog for the second time. But she brushes it off and places her phone back down, thinking that she’ll have to deal with that later. Much later. When she finds the strength to look away from Kyulkyung who looks like an angel sleeping next to her.

Nayoung’s feeling like she’s in a trance since the day before. Following their museum break in, they had spent an entire day talking about everything and anything under the sun while re-runs of 90’s sitcoms played in the background (Netflix and chill but with actual chilling, Nayoung cringes at the reference). Kyulkyung hadn’t gone back to her hotel and she didn’t have a change of clothes with her so Nayoung lent her some and even gave her a spare toothbrush to use. Staying over and cuddling on the couch like that wasn’t planned at all and two weeks ago, she would never have imagined she would be in a situation like this with someone like Kyulkyung.

The unfamiliarity excites her. It’s fun and it honestly feels like she’s living inside a romantic indie film. But at the same time, it scares her. They’ve only known each other for two weeks and yet they’re here, sharing the bed, sharing clothes, sharing space, sharing who knows what more in the next weeks, days even. She thinks it’s all going too fast. It’s as if she’s a spacecraft and Kyulkyung is a planet whose atmosphere she’s breaking into and the velocity she’s going in is sure to make her catch fire, disintegrate, and shatter into a million pieces. She thinks, no, she knows the bliss she feels right now will soon turn to dread and it wouldn’t be the first time.

Nayoung blinks and she’s brought back to reality - Kyulkyung sleeping peacefully next to her, smiling lightly as if she’s having a good dream. And that smile.

Kyulkyung’s smile just the day before was so bright. So damn bright her eyes were sparkling with what Nayoung could only describe as happiness. And she just wants to protect that happiness for now, wants to keep on seeing Kyulkyung smile like that if she can help it.

Before she can even think about what she’s doing, she’s closing the gap between them and placing a kiss on the younger girl’s shoulder where her tank top doesn’t provide much cover. Kyulkyung stirs and turns to fully face her. She rubs the sleep from her eyes with her hands and gives Nayoung that same warm smile.

“Good morning.” Kyulkyung says, yawns cutely, stretches her arms over her head.

“Good morning.” Nayoung smiles back, feels herself being pulled deeper inside the trance. “What time do you have to be at work?”

“I’ll just leave at the same time as you.” Kyulkyung sits up, stifles a yawn behind her hand.

Nayoung purses her lips as she thinks. “Won’t you be late then? Or are you not going to drop by your place?”

“Ehe.” Kyulkyung smiles sheepishly. “I’m too lazy.”

“So I’m gonna have to lend you clothes again?” Kyulkyung nods. “Underwear too?” At that, she blushes and Nayoung chuckles.

Kyulkyung coughs to hide her embarrassment then changes the subject. “Should I make breakfast?”

“You’re gonna make breakfast?” Nayoung asks, surprised.

Kyulkyung tilts her head to the side, signature thinking face on. “You still have some cornflakes left and I bought milk last night so-”

Nayoung laughs again, pokes Kyulkyung’s side then her cheek. “That’s cute but that doesn’t count as making breakfast. C’mon. I’ll do the cooking. How does pancakes sound?”

“Sounds great!” Kyulkyung exclaims, jumping to her feet.

Nayoung drinks in the sight and thinks. Later sounds like a good plan.

&&

Minkyung’s already waiting by her cubicle when she enters the office. The younger girl stands with her elbows resting on the top of the half-wall and with a -eating grin on her face. Nayoung starts to dread what the whole day holds for her.

“Please get that look off your face. I just clocked in.” She starts, puts her bag on her desk and hurriedly goes through her to-do list, hoping that doing so would make Minkyung leave.

“Relax, unnie. I just came by to make conversation.” Minkyung replies innocently, refusing to acknowledge the hint that her company’s unwanted at the moment.

“Do you mean fish for gossip?” Nayoung heaves a sigh, already accepting her fate.

“You can call it whatever you wanna call it so… spill. What happened? A little birdy told me you needed your tracks erased. What time was it? 12:26 AM-”

Nayoung gets up so fast Minkyung doesn’t have the time to evade the slap to .

“You keep quiet about that, you little .” She hisses, grips the younger girl’s hand threateningly. When she’s sure that no one else was close enough to hear their conversation, she lets go of her.

As soon as she does, Minkyung gingerly rubs her lips with a hand. “That hurt. If my mouth hurts later and I can’t kiss Yebin, it’s gonna be your fault.”

“Serves you right.” Nayoung walks back to her desk, sits on her chair.

“But really… what happened?” Minkyung lowers her voice. “Seungcheol oppa’s been bragging about you being his, um, wingwoman next weekend ‘cause he had to hack into the security system to erase your log. What were you doing here at that time? You were with Kyulkyung then, weren’t you?”

Nayoung rolls her eyes at two things, one, the eager look on Minkyung’s face (if only she were this enthusiastic at coming up with new demos) and two, Seungcheol has got to stop trying to get into Jeonghan’s pants because he already has Jisoo (no amount of buttering him up, even with her help, will get him to agree on going on a date).

She feels a migraine coming on. “Ugh. No comment.”

But Minkyung presses on. “You did the do somewhere here, didn’t you? Where? The undersea section? I’d totally do it with Yebin there given the chance.” The look on the younger girl’s face gets more mischievous with each word.

“Keep your voice down! And no, we didn’t go that far.” Nayoung hisses again.

“Oh, so you just made out? How come?”

“Are you ever going to let me live in peace?” Nayoung exasperates.

Minkyung finally laughs. “Oh, unnie. You’re so fun to tease. I gotta thank Kyulkyung for this chance. Maybe buy her lunch or send her flowers?”

Nayoung narrows her eyes at her. “She’s allergic to pollen so you keep that stuff away from her.”     

Minkyung feigns a look of shock, even gasps. “I did not know that.”

“Yeah, right.” Nayoung scoffs, busies herself with checking her emails.

“So how was your weekend?” Minkyung still lingers.

“It was great because I didn’t see you or Kyungwon for the most of it.”

“And you were with Kyulkyung the whole time, right? Yebin told me Kyulkyung stayed over at your place.” Minkyung wiggles her eyebrows at her. Nayoung sighs for the umpteenth time. It’s going to be a long day.

&&

Kyulkyung opens but promptly closes it again for the umpteenth time now. The right words still won’t come to her and she’s running out of time. Clock out is less than an hour away. But wanting to know is killing her. She really has to know.

“Do you think it’ll be all right if I stay over again tonight?”

Yebin looks up from the music sheets she’s organizing, turns to her and blinks at the expectant look on her face. “Why are you asking me? You’re not staying over at our place. You should be asking Nayoung unnie.”

Kyulkyung pouts. “I’m asking you because I need advice.”

“Advice on what? How to ask her?” Yebin raises an eyebrow.

“No! I need to know if it’s alright to want to stay over. Because… we’ve only been seeing each other for a week. I don’t want to scare her off.” Kyulkyung replies, twiddles with her thumbs like she was guilty about something.

Yebin’s eyes soften and her face takes on a serious look. “Okay, let’s see.”

“I think it was sometime after the second date for Minky and I. But that’s because we were already friends before we started dating.” She says.

Kyulkyung chews on her bottom lip. “So I shouldn’t do it? It’ll make me look bad, won’t it? I mean, I thought about slowing things down before but it just kinda feels like I’ve known Nayoung unnie forever and that it’ll be alright to, you know? But maybe it’s just me thinking that. I don’t wanna scare her off. I really don’t.”

Yebin gives her a weak smile. “Oh, our Juju.”

“What?” She asks with a frown.

“Nayoung unnie likes you. A lot, I would say. She wouldn’t be breaking rules for you if she doesn’t. I don’t think it would put a wedge in your budding relationship if you just ask.” Yebin offers her another smile and pats her arm comfortingly.

Kyulkyung is finally able to smile, somehow feeling a little bit relieved at Yebin’s words.

But then Yebin’s eyes widen and she exclaims. “I just hope to god you don’t do it by implying that you wanna bed her.”

“That is gonna make me look bad, right?” She says sheepishly.

“Definitely.” Yebin nods. “Stick to something honest. Don’t overcomplicate things with Nayoung unnie. She’s… not that complicated, you know.”

Kyulkyung laughs, thinks that she’ll decide for herself later about Nayoung being complicated. “Thanks. You’re the best, Kong.” She gives her a quick side-hug and Yebin pats her on the arm again.

“Anything for you, Juju.”

&&

Nayoung recalls that it’s been three days since she last talked to Chungha, which is probably the longest she’s gone by without video-calling her best friend since Chungha had to move away. It’s only been two weeks but her routine has already changed this much since meeting Kyulkyung. She tries not to think about how she should be feeling about that and only chooses to catch up with her best friend since she didn’t have any plans with Kyulkyung for the night.

Chungha’s looking rather bouncy in her seat when the screen comes on after she picks up.

“Haven’t heard from you in like a week.” Chungha says with a pout but it disappears quickly. “Where’ve you been?”

“It’s only been three days, Chungha. Anyway, I went to a gig with Minky and the others on Saturday then I stayed home for the rest of the weekend.” Nayoung replies as she leans back on her seat.

“That’s it? And you didn’t think of calling me? Unless-”

“Kyulkyung stayed over.” Nayoung says.

“Oh my god.” Chungha exclaims. “I knew it was weird that you were being quiet about her. I mean, if your date was bad, you’d have told me about it immediately. But you didn’t even say anything. And I’m right as usual.”

Nayoung rests her elbows up on her desktop and shrugs her shoulders. “I didn’t know what to say to you, Chungha.”

“I wanna know about her! I’m your best friend! You can tell me anything. And I did have a hand in convincing you to go and meet her, didn’t I?” Chungha says with a pout and a slight whine.

“It’s just…” Nayoung doesn’t know how to say it without revisiting the past and ruining their conversation so she drops it, chooses to talk about Kyulkyung instead.

“She’s great. She’s bright and beautiful and innocent. Really talented too. She majors in pipa. That’s a Chinese traditional instrument, in case you didn’t know. She wanted to kiss under the stars but there weren’t any so I snuck her in the museum’s planetarium.” Nayoung finishes with a weak smile.

“Aww, Nayoungie.” Chungha squeals. “You like her.”

Nayoung nods with no intention of denying anything since it’s Chungha (not Kyungwon or Minkyung or any of the little s). “She’s very likable.”

“Sounds like she is.” Chungha smiles back at her. “Where is she now?”

“She’s back at her hotel. I don’t think it would be good for us to-” Nayoung stops, feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. “Wait, one second.”

She pulls out her phone. It’s Kyulkyung. This is the first time she’s ever called her since they mostly just send text messages to each other so she wastes no time taking the call.

“Holy , I pressed it-”

“Hello? Kyulkyung? Is something wrong?” She asks, worried.

“Nayoung? Oh, god. You picked up?” Kyulkyung sounds embarrassed.

“Yeah, I did. What’s up?” She and Chungha exchange looks through the screen.

There’s a long pause in the line and Nayoung knows Kyulkyung’s hesitating about something.

“Go on. You can tell me.” She urges her.

“I was wondering if I could… stay over tonight. At your place. Could I stay over?” Nayoung blinks.

“I’m not planning anything funny. It’s just that I don’t like being alone at night and I figured that you’re alone too and maybe if I stay over we’d both be, you know, not alone and … yeah… or if you don’t want that, would you consider coming over? Your stuff is still here and I washed the clothes you lent me-” Kyulkyung drifts off. Nayoung could picture her biting her lip in anticipation like she does when she’s waiting for Nayoung to say something.

Chungha raises her eyebrows at her in question and she finally speaks.

“You can stay over. I’d… like it if you stay over.” Nayoung says.

“Really? I can?” Kyulkyung sounds surprised.

“Of course. You’re always welcome here. Should I book you an Uber?” She looks back at the screen, finds Chungha looking expectantly at her.

“Yes, please. Or I can walk, I mean it’s not that far.”

“No. I don’t want you walking outside at this time of the night. I’ll book you a ride.” Nayoung insists, rolls her eyes at the way Chungha is smiling so wide at her. “Have you had dinner? I could whip something up.”

“I’d love that.” Kyulkyung sounds more comfortable now. Nayoung feels relieved and it probably shows in her face because Chungha starts giggling like a maniac.

“Okay. I’ll see you in a bit, Kyulkyung.” She abruptly ends the call.

When she puts the phone down, Chungha is leaning back on her chair with her hands behind her head.

“You were saying?”

“I don’t think it would be a good idea if we spend the nights together often.” She says, frowning.

Because she’s never done this with anyone before. Because it might be too soon. Because it’s something she could get used to. Something Kyulkyung could get used to too. And that’s not going to be good for them in their bleak and dark future.

“But you just couldn’t say no, could you?”

Nayoung sighs. “That’s the thing with her. She’s a little hard to say no to.”

“Then I guess she’s good for you.” Nayoung bites back a sad smile. Of course, Kyulkyung is. But the question was never that. She knew that the moment she laid her eyes on her. “I want to meet her.”

Nayoung lets out a small smile this time and nods at Chungha. Yeah, for the time being she can do that. “Soon.”

“Can’t wait.” Chungha replies in a sing song voice.

&&

Nayoung’s plating the kimchi fried rice when Kyulkyung rings her doorbell. She wastes no time opening the door for her. The younger girl looks rather shy walking in - a medium-sized backpack on one shoulder, her cased pipa on the other, and a large stuffed Squirtle doll in her arms.

“Hi.” Kyulkyung says, all breathy, like a cross between a sigh and actual talking.

Nayoung can’t help but smile at the sight of her.

“What?” Kyulkyung asks with the cutest scrunched forehead and knotted eyebrows.

“Why are you so awkward?” Nayoung asks.

“I-I don’t know. I just… wasn’t sure if you’re okay with me being here.” She looks down on her shoes, starts fiddling with her thumbs.

Nayoung closes the distance, giving Kyulkyung no choice but to catch her eye. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

She looks away almost immediately at the intensity of her stare but she does take the chance to be honest. “I’m taking up your time and your space. And I feel like I’m going too fast.”

If it were anyone else other than Kyulkyung, Nayoung would’ve thought that too because for the longest time she’s never let anyone invade her space or take up too much of her time. But this is Kyulkyung and she knows how it feels and she’d rather she didn’t feel that way. As for the pace, she feels a bit guilty for thinking that way earlier but right now, with Kyulkyung shuffling awkwardly on her feet, looking so embarrased, Nayoung just can’t stand it anymore so she smiles as she makes up her mind. Chungha’s right. She really just can’t say no to this girl.

“You’re not.” She says firmly, tilts Kyulkyung’s face upwards with her hand. “I want you here. In this time. In this space. In this pace.”

“Do you really mean that?” Kyulkyung asks, looks at her with wide eyes.

Nayoung feels her heartbreak a little at the question, at the desperation. Still, she smiles at the younger girl. “Do I look like I don’t mean it?”

Kyulkyung shakes her head at her and finally smiles too. “No, not really.”

“C’mon then. Let’s eat. Dinner’s getting cold.” She takes a hold of Kyulkyung’s free hand, leads her to the kitchen.

Nayoung thinks that she’s certain about this – she’s doomed, they’re both doomed. But if she gets to see Kyulkyung smile like this for the next few weeks, for however long their time together still is, she’ll be fine. She’ll forget about the nagging feeling in her mind that this will hurt them both in the end, that there is such a thing as an end definitely. If she can make Kyulkyung happy during this time, then she’ll be all right with that. She decides that there are just some things she’ll have to worry about later. Much later. When Kyulkyung isn’t smiling at her like she’s starting to mean the whole world to her.

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A/N: Alright, lemme hear about your thoughts, insights, anything. I, for one, am not completely satisfied with what I wrote here. I didn't get to put much science stuff because I was afraid I'd ruin the flow and, believe me, it was so hard to get that flow going (I'm in a bit of a slump lately). But I'll be expounding more on those in the coming chapters with Nayoung's POV. I'd let you all in on a little secret. Before I post a story, I always try to get in four chapters or so to make sure that there's ample time for me to write new updates to not keep the readers hanging for long (because I am a reader too and I know how it feels). I find it effective sometimes but it doesn't always work. Like right now, I have to do a lot of revising because some themes I've written earlier just doesn't seem to fit where I want the story to go to anymore or just lacks a lot of detail in general. I guess what I'm saying is, please bare with me. I always appreciate your patience and your feedback. I mostly just write to relieve stress or to get over the fact that my otp doesn't interact much in real life, but reading about your comments also makes things more fun. So that's that. See y'all around! :)