+++

Yoohyeon hates the crowd and their noise that buzzes in her ears, a constant annoyance she would like to eradicate but cannot. Beside her someone was screaming on their phone, another shoving people who complains and whines and honestly Yoohyeon's irked at everything.

The world was annoying.

But she's smiling because she's Kim Yoohyeon.

Bright and positive Kim Yoohyeon with the crazy ideas and charming personality. She knows how people see her, she's not dumb. Though she wished them gone. Honestly, she could spot their fake smiles a million miles away.

People are like that.

If you're useful they're nice, if not then why bother?

In a selfish world, the selfish succeeds.

Yoohyeon had long learned that.

She adjusts her bag, her right shoulder already sore as she pushed through the crowded station, people pushing at each other and she's suddenly falling, could suddenly see the white ceiling and Yoohyeon closes her eyes, preparing herself for the inevitable fall that never came.

Instead, she feels herself land safely, someone's body softening her fall with a pained grunt.

Yoohyeon immediately stands up.

That someone was a girl, still sprawled on the station floor as she rubs her temples, red hair flowing with the shake of her head. Then she looks up and Yoohyeon has never seen someone give her such a genuine look of concern.

"Are you okay?" She asks and Yoohyeon's baffled. She's not the one on the floor with a possible concussion.

Yoohyeon nods, offers her hand to the fallen girl who accepts her help with a smile.

Bright beautiful smile and her eyes crinkles along, a sign that it's real and it's not fake and it's not someone who just likes Yoohyeon for the popularity, this girl doesn't even know her and so Yoohyeon's entranced. Enthralled. Captivated. Call it whatever.

Yoohyeon's never seen anyone give her this genuine of a smile.

The girls dusts her clothes and picks up Yoohyeon's forgotten bag and hands it to her.

"Be careful next time, okay?" She smiles again and Yoohyeon's out of words at the moment.

Yoohyeon's out of it for a long time because when she came back to her senses, the girl was long gone, leaving her rattled, her chest aching and that sad bitter feeling of not knowing if she'd meet that girl again. Yoohyeon wanted to meet her again.

+++

Yoohyeon doesn't like school, students littering the hallways, chatters everywhere and everyone bad mouthing anyone.

High school is a pit of snakes. Dangerous. Poisonous.

Students bite, everyone in a constant competition in climbing the ladder of popularity and Yoohyeon hates it but she's popular anyway.

And she tries to stay low, listens only when she needs to because everything is boring anyway and everything she's learned already she could pass the exams with her eyes closed but she shows that she tries because you can't be that perfect either. People will tear you down once you're close to perfect.

So then it's one of those times Yoohyeon's not listening, fingers fiddling with her mechanical pencil as it's lead continues to scrape the paper of her sketchbook.

She's trying to duplicate the girl in her memories, bright smile and crinkling eyes and flowy red hair, Yoohyeon would put up a wanted poster if she could.

"Are you drawing me?"

Yoonhyeon almost snaps the mechanical pencil.

She also almost snaps her own neck as she suddenly turns her head up, eyes wide in disbelief as the girl dominating her mind gives her another one of those addicting genuine smiles.

"Yoohyeon please. Seeing as the seat beside you is vacant, Miss Kim Minji will have to seat beside you if that's alright with you?"

Yoohyeon nods absentmindedly, her whole attention on her—Minji.

"You can call me JiU though," Minji—JiU says as she sits down, "Only strangers call me Minji, we're friends now right? What's your name?"

JiU faces her, her red hair sticking a bit to her temples and Yoohyeon guesses she must've been in a hurry and she's also swallowing her own saliva because as the sweat glistens in JiU's skin, Yoohyeon is very tempted to it.

"I-uhmm... I'm Yoohyeon?" She manages to say.

JiU raises an eyebrow, amusement in her eyes, "You're not sure of your own name?"

"No—I mean—" Yoohyeon slaps herself inside her head, "I'm Kim Yoohyeon. Nice to meet you?"

This time, JiU laughs lightly, "You end everything with a question but nice to meet you too!"

The class starts and JiU sends her one last smile before concentrating on the written words up ahead, brows scrunching. Yoohyeon's concentrating on something else, eyes swallowing the sight of the pretty girl beside her and for the first time in her life, Yoohyeon wanted the class to go on forever.

+++

"So you're not actually a student here?" Yoohyeon asks, her hopes deflating.

JiU laughs at her obvious disappointment, "No, I'm in college. This is like a field experience."

Yoohyeon huffs, leaning away from her desk. At the corner of her eyes she could see everyone else watching the two of them and okay it's fine if they're just ogling at her cause she's used to it but JiU's too pretty and she keeps on smiling and she hates it for some reason because she wants it all to herself.

"I'll be here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so that's plenty of time right?" JiU nudges her arm.

Yoohyeon sighs before finally smiling. A real one for the first time and everyone's head turns to her before flitting back to JiU and back to Yoohyeon again.

"Fine, but you have to treat me to ice cream for being your only friend here."

"Yah!  I saved you at the train station a few days ago, you should be thanking me!"

"So ice cream?"

"Deal! It's a date!"

Yoohyeon's heart skipped a beat.

+++

The first ice cream date was followed by a second one and another and Yoohyeon and JiU are glued to each other and the days wherein JiU doesn't have this field research Yoohyeon would find her at the gates, waiting for her with a wave and that sunshine smile and it became a routine, a part of her every waking moment even so when she finds JiU standing solemnly, her face casted downwards, Yoohyeon's more than worried.

She tangles her fingers with JiU's, eyes inquiring and she could feel the genuine concern pumping inside her and Yoohyeon's a bit scared at her newfound attachment towards the older girl but JiU's still not smiling so she lets herself care more than usual and she drags JiU, somewhere safe, somewhere away from prying eyes and deafening gossips, somewhere where they can be alone. Yoohyeon wanted that for a long time and she might've have just been given the chance.

"What's wrong unnie?" Yoohyeon starts carefully. She's never dealt with an upset person before so she was treading on unfamiliar grounds.

JiU gives her a weak smile, sad and so unlike her.

"Yoohyeonnie..." JiU starts and Yoohyeon perks up at the nickname she'd grown to like whenever it comes out of JiU's lips, "I'm leaving."

She drops their entangled hands, Yoohyeon unsure of the different emotions that's wrestling inside her. 

"When?" She asks, her voice more rough and vicious than she intended.

JiU avoids her eyes, jaw clenched and suddenly her cheeks are wet with tears and possibly may have washed away Yoohyeon's unreasonable anger because she's suddenly panicking and trying to comfort the older girl and JiU suddenly clings to her.

Among her jumbled words Yoohyeon could hardly make out anything from her explanations, something along the lines of her parents sending her away, hating her for who she is and Yoohyeon's not supposed to feel happy at the moment but she is because JiU in cries and unstopping sobs hugs her tighter and pours out her heart to Yoohyeon and all she could hear was every 'i love you's and every 'i really like you's and she's high on JiU's voice saying her name over and over again and Yoohyeon unchains all of her self restraint and pulls JiU in, grabs her closer until their lips met in an electrifying feeling of desperation, hunger and unsatisfaction on her side but JiU's kissing her softly and gently like it's also their last kiss, as if it's their last time together and Yoohyeon's mad at the world for teasing her, for trying to take away JiU just as Yoohyeon was about to have her.

It's her against the world.

Yoohyeon never loses.

+++

Yoohyeon stands among dreary clouds, an ominous smile painted on her lips as she stands close by the edge of the towering building, the vast empty space eliciting a heavy atmosphere that settles on JiU's chest as she walks closer to the younger girl.

Fingers pressed play, hands towards her and Yoohyeon invites her to dance, the clouds still dreary and sad to match the uncomfortably sad yet fast beat of the music, like a cry interlaced with mocking bitterness. 

JiU doesn't understand.

But it was Yoohyeon and she pulls her in and JiU doesn't complain, matches every step that dances to the beat and everytime it feels like they're treading on thin line, getting dangerously close to something they can never untangle, irreversible, permanent.

As the music whispers its end, Yoohyeon lets her hand go, steps back on edge and her eyes never leaves JiU's. Her smile never fades and JiU runs to her, panic rising up to , suffocating her lungs and the adrenaline inside her bursts and before she knew it she was jumping, hands reaching out to the younger girl with crying eyes and if they die, they'd die together. 

JiU finally reaches Yoohyeon, pulling her into a tight embrace and she closes her eyes for the inevitable, trying to focus in the moment and her senses are filled with Yoohyeon, Yoohyeon, Yoohyeon and nobody else and maybe it wasn't that bad at all and maybe they will meet again. In another life, in another time and in that uncertainty, if given that second chance, JiU would make sure they'd have a happy ending.

Up above there's a diffused grey light of a darkening sky, the heavens crying and grieving along the two lives they were about to lose.

On the other hand, Yoohyeon was smiling.

Forever was a long time but they were about to reach it. She didn't need a second chance, a second life, a second time of the world stealing everything and JiU from her, she didn't want them. Yoohyeon liked today's ending.

Today and forever, JiU is hers and hers alone.

+++

[a/n] : well that did not end well. lmao sorry i like angst too much its been a long time since i wrote fluff hahaha. also y'all please stan dreamcatcher! i've been wanting to write about them for a long while but making a whole interpretation of a story based on their songs could take a while so i have this one-shot instead. heads up if you stan them, tell me what you think and leave a comment so i'll know my fellow dc stans i need friends XD.