The one “advantage” of being in a wheelchair was that wherever Dahyun went with her girlfriend, she always entered the room first. Not that it was that big of a deal, but Dahyun knew that as a paraplegic, she had to take what small victories she could get.

    Luckily for the brunette, one of her favorite people in Sana’s friend group happened to answer the door: Hirai Momo. She was the person that Dahyun tended to get along with best, and it filled the wheelchair-bound girl with relief that she would be hanging out with them.

    “Momo!” Dahyun exclaimed excitedly, allowing the blue-haired girl to envelop her in a hug, “I didn’t know you were going to be here! I thought you were in Kyoto, visiting your parents?”

    “I just got back two days ago!” Momo replied, placing her hands on Dahyun’s shoulders to get a better look at her, “I haven’t seen you in over a year now. I swear you get prettier every time we meet!”

    The younger girl giggled in embarrassment.

    “Come on now,” Sana piped up, “We can’t just stand in the doorway forever!”

    “Oh right, right, sorry, I got kind of caught up,” Momo said apologetically before leading the girls down the hall, into the living room.

    Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung’s apartment was significantly smaller than the one that Dahyun and Sana shared, but it was still a nice place. The living room was decorated in eccentric, muted colors that fit the roommates’ personalities to a “T”. They were sitting on the couch, watching Tzuyu as she struggled to play what looked to be the new “Zelda” game on the “Nintendo Switch”. Sana and Dahyun greeted everyone, accepted Jeongyeon’s offer of drinks (beer for Dahyun, tea for Sana, who refused to pilot her girlfriend’s wheelchair unless she was completely sober), and joined the rest of the crowd in the living room. True to her promise, Sana remained seated right next to Dahyun, their hands lazily intertwined over the armrest of the couch.

    Sana fell into conversation with Chaeyoung about something high school-related, and Dahyun found herself chatting with Momo, who pulled a chair up beside the younger girl.

    “I love your new hair,” Dahyun marveled, “Dark blue is a hard color to pull off, but you do it so well.”

    “Oh well, you know,” Momo said with an overemphasized hair flip, “I think I can really pull off any hair color.”

    Dahyun chuckled. She was glad that she had Momo around to talk to while Sana was busy speaking with everyone else.

    To her surprise, however, Sana was actually listening intently to Dahyun and Momo’s conversation, as evidenced when she joined in.

    “Yeah Momo, you do look great,” Sana said with a perplexingly strained smile, “How’s studying coming?”

    “Oh, it’s good. Literature is a very dry subject for sure, but it’s pretty much the best way for me to become a teacher.”

    “You would do great as a teacher!” Dahyun said, “Remember when you tutored me in pre-calc senior year? I was so dumb, and you somehow got me an A in the class!”

    “It was all you, Dahyun,” Momo replied kindly, “You just needed someone to help push you in the right direction.”

    “Is that a cripple joke?” Dahyun said in mock offense, causing Momo to look truly ashamed of herself for a moment until the brunette burst into laughter, followed immediately by the blue-haired girl.

Unseen by the two, Sana merely sat there with an awkward smile on her face.

“I had no idea you two were such good friends,” Chaeyoung called from the other side of the room.

“I’d say we’re best friends!” Momo joked, interlocking her elbow with the wheelchair-bound girl. Finally, Dahyun noticed Sana sitting there, trying to mask the lonely look that threatened to cover her face.

“Nah,” Dahyun said, softly shifting away from Momo to plant an exaggeratedly long kiss on her unsuspecting girlfriend’s cheek, “Sorry Momo, Sana’s my best friend.”

“I can respect that,” Momo replied.

The blonde’s expression perked up, and she gave Dahyun a long, meaningful glance that made the younger girl feel elated.

After a brief period of Dahyun reacclimating herself to each member of the group and their unique senses of humor (she had put genuine effort into most of her social interactions), the brunette soon found herself relaxing immensely, even going so far as to show off her amazing “Mario Kart” skills. Momo was the most enjoyable to interact with, and despite her attempts to assuage Sana’s obvious apprehension about the two of them being too friendly, Dahyun found herself constantly joking and chatting with the other girl. The alcohol certainly facilitated this behavior, and as the day went on, Dahyun found herself getting tipsier and tipsier. She was very much a lightweight when it came to drinking; she felt a bit of a buzz after the first beer. So, naturally, by the time the sun had set and six empty beer bottles sat on the table beside her, she was sufficiently drunk. Drunk enough that Sana refused to allow her to take another sip of alcohol.

“Come on, babe!” Dahyun begged, leaning on her unamused girlfriend’s shoulder, “Just one more drink!”

“No,” Sana said staunchly, must to the protest of her friends in the room, who seemed to be getting along better with Dahyun than her, “I don’t want you puking on the way home.”

“I promise I won’t! I know my limit, Sana. I feel so great right now, I could probably walk.”

Sana had to reach over and prevent Dahyun from attempting to rise from her chair, which prompted the older girl to announce that perhaps it was time for them to be heading home. Of course, this was met with mutual groans and false reassurances from the other girls in the room, but Sana was having none of it. Even in her drunken state, Dahyun recognized that Sana was nearing the end of her patience. The younger girl complied with her significant other’s wishes graciously, bidding everyone goodbye and, for the first time, genuinely hoping that she’d see them again soon.

As the pair began their walk home in the still-falling snow, Dahyun tried her best to probe at how Sana was feeling at the time. She knew that the older girl was less than amused with how everything had went.

“So, did you have fun seeing your friends?” Dahyun asked in what was supposed to be a lighthearted tone.

“Clearly not as much fun as you,” Sana said bitterly, causing Dahyun to wince just a bit.

“Oh, honeypie, don’t be that way…”

Despite herself, Sana giggled in response.

“Your drunk nicknames for me are the best… but I still don’t forgive you for flirting with Momo the whole night.”

“You sound like me right now,” Dahyun said with a chuckle, “You don’t wanna sound like me. I’m a jealous .”

“Your self-hatred also tends to shine when you’re drunk.”

    “Doesn’t matter,” the younger girl turned around in her chair to get a better look at the blonde, “I didn’t flirt with Momo. She’s just my pal. Like you said before, why would I flirt with anyone else when I have you?”

    “Ugh, you’re so lame,” Sana sighed, “You can’t just steal my adorably reassuring phrase.”

    “I can and I will,” the brunette retorted, “Because I’m pretty drunk right now, and honestly thinking of my own material is kind of a tough prospect.”

    “Stop making it so hard for me to stay mad at you,” the older girl grumbled, “Especially since I know how drunk Dahyun is in bed.”

    “Wh-what are you talking about?”

    “Don’t try to deny it,” Sana was clearly smiling now, judging by the tone of her voice. Meanwhile, Dahyun’s already flushed face took on a color that slightly resembled that of a ripe apple.

    “Deny what?!”

    “Dahyun, any time you’re drunk, you just straight up start fondling me wherever we go,” Sana finally admitted, sounding exasperated, “That’s part of the reason I got you out of there so quick. I didn’t need you trying to covertly touch my s in front of my friends.”

    “I do not do that! At all!”

    “We’ve talked about it several times. Also about how you constantly deny it unless you’re sober.”

    “I- listen, that’s rude that you would assume- I would never-”

    “I guess I’ll just have to talk to you about it in the morning… again. But, oh well, at least I’m getting lucky tonight.”

    “Says who?” Dahyun demanded gruffly.

    “Says Drunk Dahyun. I’ll bet you twenty bucks that she’s trying to take my shirt off within five minutes of us getting home.”

    “You got a deal.” the younger girl said smugly.

    They continued home in silence, leaving Dahyun’s intoxicated mind to wander. First, she thought about how cold the air was, and how uncomfortable she would be if she wasn’t drunk. Then, she thought of how beautiful the snow looked now, how peacefully and aesthetically it drifted across the streetlight-lit city, each flake contrasting heavily against the dark backdrop of the night sky. Next, she thought of how well Sana was pushing her along, mainly of how smooth of a ride it was, and how lucky she was to have such a wonderful, kind girlfriend to take care of her. And finally, her thoughts settled in the one place they wanted to settle the most, to the place where they had inevitably been trying to reach all along, to the place that Dahyun had put her best efforts into resisting the whole time.

    “Sana?”

    “Yeah, babe?”

    “I think I’m gonna lose that bet.”

    The older girl giggled in response.

    “What makes you say that?”

    “Because I really wanna grab your right now.”

    “Wait until we get home.”

    “Okay, honey bear.”

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Next chapter is gonna be really sad, so prepare yourselves ):

Thanks for reading<3