Taehee wonders why Kiyoung-oppa bothered calling her. She’s a busy person with her own life too! But then Kiyoung pulled out all the stops and started doing aegyo (God forbid), and before she even knew it she was on a bus to the party  in the dress that she was saving for the awards banquet she was supposed to go to in order to receive her scholarship. “Stupid Kiyoung-oppa,” she muttered to herself as she walks up to the venue and begrudgingly waves to Kiyoung, who was waiting outside the entrance for her.

    “Taehee-yah, you made it!” Kiyoung calls out, waving back enthusiastically.

    “Why’d you call me out here?” Taehee asks the moment she reaches him. “It’s cold,” she complains.

    “Sorry, sorry,” he apologizes with that boyish smile that had all of the girls falling for him when they were younger. “Here — take my jacket!” he says before removing his suit jacket and gently draping it around Taehee. She rolls her eyes. “My date — she, uh — she didn’t show up so I need a substitute.”

    “Whatever,” Taehee sighs. “Let’s get this over with. You owe me afterwards,” she says firmly, jabbing a finger into Kiyoung’s chest.

    “Yeah, yeah,” he appeases. “Let’s go!”

.

    “Where the heck is the bathroom in this place?” Taehee mutters to herself. Kiyoung had introduced her to his acquaintances and she immediately excused herself to the lavatory, as people here would say it. Guess he’s losing two dates tonight, she thinks to herself.

    She makes a turn at an incredibly and unnecessarily lavish statue and abruptly bumps into someone. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Taehee immediately apologizes, alternating between spilling apologies and are you ok’s out of . The girl she bumped into doesn’t say anything, and instead remains on the floor. Taehee pauses. “Are you… are you okay?” she asks again hesitantly, kneeling down beside her to take a closer look at the girl.

    She’s beautiful, Taehee notices, with full lips and sorrowful, round eyes. And then Taehee notices the pink hue on her cheeks. “You’re drunk, aren’t you?” she sighs. She’s been in Germany for way too long to not know what this is.

    “No, I’m not!” The girl glares back at her. It probably would’ve been intimidating if her glare had been focused on Taehee and not the potted plant slightly to her left.

    “Okay,” Taehee says, ignoring the girl’s insistent denial and swings the girl’s arm around her own shoulder to lift her up. “Up you go,” she grunts as she lifts the other girl up. They sway for a moment — partially because the other girl is slightly taller than Taehee, but mostly because Taehee is still getting used to wearing heels.

    “Taehee-yah,” a voice calls out, and Taehee maneuvers the both of them to turn around to see who it is. It’s Kiyoung, who walks up to them but then immediately freezes when he sees who Taehee has her arm wrapped around. “Sooji?”

    “Oppa?” Taehee questions. “Do you know her?”

    “Uh, kind of,” Kiyoung stutters. “She’s just someone I’ve met a couple of times.”

    The girl who Taehee is currently helping not collapse over immediately perks up at the statement. “First you bring me flowers and ask me to go to this event with you, and now I’m just ‘someone you’ve met’?” Sooji slurs out. “You lying dickbag!” she loudly insults, drawing the attention of some nearby waiters. Kiyoung immediately looks around and tries to shush the drunk girl, but she doesn’t listen and instead moves forward, probably to attack the man if she hadn’t tripped over her own heels.

    “Whoa there!” Taehee immediately exclaims, catching the other girl by the waist and leaning her back into her own body in an attempt to steady her. She then shifts her attention back to Kiyoung. “Oppa, is that true? Was she supposed to be your date?” Kiyoung starts to stutter out some excuses, but Taehee bulldozes through with her interrogation. “You told me that your date stood you up, but it looks like you stood her up instead. Did you lie to me?”

    “Taehee-yah,” Kiyoung starts. “Listen to me, the girl’s drunk,” he laughs nervously. Taehee scoffs. Probably by his doing. It isn’t the first time some girl had gotten blackout drunk because of heartbreak caused by his boy tendencies. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying.” Taehee sighs and turns to move. “W-where are you going?” Kiyoung calls out as she walks away from him, Sooji still in tow.

    “I’m taking her home!” Taehee responds, referring to the girl still currently in her charge.

    “Here, let me help. I can call my driver,” Kiyoung appeases, already reaching for his phone in his pocket.

    “I think you’ve done enough,” Taehee glares and he immediately freezes. “Don’t call me for a while,” she says with finality in her voice before exiting.

.

    “Excuse me,” Taehee calls out timidly to the drunk girl staggering her way down the sidewalk. After they had exited the building, Sooji had jerked out of her hold, insisting that she could walk on her own, and Taehee had been too surprised to stop her.

    “Excuse me,” Taehee calls out again. Sooji pointedly ignores her. “Excuse me,” Taehee tries once again.

    Sooji whirls around and glares at Taehee in a way that makes her straighten her back. “What?!” she responds in an irritated voice.

    “Are you okay?” Taehee hesitantly asks, slightly intimidated by the fury written on the other girl’s face.

    Sooji lets out a bitter laugh. “What do you think?” she yells at her.

    Taehee shrinks back. “Right, stupid question,” she murmurs to herself. “Well, anyways,” she continues on, following the drunk girl as she tries to hail a taxi. “I’m sorry for what Kiyoung did to you. He can be a real douche sometimes, there’s no excuses for it. It’s all the money and good looks getting to his head.” Sooji ignores her and continues to search for a taxi to hail.

“Why are there no taxis around?!” she complains, stomping her foot in frustration. For such a rich area, there sure are absolutely zero taxis around. Probably because everyone has a personal driver or are rich enough to own luxurious imported cars. “Ah!” she exclaims. “Found one!”

Taehee looks up to see the drunk girl heading to a bus. “This is not going to end well,” Taehee mumbles to herself before following Sooji onto the bus. Luckily, it was a bus that ran a route with a stop close to her house, so even if this mess of a girl had no idea where she was going, at least Taehee does.

“Driver!” Sooji calls out. “Take me to Myeongjeong Hospital!”

“Ma’am,” the driver sighs. “This bus route goes to Goyang.”

The girl pauses. “Then take me there!”

The driver stares back. “You have to pay the fare,” he says in an exasperate voice.

“I can pay that! It’s just bus fare! How much can it cost? Ten dollars?” Sooji exclaims. From behind her, Taehee facepalms. “Do you take card?” The bus driver looks just as done with this girl as Taehee is.

“The things I do out of the goodness of my own heart,” Taehee mumbles to herself before stepping in front of Sooji. “Ahjusshi, I’ll pay the bus fare for her,” she says before tapping her transportation card on the machine. “Let’s go,” Taehee tells Sooji before gently (forcefully) leading her to a seat in the back of the bus.

After they settle down, Taehee looks over at Sooji. She seems to have calmed down, no longer slurring out swear words at innocent fire hydrants and is instead just staring out the window of the bus, sorrow painted all over her face.

Taehee wants to ask her if she’s okay again, but knows that it wouldn’t help anything. So she instead takes off the jacket Kiyoung had given her to wear when she first arrived and drapes it over the Sooji’s shivering form. Sooji looks up at her, staring at Taehee with pained eyes, before she gives the jacket back to Taehee and turns to look away again with a dismissive, “I’m not into women.”

Taehee snorts. “Good for you,” she retorts. “I hope you’re into looking like a popsicle because that’s what you’ll be if you don’t wear this jacket.” Sooji turns back to look at her, and Taehee’s eyes soften at how vulnerable she looks despite her best attempts at bravado. “Take the jacket,” Taehee says gently, “you look like you need a little bit of warmth right now.”

Sooji contemplates it for a moment before accepting the jacket. She doesn’t say thank you, but Taehee still considers it a victory. They sit there in silence, watching as the streetlights pass them by.

“So it’s you,” a soft voice calls out in the silence of the bus. Taehee looks to her side to see Sooji intensely staring back at her with an unreadable look in her eyes. “First love..” she trails off, leaning her face close to Taehee’s. Taehee flusters at the closeness of their faces, and immediately swivels her head to look forward.

“W-what are you talking about?” she manages to stutter out. “I mean, I know my looks are pretty great, and that I helped you out tonight but don’t you think that’s moving too fast?” Taehee rambles out, back ramrod straight and still staring straight forward. “To call me your first love after only one night..” she trails off, feeling her cheeks heat off. “Oh! Also, what about not liking wome-” Taehee trails off once she finally looks over to the drunk woman and sees that she had fallen asleep on Taehee’s shoulder. Taehee stays frozen, heartbeat still racing like crazy, but she relaxes as the warmth emanating from Sooji’s body and her steady breathing lulls Taehee into a calmer state. Taehee looks down at the girl sleeping on her shoulder, and reaches down to brush a stray strand of hair out of her face. “You,” she starts quietly, drinking in the sight of the beautiful girl beside her. “You’re going to make my life a mess, aren’t you?”

A/N: Inspired by my gay thirst and the combined hotness of Joy and Moon Gayoung. Also by the scene where Sooji sees Taehee for the first time and goes, "So it's you. The first love." She's referring to Taehee being Kiyoung's first love, but doesn't mention his name at all so taken out of context, it gay. So in conclusion, gay. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk. If you liked it, please upvote and/or comment!