Seulgi looked down suspiciously at Joohyun. “What do you want?”

Joohyun scoffed indignantly, pausing hesitantly for a beat, before seemingly remembering herself and putting on her best face. “Why do you assume I want anything?”

Seulgi assessed the situation quickly. Joohyun had the beginning of her puppy dog face on (that may or may not have got Seulgi every damn time), not completely there with the watery doe eyes and the killer pout yet, but eyes wide and pleading and lips slightly pulled apart in preparation. She had been speaking to her in her cutest voice throughout the entire conversation so far, even going as far as to physically place her head in Seulgi’s lap, which had promptly pushed Seulgi to start playing with her hair, something that she’d knew Joohyun loved, and caused her to purr contently every single time without fail.

On top of all that, Joohyun had been especially nice all week and extra affectionate, which was very difficult considering how close they were usually, almost always joined at the hip and touched in some way.

It had become and habit now, the way they were comfortable with each other. There was some kind of implicit comfort that came with each other, a kind of familiarity that came with knowing each other for so long, so deeply. The way they were always touching was only a physical way of reassuring each other that they were there, even if they both knew it mentally and emotionally. It was almost subconscious at this stage, a hand running through the other’s hair, massaging softly, an arm strung across a stomach, rubbing gently, a hand along a spine, pressing tenderly.

Seulgi chuckled lightly, “Because I know you. I know you want something. What is it, Hyun? You can tell me anything, you know that.” Seulgi asked gently, almost always careful of her words around Joohyun, not because she was particularly sensitive, but because she didn’t deserve to be treated with anything but the utmost respect and love and care and Seulgi was so so aware of that, being the one to pick up the pieces of Joohyun’s broken heart every single time it shattered due to some who didn’t know a good thing if it hit them in the face.

So yeah, Seulgi treated Joohyun like she was the best thing that had ever happened to her, but really, she kind of was and she knew Joohyun deserved nothing less.

Joohyun sighed heavily, in mix of both relief and worry, and looked up at Seulgi, almost instantly smiling at the sight of her beautiful best friend, although she wasn’t really sure why yet.

“I know, I’m just nervous. I don’t want you to say no, or be freaked out or anything.” Joohyun said worriedly, frown present and brows furrowed in apprehension.

Seulgi fixed Joohyun with a look, a look filled with such care and love in her eyes that Joohyun just knew it would be all ok, without verbal confirmation needed from her friend. If she was honest, it kind of made Joohyun want to cry a little because of how much she loved the other girl, but what she wanted to ask Seulgi could potentially ruin the relationship that they had so carefully built, and Joohyun was by no means prepared to do that, Seulgi being one of the best things to ever happen to her.

Seulgi could still tell Joohyun was a bit unsure from the way she was fiddling with her fingers, a nervous habit she had picked up, and so she stopped her motions on Joohyun’s head, and instead bent down to give her a soft kiss on the forehead, a wordless reassurance that no matter what happened, she would be there for her and care about her and love her, always. Then, she nudged the side of her neck with her nose slightly, as if physically prompting her to start speaking, causing Joohyun to giggle cutely.

Joohyun closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in an attempt to compose herself, before speaking again. “Will you please pretend to be my fake-girlfriend?”

Seulgi raised her eyebrows.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m not dating anyone right now and I met Bogum earlier this week by chance and he asked me to have dinner with him and his girlfriend and I kind of, may have, just possibly told him that I was...dating someone. I don’t want to go because I hate him, but I want to show him I’ve moved on and could do so much better than him and you’re the best person because we know each other so well and I wouldn’t ask unless I was desperate and it would be the ultimate you to him, because he said you were the reason we broke up, and you hate him and he doesn’t like you either-”

(Apparently her and Seulgi were to close? Whatever, Joohyun had reasoned, he was probably just being insecure, which was dumb because that was his excuse for cheating on her. Seulgi had held her for days after Joohyun found out, feeding and bathing and looking after her, constantly reassuring her that she was good enough with words and kisses and cuddles and everything Joohyun didn’t know she needed. Needless to say, Seulgi hated Bogum).

“-and I just really want to show him I’ve moved on and can be happy without him. Please, Seul?” Joohyun finished her ramble with bated breath, waiting for an answer.

Seulgi chuckled slightly at how worked up Joohyun was over this and quickly ended her worries with a few words.

Seulgi had a habit of doing that, Joohyun had realised. She was extremely grateful for it.

“Of course, Hyun. You know I would do anything for you. I mean, I obviously have the most beautiful girlfriend in the world. You almost make it too easy.” Seulgi grinned.

Joohyun giggled. “If you keep that up, we won’t have any problems convincing Bogum.”

“We won’t have any trouble trying to convince him anyways,” Seulgi scoffed, “I’m going to be a better girlfriend to you that he ever was a boyfriend, and I’m faking it. He never treated you as well as you deserved, but I will.”

In response, Joohyun nuzzled into Seulgi’s neck shyly, before shuffling up the other girl’s body to straddle Seulgi, causing the monolid girl’s cheeks to turn a delicate shade of pink, and began to place playful kisses all over Seulgi’s face, puncturing each one with a grateful, “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

God, Seulgi thought to herself, Joohyun was just too cute sometimes. As if she could ever say no to her anyway.

____

Seulgi was seriously beginning to regret this. Turns out, Bogum was even more of an that Seulgi remembered (which was weird because she had pretty much always known exactly how much of a he was. Nothing to do with the fact he was dating Joohyun. Obviously).

The evening itself had started off fine. Seulgi and Joohyun had got ready together in their shared house, and Seulgi had had plenty of time to mentally prepare herself for dinner with Bogum, although that notion was completely ruined as soon as Joohyun walked down the stairs, because, wow - was it even legal to look that good?

Needless to say every legible thought had soon flew out of Seulgi’s head, although telling Joohyun exactly what she thought of her appearance, that night and always, made a delighted blush appear on Joohyun’s face that Seulgi couldn’t forget, even if she wanted to.

So, together they drove to the restaurant that Bogum had picked out, fake smiles firmly in place and hands grasped tightly together, a non-verbal show of unity and waited for Bogum and his date to arrive.

They had been waiting for just over half an hour before he showed up, late as usual, just like he had been for every single date he had ever taken Joohyun on out.

____

As soon as he arrived he started arguing with the waiter about their table, because apparently it wasn’t close enough to the window like he had requested, and even as the waiter very politely explained that he was sorry but there weren’t any open spaces near any windows, Bogum still got right up in his face and threatened him (and his family, who even does that). Obviously it made zero difference, because there was clearly no space in the restaurant, and so Bogum continued huffing and puffing down his war path. Whatever, Seulgi reasoned, it was probably so he could stare at his ugly face in the reflection.

And that was just the beginning.

He yelled at the family sitting next to them in the restaurant for looking at him funny, reducing the little girl to tears, and then sneered as she cried, smirk solidly on his face. However that was quickly solved because Seulgi went over, and as if by magic, pulled a lollipop out of her pocket and started talking to the little girl.

“Hi, sweetie. What’s your name?” Seulgi asked gently.

The little girl sniffled a little. “Jiwoo.”

“Jiwoo. That’s a lovely name, who gave you that?” Seulgi asked, kneeling down so she was face to face with the girl.

“Mommy.”

“Your mommy must be really super smart to give a pretty girl like you an even prettier name!” Seulgi said.

“I have a little present for you, I hope your mommy doesn’t mind - it’s a lollipop to say sorry for my...friend over there who was mean to you. Maybe he just didn’t see how special you are.” She continued.

“Really? For me?” The little toddler said, grin lighting up her whole face.

Seulgi nodded eagerly.

“I’ve got to get back to my girlfriend now, but I hope you guys have a good rest of dinner. And I hope even more that I’ll get to see my friend Jiwoo again.” Seulgi winked at her, and in response the little girl giggled, and was still smiling as Seulgi walked away.

And that was that. God, Joohyun loved her. It was actually a joke comparing her and Bogum and honestly she didn’t know how she ever put up with him in the first place.

And it was only then that Bogum actually sat down at the table. For all two seconds.

“Hi.” Joohyun began to greet him.

“Shut up, Joohyun. I’m trying to do something here.” Bogum said, constipated frown painting his face.

And with all this confrontation, with Bogum literally being an to three people before he had even sat down, Seulgi could feel Joohyun getting tenser and tenser by her side. Seulgi knew how much Joohyun hated people looking down on people and being rude to people they didn’t see as equals and when Joohyun gripped her hand tighter than before and clenched her jaw, Seulgi was immediately aware of how annoyed she was and soothingly ran her thumb over Joohyun’s hand, tugging her arm slightly to lift her out of her anger induced trance and then placing a gentle kiss on Joohyun’s neck, just underneath her ear on her pulse point. In response, Joohyun breathed out a heavy sigh and softened almost instantly, looking over to Seulgi with a grateful look which Seulgi responded to with a tender smile o