"jiheon-ah," nakyung plops down onto their apartment's sofa where jiheon is reading what looks to be a reviewer for the upcoming midterms.

"hm~?" jiheon hums, eyes never once leaving the paper she's holding. 

nakyung pouts, upset at being ignored. leaning on jiheon's shoulder, she starts playing with the sleeves of the other girl's shirt to appease her boredom. once she's bored of that, she looks over to the paper jiheon is reading. 

jiheon could sometimes be such a workaholic that nakyung can't help but worry. "she's as stubborn as gyul," saerom and jisun would say whenever they come visit from across the hall. 

"jiheon-ah, stop studying and play with me~" nakyung swipes the paper from jiheon's hands and promptly sits on it, keeping it from her roommate's reach.

"yah, lee nakyung! give it back!" jiheon tries to take it back, but nakyung's sitting on it, and she really doesn't want to touch the other girl's behind.

"only if you play with me." 

scratching her head, jiheon tries moving nakyung, but the other girl just wouldn't budge. she knows she could just lift nakyung but she's honestly also feeling a bit guilty for ignoring her girlfriend like that.

finally jiheon relents. "fine." nakyung cheers, "but on one condition."

nakyung crosses her arms. "alright, what is it?"

smirking, jiheon answers. "i get internet priorities tonight." 

"what?! but i need to watch our next opponent for a better chance of winning!" 

"for interrupting me while studying, i think this is pretty fair nakko-yah."

nakyung huffs. "fine. but only for tonight."

jiheon nods. "only for tonight." 

brightening up, nakyung quickly pulls jiheon up from the couch and pushes her towards their bedroom. 

"go get changed!"

"what, why?"

"we're going out!"

-------

dressed in a gigantic hoodie with nakyung clinging onto her in a similar hoodie but white, jiheon wonders where they're going. knowing nakyung, they'd probably go to an arcade to play.

"so," jiheon starts. "where are we going?"

nakyung wags a finger at her and winks, "it's a surprise."

"a surprise? why?"

"stop asking questions and trust me, jiheon." nakyung holds onto jiheon's arm tightly and stares up at the taller girl, cheeks puffed up in exasperation.

jiheon raises her hands up in mock surrender, "i got it, i got it. i'm looking forward to it, nakko-yah."

facing forward, nakyung intertwines her fingers with jiheon's, humming a small tune. jiheon looks down at their hands and allows a small smile on her face; she loves nakyung so much that sometimes it's unbearable.

here, strolling through yangpyung's busy streets, jiheon feels like she's home.

-------

"so we were going to the arcade." jiheon mumbles quietly, stuffing her hands into the hoodie's pockets as she catches up to the smaller girl who had run up ahead. 

it was an arcade dearly beloved to their friend circle, a place where they've been to countless of times, and a place jiheon could also consider something special; something that held a lot of sentimental value, if you will.

"jiheon-ah, hurry up!" nakyung shouts a distance away from her, already disappearing around a corner as she said that. jiheon does as told, walking in longer strides to see what her girlfriend's cooked up this time.

as she rounds the corner, a balloon immediately smacks her in the face, followed by a series of party poppers going off at the same time. just as she goes to remove the balloon from her vision, she hears a chorus of shouts.

"WELCOME HOME GYURI-UNNIE!"

and jiheon stands there in utter bewilderment, covered in an assortment of colored streamers and confetti, and holding a balloon a tad bigger than her head.

"what-"

"i told you guys it was jiheon coming but you all wouldn't listen!" she hears nakyung shout over the voices of at least five other people complaining about wasting yet another set of party poppers. "now we have to clean this mess up!"

among the noise, jiheon's brain finally registers what had been shouted moments prior.

"gyuri-unnie is back?"

all noise comes to a stop as they all look over like deer caught in headlights. she sees nakyung approach her, an apologetic look on her face.

"um, surprise?" she says, "okay, jiheon-ah, i was supposed to keep you from studying until your eyes jumped out of their sockets while the unnies, seoyeon, and chaeng gathered here to set this up for gyuri-unnie and also by extension you because we all know the bond you and gyuri-unnie have and so we wanted to i guess maybe surprise you both?" 

"surprise who?"

everyone turns to the voice in surprise, jiheon turning around so fast she could pass as a ballet dancer doing a pirouette. there, in all her camoflauge-gear glory, stands jang gyuri, a hefty backpack slung on her left shoulder and carrying four boxes of donuts in her right hand.

when a beat passes and not one person has said anything, gyuri looks around in confusion. "what's...what's with this silence? are you all not happy to see me?"

and just as she's said that, her backpack and the donuts drop to the floor as four people try to jump on her, seoyeon even going so far as to climb on her back. gyuri hugs all of them back, albeit with a frown and an exasperated huff, because of course she loves them but she also appreciates the joys of a not broken back, i mean she's already growing old as is no need to add back problems to the future-

"GYURI-UNNIE YOU'RE BACK!"

jiheon lifts her head from where she had buried into gyuri's chest, giving her a wide smile, and gyuri in turn returns it with one of her own. jiheon hugs the girl tighter, resuming her previous position on gyuri's chest, the smile never leaving her face.

jiheon feels nakyung and chaeyoung detach from gyuri, seoyeon hopping off of gyuri's back soon after. she feels her unnie straighten up and starts to let go of the tight grip she had had on the girl earlier.

she watches as gyuri moves over to the rest of the party, watches as gyuri gives jiwon an affectionate headlock-and-noogie, watches as she does some overly-complicated handshake with hayoung; watches as she goes over to saerom and jisun, hugging them both so tight and lifting them from the ground, spinning around as saerom and jisun fervently yell at gyuri to let them down.

she watches as her friends, her family, laugh together and celebrate, and she feels a warmth overtake her chest; a warmth so bubbly and full that she might explode. she feels nagyung beside her intertwine their hands together, and as she looks over, she sees a wide and content smile blossom on her own. 

"jiheon-ah, nagyung-ah, what are you both doing there standing around?" gyuri calls from the table where the rest of their friends are gathered, sporting smiles as wide as their own. 

nagyung tugs on jiheon's hand ever so slightly, urging her to move forward, and jiheon thinks she doesn't mind spending the rest of her life like this.

--------

not yet proofread so forgive any mistakes you've seen for now lol