Talking to Joohyun became marginally easier. It didn’t become quite as easy as talking to regular people who were used to volunteering personal information and contributing to the conversation, but Seungwan would have been a fool to expect otherwise.

She had expected otherwise, a little bit. She liked to think she was an optimist. But even Sooyoung couldn’t perform miracles, so instead she got a Joohyun who stopped and made moderate eye contact and asked how her day had been. She always asked only that, so it was definitely Sooyoung’s work. Seungwan was grateful for her dedication to such a thankless task.

In fact, once she’d adjusted her expectations, Seungwan found that her relationship with her neighbour was about as good as she could hope for. They talked long enough for her to commit a fresh image of Joohyun’s face to memory, the awkward silences had suffered a definite reduction, and sometimes Joohyun smiled for more than a millisecond. She still knew approximately zero things about her neighbour, but hey, progress.

Of course, that wasn’t enough for Seulgi, who continued to make inhuman demands of Seungwan. Apparently, she was expected to take the reins of the conversation, learn more about Joohyun, become closer to her and then eventually ask her out. Ridiculous. Seungwan scoffed at Seulgi’s reassurances that they’d never go out if she didn’t ask her out. Clearly she wasn’t aware of the plan to die alone with cats.

“But you don’t have to do the cat thing! Things are going great,” Seulgi insisted, clearly exasperated and a little confused at Seungwan’s reasoning.

“Of course I don’t have to, dying alone with cats isn’t a necessity. It’s a privilege,” she declared, smirking slightly at Seulgi’s eyeroll. The smirk was short-lived, as a dishcloth suddenly hit her in the face then flopped to the floor. “I’m not picking that up.”

“You can pick that up or you can go visit Joohyun and make a human connection,” Seulgi said, then darted forward to reach for the cloth. “And would you look at that, you didn’t pick it up.”

Seungwan crossed her arms, unimpressed. “You can’t make me talk to Joohyun, you know? I’m an adult.”

“I shouldn’t have to make you, talking to the person you like isn’t a punishment,” Seulgi said, slapping her arm weakly with the dishcloth she was still holding. “I seem to remember a time when you were sad that you weren’t talking.”

“Maybe I’m not very reasonable and never satisfied. Every thought of that, Seulgi?” Seungwan threw out dramatically. Seulgi simply sighed in reply, turning around to hang the cloth in its place. “Human beings are complex creatures. We can’t be reduced to your clean logic.”

Her performance was received with another eyeroll. “Maybe you’re scared,” Seulgi deadpanned, stepping closer to look into her eyes. Then she poked her cheek. “Go talk to her.”

“You’re mean.”

“Tough love, Wannie.”

Seulgi left soon afterwards, not without berating her a few more times. Tough love Seulgi was kind of scary, especially because it made such a contrast with usual soft Seulgi. Seungwan liked soft Seulgi better.

She knew Seulgi was right. She was very scared. In her defence, talking to Joohyun would have been scary for anyone, she just had the added bonus of having a crush on her. So things just stayed the way they were and the days passed by with Seulgi occasionally dropping by to judge her – “encourage you,” Seulgi would correct - and eventually one of them would move away and the problem would solve itself.

 Seungwan sighed, awakening from her reverie to finally pay attention to her kitchen. She’d been baking away her worries all Saturday and might have gotten the slightest bit carried away. Suddenly, trays and plates of cookies covered every flat surface in the room, and there was an extra batch still in the oven. It looked like she’d be offering cookies to every single co-worker on Monday. Not that they’d complain, there was always a great turnout.

She leaned against the kitchen wall, studying the baked goods. She knew what Seulgi would say. She couldn’t claim the same dumb idea hadn’t crossed her mind as well. Her apartment had an excess of homemade cookies. The apartment across from her had, presumably, no homemade cookies, which in her opinion translated into a deficit. The most logical course of action would be to act as an agent of diffusion, bringing the two apartments back into cookie equilibrium.

Seungwan pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. She absolutely would not go visit her neighbour if weird chemistry jokes were planning on escaping at any point during the encounter. In fact, she wouldn’t visit her at all. She couldn’t bring the cookies to work either, because Seulgi would immediately identify the wasted opportunity and berate her. She just had to eat all the cookies by herself. This was fine. Totally doable.

She opened one eye and peeked at her kitchen. It wasn’t doable at all. She was doomed.

She blew out a breath, letting her shoulders sag. Groaning loudly, she stomped around in search of a nice plate to bring across the hallway.

“I’ll do it, but I won’t enjoy it,” she announced petulantly to the empty room. Mr. Fluffers poked his head into the kitchen, roused by her voice, then sat in the doorway to watch her erratic movements.

Five minutes later, she was standing at the door to her apartment, shoes already on and a plate stacked high with cookies in her hands. She stared stubbornly at the door, making no movement to open it. Mr. Fluffers judged her from his spot on the couch. Finally, she balanced the plate on one hand and reached for the knob with the other.

“She’s probably not even home,” she mumbled to herself, forcing her legs forward as she clung to this final hope. She stepped across the hallway on wobbly legs, trying to soothe her nerves. This was dumb, she was dumb.

She raised a hand to knock on Joohyun’s door. She shifted from leg to leg, holding her dumb plate of cookies. She heard noises from within the apartment, simultaneously cursing her luck and fighting off a grin. Then the door swung open, once more revealing not Joohyun.

This time it was a girl, even younger than Sooyoung but of a more human height, with shoulder-length brown hair. She looked at Seungwan with mild curiosity, before simply commenting “You’re a little old for a girl scout.”

Seungwan glanced at the cookies cradled in her hands and chuckled in acknowledgment of the joke.

“Might look good in the uniform,” the girl added, her lips splitting in an amused smirk at Seungwan’s immediate sputtering. She felt a blush creeping up her neck and desperately willed it away. Why were Joohyun’s friends all so weird and invasive? “Relax, I was just checking.”

Before Seungwan could ask what she meant, the girl turned to the inside of the apartment. “Joohyun, it’s your neighbour,” she announced. Then she turned back around to face Seungwan. “Sooyoung told me about you,” she said, still smirking. “You’re just like she described.”

That was definitely not a compliment. But hey, Sooyoung had bothered to tell Joohyun’s friend about her. That spelled out some confidence in her ability to remain in their lives. Or maybe Sooyoung just thought her weirdness was funny enough to share.

Before she could analyse this further, Joohyun appeared from behind the door, moving to stand beside the young girl. Her arm looped around her waist protectively, but her face showed only slight curiosity. “Oh, hello Seungwan,” she said mildly.

Despite knowing that this was Joohyun’s apartment, Seungwan still managed to be blindsided at her sudden appearance. She kept forgetting how pretty she was. The previously suppressed blush came back in full force and she felt her cheeks heat up as she sputtered out a semi-coherent greeting. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the young girl smirk again. She pretended not to notice.

“So, how is your day going?” Joohyun asked cheerily. Good old Sooyoung had really drilled it into her. No, not good, Seungwan might be mad at her. She wasn’t sure about that yet.

“It’s good. Going good.” She stubbornly refused to acknowledge the amusement in Joohyun’s friend’s face at her inarticulate speech. “I’ve been baking,” she added as an afterthought, raising her arms to bring the plate of cookies to attention.

Joohyun noticed the cookies for the first time, looking over them for a moment. “That’s nice,” she replied after a short pause.

The girl’s amusement was now directed at Joohyun. That was a relief. But not long-lived. “So then you decided to take your cookies for a walk?” the girl asked Seungwan. She blinked in confusion.

“Uh, no, they’re for you guys,” she explained, though she’d thought it would be obvious. Joohyun’s friend immediately reached for a cookie, then let her hand hover halfway to .

“They’re not raisin cookies or something, right?” she asked suspiciously.

“No, regular old chocolate chip,” Seungwan reassured her. She bit into the cookie quickly, seeming pleased. Seungwan wished she’d made raisin cookies, just a little bit. She turned to Joohyun as her friend relieved her of the full plate, already stuffing a second cookie into . Now was the part where she was supposed to talk to her neighbour. If only the younger girl would leave.

Instead, the girl elbowed Joohyun softly, rolling her eyes as this only resulted in Joohyun looking at her in confusion. “Aren’t you going to introduce me?”

Joohyun seemed startled by this breach of etiquette and hurriedly spoke up. “Oh, this is my friend, Yerim. Yerim, this is my neighbour Seungwan.” She frowned slightly. “But you already knew that, I didn’t have to say that part.”

Yerim patted her arm reassuringly, then reached for another cookie. Suddenly, a new face popped up from behind the door. “Did someone mention cookies?” Sooyoung asked cheerfully. She reached for a cookie over Yerim’s shoulder, who shrugged it in displeasure, making a weak attempt to push her away. Sooyoung giggled and ruffled Yerim’s hair. Still holding the cookie plate, the younger girl only had one hand to retaliate. She seemed to consider it for a moment, before deciding that the hand was better used in eating cookies.

Joohyun glanced at them with affection. Seungwan looked at them with just a little bit of annoyance. As they happily munched away – but not Joohyun, Seungwan noticed with dismay -, she studied the three friends. Joohyun was, of course, beyond beautiful. She looked like the result of an experiment in distilling pure beauty into human form. But standing right behind her, Sooyoung also shone in her own way. She was tall but well proportioned, with a radiant smile that peeked out often and a sweet face. And even the little devil Yerim. There were still some traces of childhood in her face but her beauty was already evident. And she was undeniably charming, her mischievous grins making it easy to forgive the jokes at your expense. Not that Seungwan entirely forgave. The girl was still a little devil.

The three of them together looked like something out of a painting, almost absurd to look at in real life. She couldn’t fathom how they’d come together without a conscious effort to group all the world’s beauty in a single circle of friends. Maybe she hadn’t been so far off with the convention of beautiful people.

“Do you only surround yourself with beautiful children?” she wondered aloud, before she could stop herself. Sooyoung was already walking away after having picked up a handful of cookies, but Yerim was still standing in front of her and immediately narrowed her eyes.

“I’m 19,” she replied drily, tightening her hold around the now half-empty plate and turning to walk away. Great, she’d made a mortal enemy of the devil. “I’ll leave you two alone,” Yerim threw over her shoulder in a displeased tone, effect somewhat ruined by the fact that was full of half-chewed cookies.

Seungwan shifted her weight nervously, following Yerim with her eyes to avoid looking at Joohyun. Which, to be fair, was kind of a dumb thing to do, since the whole point of coming over had been to see her neighbour. She risked a glance at Joohyun, immediately losing herself in those eyes, which were lit up with a rare warmth and affection that seemed reserved for her friends. Every single internal organ Seungwan had seemed to jump in a different direction.

Joohyun’s eyes slowly shifted back to their neutral state with Yerim’s disappearance, which almost made Seungwan sad to see her go. Almost. Then Joohyun quirked her lips up in a slight smile and leaned forward. “You hit a nerve with Yerim,” she said in a low tone, probably to avoid being overheard by the younger girl. “You’ll have to make it up to her. Maybe more cookies,” she added thoughtfully.

Seungwan’s heart skipped happily at the suggestion implicit in Joohyun’s words, that she expected Seungwan to befriend her friends, that she had a place waiting for her in their lives. But Seungwan’s brain had backflipped right out of her head at Joohyun’s proximity and low voice. It was not acceptable for such an attractive human being to do such attractive things. Or maybe they were just ordinary things, made attractive by the fact that it was Joohyun doing them. She vaguely registered that she was probably supposed to respond, but how was she supposed to words when Joohyun?

“That’s, uh, bad,” she ventured. It was hard to tell whether she sounded weird, because Joohyun’s face had gone back to its neutral state. “And I’ll do that, what you said.” Now she didn’t need Joohyun’s face to tell she sounded weird. “More cookies,” she finished, then leaned against the door casually, hiding her suddenly very warm face by pretending to cough into her hand.

Silence settled between them. Seungwan determinedly avoided Joohyun’s eyes until she could feel her blush receding and her brain shuffling back into place. When she looked up, she noticed how Joohyun’s brow was slightly furrowed, as though something was troubling her. Probably her neighbour standing silently at her door while her friends waited inside, now that Seungwan thought about it.

“Would you… like to come in?” Joohyun offered uncertainly. Her voice had a fragile edge and it reminded Seungwan of Sooyoung’s comment, how Joohyun forgot to be polite. Was that what she was doing? Trying to find the correct response to her neighbour lingering by her apartment door? Or did she actually want her to join her friends inside? Seungwan hesitated, running her hand through her hair to buy some time. She didn’t know if she could risk bothering Joohyun like that. It felt like a sure-fire way to become that annoying pushy neighbour who couldn’t tell when she wasn’t wanted.

Seulgi could never know about this.

“Oh, I’d love to, but uh…” She smiled apologetically while she tried to think of a reasonable excuse to reject the invitation. “I still have to take care of all the cookies I left at home. Otherwise Mr. Fluffers will make a mess.” Joohyun’s expression was too neutral to decode. There was a twitch at the corner of her lips, but too slight to tell whether they were relaxing out of relief or bending into a frown. Oh well, better safe than sorry, right? “Plus,” Seungwan decided to add, also leaning forward and lowering her voice, “I’m a little scared of Yerim now. Maybe I should give her some time to cool off.”

She risked a smile, which Joohyun returned for a moment. “That’s probably wise,” she mused, before they lapsed back into silence.

Sooyoung’s voice suddenly sounded from inside the apartment, startling them both. “Joohyun, if you don’t come now, Yerim will eat all the cookies!”

“No, I won’t!” Yerim yelled out in a muffled voice, probably because was full. There were sounds of a silent struggle, like they were trying to slap away each other’s arms, before Sooyoung bounced back into view, carrying a couple of cookies protectively.

“I saved these for you at great personal danger,” she said proudly, dropping one of them in Joohyun’s hand. Then she started munching on the other one. Seungwan watched Joohyun expectantly as she took a bite. She seemed to like it. It was hard to tell with Joohyun.

“You’re so lucky your neighbour bakes, mine just has really loudly,” Sooyoung commented as an afterthought, causing Seungwan to choke on air. Joohyun hummed in agreement, which somehow made Seungwan even more flustered. Sooyoung grinned behind her half-eaten cookie, clearly amused by her reaction.

Seungwan attempted to catch her breath. “Well, I should go take care of the cookies now,” she wheezed out, trying to sound casual and like someone who wasn’t thinking about .

“Have fun,” Sooyoung said simply, still grinning smugly. Seungwan waved at them and Joohyun waved back with her cookie-holding hand, looking ridiculously adorable. Then Seungwan walked back to her own apartment before Yerim could come and join Sooyoung in her teasing.

As expected, Mr. Fluffers was still on the couch, completely uninterested in anything going on in the kitchen. Not when there was a perfectly comfortable and warm surface to nap on that didn’t require any demanding jumps. He opened his eyes slowly when Seungwan sat next to him, then stood with a long stretch before stepping into her lap and settling down again. He purred softly at her touch.

She reached inside her pocket with her free hand and pulled out her phone.

Seungwan: «I visited Joohyun, now you can stop bugging me »

She set it down next to her and leaned back, focusing her attention on the purring ball of fur while she waited for Seulgi’s response. It only took about 15 minutes.

Seulgi: «Did you make a human connection? Learn anything about her? »

Seungwan: «Ugh, you’re so demanding. I learned that she… Won’t refuse to eat chocolate chip cookies »

Seulgi: «Weak »

Seungwan: «Also that she has a friend named Yerim who is a child but very touchy about it. And she has pretty eyes » She gazed at the message for a few seconds, then sent another one.

Seungwan: «Joohyun, not the child »

There was a pause before Seulgi’s response, probably as she pondered over Seungwan’s offerings and made her judgment on their worth.

Seulgi: «Fine, I’ll take it »

Seungwan pumped up her fist in victory. Mr. Fluffers looked up, displeased at the sudden movement.

Seulgi: «So the next step is asking her out :D »

Seungwan: «>:( »

Seulgi: «>:D »

Clearly the inhuman demands continued.

(…)

Joohyun was nice. Sure, it was a bit redundant to mention it at this point. Seungwan’s opinion of Joohyun had already been well documented in about a thousand conversations with Seulgi and a million internal monologues. But still, it was true, so. Joohyun was nice. There.

Joohyun was especially nice when she greeted her and Seungwan heard her own name come out of those perfect lips, in a voice that held recognition. Like she wasn’t just the weird neighbour anymore. Like she was Seungwan. It never failed to make her heart flutter, just a little bit, before she managed to regain her composure and say something ridiculous like “That’s what they call me.”

She’d started experimenting with her work schedule, trying to come home at the same time as Joohyun, which totally wasn’t stalking, by the way, just a little calculated coincidence. She just wanted to bump into her in the hallway and say hi. If she timed it really well, they could even ride the elevator up together. It had been working pretty well and she’d finally hit on a 15-minute window that usually caught Joohyun on her way home, making sure her days ended on a high note.

Of course, sometimes there were delays, on one side or the other. This was one of those days. Seungwan arrived right on time, but Joohyun was nowhere to be seen. She hung around the mail boxes, peeking into an empty slot for an unreasonable amount of time, before she finally gave up and dragged her feet slowly towards the elevator. Upstairs, she unlocked her apartment door, shrugged out of her coat and threw her bag on the sofa.

The sofa yelped in surprise.

Seungwan was pretty sure sofas weren’t supposed to do that. She turned her head experimentally. Then she narrowed her eyes at the tall beauty holding her bag with an offended look on her face.

“How did you get in my house?” Seungwan asked in a frustrated tone, already stepping forward to pull her bag away from Sooyoung.

“You never asked for your keys back,” Sooyoung replied smugly, her attention already back to the TV. “I figured that was a standing invitation.”

“I clearly forgot,” Seungwan replied, a little loudly. Why were Joohyun’s friends so exasperating? Who walked into a stranger’s house and just sat down to watch TV?

“Well, Seungwan, not all of us are mind readers,” Sooyoung remarked simply.

Seungwan sat down next to her with a sigh. She felt that befriending Joohyun would probably require a slight adjustment in expectations of privacy. Like, she should start having none. “Okay, let me try again. Why are you in my house?”

Sooyoung shrugged. “Joohyun’s not home. I guess she has a thing,” she explained in a neutral tone. Then she turned to Seungwan. “And unlike some people, she doesn’t just go around giving her apartment keys to everybody,” she quipped, raising an eyebrow in challenge. “So I came here.”

Seungwan sat next to her in silence for a moment. Her first instinct was to demand her keys back and swiftly kick the younger girl out. Her actual reaction was probably the result of too much time spent with Seulgi.

“So what, your neighbours were having loud again?” she asked casually. Sooyoung glanced at her in surprise, then turned back to the TV with a shrug. “You’re still in college, right?” she prodded further. Sooyoung didn’t turn to her, but only shrugged again, apparently a confirmation. “Yeah, I wouldn’t need much of an excuse to want to get out of my dorm room. No wonder you and Yerim are always at Joohyun’s.”

Sooyoung scoffed in response, clearly agreeing with the sentiment.

“Plus, I bet a broke college student wouldn’t have Netflix,” she added pointedly. She couldn’t lay on the empathy too thick, it scared away the youths. Sooyoung glanced at her looking vaguely sheepish, which was new.

“There was nothing good on TV,” she offered in lieu of an apology. Seungwan got up from the sofa to go put away her things, already resigned to her evening with Sooyoung.

“Just delete your watch history, it’ll mess up my recommendations,” she threw over her shoulder as she walked off to her bedroom. Mr. Fluffers awaited her on the bed. She was secretly pleased that he hadn’t betrayed her for another woman.

“Why don’t you get recommendations from live human beings, like normal people?” she heard Sooyoung yell out from the living room, just loud enough to reach her. She huffed even though she knew Sooyoung couldn’t see her.

She poked her head out of the bedroom. “Why don’t you pay for your own Netflix?” she asked in a warning tone, effectively silencing Sooyoung. She walked back in, wearing a fuzzy robe and her comfy slippers, and dropped Seulgi’s pair in front of Sooyoung. “You’ll get cold in just socks,” she explained with a shrug, then settled back into the sofa to catch the end of the show.

They sat in silence for the next 10 minutes, Sooyoung focused on the TV and Seungwan letting the comfort of the sofa seep into her body, slowly relaxing into the pillows. Mr. Fluffers quickly came to join them, pleased to lie down between them and receive twice as many pets as usual.

Sooyoung turned off the TV when the next episode started loading, getting to her feet and looking around uncertainly. Seungwan cut her off before she could speak. “Do you like Thai food? I have some leftovers. If you don’t, I can cook something else,” she said quickly as she got up from the sofa, heading for the kitchen.

Sooyoung padded after her in the furry slippers that, in retrospect, were probably too small for her if they fit Seulgi, and stood at the kitchen door. Seungwan turned around and caught the slight uncertainty in her eyes, so she repeated a little more forcefully “So? Do you like it or not?”

Sooyoung sighed, then dropped into a bench to watch her prepare their food. “It’s edible, I guess,” she replied in her usual playful tone. Seungwan only rolled her eyes and handed her a pile of dishes, cutlery and napkins, shooing her away to set the table. Moments later, she joined her with the heated leftovers.

They chatted casually about Sooyoung’s studies while they poked at the food. Apparently, she was studying graphic design, and already did some freelance work drawing logos for small businesses. Before Seungwan could inquire any further, they’d already finished their meal. Sooyoung sat silently, poking at bits of food with her chopsticks.

“Thanks for letting me stay,” she eventually said, her eyes uncharacteristically bright. “It was nice of you.” Seungwan was about to reassure her that it was fine when Sooyoung looked back up, the hint of tears now replaced with a mischievous glint that Seungwan didn’t like at all. “But really, you kind of owe me. You know, with all the hard work I’ve been putting into getting you and Joohyun to talk.” Seungwan choked on air at Sooyoung’s remarks, very displeased at her gloating face. “And it is hard work, you’re both stubborn and just… So bad at socializing,” Sooyoung finished with a sigh.

“Hey, I’m doing my best,” Seungwan retorted defensively, although she couldn’t quite meet Sooyoung’s eyes as she said it. Was she really? Seulgi might disagree.

“So why, when she invited you to come in, did you say no, you fool?” Sooyoung asked, clearly frustrated, punctuating her question with a swipe of her napkin at Seungwan’s arm, the part of her body nearest to her. Seungwan squeaked and twisted away. “You absolute buffoon,” Sooyoung added, with a hint of laughter in her voice. “Useless, both of you, just useless,” she finished with an undeniable smile. Then she got up and started gathering the dirty dishes.

Seungwan hovered behind her as she took them to the kitchen. “I thought she was just being polite, people do that,” she explained lamely, hearing the weakness of the excuse as she said it.

“Not Joohyun. She usually means what she says. When she remembers to say it,” Sooyoung chuckled, running tap water over the dishes before reaching for the dishwasher.

Seungwan forgot to respond in the sudden realization that Joohyun had actually wanted her in her house. She was so glad she hadn’t told Seulgi about the invitation, she’d never hear the end of it. She looked up to find Sooyoung staring at her quizzically, probably because she’d kept silent for so long.

“Oh my god, you’re disgusting,” Sooyoung suddenly blurted out. Seungwan stood in confused panic for a moment. Did she have something on her face? She experimentally wiped around . Sooyoung laughed at her confusion. “You’re like a teenager. Oh, I can’t believe Joohyun likes me, I have to write this in my diary right now!” she mimicked, taking on a ridiculous high-pitched voice that sounded nothing like Seungwan. Her voice returned to normal as she continued. “Why would she want to avoid you? You’re nice to her, you make an effort and you’re not some creeper. You need to chill out.”

“You sound like Seulgi,” Seungwan replied simply, a bit stunned at Sooyoung’s words. Her best friend also had the habit of telling her there was no reason for people to hate her.

“I don’t know who that is, obviously,” Sooyoung deadpanned. She leaned against the kitchen counter, then glanced at the clock, already ticking past 10 PM.

Seungwan followed her eyes, noticing the time as well. “Think your neighbour’s done having now?”

“I hope so, or she’s going to die pretty soon,” Sooyoung replied simply, bringing out a peal of laughter from Seungwan. She gazed at her for a moment. “I think that’s the first time I’ve heard you laugh out of something other than awkwardness,” she commented with a grin.

 Seungwan blushed stupidly, not sure what to say. Sooyoung’s smile only widened as she reached to tap her cheek. “Ah, still got it,” she said mischievously. “I was worried my charm had already worn off.”

Seungwan stalked off with an eyeroll, heading to the apartment door. She stood there with arms crossed as Sooyoung stepped back into her shoes, blew her a kiss and walked off. It was only when she saw her disappear down the stairs that Seungwan remembered she hadn’t asked for her keys back.