“Oh, I--” Chaewon stutters out as she jolts backwards with her back now resting against the armrest. Minjoo was way too close, and Chaewon was not ready for the proximity.

“What was that?” Minjoo asks again, rubbing her eyes sleepily. When she finishes, she leans her side against the back of the couch and looks at Chaewon in curiosity. The most surprising thing to Chaewon is the fact that she doesn’t sound upset, disappointed, sad, accusatory, or anything or the sort. The only thing lacing her tone is curiosity and sleepiness.

“I had a job today, and I’ll get another call when I have another. That’s all.” She tries.

“You didn’t beat up anyone,” Minjoo says with partially lidded eyes and a tilt of her head. The look she’s giving Chaewon is so innocent yet so determined; all the while, Chaewon can still see traces of sleepiness.

“How do you know that?”

“I don’t, but you’re getting a little defensive, huh?” Minjoo responds with a little smile.

“What? I’m not!” Chaewon tries again but has to watch herself to make sure she doesn’t sound too indignant.

“What really happened?”

“No, I really--”

“Chaewon.”

Minjoo interrupts her suddenly and gives her a pointed look. The intensity of her gaze is enough to make Chaewon stop in her tracks. In that moment, she doesn’t know why she’s lying, doesn’t know why she’s still trying to keep up a front.

Her silence is enough of an answer for Minjoo who grins victoriously.

“I knew it. So what happened?”

Chaewon opens for a second before closing it again, debating on what she should say or where she should start.

Finally, she lets out a sigh and leans her head back, staring up at the ceiling.

“There were kids.”

Minjoo doesn’t say anything and gives her room to speak. Even though she couldn’t see it, Chaewon could almost feel Minjoo’s quiet gaze.

“The men I was with---they’re crazy, absolutely crazy, you know? They were fighting about who gets to beat people up for God’s sake. All we had to do was go in there and extract a payment, but they got out of control even before we got there. And then the little girl---”

She lets out another sigh and rubs her forehead.

“--and her sibling, and the fear, it was all so stupid. Kids shouldn’t have to see things like that. Hell, no one should have to see things like that. When I looked into those frightened eyes, eyes that shouldn’t be seeing such ugly things, there was no way I could do what I always did: sit back and watch.”

“So you told them you’d do it yourself. But you didn’t.”

There’s a moment of silence before Chaewon sighs for the third time.

“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t.”

The other girl didn’t respond. Chaewon tilts her head away from the ceiling and hesitates in meeting Minjoo’s eyes. As she finally moves to meet Minjoo’s gaze, she sees only a split-second of Minjoo’s gentle smile before she feels a rather strong tug on her arm.

“Hey--”

In that moment, Minjoo pulls Chaewon forward while also leaning her body back. She manages to pull her so that she ends up securely within Minjoo’s arms, her head resting on her chest. Chaewon blinks in confusion as Minjoo pulls her against her body and drapes the blanket over them both.

“Okay,” Minjoo finally hums in response to Chaewon’s story.

“You… That’s it?”

“Uh-huh.”

“No ‘you’re a terrible person’ or ‘you ’?”

Minjoo giggles quietly; Chaewon can feel her chest vibrate with the laugh.

“Nope.”

“You believe me?”

“Never thought you did it in the first place.”

Chaewon was incredulous. This took a turn she wasn’t expecting. She didn’t even really have time to properly soak in the fact that Minjoo had pulled her in to cuddle in such an intimate way.

“But--”

“Shut up and sleep.”

Chaewon huffs and tilts her head up and is greeted by Minjoo’s closed eyes and little smile.

I guess she’s really sleepy.

Chaewon stifles a yawn of her own.

“See, you’re tired too,” Minjoo says lazily.

Before Chaewon can say anything else, Minjoo hugs her more tightly.

Geez…

Chaewon closes her eyes too.

I guess I am a little tired.

And she listens to Minjoo’s heartbeat.

I’ll just sleep for a little longer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wow, what a good sleep.

Minjoo breathes out in satisfaction at how rested and comfortable she is. When she opens her eyes she expects to be greeted by her own room, but instead she’s met with a head of red hair.

Huh?

Oh, that’s right.

Minjoo’s face is filled with nothing but smiles as she recalls walking out on that disgrace of a man. It only continues as she thinks about running into Chaewon again and how, despite her tough act, she took care of her.

Wait, so then this…

Her face suddenly burns with an intense blush as she recalls the movie and Chaewon’s cute mumbling and the blanket and how--

--how I pulled her into my arms and cuddled with her.

She’s panicking at the memory of what sleep-induced-Minjoo had done, and she’s so terribly embarrassed. But all of that is erased the second she turns her attention back to the slumbering girl in her arms.

The same soft snores are back, and her hair is in disarray with little strands draped across her face. Her features are so relaxed, and she looks so peaceful. Looking at her now, Minjoo couldn’t even remember how she looked the first time they had met, when Chaewon was all scary and cold.

Not able to restrain herself, Minjoo brings up one of her hands and uses her pointer finger to lightly scratch against Chaewon’s nose.

At the sudden touch, Chaewon scrunches her nose and furrows her eyebrows for a moment until Minjoo stops her attack.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Minjoo was having a mental breakdown at how cute she was being. She didn’t dare mess with her anymore lest she disturb her sleep. Instead, she opted for gazing at her silently (and not at all creepily).

After about ten minutes, Chaewon began to stir. It started with her eyebrows caving in a little and a small pout gracing her lips and a quiet huff.

At that, Minjoo rushes to pretend as though she hadn’t been gazing at her for the past ten minutes and instead closes her eyes and decides to open them after Chaewon opens hers.

I won’t get caught like this--

“Your heart’s beating really fast.”

Dang it.

The innocent statement coupled with the sleepy mumble made her heart beat even faster.

Minjoo guiltily opens her eyes and sees that Chaewon hasn’t even cracked hers open at all.

After a few beats, Chaewon’s expression grows a little confused. Her eyes snap open and she looks wide-eyed at Minjoo.

Minjoo blinks at her.

“What?”

“AH!”

Minjoo whines as Chaewon suddenly pushes her away. However, that whining soon turns into laughing as Chaewon falls onto the floor in her sudden attempt to get away from Minjoo.

Only after her laughing stops does she asks if Chaewon’s okay and why she did that. The other girl is still on the floor albeit sitting up now; she still wore that shocked and confused expression (although Minjoo could sense the slight fire in her gaze as she laughed at her expense).

“What was that for? Are you okay, or did you just want to sleep on the floor?” Minjoo chuckles again.

Chaewon huffs and crosses arms defiantly. Only now does Minjoo notice how furiously the other girl is blushing. The discovery makes Minjoo grin.

“Are you embarrassed?”

“No!”

“Your face is red.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“NO IT’S NOT.”

Minjoo bursts out laughing. She guesses that Chaewon had finally had some awareness kicked back into her. She can’t help but find amusement in the hilarious reaction.

Chaewon has the most scary-looking glare on her face, but the messy hair and wrinkled clothes and blushing cheeks do much to counteract it. Additionally, there was absolutely nothing Chaewon could do right now to make Minjoo stop making fun of her. In fact, Minjoo thinks she kind of looks like an angry koala bear right now.

“I’m going to take a shower.”

With that, she gets up and heads to her room--not without glaring at Minjoo all the while.

A few minutes later, she decides she’s going to snoop around while Chaewon was in the shower. Not anything too nosy, she promises, but she’s definitely going to take a look around.

“Wow, her room is so messy!”

She can’t say she’s too surprised at the state of chaos--mainly due to the fact that the rest of the apartment is in similar disarray. There’s a shirt lying across one pillow, another pillow on the floor, an empty shampoo bottle at the foot of her bed, a pair of sneakers with one shoe lying on its side; sweatshirts, jeans, and t-shirts taking up pretty much any open space on the floor.

“Seriously, so mess---”

What’s this?

She curiously makes her way towards the half-open drawer of the nightstand. The drawer is pulled out enough that she can fully see the lone item in it:

a picture.

Against her better judgment, she slowly reaches in and pulls it out for closer inspection.

Who are these people?

There are three: one woman and two younger girls. They’re all smiling happily with ice cream in their hands and some on their faces. The girl on the right has the brightest grin.

Mint chocolate.

She jolts suddenly at the sound of the bathroom door jostling. She hadn’t even noticed the shower stop running. Frantically, she places the picture back inside of the drawer and leaves it as she found it. Before Chaewon can catch her in the act, she speeds back towards the living room and plops back down on the couch. She turns on the TV and tries not to think to hard about that picture.

That’s the only picture I’ve seen in the entire apartment, but it’s hidden in a drawer.

“Cereal?” She hears Chaewon call out as she comes out of her bedroom, still a little grumpy from before.

“Yes please!”

As Chaewon maneuvers her way around the kitchen, Minjoo stares. She can’t help but think about the picture.

Where did that smile go?