Jiwoo's like the sun.

Yes, she's a bright presence with a blinding smile. But no, not because of that. She's like the sun in a sense that Sooyoung feels like she's 150 million kilometres away. A faraway, out-of-reach existence.

(Sooyoung is earth. Beautiful, resilient, but still so susceptible to harmful acts of carelessness.)

They texted each other as often as any pair of acquaintances would, except the content of the conversations was mostly Jiwoo reminding her of things (memories they never shared and quirks Sooyoung doesn’t actually have) and Sooyoung confirming other things. Very business-like. As expected from a business student, Sooyoung guesses.

The frequency of their texts drastically dropped after Jungeun arrived. Jiwoo’s usual responses shortened to as least words possible, or even one word, just enough to answer whatever question Sooyoung had for her. And then she’d disappear. Even the reminders fizzled out.

Sooyoung’s not a fan of one-word replies, but she let it go and waited patiently for the day Jiwoo had to contact her again so she could meet Jungeun. Because she has to, right? That’s the whole point of this entire act.

However, four days has passed and she still hasn’t met Jungeun. The contract only lasts the summer. Sooyoung pulls out her phone.

Jiwoo doesn’t answer until almost an hour later.

from: kim jiwoo 
maybe soon
when are you free?

to: kim jiwoo 
whenever. this is my only job
give me a shift, boss

from: kim jiwoo 
ok, will let u know

Sooyoung stares at her phone with pursed lips, completely dissatisfied with the response. She asks Jiwoo where she’s been these past few days. As usual, Jiwoo’s answer doesn’t come until later.

Of course she’s been catching up with Jungeun. 

from: kim jiwoo 
? not really...?

to: kim jiwoo 
why not?!!
i'm supposed to be your gf. you really haven't mentioned me at all?

from: kim jiwoo 
haven't told her anything yet...
talk to u later? i'm with her rn

Ouch. Incredible, Jiwoo no longer feels as far as the sun, she feels even further! Sooyoung’s not used to getting the conversation cut on her. She lets out a heavy sigh, unceremoniously shoving her phone under her pillow and staring up at her ceiling.

What am I doing?

Absolutely nothing.

This isn’t right.

Not at all.  

She reaches for her phone again and pulls up Jiwoo’s number, not to text her, but to call her.

Jiwoo picks up on the third ring.

“Why are you calling?” comes as a hushed whisper from the other end. Well, it’s not exactly the friendliest greeting. Sooyoung feels offended, but keeps her tone levelled.

“Why haven’t you told her about me?” Sooyoung asks, slightly upset.

“I just…haven’t found the opportunity to bring it up yet.”

“So she doesn’t know you have a girlfriend?”

“Well- no, but-“

“But you know she has to know, right?”

“I know!”

Sooyoung sighs. “Well, we have to meet soon. She’s only here for the break. I’m free later.”

“Um,” Jiwoo pauses for a moment, “she’s meeting the gang later, actually.”

She opens in an overdramatized gasp. “You’re introducing her to your friends before me!”

“Alright, alright, fine,” Jiwoo says, still speaking in hushed whispers. She seems to be in a rush to return to whatever she was doing. “Show up later with Chaewon or something. Listen, I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.”

And Jiwoo hangs up before Sooyoung could even get a word in. She huffs, throwing her phone back on her bed.

Jiwoo’s her first and most frustrating fake girlfriend yet.

Just like Jiwoo, Jungeun is also far prettier in person than in pictures. She has a charismatic air to her, a charming appeal that just exudes even without her saying anything. There was confidence behind her smile.

Sooyoung doesn’t know anything about her, nothing more than her face and the fact that she dumped Jiwoo on graduation day, so her default impression was one along the lines of ‘eh, she’s really not all that.’

However, after seeing her in person, without even exchanging words, Sooyoung already feels like taking back her adverse assumption of the girl. She might even dare to think that she understands why Jiwoo’s still into her.

But hey, that’s just Sooyoung being shallow. She likes pretty girls, who doesn’t?

Dummy! This girl is why Jiwoo’s been feeling tormented for the past four months! the rational voice inside her yells. Sooyoung doesn’t usually listen to that voice.  

“Hello.”

The slight displeasure evident in Chaewon’s flat greeting is extremely amusing. It earns her an elbow nudge from Heejin and a glare from Jiwoo.

Chaewon had told Sooyoung on their way here that they’re supposed to act like they don’t know that Jungeun dumped Jiwoo on graduation day. Chaewon seems to have momentarily forgotten that though.

“Jungeun, this is Heejin, Hyunjin, Chaewon, and…” Jiwoo starts, going down the line, dragging out her ‘and’ before finally saying in a suddenly smaller voice, “…Yves.”

Sooyoung smiles, but then she hears the three girls beside her simultaneously blurt out an unwelcome, confounded chorus of “Yves?”

Jiwoo winces. Oh. Seems like she never told her friends about the whole her-name-is-Yves-and-she’s-a-quarter-French part.

Their response obviously comes as a surprise to Jungeun, whose excited smile is replaced by a puzzled raising of her eyebrows. Surely, she expected Jiwoo’s friends to know of Yves.

Before things could turn awkward, Sooyoung quickly tries to salvage the situation.

She laughs. “Don’t call me that in public!” Sooyoung says, shooting Jiwoo a playful glare. She smiles at Jungeun. “You can call me Sooyoung.”

Jungeun remains confused though, judging by her still-lifted eyebrows. It certainly doesn’t help that Heejin, Hyunjin, and Chaewon are sharing equally puzzled looks with Jiwoo and Sooyoung. Clearly, they can’t read the situation and play along – or maybe they’re still taken aback by this random new fact. Like, who the hell is Yves?

“You’re…Yves?” Jungeun asks.

Despite all the baffled looks being shot at her (and an embarrassed, slightly panicky one from Jiwoo), Sooyoung keeps her cool and directs her attention towards Jungeun. She nods casually.

“Yeah, Jiwoo likes to tease me by calling me Yves. She thinks it’s cute, but…it’s pretty embarrassing,” she explains, even throwing in an effortless chuckle, “just Sooyoung is okay. God, she knows it embarrasses me, but she still calls me it!”

Sooyoung nudges Jiwoo with her elbow, whose face visibly relaxes. The younger girl lets out a subtle sigh of relief, telling Sooyoung ‘thank you’ with one quick glance.

At last, her friends seem to have grasped the situation because they start playing along too. God, finally.

“You call her Yves when you guys are alone?” Hyunjin suddenly blurts out. She throws her head back with a cackle as she clutches her stomach (though Sooyoung suspects she’s genuinely amused). “That’s hilarious. We didn’t know that.”

“I think it’s cute,” Heejin chimes in with a kind smile. When Sooyoung glances at Jungeun, she’s relieved to see the girl looking much less confused than before.

Wow, her spontaneous excuse really worked.

“Yeah, disgustingly cute,” Chaewon says, “aren’t you two just the most adorable couple ever?”

Sooyoung chuckles, looking at Jiwoo fondly as she reaches for her hand. Jiwoo flinches, but Sooyoung intertwines their fingers and holds it firmly. Now would be the wrong time for Jiwoo to waver.

When Jungeun notices the gesture, the confused expression returns on her face, this time in the form of closely knitted eyebrows.

“You two…are…?”

“They’re dating!” Chaewon answers without hesitation as she bites her lip to tame her smile and teeters on her toes. “Oh, you didn’t know?”

Jungeun shakes her head. “Jiwoo didn’t tell me.”

Everyone looks at Jiwoo, who sports a sort of vague expression on her face. From it, Sooyoung can discern hesitation (which is understandable). But there’s also self-consciousness somewhere in it and, most confusing of all, a hint of remorse, but Sooyoung couldn’t figure out why. Did she feel sorry for not telling her? No, that can’t be it, considering Jiwoo purposely waited this long to mention it. Perhaps…did she feel sorry for having a girlfriend? Sooyoung doesn’t really understand that one.

She squeezes Jiwoo’s hand. It’s for reassurance, but mostly encouragement. A ‘go for it’ nudge from behind.

It seems to work because she can feel Jiwoo gripping her hand more firmly.

“Sorry,” Jiwoo says with a sheepish smile, “surprise…?”

The small chuckle that leaves Jungeun’s lips erases the confused expression off her face.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” she says to Sooyoung with a smile. It’s a slightly different smile from before, but figuring out how is beyond Sooyoung’s capabilities. Jungeun turns to Jiwoo’s friends, “all of you. Thanks for taking care of Jiwoo.”

“Jiwoo tells me you guys went to high school together,” Sooyoung says, still as casual as ever. From the look on her face, Jiwoo seems surprised to see just how good Sooyoung was at all of this. “You gotta tell me what she was like in high school.”

“Oooh, an exposé,” Hyunjin interjects, “I’d also like to hear that.”

Jiwoo glares at her. “No, no, you guys don’t need to know that.”

“She’s still the same Jiwoo I know,” Jungeun says unexpectedly. When Jiwoo catches her wistful stare, Jungeun doesn’t look away and Jiwoo doesn’t have it in her to tear her gaze away either.

Is that…a longing stare?! That’s not what exes do!

Sooyoung squeezes her hand, pulling Jiwoo’s attention away. The younger girl belatedly turns her head and finds Sooyoung giving her a kind smile – genuine, as if Jiwoo’s the fondest person on earth.

“Hey, the movie starts in thirty minutes,” Sooyoung says to her softly.

Jiwoo’s eyes narrow subtlely and in the five seconds of eye contact that they maintain, they have the quickest, most covert silent exchange ever:

‘What movie?!’ says Jiwoo’s cocked eyebrow.  

‘I don’t know, just say something?!’ says Sooyoung’s tight-lipped, relentless smile.

There is, of course, no movie; Sooyoung just needed to find an excuse to separate the two.  

Sooyoung could almost hear Jiwoo’s brain click when she finally gets the message.

“Ah! Right. The movie.” 

“Movie? I thought maybe we could hang out today…?” Jungeun looks at Jiwoo, who only gives her an apologetic smile.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Jiwoo and I planned a movie date today,” Sooyoung says.

Jiwoo just nods her head, urged by Sooyoung’s firm hold on her hand, hoping Jungeun doesn’t see through her. “Sorry, Jungeun…I have plans today…”

Sooyoung can tell that Jiwoo would much rather catch up with Jungeun, but suddenly bringing up this movie date idea on the spot didn’t give her enough time to figure out how to curve around it.

Jungeun smiles at her, at them. “That’s okay. You two have fun, it’s better to get there early.”

The group had dispersed and Jiwoo was obligated to follow Sooyoung all the way to her car. Only then did Jiwoo let go of her hand.

“Movie date…maybe you should run through ideas with me beforehand so I know what to expect…”

“We can’t predict conversations. You just have to be good at playing along,” Sooyoung tells. She looks over and sees the girl pouting at her, drawing a chuckle out of Sooyoung. “And be more assertive. Like link your arm with mine or something.”

“Okay…”

Silence descends as Sooyoung grips the steering wheel. Jiwoo wasn’t supposed to follow her to her car, but Jungeun had been watching them closely as they separated from the group.

“I’ll drive you home. Don’t look at the back seat, it’s messy,” Sooyoung says, a hint of sheepishness in her voice.

Jiwoo just hums her gratitude. She's right beside her, but she still feels out of Sooyoung's reach.

Over the next week, Sooyoung had gotten used to getting texts from Jiwoo, every single one related to their fake dating fiasco.

Not that Sooyoung ever anticipated daily good morning/good night texts or anything. It just sort of feels like she’s being thrown aside.

She shakes her head, reminding herself that this is just a job.

Just a job! You’re not actually dating!

The texts would be clear and succinct, very unlike Jiwoo’s image of fruits personified; bright, talkative, perky.

‘Jungeun and I are going to the park today. Pass by.’ Things like that. And then Sooyoung would “coincidentally” show up with her usual beautiful smile and Jiwoo, following her advice, would link their arms, mindful of where Jungeun was looking. It was all very deliberate.

Something like this had occurred on three separate occasions already and Sooyoung was starting to worry that Jungeun might get suspicious soon.

“Are you really okay with paying me to only ‘coincidentally’ pass by whenever you two are on dates?” Sooyoung asks. “This is seriously not realistic.”

They’re seated at a picnic table, alone after Jungeun had gone to buy ice cream. Of course, even today, Sooyoung had ‘coincidentally’ ran into them. Jungeun didn’t seem very pleased to see her crash their hang out session; she never did. Sooyoung’s starting to feel almost bad for interrupting even though she’s supposed to be Jiwoo’s girlfriend.

Jiwoo visibly startles at the mention of dates. “D-dates? Jungeun and I are not going on dates…”

“You’re spending more time with her than with me,” Sooyoung replies with a sigh, “I hope you at least mention me every once in a while. It’s kind of weird that you’re with her, your ex, more often than me, your girlfriend.”

“It’s not weird! Before we’re exes, we’re friends. I haven’t seen her in four months,” Jiwoo defensively murmurs. When her phone buzzes with a text from Jungeun, something catches Sooyoung’s eye.

Jiwoo yelps when Sooyoung snatches the phone from her hands.

“Why is there still a heart after Jungeun’s name?”

Exes are not supposed to have hearts beside their names.

Jiwoo blinks at her twice before looking down sheepishly. Sooyoung sighs and her disappointment shows in the form of a very deep, very obvious frown. Jiwoo is clearly terrible at this whole ‘moving on’ thing. Like, really, really bad.

“I’m changing this.” Sooyoung deletes the emoji and takes it upon herself to add heart eyes beside her own name. Jiwoo just had her in her phone as ‘Ha Sooyoung’, plain and simple, and Sooyoung shoots her a tsk. “Way to treat your girlfriend…”

“Fake girlfriend,” Jiwoo quietly corrects her.  

Just as she looks up, Sooyoung spots Jungeun in the distance, looking their way and struggling to hold three ice cream cones. Acting on impulse, her most tenacious habit, Sooyoung moves to sit directly beside Jiwoo.

She wraps an arm around the younger girl’s waist, feels her freeze up instantly, and holds up the phone.

“Let’s take a picture,” Sooyoung tells her, giving Jiwoo no time to process what’s happening, “smile!”

They smile. Click. Sooyoung turns her head to look at Jiwoo endearingly. Maybe it’s genuine. Click. She leans in and plants a kiss on her cheek. Fleeting and unexpected. Click.

Pulling away, Sooyoung chuckles at the lipstick stain left on Jiwoo’s cheek. She reaches up and brushes her thumb against it, feeling the warmth radiating off of Jiwoo’s face. The girl sat still, frozen, only to suddenly pull away once Jungeun arrives.

Sooyoung puts her hand down quickly, not letting her jutted thumb linger any more awkwardly in the air. She hands Jiwoo’s phone back to her.

“Promise me you’ll make that your wallpaper?” Sooyoung asks her, holding out a pinky. Jiwoo’s eyes flitter from her pinky, to Jungeun, and back to Sooyoung, seemingly not knowing what to do.

Oh my god, Jiwoo, please hold my goddamn pinky.

Sooyoung keeps her pinky up and her gaze towards Jiwoo. She doesn’t even have to look over to know that Jungeun is watching them from across the table. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Jiwoo holds up a timid pinky.

Sooyoung doesn’t hesitate to curl her finger around it.

“Send me that photo too,” Sooyoung says with a smile before turning her attention back to Jungeun, grabbing a cone out of her hands. 

Is it possible for the earth to move closer to the sun? Probably not. 'Impossible', however, is not a word in Sooyoung's dictionary. She will defy scientific laws if she has to.

“So…how long have you two been dating?”

Sooyoung looks at Jiwoo with a raised eyebrow, urging her to give Jungeun an answer.

“A week before you came,” Jiwoo replies hesitantly.

“I was going to confess first. I had it all planned out, but she beat me to it,” Sooyoung adds immediately, “Not gonna lie, I was kind of surprised. Maybe it was my rolled omelette that won her over.” She keeps her gaze towards Jiwoo the entire time. “I’m happy. Jiwoo is lovely.”

Jiwoo returns her gaze, blinking at her with those big, open eyes. When someone is this cute, Sooyoung doesn’t really have any difficulty with saying the things she says. Compliments come out effortlessly. It makes the job a whole lot easier.

“You confessed first?” Jungeun asks, the surprise transparent in her tone. Sooyoung looks over; she and Jiwoo didn’t talk about this beforehand.

Jiwoo confessing first was one of her spontaneous lies, precipitated on the spot only when the opportunity to strike a chord presented itself.

Jiwoo finally turns away from Sooyoung, a gaze that she had held out of awe, and nods. “Um, yeah, I mustered up the courage,” Jiwoo says, even daring to link an arm with Sooyoung’s at that moment.

Sooyoung doesn’t even realise her smile stretching into a grin for god knows what reason.

“Do you want to know how we first met?” Sooyoung asks. She can tell Jungeun doesn’t really want to, but she goes ahead anyway, “this girl spilled coffee on me.”

Now this one was not one of her spontaneous lies; in fact, this coffee story is one of Jiwoo’s originals, shared with Jungeun weeks ago before she even knew of Sooyoung’s existence.

“It was the first time I’ve ever been thankful for having coffee spilled on me.” Sooyoung sweetly chuckles, speaking as if it’s a fond memory and not a completely made-up story.  Jungeun seems convinced, though.

“Jiwoo’s always been clumsy,” Jungeun replies for the sake of conversation. However, she suddenly switches up the topic. “Jiwoo told me you like to hike...? Jiwoo’s not a big fan of hiking.”

“Oh, I love it!” Sooyoung nods, the lie effortlessly sliding off her tongue, as if she wouldn’t rather die than step foot on Seoraksan Mountain, “but yeah, I could tell. You know, she told me she liked to hike, but I guess that was just an excuse to spend more time with me.”

Sooyoung chuckles, glancing over at Jiwoo to shoot her a wink.

To her surprise, Jiwoo returns it with her most convincing giggle yet. “I even asked her first.”

Sooyoung smiles. Jiwoo’s getting good at playing pretend. Glancing over at Jungeun’s slow nods and wandering gaze, she knows their spontaneous lies are successfully sending a message: yes, Jiwoo’s totally okay now. Yes, she has totally moved on.

No matter how true or untrue that message may be, this was the mission and they’re fulfilling it dutifully.

Food for thought: realistically, the earth moving closer to the sun would have detrimental effects - but think of the good it will do! For one thing, it'll get rid of humans (perhaps the most threatening species to ever live). Or it can foster a potentially beautiful relationship between two girls currently faking a connection.

Truthfully, Sooyoung had hoped she was getting paid to do more than just ‘coincidentally’ run into Jiwoo and Jungeun. She did mention once that getting paid to hang out with someone was easy money, but her and Jiwoo barely even hang out. Jiwoo should at least get her money’s worth.

Having nothing to do, she spends her summer days lazing around, waiting for texts from the younger girl. She reaches for her phone in boredom and half-heartedly finds Jiwoo’s name in her contacts, belatedly noticing that Jiwoo’s number is still displayed as ‘kim jiwoo’, no different from any other name in her contacts list.

Thinking back to the ice cream date- hangout she had ambushed, she decides to add a heart beside Jiwoo’s name as well.

Just in case.

Thinking back to that day, Sooyoung also remembers the promise she made with Jiwoo. Did that have to be a lie too? Impulsively, she texts her.

to: kim jiwoo ♡
did you change your wallpaper?

Jiwoo replies almost instantly, catching Sooyoung by surprise. Maybe she was taken aback by Sooyoung texting her first; it was usually the other way around.

from: kim jiwoo ♡
hm?
oh right
no, why? i don't usually have pictures of people as my wallpaper

Sooyoung knits her eyebrows.

Jiwoo replies back an ‘alrighty!’, seemingly without much thought. Well, that was easy. Just then, Sooyoung takes note of her own wallpaper – a generic, default beach scene – and texts Jiwoo back.

to: kim jiwoo ♡
send me a selfie. i'll change my wallpaper too

After a few minutes, a picture of Jiwoo donning a bright smile suddenly fills her screen. Sooyoung swears it’s like putting up the brightness on her phone.

An unconscious smile spreads across her face as she stares at the photo of Jiwoo.

“Cute…” she murmurs endearingly before catching herself, shaking her head.

“Do you want to hang out or something?”

The question catches Chaewon by surprise, who turns back to face Sooyoung fully. They had ran into each other in line at a coffee shop one early afternoon. Sooyoung wanted a hot drink; today feels more chilly than usual.

“I work.”

Sooyoung purses her lips, her shoulders dropping in disappointment. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I wish I never got fired…” she shoots a glare at Chaewon, “you shouldn’t have told me to lock those kids in!”

The younger girl gives her an offended gasp. “Oh my god, I didn’t! I told you, ‘Sooyoung, let them out or you’ll get fired’ but you just yelled back, ‘don’t tell me what to do, Chaewon!’ and then threw the key inside the haunted house!”

Sooyoung pauses. “…How to interpret that day is subjective,” she replies, waving at her dismissively, “I’m so bored, all my friends are away for break.”

“Hang out with Jiwoo,” Chaewon suggests, as if that thought never occurred to Sooyoung. She turns back around when the line moves forward.

“Jiwoo’s busy hanging out with Jungeun,” Sooyoung grumbles.

At this, Chaewon promptly spins on her heels, facing Sooyoung again and glaring at her with scarily wide eyes. “She’s what?!”

The sudden rise in her volume makes Sooyoung flinch and look around the café in insecurity.

“But she’s supposed to be moving on from her!”

“That’s what I thought,” Sooyoung replies in a quieter voice, hoping Chaewon would pick up on it and lower her voice too. The man ahead of Chaewon had looked over his shoulder.

Unfortunately, Chaewon didn’t get the message. “This is bad!!! Call her right now!!!”

“What? Why?”

“Call her to hang out right at this instant!” Chaewon exclaims, cutely stomping her leg.

She was far from intimidating, but Sooyoung whips out her phone immediately anyway in hopes that complying obediently would make Chaewon calm down. She's an embarrassment everywhere she goes.

Jiwoo picks up after a while.

“Jiwoo!” Sooyoung greets brightly, deflecting Chaewon’s sharp glare at her. She had pulled both of them from the line since Chaewon was refusing to move forward and Sooyoung could hear the customers behind her grumbling about their commotion. “Are you free?”

“Why?” comes Jiwoo’s tentative voice from the other end.

‘Date, date,’ Chaewon is mouthing to her. Sooyoung shoves her away.

“Let’s go on a date.”

“…Huh?”

“I’m bored. Play with me.”

Jiwoo is silent for a moment. Way to defeat her confidence; the mighty Sooyoung has never asked someone this hesitant to go hang out with her. She hears some rustling sounds from the other end before Jiwoo’s voice finally returns.

“I’m with Jungeun.”

Sooyoung fails to suppress her scoff. “Of course you are. By the way, did you change your wallpaper?”

“Yes,” Jiwoo replies, “she even saw the heart eyes beside your name.”

Sooyoung could almost hear her pouting, if that was even possible. She takes note of it. “Good. This is good, remember,” she says, her tone reassuring, “listen, I won’t tell you to run out on Jungeun right now, but call me when you guys are done. I’ll pick you up, okay?”

Silence, again. Jiwoo’s really testing her assertiveness, but Sooyoung is not one to give up, not ‘til Jiwoo fires her like all her previous employers.

“Jiwoo,” she calls out again, “okay?”

She hears the faintest semblance of a sigh from the other end. “Yeah, okay.”

Sooyoung finds an open parking spot with a clear view of the café window and Jungeun and Jiwoo sitting across from each other behind it. It awfully looks like a date. She shakes her head in disapproval.

Sooyoung gets out and leans against the side of her car, channeling cool guys with leather jackets in movies. She texts Jiwoo to tell her that her blouse looks cute.

In amusement, Sooyoung watches Jiwoo’s head turn from her phone to all around her, wondering how Sooyoung knows what she’s wearing.

It’s Jungeun who notices Sooyoung in the parking lot first.

Sooyoung waves at her, but the brunette only smiles back. Soon after, Jiwoo takes notice of her and Sooyoung grins.

She watches as Jiwoo rises from the table, lips moving with words Sooyoung can’t read. Jungeun rises too and Sooyoung tilts her head when their hug lingers a little too long. Finally, Jiwoo comes out of the café, jogging to the passenger side without even sparing Sooyoung a glance.

“Wow, hello to you too,” Sooyoung grumbles.

Before ducking into the vehicle, Jiwoo sticks her tongue out at her from across the roof of the car and Sooyoung is unable to restrain the chuckle that slips past her lips. This girl is way too cute to be this frustrating.

Inside the car, Jiwoo keeps her stare straight ahead. Following her gaze, Sooyoung finds Jungeun at the end of it, holding Jiwoo’s stare from behind the café window.

Is that…another longing stare?!

Okay, not good.

“Put your seatbelt on,” Sooyoung murmurs, successfully tearing Jiwoo’s gaze away as the younger girl switches her attention to fumbling with the seatbelt.

Knowing Jungeun’s eyes are still on Jiwoo, Sooyoung sighs. She has to do something about this. If her mere presence isn’t enough to slice through whatever tension, connection, or lingering feeling there is between Jiwoo and her ex, then she’s got to do something.

Moments like this practically beg for her impulsivity to take the wheel. And so she lets it.

“Jiwoo.”

Upon hearing the soft voice calling for her, Jiwoo’s head snaps to face Sooyoung.

And this is when Sooyoung leans in, closing the distance between them, pressing her lips against Jiwoo’s in a soft, momentary kiss. 

Sooyoung pulls away only slightly, leaving the littlest of space between them. 'To be sunkissed' now has a new meaning.

“Hide your surprise, she’s watching,” she murmurs.

A weird feeling rises within her at this close distance – some unwelcome, unexpected urge to lean in again. But Sooyoung ignores it and pulls away.

Despite her advice to act normal, Jiwoo’s anything but. The girl stares at her with wide eyes, completely out of surprise. Opting for a nonverbal strategy instead, Sooyoung reaches over to help her put on her seatbelt.

It’s the click of the buckle that seems to finally snap Jiwoo out of her shocked stupor. She lets out a small chuckle, seemingly out of nervousness, or maybe confusion or disbelief, but it’s a contagious sound nevertheless and Sooyoung smiles to herself too.

When Sooyoung turns her attention back to the café window, she sees that Jungeun is no longer looking at Jiwoo, eyes glued to her phone instead.

Sooyoung pulls out of the parking lot. “Let’s go shopping.”

Logically, the closer the earth moves to the sun, the warmer it gets. Sooyoung feels it.

Sooyoung spends the whole rest of the day thinking about what happened in the car. She isn’t sure why. She's experienced far too many meaningless kisses to bother contemplating the significance of each one.

It was perhaps the briefest kiss she had ever done in her entire life, but the feeling of Jiwoo’s lips against her own is as vivid as it can get.

It was also just one of her spontaneous fake-girlfriend acts, initiated for a specific reason (Jungeun was watching!). So why can’t she stop thinking about it? She wonders if the short moment has been lingering in Jiwoo’s mind too.

However, judging from the younger girl’s actions, perhaps it may not have affected her as much as it did Sooyoung. She's been acting like her usual bright self since then, occasionally asking Sooyoung for her opinion on clothes.

Why did I get the urge to kiss her again? She’s cute. It’s normal to want to kiss a cute girl. Everyone wants to kiss a cute girl. I always want to kiss cute girls. Cute girls with nice lips. That was normal. Totally normal. Why is Jiwoo back to acting so normally after being so surprised in the car? Has she forgotten about it already? , if it was so insignificant for her, then why am I still thinking about it? Embarrassing. Did I come on too strong? Shut up, Sooyoung, your lips literally touched for 0.4 seconds. This is so stupid. Maybe I should've asked for permission. Consent! Oh no. I ed up. I'm gonna get fired. Can I please keep a job for once? But I don't want Jiwoo and I to part, it's too soon! Like what happened with that kiss. Argh, snap out of it Sooyo-

Sooyoung is jolted out of her meddling, rambling thoughts by a slightly frantic voice coming from behind the dressing room curtain.

“Um…Sooyoung…?”

“Hm?”

Jiwoo’s cute head pops out from behind the curtain, her face entirely red in embarrassment. “The zipper…it’s stuck…I-I can’t reach it…” She hides her nervous chuckle behind the curtain. It’s a cry of embarrassment.  

Sooyoung sighs and shakes her head. “Let me help.”

Jiwoo hurriedly nods and promptly slides the curtain close. Sooyoung starts marching towards the room, but suddenly pauses in her steps.

Wait, am I supposed to go inside…? She stands there frozen for a second.

Sooyoung clears . “Um…I guess…I’m coming in…!” she says as a warning, raising her voice a bit.

But Jiwoo just sticks her head out again, eyebrows knitted as if to say ‘what are you doing?’ and hastily motions for her to just come inside. And so Sooyoung does, cautiously, and Jiwoo shuts the curtain behind them.

The dress is half off Jiwoo’s shoulder, her long hair curving around her neck and swept to the front. Sooyoung avoids staring at her bare shoulder by darting her eyes to the condition of the dressing room instead: clothes and hangers are strewn all over the floor and a sandal that Jiwoo had thrown off her foot lies on its side with its other pair nowhere to be found.

“What the…did a tornado pass through?”

Jiwoo huffs, stepping right into Sooyoung’s line of sight. “Help get this off me before I panic!”

Sooyoung is left with no choice but to look at Jiwoo’s back. “Calm down,” she mutters, reaching up to grab the zipper. She fidgets with it, pulling it up, and then down, and then back and forth–

“Be careful!” Jiwoo harshly whispers, “don’t break it! It costs like a third of my tuition!”

“Why’d you try it on?” Sooyoung asks, now far too preoccupied with fixing the zipper to be distracted by Jiwoo’s bare shoulder.

“Because it was pretty!” Jiwoo turns her head in an attempt to look over her shoulder, only to bump into Sooyoung’s forehead.

“Ow!”

“Ouch! Ah- sorry!”

Sooyoung lifts her head and their eyes meet; it was impossible to avoid, really, at such the close distance between their faces. Her memory fleetingly flashes back to the kiss in her car, but before her eyes could flitter down to Jiwoo’s lips, before her cheeks could even be given the moment to flush, before her impulsivity takes over her again, the younger girl suddenly faces back to the front.

Um. What the hell just happened.

Sooyoung shakes her head to get a hold of herself, remembering that life is not a fanfiction and she’s in a chaotic-looking dressing room with a barefoot Jiwoo wearing an expensive dress that’s half off one shoulder and a stuck zipper.

Returning her attention to the task at hand, Sooyoung finally figures out why this darn zipper won’t budge.  

“It’s stuck on your bra clasp.”

“What? Well, how can you get it unstuck?”

“I don’t know? Unclasp it?” Sooyoung says, her tone coated in amusement.

“Okay, do it then.”

Sooyoung’s smirk falters as she pauses, looking at Jiwoo through the mirror with a puzzled expression. “Huh?”

Jiwoo returns her look, appearing (expectedly) panicked and (unexpectedly) determined. “Just don’t hurt the dress.”

“It’s okay if I…?” Sooyoung asks tentatively because quite honestly, this is kind of a weird situation to find herself in and she’s never had to unclasp another girl’s bra outside of a bedroom. But Jiwoo doesn’t need to know that.

Question: will the earth melt if it gets too close to the sun? Like gloop, or clocks in a Dali painting.

"Yeah- why are you acting so weird?"

Oh. Yeah, why is she? That was a slap Sooyoung needed. She blinks, once, twice, and then lets out an easy chuckle. “Okay then, if you say so. Hold the front.” Back to normal mode. Super normal. This is totally normal.  

“I–“

Sooyoung unclasps the bra and the straps loosen in an instant. She glances at the mirror and smirks, highly amused at seeing Jiwoo hug her chest tightly. Sooyoung tries again with the zipper and this time, it finally budges. She pulls it down slightly, careful not to any further (she really doesn’t need to see anymore), and immediately clasps Jiwoo’s bra close again.

Jiwoo breaths out a visibly deep sigh of relief. “Thank you!”

Sooyoung smiles at her through the mirror, tight-lipped and slightly cheeky. “No problem. What are fake girlfriends for?” she says as Jiwoo chuckles lightly and turns around to face her. She shifts on her feet, curling her toes in embarrassment, when Sooyoung tilts her head and eyes her up and down.

“Pretty. You weren’t going to show me before taking it off? Leave me to my imagination instead?” Sooyoung teases.

Jiwoo narrows her eyes, the tips of her lips teasing a smile as she reaches out and pushes Sooyoung out of the dressing room. “Nope! Get out!”

Sooyoung’s laughing as she stumbles outside of the dressing room. The sound of their laughter triumphs over the music blasting from the store’s speakers overhead.

For once, Jiwoo doesn't feel as distant as the sun. She gives off a pleasant kind of warmth, like a fireplace at a winter cottage. She feels nearby, reachable, not 150 million kilometres away. Just on the other side of the curtain.