"Are you saying you're anti-Mother Nature?! Unnie, you're the reason why the polar bears are dying!"

"No, I'm saying your music is trash, I don't need to hear you talking about plastic bottles over some cheap drums you got from Garage Band."

"A- It's called rapping-!"

Heejin pulls her headphones from her desk, trying to drown out the sound of Sooyoung and Chaewon's voices. They seem to be arguing over the latter's latest track (described as 'fire' by the artist herself) currently playing on the speakers. She's pretty sure that somewhere else in the dorm, Jinsoul, Yerim and Hyejoo are squabbling over whether Just Dance is rigged or not because Hyejoo seems to be getting a lot of points just by sitting down, and from the room next door she can hear Jiwoo rambling about the importance of glitter on paperwork when she's supposed to be working on whatever project it is she and the boy she had brought over from her class are meant to be working on.

In fact, she has her own project to be dealing with. Excpet she can't with all the noise coming from outside her bedroom.

Even when she kicks Haseul and Vivi out (the two had been quietly doing their own things, as always) the noise still seems to distract her from her work, and her eyes keep drifting over to the closed door with all of their timetables messily taped onto it.

If she's honest, all she wants to do at the moment is go out there and watch what will probably become a wrestling match between Jinsoul and Hyejoo (the younger of the two will obviously win, advantageous with her actual will to move). But she knows that she can't, because the last project she had delivered had been 'above avarage' thanks to the distraction of the other Moon Dorm residents.

Sighing, she turns to YouTube and tunes into a channel streaming study music. She's supposed to be working on her essay.

After some struggle trying to get into the groove of it, Heejin's fingers begin to fly across her keyboard. She's barely thinking about what she's typing, knowing that if she just bulls it the first time around she can go back and edit it again later. The only thing on her mind is what they're going to have for dinner, and if they'll manage to convince Vivi to cook for them again after last time's incident (involving fire and a certain small, blonde-haired girl).

It's when she feels something touching her bare leg that she diverts her attention from the screen.

She jumps in her place on her bed as she meets Hyunjin's round eyes from the floor.

Slightly annoyed at being bothered when she had asked not to be, Heejin lifts one side of the headphones and deadpans the girl. "Hyunjin, not now. I'm busy."

Ready to go back to work, Heejin places her hands back onto her keyboad. She already knows that if she keeps it up, she'll be able to get it finished by dinner time (meaning she won't be eating on the floor, like those who arrived late usually did). But she feels another pat on her thigh and she's glaring at the culprit again.

"I'm serious. I need to get this finished." Heejin says sternly. Normally, she'll cave and give attention to whatever distraction comes her way (anything to get her out of talking about why astrophysics defies old philosophists), but not tonight. She's determined to finish the project.

Before she can even press her finger onto a single key, she feels Hyunjin rest her chin against her leg.

"Hyun, please." Heejin turns to look at the other girl with pleading eyes.

It's because of them being close thanks to their same age and the fact that they were both the first ones to come into the Moon Dorm, that Heejin finds it difficult to send Hyunjin away. She's normally the cause for many of her distractions, mostly because the other girl tends to be wild and have a bad habit of bothering their other roommates, so everyone resorts to asking her to control her.

("Heejin-ah, Hyunjin's acting up again! Come put her in her place!")

But she's set walls around herself (with nice, big, red signs saying 'leave me alone, I'm studying') so the puppy eyes that Hyunjin is giving her don't work on her.

When Hyunjin doesn't move from her place, Heejin groans. "If you let me work, I'll let you have the sweet potato bread on top of the fridge."

Promptly, the other girl quickly leaves the room without a word. She'd been saving that up for herself for when she got cravings in the middle of the night, and now their resident bread-lover is going to completely raid her food stash and eat it all up.

Shrugging off the mild annoyance, she returns to writing the damned essay. She has a million tabs open with wikipedia pages that she shouldn't be trusting and other people's essays on the topic, and her cursor is flying over them like she's a magician picking at random cards. This is what she regrets most about listening to her parents and going to university - the stupid essays that leave her brain dead and the deadlines that make her lose hair because of the stress.

Maybe she should do what Chaewon does and get someone else to do it for her - sure it will take more persuasion than a flick of the wrist and a light 'do it because you wroship me' (she thinks that maybe some money will do - they can't all walk around with the same confidence that Chaewon has) but would it be worth saving the little braincells she has left?

She tries to retrack and focus on her essay. But then she starts wondering how on earth Chaewon managed to convince the whole campus that she's a princess and that they should all bow down to her, because their country hasn't had a monarchy in over a century and she's almost certain that she's been a city-girl all her life. She still remembers the day that she had actually walked into her class with a crown perched atop her head and everyone had just seen it as the confirmation that she was indeed royalty - they'd even started nicknaming her 'The Princess of the Moon Dorm' (what the ) which led to the small girl demanding to be called princess at the dorm too.

(Of course, no one listened at first, until Sooyoung had started saying it in an ironic manner, which led to the nickname becoming a kind of inside joke in the dorm.)

If she shows up and starts saying that she's a famous model from France, will people believe her? She's pretty sure she can pull it off - it doesn't look like people around here are very smart-

Funnily enough, Hyunjin chooses the most opportune moment to drape herself across her lap.

"Hyunjin!" Heejin whines when her sentence veers off from talking about the stars into ahgsergssee.

Said girl's cheeks are puffed out from what Heejin assumes to be her beloved sweet potato bread, and her eyes continue to gaze up at her with round curiosity. She's stubbornly resting most of her upper body across her legs, her hands mindlessly playing with a hairband to keep herself busy, and still chewing away at the food stashed in like she's a squirrel.

"Fine, you can stay-" Heejin knows that Hyunjin is as stubborn as a rock, so she tells herself that it can't really be helped. "-only if you're quiet and you let me type."

Hyunjin, looking too smug and pleased with her mild achievement, makes herself comfortable in her lap. "Yuhf."

Grimacing at the crumbs that fly out of the girl's mouth, Heejin returns her attention to her computer screen. They usually have dinner around eight, meaning she has enough time to spare afterwards to actually spend some time with her needy best friend.

She manages to write four full sentences before her mind is wandering again.

Instead she starts wondering whether or not she can attend Jungeun's dance performance during the weekend. It's been a while since the older girl has invited them to one of her performances (reasonable, since the last time all eleven of them had been there they'd thoroughly embarrassed her with big banners spelling out 'Kim Lip Daddy' (courtesy of Jiwoo herself) and enough flowers to pollinate the entire auditorium) so she knows that she has to take up this opportunity like it's the last pizza slize on the table on a Friday night. Besides, Hyunjin is part of the same dance company, which means that she will definitely be there...

When her hands come to a stop, Hyunjin uses this opportunity to turn in her lap and wrap her arms around her waist, her face pressing against her stomach.

Heejin spares her a glance, used to the affection from the other girl (it doesn't stop her ears from warming every time), and loses track of time for a second. Hyunjin is dressed in one of her oversized white shirts she uses as pajamas, hiding the shorts she wears underneath and making her look cuter than usual. Her hair is tied together in a loose, messy plait that was probably thrown together somewhere throughout the day.

Absently, Heejin begins to her hair, a habit formed out of (initially) boredom and (eventually) affection. The music playing in her headphones helps her take a moment to just breathe and enjoy the strange embrace as Hyunjin cuddles further into her. Her eyelashes flutter slightly when Heejin starts massaging her scalp, and the latter finds herself becoming even more distracted by the way her best friend's body rises and falls with every inhale and exhale.

Blinking herself out of her stupor, Heejin redirects her attention to the laptop in front of her and resumes her typing (this time more messily than the first).

Surprisingly, Hyunjin doesn't bother her for a while, remaining still in her chosen cuddling position. This allows Heejin to almost reach the end of her essay, so when she arrives at the end of her argument she allows herself to glance at the time.

It's almost eight.

She wonders if Jiwoo has spared that boy from her endless ranting and sent him home (though she knows that if she hasn't, Sooyoung will probably force her to and scold her for keeping a guest so late). Jiwoo had wanted to watch a movie with her, because she said that they'd both like it and that they both needed to have their special, designated cuddle time, but at this rate Heejin doubts they're going to be able to fit time in for that. She knows that the older girl will probably be sulky at that, but she'll eventually turn her attention to one of the other girls (she'll try to get to Jungeun, but get denied with the likely excuse of 'you wake up too late', and turn to the likes of Hyejoo, who secretely enjoys being doted on) and force them to sleep in her bed.

For a moment, she wonders if Jiwoo will actually dare to sneak into her room and enforce herself onto the already cramped bed (it wouldn't be the first time, but she really doesn't want a moody Sooyoung so early in the morning) and hopes that she finds herself another cuddle buddy.

Speaking of, Hyunjin seems to have accidentally woken herself up with a quiet snore, her body jolting in its place for a second.

A small smile has made its way on to Heejin's face before she can help it, and she just watches as Hyunjin blinks herself out of the small nap she'd fallen into. Her tongue darts out to wet her dry lips before she's lazily turning in her lap and staring up at her through her eyelashes.

(Heejin decides to ignore the warm feeling she gets in her chest.)

She just stares at her best friend who's drowsily observing her with slow blinking eyes that make the hairs on the back of her neck rise up. The comfortable weight on her lap makes her heart squeeze in content, and before she knows it her hand is already moving to push out the strands of hair that had caught on her face.

Hyunjin playfully nips at her fingers as they try to pull the strands of hair caught on her lips, and Heejin giggles softly before hitting her forehead to tell her off. At that, the other girl grimaces and grabs a hold of her wrists, trying to bring her hands closer so she can bite at them.

"Stop, Hyun." Heejin laughs, attempting to push the other girl off of her lap.

Instead of listening to her, Hyunjin moves closer to her and hides her face into her stomach again. Heejin feels her heart picking up when the warmth of Hyunjin's lips press against her skin through her thin shirt. Moments like these make her forget that they're friends, and only friends - perhaps her mind beginning to wander to unknown territory that she had never allowed herself to fully explore.

She's almost grateful when she has to hastily push the source of all her troubles away when she feels her playfully biting at her, to which Hyunjin laughs softly and moves to sit up beside her and allow herself to be hit on the back and shoulders.

"You're so annoying." Heejin whines, tugging her headphones down so they rest on her collarbones.

"You're not getting anything you don't deserve." Hyunjin playfully winks at her, before she's sent into another bout of laughter when Heejin just sulkily turns her face away from her.

"You didn't even let me finish my essay." It's true, her writing still needs a conclusion before she can call it quits.

The bed room door pushes open and Haseul peeks her head through the door. She looks surprised to find Hyunjin there, though Heejin doesn't blame her since she'd told her she needed to be alone to get her to leave.

"Dinner's ready." She says, her body already leaning away from the room to head to the kitchen. "I convinced Vivi to help me cook, so before you start complaining-"

"Hyunjin-unnie's eating on the floor!"

Yeojin uncerimoniously pushes past Haseul on her way down the hallway, the older girl already on her tail shouting, "Hey! What did I tell you about running in the house?!"

Heejin barely has any time to process anything before Hyunjin's bolting off the bed and chasing after the two, leaving her there with her damned essay.

She sighs, deciding to finish it tomorrow. She knows she won't be able to tonight.

"Oh! Heejin-ah," Jiwoo backtracks so she stands in front of her room, a wide smile on her face and hair dishevelled, "you coming?"

Heejin nods with a small smile on her face, pushing herself off of the bed and going to Jiwoo's side and linking their arms together. The older girl is already rambling at her about the progress of her project, while she distractedly fixes her bangs so they lay neatly on her forehead (everyone knows that Sooyoung is protective over Jiwoo, no matter how much the older girl denies it).

What she had written wasn't very good anyway. (She had never been good at multi-tasking.)

-

Heejin tries to concentrate on the TV, where Haseul's latest movie recommendation is playing out. But the loud voices coming from the coffee table in the center of the living room are too distracting for her to focus on the spontaneous song that breaks out in the movie.

Most of the girls have gathered there to play an intense round of Monopoly (or as they like to call it: The Destroyer of Friendships).

Sooyoung has her eyes inently set on the gameboard as she holds the die in her hand, Hyejoo at her back, whispering to her at what angle she should throw them so they get the highest possible number. Chaewon sits cross-legged, whining in her high-pitched voice at Jiwoo who is currently resting all of her weight on her and squeezing her arms around her as tight as possible. Yerim dances and sways excitedly between Chaewon and Yeojin. The youngest Moon Dorm resident is cackling to herself, and is surprisingly backed up by a serious-looking Jinsoul donned in a strange sort of cape and sunglasses (why is she wearing those indoors?).

Yeojin shouts at Sooyoung to "hurry up, old hag" as Hyunjin runs her hand along the notes of fake money in her possession, a competitive streak to her eyes.

She glances at Haseul (the unspoken leader and mother of the Moon Dorm) to see if she's seeing what she's seeing, but finds that the older woman is completely enraptured with the movie on the TV, jaw dropped and everything. Beside her, Vivi (her second best chance at getting the situation under control since Sooyoung seems to be involved in it, too) quietly reads at her papers with a red pen between her teeth, round glasses perched low on her nose.

Heejin grimaces when the group of girls break out into cheers/whines. They're lucky that they don't have neighbors who live nearby.

"Looks like karma to me! Pay up, peasants!"

" you, Chae."

They've been at it for a while now, originally beginning with the girls who shared room 3 (Sooyoung, Hyejoo, Jiwoo and Chaewon), but new players were added until they'd formed a raucus group.

Hyunjin had been the latest to join, having been at the dance studio with Jungeun who had called dibs on the shower first, and had immediately demmanded to replace Jinsoul's position to play. Heejin just watched in amusement as her best friend - too clouded by her competitiveness to even address anything or anyone else in the room - pushed the older girl out from her place and took her desired character piece.

After a while, though, the insults and shouting become a source of an incoming headache so she finds herself resting her head on the back of the couch, eyes closing in an attempt to soothe it. She could go into her room to get some much needed silence, but she doesn't want to distance herself from the girls when they're all here together. The very least she can do is be present when they're having group time. Even if she's starting to doze off on the couch.

She's almost into dreamland (distant thoughts of old philosophers appearing in her mind and scarring her forever) when she hears her name being called out.

"Heejin-unnie."

She lifts her head and looks for the source of the voice, only to find Jiwoo and Hyunjin wrestling for what looks like a position to play the game. Hyejoo is looking at her from her place behind Sooyoung (who is shouting at the two girls to "stop ing around when Hyunjin is still sweaty", because then Jiwoo will have to take a shower and waste more water, and Yerim just widens her eyes as she covers Yeojin's ears at the 'foul language') with an expectant expression on her bored face. Heejin raises her eyebrow at her in question and she points towards the group of girls.

"Unnie!" Yeojin shouts at her, grimacing as she moves away from where Hyunjin has just fallen over beside her, Jiwoo toppling over too from the momentum. "Take Hyunjin-unnie to the bathroom!"

Heejin furrows her brow when she hears the sentence, straightening in her place. On the couch beside her is a recently bathed Jungeun, holding a towel to dry her hair with.

"Go wash the animal." Jungeun says nonchalantly, though the sparkle in her eye giving away the mischief.

Heejin's brow furrows even more. "What? Why me? Why do I have to do it?"

"She's yours, isn't she?" Jungeun says it like it's the easiest thing to say, but all it does is light her face on fire at the implication.

"What? No. I mean-" Heejin groans in frustration when she sees the look the Jungeun is giving her, pushing the older girl away softly. "Why can't she just do it herself?"

Just then, Hyunjin manages to tackle Jiwoo to the floor, earning an entertained 'whoop' from Chaewon and an increasingly annoyed 'hey!' from Sooyoung. "Go shower! Dirty!" Jiwoo squeals from the floor, pushing away Hyunjin's sweaty face with her hand.

Heejin ingores the look that Jungeun gives her as she stands up from the couch, grumbling slightly under her breath at the unfortune of being given the apparent role of 'Hyunjin's owner'. She dodges a falling Jinsoul, who's laughing with her whole body like this is the funniest thing on earth, and approaches the two squabbling girls who are too busy to register anything that anyone else is saying.

Knowing her best friend like the back of her hand, she knows that she will not give in easily due to her stubborness. So when she sees an opening in the midst of all the flailing limbs, she grabs a hold of the back of the shirt she's wearing and tugs at it like an owner tugging at their dog's collar to get them to stop fighting another dog. "Hyunjin." She says sternly, her voice loud enough so said girl can hear her over the noise of their dorm.

Immediately, the girl stops and looks up at her, an annoyed look on her face. "That's not fair, I was in the middle of playing." She scowls, looking like an angry child.

"I don't care. Jungeun's done with the shower, it's your turn." Heejin points out as reasonably as possible. When Hyunjin's attention strays from her to the group of girls (Jiwoo has already swiftly moved into her position and stolen her money), Heejin tugs on the back of her shirt again. "Hyun, come on."

Hyunjin - ever the prideful person - decides that if she's not going to have her way she's going to sulk instead. So she sits there, on the floor, with a scowl etched onto her face.

Heejin's just frustrated that her best friend is being so childish and that her headache is managing to increase the more time she spends worrying about something so stupid, so she's reached her point of patience and fixes her grip so it's firmer. With all of her strength and effort, she begins to drag Hyunjin away from the living room and towards the bathroom, ignoring the yelps of surprise and the whines of disapproval coming from the other girl.

If she wants to be stubborn, so be it.

It probably comes down to a battle of pride - Heejin muses as she tugs on Hyunjin's arm - when the other girl refuses to let go of the bathroom doorway as if its the last thing keeping her from Hell. She knows that if it were any other situation, Hyunjin would have willingly walked into the bathroom and would have taken a shower all on her own. But when faced with a challenge (Heejin, in this case) she would refuse to listen and do her best to go against it.

But Heejin's not having any of it.

Managing to lock the bathroom door behind her, she gets a better grip of Hyunjin's upper arm and pulls her into the shower. When she turns on the water, Hyunjin's screams and tries getting out of the way, only to be stopped by Heejin who pushes her back in with her hands.

"It's cold! Heejin! !"

"That's what you get for being so stubborn!" Heejin shouts back, grimacing as the water bounces off of Hyunjin's body and sprays onto her face. It is cold, but she finds it oddly soothing to her headache.

"What the !" Hyunjin swats her hands away, instead running her own down her face to wipe at the water clouding her vision. She glares at her as much as she can while the showerhead is pelting droplets at her, looking like a moody cat that doesn't want to bathe. "I'm still in my clothes!"

"Maybe next time listen the first time we tell you to shower." Now Heejin's pride has swollen. Backing out now would mean that Hyunjin wins, and she sees this as some prank that she can get back at her through one of her elaborate schemes that will only make her more angry. She's had too many in the past to make her realise that: no, she is not backing out.

When Hyunjin is too busy fretting over her shirt, Heejin leans over so she can put her hands covered in shampoo on her hair. She's harsh with how she shakes her hands, spreading the bubbles into the black, wet strands, and ignores the string of curses that leave Hyunjin's mouth.

As some kind of revenge, Hyunjin grabs a hold of her arm and tugs her under the showerhead, both of them getting sprayed by the slowly warming water. Heejin squeals, blindly reaching out to put her right hand back in Hyunjin's hair while the other girl just grabs a hold of her left wrist to stop her from moving. The water is soaking into her clothes and making it stick to her body, and she realises too late that her shirt is white, and is probably going see-through.

Trying to get out of the shower, Heejin feels a pair of arms wrapping around her waist and keeping her there. She shouts to be released, only for Hyunjin to pick her up from the floor and spin her so she's the one farthest from the exit.

It doesn't even matter now, because Hyunjin's hair is messily covered in shampoo, one of her eye tightly closed as it slides down onto her face, so she can't leave without washing it off. Throughout the struggle, Hyunjin seems to have successfully taken her shirt off, and is now left in her sports bra and black, baggy tracksuit bottoms, her skin shining with the water trailing down her skin. Even though Heejin doesn't feel as embarrassed now about her white shirt, she's more embarrassed about her reaction to the sudden sight in front of her.

At some point, Hyunjin starts laughing.

It's loud, and full, and so ridiculous that Heejin can't help but join in.

For some reason, Heejin feels free. In the tiny, compact shower with Hyunjin standing just a couple of centimetres away from her, she has never felt more free.

"We're so stupid." Heejin laughs, staring at Hyunjin as she wipes away the shampoo from her eye.

"You're the one who dragged me in here." She points out, a large grin on her face. "Now we both have to take a shower."

Rolling her eyes at the pettiness, Heejin lunges forward and musses her hair up with the shampoo in her hands. "You smelt really bad anyways." She pokes her tongue out at Hyunjin when the taller girl peeks through her tightly clenched eyes.

Instead of saying anything back, she simply reaches for the shampoo bottle and lathers on a generous amount. Heejin blushes when Hyunjin starts washing her hair for her, a soft, distracted smile on her face as she does so. She can't help but feel like this moment is incredibly intimate - she never knew that washing someone else's hair could be so... romantic? She really doesn't know what to call this atmosphere that's beginning to make the air hot.

Hyunjin begins to play with her hair, pulling her hands upwards in a quick manner. "Look, you have a mohawk!"

"Stupid." Heejin bats her hands away, quickly nudging her out of the way to wash out the shampoo from her hair.

When she opens her eyes again, she finds Hyunjin staring at her with an unreadable look on her face. The warmth of the water hits at her back, beginning to form steam in the bathroom, so she excuses the redness in Hyunjin's cheeks for the temperature of the water.

"Come here." Heejin softly waves at her to move closer, which Hyunjin obeys with little hesitation. She tip-toes up to grab the showerhead while using the taller girl's forearm for support, before beginning to rinse out all of the shampoo from her hair. It's natural when she begins to massage at her scalp again, the motion familiar by now. (When she feels Hyunjin leaning into her hand she feels her chest warm but says nothing about it.)

When they finish, Hyunjin offers to go run to get them some spare clothes since they're both still in their wet ones. Heejin hears the comments that the other girls make when they see Hyunjin scuttling across the living room, upper body wrapped up in a towel with her hair still wet and draping down her back.

"Get it, Kim!"

"I'm never going to be using that shower again..."

"Don't do dirty things in the shower!"

"If you touched my innocent Heekie, I will murder you!"

Heejin feels her heart swelling in her chest.

-

Heejin is exhausted.

Work had been a today (a man had not so kindly crumpled and thrown his receipt  with some of his change at her when she got his order wrong (Hyejoo had suggested tracking him online and hacking his social media to release all of his nudes)) and the one class she had had lasted three hours, forcing her to miss the bus and have to walk home.

Yeojin had immediately given her her seat when they were having dinner, and Sooyoung, who was beside her, wordlessly threw her arm around her and tried cheering her up by teasing her. She appreciated the girls' efforts at cheering her up, but she couldn't help but deny Haseul's offer to watch her favorite movie on the TV (Jungeun swore she'd even stay up to watch it with them). Instead she said good night to everyone and disappeared into room 1.

Vivi is already in the room working on her studies, like always, but when Heejin doesn't say anything to her when she slips into the comforts of her own bed, the older girl rises from her chair at the desk and quietly approaches her.

"Hey." The older girl crouches beside her bed, meeting her tired eyes through her glasses. "How are you?"

Heejin feels tears welling in her eyes. Everyone in the dorm knows how busy and dedicated Vivi is with her studies and her part-time job - literally everything she does - and often find that the eldest Moon Dorm resident's determination is extremely admirable. They do their best to steer clear out of her way, and Vivi appreciates it. But here she is going out of her way to talk to her - to ask her how she is. She can't help but feel incredibly touched.

"Hey, it's okay." Vivi quickly catches the tear that slips out of her eye before it can fall too far, smiling a small, bitter smile. Her words are a little stuttered due to her still not being as fluent in Korean as she would like, but Heejin takes them in like it's the most fluent she's heard anyone speak today.

The older girl perches on the bed by her side, her hand gliding up and down her back in a comforting manner as the tears begin to fall out of her eyes.

Heejin feels a wave of homesickness wash over her, and it makes her feel nauseous.

Over time that she has spent in the Moon Dorm, she has grown to call this place her 'home'. The girls who inhabit it - with their strange quirks and annoying tendencies - have become the very family that she loves and cares for. But as Vivi rubs her back like her mother used to when she was still younger, in another city and in another bed, she finds herself missing a different home. And she can't help but feel like she's betraying the family that she has here in the Moon Dorm, because these girls mean the world to her and she would do anything for them, just as they do everything they can to make sure she feels like she's loved and at home - even if they do argue from time to time.

But all she wants to do now is be back in her bed at home and feel the weight of all of her responsibilities be lifted from her shoulders.

She doesn't know how long she's at it when the weight on her bed lifts and suddenly Vivi is moving away.

She feels almost pathetic when she blindly reaches out to hold onto the older girl's hand for comfort.

There are voices speaking lowly, before quick footsteps make their way over to her and an all too familiar face is dropping in front of hers with a concerned frown on it.

When Heejin meets Hyunjin's mildly angry eyes, she feels her lower lip trembling into a pout. She doesn't last five seconds before she lets out a half-relieved, half-stressed sob and she's gripping onto the closest hand she can get to. Hyunjin doesn't say anything as she gently pushes her onto her back, lifting the covers up so she can slide her body onto the bed like its hers (it practically is, Heejin thinks, with how often she sleeps in it).

Heejin catches Vivi quietly closing the bedroom door on the way out, though her view is quickly obstructed when Hyunjin drapes her body over her. The familiar weight that presses her against the comfortable mattress is enough to calm the rocky sobs that had been escaping , and she finds herself instinctively reaching up to wrap her arms around Hyunjin's upper body to bring her closer. Their legs tangle together like a memorised dance, and Hyunjin hides her face in the crook of her neck because she knows that she likes it when she does that.

They don't say anything until Heejin has calmed down enough for her breathing to go back to normal. She can feel Hyunjin's unsteady heartbeat against her ribcage and her slightly heavy breaths against the skin on her neck.

It's impressive how quick she is to feel okay again when Hyunjin is around. Like the balance has been restored in the world.

"Hey..." Heejin says. Her voice is rough because has closed up with all the crying, but she can still talk well enough to concern herself over her best friend.

Hyunjin doesn't say anything - she only tightens her grip on the sides of her torso and buries her head deeper into her neck. When Heejin feels the taller girl's body tremble slightly, it's only then that she realises her body has been vibrating this whole time as if she were cold.

"Hyunjin, hey..." Heejin tries coaxing Hyunjin head from where it lies in her neck, nudging it softly with the side of hers. "What's wrong?"

Not saying anything, Hyunjin shakes her head. Heejin sighs, threading her fingers into her hair and untangling the knots carefully. The other girl smells like a mixture of the night and fresh air, her perfume slightly worn on her clothes and the temperature of her body cold because of the weather outside. It's comforting - like a breath of oxygen after being underwater for so long. It makes her heartbeat slow down and her breaths even out, and with Hyunjin's own beating pulse drumming against hers, she feels them beginning to syncronise.

"I missed you."

The words have come out of Heejin's mouth before she realises it and with them she's greeted with a warm epiphany. Her homesickness had not been for her old home - though Vivi had certainly reminded her of her mother - but for an entirely different concept of a home she never knew she could have. The words are raw and come from a place that she's been trying her best to ignore for the longest time, but now that she's said them it feels like she unleashed something from a cage that she isn't sure she's ready to unlock. Feelings she isn't ready to deal with. Her homesickness was gone the moment she felt Hyunjin's body against hers like she does every night.

Hyunjin pushes herself up when she hears her, but Heejin has barely any time to see her face before hers is being cradled.

She flinches her eyes shut when Hyunjin leans in, but quickly opens them again when she feels lips being pressed to her cheeks. And then again, and again, and again...

Hyunjin is peppering her whole face with kisses: placing them over her tear-tracks on her cheeks; pecking her nose softly as she moves to the other side of her face; moving so close to the edge of her hairline that one almost touches her burning ears; even on her chin and along her jaw with a kind of insistance that it reminds her of her dog back home.

Heejin's whole body is burning when she has half the mind to stop the other girl, her hands snaking around to frame her face and hold it in place. She feels the wetness of her cheeks on her fingers and her face immediately melts when she realises that Hyunjin has also been crying. Which the other girl obviously doesn't want her to see because she hides her face in her chest and lets out a small, embarrassed whine.

"Hyun, bab-" Heejin stops herself, ears burning. "Why are you crying?"

With some patience and a few beats of silence, Hyunjin sniffles and shyly lifts her head again. "I had a bad day." Her voice is shaky when she talks, and Heejin quickly tightens her grip around her. It's rare to see their strongest member show her emotions so blatantly, and even though Heejin does wish that she would more often, it doesn't mean she enjoys watching her suffer. "And then I heard that you- that-" Heejin waits for her to gather her words, trying to fix her expression into something akin to comfort. "You don't deserve to be treated like that."

Heejin's heart swells in her chest, ready to burst at the seams for the girl above her. "You're so precious." She breathes out mindlessly.

Hyunjin's face tints a beautiful pink, and she's suddenly scowling at her. "Shut up, you're more precious."

They laugh quietly at their ridiculousness, Hyunjin's forehead resting against Heejin's.

It feels right. Heejin just knows it. She knows that having Hyunjin with her will always make her feel that same, warm, fluttering feeling in her chest.

"I'm tired." Hyunjin whispers into the air between them, and Heejin can feel the words on her lips, ready there for her to steal and silence. But she looks at her best friend's tired face, wet with tears and pink with emotion, and decides that maybe she doesn't have to deal with her feelings right now. That they have all the time in the world.

The two sink together like puzzle pieces, and Heejin finally feels at home.