"that's cute," joohyun chimed, pinching seungwan's left cheek.

"but all she did was try to reach for a book?" sooyoung rolled her eyes while passing seungwan the book that her short legs had failed to get her.

"yeah exactly. that attempt was cute," joohyun glared at sooyoung, effectively making the latter shut up. 

seungwan could only groan as she let herself be dragged away by joohyun, with her cheeks still tickled pink and heart still in a mushy mess. just another day in the life of being a hopeless gay having a one-sided crush on her good friend aka bae joohyun aka the most sought after girl on campus who happened to be really clingy and possessive over seungwan for reasons unknown, really. 

the first time joohyun had called her cute, seungwan was beyond flattered. if she hadn't known better, she would have even thought that joohyun was flirting with her. but being good friends and knowing that there was no way joohyun could even think of her romantically, seungwan treated it as mere friendly affection, afraid to get her hopes up.

yet, seungwan found herself being distressed over the increased frequency and often inappropriate usage of joohyun's, "that's cute" which she had only directed to seungwan, ever. 

"i will not be tolerating--" seungwan stopped mid-sentence to let out a squeak of a sneeze. 

"that's cute," joohyun uttered under her breath while passing a piece of tissue paper over.

that did not go unheard by seungwan, who immediately reddened in embarrassment and cleared . she had definitely not meant to be cute during this serious meeting with the student committee of the upcoming fundraising musical for their university. "sorry about that, so as i was saying, i will not be tolerating such behaviour. if i receive any complaints, i will not hesitate to bring in the lecturers for disciplinary action to be taken. meeting dismissed, please have a good rest for the long day ahead tomorrow and be punctual." 

everyone got up to leave, except for joohyun who went to hook her arm around seungwan's. "i'm clinging onto you so you can't do any more work. go and have whatever little rest you can get, i'll walk you back to your dorm." 

"no, i have to make sure--" 

"all the preparations are already perfect, wan. you heard from all the departments, everything will run smoothly tomorrow-- from the rehearsals to the actual musical. you're having a cold already, i don't want you to be running a temperature or anything." 

"also, um hyun," seungwan swallowed an invisble knot in . "i would appreciate it if you would stop doing that, especially when i'm supposed to be serious."

joohyun tilted her head in confusion. "do what?"

"calling me cute..." seungwan felt her face burn yet again as she whispered the last word.

joohyun's brows knitted into a frown as she pouted and held seungwan's arm more tightly. "you are, though." 

seungwan's face burned even more. she was sure if she was not running a temperature before, she was now thanks to bae joohyun. 

"that's cute," joohyun sighed as she continued staring at seungwan instea