“I’m just saying that if Cleopatra can get the entire country of Egypt to kiss her feet, I can sell feet pics for extra money.” Nayoung didn’t have a response for her girlfriend’s statement. She was more focused on trying to recover from the one-two punch that sentence gave her.

 

“You know they didn’t literally kiss her feet, right?” Yewon turned to face Sungyeon at her question, wondering why she was in the middle of them as they were having this conversation.

 

“That’s what Mrs. Park said. What do you mean?” Eunwoo looked genuinely confused.

 

“You know what? If you want to sell pictures of your feet for money, feel free. You can make your own choices and I’ll always support you.” Sungyeon clapped Eunwoo on the shoulder harder than necessary. “Make sure you send some to Vernon. I heard he has a thing for feet.”

 

Siyeon walked up then, looking like she wanted to ask and then shaking her head. “I don’t want to know.”

 

“I’m broke and need money,” Eunwoo said, leaning back into Nayoung. The taller girl still had the same look on her face, but pulled Eunwoo into her on instinct. Eunwoo waved her hand in front of her eyes but didn’t get any response. She relaxed into her hold, just letting her work through whatever was going on in her head.

 

“So get a job?” Yewon inquired.

 

Eunwoo snapped her head in Yewon’s direction, looking almost offended. “No.”

 

Yewon rolled her eyes at Eunwoo. “Anyway. Ddi Ddi where’s your girlfriend? I need to borrow her notes for math.” Yewon started to double check that she had all of her class materials that she needed for the first part of the day.

 

“I don’t know I haven’t seen her yet today. Where’s your girlfriend?” Yewon wanted to smack the look off of Siyeon’s face.

 

“I don’t have one. Thank you for reminding me.” Yewon was met with 4 laughs. She looked around confused. “What?”

 

“Nothing.” Sungyeon said, making knowing eye contact with Eunwoo, prompting her to start laughing again.

 

“What?” Yewon said louder. “What do you all know that I don’t?”

 

Minkyung strolled up at that time, easily wrapping her arm around Siyeon and dropping a kiss on her temple. “What did I miss?” she asked, lifting her head to make room for the smaller girl to lean on her chest.

 

Yewon reached her hand out without saying anything, knowing that Minkyung had the notes she needed. The taller girl struggled to get them out with the koala currently attached to her, but she managed to hand them over after a few seconds.

 

“We’re just wondering where Yewon’s girlfriend is,” Siyeon replied, lifting her head to press a kiss under Minkyung’s jaw, before going back to her position.

 

“Oh,” Minky said, laughing a little, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

 

“You all do know I’m still single, right? Like I would have told you all about someone and if I liked them or not. I wouldn’t hide a relationship from you guys- Eunwoo stop laughing!” Yewon was growing frustrated with her friends.

 

Eunwoo was near tears laughing so hard. “She doesn’t know! She’s so clueless- I can’t I have to find Yaebin and Kyul this is too much.” The group watched as she left, still cackling as she walked down the hallway.

 

“Who do you all think I’m dating?” Yewon couldn’t come up with someone that would fit.

 

The remaining 4 all looked at each other, knowing exactly who everyone was thinking about. “Kyungwon,” they all said in unison.

 

Yewon’s mood immediately deflated. “Ok but we’re not dating. You guys know this. You all know this right?” she asked them desperately.

 

“You two have looked like a couple from the day you met. You’re more of a couple then me and Eunwoo,” Nayoung explained.

 

“Kyungwon’s my best friend. I don’t like her in that way.” Yewon didn’t understand what they all were seeing to think that they were dating.

 

“Ok, and? Eunwoo is one of my best friends. Minky and Jung are best friends and look at them. Kyul and Yaebin are best friends and they’re dating too.” Nayoung said, looking at Yewon seriously. Like that mattered because she always looked serious no matter what the situation was.

 

“But I don’t want to date Kyungwon.” Yewon was beyond frustrated at this point.

 

“What about me?” Just to Yewon’s luck, Kyungwon walked up at that point.

 

“Nothing!” Yewon said too loudly, trying to save herself from further torture from her friends. “We were just wondering where you were.” She added quickly, hoping that was a good enough excuse for the taller girl. She hid her red face in Kyungwon’s shoulder as the girl gave her a greeting hug. She didn’t even have to see her friends to know what kind of looks they were giving her.

 

“Bold of you to assume I care about the whereabouts of any of you,” Sungyeon said bluntly.

 

“What about Kyla?” Minkyung asked.

 

Sungyeon gestured around them, looking past them at the people walking by and down the hallway. “Does it look like she’s here right now? No. She’s in class like a good little student because the bell rings in-” she looked at her wrist as if looking at a watch, only to have to pull out her phone because she wasn’t wearing one. “- less than 2 minutes.”

 

“Oh . Minky we gotta go. Mrs Im said class was in the greenhouse today. Something about pee I don’t really know.” She dropped a kiss on Yewon’s cheek and sped away as Minkyung pulled away from Siyeon and started running down the hallway. “I’ll see you later, love you, bye! Remember it’s Wednesday meet me for ice cream!”

 

Minkyung stopped suddenly and sped back to Siyeon, grabbing her and kissing her properly, pulling away with a doofy grin on her face. She then dramatically pulled away again and sped after her same aged friend. “Did you mean pea plants?” they could hear her yelling to Kyungwon.

 

Sungyeon scowled at Siyeon. “Wipe that smile off your face and go to class. I’m sick of all you couples.”

 

“Maybe if you told Seunghee about the massie crush you have on her, you wouldn’t have this problem.” Siyeon said.

 

Sungyeon flipped her off, but she wasn’t able to hide the redness of her face. “I’m going to class. See you losers later.”

 

The group dispersed with mumbles of the same affirmation. Yewon shut her locker and took a second to think to herself. Why do they all think that she and Kyungwon are dating?

 

In the minute it took her to walk to her classroom door she just assumed they were all messing with her, like they usually do. She sat in her normal seat, next to Yaebin, and she already knew she was in for some more teasing. Yaebin had a certain look on her face that Yewon didn’t like.

Before the older girl could greet her she cut her off.

 

“Whatever Eunwoo said this morning it’s a lie. Please don’t say anything about it,” she said while opening her notebook for the lesson that day.

 

“I’m wasn’t going to say anything,” Yaebin said with a sly smile on her face.

 

“Yes you were.” They both dropped the topic when the teacher started to call roll for the day. Class went by smoothly, as smoothly as a class on 16th century literature could go.

 

Yewon caught Yaebin before she walked out of class. “Does it really seem like me and Kyungwon are dating?”

 

Yaebin sighed, understand the frustration she was going through. “Yeah, it does. But we all know that you’re not aware of what it looks like from an outside perspective. We know you’re not actually dating.”

 

Yewon just nods, feeling some of the weight off her shoulders. But there’s just something she can’t get rid of. She can’t stop thinking what if?

 

Yaebin continued. “We can stop teasing you if you want. I can tell the rest of them to cut it out.”

 

Yewon shook her head, not really focusing on Yaebin anymore. “No it’s ok. It’s whatever,” she said as she walked past Yaebin and into the hallway. She just wanted to get away from the conversation and to her next class.

 

Most of her classes went the same way. Yaebin in 1st period Lit class, double checking with Sungyeon in 2nd period chorus, Jieqiong in 3rd period Geography, asking Mingyu in the library during her free period, dealing with the teasing again from her friends in lunch- luckily Kyungwon and her have separate lunches. They don’t see each other at all until the end of the day anyway. Vernon in 6th period confirmed the feet thing, much to her surprise. She even had the guts to ask Mrs. Im in 7th period biology, knowing she teaches Minkyung and Kyungwon’s first period class.

 

“Oh honey,” was all she needed as an answer. Yewon groaned. “You’re all she talks about. Minkyung is quickly growing tired of it, but she’s not much better talking about Siyeon anyway. You’d be surprised how much I know about you and your friends.” She playfully winked at Yewon.

 

“This doesn’t help me.” She was so annoyed at everyone. She wasn’t dating Kyungwon and people needed to start realizing that.

 

“Maybe talk to her about it? Don’t focus on what other people are thinking or saying. Talk it out with her and maybe you’ll get the answers you need.” Yewon thanked Mrs. Im and was sent away with a soothing hand on her back.

 

Yewon slowly made her way back to her locker. She looked and noticed someone was missing. “Where’s Kyungwon?”

 

“She said you were taking too long and said she’d just get there first and order and then told us to tell you to meet her there,” Minkyung explained.

 

“Anyone wanna go do something?” Yaebin asked, leaning on Jieqiong’s shoulder.

 

“I’m hungry let’s go get food,” Eunwoo replied.

 

The rest of the girl started to agree, deciding on where to go.

 

Yewon finished putting her books away and started to pull her bag out of her locker. “Please don’t come to the ice cream shop. We don’t want you guys there.” They all knew she wasn’t being rude. Wednesday was her day with Kyungwon and none of them were going to try to change that.

 

“Ooh are you trying to be alone with your girlfriend for your ice cream date,” Kyla said, laughing.

 

“See! Even Kyla of all people sees it,” Siyeon said, directed at Yewon.

 

“Yeah you guys seem like a couple.”

 

“A couple of besties,” Minkyung said after Nayoung. The group busted out then.

 

Yewon slammed her locker door shut and whipped around, having reached her breaking point about the topic. “For the last time, we aren’t dating! We would have told you! You’re our best friends! Now will you please drop it? I’m tired of hearing about this today.”

 

The rest of them looked at her, stunned from her breakdown.

 

“Hey it’s- it’s just a joke. We don’t mean any harm…” Eunwoo trailed off.

 

“Yewon we aren’t trying to be mean. You two just act like every other couple. We get that you’re just friends but you have to admit you two act like you’re dating. You always have,” Sungyeon tried to explain.

 

Yewon groaned loudly and ran her hand through her hair in frustration. “No! We don’t! If we were dating we would be together all the time. We’d hold hands and be really touchy like you two or you two,” she said gesturing, to Minkyung and Siyeon and then to Jieqiong and Yaebin. We’d go out on dates like to dinner or a really special date just for each other. We’d cuddle up during movie nights like you guys do,” she gestured to the three couples standing around. “We’d- we’d fall asleep on facetime or something like that. We’d ditch you guys for alone time. We’d always be thinking about the other person and- and we’d miss each other when we aren’t together and-” her words started to slow as she realized. “-and we- we’d. We’d miss each other when they’re not here and-” she stopped speaking, breathing heavily. “Omg.” She looked up at the looks on her friends faces. “I’m dating Kyungwon.”

 

No one said anything at first. After a beat Sungyeon broke the silence. “Well at least you’re aware now.”

 

Yewon’s head felt full. She wasn’t sure what to do with this new info. “Uh, I don’t- what do I-” she looked around hopelessly at her friends.

 

“You know, we really didn’t think this would as much of a surprise to you as it is right now.” Minkyung elbowed Siyeon after she spoke. “What? I’m just saying, like, it should have been a little obvious.”

 

“No it was that’s the thing,” Yewon said, still not all quite there. “It was obvious I get what all of you mean but that’s not what’s hitting me so hard.”

 

“Then,” Nayoung started, looking around at the others confused. “What is?”

 

Yewon breathed in. “I think I’m in love with her.”

 

Everyone paused until Yaebin quietly spoke up. “Well yeah, we could have told you that too.”

 

Jieqiong just looked at her girlfriend. “Not helping.”

 

“I don’t know what to do,” Yewon said desperately.

 

“Well here’s a thought,” Kyla said. “Tell her.”

 

Something in Yewon snapped. Yes. She needed to tell Kyungwon and she needed to do it now. She wasted no more time, pushing her way out of the circle and moving quickly down the hall.

 

“Go get your girl!” she heard Sungyeon yell after her.

 

She checked the time on her phone, seeing that she was almost 30 minutes late to the ice cream shop. She saw the list of notifs from Kyungwon but ignored them, choosing to speed up her walking instead. The ice cream shop was in walking distance. Normally the duo walked together, hands clasped between them and taking their time on the walk. Yewon had never moved this quickly in her life. She was getting ready to pull out her phone to call the older girl when the shop came into view. She saw Yunjin coming out of the back door with some boxes and yelled to get her attention.

 

“Yunjin!” She saw the girls head search for her voice.

 

“There you are! You’re a little late today.”

 

Yewon didn’t care. She caught her breath as she asked the younger girl. “Is Kyungwon still here?”

 

Yunjin shook her head. “She actually just told me she was leaving when I was coming to take these out.”

 

Yewon didn’t respond as she sped off for the front of the shop. She rounded the corner quickly and scanned in the window, hoping to see Kyungwon still making her way out. When she didn’t see her after a few seconds, she turned to scan the road. She saw Kyungwon’s back walking away from her and immediately yelled for her. “Kyungwon!”

 

The aforementioned girl and turned around at the yell. She started to walk back towards Yewon when she saw the girl running towards her. “Hey. I was wondering where you were. Why didn’t you show up? Or answer my texts?” she added at the end, with a little bit of snark.

 

Yewon panted a few times before standing up straight and catching her breath. “I’m sorry I got caught up with Mrs. Im in last period and that’s why I was late and then I was talking to the girls about something and I just lost track of time I’m so sorry.” She looked up at Kyungwon and saw that she didn’t look mad at all. She just had a soft smile on her face and looked reassuring.

 

Kyungwon took her hands out of her pocket and rubbed Yewon’s arms. “It’s ok. I just got a little worried for a second. Our ice cream melted while I was waiting but I’m sure Yunjin would just give us some more if I asked.” She started to push the two of them back toward the doors, but Yewon stopped her.

 

“Actually,” Yewon lost all of her words when Kyungwon looked at her expectantly. “Um, can we talk about something really quick?”

 

Kyungwon furrowed her brow. “I’m not in trouble am I?”

 

“No! You’re not!” Yewon said with too much force. She winced at herself and tried to calm down. “I have just had a lot on my mind today.”

 

“So tell me about it. I’m right here.” Kyungwon grabbed a hold of one of Yewon’s hands in support.

 

“It’s just-” Yewon kicks the ground trying to find her words. “You and I are best friends and we have been for almost our whole lives and the girls said a couple of things today that just had me thinking about us and our-” she paused, trying to find the best fitting word. “-relationship.” She second-guessed herself on that but it was too late to take it back.

 

Kyungwon looked like she wanted to say something, but she held her tongue. “Ok?”

 

“And they just kept teasing me and it wasn’t just them it was hearing some things from Mingyu and Vernon and even Mrs. Im said something and I just can’t get it out of my head.” Yewon was desperate for Kyungwon to start lining the pieces up so she didn’t have to keep explaining the whole thing to her.

 

“Is that what you were talking to her about after class? Our “relationship”?” Yewon just nodded. Kyungwon dropped Yewon’s hand and placed her hands on her hips, trying to figure out what Yewon was talking about.

 

Yewon took another deep breath to keep herself steady. “I have just been thinking about what Nayoung especially said today.” Yewon glanced up at Kyungwon and looked back down, not able to look at her. “And she said that we, you and me, we act more like a couple than she and Eunwoo do.”

 

Kyungwon froze a little, not sure how to respond to that.

 

Yewon decided that it was now or never. “And after hearing that I was thinking about why she would have said that, and I realized that she’s right. You and I act almost exactly like a couple and sometimes we’re more obnoxious than Minkyung and Siyeon, and that takes a lot because they’re really annoying as a couple,” she rambled. “And I realized, in thinking about all of this-” she gestured with her arms. “-that I think-” she stopped and looked at Kyungwon in the eyes for the first time since she started explaining. “-that I like you more than just a friend.” Tears started forming once she got that off her chest. “And I don’t know what to do with that realization. I don’t know how you feel about me or this and I don’t want to ruin this because you’re my best friend but I- I want-” she wiped away some of the tears that started to spill over. “-I want to be with you like that. I don’t want to just be your friend I want to be able to be your girlfriend.”

 

Kyungwon looked like she hadn’t been breathing for a couple of minutes. Her face was screwed in confusion and her posture was stiff. She took a minute to register all of what she’d been told before responding. “Yewon we’ve been dating for 4 months now.”

 

Yewon’s ears started to ring. Her tears dried up quickly as she just stared at the taller girl. “What?”

 

Kyungwon nods like it was the most obvious. “Yeah it was during movie night. Everyone else was asleep and we pulled up The Office on your phone and we were cuddling. And you were half asleep and I told you I liked you and you said you had liked me too. And we like pointed out our similarities with Jim and Pam and we both agreed we acted like them sometimes. And then I asked if that meant if we were dating and you said yes. We watched like 3 more episodes before we fell asleep so like you were awake enough I guess?”

 

The gears in Yewon’s head spun quickly. “I was half asleep! I thought you were joking!”

 

Kyungwon laughs carefully. “No I meant it seriously.” She looked a little embarrassed.

 

“And when were you going to tell me that?” Yewon yelled at her.

 

“I thought you knew! You said yes I thought that, like, we were together after that.” Kyungwon didn’t know how to save herself from that situation.

 

“So what you just thought we were dating this entire time? You haven’t like tried to kiss me or anything. You haven’t mentioned anything to me we’ve still just been the same as always.” Yewon couldn’t believe what was happening.

 

“Oh yeah I was waiting for you I thought we were just moving slow on the kissing part. And we didn’t change because we’ve been like this the entire time. We’ve acted like a couple for years now I was used to it.” Kyungwon dug the toe of her shoe into the ground, smiling awkwardly.

 

Yewon couldn’t think of what to say next. She was so overwhelmed with the emotions and what had been said already. Before Kyungwon could open again, she decided her next action.

 

In one swift motion, Yewon slid her bag off of her shoulders, not caring how hard it hit the ground, and grabbed Kyungwon by the collar of her hoodie, connecting their lips harsher than she intended to.

 

Kyungwon reacted immediately, wrapping her arms tightly around Yewon’s middle and adjusted their kiss so it didn’t hurt as much. They pulled apart only to fix their head positioning and to breathe, before their lips were together again, smoother, softer, and more tender than the first one. Yewon’s grip relaxed so that her right hand was resting lightly on the taller’s pulse and her left went to the back of her neck.

 

They came back to their senses when they heard whooping from inside the shop. They pulled apart slowly, neither one upset about the commotion, but both having preferred to have had a little longer.

 

They turned to see Yunjin going crazy behind the counter. She flashed them a thumbs up as she came closer to the door. She stuck her head out of the door to talk to them. “With how long you two have been standing out here and the looks on your faces I thought you were breaking up or something.” She laughed a little at what she thought was the ridiculousness of her statement.

 

The duo looked back to each other and smiled softly. Yewon spoked in response, not taking her eyes off of Kyungwon. “No of course not. We’ve only been dating for 4 months. She can’t get rid of me yet.” Neither of them could hold in their smiles. Yewon relaxed into the taller girl again, closing her eyes as Kyungwon pulled her in closer and dropped a kiss on her forehead. She wasn’t going anywhere but wherever Kyungwon was.