Description: When Chaewon and Minjoo's friends decided to give the two girls a little push by locking them in a closet for 7 minutes, they didn't expect to find them with matching bruises by the end of the time.

There are a lot of places Kim Chaewon would rather be at in the moment, for crying out loud, she would even rather to be at her loathed cram school than the place she was currently in. Serves her right for being naïve enough to believe Hyewon and accept to come to this little ‘get together’ the girl was having – well it was small, considering there were only 12 girls, yet these 12 were worth for 50 people judging how loud and chaotic they could be.

These 12 girls also happened to be her friends, but she was rethinking their friendship in the moment. Why? Well the reason was sitting right next to her in a dark closet right now. And she surely was a loud breather.

Chaewon hugged her knees, stealing a glance at Kim Minjoo who was sitting a little too close to her right now. The brunette was curling her lips, looking as unease, if not more, than Chae felt. The slighter older girl couldn’t help but feel a little worried, it wasn’t like she hated being around Minjoo, it was the total opposite.

They were trapped inside the closet thanks to a friendly game of ‘7 minutes in Heaven’, a very childish game that Chaewon would never have agreed on if her friends weren’t such stubborn brats. Yena had pretty much forced the Kims to go into the closet, using the excuse that they were already so close, so nothing better than getting closer – Chaewon would smack her in the head as soon as she had the chance. Yena, being one of her closest friends, should know how pathetic her crush on Minjoo was and how much the idea of confessing sent her calm-put-together-self on a frenzy. Still, Choi hadn’t hesitate even for a moment before pushing the duo into such awkward situation.

Minjoo, on the other hand, was torn between excitement and nervousness. Her own big fat crush on Chaewon was pretty happy with the result of the game, yet Chaewon’s annoyed expression was making her hesitant. She had been trying to show her affection for the older girl in the last couple of months as she finally realized her feelings weren’t purely platonic. But the thing is: She was a naturally affectionate person, what meant that her excessive clinginess to all her friends seem like such a normal thing that no one bat an eye at her actions anymore – if anything, Chae seem more flustered than usual whenever she was too bold.

She was trying her best to get close and try to…What? 7 minutes in heaven seemed much easier said than done, after all it wasn’t like all their inhibitions would go away just because they were alone in a closet that smelt like camphor and old clothes. Chaewon’s stern expression wasn’t making it any easier for her – she knew the girl well enough to know most of the time she couldn’t control her expressions and it often gave people the wrong impression about her. Still, right now she couldn’t tell whether she was indeed annoyed or just gay panicking on the inside – goddess knows how much she was rooting for the latter.

As subtly as she could – what wasn’t very subtle at all –, she moved even closer, her arm brushing against Chae’s as they sat side by side. The closet wasn’t very cramped and she could’ve kept her distance, but she was trying to get notice here.

“Minjoo?” Chaewon finally asked, her voice small and a little less firm than usual.

“I don’t like small places.” Minjoo replied easily. Well, it wasn’t a lie, who likes dark small places that smell like their old great-aunts? It wasn’t the reason why she was so close, but it was a detail.

“Oh.” The older glanced at her, and even in the dim light, Minjoo could see her expression softening as Chaewon reached out to rest her hand on Minjoo’s arm gently. “They’ll let us out soon.”

“Uhum.” Minjoo took it as a success – partially at least – since Chaewon hadn’t tried to push her away and was even holding her forearm, what was not as romantic as holding hands but close enough.

The younger, as smoothly as she could, rested her hand on top of Chae’s, giving her a thankful smile. “I feel safe with you though. Like you’re my safety blanket.” And to top her words, she made sure to hug the girl by the arm, clinging onto her like a puppy.

Lame, absolutely lame – that was her try at flirting. Good thing Chaewon was very vulnerable to her words.

She couldn’t tell what her expression meant earlier, but the one right now filled all the boxes to be considered as ‘gay panic’ at its best: eyes wide, mouth slightly agape, nervous hands that she didn’t know where to place and Minjoo could bet there was a beautiful red tinting her ears. Mission success.

“Chae….” She started before the other had time to properly react to her last attack. “Aren’t we going to…You know?”

“Huh?” Chaewon’s answer reflected her delicate state of mind in the moment. She was simultaneously loving the sudden closeness and hating it because she might be misunderstanding things. Right now she couldn’t trust her capacity of articulating a proper reply.

Apparently neither could the local smooth talker, Minjoo.

“You know, doing that…Thing…People sometimes do in this game…I mean, it’s cool if you don’t want to, but I was kind of…Expecting we would.” Minjoo trailed off, nervously fidgeting with her slender fingers. Her face was in a whole new shade of red, but thanks to the weak illumination inside the closet Chaewon wouldn’t be able to see it – how ironic, she was willing to stay inside the literal closet to be able to get out of her figurative one.

Chaewon stared at her for a moment, blinking her light brown eyes before frowning. “We can’t do drugs here!”

“What?! I was talking about kissing, not smoking!” Minjoo quickly denied, falling easily on Chae’s trap – Chaewon might not be the smoothest and is currently in a heavy gay panicked state, but she was far from being dumb, therefore she just said the first ridiculous thing on her mind to make the other speak quicker. The older Kim, however, didn’t expect such reply.

Scrap that, now she was in a real panicked state.

“You mean u-us? K-Kissing? Now?!” Chaewon stuttered, her high-pitched voice even higher. It was really a shame Minjoo couldn’t see it, but the blush was now on her cheeks too, making Chaewon quite an adorable view.

“I…I was hoping we could?” Minjoo, who was dealing with her own fragile state testing her confident flirt abilities, managed to say.

Then silence.

Chaewon was too busy mal-functionating to say anything. Kissing Minjoo sounded about as good as it gets, but she was having a hard time comprehending the simple, but very surprising, fact that the younger Kim wanted to kiss her too.

Hyewon monotone voice was enough to make her snap out of it.

“Chaewon and Minjoo, one minute to go! Better be decent when I open the door. My mother keeps her favorite coats in there, you know?”

One minute? She only had one minute to kiss Minjoo? Her one chance in life and she was given only 60 seconds…Probably less now.

It was now or never, she didn’t have time to hesitate.

“I want to do it!” Chaewon said, this time a tad too loud, surprising the brunette that looked at her wide eyed.

Nonetheless, Minjoo would never miss such opportunity, so she nodded enthusiastically.

There was a quick, awkward moment where both girls just stared at each other, wondering who should the one to take initiative.

Turns out both did…A little too enthusiastically.

Chaewon had leaned in for the kiss, eyes firmly shut as she tried her best to fight against time. The problem was that Minjoo also made a move, grabbing her jacket and pulling Chae in, she kept her eyes closed and a hopeful heart -- she also had a very tough skull they would figure soon.

Instead of soft lips and fluttering feelings, they felt the hardness of bones hitting each other as their foreheads ‘kissed’ instead of their lips. There was no fluttering feeling just throbbing pain.

“Ouch!” Backing away, Minjoo touched her fast bruising forehead and grimaced as she noticed Chaewon’s pained expression as she did the same. “Oh no.” So much for her great romance.

She would’ve apologized for her clumsiness – well, they both were at fault, but she was just a little bit more eager so the bruise on Chaewon’s head might have something to do with it –, but the host interrupted them before she could.

“Time is up!” Hyewon said opening the door just to look at them with her eyebrows raised. “Well, this will need some ice...Wild thing you kids are.” She muttered, before letting out a soft chuckle as the younger girls dragged themselves out of the closet – literally, unfortunately.

The girls got themselves some ice for the bruises, but none of them said anything, too busy nursing their foreheads and embarrassed to talk about it. Their friends, however, didn’t bother to hide their stares and muffled laughs for the rest of the night.

The way back was quiet as Chaewon walked her home – they lived fairly close, Chaewon’s house only two streets away, so it only made sense for them to head home together; This, however, doesn’t mean it wasn’t awkward.

None of them knew what to do after their failed try at a first kiss, their matching bruises making it clear to everyone how clumsy they were. The pain was slowly fading away, the embarrassment not quite.

Chaewon was stealing nervous glances at the younger, blabbering about school and their upcoming exams – she wanted to talk about it, but she didn’t know how and she hated awkward silences. Usually talking to Minjoo was easy, the girl had a good, easy-going and kind personality, and to be honest Chae loved the very own sound of her voice. She didn’t want things to change.

Well, she wanted some things to change, but not this one.

Minjoo was trying her best to give Chaewon her most charming smile and listen closely to what she said – even though she wasn’t very found of the topic. She was pondering about whether or not trying to hold hands, what wouldn’t be so weird normally, but seem much more meaningful tonight. In the end she just clung onto the sleeve of Chae’s coat, afraid of trying too hard and make them end up with matching wounds in their arms too.

They arrived at her house quicker than she expected – it wasn’t that long of a walk, but apparently time flies when you’re trying to brave up.

As usual, Chaewon walked with her until they reached the doorstep, partially due to the fact that the slightly taller girl refused to let go of her.

The two just exchanged small, hesitant smiles, waiting to say their goodbyes.

The lights were off since her parents weren’t at home, making the streets lights the only source of illumination – the second time they were at a (relatively) dark place that night. Perhaps having the dim light to hide their embarrassment gave them the courage they needed.

“About earlier…”

“I’m sorry for…”

They spoke at the same time, awkward chuckles following.

Chaewon was the first to talk, trying to turn her nervousness into confidence to at least for once talk properly to the girl. “I was just going to apologize for being…Er, a mess really. I guess I wasn’t the best companion earlier, so I’m sorry about that.” It wasn’t great, and her eyes were busy looking elsewhere instead of facing Minjoo, but at least she didn’t stutter.

Her words made Minjoo feel a little more at ease, her confidence rising as an idea popped on her mind. “I was nervous too. It was my first time playing it, but I was happy to be with you.” She let out a small chuckle, her hand finding its way to Chaewon’s to give it a light squeeze. “I’m sorry for being so clumsy. I really like matching couple items, but I don’t think this is the right one for us.” Another laugh, clearly born from nervousness – she was a flirt, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t get embarrassed by her own words once in a while. “You know, I really wanted to do it.”

Before her confidence disappeared again, she took a – very careful this time – step closer so she could use her free hand to brush aside Chaewon’s bangs and lay a very gentle, light kiss on the bruise she had caused earlier. Chae’s skin under her lips was warm, mostly due to the blush that was quickly spreading across her face, and she was close enough to feel her trademark mint scent. It wasn’t the perfect kiss, but surely went a lot better than the last one and she had to refrain from smiling like a fool.

Chaewon wasn’t expecting it – not these words, nor the spontaneous kiss. It didn’t mean she didn’t like it though. Part of her was, once again, going into panic mode – the good kind of panic, the one that happens whenever your crush tries to woo you in the right way and makes you giddy on the inside –, bringing a silly smile to her face and warmth to her face. Minjoo’s hand fit right into hers and this time she was brave enough to hold it properly, her fingers easily sliding in the spaces between hers to intertwine.

“I was also at fault. I never thought you’d want to, you know, with me.” Her voice was small, but she was brave enough to look up to face Minjoo’s eyes. That one minute earlier had been wasted, but she didn’t want to lose this moment too. Minjoo was being so open about her feelings, and even if it wasn’t her nature, she would try to do the same. “I kind of really wanted to kiss you too.” Tentatively, she took a step, bringing them so close that she could feel the younger’s warm breath. “Not only because of the game.”

“You do?” Minjoo bite down on her bottom lip, the smile she tried to concern reaching her eyes, turning them into half moons that almost completely hide her bright brown eyes that sparkled with something special now.

“I’ll approach you this time.” Chaewon informed, both to avoid a new incident and to reaffirm her newly gained confidence – Minjoo couldn’t be the one taking the initiate always and she had done it so many times already, it was her turn to return the favor. “…If you still want to do it.” Of course, her confidence could be a little better in the moment, but worse than a bruised forehead, would be a bruised heart for getting her kiss rejected thanks to her lack of manners.

“Chaewon, just do it!” The taller girl’s laugh this time was clear and light, one not born from embarrassment, but from genuine happiness and excitement – although she made sure to not rush things and avoid any more injuries.

There was a smile on her face when she noticed the shorter girl moving closer, this smile only grew wider as she closed her eyes and felt soft lips on hers. The kiss was gentle and sweet, even better than what she had expected it. No foreheads bumping, no awkwardness and hesitation. Now everything seemed to finally have happened as it was supposed to – and she couldn’t be any happier. Her heart swelled in her chest, full and happy. Leaving all precaution behind, she reached out to involve Chaewon’s neck with her arm, bringing her closer to make sure their kiss wouldn’t get cut short.

The sudden embrace almost made Chaewon stagger as her arms tried to grab a hold of Minjoo’s waist to stabilize herself without breaking the kiss – what was particularly hard because the kiss itself was making dizzy, lightheaded and her heart was fluttering happily inside her chest, thankfully it was also making her focus solely on Minjoo’s enticing vanilla scent and sweet warmth, that led her hands to find the small of her back easily. The hug only made things better as even after they were forced to break the kiss to breathe, none of the feelings went away, kept safe by Minjoo’s warm embrace and smile.

It was a 90% success thanks to Minjoo’s parents arrival and the awkwardness that followed as the couple teased them before leaving the kids alone again.

Chaewon gifted the girl with a another short, light kiss as a good night one. But Minjoo insisted on pulling her for a much deeper one -- thankfully, no foreheads were harmed this time.

A/N: Hello there. I wasn’t planning on writing anything so soon, so please don’t mind how messy and a little crack this is. The stories here will probably be rather different than my usual works, since these are just things I’ll be doing whenever I’ve free time (and creativity).

As usual, thank you for reading, I’m sorry about any mistakes.

Next up: Yulyen (if I don’t fail terribly at that).

The prompts that made this fic possible were these two:

Prompt 1: Chaewon and Minjoo are about to kiss, but accidently bump foreheads really hard, and now have matching bruises + Prompt 2: Minjoo lightly kissing Chaewon on top of a freshly formed bruise.

*There’s a fic on ao3 that also worked with the first prompt, but in a very different way, it’s worth checking it out!