Sojung quietly entered the dorm, careful not to make a noise as she tiptoed towards her room. It was past midnight, probably around 2 in the morning. The festival itself had ended at midnight, but of course, there were always people to meet after the event, the organizers the workers who were also fans who couldn’t’ come during the festival. She even had a small exchange back at her company’s office before she could return here.

SinB should have been asleep for roughly two hours, assuming Umji hadn’t let her stay out too late, so Sojung snuck towards the kitchen, going to grab a granola bar to sooth her whining stomach before sleeping off the hunger until morning. Noticing a magazine on the dining table, she munched on her granola bar quietly before flipping it over. Nearly choking when she saw herself, Sojung got a cup of water and leaned against the counter.

“Jeejuz.”

Breathing evenly now, Sojung sighed and flipped the magazine back over and threw her empty wrapper away. Heading back towards her room, she couldn’t help but feel a little angry at the world, and well, at God if he existed. She had done so well in separating her work life and personal life, she had achieved so many things in her work before so many others already, she was an icon to behold. Yet, everyone seemed to be dead set on exposing her private life. SinB was inching ever so slightly closer to the truth without realizing it.

SinB yawned as she wandered the dorm. Usually at this time, she would be at a lecture hall, doing her best not to fall asleep during the lecture. Even if she had gotten a major that she loved to the ends of the world and back, you couldn’t help but get sleepy when the teacher wasn’t a great one. Especially for a gen ed class. Today however, most of her classes had canceled due to the cheer up festival’s aftermath, there was a little leak that there was a huge party and a lot of students got in trouble, including the ta that was going to teach today instead of her professor who was out of country at an international meeting.

Sitting at the dining table with a toast and jam, SinB flipped through the magazine, admiring the camera work on each image. When she reached Sowon’s picture, she spent extra time looking. And when she had noticed it, SinB shook her head.

“Naw, I’m only looking longer because I wanted to know who the photographer was hah.”

But her eyes wandered back to Sowon’s smile, a tiny voice in the back of her head reminded her that there was a very slight chance that this was a fake smile.

“Her real smile….I wonder how amazing it would be.”

“Who?”

SinB jolted in her seat before greeting Sojung, who’s large tee sat slightly off centered on her shoulders and her long hair tied up in a low ponytail.

“Unnie do you sleep in those clothes?”

Sojung looked down at herself, causing her glasses to slide down just a bit before she pushed them back up, shrugging.

“Why? Is it boring like the rest of my clothes?”

“Nope, I think it’s pretty cute. And unnie, even if others categorize it as boring, I think unnie is great for being able to be comfortable.”

“Um, thanks? I guess?”

SinB hummed and munched on her toast, watching as Sojung bustled around, fixing a cup of coffee.

“Unnie, did you make sure you could come to the Halloween party?”

Sojung hummed, stirring her coffee as she paced over.

“I’m pretty certain they won’t call me in, like maybe 80% certain.”

SinB’s giggle made Sojung smile, even if she couldn’t find herself a logical reason to help SinB besides the excuse of being human, Sojung wanted to make SinB smile. Maybe she wanted to prove that not everyone in the world was as mean and uncouth as those in SinB’s past, maybe she just wanted SinB to realize her dream without blockages, unlike she right now.

At this moment, Sojung felt as if she were in a slump, she probably had been since before going to university and meeting SinB. She had felt a tingle when she had seen SinB take pictures of other people, her work was like magic and the urge to do better had come back for a while, but it didn’t last long enough.

Sipping her coffee, Sojung stared into space as she organized her thoughts, SinB took to her magazine, flipping through it a few more times to pick which ones she liked best. Stopping on Sowon’s page, SinB held the magazine up a little, tilting it just enough to let her compare Sojung to Sowon. Her eyes traced the bridge of their noses carefully, the distance between the eyes, the shape of her eyes that she had to filter out the use of mascara. They were the same, but again, makeup can make people different, SinB still couldn’t decide Sojung was Sowon just yet, and well, making assumptions of other people was rude. Putting away the magazine, SinB went back to her room to get ready to go shopping with Yewon.

“Sojung unnie!”

“Hm?”

Finally drawn out of her thoughts, Sojung looked up, seeing SinB holding up two jackets.

“Which fits better with my pants?”

“Why’re you asking me? You know how I dress.”

“Because you looked like your brain might explode?”

“Eh?”

Did she really look like she was thinking very hard? Sojung had thought that she had a good lock on her inner emotions from showing on her face, but SinB had noticed her thoughts? Patting her cheeks, Sojung looked at the two jackets again.

“I’m right-handed so, the right jacket.”

“My right or your right?”

Sojung rolled her eyes as SinB laughed, shaking her head as SinB ran off to finish getting dressed. In a bit, she also had to leave, which made SinB’s shopping date a rather convenient cover for her leaving for work at such an odd time, in fact, she could probably make it to the company and back before SinB would return, helping her solidify her alibi.

Then a thought occurred to Sojung. Why was she trying so hard to prevent SinB from learning who she was? SinB wasn’t a bad kid, and she was trustworthy enough to not spill the beans to everyone. But the uncomfortableness that settled in her stomach at the thought of SinB finding out wouldn’t leave her. Did she want SinB to only look at her as a regular citizen? She loved being Sowon, would that mean that SinB meant more to her, than her other persona? Shaking her head, she followed SinB’s suggestion to not think so hard.

“Sojung unnie! Are you ready to go over yet?”

Sojung looked at herself in the mirror, she was just dressed in her usual casual clothes, would that be too boring? But it was just going to be the four of them? It should be fine?

SinB poked her head through the doorway, a small grin greeting her in the reflection.

“SinB ah, is it too much not dressing up?”

“Hm? Nope! We can just go like this!”

“You’re really happy these last few days, how excited are you for parties really?”

SinB hummed, tapping her chin as she waited for Sojung to lock their door.

“Not so much the party, but more the having a good time together with the small number of people I care about.”

Her tone worried Sojung a little, did she accidentally cause her to think of that Eunha girl? Linking arms with her, Sojung smiled softly.

“Here, I was worried you would run away from a horror movie.”

“Hey, I’m not as bad as Yerin unnie okay? She totally rejected us because of the movie, not that she had other plans.”

It was funny how SinB was adamant about how Yerin was just using excuses to hide her fear of movies, she was pretty confident that she was the stronger heart just over an hour long movie with a few supernatural instances that happened in very sudden timings along with very accurately timed music theme changes.

“Remember okay? Your side belongs to me.”

Sojung blinked as she briefly thought of misunderstanding before remembering that she had indeed promised to let SinB sit beside her during the movie. A slight flash of embarrassment hit her in a small wave of heat, as if SinB was saying she would stay by her side. Silly goose, they were still friends that shared a dorm, her mind had somehow fallen into the gutter and couldn’t get out.

Feelings were even more distracting than her job at times. Knocking with a specific rhythm on Yewon and Yuna’s door, they were greeted by a very slowly opening door. Slightly confused, Sojung pushed it further open before SinB shrieked a little and clung to her arm tightly. Yuna had put her hair down over her face, imitating a certain character from a certain horror movie that SinB had probably seen before.

“Hey Yuna. That’s a pretty good rendition of the ring girl. Your hair is beautifully jet black after all.”

“Sojung unnie~ you’re more talkative at night I see?”

Sojung grinned just a little.

“I-it’s not like that, I’m just a little excited.”

“Over what?”

“The horror movie, it’s rare that I can get someone to watch one with me.”

“I know right?!”

SinB sighed and walked past the two geeks nerding about horror movies and how awesomely bone chilling each were. Finding Yewon in the kitchen, SinB waved her hand.

“Hey Yewon ah, you ready for the movie? Cuz I’m not.”

“Well, in the matters of ready or not, the answer is absolutely not. But am I prepared for my heart to beat completely out of control when the situation demands it, I am.”

“Heart? Haha, what are you talking about?”

Yewon only looked at SinB seriously.

“You should do some stretches too, people can die from heart attacks you know?”

The movie wasn’t actually super scary, the effects were great, the plot line was typical, overall, Sojung would give it a 6 out of 10.  What she hadn’t really anticipated was that SinB had wrapped herself completely around her arm, her knees drawn up to make herself as small as possible during the scenes where the characters were being chased.

“Sojung unnie?”

“Hm?”

“I’m sorry if I hurt your arm.”

She was still stuck to Sojung’s side, her voice a little scratchy from the screaming and crying. Almost like a small child asking their parents to forgive them.

“It’s alright, you didn’t hurt me. Though your lung capacity gave me quite the shock.”

“Are your ears hurting? I’m sorry.”

SinB’s childlike responses were really cute, especially when she then reached to rub Sojung’s ears gently. But the way she was still sticking to Sojung, Sojung had an idea what SinB would ask next.

“Sojung unnie, can I ask a favor?”

“Go ahead.”

“I’m too scared to sleep alone.”

SinB blinked as she heard the sound of a phone on vibration, the humming of it’s case against the hardwood surface of their desks. Finding it was Sojung’s phone, SinB checked the id, but it just said manager. If it was Sojung’s work, she really didn’t want to have caused Sojung to be in trouble.

“Should I take it?”

Letting it ring two more times, SinB groaned and answered it, the guiltiness of keeping Sojung up until late forcing her to take action.

“Hello? This is Sojung’s phone.”

“Sowo-. *Ahem* Hello, where is Sojung right now?”

“Ah, she’s asleep next to me.”

“And who might you be?”

SinB rubbed her eyes, it was only 6 in the morning, but this manager seemed to be quite awake.

“Her roommate, why?”

“Ah, it’s just that Sowon was supposed to come to the car by now, could you wake her up for me?”

SinB froze like someone pressed pause on a video.

“You want me to what?”

“Could you get Sowon for me? We’re really tight on schedule.”

Did he assume that SinB knew who Sojung was because he thought that Sojung would have told her roommate at the least? SinB’s hands shook a little as she looked over at the peacefully sleeping Sojung.

“Sowon was up late last night taking care of me, could you cancel whatever it is she has for this morning?”

“Ah, is that so? I’ll do my best to make an excuse, but only this once. Please don’t bother her anymore.”

SinB hung up and placed Sojung’s phone back on the desk, her brain was now fully awake and at attention. The manager called Sojung as Sowon after being worried who had picked up the phone. Upon learning that she was Sojung’s roommate, he reverted to the usual way he must call Sojung, “Sowon”. And to finally confirm it, SinB purposely used “Sowon” as she asked him the favor to let Sojung rest, he didn’t react.

There were too many evidences to deny that this tall and lanky, boorish clothed and glasses wearing girl, was actually the top model in Korea, in undercover status.

“Sojung is Sowon.”

Oh my god.

===================

if you couldn't tell, I had originally scheduled this to come out on Halloween. That didn't happen. Then I did my best to make it on my usual monday update for this story. That also didn't happen.

sorry

i'll do better in the future