Accepting Eunha’s hand wasn’t terrible for SinB. Eunha made sure to keep her distance, made sure not to spook her by suddenly calling her name, to SinB, it felt like she had made the right choice, despite the slight glares that Sojung kept sending in Eunha’s direction when SinB had managed to finally calm down enough to eat lunch with her together, though it seemed that neither party was ever going to speak soon.

“Sojung unnie.”

“Yes?”

“It’s okay, she’s helping me.”

Sojung huffed a silent sigh and continued to pick at her food. She wasn’t feeling that great about SinB going back to Eunha, SinB had asked her to start calling her by her real name, she asked Sojung, not Eunha. Yet, Eunha still called her Eunbi more than Sojung could. Her fork stabbed into a small chunk of chicken roughly, nibbling on it in contrast to her violence.

What Eunha had been doing, according to SinB, was just to be near her. There wasn’t exactly a strict rule on what Eunha could and couldn’t do, since SinB was unable to make herself say so much at a time, but small talk, filler talk, Eunha would try it whenever they had the time to for the last three days. The festival that Sojung was promised to SinB was the next day, sadly, nothing on that subject had been brought up, only SinB’s decision to bring her with as she met Eunha to eat together in body but not spirit. They had only said quiet hellos to each other the whole meal.

“E-eunbi ah.”

SinB flinched but looked up at Eunha, her eyes stopping at Eunha’s shoulders, unable to reach her face. Sowon noticed and despite how it annoyed her that Eunha had butted into her plans, she still wanted to support SinB. Their hands linked under the table as SinB breathed a little, calming down from this reaction, then met Eunha’s eyes. Her reactions to Eunha’s voice calling her birth name had finally gone down from breaking down in tears and covering her ears to just a sudden jolt and a slight tremble, Sowon was proud of SinB’s immense progress. Surely these kinds of progress meant that SinB had been focusing on clearing Eunha’s bad image in her mind, sorting things out to not muddle the true person.

Eunha gave SinB a small smile, SinB’s eyes drifted down again, but Eunha’s hand reached out over the table, SinB looked at her outstretched hand, recognizing a small but nostalgic plastic cup.

“I….got this for you.”

SinB stared at the pudding cup for a little longer. This was her favorite snack ever since she was a child, she liked to mess up the caramel into the pudding part and mix it until it was all a bunch of smushed goo; this was how she was going to get an even amount of sweetness in it after all. Eunha had taught her how to open the then complicated packaging, there were a few memories of using too much force and sending the small cup flying as well as losing the spoon she held in the other hand. Her stare on the pudding lengthened and Eunha placed it on the table between them, pushing it closer to SinB with her fingertips.

“I’ll be leaving first…Eunbi ah.”

SinB looked up at Eunha properly this time, her slight jolt kept to her left hand which was holding Sowon’s, a slight squeeze to calm herself down.

“Bye…..Eunha unnie.”

Still, she kept her manners and greeted Eunha, or maybe, she had managed to get used to the feeling of rolling that name off her tongue again. Sojung patted SinB’s back, smoothing her palm up and down her sweater softly.

“Are you feeling alright, SinB yah?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m…doing fine.”

“Sowon ah, look this way.”

*click*

“Turn away but look over your shoulder.”

*click*

“As the wind blows, shake out your hair just a little with your eyes closed.”

*click*

She was shooting an ad for a brand of conditioner, and well, it felt a little uncomfortable going strapless and tying a towel around herself. At least, they only focused on her hair, so her baggy jeans could remain on and her fingers toyed with the material as she waited on the fan for the effects.

The fan came on and she gracefully fluttered her hair in its artificial wind for the short video. All the while her mind was thinking. She had left SinB alone in the cafeteria at the promise of Yewon arriving. Taking Eunha’s hand and accepting her help was SinB’s decision, but Sowon couldn’t help but think it to be the wrong choice. First of all, she had nothing against Eunha, nothing major at least, just a small tidbit of resentment for letting SinB go through such a thing. But how was leaving SinB incapacitated every time that they met considered progress? Maybe it looked like SinB was opening up to Eunha, being able to respond to her, not break out in tears, but Sowon felt like a new wall was being built instead.

“Good work everyone!”

Sowon bowed and immediately shoved a hoodie over her head, covering her exposed skin and enjoying the soft texture of fabric against her skin. SinB had been fine at the beginning of the school year, her reactions were repressed, and she was looking forward to a life where nobody knew her. Then it was ruined when Eunha came and tipped the balance.

SinB blinked as the front door to their apartment opened, she had been drifting off on the couch, reading a book that Yewon had recommended after she calmed down. Smiling as Sojung groaned a little from kicking her foot into the doorway, SinB turned around and hung on the back of the couch, watching Sojung stumble around for a few seconds getting over her toe pain.

“Welcome back unnie.”

“I’m home, do you feel better?”

“Yes, I’m better enough to feel excited for tomorrow.”

“That’s good news.”

Sojung looked around a bit, almost as if she were looking for something. SinB watched her curiously.

“What are you looking for unnie?”

“Uhm, nothing.”

SinB let it slide, until Sojung found a fixed point in space and seemed to glare at it. This was scary to SinB, was there a bug there and Sojung also didn’t want to deal with it? SinB deal with spiders by screaming and slapping them dead with a slipper, or when it’s the middle of the night, just slapping it with a slipper, was Sojung scared of bugs? Their time together had yet to yield any pesky insects so SinB wasn’t sure whether Sojung was alright with killing them.

Then a scary idea popped into her head. Sojung still hadn’t moved from her spot, looking at the same space.

“Unnie?”

“Hm?”

“You’re acting very scary.”

“Ah, hm. Well, you see, when I was coming up in the elevator, there were these two other girls. They were talking about rumors and well, they say there was a student who died in this dorm.”

SinB shivered. Scary things were definitely not her forte.

“Anyways I was just looking to see why there was a shadow there, there’s not much light here so I was just curious what that weird shadow came from. Looks like it might just be a off centered shadow of the bow of shoelaces.”

“Oh. Uh…that’s great.”

Sojung raised an eyebrow, a cheeky grin sneaking on her lips. SinB swallowed her nerves, this unnie had sure gone from meek to wild since finding out her occupation and being completely clear with each other.

“Well, if you’re scared, you know what to do.”

“Huh?”

Sojung yawned a little, it was getting late and she wasn’t hungry yet. Thinking to skip dinner and eat a bigger breakfast when she woke up, Sojung just sauntered into her room, changing into her pajamas and kind of making a show of it as she went to the bathroom to finish washing up for bed. SinB watched her whenever she was within eyesight.

“Unnie I could make you something to eat first you know?”

“Nah, I’m not hungry. I’ll just sleep. When do we need to wake up for the festival?”

“Uhm…..8 I guess? There isn’t really a set time, but Yewon wanted to go early.”

Sojung hummed as she brushed her teeth. She had expected SinB to invite Yewon and Yuna, now there was a silent question in Sojung’s mind. Did she invite Eunha? Tossing it aside, Sojung just focused on reeling SinB in. She knew that the younger didn’t have good sleep, she never did from the beginning. The one-time Sojung knew that she had slept well was unfortunately, the night that SinB had learned of her true identity, not that it was a sad occasion anymore, she had more freedom now.

“Um unnie?”

There it was, hooked, lined and sinker.

“Yeah?”

“Could….I sleep with you today?”

Sojung pretended to be unaware.

“Why?”

“Um….it’s…cold?”

Sojung chuckled, it was a lame excuse, seeing as their dorm temperature was controlled by a thermostat set at the temperature that was comfortable all year round.

“Alright, but you’re setting the alarm.”

SinB grinned and went to grab her pillow, fingers already setting her phone’s alarm to ring minutes before 8am.

“Thanks unnie!”

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

hmm I like this chapter because of it's two different tones, it's a little chilly and uncomfortable in the beginning and then shifts back into the warmth at the end :D I hope you liked it too