Chapter 24 (Part 1)

Strawberries&Cigarettes
Please Subscribe to read the full chapter

*Warning*

There may be offending lines about homouality.

I have no intention of hurting someone so I hope you understand that I'm just trying to show the realistic side of the topic.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Yeah, they always taste like you.

You.

 

After nine days of Seulgi's return, their next semester started.

Joohyun had to struggle enduring her parents' silence and her increasing studies which didn't seem to diminish even a little.

Still, she didn't feel so stressed as much as she did before.

Because on Mondays, she would have a picnic with the younger, celebrating their first start of the weekend.

The younger would often have to make an effort to cheer up the bunny who despised Mondays.

She would bring different snacks every week and even allowed the older to recite her favorite poems(without falling asleep, of course) which made Joohyun pleased and even look forward to the start of the week.

And on Tuesdays, they would go to the cafe and hang out with Jennie and Jisoo.

Jisoo wasn't too conservative about her relationship with Jennie which made them easier to hang out, freely accepting their relationship too.

At first, she felt a little annoyed Jisoo was interfering with their moment while Seulgi enjoyed her company, but it changed the exact opposite for both of them.

Jisoo often told embarrassing stories about Seulgi how she couldn't take her eyes off her at the library, earning a glare from Miss Hwang which was very entertaining to the older, but not for the bear who always scowled as she shared her strawberry shake.

On Wednesdays, they would sit under the cherry blossom tree in the evening because that's the day Joohyun is most tired and frustrated. Joohyun would put her arms around her knee and close her eyes, not even having the energy to speak one syllable. And Seulgi would hold her hand or run her fingers through her hair soothingly. The silence they shared was one of Joohyun's favorite things.

On Thursdays, Joohyun would eventually recover and they would go to the library, with Seulgi often sketching (and Joohyun pretending not to notice the bear was drawing her judging from the glance she chanced from time to time), and her reading one of the newest romance novels.

Seulgi would always ask what her favorite part was and Joohyun would always pick a line she most wanted to say to the younger who was hers, feeling satisfied when she was able to make the bear blush helplessly.

On Fridays, Joohyun would barely able to bear her lessons and her studies until nine and when the clock strikes eight-fifty, she would immediately take one last check on the mirror and race to the one particular restaurant. And they would go to the park to visit 'Mr. Statue', recalling their reunion as they watched the stars.

On Saturdays, Joohyun would spend the whole day in her room with her piled up assignments and student council work. And with her phone beside her, always calling Seulgi when she felt tired or bored to find comfort.

Sometimes they would mind their own business and do their work in silence even while they were still calling. Because they found comfort with just hearing each other breath. And Joohyun often would giggle before ending the call when she heard the younger's snore from the other line, never forgetting to whisper 'Goodnight. Sweet dreams.' as she hung up.

Lastly, on Sundays, the day when Seulgi was at her worst, Joohyun always took her back home and always ended up in Seulgi's room.

The younger would rest her head on her shoulder until she dozed off and Joohyun would gently put her to bed and peck her forehead goodnight.

When she tiptoed out, Joongi would always comment, 'You're like a mother putting her kid to sleep.' and Joohyun would stick her tongue out in response and say, "That's what lovers do. I guess you don't know a thing about it.", making the boy scoff and threw one of the cushions as she hurried out giggling.

Weeks continued like that but even so, Joohyun found every day unpredictable and novel. And was almost surprised when October started.

Only a month left for their CSAT.

Joohyun became so agitated and concerned about it her condition started to worsen.

She pondered whether she should ask Seulgi if they could rearrange their weekend schedule but always gave up not wanting to hurt the younger's feelings.

But it turns out, the sensitive bear was thinking the same thing, and she promised they would see each other every Friday and would always be there whenever she called.

She was happy as a clam to have a girlfriend.

No, she was happy to have Seulgi.

The only problem she was facing was she missed the younger.

She would always whine to Sooyoung or Seungwan she wanted to see the younger and the two seniors would consider dragging her to the student council room and lock her up.

But they were her friends so, that's not exactly what friends do.

So they would secretly tell Seulgi that her girlfriend was going nuts and the freshman would always pay a surprise visit to her academy(even though she had to hide behind the tree thanks to the event of her 'third torture'), making Joohyun smile her radiant smile and exclaim 'How did you know I missed you!'.

Their days seemed peaceful and sweet, and Joohyun hoped nothing would change about that.

But boy, she was wrong.

It happened during their education class.

A few of them listened but Joohyun was the type to focus on her books instead and would smirk whenever Sooyoung became too interested or Seungwan covered her eyes in embarrassment.

She looked up and saw the minute hand of the clock pointing the number 3.

Only fifteen minutes left before their class ended.

Joohyun looked down at her math book and saw that she had fifteen problems left.

Her eyes glinted with determination.

One problem at a time, it was a challenge but she could do it.

She grabbed her mechanical pencil and her brain started to drown into the problems like a computer handling all data at once, only thinking with numbers.

Forty-five. Three. Equals. Squared. Plus-

"Hey, then how do gay people  each other?" One of the boys whispered to his friend and the other boy snorted.

"How would I know? I'm sure there are s for gays on the Internet. You should look it up."

"Don't you think it might be disgusting to see guys ing each other?"

"But I think I'm going to come if I see girls ing each other."

Joohyun wished for the first time, she was deaf.

She gritted her teeth, restraining herself from grabbing the boy by his collar and slap him until he was blind.

"You boys are disgusting."

Joohyun exhaled a little, relieved their obscene conversation ended.

But she could never be more wrong.

"Are there even that many gay people in Korea?"

"Apparently, there are." Her friend answered, lowering her voice not to get the teacher's attention.

"I read an article that the gay community is planning a parade this weekend."

"That's so gross!"

Okay. There goes her well-scheduled plan to finish her problems for each minute.

"Are they mental? Something wrong with their heads? Or think she's a guy or he's a girl?"

Her friend nodded as she pretended to shiver, rubbing both arms.

"I know, right? It's so.. disgusting."

"I'm never going to go near them. Who knows what they might do to me."

"So does that mean a lesbian imagines having with a girl?"

"Ew, that's ing disgusting!"

"I'm getting goosebumps right now."

The two girls started to say more offending things about how disgusting and ert it was, and Joohyun's knuckles turned white as her grip on the pencil tightened. Sooyoung and Seungwan tried hard to ignore it but when Seungwan noticed Joohyun's lips were trembling, Wendy couldn't bear it any longer.

"Stop it, you two," Seungwan said with a grim face, restraining herself from checking her best friend to see if she was alright. "You're crossing the line."

"Don't you feel disgusted even hearing that, Wendy?"

"Just because we're different doesn't mean we can say about them," Seungwan spoke and the girls' smile faded since Wendy never, ever looked this serious. Only Joohyun remained her gaze fixed on the floor, feeling ashamed for no reason also feeling a painful jab in her chest.

"So let's just let it go. It's not our business anyway."

"Yeah," Joy butted in, trying to ease the tension. "We have our own love life to worry about, right?"

And that made the girls turn their topic about the newest boy band, gushing how handsome and y they were, with Sooyoung joining in their conversation to entertain them.

Seungwan took a deep breath and turned to her best friend who was still not looking up, but she could tell Joohyun was feeling the exact opposite of okay.

“Joohyun.."

"It's fine," But her hand was trembling madly she had to cover it with her other hand. "I should expect that to happen sooner or later, right?"

Wendy didn't know what to say. She wanted to say that it was all going to be okay, that they were meant to be together.

But Wendy and Joohyun both knew this was the reality. The same-gender relationship was always frowned upon in Korea and there wasn't much anything they could do about it.

She wondered if what would Seulgi think whenever she heard someone call them disgusting or maybe even worse.

Will Seulgi able to get through all that?

Her heart was still fragile. And she deserved to be loved by many people.

Was it right to stay by her side?

Joohyun knew she was thinking this because she was thinking of Seulgi more than just her 'girlfriend'. But was she ready to define it?

Was she ready to officially accept she wanted Seulgi forever in her life?

She couldn't put her foot down because she was too young.

She was only nineteen for god sake. And Seulgi was seveteen. Seventeen.

Of course, she wanted her forever with the younger but still, she doesn't know a thing about the future. And she also knew things could change every time.

She accepted that because she never wanted anything more than to stay by Seulgi's side as hers.

But did Seulgi feel the same?

Her thoughts scattered when Sooyoung finished her conversation with the two girls and returned, her smile slowly fading, her brows creasing in concern.

"Not feeling well?"

"Don't listen to them," Wendy whispered as she darted her gaze around the classroom to make sure no one was listening. "They don't know any better."

The bell rang but Joohyun didn't care. Everything seemed to get complicated at once and she was afraid her head might explode from all this.

"I'm going to get some fresh air." She announced as she abruptly stood up, her chair being pushed back with a loud screech and stormed out before anyone could stop her.

 

"Slow down!"

Joohyun didn't realize she was being followed and she turned around in annoyance at her two best friends huffing, exhausted from all the running.

"I didn't invite you two."

"Well, Miss cranky, we have the right to follow you as our privilege as your best friend."

"What do you want?" Joohyun muttered as she flopped on the bench at the school garden. She didn't want to see anyone right now.

"You're not going to ruin your relationship just because some girls said something ty, right?"

"It's not just them," Joohyun snapped. "I'm sure aside from us, everyone will say anything but good about it."

"Why does it matter?" Sooyoung argued. "We're on your side. Isn't that enough?"

With Sooyoung's intense gaze toward her, Joohyun knew she wasn't lying. And she wondered why.

"Weren't you two.. surprised?" She carefully asked, fidgeting uneasily.

The two juniors looked at each other, making silent eye contact and shook their heads at the same time.

"Not really."

Joohyun snorted. "Don't you dare lie to me."

Seungwan scratched her head, not sure how she should express it.

"Well.. It's kind of odd because whenever we heard stories about it, we understood but didn't quite.. get it."

Joohyun couldn't help but nod her head in agreement. Before she met Seulgi, she wasn't against it but as Seungwan said, she didn't quite get it.

"But seeing you with Seulgi, and us watching you two and thinking to ourselves 'Oh please god kiss already.'."

Joohyun looked at Sooyoung who gave her a reassuring smile.

"It seemed so natural. We didn't even realized we already accepted the fact you two were much more than friends."

Joy remembered how happy Joohyun looked whenever she was with Seulgi, a different kind of happiness Joohyun ever experienced.

"And we'll never try to take away what you love most, Joohyun. Because we're your friends."

Sooyoung hugged her distressed friend who was almost running out of breath thanks to her figure which was the exact opposite of the petite girl, and Seungwan patted her back not too hard as she continued to say, "It's all going to be okay.".

It was nice to realize she had best friends who accepted her everything.

.

Seulgi sighed as she stared at the phone screen, showing the text she recently received.

 

Joohyun is a little stressed out lately.

Some girls were talking about gay people and she is having a hard time getting over it.

And I think you're the only one who could make her feel better.

Please cheer her up for me, will ya?

-Wendy

 

She didn't expect this kind of situation to happen so soon.

She was too wrapped up with her feelings she never thought about how she should handle whenever someone defined their relationship as 'disgusting'.

She figured that won't happen because Seulgi would never pressure the older to announce openly about their relationship but apparently she was wrong.

Was hiding not enough?

"Hey, bear." The girl turned as she hastily shoved the phone back into her pocket.

"Look." Moonbyul pointed at one particular table and when the younger followed her gaze, she saw two men sitting on one table, drinking wine and laughing.

"They must be colleagues, right?" Moonbyul whispered. "But I get the vibe they are not. What do you think?"

"Um... I don't know. Does it matter?"

The blonde girl shrugged. "I don't know. Just curious. The customers are usually couples so.." She laughed. "I felt awkward when I had to hand the bouquet to a guy."

"Oh.." Seulgi didn't want to act so obvious but she couldn't help it. "That's.. weird." She awkwardly chuckled which didn't go unnoticed by the older girl.

"You okay? You seem a little pale."

Before Seulgi could answer, the two men stood up and walked toward the counter.

"I'll go," Moonbyul said as she hurried to the counter, leaving Seulgi alone with her thoughts.

She noticed the same rings on both men's fingers but decided not to tell the older about it.

Moonbyul didn't throw offending comments about it but still, she felt like there was a reason why the older was a little against it.

Maybe Moonbyul experienced it?

"I'm definitely sure they are gay," Moonbyul announced as she dragged the cart toward her to clean up the last table.

"Huh?"

"The way they looked at each other, arguing they will pay the bill, I could feel it."

"Oh.."

"I

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter
Like this story? Give it an Upvote!
Thank you!
MeloMera
I don't have a twitter account anymore but thankfully I saw a pleasant surprise today when I went back to my account for the last time :)
Thank you @dinniebur for liking this fic so much! I'm very happy&grateful that you enjoyed it :) your reactions about each chapter made my day haha

Comments

You must be logged in to comment
hollyhunterey
#1
One of the best.. Thank you very much 💕
Kylie_123 #2
Rereading !!! Kasi gusto ko kiligin ulit 💗💗💗
Jensoo4everlove #3
Chapter 59: I LOVED THIS SO SO MUCH 😭❤ And thankyou so so much Author for taking out time to write such a masterpiece!!! I really appreciate it!! But why can't I see the sequel? 🥺
sjaelister
#4
I just want to ask if this is the original version because I read this but it's the Ryeji version on wattpad huhuhu.
AnneTokki 34 streak #5
Chapter 59: 💓💓💓💛💛💛🫶
Revemid12
#6
Reading this masterpiece for the third time, is my comfort fic, let’s goo!
Oct_13_wen_03 26 streak #7
Chapter 49: reread❤❤
serenedipitea
#8
Chapter 20: this chapter made me cry. the angst!!!
Seul_rene14 #9
Chapter 59: Am I the only one who won't get to read the sequel?🥺😭
gcpt21 #10
Chapter 49: This fic is so beautiful thank you so much author ily