Her phone vibrated on the nightstand, making Chaewon jump in her bed. Did she forget to turn off the alarm? It was Saturday and she wanted to sleep. She had stayed awake until almost 4 am to finish her assignment. Sure, she had the weekend to work on it but she got so carried away she ended up finishing it in one sitting.  

With her eyes half opened, she peeked at the screen and groaned. She stopped herself from ignoring the call and sighing, she picked up.  

"GOWON!" Hyejoo shouted from the other side, and Chaewon hissed almost in pain. "Were you sleeping?"  

"Yes, I was."  

"So sorry, but get up! She's finally here, you need to meet her!" Chaewon knew she wasn't really sorry.  

"What are you talking about, Hyejoo? Who's she?"  

"Juju! C'mon, get that lazy out of bed and come down, I'm here in front of your dorm."  

Chaewon was so baffled she couldn't give her an answer before she hung up. Lazy ?! Tsk, look who was talking. And was she outside? What did Chaewon do to deserve a loud Hyejoo first thing in the morning?  

And who in the world was Juju?  

Chaewon put on the first piece of clothing her hands could grasp while she tried to keep her eyes opened, and walked outside.  

Hyejoo stood in front of the building, a smile already on her lips before seeing her, but no one was with her. The smile grew into a big grin when Chaewon opened the door.  

"So...?" Chaewon looked around, waiting for Hyejoo to explain.  

"Gowon, I hope you're excited to meet Juju."  

"Who's Juju?"  

Hyejoo giggled and turned around, quite literally hugging a black car.  

"This is Juju! My Alfa Romeo Giulietta that I ordered is finally mine! Isn't she beautiful?"  

Chaewon blinked, her jaw dropping. She didn't know if she should be more shocked that Hyejoo had such a nice car, or with the fact that her car had a name. But what escaped her lips was, "D-Did you just give your car a name?"  

"But of course?!"  

How could Chaewon judge her when she looked so... adorable?  

"Since when do you drive? And how in the world did you get a car, Son Hyejoo?"  

"Since I was legally able to drive, and let's say I managed to convince my father to buy it. I can be very persuasive." Hyejoo wiggled her eyebrows with a mischievous smile.  

"Maybe you would be a good lawyer, then."  

"If I wanted to, believe me that I would. I never told you, but I was top of my class. Maybe it doesn't look like it, but I'm ing smart."  

"You're right, it doesn’t.” Chaewon held her laugh after seeing the excitement in Hyejoo's face dying down. But Hyejoo, top of her class? She was full of surprises.  

"Wow, way to hurt my feelings. But I'm too happy and nothing will bring me down today, because I finally have my Juju! And guess what?"  

Chaewon waited for Hyejoo to continue. "What?"  

"You get the privilege of being Juju’s first passenger! I know exactly where we’re going. Oh, and don’t eat lunch."  

“I haven’t even eaten breakfast, Hyejoo. You yelled in my ear to wake me up.”  

"And aren’t you glad I did wake you up so you could take a look at this beauty? I'm gonna go for a ride to get used to her and that and I'll be here at noon. You'll be choosing the restaurant today. I eat anything."  

"How can I do that when you haven’t told me where we’re going?"  

“Ah...” Hyejoo rubbed her chin. “You’re right. Well, we’ll go with the flow then.”  

“I’ll only go if you don’t go calling it a date again.”  

"But you would like it to be a date, right?" Hyejoo shrugged, but the smirk was there.  

"N-No!" She shook her head. "And for your information, I'll only go because I finished my assignment yesterday, or else you wouldn't be so lucky."  

"Then I guess luck granted me the privilege of being with you today, Miss Chaewon." Hyejoo opened the driver's door and got inside. "See ya later." And she the engine, driving away, though not without winking at her first.  

Chaewon shook her head but didn't mind showing the smallest of the smiles. She turned away and walked back to her room. She still had an hour to sleep before she had to go get ready.  

Since the night of the weird conversation they never finished, Chaewon decided it was best to leave it like that. Hyejoo never showed interest in finishing it either. After a conversation with Vivi, they realized Hyejoo was talking about her looks, and there was nothing wrong with that, right? She was told she was pretty before, both by boys and girls.  

Hyejoo was a good friend and she wouldn't let a silly thing ruin their friendship. And she wouldn't try to read second intentions in everything Hyejoo did, either. She knew her enough to know she was a big goof and half the things she did were actually jokes.  

Chaewon was outside her dorm not one minute past noon. Of course, Sooyoung  the second she told her she would be going somewhere with Hyejoo.  

The sound of an engine was clearer and clearer by the second, and Hyejoo pulled over right in front of her, stepping outside her car. Sunglasses sat on her nose, and the black leather jacket Chaewon remembered from the first time they met made her look like a motorbiker.  

"What?" Hyejoo asked, frowning at Chaewon’s giggle.  

"Nothing."  

"Is it the glasses? Do I look funny with them?"  

Instead of her threatening tone, she sounded worried, rushing to take them off her face.  

"No, you look good with them!"  

Hyejoo smirked and muttered a 'yes' as she balled a fist, and put back the glasses. "Thank you, Gowon, you look good as well, and as always. The sweater suits you really well." Hyejoo moved to the other side of her car and opened the passenger's door. "Miss."  

With a chuckle, Chaewon walked over. "Remember, not a date."  

"Not a date." Hyejoo closed the door after Chaewon sat inside, and then run to her seat. "ing awesome right? Comfortable and spacious."  

"Indeed, it's pretty cool." Chaewon nodded, looking around.  

"Look at the ceiling." Hyejoo pointed up, and with a click, it slowly slid.  

"Wow." Chaewon observed in awe as the blue sky replaced the top of the car.  

"Yeah, I know, my Juju is amazing. We can see the sky and the moon and the stars and, you know."  

Chaewon nodded, still looking up, observing the clouds moving in the sky. 

"Now, where are we going?" Hyejoo asked.  

"Huh?"  

"I told you, you would choose the restaurant today," She said in a disappointed tone. "You forgot, didn't you?"  

"Come on! I told you I couldn’t choose the restaurant if you didn’t tell me where we were going."  

“No, we’re going there after lunch. Now, you choose where we have lunch, and then we’ll go. It’s a surprise, that kind of trick won’t work on me.”  

Chaewon frowned. “Okay, then let’s go to that ramen place from before. It was good and affordable.”  

Hyejoo pouted. "Nooo, let's try something new. And don't worry about that, I'll pay, and don't even try to refuse, I won't let you. What about Mexican?"  

"I never ate Mexican food."  

"Great! Let's go then, let me just find a good restaurant nearby. You can choose the music," she said, typing on her phone.  

"Really?!" Chaewon almost jumped on her set, making Hyejoo look at her with amusement.  

"Should I be scared?"  

"No, of course not, my taste in music is impeccable."  

Hyejoo chuckled and resumed her mission in finding a good restaurant. Chaewon connected her phone to her car and scrolled through her music library. Then, she found the perfect song and tapped on it with her chest filled with pride.  

"Oh My Girl's Windy Day?" Hyejoo asked, biting back a laugh.  

"Yes, why? It matches with the day. Are you making fun of it?" Chaewon felt almost offended.  

"No, they’re cool. But I wouldn't think you're into kpop. I thought you’d be more of a classical music kinda gal or like that indie alternative rock ."  

"I've been a kpop fan even before they debuted, but they’re my favorite group. They always gave me hope and strength when I was going through hard times," she said, her eyes shining.  

"Let me guess, Yooa is your bias."  

"How did you know? Oh, you've seen my phone background?"  

"You have Yooa as your phone background?"  

Chaewon frowned, unlocked her phone and turned it to her. "Yes."  

Hyejoo exploded in laughter. "Now I can only imagine your room back in Korea filled with their posters."  

"Not only them, I had a lot of posters."  

That only helped Hyejoo to laugh more. "Who knew Park Chaewon was such a fangirl. It's okay, I won't tell anybody. Now let's go, I'm starving."  

Hyejoo started the engine and Chaewon couldn't help but smile as she heard Hyejoo singing along.  

---  

Confusion was all over Chaewon's face as she scanned the menu of the Mexican restaurant. Assuming Hyejoo knew about it quite well, she let her choose for her.  

The taste of the food was very surprising. The hard shell shrimp tacos and the nachos with guacamole left Chaewon in awe.  

"I had never tried anything like this." Chaewon ate nacho after nacho, now trying the cheese and the salsa sauces.  

"Glad you like it," Hyejoo said, making Chaewon look away from her food for a second.  

Instead of eating, Hyejoo had her chin resting on her palm, and dreamy eyes stared at her.  

"W-Why aren't you eating?"  

"Too busy looking at you." Hyejoo smirked, and seeing Chaewon almost dropping her nacho, she burst out laughing. "Joking. I'm taking a break so I can order more."  

Chaewon breathed and shook her head, but once again, Hyejoo was just joking.  

After their lunch, which took a long time because Hyejoo couldn’t stop ordering more food, and Chaewon thanking her a thousand times, they hit the road again.  

"Where are we going now?" Chaewon asked, looking outside the window.  

"Not telling."  

"Whyyy?" She whined.  

Hyejoo met her eyes for a second but focused on the road again, the corner of her lip raised. "Surprise."  

She gave up and stared outside the window again. Her playlist played in the background, and Chaewon could still hear Hyejoo singing. She made fun of her, but in fact, she knew all the songs she played so far.  

And there was something about Hyejoo's voice that made her feel... calm? At peace. She didn't know how to describe what she felt, but it was exactly like the first time. Perhaps it was her deep voice tone.  

"We're here," A soft voice spoke, and a hand touched her shoulder, making Chaewon open her eyes. "Is my driving that smooth that you went and fell asleep?"  

"I didn't get much sleep tonight because a certain brat woke me---" Chaewon looked ahead. For a second she thought her eyes were tricking her, but her ears weren't. She let her jaw drop and turned her head to face Hyejoo.  

"Pretty cool, right?" Hyejoo smiled, then got off her car, opening Chaewon's door a couple seconds later.  

Chaewon stood up, never even blinking at the sight in front of her.  

"I-It's..."  

"You said you had never been to the beach, so I thought I should bring you."  

The wind was strong, making Chaewon's hair fly all around her face, and the smell of seaweed filled her nostrils.  

"Is this what sea wind smells like?"  

"Yep."  

It was beautiful. How the sand extended until it met with the sea, and the waves crashed against it, so loud she could hear it from there.  

"I knew it would be colder here, so I brought you a jacket," Hyejoo said, holding a long black coat.  

"Hyejoo..." She was so overwhelmed she didn't know what else to say.  

Hyejoo smiled and locked her car. "Now let's go, the last to arrive is... a nerdy fangirl!" She took off in a run.  

"H-Hey!" Chaewon ran after her, but as she was about to step into the sand, she stopped and didn't care if she was a nerdy fangirl or not.  

"Gowon?" Hyejoo asked, looking back at her.  

"Can I take off my shoes?"  

Hyejoo chuckled and walked back towards her. "Of course. Actually, I'm gonna do that as well."  

Chaewon took hers off and stared down at where the sidewalk ended, and the sand was a step away.  

"Are you afraid that the sand is gonna eat your feet?" Hyejoo teased.  

"N-No! It's just..."  

"Come on, you scaredy-cat."  

Chaewon was about to protest when she saw Hyejoo's hand extended towards her. But she still had her pride at risk, so she finally jumped into the sand. For some reason, Chaewon laughed as she moved her feet, feeling the sand grains between her toes.  

"Are you five or what?" Hyejoo laughed along.  

"It's warm," Chaewon said, taking small steps. "And difficult to walk."  

Chaewon tripped over herself, grabbing Hyejoo’s still extended hand in the process.  

"Yes, and yes. When it's really hot the sand burns as , but now it's just perfect."  

They walked towards the sea, and Chaewon only noticed that she had been holding Hyejoo's hand when she felt the lack of warmth on her own, as Hyejoo squatted to roll up her jeans.  

"Is the water cold?" Chaewon asked, looking ahead at the waves.  

"I don't know, I never tried American waters. Let's see?"  

Chaewon gulped but still nodded. She followed Hyejoo towards the water, feeling the sand becoming harder and colder as they approached.  

"ing God, it's cold!" Hyejoo cursed, but regretted the second she felt water splashing on her face.  

"I told you not to use His name in vain, Son Hyejoo!" Chaewon kept throwing water at her, splashing herself in the process.  

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry!" Hyejoo yelped as her clothes got wet. "Are you sure you are a person of God? 'Cuz it seems you have a demon inside of you or somethi---ouch!" Her hands moved to her head, as she tried to protect herself from Chaewon's smacks. "Not only you splash me with this ice-cold water, now you hit me, Park Chaewon?!"  

"I may be smaller, but don’t forget I’m older than you." 

"Wow, best reasoning ever, especially coming from such a smart person as you. Are you sure you won a scholarship-"  

Chaewon kicked more water at her. 

Hyejoo glared, and instead of fighting back, she ran towards her, circled her arms around Chaewon’s waist and pulled her up, carrying her on her shoulder like a potato sack. “You can be older, but you’re still small!”  

“Yah, Hyejoo, put me down!” Chaewon shrieked, seeing everything upside down. 

“What will you do in return?” 

Chaewon thrashed her limbs, punching Hyejoo’s back. Hyejoo burst out laughing, her high-pitched crackles so contagious Chaewon laughed along until she finally put her down.  

“Alright, you can punch me one more time for this.” Hyejoo offered her arm. 

Chaewon glared at her “I don’t want to punch you, I want you to not do that again.” 

“Alright, I won’t. But you have to admit it was fun.” 

“For you!” 

“Yes, I had a lot of fun.” Hyejoo rested her hands on her waist, proud of herself. “But I won’t do it again.” 

"Good. Now, what are we still doing in this water? I don't want to get sick."  

"You're right, but if I got sick, would you take care of me?"  

She wanted to stop, turn around and smack her head again, but she told herself to keep walking.  

"Fine," Hyejoo mumbled. "I'm sure I'm gonna get sick because you're being even colder than this water. Then it's gonna be your fault."  

"Don't you dare becoming sick, Hyejoo. I have important tests and assignments coming up."  

"Hah!" Hyejoo jumped in front of her, pointing at her face. "That means you would take care of me!"  

"Of course, Hyejoo." Chaewon rolled her eyes. "As the sweet and caring person I am, I would take care of you, like I did when you got too drunk to function."  

"Works for me." Hyejoo shrugged and resumed her walk, followed by Chaewon.  

The sound of the waves and the wind was everything that they heard for a few moments, as they walked alongside the sea.  

"Can I hold your hand?" Chaewon blurted but kept it cool, even to herself.  

Hyejoo looked at her with a raised brow. "Not a date, uh?"  

"Fine, don't do it then." She sulked, looking away and crossing her arms. “Friends can hold hands, in case you forgot about that.”  

She heard Hyejoo's giggle but fought the urge to peek at her.  

"Gowon." But she couldn't not look when Hyejoo called her like that. "Why the sudden request?" She asked, taking Chaewon’s hand after all. Chaewon did not get an urge to fight it and let go.  

"Why are you complaining, you don't like it?"  

"Who said I'm complaining? Stop being such a tsundere, you're even worse than me."  

"I-I'm not a tsundere!" Chaewon frowned.  

"You know what tsundere means, not only you're a kpop fangirl, you're also a weeb!"  

Chaewon groaned in frustration and as if Hyejoo knew she would try to retreat her hand, she intertwined their fingers, sending a chill down Chaewon's neck.  

"I'll stop teasing if you answer my question."  

"Do I need to have a reason? I just want to. It feels..."  

"It feels...?"  

It felt comfortable, it made Chaewon feel safe and somehow loved and cared for.  

"Warm." She eyed Hyejoo from the corner of her eyes to study her reaction. She didn't bother to hide a smile.  

Chaewon felt proud of herself for keeping things between them casual and friendly. She’d lived in Korea all her life, why had she suddenly forgotten it was natural to be affectionate with her friends? Now that she’d decided not to judge her, she realized she’d built something valuable with Son Hyejoo.  

“Why did you start calling me Gowon?”  

“You don’t like it?”  

Chaewon stayed silent, searching for her own opinion. Deep down, she already knew it. “I do. It’s cute.”  

“Great, then I’ll keep calling you Gowon.”  

“But what does it mean?”  

Chaewon looked at her when there was no answer, to find Hyejoo visibly holding back a grin. “Nothing special. It’s just a cute name.”  

“Then why are you smiling so much?”  

“My jacket is too big for you. You look cute.”  

Chaewon flared her nostrils and looked away, but no, she was not trying to hide her red face. 

--- 

They were driving back to Harvard and as Chaewon found herself staring at Hyejoo she remembered she had forgotten about something. She cleared before speaking, as Hyejoo was so focused on her driving she’d failed to notice her stare.  

"Thank you, Hyejoo."  

"Hm?" Hyejoo took a glance at her. "What for?"  

"For taking me to the beach."  

"I thought it would be cool to bring you with me, so don't get full of yourself."  

Chaewon gulped. "R-Right."  

Hyejoo stole another glance and laughed. "Hey, don't sulk, I was joking. If it wasn't for you I wouldn't even think about coming to the beach. Did you have fun?"  

"Yes, tons. Is there anything I can do to thank you?"  

"Hm..." Hyejoo bit on her lip, and her phone rang. She accepted the call and set it on speaker.  

"Yo, Hye!" a female voice said.  

"Kim Lip! What's up?"  

"I'll let that slip. You busy? Come have a drink, I'm with Jinsol."  

"Oh, sure! Mind if I bring someone?" Hyejoo smirked, and Chaewon frowned.  

"Is it the gorgeous girl with the cute-smirking-smile that you're always talking about?" that Kim Lip girl asked.  

Chaewon widened her eyes. She wasn't talking about her... was she? And what did cute-smirking-smile mean?  

Hyejoo clicked her tongue. "Assuming I'm even with a girl like that."  

"Why on earth would you be with a dude, Hye?"  

Hyejoo laughed. "ing right, Kim Lip. Yes, it's her, and she can hear you."  

Good Lord.  

"O-Oh, crap! Hi, gorgeous girl with the cute-smirking-smile, I'm Jungeun, I hope we can get along well!"  

Jungeun? The same one Hyejoo called for when she opened the door that night?  

Hyejoo mouthed a 'call her Kim Lip’, and giggled. "She won't like you."  

"Of course she will, everyone does. I’m irresistible."  

"And full of yourself," Hyejoo said, making her laugh. "Alright, I'm driving now so I'll meet you guys there soon."  

"Cool, I can't wait to meet you gorgeous girl wi-" And Hyejoo hung up before she could finish her sentence.  

"A-Am I supposed to go with you?" Chaewon asked, completely ignoring the fact that Hyejoo's friend knew who she was and that, from what she said, Hyejoo was always talking about her.  

"You asked me what you could do to thank me, so, yes. Just stay with me for longer."  

She could deal with that.  

---

A/N: HOPE Y'ALL LIKED THIS HUGE DOSE OF FLUFF 

EXCITED TO MEET JEUNGEUN AND JINSOL IN THE NEXT CHAPTER? and another new character that's gonna show up as well kekekekekeke