Joohyun and Seulgi have been friends since grade school, at first, things weren’t always so great between the two. 

“Miss Kim!!! Ddeulgi keeps trying to take my coloring book!” The little doe-eyed girl said as she kept trying to prevent Seulgi from grabbing her coloring book. 

While Seulgi was leaning over to Joohyun’s side to grab the coloring book, “Baechu look!” Joohyun quickly glanced over to wherever Seulgi was pointing and felt the coloring book leave her hand as a triumphant Seulgi ran away with her coloring book in her arms. 

It was a typical day in Miss Kim’s classroom, there was never a day where Seulgi was teasing Joohyun. Miss Kim let out a sigh as she ran her hand through her hair before consoling the crying girl.

“Seulgi, please give Joohyun back her coloring book.” 

“I will! But I have to do something to it before giving it to Baechu.” Seulgi said as she opened the coloring book and quickly inserting something in it before running back to the table where Joohyun and Miss Kim were. 

“Here you go, Baechu. Don’t open it until I go away. Stop crying, Ddeulgi doesn’t like it when you’re crying. Look at me!” Seulgi passed back the coloring book to Joohyun before attempting to make Joohyun smile by making silly faces and didn’t stop until she saw a smile crack on Joohyun’s face. 

“Okay, Baechu I’m going to play with the others now! You can look at it when I leave!” Seulgi then ran away to play with the other kids after seeing that Joohyun stopped crying. Joohyun immediately opened her coloring book the moment Seulgi was out of sight, as she flipped through the pages and saw the folded paper Seulgi put in. She took out and opened the folded paper to reveal a drawing of a bunny and bear with a message underneath it. 

“Baechu, Ddeulgi is sorry for always teasing you but I only do it because I love you! And I hope we will be friends forever and ever! Baechu + Ddeulgi 4evr!” 

-

Now the two of them are sharing an apartment in Seoul and are literally doing everything together. Wherever you’d find Seulgi, Joohyun will also be there too and vice versa. They’re always seen together to the point where people around them keep asking if they’re dating but only to be told that they’re just really good friends. 

Today was no difference, the night was clear and the two of them are currently walking down the streets of Myeongdong in their matching padded jackets looking at the various stalls trying to decide what to eat for dinner. Glancing left and right to see all the stalls filled with customers standing around waiting for their food as the steam rises the flattops and the smell of delicious food fill their nose. One stand, in particular, caught their attention when the lady at the stall gestured for them to come over and gave them samples.

“Here you go sweethearts, this is the best ddeokbokki in Myeongdong! Everything here is homemade even the ddeok! You should buy some for your girlfriend, she looks like she really likes it.” 

The lady motioned to Joohyun who shook her clenched fist in excitement as she tried the ddeokbokki the lady gave her. Seulgi smiled in amusement as she saw the sight in front of her, it's not all the time that she gets to see Joohyun so excited over food.

“Ah, we’re not girlfriends, just really good friends. But can we please get one serving of your ddeokbokki? She seems to really like it.” Seulgi pulled out a few bills to pay all the while Joohyun was looking at the other stalls to see what else they could buy. 

“Oh my, I’m so sorry! It’s just you two really look good together. I’ll give you a little extra because I feel bad for making an assumption.”

“It’s completely fine, we get it all the time. Thank you for the food!” Seulgi grabbed the bag before giving the lady a little bow with her head and walking off to the stall where Joohyun was at. Seeing that Joohyun had all her attention at the stall in front of her, Seulgi leaned down to Joohyun’s ear and whispered I got the goods only to be greeted by an ear-piercing scream and slapped in the shoulder by a shocked Joohyun.

“Hyun, do you ever realize how strong you are? My shoulder is about to fall off.” Seulgi let out an overly dramatic groan as Joohyun scoffed in response and turned back to the stall. 

“You should know better than to sneak up on me like that!”

Seulgi grinned as she moved closer to Joohyun to avoid getting bumped by the crowd of people walking by. Joohyun let out a hitched breath as she felt Seulgi pressed up against her. 

“I know, but it’s kind of fun to tease you sometimes. Anyways, what else do you want to get?” 

The stall in front of them was selling fried goods, ranging from hotteok to tempura. The lady was making seafood pajeon, she took threw the seafood onto the flattop before pouring the batter over it and flipping it. Seeing the sight of freshly made pajeon in front of made their mouths water. 

“Do you want to get some?” Joohyun turned to look up at Seulgi only to see all of her attention on the food being made right in front of them, Seulgi quickly glanced at Joohyun and grinned. She didn’t need to answer for Joohyun to ask the lady for a serving of seafood pajeon and hotteok. The lady passed the bag with their food and Seulgi immediately took out one of the freshly made hotteok and bit into it releasing the hot steam into the cold night. She then blew into the hotteok to cool it down and fed some to Joohyun as they made their way back to their apartment. 

“You know, earlier at the ddeokbokki stand, the lady thought you were my girlfriend and when I told her you weren’t she gave extra ddeokbokki because she felt bad for making an assumption. Pretty funny how people keep thinking so, don’t you think Hyun?” 

“Yeah, it’s kind of ridiculous how many times we’ve heard it.” 

“Right? Anyways let’s quickly head up and eat before the food gets cold.” Seulgi quickly made her way to the entrance of their apartment building leaving Joohyun behind. 

Seulgi, if only you knew. 

Joohyun let out a sigh before catching up to Seulgi. 

-

Joohyun is currently out having lunch with Seungwan and Yerim, catching up on all the gossip that they’ve missed out on since the last time they saw each other. Joohyun was mindlessly picking at her salad while the other two were in a deep discussion about the latest fashion trend. 

“So how are things with Seulgi?” Yerim asked as she waved her hand in front of Joohyun’s face trying to get the latter’s attention. 

“What do you mean? We’re not dating or anything.” 

“What she meant was how is it living with her since you know, you like her and all.” Joohyun dropped her fork and stared at Seungwan in disbelief. The latter just shrugged and sipped on her ice tea waiting for Joohyun to answer, while Yerim was glancing between the two waiting for either one of them to say something. 

“How’d you know?” 

“C’mon, it’s so obvious you like her with the way you keep giving her such loving looks even when she does something so stupid. Also, you didn’t deny anything. So, when did this happen?” 

Joohyun let out a deep sigh and massaged her temple before spilling everything to the two girls in front of her.

“Honestly? I’m not sure, I think I started seeing her differently when she took care of me after I got into that accident.” 

Joohyun was finally discharged after spending several days at the hospital post-car accident and ended up getting a cast for her broken arm and a few bruises on her body. Seulgi was sitting right next to her, holding her hand and rubbing her thumb back and forth, giving her a reassuring smile that everything is going to be alright. The moment Seulgi heard that Joohyun got into an accident she immediately dropped what she was doing and headed straight to the hospital and hasn’t left Joohyun’s side ever since. 

During the few weeks that Joohyun had her cast on Seulgi went above and beyond with taking care of Joohyun. She made sure that Joohyun didn’t lift a single finger during her recovery and tried to be by her side at all times. Like now, Joohyun was sitting in bed and Seulgi is feeding her soondubu jjigae. 

“You know I just broke my arm right? It’s not anything crazy.” 

“Yeah, but for the best recovery you need to have the best care and I’m going to do everything I can to give you the best care.”  Seulgi gave her a warm smile before feeding her again and at that moment Joohyun’s heart was beating a little faster than normal and she then realized that the feelings she had for Seulgi were more than just friends. 

“Your accident was almost a year ago and you haven’t done anything about it?” This time Yerim spoke up and Joohyun gave her a shrug. 

“Yeah, it was. I didn’t want to tell Seulgi about it because I was scared of losing her if she didn’t feel the same way. So, I would rather just have us do whatever we’re doing right now.” 

“What if Seulgi felt the same way? You wouldn’t know unless you do something about it.” 

Joohyun looked at the two dejectedly and gave them a small smile. It just wasn’t worth risking years of their friendship over a one-sided love, she’d rather have Seulgi be by her side as a friend than not having her at all. Yerim and Seungwan went to the other side of the table and proceeded to engulf her into a big group hug. The three of them continued their lunch before Joohyun had to take off to meet Seulgi at the art gallery for their friend date. 

-

It has been a few days after Joohyun’s lunch date with the girls and she could not get what Yerim told her out of her mind. Maybe Yerim was right, maybe she should tell Seulgi how she really felt and hope for the best. And that’s what Joohyun is planning on doing right now, she was on her way back to the apartment holding some of their favorite takeouts. Just as she arrived at the door of their apartment, she heard Seulgi’s laugh along with an unknown female voice. Joohyun walked inside the apartment only to be greeted by Seulgi and another girl on the couch looking awfully comfortable watching a movie that she had no idea what it was called. 

Joohyun’s heart shattered right then and there, she was too late. Seulgi already had someone and Joohyun wasn’t the type to go around breaking other couples up. Joohyun tried her best not to break down right then and there but it was hard, truly hard to see the person you love to be with someone else. She was so out of it that she didn’t even realize Seulgi saying something.

“Hey, you’re home! Whatcha got there?”

“I got some food for us to eat but it seems like you have company so I’ll just put it in the fridge.” Joohyun gave a lopsided smile and proceeded to the kitchen, not realizing that Seulgi was trailing behind her. 

“By the way, sorry for not telling you about Jisoo coming over, it totally slipped my mind. We’re having a Disney movie marathon if you want to join us.” Seulgi leaned against the countertop watching Joohyun move back and forth from the counter and fridge, stuffing the food in the overly packed fridge. 

“Nah, I’m good actually. Seungwan texted me earlier if I wanted to hang out tonight so I’m gonna go after I put the food away and wash up. I might sleepover too so don’t wait up.” Joohyun then made her way to her room and gave Jisoo a little wave when she walked past the living room. 

Joohyun threw herself on the bed and buried her face in the pillow. The one time she decided to do something about her feelings it backfired on her and now she was laying here like a lovesick fool while the person she loves is outside having a movie marathon with another girl. She let out another groan and texted Seungwan if she could come over and stay for the night. Seungwan immediately replied telling her she could but only if she told her what was wrong. Joohyun ran her fingers through her hair and went to wash up before heading to Seungwan’s apartment. 

Boy, this is going to be a long night. 

-

Joohyun was engulfed in a hug when she arrived at Seungwan’s apartment and Joohyun broke down right then and there. No words were needed for both of them to know how much she was hurting. 

It’s been an hour since Joohyun arrived at the apartment and the two are now sitting on the couch, Joohyun still hasn’t spoken up since. Seungwan was tired of waiting and shifted on the couch before speaking up. 

“So, do you want to talk about what happened?” 

Joohyun avoided Seungwan’s gaze, she completely focused on the cup in her hands. She let out a deep breath, it was now or never. 

“Ever since we had our lunch date, all I could think about was what Yerim said, how I should do something about what I felt. So, I was thinking about telling Seulgi how I felt today and bought some of our favorite food home so we could eat together before I told her anything. But,” Joohyun hesitated a little bit as she felt the tears building up again. 

“But, when I walked into the apartment, Seulgi was on the couch having a movie marathon with Jisoo. Seungwan, they looked so happy together, I just couldn’t let her know now. I think the best way for me to deal with this is to distance myself from her for a little while.” 

Seungwan pulled Joohyun into a hug and the latter just cried her heart out in her arms. Joohyun was right, it was going to be a long night.