“Uhm..so.. My previous roommate just moved out due to relationship issues and I was wondering if you could come over to my place and take that spot with me? It’s cheaper than your current holding site so I don’t think the rent money could be a problem?” JinSoul whistled as she sent the separate texts to her best college mate. 

 

Few minutes later, her eyes light up as she read the incoming messages. 

 

“This is just great news. I just received notifications from the house owner that they’re getting that house back because some relatives of theirs are going to need it. Your message was a great help to me. Also, do I need any specific requirements to get into your flat, like no pets or anything?” Chuu typed back with her fast fingers, something JinSoul always envied. 

 

“Nothing, we’re good here. Pets are allowed, but only of smaller sizes like cats or those fluffy chicken dogs these grannies in the neighborhood here own.” JinSoul chuckled as she replied to the girl. Chuu would never leave out details like these. It kinda reminded her of the past times spent during their college years together. A trait the nerdy girl really likes, even if she’s just a tad bit unfaithful. 

 

“So when is the best time I can move in? I’m given three days to prepare to move out, according to the house owner.” The sun from the other side of the phone quickly went back to the topic and she smiled as she looked at her phone. 

 

---

 

“Ding dong!” 

 

As if the button was a morning alarm, both girls lunged forward with a great, big, friendly hug the moment the door was slightly open. 

 

“I never knew I’d be so lucky.” Chuu snuggled her smaller self into the embrace of the taller one and took in the scent of hers quite well. 

 

“I didn’t know I’ve invited a puppy here.” JinSoul tried to wriggle the girl off her in an awkward manner but that only resulted in the both of them to be closer to one another.

 

“Any further onwards, I’ll have to kick you out of here as well.” JinSoul frowned at the puppy and she quickly followed her friend’s request obediently. 

 

“Your previous roommate moved out because he wasn’t single?” Chuu seemed to have picked up on the hint. 

 

“Not only that, he wanted to have fun with his girlfriend here. But he was unsuccessful in doing so, since the house owner here found out about it with the help of the other tenants living here.” The blue-betta then helped the girl to carry in her luggage and brought her into their room. 

 

“Put your things here, I’ll show you around.” 

 

The girls then had fun teasing each other while the shorter girl had a better idea where all the places are in the flat. 

 

“JinSoul ah, I’m hungry. Maybe you can take me out to the neighbourhood around here so I won’t bother you when you’re less free?” Chuu took out her purse and phone and was ready to hit the streets once more. 

 

“Sure.” 

 

---

 

2 months went by peacefully when the blue-betta mentioned to her current roommate about her relatives coming to see her to check on how she’s doing. 

 

“Alrighty! I’ll make sure the room is visitor-friendly before you come back from your excursion trips.” Chuu couldn’t wait to surprise her roommate when the latter comes back from the foreign lands. 

 

When JinSoul stepped into her comfort zone two weeks later, she found tons of big white bags on the floor. Speechless, she questioned the culprit in question. 

 

“What’s this?” Her tone was harsh. 

 

“Oh, you have good observation skills. Those are bags of flour. But apparently your family members thought otherwise.. I suppose you did too..” The penguin looked a little disappointed, but the fish decided to keep her guard up in case any more funny things come up. 

 

“Anything my family member said about the things you do?” JinSoul then placed her belongings onto her bed, before sorting the respective items.

 

“Well, not only do they find those bags suspicious, they actually called the police on me and had me checked so they made sure you aren’t staying with a criminal or a murderer or something of that sort.” Chuu kindly explained her way out of the incoming mess that she predicted. 

 

“Okay, this kinda got out of hand, but I don’t fully blame my parents for being so overprotective of me. Besides-” JinSoul was continuing her speech when she was cut off by her roommate. 

 

“It wasn’t your parents who came to your flat.” Chuu spoke up. 

 

“Then who was it?” 

 

“The girl called herself Hyunjin and she’s your distant cousin? She even left her phone number and said you’ll recognise it for sure. Oh, and she came with another girl who simply followed that cousin of yours everywhere around the flat. It must’ve been her colleague or more.” Chuu then passed the paper to JinSoul, which the latter confirmed it to be the contact of her relative. 

 

“Guess my parents were too lazy to come here to check on me LMAO..” JinSoul then placed her attention on her things as they were sprawled out all over on the floor. 

 

“Anything for me for now?” Chuu asked the tired girl and was dismissed for the rest of the day. 

 

---

 

“Soul! I got a new hobby. Guess what it is!” The girl chirped to her college mate the moment she closed the door behind her. 

 

“What prank you got for me now?” JinSoul was honestly too lethargic for any sort the girl had for her. She plopped down onto her bed and changed when the girl said some nonsensical stuff. 

 

“So I’ve been collecting rubber toy ducks, which I called.. Rubby Duckies, because it sounded cute. And also I want some new friends to talk to when you’re not around.” Chuu gleamed towards the end of her statement, earning herself both a frown and a blank stare from the other party. 

 

“And where have you hidden them now?” JinSoul stood up, ready for a new search party in her own rented flat. 

 

“The bathroom, I tried my best to put them in a place though. But I might be getting more later in the year, if I get too lonely with the ones I already had for now.” Chuu then showed to JinSoul where her new friends are being kept. 

 

The moment she left a small crack in the closet door, tens and dozens of little rubber ducks fell onto the toilet floor.

 

“CHUU!!” A scream came from the bathroom and a man came out of his room to check on the girls. 

 

After some terrible persuasion, he left the place with his face in a darkened reddish colour. 

 

“Why did you even plan to have more? Aren’t these enough?” The tired office lady scrambled to pick up the remaining Rubby Duckies as she tried to keep the rest in her arms while the girl carefully placed each and every one of them back into the closet. 

 

“Because you’re not spending enough time with me and I, as a fully functioning human being, feel lonely about it.” Chuu played with her fingers restlessly as she stared down onto the floor. 

 

“..Fine, how about this? Let’s go back to our room and discuss about it.” JinSoul then took one of Chuu’s hands and held it while they walked back into their room together. 

 

Slowly looking up, Chuu saw how flushed the girl’s face was and was ready to about it, but instead, she let it go this time round. 

 

---

 

“So why did you suddenly wanna come up with the idea of both of us moving out and then moving into the same place together at the same time?” Chuu asked her current girlfriend sitting in front of her in that cosy cafe the girl recommended to her a few months ago. 

 

“Well, it’d be bad if the house owner were to find out about our relationship. Besides, don’t you think it’s a bad idea if it was pointed out publicly in such a homophobic country like ours here?” JinSoul slowly stirred the milk with the tea in her cup as she took in the features of her lil dumb girlfriend. 

 

“Also, I had already come across of a suitable place for us to stay in, which is convenient for the both of us, since it is kinda in the middle of our workplaces.” 

 

“As expected of our STEM major here, a big brain like none other.” The interior designer smiled at the reflective image on her chocolate drink before a hand caressed her cheeks in a soft manner. 

 

“You know.. I can’t always be teased hungry like that..” The blue-betta eyed on her favourite bird as the girl left a circle of foam round her lips, looking somewhat similar to the famed ‘Santa Claus’. 

 

“Oh.. I became that chubby dude who was always clad in red.” The girl laughed before a pair of lips came into contact with her own and she relished every part of it.

 

It may have made all the people in the cafe stare at them unanimously. But to both girls, this hardly mattered at all. 

 

“And you didn’t become ‘Santa’ because I have already ditched that image of him when I was a child.” JinSoul her lips, in order to make the girl excited.

 

“Then who am I to you?” Chuu blinked, frozen in her spot. 

 

“Who else could I be.. Other than your very own personal Rubby Ducky?” Both women then giggled in their conversation as the other customers resumed on their activities.