I know, I know. I disappeared for a long time, and as much as I want to explain myself in detail, the details are actually quite . I was just busy with responsibilities as a newly indicted adult and I realized that I had way more fun reading fan fiction than writing it... but a promise is a promise. I said I'd have this done by the end of the year and I still have a few months left. So for now, I hope you enjoy this update 

~

September 22, 2018

10:44 AM

“Please, darling. Just think about this for a second.”

“Bold of you to assume I haven’t thought this through.”

“What about Chaeyoung? Do you realize what kind of life she’ll have growing up without a father?”

“A pretty normal one, I reckon, since you weren’t much of a father to begin with. Now sign the goddamn papers!”

The first time she ever heard the conversation she was in her room, hiding under the sheets, quietly weeping as her parents loudly argued for what seemed like hours. She recalls the night as being a long and painful one, one of the absolute worst nights if she were to be completely honest. She dreaded the morning after, yet was surprised to see the looks on her parents’ faces when they all sat down together for breakfast. She thought things were fine and the night before was merely a tiff, but then night came and she found herself under the covers once more, wondering why things turned out the way they did. Quite a bit of time passed before Chaeyoung felt numb to it all. The constant bickering went on for over a year and she stopped wondering why her parents were getting divorced but instead wondered when. For a moment she thought that maybe this was to be her life until she reaches college. That is until her mother asked her to put on her best clothes the night before they went to court. She vividly remembers that day, she had no idea why she was asked to dress so formally or why they even brought her at all. Chaeyoung knew she didn’t have to be there, but the sentimental side of her also knew that this might well be the last time her family would be together in the same room. She savored the ride to court and silently hoped they wouldn’t go through with it, but they did, and when she saw them on opposite sides of the courtroom…

She knew she had already made up her mind about marriage.

“Son Chaeyoung!” The exceptionally loud mention of her name snapped out of her thoughts. She suddenly remembered where she was and what she was doing, shopping for clothes with Nayeon.

“What?” she replied. The older girl was admittedly a bit furious as it took her about three attempts to get Chaeyoung’s attention and provide some input on the clothes she had picked out. Though she found the younger’s taste in clothing a bit odd, she valued her opinion nonetheless.

“I was asking about the dress,” she said, “but you were in your own little world again.”

“Right. Sorry, unnie. I was just thinking about some stuff. The dress looks great, though I prefer the black one.” she answered honestly. To her, red does suit Nayeon really well, but thought black had a more mature vibe. Nayeon personally preferred the black one as well. Despite thinking she looked absolutely gorgeous in the red one, she thought it was about time she tried other colors, she was turning 23 after all.

“Alright. Black one it is,” she said and then proceeded to undress.

“Unnie, I’m still here.” Chaeyoung said, obviously uncomfortable.

“Oh, come on, Chaengie. Quit acting like you’ve never had anyone undress in front of you. I’m pretty sure Mina does this with you all the time.” Nayeon replied.

“That’s different though. She’s my roommate.” Truth be told, even Mina made her feel uncomfortable sometimes. It’s not that Chaeyoung hasn’t seen girls undress before, she had P.E. to thank for that, she just never got to a point where she felt comfortable with it.

“Oh ho, so that means it’s different with me too. What’s wrong, Chaengie? Do I make you ?” Nayeon boldly stated.

“No, Jesus! Like you can make anyone .” Chaeyoung jokingly said.

“THE DID YOU SAY TO ME, YOU LITTLE ?” Nayeon said in a bloodcurdling scream which terrified Chaeyoung. She had never heard her friend speak to her in that particular tone. She was confused and a bit scared as to why she reacted as violently as she did. Chaeyoung wondered if she went too far with her comment. She tried to speak but was only able to mumble some gibberish to her older friend as she stared at her, intensely. That intense stare, however, vanished as Nayeon burst into laughter which relieved Chaeyoung but still left her a bit confused. “You should have seen the look on your face!” Nayeon said before resuming her laughter.

“What the , Unnie? You scared the out of me!” Chaeyoung exclaimed. “I thought you were actually mad.”

“Nah. I just saw this clip last night where this streamer said that to a kid.” Nayeon explained. “I thought about giving it a try.”

“God, you’re such a .” Chaeyoung replied before stepping out of the changing room.

“I’m the ? You basically called me unable on my birthday.” Nayeon retorted which made Chaeyoung mutter “whatever” under her breath. “So, how’s Mina doing these days?” she asked the younger. Mina has always been the busiest among them, therefore she’s usually unavailable whenever her friends would ask her to hang out. They sort of envy Chaeyoung for unintentionally having a monopoly over Mina’s free time.

“She fine, I guess.” She didn’t really know how to answer that question. She’s only known the girl for barely half a year and Mina always seemed to enjoy her company, at least that’s what she reckons. She enjoyed the time she’s spent with her as well, and on occasion, she enjoyed a little too much.

“You tell her you’re in love with her yet?” the older said as she got out, holding the dresses she had picked out and walking off towards the cash register.

“What?! No. The hell are you talking about?” Chaeyoung said, taken aback by the comment.

“Can’t lie to me, Chaengie. Eyes don’t lie and I see the way you look at her,” Nayeon started, “Actually, everyone sees the way you look at her. That says a lot because we rarely get the chance to hang out as a group.” Chaeyoung had a hard time thinking of a comeback, or anything that can divert their current conversation, but her curious side got the best of her and she let her continue. “I’m just saying, cub. Better make your move now before someone else does. Mina has a lot of admirers and I mean a lot.” Nayeon paused as she emphasized. “All of whom are pretty damn attractive if I do say so myself. Right now she has her eyes on you, but make her wait any longer and she might just go looking for other bait.” Chaeyoung took a moment to process what the older had just told her and very quickly went to a state of utter disbelief.

“There’s no way… Mina unnie doesn’t like me that way… right?” Chaeyoung said with a questioning look. Nayeon responded with a look of her own, one that mocked the younger’s naivety. She promptly walked away afterwards, leaving her friend with more questions than answers, questions that she would bombard her with for on the way to the parking lot.

11:13 AM

It was getting increasingly difficult for her to focus on the road when her little friend won’t stop pestering her with questions, she was beginning to regret her earlier actions. “Like, why would you go straight to that conclusion?” she heard Chaeyoung say.

“Well, for starters, you look at her like she’s only one in the room that matters,” Nayeon started, “and you look like you’re always trying your best not to smile like an idiot whenever she does something cute.”

“Okay, those things are sort of true, but how do you know it’s love?”

“Are you implying that it’s not, and if you are, how do YOU know it’s not?”

“How should I know?”

“Come on, cub. Haven’t you ever been in a relationship before?”

“I have.”

“And?”

“He was sweet and thoughtful, but I don’t really know if I loved him.”

“Jesus,” Nayeon laughed. “You sound like you don’t even know what love is. Didn’t your parents teach you about this ?” she asked, genuinely curious.

“They did but that was their meaning; their idea of love and they ended up getting divorced. Their teachings are about as credible as ing Wikipedia.”

“So… only kinda credible?”

“Yep.” She didn’t know why she had been thinking about her parents recently, but it’s been like a plague in her mind. However, thanks to Nayeon, a new thing plagued her mind; being face to face with Myoui Mina with the newfound idea of being in love with her. The rest of the car ride was silent as Chaeyoung mentally prepared herself for later.

11:48 AM

Mina had been asleep for about 14 hours at this point. She worked hard all week to make sure she had absolutely nothing to do except prepare on the day of her friend’s birthday. She rubbed her eyes and patted the bed, looking for her phone. She checked the time and once she had found it, she felt pretty proud of herself because it was technically still morning when she awoke. She gave a little stretch and turned to face the other side of the room to greet her roommate. She was a bit shocked, and a little disappointed, that Chaeyoung wasn’t there, but quickly realized that Nayeon probably took her out shopping with her since she had been bothering the former all week. She was initially surprised at close the two had gotten. It only took a few weeks for Nayeon to be ridiculously clingy towards Chaeyoung. The younger one didn’t seem to mind, probably because she couldn’t do anything about it. Their majors were very closely related to each other after all, so there was no escape. Mina was actually quite jealous of her older friend, especially since, a few months ago, she started calling Chaeyoung her “baby.” She felt extremely jealous, thinking that the pair had ended up together, but the latter explained that Nayeon’s use of the word very much maternal. Mina was relieved to hear the explanation and ultimately realized her feelings for Chaeyoung. The sound of the door opening caught the attention of Mina and she proceeded to look in its direction. She was greeted by the sight of the girl she secretly adored with take-outs in hand.

“Hey, you’re finally awake!” her roommate said. “I bought you some pancakes.”

“Aww. Aren’t you sweet?” Mina replied.

“I wanted to call you earlier and ask what you wanted to eat but I figured I’d just let you sleep in after the hell you put yourself through this week.” It was moments like this that made it really hard for her not to fall for her roommate’s subtle charms.

“That’s fine. I like pancakes.”

“Well, good. I’m gonna eat my pasta.” The two made further small talk as they ate with Mina talking about her finished assignments and Chaeyoung talking about her little trip with Nayeon. Once they were done with their meals Mina pointed out that neither of them had a present ready for the birthday girl and suggested that they go out and buy some since the party doesn’t start until 5:30 PM. “Ugh, do we have to? I just got back from the mall with her. She even changed clothes in front of me, that should've sufficed,” the younger exclaimed.

“She did what?”

“Nothing, never mind.” Mina’s jealousy kicked in once more. The birthday girl seemed to be crossing a lot of boundaries with Chaeyoung and she doesn’t seem to mind.

“Okay, as much as I wanna hear about your capades, we still have to buy a gift,” Mina said as she grabbed her towel. “Don’t worry, we aren’t going to the mall. There’s a gift shop a couple of blocks from here.”

“What? We didn’t have !” she exclaimed but her roommate had already shut the bathroom door. Chaeyoung grew a little frustrated hearing her comment. Nayeon had just told her that Mina likes her and now she feels like every move she makes is being evaluated and she’s doing a terrible job. Mina, on the other hand, had her back against door, palm on her face as she thought about how obvious she thought she was being.

1:09 PM

“Well, that was quick,” Chaeyoung said. The pair came back to their dorm sooner than both of them expected. When they got to the gift shop, the almost immediately found a gift for their friend. Mina bought her a stuffed bunny rabbit, in honor of her two prominent incisors and Chaeyoung bought a mirror in honor of her… narcissism. Mina could only call her out for being mean since Chaeyoung had already bought the mirror, but she defended herself by calling it a gag gift. The pair plopped down on their respective beds and let out a sigh. There was still four hours to go before the birthday party and both of them only needed an hour to get ready, so they had no choice but to kill time.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna play video games.” Mina said as she set up her laptop.

“Don’t you ever get tired of playing League and Minecraft?” Chaeyoung asked.

“Not really. Besides, it’s not like I can run any other game on this piece of crap,” Mina gestured towards her laptop. “You’re welcome to buy me a new one though.”

“Ha ha,” the younger said sarcastically. “I do know one game that might run on that thing.” She then went over to the desk and checked if Mina had Steam installed. Once she had found it, she logged her account in and went to her library which only contained one game, Portal. She gave a little smile before clicking on download.

“Portal?” Mina asked

“Yeah. Never heard of it?” Chaeyoung asked back.

“No. I can’t say I have,” Mina answered honestly. “Is it any good?”

“Well it’s the only game I actually finished. It’s a little on short side in terms of length but trust me, you’re gonna love it, plus it has like the best end credits song in all of gaming,” the younger one said with much confidence.

“Alright, cub. Way to oversell it.” The younger fought hard to keep herself from blushing. It’s not the first time that Mina had used that nickname of hers, but it still gave her butterflies whenever she used it. The roommates only waited a few minutes for the download to finish and when it was finished installing, Chaeyoung was on the edge of her seat, eager to teach Mina how to play the game. Once the older girl finished adjusting the video settings of the game, she clicked on “New Game” and was greeted by a surprisingly witty and fun puzzle game that involved a strategic placement of portals to navigate a room. Chaeyoung was beside her for a whole ten minutes just giving her instructions. She didn’t really need any since, so far, the game has done nothing but teach the player what to do and where to go. She didn’t mind though, she enjoyed seeing Chaeyoung this engaged in a video game. She thought she looked really cute whenever she cheered her on for doing something right.

“Alright. I think you know your way around this now. I’m gonna go take a really long bath so that all I have to worry about later is changing my clothes,” she said as she left Mina alone with the game. She headed towards the bathroom and wore a smile on her face. She felt a sense of pride in seeing her roommate enjoy a video game that she suggested.

2:16 PM

True to her word, Chaeyoung’s bath took her over an hour. She came out wearing baggy clothes and a towel over her head, letting her hair dry. She glanced at her roommate and noticed that she was a bit hunched over, clearly focused on the game. The sight put a huge smile on her face and she made her way to her roommate. Her expression quickly changed from joy to shock as she realized that Mina was already halfway through the game. “Holy ! How are you there already?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Dude you’re like halfway there already and it’s only been like, an hour!”

“Oh, well some of the puzzles here are actually quite easy so… yeah.” The younger girl was surprised at how calm her roommate was and she watched in awe as she quickly maneuvered her way around the level like it was nothing. She was intrigued by her friend’s skill and decided to sit down beside her again and see how much longer it will take her to finish the game.

3:10 PM

“Go, go, go! Just one more core!” Chaeyoung shouted as she watched Mina pick up the last of the villain’s personality core and drop it into the incinerator.

“YES!” they both shouted as the last core was dropped and the villain started to malfunction.

“Holy ! You did it,” Chaeyoung paused to check the time. “In just two ing hours!” she continued. Mina cheered and pumped her fists in the air, really proud of herself. “And now for the greatest video game end credits song of all time.” Chaeyoung announced as she stood up and held her hairbrush like a microphone.

This was a triumph.

I’m making a note here:

HUGE SUCCESS.

It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction

Those lyrics popped up on the screen as the song was being played. Chaeyoung sang along without even looking at the screen which made Mina wonder how many times her roommate heard the song. Nevertheless, the younger girl continued to sing along and her roommate kept watching her.

Aperture Science

We do what we must

because we can.

For the good of all of us

except the ones who are dead

But there’s no sense crying

over every mistake.

You just keep on trying

till you run out of cake.

And the science gets done.

And you make a neat gun.

For the people who are

still alive.

Chaeyoung pulled Mina up during the song’s brief interlude, spun her around and made her dance with her throughout the rest of the song.

It was the best afternoon either of them have had in a long time.