“Hey babe?” Yoojung calls out to Doyeon who was currently stuffing her face with pizza. Yoojung was on her lunch break at the arcade and had went to the back where the small snack concession was, where any crude and greasy food was available. Yoojung personally hated it, the pizza was too cheesy and the rest of it was just plain gross with how unhealthy it looked. The cook however was a pretty nice guy and tried his best with the usually outdated food.

Won-sik or better known for his rockstar name Ravi, on the outside looked like a delinquent with his spiked mullet and multiple piercings. But his milkshakes were so sweet they’d have Yoojung’s teeth hurting. Doyeon finishes eating one slice in three bites and Yoojung reaches over with a napkin to clean her girlfriend’s filled cheeks. Doyeon raises her brows, allowing Yoojung to continue on with what she was saying.

Yoojung sighs and takes a sip of her milkshake before asking seriously, “do you think Jinsoul is gay?” Doyeon starts to choke and Yoojung flies over the booth table to save the girl by handing her the beer next to her. With watery eyes Doyeon washes it all down before finally breathing. Yoojung doesn’t understand how her girlfriend can still have a body like that and flawless skin when she eats all the junk she does. 

The taller girl burps loudly while beating on her chest and Yoojung only swoons, Doyeon could be so dreamy sometimes. “I don’t think so? I mean she’s had like ten boyfriends this year alone.”

“She only bangs dudes so they’ll buy her clothes you know that right?” Yoojung knew Jinsoul very well and how she never talked about how cute or sweet the boy she was dating could be. But how nice her new leather pants looked on her . It was never about love for Jinsoul or the connection, it was all about the chemistry with what was in their pockets. “Oh and Jinsoul always has to have attention or she’ll go crazy, doesn’t matter where it comes from as long as she’s the center of the universe to someone.” 

Doyeon agrees with a snort, “true, it doesn’t take much to get a guy's attention. Girls however…” Doyeon glances at Yoojung and smirks and the shorter girl kicks her girlfriend’s shin under the table. The artist groans and reaches to grab her leg before whining out, “I’m just saying! It took me like a ing century to get your attention.”

Yoojung flutters her eyelashes and reaches over to pinch Doyeon’s cheek, making the girl blush and giggle softly, “try a month sweetie.” 

Doyeon grabs Yoojung’s hand to keep it on her cheek, “well it felt like a century.”

They share a glance and then break apart, before anything got too homo. They often made that mistake since they could forget not everyone understood how in love they were with each other. Yoojung sips on her milkshake as Doyeon sighs out, “so you think Jinsoul is gay?”

“Yup, totally.” 

“Maybe she’s just materialistic.” 

“Babe that’s evidence.” 

Yoojung lays back in the booth seat while kicking her feet up on the table, “you ever noticed how she never swoons over boys, it’s always the models in those fashion catalogues.” It was true, Jinsoul would always whine and moan how she wanted to be one of those girls on the pages because they were just sooo pretty and perfect.

Doyeon agrees and throws out her observation, “she always extra y when she has a boyfriend.”

“I know right? From the second she gets one all she does is complain about how she can’t wait to break up with him.” Yoojung raises in her seat and throws her hand up, “she’s totally gay, she’s got too many posters of Janet Jackson in her room to be fully straight.” 

Yoojung stares over at her best friend who was sulking around at the counter, Xiaojun was probably talking about boys thinking Jinsoul was interested. Jinsoul was miserable because she wasn’t remotely interested in boys.

“Yves is a girl by the way.”

“What really? Isn’t that the person Jinsoul was obsessed with?” 

Yoojung nods, “yup and look at her.” Both of them glance over at Jinsoul. Who was now leaning sadly against the counter, she was wearing a crew neck oversized sweater and jogging pants...an indicator that she was down in the dumps. Because Jung Jinsoul refused to wear something so hideous, unless she was somewhat depressed. Then looking like a homeless person was excusable.

They pulled their gaze from the flashy arcade colors where Jinsoul was kinda an eyesore in the vibrancy. She belonged back here in the shadowed booths only illuminated by the dull bar lights that suited her mood more. 

“I’ve never seen Jinsoul so…” Doyeon trails off but Yoojung knows exactly what her girlfriend was thinking. Jinsoul had only two moods, y micerson and the most bubbly person alive. Jinsoul was a real trip and could be real fun maybe even the most when someone hasn’t pissed her off in some way. Other than that Jinsoul didn’t really have any other sides...that she showed at least. Yoojung knew every side of Jinsoul, and that she could actually be a really sweet person. This side of her doesn’t show often however, this is only the second time she’s seen the blonde like this beside that one time her tommy jeans got ripped down the crack.

Yoojung frowns, “I know right.”

“Is this because of Yves?”

“Yup,” Yoojung replies with a pop of her lips. This whole week Jinsoul has been like this. Coming to the arcade in oversized shades and a pout so powerful it could break or melt anyone’s heart. The blonde would longingly watch Q*Bert but never go play. “She met her last week and it didn’t go well.” Yoojung remembers getting the call at 3am, first her best friend had apologized for being a jerk at the party and then told her about her finally meeting her rival. “Jinsoul always has these fantasies about people.” Yoojung bites her lip, “she said Yves was exactly how she envisioned her to be.”

Doyeon hums, “then what went wrong?”

Yoojung raises one brow giving her girlfriend the look, “you are aware of who we're talking about right?” Doyeon leaves her lips in the form of an O when Yoojung starts to explain, “Jinsoul always forgets to put herself in her fantasies...Yves may have been everything she imagined but she didn’t factor herself in the equation or how Yves would react to her. Let’s just say it’s not in the way Jinsoul wanted her to.”

“Oh.”

“Jinsoul was an to her.” 

“Oh…”

“But she doesn’t regret it because apparently Yves was an too.” 

“Oh?”

Yoojung nods and starts to get up, “let’s try and cheer her up.” Doyeon nods at her girlfriend and starts to follow her to the snack bar. She waves at Ravi getting his attention, Jungwoo was in the back too swatting at all the flies.

Doyeon takes a few bills out of her wallet and hands it to the guy, “extra cheesy nachos. Make sure to put more cheese than chips.” 

Ravi goes to grab the money but then narrows his eyes, “is this for Soul?”

The lovers glance at each other then back to the cook before nodding, he pushes the hand holding the money away. “I got it.” Doyeon shrugs at Yoojung before shoving the dollars back in her pocket.

Ravi makes the best nachos ever, putting extra care into them before handing them to Doyeon. “I noticed my girl has been down this week. Y’all know what’s up?”

Yoojung smiles, “just stressed about school.” 

The cook scratches his bleached hair and nods, “make sure she eats every bit of that aight.” The girls give him a thumbs up and start to walk towards the counter and away from the corner filled with off colored booths. 

“There’s something Soul is not telling me about this girl though. Usually when she doesn’t end up liking someone she just moves on, but she’s stuck on her for some reason.” Yoojung looks up at her girlfriend who is eyeing the nachos with hungry eyes, “I smell something fruity.” Doyeon smiles at her knowingly before shushing her with a finger as they get closer to Jinsoul. 

“Heyyy Soul we brought you some munchies.” Jinsoul sighs and looks at the food that’s sat in front of her before pushing it away. Doyeon and Yoojung blink out of shock. Jinsoul never turned down nachos, no matter how upset she was. She’d just start eating while still being mad about whatever had bothered her. Usually complaining with a mouth full of cheese.

The blonde rests her cheek on her hand and continues to stare at the empty spot at Q*bert, “not hungry.” 

Yoojung comes to hug her from behind, “babes what did you eat today.”

“Coffee.”

The taller girl in front of Jinsoul frowns, “that’s not a meal Jinsoul.” The blonde shrugs and looks past her to stare at the same spot she has been for hours.

Jinsoul practically lived at the arcade now since she wasn’t preoccupied with school or a boy. But the entire week she hasn’t seen Yves. Jinsoul is afraid she really ran her off and will never see the girl again. Scoffing she corrects herself, she never wanted to see Yves again. Even if she really wanted to apologize for her drunken behavior that Saturday night a week ago. 

Shaking her head she tells herself, Yves didn’t deserve an apology. And Jinsoul didn’t want to see her ever again. She could really care less about that girl. 

She was just upset that her life was boring again. Not like Yves would have changed that at all. She would have just been a pain in Jinsoul’s . “Sooo you’re not gonna eat those?” Doyeon points at the nachos and Jinsoul tilts her head giving the girl permission to eat them.

Yoojung glares at her girlfriend as she starts to chow down, Jinsoul was in no way cheered up. Yoojung squeezes her bestfriend some more, “come on Soul forget about that stupid girl. When have you ever let someone get under your skin like this?” Yoojung was right...Jinsoul never let someone become the center of the universe. It was the other way around. 

But here she was, not even close to being in Yves’ orbit. While Yves was her entire galaxy. 

Jinsoul plays it off like that girl is not the reason she doesn’t have any makeup on and smells like a bucket of fried chicken because that’s all she’s ate this week. That was her comfort food, but all it was doing was making her more depressed because she was gaining weight instead of happiness. 

“What girl?”

Yoojung rolls her eyes, “you know exactly what girl.”

Xiaojun puts his two cents in, “oh please you’re still hung up on that loser? Come on soul you’re better than that! You’ve never let a get to you like this.” Jinsoul wants to defend Yves for some reason because she’s not a . She’s just...not into Jinsoul like Jinsoul wanted her to be. Jinsoul expected a fight or just anything but what she got was disappointment.

Yves wasn’t even interested in her enough to argue. That’s how irrelevant Jinsoul was to her when Yves has been the spotlight of Jinsoul’s life for about a month now. 

That night Yves wanted to go home and all Jinsoul did was bother her. Yves even tried being nice to her before she eventually got tired of her attitude like any sane person would. 

Jinsoul is positive Yves probably hasn’t thought of her once since then. When she’s all Jinsoul had thought about this week. Jinsoul ruined it. But isn’t this what she wanted? To run Yves off so she’d be the top scorer of Q*bert. To finally solve the mystery and destroy it in the process. Jinsoul did tell herself she’d get rid of Yves because she was so annoying.

But here she was wishing the girl was back so she’d have something interesting in her life again. 

“Why do you guys think it’s about Yves? I just got a bad score on a test that’s all.”

Yoojung catches the lie, “first of all when have you ever got anything other than an A, second of all even if you got a bad score you wouldn’t be moping around in sweatpants. You’d be in your leather pants living it up in some club forgetting about it.” 

Jinsoul groans and bangs her head on the counter and makes all three of her friends worried. “Just shut up about it! All you’re doing is making it worse!” Jinsoul barks at them from the sleeves of her sweater. 

“And what exactly are we making worse?” Xiaojun asks with a sharpness to his voice.

Yoojung rubs on her friends back, “that she’s clearly not over this competition she’s got with Yves.” Jinsoul whines from below, she’s totally over it. Just disappointed with the result is all that she’s upset about. 

“I am over it!” 

“Then why do you keep staring at the game instead of playing it.” 

“Because she’s scared she’s not gonna see Yves’ name on the scoreboard.” Jinsoul doesn’t know why it’s painful to hear that. Like Yves never existed in the first place. And how all of this has been for nothing and Jinsoul’s left with embarrassment and regret. 

They’re all thrown into silence after Jinsoul doesn’t reply to anything they throw at her. That’s until Xiaojun spots someone coming through the entrance, “oh hello! Twelve o’ clock!” Everyone looks except Jinsoul herself because she thinks it’s probably just some eye candy for Xiaojun.

Everyone in the arcade stares at the girl strutting in with platform doc martens on along with ripped red plaid pants and a shirt so torn up it shows the most intimate parts of the girl’s upper body.

The girl’s hair is pulled up in a half ponytail. Her glasses barely hanging to her nose and a moving smirk from the gum she was casually chewing.

The three at the counter let their jaws drop as the girl shuffled off her studded leather coat while pulling a chair up to Q*bert. All eyes are on her in the arcade except the only pair she wants, even some boys drool at the tiny waist on display and the attractive way the girl sits down on the stool. Leaving her legs spread wide instead of crossing them like she usually does.

Xiaojun even blushes, “no way! Is that Yves?!” Who else would it be? Jinsoul described the girl as a chic city girl that looked like she’d never set foot in an arcade. That she was kinda attractive...for a dweeb that is. 

Jinsoul’s heart drops to her tummy and she looks up at the speed of lightning. Only to lock eyes with the girl that’s been glued in her thoughts the entire week. “Holy !” Jinsoul falls backward and hides behind the counter, pressing her back against the wooden frame.

As Jinsoul pulls her knees to her chest Xiaojun starts to fawn over girl, “ she’s like so hot...I might be straight again.” Yoojung stares down at Jinsoul who was shaking like a leaf. Okay maybe she didn’t know all sides of Jinsoul. Because she’s never seen this side of her, nor that she even remotely knew what she was seeing.

Yves keeps her expression stone cold as she glances over at the counter where she totally just saw the girl that had followed her home last weekend. Without a second thought she turns to the screen and starts playing. 

“Jinsoul is that her?” Yoojung asks and the blonde nods slowly. Keeping her eyes to the distance. 

Doyeon stares at the girl playing, “hey I think that’s Ha Sooyoung.” 

Yoojung and Jinsoul both jerk at the mention of a name. The name starts to rotate in Jinsoul’s mind like a broken record. “Doyeon!” She yells out and catches the girl’s attention. Jinsoul can’t let Yves see her right now, she’d rather be caught dead than looking this bad in front of her nemesis. Also she was weak right now...if she were to ever confront Yves again she’d have to be her strongest and that definitely wasn’t now.

Doyeon looks over the counter at Jinsoul who’s hiding. “Um? Yeah?”

Jinsoul peaks up, “could you come over here? Please?” Jinsoul’s voice was very light and polite, highly unusual. Doyeon shrugs at her girlfriend before rounding the counter. Only to be pulled to the floor by Jinsoul. Yoojung blushes as she’s brought down too since Doyeon had grabbed her for balance. Xiaojun is too engrossed by Yves to noticed the dog pile below him.

He swoons, “wow Jinsoul I think she could give you a run for ya money with a style like that.” The boy continues to stare as Yves doesn’t notice the consultation going on behind the counter.

Jinsoul lets the two in front of her get sorted before seething out, “tell me everything you know.” 

Yoojung hides a snort, “I thought you was over it?”

“Shut up stupid I am.” Yoojung has to smile...that was the Jinsoul she knew. 

Doyeon uneasily looks around, “why do we have to be down here?”

Jinsoul furrows her brows and crosses her arms, “are you serious? I have no eyeliner on and look!” Jinsoul points at the various stains on her clothes, “chocolate chip mint from two. TWO. Nights ago. I can’t be seen like this.”

Doyeon raises a brow, “I think you look fine.” 

“And I think you’re a terrible liar. Seriously the worst.”

Yoojung can’t stop laughing but once Jinsoul glares at her she immediately stops. Doyeon clears and mumbles out, “Um she went to my university and graduated like a year ago.” Jinsoul narrows her eyes, so Sooyoung must be around 23. A few years older than her. “She’s like really talented, had a lot of potential and went on to be a concept artist for some game developer.” Jinsoul takes a deep breath since the air around becomes thinner. “I think she even helps develop them herself. She was a TA for the TAD department.” 

“What the is TAD?” Jinsoul spits angrily. “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” 

Doyeon swallows fearfully, “technology and applied design. She’s like a genius or whatever when it comes to computers and programming.” 

“So she's one of those tech dorks...” how ing adorable. “How ing pathetic and lame.” Jinsoul scoffs then smiles to herself. She was wallowing in self-pity over a loser who got her rocks off on numbers and . “What was her major?”

Doyeon scratches her head, “I think it was like computer science and graphic design.” Jinsoul rolls her eyes, yup a total dweeb.  

“What else do you know? Tell me now.” Jinsoul raises up to her knees while peaking over the counter to stare at Yves. The girl was the same as the first night she met her. Nonchalantly playing the game while annoyingly chewing her gum. Jinsoul ducks back down when Yves side glances in her direction.

Yoojung looks over to her girlfriend and mouths g-a-y as Doyeon shakes her head in disbelief. Yoojung was totally right...Jinsoul’s case of heterouality was not looking too well right now. She was way too obsessed with Yves. “Not much really she was kinda a loner.” Jinsoul’s heart cracks only the tiniest bit at that before sitting back down. “but the kind of person that you’d want to hang out with, she’s pretty laid back and it’s easy to relax with her.”  

Doyeon thinks a bit, “but it’s hard to not relax when someone’s so quiet all the time.” Doyeon has hung out with Sooyoung a few times during her time at the college. The girl was reserved but friendly enough to not make it weird.

“Don’t you think it’s creepy though?” Jinsoul mumbles out as she recalls the subway. When Sooyoung was close to her...it was comforting. But at the same time made Jinsoul's skin erupt with goosebumps and cause the tiny hairs on the back of her neck to stand. The total opposite of relaxing.

Doyeon shakes her head, “no...maybe she’s just shy.” 

Jinsoul blinks, “Ha Sooyoung?” Doyeon nods her head with sureness. “Ha Sooyoung is not ing shy, she just doesn’t bother.” Doyeon scrunching her eyebrows together, “that’s why she’s all weird about not talking and because she could really give less of a about anything.” Her memories swim back to that night, when Sooyoung didn’t care about her existence. Jinsoul pauses as Doyeon and Yoojung gives her pitiful expressions, “you said she works for a game developer?” 

“Yeah she got a lot of recognition for it to being like one of the only women to be successful in the field.” That’s all Jinsoul needs and she pops up. The two of them watch Jinsoul dart out the arcade, Xiaojun is even pulled away from gawking at Sooyoung.

Ha Sooyoung…

Sooyoung.

Jinsoul runs past the girl playing the game. Not giving her a second glance. However if Jinsoul knew that Sooyoung stared at her as she ran out she would have wished she had looked. Just to see the girl’s expression. Sooyoung watches as the blonde whips out the arcade and isn’t pulled from her daze until she hears a sound she wasn’t prepared for.

Looking at the screen she curses, “ah .”

Sooyoung had lost the game for the first time unintentionally.

~~~~

At the library Jiwoo has her feet up on the desk filing away at her nails. Nobody was here on a Saturday night so she could play music lightly on her radio and just relax in her comfy seat.

That’s until something smacks down on the desk making her fall backwards screaming. The few students that are lame enough to study stare over at the noise but quickly go back to their notes after a few silent seconds.

Jiwoo glares up at the blonde who keeps whispering her name like she hasn’t already gotten her attention, “Jiwoo Jiwoo Jiwoo hi I like need the biggest favor ever pleaseeee please.” The red-head bangs her head on the floor and Jinsoul considers her favor accepted. Cornering the checkout counter, Jinsoul helps her friend back to her feet. 

The red-head slaps her on the leg a few times before gasping in shock. Jinsoul puffs up, “what?”

Jiwoo looks her up and down before plainly stating, “you’re not like dressed up.”

“Oh shut up you’re like the tenth person to say that!”

The librarian apologizes and Jinsoul rolls her eyes at the sincerity before getting to her favor, “so could you help me find a certain someone and any info on them?” 

“Like a biography?”

Jinsoul shakes her head and sits on top of the counter much to Jiwoo’s displeasure. “No she’s not that famous.”

Jiwoo crosses her arms beginning to get irritated, “who is it Jinsoul?”

“Ha Sooyoung.” 

The red-heads eyes light up in recognition and she rolls her chair over to the old computer to type something. “I know her, she used to come here a lot.”

Jinsoul rolls her head back, it seems like everyone knew who Ha Sooyoung was except her. “She has some newspaper and magazine articles about her.” Jinsoul smiles and Jiwoo deflates as the blonde tugs on her hands before she stands up. Through the library Jinsoul follows the shorter girl’s lead, keeping a grip on her skirt even though she really didn’t need to. She just liked keeping Jiwoo close to her.

They walk into a room full of files, where all the city newspapers were. “Okay the issue should be in May nineteen eighty four and February nineteen eighty five. I’ll look for the magazines.” Jinsoul hums and starts to flick through the files, checking the dates as she flips across them. Finding the first newspaper she tears through it before she sees a certain someone smiling with all her teeth. With much longer, wavy hair and incredibly dorky glasses, way worse than the ones she had now.

Sooyoung even had braces then and she was poorly dressed in oversized dress clothes. The title of the article was Technology Babes: female graduates at the top of a male predominated field. It mostly talks about how the girl had blown others out of the water in her graduating class and how she proved a lot of people wrong. Jinsoul smiles to herself secretly at the black and white photo of the younger and overly excited girl. The article really specifies just how amazing this girl is with sentences like genius with passion and extraordinary skill. 

Tucking the newspaper under her arm she goes to the next one. Quickly finding in the mix. This time Sooyoung is on the front page with a pretty strong headline. First Woman to be hired as Game Designer and Software Developer at Polaris Inc: New York's fastest developing Video entertainment company. Jinsoul allows herself to be impressed for a few moments. Polaris was the company. The one that put out all the big games that everyone anticipated every year.

Sooyoung was kinda important. 

And Jinsoul had gotten pissy at her for ignoring her. No wonder Sooyoung didn’t bother with her, she probably dealt with a lot of s in her life and everyday at that. The last thing she would want that night is some irrelevant college student ing at her. 

Jinsoul feels bad for just a second.

The picture they have of Sooyoung is a lot different. The girl is barely smiling holding an atari up. Behind her is the rest of the developing team with equally half-assed smiles. Jinsoul doesn’t like the way the energy seems gone in this picture compared to the one where Sooyoung had just graduated.

Jiwoo strolls up to her with a few magazines in hand and Jinsoul thanks her while taking them out of her hold. Following Jiwoo back to the desk they chat, “so you knew her?” Jinsoul narrows her eyes at the way Jiwoo nervously laughs and pulls at her red ears from embarrassment. 

“Yeah she um, she was chill or whatever. Really sweet but lived in the library.” Jiwoo stutters out, leaving out one very important piece to the puzzle. “I’d keep her company when she’d do all nighters, it gets lonely studying all alone like that.”

Jinsoul raises a brow suspiciously, “sounds like you knew her pretty well.” Jiwoo bursts out laughing uncharacteristically and waves her hand at Jinsoul like she was speaking nonsense. Little did Jinsoul know that with the sweetness, Sooyoung was a real smooth talker or just a straight up flirt. Jiwoo spent all nighters with the girl outside of the uncomfortable library chairs and instead in some very soft sheets. 

“I mean I guess? Haha we just chatted some, it wasn’t like we were friends or anything.” Jinsoul doesn’t push the girl further because there’s a peculiar glint to Jiwoo’s eyes that tells her that she’s poking at a sensitive topic. Jiwoo quickly changes it, “so how do you know Sooyoung?”

They make it to the counter and Jiwoo gives Jinsoul a checkout card, “she’s Yves.”

Jiwoo gasps, “no way! Really?!”

Jinsoul shrugs, “yup.”

The redhead chuckles, “sounds like her, only she’d be the person to end up pissing you off... anyways what are you planning to do with those?” Jiwoo points at the papers in Jinsoul’s hands and the blonde hums.

“Just seeing who I’m up against.” Jiwoo basically knew the whole situation, except for the part where Jinsoul followed Sooyoung home that one night and basically developed an infatuation with her.

Jiwoo smiles at her and wishes her luck. But as Jinsoul pauses in her step when the red head quietly lays out some words that make her question her whole approach to this rivalry. 

“Be careful Jinsoul.”

The blonde turns to look at Jiwoo who’s strangely hiding something behind her smile.

“Sooyoung knows her way around most games...she’s not the kind of player you want to get involved with when it comes to a real one.”

Jinsoul nods even though she’s confused. As she rides the bus home she wonders what Jiwoo meant when she mentioned a real one...if she was talking about an actual game or something way more than that, something that was beyond Jinsoul. The comment throws her off and she starts to see Sooyoung as more than just a rival, but someone she needed to watch out for. 

Looking out the window, the streetlights whip by her, disappearing one by one into the night.

Just who are you Ha Sooyoung.

~~~~

Ha Sooyoung is a humble artist who has a great passion for gaming and programming. Jinsoul reads this over and over again. She thinks it’s a damn lie. Cutting out the fifth picture of Sooyoung she goes to hang it on her dart board before returning to her desk to read more about the oh so conscientious software developer. 

It’s all bull to Jinsoul because everything that she experienced contradicts what’s written in the pages. Jiwoo might kill her for cutting out the pages just so she can take her anger out on the photos but it’s going to be so worth it. 

Grabbing her darts she stands a few feet away and takes aim before chucking the sharp object at Sooyoung’s face. Jinsoul let’s her arm go limp when she hits bullseye, right in the middle of the girl’s face in the first newspaper picture. Walking towards the board she plucks the dart from the picture and frowns when the girl’s nose is now non-existent. 

Jinsoul takes all the darts and jabs them into the board. No matter how many times she tries to destroy the image of Sooyoung in her head, another one somehow materializes not a second after.

She can’t puncture a dart into the memories of Sooyoung.

Giving up she goes to flop onto her bed face first to succumb to her obsession. Everyone had a different feeling about Sooyoung, but hers was the only one that was negative. Jinsoul starts to think that she’s the problem. 

Turning over on her back she looks around at all the posters on her wall. In the far corner there’s just a section of magazine cut outs (all girls) and her shelf of little figurines. It isn’t the first time she’s been obsessed with a girl, Jinsoul always blamed it on her insecurities. 

Like that time the girl in fifth period had the perfect body.

Or the girl in her intro speech class that always wore the cutest mini skirts.

Now the girl that was better than her at video games.

Jinsoul would get upset that she didn’t have the perfect body or best style. That was the reason she would get so stuck on a girl, because she wanted to be on top, wanted to be them. She wanted to be the girl other girls would get jealous of.

Sooyoung was just another girl that Jinsoul competed with in being the best.

Jinsoul shoves her face in her pillow and kicks her feet into the mattress aggressively, “WHY DOES THIS ING SO BAD!”

The blonde was good at getting over it, but for some reason it was hard to get past something that didn’t feel like it ever started. Jinsoul raises her head and blinks. Jumping off her bed she goes to pluck the pictures off the dartboard except for the one that she anninlated. Jinsoul tapes them next to her magazine cut outs and shakes her head at how well Sooyoung fits in with the rest of the models. How she belonged. 

With that thought, Jinsoul gets an idea.

~~~~

Xiaojun is flirting with one of the plumbers, earlier one of the regular dweebs had clogged the toilet after having way too many of Ravi’s hotdogs. The boy leans over and plays with the man's chest hair that was poking out of the ed shirt. “Wow these are so...nice.” The man with some scruff smiles and winks at Xiaojun.

Yoojung was reading a magazine ignoring the whole exchange. Every now and then she’d peek over the top of the catalogue and check on the girl at Q*bert. It was odd seeing Jinsoul’s rival here before sundown and it was also strange that the blonde wasn’t here moping around like she has been all week.

The girl looked bored out of her mind, but didn’t move out her spot in front of the screen. She was in some casual clothes with a leather jacket thrown over it. “How can she make a t-shirt and jeans look couture?” Yoojung blinks out of her daze, not realizing how long she had been staring. 

Clearing she looks back down to her magazine, being on the same page still from half an hour ago. “Because she could pass as a model.”

Xiaojun hums, “and she’s spending precious time where it smells like ing onions from the group of cess pools by street figther. Like does she not have y woman stuff to do?”

“What is y woman stuff?”

“I don’t know? Having , partying, maybe shopping or scamming men.” Yoojung snorts at Xiaojun, “but she’s playing that weird game. She’s wasting her beauty. If I was even remotely that pretty I would be using my power elsewhere.”

Yoojung rolls her eyes, “and where would that be?”

The boy slumps on the counter, “not at this dump.”

“Hmm well you’re broke so you’re stuck with me in this dump.” Xiaojun groans at Yoojung and rolls to his back and leans on his elbows, “besides, she’s not wasting her beauty. She’s doing what she wants and nothing is more beautiful than a woman’s choice.”

The boy stares at her like she grew a third eye and Yoojung wobbles her head with an attitude, she covers her face when her best friend starts to speak again. “God you’re so boring where the is Jinsoul, I want some drama.” Yoojung ignores him because for the first time she actually agrees with something he said but at the same time wishes he’d just shut up. 

Outside, the orange light from the arcade starts to creep in like a phantom. Sooyoung suicides the game and pops her a neck a few times from it being stiff. Checking her watch she sighs, but then a figure catches her eye.

Looking towards the entrance the sunset hides a silhouette like a shadow. Sooyoung narrows her eyes but as the shadow struts towards the darkness of the arcade her jaw slowly loosens until she completely freezes in shock.  

Xiaojun inflates with joy, “gawt dayum!” It’s Jung Jinsoul and Yoojung’s magazine slips out of her fingers when she sees her friend. It’s a complete 180 from yesterday.

Jinsoul has her hair straightened to where it could be mistaken as silk. Yoojung blushes as her friend struts towards them, her jeans looking painted on with the way they hugged her hips. Six inch heels click on the floor as Jinsoul adjusts her white tank that had been cropped. The blonde smiles and her teeth shine just like the gold hoops that dangle from her ears.

Sooyoung almost breaks her neck from how hard she’s looking, when the blonde wisps by her she snaps her head around just so she can keep staring.

Yoojung wishes she could film the whole thing.

“Hiii es did you miss me?” Jinsoul calls out to the two checking her out from head to toe.

Xiaojun reaches over to play with Jinsoul’s hair, “girl I can see your nip nops!” Jinsoul looks down and covers her s that were poking out while giggling, “god this fit is to die for this is going to be the next trend watch and see.” 

Yoojung can also see Jinsoul’s nip nops and she stares closely at the gold necklace that lays against the blonde skin, “um do you have body glitter on?”

Jinsoul backs away, “what? No?” Yoojung raises a brow, she totally had body glitter on. This was Jinsoul’s hoe outfit and Yoojung has seen it countless times in her life. Usually after Jinsoul breaks up or suffers a bad day. Try a bad week...and now Yoojung is starting to question a lot of things.

Like if Jinsoul has always been this hot or if just the fact that she’s half .

One or two things could have happened. Either Jinsoul is finally over this slump caused by the girl who was still staring at her. Or that she was up to something. 

“Dude your girl is looking at you like she wants to eat you alive.” Xiaojun whines out and laughs with mischief. But he was right, Yoojung looks past where Jinsoul was leaning against the counter. Sooyoung reminded her of an animal caught in headlights mixed with someone who was about to faint.

Jinsoul raises a brow, “who?”

Yoojung points over and all three of them snap their gaze to Sooyoung who was close to drooling. Sooyoung jumps a bit when she notices three pairs of eyes on her and jerks her face back to the screen as if her eyes weren’t just glued to Jinsoul. The blonde turns back just as quickly, “oh I didn’t even know she was there.”

Okay, weird. Yoojung thinks this is weird because Jinsoul was over Sooyoung in the matter of twenty four hours. “I was wanting to go out tonight!” Yoojung is shocked, she really thought Jinsoul would be wearing those sweatpants for at least another week.

“Sorry I’m closing tonight.” Xiaojun cries and pouts up, wanting nothing more than to get out of the arcade. Jinsoul begs Yoojung with her puppy dog eyes and it’s borderline irresistible. She hated when her best friend would act adorable because it was hard to say no.

But Yoojung really needs the money, “Soul I can’t, my shift doesn't end till twelve.”

Jinsoul leans her head back and groans, “god you guys are the worst!” The blonde turns over to lean back onto the counter, “I was feeling myself too...now what the am I supposed to do.” Jinsoul mumbles to herself and scopes out the arcade. Looking everywhere but that spot. The spot where Sooyoung was sitting frozen, not even moving to play the game. She has to fight the urge to walk over, ignore her like she ignored you.

She’s irrelevant. Time to move on.

“Your girl has been here for like an hour. I think she was waiting for you.” Jinsoul is already losing because she didn’t even notice that she was staring right at Sooyoung until she’s pulled out of her daydreaming. She’s losing at the game she didn’t even know she was playing and she knows exactly why. Because the girl isn’t infatuated with her like she is with Sooyoung. 

Jinsoul rolls her eyes and pretends that she wasn’t just wishing Sooyoung would look her way again, “she’s not my girl and she wasn’t waiting on me, she has no life that’s why she’s here.” Yoojung closely observes Jinsoul and then realizes that the blonde is not over it.

She’s even worse.

That’s exactly why Jinsoul has body glitter on with her entire midriff exposed. Wearing no bra with a thin white piece of fabric that questionably passed as an article of clothing. Why she had her ‘ me pumps’ on and the tigthest pair of jeans she owned. She was begging for attention in any form. But especially from the girl struggling to function properly again in front of the arcade screen.

Yoojung couldn’t wait to tell Doeyon.

Sooyoung takes a deep breath and then starts to play again as if nothing had ever happened and as if there weren't a pair of black eyes staring straight into her soul. The blonde can’t stand it anymore.

it. 

“Do I smell good?” Yoojung and Xioajun both stare at her funny. 

Xiaojun leans forward to take a whiff, “yeah, like cinnamon and vanilla baby.” They’re not able to ask why and can only watch as Jinsoul power walks over to the girl playing the game with expert skill. Jinsoul was sick and tired of being a second thought. So she’d make it to where Sooyoung couldn’t think of anything but her. It just wasn’t fair that she was the only one suffering from this...

Jinsoul looks at the game and apologizes to it telepathically for what she’s about to do.

The girl doesn’t flinch when Jinsoul slams her palm into the side of the hunk of metal, nor does she bat an eye when Jinsoul leans down to spit angrily, “sup’ loser.” Jinsoul’s blood starts to boil when she gets no reaction at all. Like...at all. The screen reflects onto Sooyoung’s glasses so Jinsoul can’t see how the girl’s eyes narrow. 

“Okay,” Jinsoul says calmly and then reaches down to mess with the buttons and she smirks when she hears the sound of death, no matter how much it pained her to do so. Sooyoung stops chewing her gum and glances down to where hands shaking with rage had replaced her own. 

Sooyoung doesn’t dare to look at Jinsoul as she weakly mumbles out, “that wasn’t very nice of you.”

“Well it also isn’t very nice to ing ignore someone is it?” Jinsoul was back to wanting to kill this girl like she did the first night.

Sooyoung slumps her shoulders, “so you’re actually a …tragic.”

“EXCUSE ME!”

Yoojung panics, “Jun she tilted her head ninety degrees to the right should we stop it?”

The boy smiles, “nah this is going to be good.” 

Sooyoung goes to play again but Jinsoul doesn’t allow her, blocking her hands from the buttons. “You have some ing nerve talking to me like that.” 

Jinsoul swallows roughly as Sooyoung’s face hardens, “are you always such a brat? Or are you just like that around me?” Sooyoung finally looks her in the eye and Jinsoul backs away and crosses her arms at the steeled gaze. 

“Nope, you’re just insufferable and it pisses me off.” Sooyoung closes her eyes at Jinsoul’s insults and starts to pop her knuckles since she was becoming irritated.

The blonde watches the girl’s hands and how a lot of her fingers were crooked. “If you wanted to play you could have just asked nicely.” Jinsoul disregards the fact that Sooyoung’s fingers are long and probably the reason she’s so good at games, and focuses on how unaffected she sounds. Like Jinsoul’s words meant nothing.

“Ha, if you weren't such a you could remember that I’ve already tried that,” the blonde scoffs and leans onto the side of the arcade game, “and we saw how that turned out.”

Sooyoung shakes her head in disbelief, “you were being rude.”

“Awww did I hurt your wittle feelings? Should I have gotten on my hands and knees and begged you?” Jinsoul mocks her and she can see how glossy Sooyoung’s eyes are getting. Finally Jinsoul feels like she’s getting somewhere, especially when the girl pouts up at her. Jinsoul laughs in her face which makes it even worse.

Sooyoung groans and turns her head, “no you could have just been a little nicer that’s all.”

Jinsoul holds her stomach from how bad she’s laughing before wiping a tear from her eye, “my god you are so sensitive, who knew you’d be such a baby over something this stupid..” The blonde keeps laughing, hiding her face in her elbow that’s pressed against the arcade game.

“Are you done?” Sooyoung bites out, clearly getting tired of Jinsoul. She doesn’t want to fight anymore because it would go nowhere. If she kept feeding into Jinsoul’s attitude they’d go at it all night.

The blonde immediately stops laughing, “yeah are you?”

Sooyoung stands suddenly and Jinsoul forgets how tall the girl is after she towers over her. “Yeah I am.” The girl grabs her bag and starts to walk out of the arcade and Jinsoul blinks, wait this isn’t what was supposed to happen. 

Jinsoul follows after her, “hey hold on a second where are you going?”

The taller girl turns around confused, “home? I’m not gonna sit here and do this childish with you.”

Not really knowing how to reply, Jinsoul chooses to continue to be childish, “are you going home to cry like the you are?” Sooyoung stares at her. Most of the arcade is staring at them right now, even Ravi had started handing out popcorn. Neither of them had noticed because they were in each other’s own little world where they only existed. Where the only thing that mattered was this argument.

It takes too long for Sooyoung to reply, but when she does Jinsoul wishes she never had walked up to her in the first place, “who the are you?” Sooyoung takes a step forward and Jinsoul takes one back. Hating the way Sooyoung looks down on her with that cold stare, “no seriously who are you and why do you keep bothering me... You’re such a pain in the and it's so god damn annoying.” 

Jinsoul breaks the stare down and looks down at her feet ashamed, “it’s like you're obsessed with me and I don’t know why.” Biting the inside of her cheek she ignores the nausea in her tummy. “Listen, I really could care less about the problem you have with me so I’m gonna leave and pretend this never happened. Just...leave me alone please.” Sooyoung’s voice loses it’s edge from previously and melts into something more soft. Something that Jinsoul can’t really handle.

“Ouch.” One of the boys near by lets out and they both glare at him making him cower back. Then Sooyoung notices everyone behind staring at them waiting for the next part, and then she notices the quiver to Jinsoul’s lip, but the blonde was fighting it back.

The girl rubs her temples with one hand, “…” Jinsoul doesn’t like the way Sooyoung laughs weakly, or how upset she sounds. “I’m really sorry, um whatever your name is, it wasn’t very nice of me to be like that even though you’ve been everything but nice to me. Still I shouldn’t have said any of that.” Of course Sooyoung flips the table once again. Saying something that makes Jinsoul’s head spin. How she could turn around from being the she’s supposed to be into someone regretting their actions with a sweet apology.

Sooyoung frowns and turns to leave finally, planning on never returning again. “And I’m sorry for whatever I did to make you hate me but you don’t have to worry about it anymore.” 

Jinsoul can only muster up a few pathetic words, “it’s okay I guess.” Sooyoung smiles sincerely at her just like that one night that left Jinsoul’s chest hollow and begins to walk out.

The blonde watches her disappear into the sunset. Not again. 

I can’t let you slip out of my fingers again.

“You can’t leave until I beat you!”

Sooyoung stops but doesn’t turn around, Jinsoul takes it as an invitation to continue, “one on one, every game in this place. Winner gets to choose what happens to the loser.” She says it with a nervous voice, hoping. Just hoping it’s enough to make Sooyoung turn back around. 

Jinsoul doesn’t know why it feels like she’s won already when she’s facing Sooyoung again. “If I lose?”

The blonde thinks about it for a second and says the first thing that comes to mind, “you won’t be allowed to step near me nor this place ever again…” Something changes behind Sooyoung’s expression, but it goes away so fast Jinsoul isn’t able to dwell on it for too long.

“Deal.” Jinsoul looks at the hand outstretched.

But before she takes it she has to know, “if I lose?”

“I’ll let you know when you do.” Jinsoul narrows her eyes and Sooyoung smirks, “please you really think you’re gonna win?” She freezes entirely when Sooyoung leans forward grabbing her elbow to pull her closer, close enough to speak directly into her ear, the hot air from Sooyoung’s breath presses against the sensitive area causing an icy chill to crawl down her spine. “You might be good.”

Jinsoul makes sure to hold her own breath, so Sooyoung can’t hear how uneven it’s gotten.

“But I’m better.”

~~~~

Hmmm I’m not so sure how I feel about this chapter. It was mostly a filler and a build up to the next chapter that will be nothing but Yvesoul hehe, so I thought it would be okay to leave you guys at this cliffhanger. I hope everyone still likes it! Thank u mwah!