a/n: the first and probably the only non-au in the collection

i love it when we’re cruising together

remember when you said you’ve always wished someone would whisk you away in the middle of the night like in those romcoms you made us watch in our trainee days?

***

Seungwan can’t figure out if she’s hallucinating.

She has been hearing a series of light tacks knocking against her bedroom window, but she’s snug and comfortably warm under her heated blanket that she doesn’t fret herself with investigating the noise. The first time, she hardly paid any attention to it. The second time, she shrugged it off as a bird pecking on her window.

The sixth time is when she begrudgingly pauses the Netflix show on her laptop, bounces out of bed and draws out the curtains of her window. She almost, almost, unleashes a blood-curdling scream at a raven-haired entity standing in the backyard, a shadow cast dramatically on her alabaster face.

The entity shortly removes her mask.

It’s Joohyun in a white knitted sweater that goes above her knees and a Nike cap nestled on her head.

“Son Seungwan.”

Seungwan releases a breath of relief, though she is shocked to say the least. She opens up her window.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Seungwan greets her back. Joohyun then tosses a pebble at her window pane, creating that familiar tack as it clunks on the glass. That’s where it was coming from? “Did you…were you throwing rocks at my window?”

“Only pebbles, see?” Joohyun unclenches her tiny fist forward, showing her a handful of gray and brown pebbles. She discards them on the lawn of the garden. “I’m not here to inflict damage on a property. Special mention to your expensive windows. This costs a fortune I bet.”

“Okay, but what exactly are you doing?”

“Remember when you said you’ve always wished someone would whisk you away in the middle of the night like in those romcoms you made us watch in our trainee days?”

Oh my God. She was eighteen when she shared the mortifyingly cheesy product of her pubescent daydreams! And that was what, nearly ten years ago? Joohyun’s memory is insane. Seungwan thought the members would have buried that sort of thing twenty feet below the earth. “I originally didn’t but I do now.”

“Good because I’m going to grant it for you,” Joohyun declares with a gleeful tone. She playfully hopes over to be nearer to the window, resting her palms on its sill. “Hence me throwing the pebbles at your window, you know, like the characters in western movies. Would’ve been more authentic if your room was at the top floor.”

“My house is a bungalow type.”

“Which inspired me to improvise this wish of yours.”

“It’s not in the middle of the night too.”

“I said I’m improvising.”

“How would you do that?” Seungwan asks incredulously, but she backpedals. “No wait, does my mom know you’re here?”

“I wouldn’t trespass!” Joohyun flings a hand to her chest, offended that Seungwan would have little faith in her duty as a law-abiding citizen. “She heard the taxi pull up and let me inside.”

“Where’s your car?”

“My car’s at a shop. I took a taxi.”

Seungwan rubs at her nape, uncertain what to make of Joohyun’s impromptu stopover at her home.

The older girl never comes over without any notification beforehand. Joohyun is organized like that. She has a system for these matters, assembling meticulous mind maps for everything. Seldom does she indulge in spontaneity with her activities.

So her visitation? It’s unexpectedly random.

But very sweet.

An evening drive does sound like a fantastic idea at this very hour. Seungwan can’t refrain from the smile splitting at the corners of her lips. “Well then, how do you propose we make my teenage dreams come true?”

“You climbing out of your window while we make-believe your mom isn’t aware of my intentions of sneaking you away for the night so we can tiptoe out of your house as if we’re trying not to get caught?”

What a ridiculous proposal.

Totally ridiculous that Seungwan chases the artificial thrill of this imaginary scene Joohyun has concocted.

She pads to her closet for a jacket to protect the thin layer of her pajama top, a mask and a pair of sneakers, returning afterwards to Joohyun who lends her an assisting hand in climbing out of her window.

The prospect of their play pretend has Seungwan drinking in the evening air, intoxicated from the exhilaration. Would her younger self be this bold? She’s feeling absolutely silly as if she isn’t a grown adult in her mid-twenties, but a rebellious teenage escaping from the binds of parental supervision.

They go around the side of the house, giggling on the footpath towards the driveway. A snail blocks the track of a yelping Joohyun, the wee creature pushed aside by Seungwan’s Converse with a hurried, “I’m sorry, buddy.”

Their obnoxious giggles must have brought her mother’s attention. She regards them at the porch with folded arms, but rather than a parent’s disapproving look that would fit in this scenario, she’s smiling at them fondly. “Going somewhere, ladies?”

“We’re heading out for a walk,” Seungwan answers.

“In this weather? It’s awfully chilly tonight. Take the car with you.”

“I don’t have a license, mom.”

“But Joohyun does, doesn’t she?”

“It’s settled then!” Joohyun bows at Seungwan’s mother who dangles the car keys of the Son family SUV across her. “I’ll drive carefully.”

As they board the vehicle and trap their seatbelts on, her mother unlocks the gate from her phone. Joohyun revs the engine, recoiling at the blast of the AC with Seungwan guffawing at her expense, before backing into the street. She honks once as a goodbye, hearing a muffled, “You girls enjoy!” when they vacate the property.

“Where to?” Seungwan asks, the car speeding out of the residential area and into a busier intersection.

“Wherever the car will take us.”

“This vehicle doesn’t have an auto-pilot feature.”

“Can you stop being sassy with me for a minute?”

“We need a destination, Joohyun.” Seungwa presses on, omitting the formality. She doesn’t particularly mind where they are headed to, but they might find themselves in a location with bumper-to-bumper traffic. The rush hour has already ended, however she prefers to prepare for the worst.

Joohyun purses her lips in thought. “Wanna go to Incheon?”

“What’s at Incheon?”