It turned out painting wasn’t allowed in the library, which Yujin only learned after she tried it and got both her and Wonyoung kicked out. Wonyoung knew she should have been mad, because really, it was just stupid– but she found herself laughing at the expression of complete bewilderment on Yujin’s face instead.

They relocated to Yujin’s apartment because it was closer than Wonyoung’s, and Yujin had forgotten some things there anyway. Wonyoung took a seat at Yujin’s formerly unused desk, a little awkward and self-conscious as Yujin dragged over an easel and a small mountain of other art supplies she couldn’t even begin to name. She flicked on the desk lamp and opened her textbook, though she paused to look at the art student uncertainly. “Is this okay? Do you need me to move or anything?”

“You’re fine, you’re fine. It’s fine.” Yujin said with a grin, and Wonyoung only felt a little reassured. “Just do your work, and I’ll do mine. Don’t think so much.”

Don’t think. Right.

Wonyoung sighed and rolled her shoulders, flipping open her textbook to the current chapter. She uncapped her pink highlighter and began to read, letting her mind lose itself in the finer points of the Kindler reaction until she forgot, almost completely, that she was sitting in an unfamiliar apartment while a tall girl she barely knew painted her picture.

She worked in silence, and Yujin painted with her headphones on, the faintest bit of rap escaping around the edges and leaking white noise into the air. It wasn’t until she got up to go to the bathroom that Wonyoung realized that Yujin was painting with her hands – a huge mess of colors, paint up past her elbows and in her blue hair.

“This is just the base,” Yujin said, swiping at her nose and getting purple all over it. “There’s still a lot to do.” Wonyoung shrugged as if she understood, because she didn’t, though she did think she could make out the outline of an ear and the corner of her jaw. “You can come over again tomorrow, right?”

“Sure, I guess.”

Wonyoung’s schedule would need some adjusting.

♡

Wonyoung rubbed the sleep from her eyes and highlighted in pink as the professor spoke. She was still not used to her altered routine, perhaps because the word “routine” fit it so loosely. That she woke up and went to class hadn’t changed, but now she went to Yujin’s apartment instead of the library and studied there until stomachs started growling. Then, lately, she’d stay even after, and Yujin would buy her takeout and they would laugh at something mindless on TV. She’d find paint on her clothes later and wonder how it got there, and it was only when she laid in bed, past her usual bedtime, that she would remember Yujin’s hand on her back or her shoulder or her knee.

She shook her head suddenly, realizing that she had missed at least two minutes of what the professor had been saying, and she swore under her breath.

Jang Wonyoung did not daydream in class.

She took detailed notes and color-coded them and worked a chapter ahead in all of her textbooks – and she most certainly wasn’t going to let some blue-haired art student take over her thoughts, the week before midterms.

Except that she realized she really might, when she passed Yujin on the sidewalk between classes, in the same clothes as yesterday and laughing through her “Hi, Wonyoung, I'm running late but I'll see you later!”

That laugh, like music, that played on in her head even when she was alone.

Somewhere along the line, she had gotten invested in this project. Invested in Yujin. It was too late, now, to even think of backing out.

♡

“Can you stay later tonight?” Wonyoung stopped where she stood and looked at Yujin a little curiously. Never in the week and a half they’d been doing this had Yujin asked her to stay longer, and never had she painted later than about 7pm. “Sorry, I know I should’ve asked earlier – I’m just worried about getting this done. It’s not looking quite right.” She hadn’t ever heard Yujin express worry about anything, either.

“Yeah, I guess I can stay,” she said, and she sat back down slowly. She had finished everything she had planned to for the day, so what else could she do? She drummed her fingers on the desk and chewed her lip, feeling useless.

Yujin slung her headphones around her neck, blue paint smudged into the padding. “Sing for me, Wonyoung,” she demanded cheerily, as if this were the most normal request in the world.

Wonyoung made a face at her. Yujin had to be joking. “Why?”

“Because I said so!” Yujin laughed cheekily when Wonyoung glared. “Because I like your voice, and I want to hear you sing more than just Twice songs when they’re on music shows. Besides, you have nothing better to do.”