“Where do you live?” Kyungha asks one day. Her boyfriend is currently buried under her sheets again. She swears, he could be homeless for all she knows.

Sehun doesn’t answer. She narrows her eyes, throwing her legs over his hips to straddle him. Kyungha drags her fingers down his scrubs, the soft blue fabric crinkling. He squirms, and she lets out a playful aha!

“You can’t win against me,” she reckons, tapping her index against his collarbone. For a beat, she decides if she should bite it.

He opens his eyes, blinking with feigned innocence. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, missy. I haven’t even lifted a finger.

Kyungha snorts. “Just answer the question.”

“I live in New York,” he replies.

She jabs a finger in his cheeks. “We live in New York, . Where?”

Sehun hums, “I live ten minutes away from the hospital.”

She an eyebrow at him. “Then why don’t you ever go home?”

“Who says I don’t?”

“Who says you do?”

“Shut up, sweetheart.”

“Hey, I’m not the one living off of his girlfriend’s family.”

Sehun pushes up, swinging his legs off her bedside. “I’ll just leave,” he says nonchalantly.

Kyungha chuckles. “Where do you think you’re going, mister?” She pushes him back down on her pillow. He grunts, staring up at her with a -eating grin.

“I love it when you’re rough with me. Sehun Jr. is going off as we speak.”

She ignores that. “Why won’t you answer my questions? Are you hiding something?”

“I am answering your questions. You asked where I lived so I said New York.”

“And you also proceeded to deflect my next question with a question.”

“As much as I would love to be the Watson to your Sherlock, I don’t know if we have time to roleplay.”

She smacks his chest. “God, stop it!”

“I’m actually Oh Sehun, but what can I say? I can’t help it if you continuously confuse me with him.”

Kyungha crosses her eyes in exasperation. “You’re such an idiot.”

He laughs haughtily. “An idiot that you currently have your legs around. So, tell me, who do you think is the winner in this case?”

She can’t take him anymore, honestly. Sometimes, she would have the strongest urge to stuff her fist in his mouth to stop him from chattering, but he was so delightfully charming that she was weak to him. Kyungha kisses the corner of his lips then pulls back to nuzzle their foreheads.

“What’s the point of having an apartment if you’re going to treat it as storage?”

“It was Dad’s. He’d initially lived there before me until he officially retired and went overseas with his wife. I just took over because I didn’t have the heart to sell the place.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d thought you were homeless,” she jokes.

He puckers his lips, kissing her squarely on her lips. “I could live under the Brooklyn bridge, but then I’d make more money than you left and right with this drop dead gorgeous face.”

Kyungha scrunches her nose. “I don’t know about that, but I can assure you that you definitely smell like one.” He springs up, wrestling with her until she falls on her back, shrieking. Then, he pulls off his shirt, revealing his delicious set of abs that clearly said that this man was not a beggar.

Frankly, she was the beggar because if she didn’t get her hands on those abs, she was going to ninety-nine-point-nine percent starve. . What was he doing to her?

“Do I smell like one now?” He teases, thumbing her bottom lip.

She bites his thumb, eyes flashing amorously. “It was the shirt.”

“Oh, was it now?”

“And the pants,” she adds casually.

“Don’t mind if I do,” he says with a cheeky laugh, tugging his pants off and diving to kiss the bejeezus out of her.

“You never told me you were rich.” Seulgi gasps, her jaw dropped.

Joohyun walks in the entrance, following Seulgi. She lets out several oohs and ahhs as she inspects Kyungha’s home. “So you’re like rich rich?”

She waves a dismissive hand. “Only by association.”

Seulgi lets out shriek. “That’s Director Kai!” She points to the picture albums hanging on the walls. Kyungha blinks until she realizes her friend’s talking about Jongin. Kai was his alias. “Christ, how many secrets are you hiding from us?”

“I’m not.”

“Okay.”

“You never asked,” Kyungha points out, ignoring Seulgi’s indignant expression.

Joohyun hums, “I thought you already knew, Seul. He’s her brother-in-law.”

“What?” Seulgi is freaking out. “You have a sister? Since when?”

Kyungha lifts a brow. “No, I don’t have a sister. He’s married to my brother. Don’t assume his ual orientation.”

Her friend sighs. “Not my fault he looks like an actual god.”

They follow Kyungha into her room. Seulgi throws her arms around the younger. “Say, are your brothers looking for another child? I’d like to be adopted.”

Joohyun blows a raspberry. “I think they’d preferred an actual child and not an overgrown woman.”

Seulgi shoves Joohyun playfully. “Oh shut up, why am I the only one surprised by this? Christ, Kyungie, your room is the size of my entire apartment.”

Kyungha levels a steady look toward Joohyun. Now that she thought about it, the latter never talked about herself. Seeing as she wasn’t surprised by Kyungha’s estate, it would seem that Joohyun was familiar to this.

She waits for her friends to drop their overnight bags somewhere off her wall before asking, “what do you guys want to do?”

Seulgi and Joohyun’s eyes flash with excitement. “So what’s happening with Dr. Oh?” One of the girls ask. Seulgi falls back on Kyungha’s bed, stretching. And Joohyun just plops down, leaning closer to catch Kyungha’s response.

Kyungha hums, “you can just call him Sehun. We’re together.”

Seulgi chokes. “And you didn’t think that it was important to catch us up?”

The younger merely shrugs. “I just thought you guys figured it out.”

Joohyun squints her eyes. “You’re literally so secretive. I’d have to be Einstein to figure out anything when it comes to you. The last time you’d texted us was a week ago, okay? How would we know about your sudden development with Sehun?”

Seulgi adds, “you’re such a friend.”

Kyungha’s lips curve as she throws herself between her friends. “I’m sorry. I love you guys, promise.”

Silence fills the room as her two friends gawk at her in horror.

“What?”

Joohyun manages, “who are you?”

Seulgi rubs her eyes as if she’s trying to wake up from a dream. “To think that the day Kyungha says I love you isn’t when the world is burning in a heap of inferno flames.” She sniffles dramatically, wiping an imaginary tear. “I must be dead. This isn’t real.”

Kyungha snorts. “Well, you’re not dead.”

Joohyun props herself up, gripping the younger girl’s shoulders. “You’ve changed!” To which Kyungha just rakes her hair in awkward embarrassment.

“It’s a good thing, Kyungie. You’re so cute and lovable now. Not that you weren’t before,” Seulgi coos, reaching to squeeze her cheeks.

Kyungha backs away from the two of them. “Do I still have the choice of kicking you two out?”

Joohyun sticks out her tongue, jeering, “too late. We’re going to live with you forever now. Take us in, mama. Be our sugar daddy.”

She holds out her palm, mischief dancing on her features. “You’d have to go to war with Sehun for that.”

Seulgi toots, “oh my god. Does he stay here often? That’s adorable!” She squeals, clutching her face and jumping.

“I kicked him out an hour ago. He hasn’t texted me back because he’s still butthurt about it,” Kyungha shares with exasperation.

Joohyun titters. “So other than that…how’s everything going for you both?”

“Fine,” she answers curtly, avoiding the two sets of eyes beside her.

Seulgi throws her hands up. “Oh come on! You can’t just give us fine and expect us not to be curious. Is the good?”

Joohyun snickers. “Didn’t you have a taste of it, Seul?”

“Shut the hell up, Joo-Joo,” the respective girl shoots in a clipped tone. Then, she turns back to Kyungha, beaming. “Is he?”

Kyungha hides her face. “It’s , Seul. I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”

Joohyun lies back. “ can mean a lot of things, my dear. Is he a boring missionary guy? Does he spice things up with varying positions?” Then, she pauses to narrow her eyes, her lips curling wickedly. “Do you come?”

And Kyungha believes that her friend isn’t talking about the innocent, PG denotation of the word. Seulgi giggles into her hand like a little girl gossiping about cute high school boys.

“You’re lying on it,” Kyungha says with a straight face.

Joohyun yelps, rolling away, and ends up falling off of Kyungha’s bed with a thud. She watches the girl groan, clutching her body.

Then Kyungha laughs goodheartedly, “I changed the sheets earlier.” She watches Joohyun give her the bird as she grumbles curses and jumps back onto the younger’s bed.

Seulgi’s eyes haven’t left Kyungha for a minute. So, she turns to see what her friend’s deal is. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

Her friend has a soft smile on her lips and she reaches out to tuck Kyungha’s hair behind her ears with endearment. “Because you’re beautiful.”

Kyungha snorts. “Seul, you’ve had your turn. I’m taken.”

Seulgi tackles her into a hug, squeezing. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

Joohyun joins the hug, crushing Kyungha under. “I got this, Seul.” She nods to Seulgi with determination. “She’s referring to you now. You’ve always been beautiful—so, so ing beautiful that I’d felt you were unreachable. But right now, you’re glowing and smiling. Kyungie, the first time I met you in that club, you’d seemed like you’d slit my throat if I tried to talk to you.”

Kyungha tilts her head, blinking owlishly. She’d never thought about her impression on other people. As she grew up, she’d only put herself around people she was comfortable and to them, sometimes, sometimes she’d show them bits of herself. Before she’d met Sehun, she didn’t think that there was a day she’d smiled comfortably.

Sure, she could smile around Kyungsoo and the rest of her family, but it was fleeting. They’d never know if they’d ever see it again, so Kyungsoo always called her out for it. And that just made her more insecure.

But for some reason, smiling has become the easiest thing for her nowadays. It was like her lips had memorized the action. It was simple, and it was even simpler when she was in the presence of her boyfriend.

If someone had told her that she’d enjoyed smiling and laughing weeks ago, she’d laugh distastefully in their face.

Did something change for her? So far, only her friends have pointed it out. And Jongin even went as far to make a vampire analogy dedicated to her development, quote, you went from Count Dracula to Edward Cullen, end quote.

Sure, she’d definitely found it easier to tell the truth and express herself in ways other than her usual RBF as Jungkook had dubbed it. But inside, she’d felt the same. Did she feel the same? Kyungha ponders this. She didn’t know anymore. Who was she before? Life had been so much easier during her probationary week that she was afraid to think about going back to work.

Would she revert to her old self? Sheathe her sword and wield her shield again? Kyungha feels her lips twitch as the thought of Oh Sehun graces her mind. Right, of course not. There was no way she’d be the quiet, guarded girl around her friends and family anymore. He’d make sure of that, and in this, Kyungha realizes just how much he’d made an impact on her and her view on life.

As cheesy and stupid as this sounded, he’d made her see colors. Her monochromatic world has shifted into a vast stretch of rainbow colors. She groans inwardly. He was such a greaseball all the time that it’d begin affecting her thoughts too. Jesus take the wheel.

So romance is overrated, but this time, she’d revel in her new world of colors and ooey gooey goodness that Sehun gifted her with his company. Screw society. Kyungha would form her own opinions and live that way. Her heart was considerably lighter, and she wasn’t afraid of being hurt because the endgame was Sehun and only Sehun, and that was a-ing-okay with her.

“Earth to Kyungha?” Seulgi’s voice picks up through the fog of her thoughts.

Kyungha blinks out of her daze. “Hm?”

Joohyun snickers into her hand. “She’s thinking about him. Oh my gosh, ew! How did our stone cold ice princess become so adorably tenderhearted? I am living for this!”

She laughs incredulously as her friends continue to stack on top of her, squeezing the air out her lungs.

What a life.

The lights have been dimmed and the girls are curled beside each other under Kyungha’s blanket. Seulgi breaks the silence. “Have you guys fought?”

“I think it’s mostly just me testing his patience.”

Joohyun pokes her. “You are so disgustingly cute. I can’t even. If I can’t find a man who has the patience to deal with me, love ain’t real.”

“He has the memory of goldfish. Ten minutes later and he’d forget why we were having a screaming match in the first place.”

Seulgi laughs in a witchy tone. “Look at her talk about her man. Boy, if someone doesn’t marry this girl, I will.”

“Not if I get to her first!” Joohyun spouts, pressing wet kisses on Kyungha’s cheeks.

She grimaces with a touch of adoration and amusement for her friends. “Anyway,” she continues, putting a hand on Joohyun’s cheeks and pushing her away. “We don’t really—er—fight? It’s more like we’d have a different opinion about something and then we’d sort of banter back and forth. Then, I’d grow fed up of his clever tongue and just kiss the hell out of him.” Kyungha sighs, pinching her temple. “I don’t know how to explain our dynamic. Does that even make sense?”

Seulgi gawks. “No, but that is so sickeningly sweet. Pay for my dental insurance because I just got a million cavities.” She throws her head back in an overreactive squeal. “Damn it! I’m so single it hurts.”

Joohyun cries, wiping away her imaginary tears. “It burns.”

Kyungha makes a face. “Oh shut up.” She ignores her friends when they cuddle up next to her, tangling their arms and legs and laughing into her ears.

“I love you, Kyungie.”

“I love her more. Fight me.”

She bites her lips, pressing back a grin. “I love you guys too.”

“Search his phone,” Seulgi rattles off.

Joohyun tsks. “Hold on, Seul. Say that again, Kyungie.”

Kyungha stares at her ceiling. “I feel like he’s hiding things from me. We made a promise that we wouldn’t lie to each other, but lately, he’s been more secretive. I don’t even know what questions to ask him, much less would he have the chance to lie. Wow, I’m so…pathetic,” she murmurs.

After several months of Seulgi talking her off about her boyfriend when they were in medical school, Kyungha had swore off girl talk. She absolutely could not handle people who went on hours and hours about their SO. But here she was, apparently a changed woman, and she could go on and on about her fears.

“What are you suspicious about?” Seulgi asks pensively.

Joohyun sighs. “Seul, chill out. Look, he could be planning a surprise or some other romantic . Have some faith. He’ll come around.”

Kyungha wants to believe Joohyun, honestly. She put her trust in him the day she’d kissed him in Dani’s hospital room. And yes, she did trust him a lot. Because he hasn’t done anything to break her faith. He’s been a great boyfriend, better than she’d imagined and Kyungha’s imagination when it came to romantic relationships consisted of nope, nope, and nope. But as she’d admitted, her views have changed completely.

She wasn’t sure if it was a good thing to be so open now, but Kyungha didn’t want to be those girlfriends who held their SOs on a tight leash. It wasn’t her…and she’d rather have a relationship like Baekhyun and Haeeun.

The two were madly in love, and they had complete faith in the other. She was sure nothing could be worse than the trauma they both went through.

Sehun and Kyungha didn’t have trauma, but to her recent awareness as of late, they’ve held back for four years. That had to mean something, right?

“I’m sure it’s nothing, but I saw a text message on his phone, and usually, he’d openly use his phone around me. He doesn’t hide those things. It’s not him. Yesterday, he asked me to grab his phone out of his clothes, and I only briefly saw some text messages. I didn’t bother to make out everything, but bits of the words hit me later. I think I read, ‘meet me later’ and ‘don’t tell anyone.’”

Seulgi gasps. “! He’s cheating on you already? What a—”

Joohyun slaps a hand over Seulgi’s big mouth. “In what context are we talking about?”

And Kyungha was grateful that Joohyun was the levelheaded one between the two. “I don’t know. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

Pregnant silence sinks between them.

Seulgi is the first to break it. “Did you ask him about it? Clarify anything?”

Kyungha bites the inside of her cheeks. “I couldn’t. I felt bad.”

“Do Kyungha, this is not something to feel bad about,” Seulgi scolds.

She sighs into her palm. “I know, I know. Sehun and I have a really open relat—argh, that’s not the right word. We aren’t sleeping with other people or seeing anyone else for that matter, but we joke about a lot of things, and we never take any of it seriously. I can mention my ual partners and he can mention Minjung or his ex or whoever else, and it wouldn’t matter. I don’t grow jealous over those type of things. But this time, I have a nagging feeling.”

Joohyun rubs soothing circles on Kyungha’s arm. “Honey, honestly. Gut feelings are the worst. I can’t tell you what to do, but I think if it really bothers you, you should ask him. He’d understand. Relationships are a two way thing. Don’t be afraid by yourself.”

Seulgi leans in, snuggling onto Kyungha’s shoulder. “I think Joo-Joo made a good point. I don’t know Sehun very well other than what you’ve shared with us. But if he makes you happy—hell, if he helped you realize your own potential—I think he’s worth every bit of the struggle. Don’t be scared, baby girl. Trust your instincts. Ask yourself why you chose him in the first place, and if you know the answer, then fight for your relationship. Fix the small problems before they become crises.”

Kyungha is silent as she takes in her friends’ advice. She closes her eyes, heaving a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t just Sehun that she was grateful to. She didn’t know what she would do if Seulgi and Joohyun hadn’t stuck to her like gum.

“I’m so ing grateful for both of you,” she whispers.

Seulgi and Joohyun laugh together. “We already know that, you sap.”