[TW for some use]

Apparently, according to Hyunjin, all Ryujin had to do was rely on her. 

Which, if Ryujin was being absolutely, completely honest, sounded like the worst idea to ever have been thought of since she was born. 

"Listen, it's real simple, Ryu." Hyunjin clapped her hands together, pacing back and forth behind the coffee table as Ryujin lied on the couch, contently playing a game on her phone. "Ryujin? Ryujin. Ryu. Listen. Hey."

Hyunjin began snapping her fingers, but all of Ryujin's attention was on her phone as she tried passing the next level of her game. "Hold on."

"What the ." Before Ryujin knew it, Hyunjin had plucked her phone right out of her hands and turned it off, tossing it into her hoodie pockets and crossing her arms over her chest. 

From the couch, Ryujin sputtered, her hands dropping to her stomach as she stared at Hyunjin irritatedly. "Dude! I was so close to beating that level."

"This is serious!" Hyunjin countered back, glaring back at Ryujin who only rolled her eyes and covered her face with an arm, refusing to look at Hyunjin. "You asked me to help you last night, so that's what I'm gonna do."

Thinking back to the night before, Ryujin was beginning to regret ever going to Hyunjin to begin with—she regretted even letting something like that slip in the first place. "I don't even know if I wanna go through with this anymore." Truth be told, she was having doubts. When she admitted to Hyunjin that she needed help, she'd been half-dead from exhaustion and she hadn't been thinking straight. 

"Man, don't give me that bull." Ryujin winced at Hyunjin's tone, recognizing the annoyance underlying her words. "Don't out on me now."

"I'm not 'pussying' my way out of anything, Hyun." Ryujin sighed, moving to sit up properly on the couch and rest her hands on her knees as she looked up at Hyunjin. "It's just—" she cut herself off, looking down at her suddenly bouncing knee—an annoying habit she could never shake off— trying desperately to find the words that'll sound right out loud without making herself look like a total wuss. "What if it doesn't go well? You know? I-I'm just skeptical 'bout all of this."

"All right, listen, Ryu." Hyunjin moved around the coffee table, settling herself next to Ryujin. "I know what you're feeling, trust me. It’s always gonna be confusing, but that’s why you got me to help you out." 

And, it hurt to admit, but Ryujin knew exactly what she was talking about. She remembered all the times Hyunjin came to her with all these questions and doubts about Heejin before they began dating, thinking too hard about the consequences and not going through with things when she needed to. 

Ryujin just hated that she was in that situation now. 

"I-I dunno, Hyun." Ryujin fell back against the couch, furrowing her brows as all these conflicting thoughts invaded her mind. "What if this is just some stupid," she waved her hand around her head to gesticulate her next words, "weird hormonal thing my brain is going through?"

"What, getting a crush on someone?" Hyunjin scoffed and let her body fall right next to Ryujin's on the back of the couch. "That'll never go away."

Her wording threw Ryujin off, causing her to look at Hyunjin with the most incredulous expression she could muster. "Are you saying you still get crushes despite being with Heejin?"

Hyunjin finally seemed to understand what she said and turned to Ryujin so quickly it was a wonder how she didn't get whiplash. "No!" Then, she narrowed her eyes and pointed at Ryujin accusingly, "Don't twist my words."

A little shocked that Hyunjin would turn on her so suddenly, Ryujin couldn’t help the surprised chuckle that escaped her as she refuted, “I’m not twisting anything! You’re the one who said you never stop having crushes!”

“That’s not exactly what I meant!” Her case wasn’t very strong and she didn’t even sound too confident in her words. 

“Oh yeah?” Ryujin tilted her head to the side, smiling smugly at the prospect of having the upper hand. “Then what did you mean?” 

Hyunjin was able to quickly regain her composure—unsettling Ryujin with the way Hyunjin’s face quickly transitioned from a troubled expression to a joyous one within a span of a second. “I meant that I do have a crush. And I always will have a crush.” 

At that point, Ryujin was just confused. Utterly and inexplicably confused. “Dude, what?” 

“Heejin’s my crush!” Hyunjin said excitedly, almost as if it was her biggest accomplishment. 

“But you’re dating her.” 

Hyunjin nodded. “I am.”

Ryujin’s known Hyunjin all her life—from the moment they could kick a soccer ball, they’d been by each other’s side forever—but she’ll never, ever, be able to fully understand Hyunjin's mind and her thought processes. 

“Okay, run that by me again. This time, elaborate.” Ryujin positioned her body so that she was facing Hyunjin, ready to take in information she hoped would make more sense the second time around. 

“I—me,” Hyunjin gestured to herself with both hands, nodding and speaking slowly as if she were talking to a drowsy child who wasn’t listening. Ryujin let her continue like that if only to watch the whole thing unfold. “I am dating Heejin; very pretty girl— a very pretty skater girl—is a weeb, looks like a puppy, you know her, you are friends with her.” 

“Rings a bell.” It only seemed fun to play along with Hyunjin. 

“We’re dating.” 

“Yes, you mentioned it already.”

“I had a crush on her before. I have a crush on her now. I’ll have a crush on her tomorrow and onward. Get what I’m saying?” 

Somehow, with all the crazy bull Hyunjin managed to spew out, it made a little sense to Ryujin. 

Relenting, Ryujin decided to go along with it again. “Okay, yeah, sure.”

“No, no. I mean,” Hyunjin cut herself off, suddenly leaning forward to place her hand on Ryujin’s arm while giving her an odd look that reminded Ryujin of an awkward parent trying desperately to bond with their kid. “Do you really get it?”

Looking at the hand on her arm and then looking back at Hyunjin, Ryujin slowly moved her arm away until Hyunjin’s hand slipped off. “Yeah?” She didn’t sound too sure of herself because she honestly was confused about where her friend was trying to take the conversation. “Man, just explain it to me. Stop doing this weird voodoo .” 

Ryujin slapped Hyunjin’s hand when it was trying to snake its way back to Ryujin’s arm, giving her a weird look as she rubbed the sore spot. “Ow, fine. You’re stupid and no fun anyway,” she grumbled, slightly pouting while Ryujin only rolled her eyes, gesturing for her to get on with it. “You could have what me and Heejin have with Yeji.” 

“A crush that lasts an eternity?” 

“Well, yeah! Sure!” Ryujin swore that Hyunjin replicated the exact image of a dog wagging its tail after being praised. 

“God, you’re in’ stupid.” Without waiting to hear what kind of retort Hyunjin had, Ryujin got up from the couch and made her way toward their kitchenette. 

“Dude, aw c’mon!” she heard Hyunjin call from behind her, but Ryujin was already walking around the counter and opening their fridge for anything she could snack on. “I’m trying to help you out here!” 

“You’re not doing !” she called back, scouring each shelf in their fridge despite finding nothing too appetizing to her. “All you’ve been doing is talking .” 

She closed the fridge after a fruitless search, huffing out a breath in annoyance when she realized they’d have to go to the grocery store soon. “I’m just trying to make a point!” 

“Well, your point is jack !” Growing frustrated with the lack of food in their home, Ryujin turned around to lean against the counter, finally facing Hyunjin and noticing how she made herself sprawled across the entirety of the couch. 

“Don’t you want to date Yeji?” 

The question came out of nowhere, stunning Ryujin enough that she couldn’t even form a single coherent thought in her mind. Because all of a sudden all she could think about was being with Yeji. 

Her silence only gave Hyunjin the answer she was looking for. 

“Ha! See?” Hyunjin sprung off the couch, bounding over to the counter that separated the kitchenette and the living room, placing both hands on the wood as she leaned forward. “You do!”

“I didn’t even say anything,” Ryujin argued, fighting hard to try and compose herself. 

“You didn’t have to.” Hyunjin sat down onto one of the stools, placing her elbows on the counter with her head in her hands, giving Ryujin an innocent expression that only made her want to smack right off her face. “You, my dear friend, want to date our young and beautiful Yeji.”

“I’m telling her you said that about her.” It was a weak attempt to try and break Hyunjin’s ego down—one she had to try just to see if it would at least knock Hyunjin down a few pegs. 

“Go ahead.” Ryujin scowled. “I’m sure she’d like the compliment, but you know what I’d think she’d love even more?” Ryujin crossed her arms over her chest, refusing to look at Hyunjin now that she felt figuratively cornered by her. But from the corner of her eye, Ryujin saw how Hyunjin cupped her hands around and theatrically whispered, “Hearing that from you.” 

Fortunately for Ryujin, Hyunjin’s phone pinged with the reminder signaling that Heejin and Yeji’s class was almost over. 

“Perfect timing, I’d say.” Ryujin watched with a glare as Hyunjin hopped off the stool—not before leaving Ryujin’s phone on the counter—and walking toward her room through the hallway. “Let’s go get something to eat after we pick ‘em up!” Hyunjin called out, disappearing from view as Ryujin stepped forward to collect her phone. 

With Hyunjin gone, Ryujin had a little free time to collect her thoughts, trying hard to figure out why she froze up so easily from the question earlier. 

Did she want to date Yeji?

She'd be lying to herself if the thought hadn't crossed her mind. And the more she dwelled on it, the more she wanted it to become a reality. She didn't even know when it had come to that point, but it happened and the feeling wasn't going away anytime soon. 

So, the answer was yes. 

She did want to date Yeji. 

⊗⊗⊗

"Where are they?" Ryujin asked impatiently, sitting against a tree with Hyunjin next to her. 

They had been waiting outside the building for a while now, forcing themselves to entertain the other with dumb little games like chasing each other around in the grass or trying to climb up a tree to the very top (they got caught by a professor walking by, getting humiliatingly scolded by him until he left, only leaving Hyunjin and Ryujin back to their own devices). 

"I dunno," Hyunjin mumbled, pulling blades of grass out of the ground next to her. "I think Heejin said they had some kind of test or something."

"Well, they are taking their god damn time, aren't they?" Hyunjin only grunted, growing just as impatient as Ryujin. 

It was a Friday, meaning neither Hyunjin or Ryujin had any classes or soccer practice while the other two only had one class in the morning. Ryujin and Hyunjin always made the effort to go meet up with them after so they could take the rest of the day to do whatever they liked whether that meant going somewhere to get lunch or finding something to do to pass the time. 

"So," Hyunjin began when minutes passed and still no sign of the two girls yet. "What are you gonna do about Yeji?"

Ryujin chalked it up to no longer trying to deny it, if she tried, Hyunjin would shoot her down too quickly and then there'd be no escape. 

"I dunno." Ryujin tugged lightly at her shoe strings, trying to occupy herself so she wouldn't feel so awkward talking about it. "I don't want to mess things up between... us and everyone else." She finally voiced her biggest fear to Hyunjin. It sent her heart hammering and her nerves skyrocketing. 

She's known Hyunjin ever since she was little, but she met Heejin and Yeji two years ago for their freshman year of college. So what happens if Yeji doesn't reciprocate her feelings? Or what if they do—somehow, by some miracle—they do end up dating (a terrifying thought for Ryujin) but something happens and they end things on a bad note? There were all these possibilities haunting Ryujin and she didn't know what to do or how to go about any of it. 

"You're... scared?" Ryujin grimaced, she hated being called that—and Hyunjin knew it too. It just that much more to admit that she was. Her silence must have been enough of an answer because Hyunjin bumped her shoulder lightly. "You know there's nothing to be scared of, right?"

But Ryujin scoffed because there was so much riding on her shoulders and if she ed up, what happens then? A strain in the group? A falling out? She wouldn't know what to do with herself if everything about their little group fell apart. 

"You know, it's kinda common knowledge that Fred and Daphne had a thing with each other." Ryujin shouldn't have expected anything less from Hyunjin, but it still baffled her the way she randomly brought up the romance of two characters from a kid's TV show.

"What the does that have to do with anything?" She ran a hand tiredly through her hair, regretting ever getting into this situation to begin with. 

"Uh, hello?" Hyunjin lightly tapped the top of Ryujin's head—to which she immediately recoiled from the touch. "Fred and Daphne? You and Yeji? C'mon, Ryu, you're smarter than that. Or, well, maybe you're not." In retaliation to her little quip, Ryujin shoved Hyunjin's shoulder, hoping to knock her down but the latter only laughed and knocked Ryujin's hand away. 

"That doesn't mean anything," she grumbled. 

"Sure it does!" Hyunjin positioned herself so that she was facing Ryujin, leaning forward and off the tree from where she had been resting against it. "You know Shaggy and Velma dated too?"

But Ryujin hadn't known that. "No? Wait, really?"

"Really!" She nodded eagerly. "Shaggy and Velma." She then gestured to herself, "Me and Heejin." 

"Are you for real?" 

"I'm being completely serious, Ryu. One hundred percent." 

It was quite the coincidence considering they had assigned each other characters before Hyunjin and Heejin began dating. Ryujin was surprised to see it all come together like that. 

"And you know what that means?" Ryujin leaned her head back against the tree, closing her eyes and bracing herself for the teasing Hyunjin was about to unleash on her. "You and Yeji have the same fate," she had whispered it dramatically. Had the doors to the building not opened right after Hyunjin had said that, she would have decked her in the face. 

"Sorry!" Like some cruel trick, Ryujin's eyes opened the moment she recognized the voice, landing immediately on Yeji as she walked down the steps with Heejin in tow. "The test was pretty hard and Heejin was taking forever to finish."

"Okay, but what did you get for the second question, Yeji?" Heejin asked, too preoccupied worrying over her test results to greet her girlfriend who had sprung up the second they had walked out. 

(And it was quite comical seeing how dejected Hyunjin looked when she was not given a second of Heejin's time. Karma truly loves to make her arrival when she pleases, and Ryujin was not complaining one bit.)

"B, I think." Ryujin slowly got up, meeting the other three halfway as they all gathered under the tree. 

"What?" Hee