“Be a dear friend and stab me, please?” Lia whined as she threw herself face first on the bed in her and Lisa’s dorm.

Lisa lifted her eyes from her laptop and glanced over at Lia, “Hey Lia, my day’s been pretty okay, thanks for asking.”

Lia lifted her head from the pillow, glaring at her sister’s girlfriend. “Happy to hear you had a good day,” she said, a fake smile plastered on her face. “Can you stab me already?”

Lisa sighed, closing her laptop, she walked over to her friend’s bed. “What happened?” she asked as she nudged Lia to move over so she could sit down.

“My mom,” Lia whined over-dramatically.

“Okay, care to elaborate?”

Lia sat up, leaning against the wall, she pulled her knees to her chest and buried her head in them. “I’m such an idiot Lisa,” she sighed.

“Newsflash,” Lisa deadpanned, earning herself a deadly glare from Lia. “What’d you do?” she asked, her voice softer, as she placed a comforting hand on her friend’s knee.

She stared at the wall in front of her for a while before she finally mumbled, “I told her I have a girlfriend.”

“And don’t you?” Lisa asked with a grin, barely dodging the pillow that Lia tried to hit her in the face with.

“Don’t be a .”

Lia knew she wasn’t very subtle about her crush. Hell, how could she be when Ryujin was just so smart and so tough, and just so gorgeous?

Freshman year Lia was pissed off when she found out she wouldn’t be sharing a room with Yeji. But then she got to know the girl that would share the room with her best friend, and truth be told, she didn’t seem to mind that much anymore.

She spent a lot of time hanging out in Yeji’s room, and after some time, it wasn’t just with her best friend. Eventually, they started hanging out even outside the dorm, and after a while, even without Yeji, Lia found herself falling for her new friend.

It wasn’t that bad, her friends didn’t make fun of her as much as she expected, and she had enough studying to keep her busy.

But then Ryujin broke up with her girlfriend.

And when Yeji and Lisa found out she was gay and single, they started giving Lia so much for not doing anything about it, and it only got worse when Rosie transferred to Seoul University as well.

Before Lisa and Rosie started dating, Lia used to tease Lisa about not doing anything about her crush either, but it only took her a few weeks to ask her sister out, and so Lia had nothing to about, not to mention that she wouldn’t hear the end of it from Yeji because even Rosie’s got more game than you.

“Why’d you tell her you’re dating someone?”

“Because I panicked okay?” Lia huffed. “I told her about handing in my assignments earlier than everyone else, and instead of saying something nice for once, she was like well your sister surely would’ve done the same but she spends her free time with her girlfriend instead of studying all the time, and don’t get me wrong, cause I’m happy for you guys, I am, and I love Rosie and I love that she’s happy with you, but would it kill her to tell me I did something good?”

“So you panicked and told her you’re dating someone,” Lisa finished for her.

“Yeah,” Lia nodded. “Well, not just someone…”

“Oh wow, that’s one way to get a girl’s attention,” Lisa laughed. “Not that you already don’t have all of her attention.”

“Bull,” Lia shook her head, glaring at Lisa.

“Lia, you’ve known her for a year and a half now, did she date anyone in the time you’ve known her?”

Lia scratched at the back of her neck, trying to remember. “Well, she did have a girlfriend at the beginning of the first year.”

“No one even knew they were dating,” Lisa protested. “Plus she dumped her like three weeks after she met you.”

“So?”

Lisa frowned, crossing her arms on her chest. “We’ve been over this a thousand times Lia.”

Lia stood up from the bed and started pacing across the room. “There’s no way she’s into me, Lisa. I mean, how could someone as amazing as her like someone like me?”

“Do I need to call your sister and Yeji for an intervention?” Lisa asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Cause I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again.”

“I’m just saying, there’s no way she likes me.”

“Then how do you explain the lack of her dating life ever since she met you? Yuna says that she used to be a real ladies woman before.”

Lia came to a stop right in front of Lisa, crossing her arms. “That’s because she’s busy with school.”

Lisa cocked an eyebrow, looking at Lia incredulously. “Oh yeah, cause it would be so horrible to bone someone once in a while to relieve all that stress, yep.”

Lia sighed, rubbing her eyes. “We’re so not having this argument again.”

“We’ve been having this argument for over five minutes now.”

“Whatever,” Lia huffed as she sat down on Lisa’s bed, on the opposite side of the room, resting her head in her hands.

“Look, I’m just saying that you should give it a shot,” Lisa said after a while, her voice softer. “This whole fake girlfriend thing gives you a great opportunity.”

“I guess so,” she said without looking up at Lisa.

She heard footsteps and then felt how the bed beside her dipped as Lisa sat down, putting an arm around her. “Go ask her to be your fake girlfriend. I guarantee she won’t say no.”

“Being my fake girlfriend isn’t the worst part,” Lia mumbled, face still buried in her hands.

“Lia?”

“I told my mom we were gonna do one of those horrible Christmas cards shoots that Rosie’s making you do,” she said as she slowly looked up at Lisa just to find her biting her lip to keep from laughing.

“Well, uh,” she cleared , “I’m sure Ryujin won’t be able to say no to a romantic photo shoot in matching sweaters.”

~ ~ ~

She had texted Yeji to tell her that she needed her out of the room for an hour because she needed to talk to Ryujin about something. Of course, Yeji replied with a string of texts that Lia could practically see her eating grin through. And she knew she’d never get to hear the end of it but she also knew that she couldn’t ask Ryujin to be her fake girlfriend in front of Yeji because that would only make everything worse.

She didn’t bother with explaining why she needed to talk to Ryujin in private, telling Yeji that she could ask Lisa while she chats with Ryujin.

So now here she was, pacing in front of Ryujin’s room, wringing her hands nervously, trying to get the courage to knock on the damn door.

She felt her phone vibrate in her pocket so she pulled it out to look at it. It was a text from Rosie, and when Lia opened it she found that her sister had sent her a video of Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid followed by a row of emojis.

Rolling her eyes at her sister’s antics, she put the phone back into her pocket, deciding to talk with her later. She took a deep breath as she counted to three and finally knocked on the door.

She could hear soft footsteps from the other side of the door before it swung open, a grinning Ryujin leaning against it.

“Hey, come on in,” she stepped aside as she opened the door wider so Lia could walk in.

As she walked around Ryujin she caught a waft of her perfume and nearly tripped over her own feet. “Hey, Ryujin,” she smiled nervously, standing in the middle of the room, wringing her hands.

“Is everything okay?” Ryujin asked as she closed the door and walked over to her bed where she sat down.

“Yeah, why?” Lia asked, voice a little higher than she’d like it to be.

Ryujin raked her eyes over her body and Lia could feel her knees going weak, but she didn’t move to sit down. “You seem a little off…”

“I do?” she squeaked out, cursing herself internally.

“Yeah…”

“Okay, uh, how do I begin, uh,” she ran her fingers through her hair as she started pacing. “I did something really stupid…”

“Are you okay?” Ryujin asked, concern in her voice.

“Yeah, I just, I wish I could turn back the time so I could take it all back, you know.” Lia chuckled nervously as she sat down next to Ryujin.

“You didn’t sleep with the guy from the tutoring sessions, did you?”

Lia knew Ryujin was trying to relieve some of the tension in the room but she couldn’t help but notice the thing that flickered in Ryujin eyes and looked an awful lot like jealousy.

“What? No, ew,” she laughed, bumping her shoulder against her friend’s.

“Okay good,” Ryujin chuckled. “Whatever it is, can’t be worse than that.”

“Yeah?”

“Yep.”

Lia took a deep breath to calm her beating heart before she blurted out, “I told my mom that we’re dating.”

Ryujin’s eyes went wide, a blush coloured her cheeks. “You did what now?”

“I’m so sorry! It just kind of slipped out, one second I was just talking to her about how I’m doing and the next thing I know she’s praising Rosie for how amazingly she’s doing, and she’s diminishing my accomplishments, and then I’m telling her I’m dating you so she’d finally tell me I’m doing something good, and you know what? I’m just gonna call her and tell her the truth. I shouldn’t have come here… I’m so sorry,” Lia stood up from the bed and wanted to get out of the room but she was stopped by Ryujin’s hand, holding her wrist gently.

She smiled at her softly, patting the bed beside her with her free hand so Lia would sit down “Breathe, Lia.”

Lia took a deep breath as she sat down next to Ryujin, noticing how the other girl didn’t let go of her wrist even though she sat down, not that she was complaining. “I’m sorry,” she grinned apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Ryujin smiled reassuringly.

“Yeah?”

Ryujin bowed her head slightly, a lopsided grin on her face. “It’d be an honour to be your fake girlfriend.”

Before she realized what she was doing, Lia surged forward, hugging Ryujin tightly. “You’re the best.”

“Yeah, well, what are friends for?” Ryujin asked, with a somewhat sad smile which Lia decided not to dwell on at the moment after they pulled apart.

“Dressing up into matching sweaters for a romantic photoshoot?”

Ryujin’s eyes went wide with horror, “The one that Rosie and Lisa are doing?”

“The one that Rosie and Lisa are doing,” Lia nodded.

Ryujin groaned, rubbing her forehead with her index and middle finger. “Those freaking sweaters better be less… Rosie.”

“Oh, yeah, don’t worry about that,” Lia chuckled.

The sweaters that her little sister had picked for the photoshoot with her girlfriend were, well, too Rosie. Bright red with a big reindeer head that had a sewn-on red nose, which when you squeezed would start playing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

When Lisa didn’t protest after seeing how happy Rosie was about them, Lia knew two things. One, Lisa loved her sister, and two, she was out of her freaking mind.

“We should probably make up a few stories,” Ryujin said after they sat in silence for a while. “You know, to make it more believable in case I ever meet your mom. Like first dates, and who asked who out…”

“Yeah, good idea,” Lia agreed. “So, I asked you out...“

“No way.”

“Why not?”

“Because I would be the one doing the asking out,” Ryujin protested.

“Bull.”

“You know what?” Ryujin stood up from the bed, walking over to the door. “Let’s ask the girls what they think.”

“Fair enough I guess,” with a sigh Lia stood up from the bed, following Ryujin out the door and down the hallway to her room.

~ ~ ~

“It’s seriously not that funny,” Lia huffed, annoyed.

Yeji was lying on the bed, gripping her stomach tightly as she laughed her off. She’d been laughing for over five minutes, so hard she was crying.

Lia and Ryujin were standing by the door, not having moved since they walked in and asked the question.

“It is,” Rosie lifted her head from Lisa’s shoulder where she was trying to muffle her laughter.

Ryujin folded her arms across her chest, frowning. “It’s not.”

“It is,” Lisa nodded, biting her lip to keep herself from laughing any more.

“What’s so funny about it?” Lia snapped.

Yeji sat up on the bed, taking deep breaths to calm herself down a bit. “You’re essentially asking us which one of you would top,” she barely managed to get the sentence out before she was cackling again.

Ryujin’s jaw dropped, and Lia’s cheeks turned almost as read as Rosie’s and Lisa’s sweaters. “No we’re not,” she protested, her voice much higher than she’d like.

“We just asked you who would be the one to ask the other out,” Ryujin forced out after she managed to close .

Lisa cleared , raising her hand as if she was asking permission to speak. “I believe it was you, Ryujin, who asked us, which one seems more dominant after we told you we didn’t know who’d do the asking out…”

“You guys are the worst,” Ryujin huffed, turning around to leave. “Lia wanna get some pizza?”

Lia glared at her friends, turning around to follow Ryujin. “Yes, please.”

~ ~ ~

It was exactly three days later, Lia and Ryujin were alone in Ryujin’s room, lying next to one another in her bed, watching some mindless show on Netflix, when Lia’s phone started ringing.

And she nearly got a heart attack when she heard the ringtone. Because it was the special ringtone she had set for her mother. And the last time they called she told her she was dating Ryujin. And now she was calling her, and Lia was alone with Ryujin, and her mom would surely ask about her, and Lia needed to remind herself to breath.

She quickly grabbed the phone, noticing that it was a video call, her heart started beating even faster. Showing the phone to Ryujin silently, as if Eliza could hear them.

“,” Ryujin mouthed.

“I have to pick up,” Lia whispered.

Ryujin took a deep breath, pausing the show before she nodded. “Okay.”

Lia took Ryujin’s hand into hers, squeezing it tightly, just to make the whole thing believable of course, even though Eliza couldn’t see their hands.

She took a deep breath, put a wide smile on her face and finally answered the call. “Mom!”

“Hi sweetie, how are you?” Her mother smiled at her daughter.

Ryujin leaned closer to Lia, so Eliza could see her as well. “Hello, miss Choi.”

“You must be Ryujin,” Lia’s mother face lit up when she saw her. “I’d love to say that I’ve heard a lot about you but I only got to know you exist three days ago.”

Lia’s grip on Ryujin’s hand tightened, she could feel Ryujin squeeze back gently, reassuringly. “Yeah, that’s kind of my fault. I asked if we could keep it quiet for a while because I broke up with my ex-girlfriend to be with your daughter, and I didn’t want to hurt her any more than I already had,” Ryujin grinned apologetically.

Lia glanced over at Ryujin as she was talking, she couldn’t believe that she was trying to take the blame on herself.

“I see,” Lia’s mom nodded. “So tell me, how long have you been together exactly?”

Lia felt Ryujin tense up at the question because of course, her mom would ask the one thing that they didn’t discuss. “Two months,” Lia replied, feeling Ryujin relax slightly.

“Two months and you didn’t tell me anything?” Lia felt her stomach sink at her mother’s tone.

Ryujin must’ve sensed it though because she moved even closer, kissing the underside of Lia’s jaw, as Lia tried not to shiver at the contact. “She respects me, that’s one of the things I love the most about her,” Lia turned to look at her, her breath hitching, as she noticed the way Ryujin was looking at her, soft, and sweet, and loving, and it didn’t feel like she was faking it at all.

She swallowed thickly, reminding herself that she had her mom on the phone, she forced herself to look away. “Well aren’t you two just adorable,” her mom smiled at the two of them. “I have to go now, Lia, I just wanted to check in with you to see how you’re doing, and I think that dopey smile on your face is enough of an answer.”

Her eyes went wide, cheeks red. “Mom.”

“It was nice to finally get to know you Ryujin,” she continued, ignoring Lia. “Take good care of my daughter.”

“Will do ma’am,” Ryujin smiled as she nuzzled into Lia’s shoulder, and Lia had to remind herself that it’s just to keep up the act.

“Oh, and you should come to visit us during Christmas break, Lisa’s coming over to celebrate New Year’s with us, so maybe you could come with her?”

Lia went to protest, to tell her mom Ryujin was busy, that there was no way she could make it but Ryujin beat her to it, “I would love that.”

“Okay, girls, I have to get back to work now, have a nice day, and Lia tell your sister I say hi,” before Lia could say anything her mother cancelled the call.

Ryujin chuckled into Lia’s shoulder, not moving away. “That was…”

“One big show, yeah,” Lia finished.

They laid like that in silence for a while, Ryujin’s head on Lia’s shoulder, their fingers still tangled before Ryujin broke the silence. “Don’t worry I’m not gonna come over on New Year’s. I just wanted to buy us some time to figure out a good excuse.”

Lia’s stomach sank at that, but she knew this wasn’t a real relationship, there was no reason for Ryujin to spend her the New Year’s Eve with her. “Right.”

“Do you wanna get back to watching?” she asked after Ryujin still didn’t move from her position on Lia’s shoulder.

“Can we just nap for a bit? I’m really tired,” she mumbled, nuzzling even closer, and Lia felt like someone was squeezing her heart in their fist. Because she was cuddling with Ryujin, which was pretty much all she’d been dreaming about since last year, among other things, but there was no way it could be anything but friendly.

“Okay,” she nodded. “Maybe you should put the laptop away though.”

“Right,” Ryujin sat up, letting go of Lia’s hand, she grabbed the laptop and closed it, putting it on the floor next to the bed.

Lia didn’t even have time to miss the warmth of Ryujin’s body because she cuddled right back into her, this time throwing an arm around Lia’s waist, and tangling out of her legs with Lia’s. “This okay?”

“Yeah,” Lia squeaked out, cursing herself internally for not being able to keep it together.

Who could blame her though? A gorgeous woman, who she’d been crushing on for over a year, was lying next to her, wrapped around her, and if Lia thought she had it bad before, she was pretty much doomed now.

She was lying there, not knowing what to do with her limbs, not wanting to move so she wouldn’t disturb Ryujin, so would stay wrapped around her.

“I don’t bite,” Ryujin pulled her out of her musings.

“Huh?”

To answer her question Ryujin took her right hand and wrapped it around her waist, pulling Lia closer into her. And Lia found herself praying to whatever deity there was to make her heartbeat quieter.

“Night, Lia,” Ryujin mumbled, making Lia shiver as her breath ghosted across her neck.

“Night, Ryujin,” she whispered, not daring to speak any louder.

She was almost asleep when she heard Ryujin’s chuckle, “Yeji is going to give us so much when she finds us like this. Not that I care…”

~ ~ ~

Two days, and a lot of teasing from all of their friends later, because Yeji just had to take a picture of their friendly nap, they found themselves in the school’s photo studio with Yuna, after they a good hour of trying to get Yeji, Lisa, and Rosie out of there.

Yuna had chosen a green screen as a background, saying Chaeryeong would photoshop it later, and an old brown leather sofa that was beyond worn out.

They were both standing and looking at the scene in front of them, separating themselves with Yuna between them, both of them too nervous to move.

“As much as I loved your company, guys, I have a lecture in two hours,” Yuna said, breaking the awkward silence.

“Right, sorry,” Lia walked over to the sofa, proud of herself for tripping over her feet only once. Sitting down on the sofa, she watched as Ryujin walked over to her with her usual confidence, and Lia had to look to compose herself.

Instead of matching sweaters, they both agreed to wear red checked flannels, because it just felt more like them. Not that there was a them, it felt more like Lia and Ryujin, who were just friends, nothing more.

God Lia was ed.

The first couple of minutes of the photoshoot went pretty well.

They took a few shots just sitting on the couch, sitting right next to each other, Lia’s arm thrown over Ryujin’s shoulders. At some of the pictures they were looking at one another, on others, they were laughing on Yuna’s jokes.

After that, Yuna told them to just sit on opposite ends of the couch and tangle their legs together, which was okay as well.

But then Yuna asked Lia to lie down on her back, and Ryujin to lie right on top of her. To pretend that they fell asleep on the couch, one on top of the other.

And it wasn’t really bad. It wasn’t bad at all. But when Ryujin looked down at her with a nervous smile, and slowly lowered herself onto her, intertwining their legs together as she rested her head on Lia’s chest, Lia nearly had an aneurysm, what a way to go.

She was pretty sure that Ryujin could hear her heart slamming in her chest, and she tried taking deep breaths, but there was no way she was going to calm down.

“Lia?” Yuna’s voice pulled her back to Earth.

“Yeah?”

“Could you maybe, if Ryujin doesn’t mind, of course, put your hands in the back pockets of her jeans? It’ll look more intimate, you know…”

Lia could hear Ryujin saying that she doesn’t mind, could feel her hands slipping into the pockets without really giving them a command. She could feel the burning blush on her cheeks and all she could hear was her own heart pounding in her ears.

She was holding Ryujin’s . And even though there were two layers, Lia didn’t want to let her mind explore the alternative with only one layer, between her hands and Ryujin’s skin, Lia had never felt, well, gayer.

And then Ryujin was nuzzling into her slightly exposed collar bone, and Lia just let herself enjoy the moment, as she buried her nose in Ryujin’s hair, closing her eyes. Just letting all of her senses to be flooded by Ryujin.

But it was over too fast, Yuna telling them what a great job they’re doing, how it looks real, joking if they didn’t want to consider a change of career because they sure were great actresses.

They sat next to each other, waiting for Yuna to tell them what to do next, while she looked through the pictures she’d taken.

And then it happened.

Lia felt like her whole was suddenly spinning because Yuna asked them if they were okay with kissing for a few shots, to make the whole thing look like they were in the honeymoon phase of their relationship, and Lia felt like she was about to throw up.

Not that she didn’t want to kiss Ryujin, hell, she’d been wanting to do that for what seemed like forever. But she didn’t want to do it like this. She didn’t want to kiss her and then go back to being friends, to watching Ryujin kiss some other girl.

But Ryujin was nodding her head and looking at Lia with those big eyes, looking all vulnerable, and Lia couldn’t say no to her.

“Okay, um, help me move the couch?” Yuna asked, and before Lia could even react Ryujin had already lifted it on the other side, helping Yuna carry it away.

Lia turned around, watching her walk back, letting her eyes drop to her waist where Ryujin had her flannel tucked in, swallowing thickly as she looked back up to meet Ryujin’s warm eyes.

“Hey, you okay?” Ryujin asked her softly, quietly, stopping right in front of her, taking her hands into her own, rubbing soothing circles with her thumbs.

“Yeah,” Lia breathed, trying to smile but failing.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want to,” Ryujin looked up at her, smiling reassuringly, and Lia’s knees just felt so weak, she wished they still had the couch there so she could sit down.

“I’m okay, Ryujin.”

“Lia I don’t wanna force you to do anything you’re not comfortable with,” Yuna said as she walked over to them.

“I wanna kiss her, okay?” she snapped, feeling her cheeks go red again when she saw Yuna’s knowing smile. Feeling her heart beat a little faster when she looked at Ryujin and saw the soft, almost adoring look in her eyes, and for a second there she let herself hope that maybe, she’s not reading into anything, maybe her friends are right, maybe she does stand a chance.

“Okay,” said Yuna, preparing her camera. “Whenever you’re ready, guys.”

And then Ryujin squeezed Lia’s hands even tighter in hers, Lia leaning and meeting her halfway. And when their lips finally met, Lia knew there was no way she could ever kiss anyone but Ryujin, because her lips felt just so soft, so perfect, so right, moving against her own.

And when they both pulled back because they needed air, they didn’t even notice how Yuna left with a wide happy grin on her face and a camera in her hand, knowing that the picture of their first kiss would make a pretty good wedding gift in a couple of years.

“Wow,” Lia breathed, as she swallowed thickly, her eyes still closed, not daring to open them and break the moment, to open them and pretend she sees Ryujin as nothing but a friend again, to open them and see Ryujin looking at her as a friend.

But then she felt Ryujin’s forehead against hers and Ryujin’s warm breath on her lips as she chuckled. “Why haven’t we done that sooner?” and she got that little bit of bravery that she needed to pull back and open her eyes, to look at Ryujin and see nothing but pure adoration and joy.

She felt tears stinging her eyes as she laughed happily, shaking her head she shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d want to.”

“You’re joking right?” Ryujin looked at her incredulously.

“No, why?”

“I didn’t think you’d want to,” they both laughed as Ryujin let go of Lia’s hands, cupping her jaw she looked up at her. “Would you maybe want to do it again?”

“Most definitely,” Lia replied a soft smile on her lips, pulling Ryujin closer by her elbows as she kissed her again.