i. electric love // børns

zeng keni bursts into yu yan’s tiny room of their shared apartment without knocking, half occupied with chewing a piece of her waffle and half rambling about the beach and xueer’s birthday and spring before she notices the redhead still in her bed and paying too little attention. yu yan has half a mind to get up and give her a shoulder throw but keni beats her to it and jumps on the older girl’s bed instead.

“what the hell were you saying?”

“we’re going on a roadtrip!” it’s more of a declaration than a question and yu yan knows better than to argue at this point, choosing to push off the girl lying across her stomach and head to the bathroom.

yu yan walks into their kitchen to find waffles and coffee waiting for her on the counter beside keni’s own plate and she gives the girl a weird side hug with a small blush before clearing . “you must be excited for the thing if you’re this happy in the morning, what was it again?”

“it’s spring break and xueer wanted to go somewhere far for her birthday so she invited us and some clowns to go with her. it’s only for .”

“just how many clowns are we talking?”

“so there’s xueer and jiaqi, xiaotang and shuxin, keyin, lingzi, zihan, chengxuan, and us!” keni counts off from her fingers and smiles when she reaches ten. yu yan internally groans at the thought of spending five days with nine crazy girls but the way keni smiles right now makes her grin back, like the moon reflecting light from the sun, her sun.

“ugh. where are we going?” keni clasps her hands at yu yan’s response and starts talking about the itinerary and everything in between, the other girl just watching with a ghost of smile and a fuzzy feeling settling in her stomach.

it’s a bit of a haze for yu yan but in three days they’re completely packed for five days with a cooler, snacks, and a few corn cobs in her old suv’s trunk. lingzi, zihan, and chenxuan settle in the back seat and yu yan thinks for a moment why they’re even using two cars when they could probably fit in shuxin’s van. “first of all it’s a vintage volkswagen van, and we want to have enough space for all our stuff in the back.” she remembers the rich girl’s correction and chuckles a little.

“what’s funny?” keni climbs in the passenger seat, prompting yu yan to get ready to drive to shuxin’s apartment.

“oh i was just thinking about how we ended up in two cars.”

“well you know some of us don’t pack lightly.” keni glances at her best friend in the back seat hugging a dinosaur pillow, lingzi furrows her eyebrows at her. “hey we all brought a lot of . xueer has two suitcases!”

“it’s her birthday”

“this is a shared celebration!” the whole car laughs at lingzi’s exasperation but yu yan cuts it off quickly to check if everyone’s ready to go, taking off after a chorus of yes and a noncommittal nod from zihan.

they arrive at shuxin’s apartment in less than twenty minutes but everyone’s already there, scattered around the apartment and yu yan can already tell this is only 9% of the potential chaos from this roadtrip. xueer and jiaqi greet them at the door, the latter’s hand wrapped around the shorter girl’s waist and they tell them to eat anything on the table. keni’s in the middle of adoring how yu yan takes care of the shy chengxuan, constantly telling the girl to pick the healthy things and eat well for the long trip; when shuxin all but stands on the table, voice booming across the apartment.

“okay everybody come in here! we’re going to go over the plan.” grumbling is heard around the room as the girls all gather in the main room. shuxin and xiaotang talk about the itinerary and their plans in each location, going over their intended schedule and buddy system.

“what about roommates?”

“ugh, no dibs with jiaqi and xueer i don’t need to see that.”

“keni’s just bitter she’s single.” jiaqi smirks at the taller girl who just sends back a glare.

“maybe if she wasn’t so busy ing around.”  the other girls laugh with keyin who gets a pillow in her face and keni laughs along too until she makes eye contact with yu yan who has an unremeets yu yan’s eyes but there’s something there that she can’t quite read.

“okay anyways, we have three rooms so jiaqi and i will just go with these crackheads and the other rooms will have three people each” there’s a chorus of agreements and shuxin continues the assignments.

“right and im sorry to everyone else since your room isn’t as fun without me but it’ll be okay! keyin and zihan are buddies so you can stay in room 2 with…lingzi?” the girl in question merely nods in response, obviously more interested in the bread she’s eating.

“great! so that leaves yu yan, keni, and chengxuan. happy family!” yu yan seems to have spaced out until shuxin mentions her and she chuckles at the smiling chengxuan, leaving a half confused keni alone with her thoughts before they all leave the apartment.

-+-

the first hour of the ride is just like any other roadtrip montage in every teenage movie ever. keni plugs in her phone and blasts a weird mix with borns, dua lipa, and the beatles from the car speakers. the girls are all scream singing to electric love and in two swift motions, keni swings over to the backseat, opens the sunroof and climbs up; hands in the air and screaming at the top of her lungs. she looks like the picture perfect definition of those gorgeous liberated girls you can only see in films, practically glowing when she comes back down and smiles at yu yan in a way that makes the redhead combust. she melts in a reddened cheek mess of a smile back, falling even more and yu yan kinda hates herself a little.

“did you ever think we’d be here right now?” the three girls in the backseat are all sound asleep and keni’s the first to break their past few minutes of comfortable silence with yu yan’s occasional humming.

“no. i had never thought we’d be going on a roadtrip on springbreak of our senior year.”

“right? i thought this was a summer thing.” keni pauses for a second before continuing. “i’m glad though. i really am.”

yu yan thinks it’s also kind of ridiculous it took them almost four years before going on a trip with each other, funny how that’s also how long she’s been in love with her jiejie turned roommate.  if she wasn’t driving she probably would have flashed back to their first meeting, of pairings in econ class and questioning why keni started college three years later than usual. she takes a glance at the older girl and smiles, a genuinely soft one this time.

“me too.” keni takes that as a cue to grab yu yan’s free right hand, intertwining it with her own and then with a tiny glimmer in her eyes, asks for a promise like a seven-year-old. “promise we’ll be just happy this week?”

yu yan squeezes her hand in response, aware that keni already knows the answer anyway. “i’ll make you happy too.”

somehow her hand moves on its own and brings their intertwined fingers closer, placing a chaste kiss on keni’s knuckles and says something that makes the other girl’s mind go haywire. “you already have, baby.” keni pulls away in a poor attempt to hide her flustered face, pretending to be concerned about how the wrong song is playing and yu yan just smiles in return.

i’ll make you the happiest, zeng keni.

-+-

they arrive at the small beach hotel way too late for lunch and way too early for dinner. by some god’s miracle they actually get to check in despite keyin and shuxin bickering over keeping all the snacks in yu yan’s car.

“well you should have taken some for yourself before we left.”

“how could you not share when everyone was starving to death?”

“you’re such a drama queen”

“aww thanks, you’re a quee—”

“both of you shut up and get to the rooms, we can head down for an early dinner after.” yu yan turns to the girl with a grumbling stomach beside her. “do you want some co—”

“please do not give chengxuan corn, yan” keni smiles at the small girl while unloading their stuff from the other car. “she can pick and eat what she wants.”

chengxuan giggles and mumbles something about getting a sandwich from the car and yu yan just shrugs and moves to help the other girl with their bags.

“i can’t believe you’re jealous over a baby.” xiaotang teases keni from the other side of the van and lingzi joins in, having gathered all her stuff. “no she’s upset yu yan’s not babying her instead.”

the two laugh and keni’s cheeks redden but yu yan still has the audacity to wink and make the taller girl almost trip on nothing as she walks to the lobby.

their early dinner goes by smoothly and yu yan’s actually surprised nobody ended up in a food fight or whatever else xiaotang would probably instigate. the girls end up watching a cheesy romcom and yu yan’s pretty sure zihan fell asleep twenty minutes into it and shuxin talks over half of the movie but that just means all is right in the world and she thinks maybe this roadtrip wasn’t such a bad idea after all.