It’s not that she planned for things to work out this way, she really didn’t. It just happened that the other girls couldn’t come and they decided to start the project by themselves. And sometimes when you are really focused on your work time goes by so fast that someone might miss the last bus home.

Wendy wasn’t happy about this, of course she wasn’t, it’s not like she liked the idea of sleeping over at her cute classmate’s place. It gave too much room for her to make a fool of herself.

“Are you sure it’s okay if I stay? I don’t want to both…”

“I told you, it’s fine. We are friends now,” Sooyoung places her hand on Wendy’s shoulder, “friends have sleepovers.”

That made Wendy slightly more comfortable, but the atmosphere between them keeps some awkwardness which should be expected when the classmate you met less than a week ago is about to share a bed with you.

“Do you have to get up early tomorrow?”

“It’s gonna be Sunday, so not really, but I don’t want to overstay my welcome”

“Unnie, don’t worry too much. I thought we could watch something before bed?”

“Oh!” Wendy replied, legitimately surprised with the suggestion, “Sure, I’d like that.”

Sooyoung’s face lit up with that, it looks like she really wanted to hang out more and wasn’t asking just out of politeness.

“Go ahead and choose something,” She puts the remote on the older woman’s hand and stands up from the couch, “I’m gonna get snacks.”

Wendy the TV and focused on the task of finding something to watch. It had to be a movie, a tv show is a commitment and she doesn’t believe they are in that point of their friendship yet. The problem is that Wendy has absolutely no idea what sort of movie Sooyoung likes so she needs to go for something broad enough that pretty much anyone would enjoy, but at the same time it should give the impression that she has good taste.

After a minute of consideration she knows the perfect candidate. Relatable, great soundtrack, a true classic but at the same time not the kind of classic that would make her look pretentious.

“The Breakfast Club?” Sooyoung asks as she put two cups of soda on the coffee table while hugging too many bags of chips and candy.

“Yeah, it’s a favourite of mine… You never watched it?”

“Not that I remember. Did it come out recently?”

Wendy chuckled a bit at the question.

“It depends if 1985 is recent for you.”

“1985? Wow, that’s older than Joohyun unnie.” Sooyoung finished organising the food and took a seat besides Wendy. "Okay, show me your favourite movie.”

As Simple Minds’ Don’t You (Forget About Me) started to play Wendy glanced at Sooyoung and was greeted with the sight of the younger woman discreetly drying the tears that insisted on rolling down her cheeks.

“I gotta be honest with you,” Sooyoung said, moving to sit sideways so she could look directly at Wendy, “I thought this was going to be some overly dramatic teen movie. I was not prepared for going all emotional in front of you.”

Wendy couldn’t help but smile at the girl in front of her, seeing that she got such a strong response made her feel very proud of her choice.

“I wouldn’t just go around saying it’s one of my favourite movies without a reason.” She shifted on her seat mimicking Sooyoung’s position. “I used to watch it all the time when I started school in Canada.”

“Why?”

“Well… I was the foreign kid, you know? I didn’t fit in and this movie made me feel…” She runs a hand through her hair before continuing, “You’re gonna think this is silly.”

“I won’t, and I did just cry in front of you so I can’t really judge.”

“Okay, so… I felt really lonely and I had no idea of how to make friends, so I would watch this movie everyday after school while doing my homework and it made me feel like the characters were my friends.” Wendy sighed, “I told you it was silly.”

“It isn’t silly.”

“You don’t have to say that, I…”

“But I mean it!” Sooyoung interrupted Wendy’s self-conscious explanation, “Have you ever heard of parasocial relationships?”

“Para...social? What?”

“It’s the technical term for when you have a strong attachment to characters, I mean… It’s not quite that, but you get the idea.”

“So instead of silly I’m weird?”

“Nononono, you’re not weird, sorry if it sounded like I was calling you weird.” Sooyoung blushed in embarrassment, “What I’m saying is that parasocial relationships are not silly, they are perfectly healthy, as long as you respect the limits of reality of course. There’s loads of research, I read a great paper on it last year, I can show you if… Sorry, I got too excited.”

“Don’t apologize, it’s cute and it probably means you chose the right major.” Wendy said, making Sooyoung blush even harder.

“I’m getting sleepy, we should go to bed,” Sooyoung got up and almost sprinted towards the bedroom, “I’ll get you some pjs.”

Not even 30 minutes later they were in bed, Wendy already asleep while Sooyoung tried to trick herself into falling asleep by not moving at all. She read about it somewhere when looking for tips on how to get rid of insomnia.

When she finally decides to give up and go back to the living room, Wendy turns around and hugs her, now Sooyoung is trapped. Weirdly enough that makes the restlessness go away and not long after she falls asleep on her short friend’s embrace.