hugs; seungwan has never been much of a hugger until she met joohyun. with a girlfriend like her, seungwan has come to realise just how much joohyun loves hugs, and just how much she enjoys being at the receiving end of said hugs.

the pair had met at seulgi's house-warming party a few weeks prior; unfortunate circumstances led to joohyun spilling red wine all over seungwan’s white blouse. if anybody asks joohyun to describe their first meeting, it would be nothing short of a major up. but seungwan thinks otherwise, it provided a great opportunity to get to know a pretty girl.

joohyun offers to pay for her dry cleaning but seungwan shrugs it off easily, sure it would take a little more effort to wash, but it’d be fine. dinner, joohyun then proposes, anything to make up for her blunder. seeing the older woman’s face wrought with remorse nudges seungwan into accepting, it’s a simple task to assuage her guilt so who is she to say no?

their dinner turned out much better than she would have ever expected. joohyun is quiet, demure even, so seungwan carried the conversation for the better part of the evening. normally, she would’ve been a little self-conscious of just how much she talks, but joohyun didn’t seem to mind at all. they end up staying till closing time and then she gives joohyun a lift home. she walks the older woman home under the guise of gratitude, but really she just wanted to spend a few extra minutes together.

they reach the entrance of her apartment building much faster than seungwan would like, but all good things have to come to an end. they exchange a soft goodnight and seungwan turns to leave.

“wait,” joohyun calls out, her voice echoes through the quiet neighbourhood they’re standing in, forcing the younger woman to swivel abruptly.

“yeah?”

with fiddling fingers, joohyun asks in a timid voice, "can i hug you?"

a hug? seungwan blinks dumbly, stunned by the surprising request of the older woman. she’s usually not all that into hugs, so it catches her off guard. she snaps out of her trance when joohyun begins to apologize. without a second thought, she takes a stride forward and slides her arms around joohyun’s back, enveloping her in a warm hug. the body in her arms stiffens momentarily before melting into her hold.

“next dinner’s on me if you call,” seungwan teases, “comes with a free hug too.”

joohyun snickers, “i’ll gladly take you up on that offer.”

dinners gradually turn into dates, then it’s followed by the gradual descent of friends to lovers. joohyun never has to ask for hugs since seungwan would naturally wrap an arm around her. after a couple of months together, she thinks joohyun has a favourite kind of hug. it takes her a while to notice that sometimes, joohyun lets out the quietest sigh, one that she can only dub as a sound of pure bliss. though, she can’t seem to find a correlation between them, it seems like a string of unrelated events.

she brings it up one night while joohyun is all cuddled up in her arms.

“you know, you let out a little sigh when i hug you sometimes.”

joohyun pouts, “are you making fun of me?”

“no, i think it’s an adorable quirk,” seungwan smirks, “i just wanna know why.”

“i can’t explain it, when you feel it, you’ll know.”

joohyun begins to hug her a lot more after that. while it feels strange at first, seungwan can’t deny that it is nice to be hugged. though she enjoys all of joohyun’s embraces, she definitely has favourites.

her favourite one comes after a long day where joohyun seemingly knows that her fatigue is more than just physical exhaustion. she would crawl into the ever loving arms of her lover, allowing herself to be taken care of. and the world would gently spin out of time as she slowly sinks into the safety of joohyun’s love.

safe, content, loved — seungwan would let a quiet exhale slip.