♡-------------------------------------------------------♡

Yena's Apartment 

10:30 P.M

The light blue glare reflecting off Yena’s laptop screen worked a mysterious trance within her brown eyes. Like a sorcerer from a desert in a far off land; wielding the unbelievable power that a swinging pendulum brought to its unsuspecting guest. Yena’s laptop screen was producing much of the same effect. It all started with one prolonged and deep blink. Then the next one came...and then the next. And just as Yena spared her eyelids the comfort of keeping shut, the pendulum stopped.

Rubbing her reddened eyes, Yena sank lower into her chair now. The same math question she had been staring at for the past ten minutes still unsolved. If only she had the magic power to snap her fingers and cause the correct answer to appear in front of her.

To graduate with all her roommates as they had promised, Yena signed up for the required summer classes needed to catch up. It was only the second week in, but already Yena could feel her last brain muscle shrivel out. Missing a half year of school had not only caused her to fall behind on her graduation date, but it almost meant that her brain was without the serious stimulation needed.

Readjusting her circular reading glasses back onto her nose, she left a desperate cry in the empty kitchen of her shared apartment. If she knew school would be this hard, she would have long preferred aching and sore back on her hospital bed in Florida….Okay, that was definitely an over-exaggeration. But still. How the hell was she supposed to remember how to graph functions if she couldn’t even remember the name of simple constellations?

Deciding she would take another failing grade on her homework assignment that night, she folded her glasses then sunk her head into the table. Yena could not fathom how she dared to ask out Chaewon. Heck, even beat the gates of hell. But somehow, just somehow,  she would be stomped and defeated by CALC 2203. Why do music majors even have to take a calculus course in the first place? Yena drilled her forehead into the wooden table. Accepting her painful demise by splinters.

“Here drink this,” like a hunting dog, Yena’s nose worked quicker than her ears. Her nose scrunched and followed the aroma that rose from the hot cup of green tea placed to her side.

“Wait. Yena,” Yuri commanded. Yena obliged with a reluctant pout,  knowing very well not to disobey her master. Instead, she now hovered her face over the rising steam from her favorite mug that Nako had bought for her during freshman year.

“What’s the point of trying to catch up and take summer courses if you’re going to fail them all,” Yuri stated while washing her hands in the sink. By force of habit, she also took the time to re-clean the countertops and throw away random pieces of trash left by either Hyewon or Yena.

“Tomorrow’s problems should remain for tomorrow to handle,” Yuri threw an unsurprised eye roll as she crammed an empty soda can into the trash bag (recycling was a rich people problem). Yena liked to use that quote in particular for trash that she had neglected to clean.

“Why don’t you try calling Nayeon to help you? She’s a business major right? They usually have to take higher-level calculus courses.”

The dull and flickering lightbulb that usually remained suspended over Yena’s head burned anew as she absorbed the idea philosophically. Asking Nayeon for help with her math homework would also give her an excuse to catch up with the older girl. Since she had arrived back in Korea, the two had yet to hold a decent one on one conversation. This was the perfect opportunity.

“You’re the best, Jo Yuri.” Yena decided she should take some responsibility and grabbed the nearest crumpled chip bag then shot it at the trash can. She missed by quite a remarkable distance. But it was the thought that counted and Yuri didn't mind bending down to dispose of it herself.

Now that the kitchen was somewhat presentable, Yuri called it in for a night. She scooped her hot mug of tea with one hand and as she passed Yena on her exit, she thumped her forehead with a strong flick. It was her way of showing love and getting revenge. "Good night, don't be too loud or the devil is going to wake up." Her reference was towards Tzuyu who had been in a strong and healthy relationship with Hyewon for more than seven months now.

Yena rubbed her reddened forehead while trying to keep her whine at a minimal level. Tzuyu was a light sleeper and wasn't shy about being vocal about it. After hearing Yuri exit towards the hallway and close their bedroom door, Yena rang Nayeon a facetime call from her Macbook. She gave a bright grin as the word connecting popped up on her screen.

“Well, well, well, I was just starting to wonder if you still had my number saved.”  Yena's smile grew larger. She felt her mood uplifted to the sound of Nayeon’s low voice. All her previous gloomy feelings from her math homework erased into thin air.

“Oh, sorry! I meant to call Chaewon…” Yena, noticing Nayeon's teasing tone, decided to ride in on the older girl's teasing facade as she faked a horrified look into the camera. Nayeon's facial expression stalled.  Her bottom lip twitched and her eyebrows furrowed closer towards her nose.

“Well then,” The older girl replied in a dry voice. She folded the book she had been reading in bed with a large thud, then took off her reading glasses with the same vigor. “I guess I’ll hang up then,” Nayeon forced an overbearing smile at the younger girl through her phone.

“Goodnight Yena,”  Nayeon rewind the many memories she had shared with the younger girl. How Yena would always want to meet up or grab lunch together and talk. These days, the only time she ever heard a word from Yena was when she was on face-time at night with Chaewon. And even then, they only exchanged a few words or two before Chaewon kicked her out of her room.

I regret helping you two become a couple, Nayeon thought to herself. Before she could finish hanging up, her phone vibrated from the audio of Yena releasing a wild laugh.  “Stop, don’t hang up, I was just kidding, I meant to call you unnie.”

Nayeon disregarded all the foul thoughts she had about Yena as if it never happened. Yena was indeed her favorite little bean after all. Nothing could erase her affectionate feeling for her little ducky. “I knew you were kidding.” Nayeon bluffed. Her smile this time genuine with how her bunny teeth and gums showed.

“Yeah, can you help me with my math homework?” Yena asked a little too shamelessly, grinning like a child into the camera; unaware of the painful effect it had on Nayeon. Yena wasn't completely tactless, but sometimes she really is just unaware of how people feel. 

Nayeon’s smile grew smaller and smaller until it barely reached her eyes. 

“Yeah...of course.”
 

♡-------------------------------------------------------♡

20 minutes later

“It’s okay Nayeon, you said it's been a while since you’ve done this math, don’t be so hard on yourself.” Yena nibbled on the end of her blue pen. On the other side of the call, Nayeon was busily punching numbers into her handheld calculator. Her tongue slightly protruded out to the right side of her lip as she was focused on her calculations. “Just give me five minutes, I almost have the answer,” Nayeon responded without looking up from her calculator.

It had already been ten minutes since the last time she had asked for more time, but Yena thought it would be more diplomatic to not mention that fact. Heaving a heavy sigh, she sat absent-mindedly staring at her desk. They hadn’t even finished solving the second question Yena had struggled on. Not to mention, the assignment was due at midnight, aka in two minutes, but once again. Yena was at least smart enough to not mention that either.

“If you want, we can meet up for lunch tomorrow and we can do it together then.” Yena offered. This seemed to do the job of breaking Nayeon’s endless calculator punching. “You mean it?” The older girl looked up with some doubt.

“Of course, only if you’re not busy..and you’ll have to pick me up,” Yena added.

“Pick you up?” Nayeon’s eyes squinted quizzically. “Why not ask Chaewon?”

“Oh, I was thinking maybe we should just go by ourselves, it’s been a while since we got to talk,” Yena watched as Nayeon’s face brightened with increased intensity. She threw her calculator somewhere behind her. “I’ll pick you up at noon. We can head to Mr. Seok’s diner.” Yena nodded her head with satisfaction. Before she could say anything else, Nayeon had turned her chair around to yell something up the staircase of her house.

“You hear that Chaewon? I'm going on a date with your girlfriend, doesn’t that make you jealous? Aren’t you mad?” Yena watched as Nayeon’s face contorted when she didn’t hear Chaewon respond back to her. The older girl took a few steps out of sight from her camera. “DID YOU HEAR ME CHAEWON?”

“Sadly so.” Nayeon re-approached her phone with a confused expression. “What the hell? When did you end up there?” Nayeon stared bewildered as Chaewon was now magically sitting on top of Yena's lap. It had only been an hour since she last saw the younger girl and she didn't hear her leave. Not to mention, Chaewon’s car was also blocked behind her own. “Wait...did you take my car?”

Chaewon jiggled the keychain in front of the camera. 

“But my AirPods are on my keychain …” Nayeon’s shoulders dropped. Lately, she has been listening to music before she slept to drown out her lovely girlfriend's uncanny snoring. Her voice rumbled as she realized she would have to find where she last left her earmuffs.

“Anyways. Yena and I have a late night date, I’ll talk to you tomorrow unnie. Tell Mina I said good night,” Chaewon gave a small eye smile before shutting Yena's laptop screen. Before Yena could complain that she wasn’t done talking, Chaewon turned her own body so she was facing the girl.“You’re mine now.” Naturally, her arm wrapped around the cushion of the chair so that her arm could rest onto Yena’s opposite shoulder.

Within a few seconds, their faces had closed in distance. Yena squeezed onto Chaewon’s free hand while her other one trailed the younger girl’s jawline. They hadn’t been engaged in combat for more than a minute until a loud shout pierced through the nearest wall behind them.

“WE CAN HEAR YOU TWO.” Chaewon recognized the growling voice of Tzuyu as she screamed bloody murder through the paper-thin walls of the apartment. The two girls in response let out a soft laugh before being silenced again by Tzuyu yelling at them to shut up before she came out to do it for them.

“Come on. Let's set up our bed,” Chaewon whispered into Yena’s ear.

If there was one perk of dating, Yena told herself, this was it. The two had worked as quietly as they could to move the living room coffee table and other assortments of furniture to one side of the wall. Once finished, they dragged out Yena’s mattress from her bedroom and placed it in the middle of the empty living room. The two now remained snuggled into each other's arms under Yena’s blanket. The soft blue blur of the living room T.V flashed onto their faces.

Unlike most couples, Yena and Chaewon found it rather easy on what movie they would watch during nights like this. It wasn’t that their taste in movies was similar (which lord, behold, it wasn’t.) But more importantly, the two didn't want to waste valuable time being in each other's arms.

On this particular evening, Chaewon seemed immersed by the comedy movie they had randomly chosen. Every couple minutes, Yena could feel her head shake by Chaewon laughs. She didn’t mind this. Yena would remain content as long as Chaewon continued to play with her hair and allow her chest to act as a pillow. 

“Give me a second,” Yena whined once she felt her head forced off Chaewon's chest. The younger girl did a mighty stretch to relax her tensed muscles. Who knew having someone lay on you required so much strength?

Without much thought, Chaewon eased her white t-shirt over her head and threw it somewhere in the darkness behind them.

The brief flash of exposed skin caused Yena to squeeze her eyes shut.  "Wha-what are you doing? Put your shirt back on. Are you a freak? What if one of my roommates walks out and sees you?" Yena stuttered out. The back of her neck burned red.

"Relax, it's hot in this apartment and you guys never keep the a/c on," Chaewon scoffed. She was amused by her girlfriend's shy response to her striptease. "It's not like you haven't seen or touched them before," Chaewon continued in a straight voice.

"I didn't see them actually," Yena corrected with one finger out, her eyes still shut. 

"Well here's your chance," Chaewon mimicked the act of lifting up her sports bra and waited to see her girlfriend's response. At first, Yena remained unmoved. But after a few seconds, Chaewon could see Yena was trying to sneak a look. It was subtle, but she watched as Yena's right eye twitched open before she shut it once again.

"I saw that," Chaewon hummed.

Yena turned her face back towards Chaewon with angry eyes, "No you didn't."

 If it wasn't obvious beforehand, it was now. Just as Yena had turned to make eye contact, her eyes drifted down to Chaewon's chest. The hint of disappointment in realizing Chaewon still had her sports bra on, was written all over her face. 

"Liar," Yena whispered under her breath. She rearranged the pillows and blankets around her so she could lay back down.

"Oh, really?"  This time when Yena looked back up from the blanket, her eyes were met with a sight she had never dreamt before. Okay, maybe she did dream about seeing it once...or twice. But seeing it in the flesh was a whole different experience.

To say the least, she wasn't disappointed.

♡-------------------------------------------------------♡

The Next Morning 

Yena drained the content of her glass of orange juice in one breathtaking gulp. There was nothing better than a satisfying lunch date with a good friend. 

"So, how's Hoo?"

Yena brought up the name of Mina and Nayeon's new puppy with a dry voice. With the passing of Kookeu, the couple had initially vowed to never get a dog again; both not being able to completely get past the pain of their pet's early demise. It wasn't until Momo recently got a new Pomeranian puppy named Boo, that the couple decided they missed having a furry friend at home after all. The two had fought over many nights on what type of breed they would get. Nayeon wanted a pomeranian that could mate with Boo, while Mina insisted they get a dachshund, the same breed as her family dog Ray. After Nayeon lost in a game of rock, paper, scissor to settle the contest (and yes, it was a best out of three.) The couple decided on a dachshund on the condition that Nayeon got to pick the name. Lord behold, Nayeon at her peak intuition, decided on the name Hoo; This way, whenever they met up with Momo to walk their dogs, she could say, "Boo Hoo."

"Who?" Nayeon's clever play on words gave Yena a refreshing laugh. Somebody at the booth behind them seemed to take the wordplay with disgust. It was in a low mumble, but still audible enough to irritate and distract Yena.

Yena faked a cough into her clenched fist. Only then did the low mumbling stop.  Turning her attention back onto Nayeon now, Yena added, "That was a good one unnie, I'm always jealous at how funny you could be." 

This time, the protest in the booth behind Nayeon and her was loud and resonated through the busy diner. A few college students and professors turned their heads towards the same direction; confused by the sudden noise.

Yena slammed her fist into the countertop with some force. The silverware and empty plates rattled by the impact and caused even more spectators to look their way. Blowing her bangs to release steam, Yena said in a scolding voice, "Kim Chaewon!"

"Sorry." The younger girl waved a half apologetic gesture with her hand before reluctantly shutting herself up.

Not so convinced her girlfriend would stay quiet from her lone booth, Yena now looked back to Nayeon. The older girl did not seem at all surprised, slightly even amused maybe. "I’m really sorry unnie, I thought she would keep true to her promise." Yena made sure to echo the last half of her apology loud enough for her girlfriend to hear. Even though Chaewon had made several sassy remarks to other parts of Nayeon and Yena's conversation. Chaewon made no signs now of being able to hear the content of their conversation from her seat.

As planned, Nayeon indeed came to pick up Yena at noon for their lunch date. What they didn't expect, was for Chaewon to force her way into the backseat of the car begging that she be able to come as well. Her excuse at the time was that none of Yena's roommates knew how to cook at all, which was undeniably true. But Chaewon had also promised that she would sit by herself at a different booth and wouldn't disturb them, of which was utterly untrue.

Content with at least holding a thirty-minute conversation with Yena, Nayeon waved a beckoning finger. Yena thought to herself ruefully on how her girlfriend could somehow miss her signals to stop bugging them. But all it took was for Nayeon to raise one finger before the girl was rushing towards their booth with her plate of pancakes.

"Eating with others always makes the food taste better, hmm?" Chaewon said to nobody in particular. Anticipating that neither would respond to her words of wisdom, she ushered her girlfriend to make way so she could sit next to her.

Yena gave her girlfriend a murderous stare. Usually, when the two went out to eat, Chaewon always made sure to tell her girlfriend that she liked to sit opposite her, not next to so that she could watch and adore her girlfriend while she ate. Reluctantly, Yena wedged herself closer to the wall. At least now she could hold a butter knife into Chaewon's thigh like somebody once showed her.

Nayeon, being aware of the reason behind Yena’s irritation, decided to press it further, "Do I look that cute today?" She made a small kissy-face towards Chaewon.

The younger girl scoffed before working her way back at forking her blueberry pancakes, "I thought I would change things up," Chaewon smiled through her white lie. The real truth was that honestly, Yena’s stare was super intimidating when she was angry with her. It was something unparallel to even the likes of Tzuyu or Mina who were infamous for their evil and cold stares. There was no way she would have been able to eat her pancakes with Yena’s sitting across from her. In hindsight, this might have been poorly thought out as the small edge of a butter knife poking into her jeans was just as uncomfortable.

Before Chaewon could make a comment about how Nayeon had used that "Who and Hoo" joke twenty times at home, she felt her girlfriend gasp in surprise.

"Eunbi unnie over here!"

"Huh, hoo? I mean who?" Chaewon mentally slapped herself. Nayeon, who had been sitting quietly awaiting the opportunity to say something smart to Chaewon, replied in a feigned voice, "That was my joke Chaewon, try to be original for once?"

Chaewon gave herself another mental slap for letting Nayeon get the best of her. I'll get you back. Im Nayeon, don't you worry. She let her eyes do the talking as Nayeon and her locked gazes.

"Fancy seeing you three here." Eunbi approached the table. Behind her, holding her hand, was an elegant and older girl who politely greeted them all as well. Eunbi’s partner was stunning from head to toe. She had long black hair paired with a glowing pale complexion thatmade her look like a webtoon character.

"You’re Yena if I remember correctly?" Yena gave a bright smile, swooning over having her name called by Eunbi's girlfriend.

"Nice seeing you again, Nayeon." The girl in response had broken her psychological war with Chaewon to wave back. "Hello Irene, long time no see." Irene gave a small smile. She had been the former teaching assistant for one of Nayeon's classes freshman year, and since dating Eunbi, had gone on many double dates with Nayeon and Mina.

Irene gave the brightest smile while looking down at Chaewon. "And of course, it's always a pleasure being around you Kim Chaewon." The younger girl was in the middle of trying to scheme her revenge on Nayeon before being referenced. "Oh, yes Irene! Hey, why don't you two join us and eat?" Eunbi and Irene arriving was the perfect opportunity to make sure Yena and Nayeon wouldn't have any more time to talk one on one. Nayeon saw through Chaewon's ruse and gave an evil smile back to Chaewon. Oh it's on Kim Chaewon.

"Are you sure this is okay? We don't want to intrude." Irene's manners and punctuality were a nice touch in Chaewon's book. "Yes, please, I insist." Chaewon genuinely meant it. Ironically enough, Chaewon had taken a quick liking and approval of Eunbi's new girlfriend. She was more than delighted when Eunbi had told her she was talking to somebody, and now that the two were together, she was even happier for her former girlfriend.

"Are you okay with this babe?" Irene now looked towards Eunbi awaiting her reaction. Eunbi leaned over to whisper a loving word into Irene's ear before kissing her cheek and nodding her approval.

Yena made small dying noises and aww's as she watched the cheek kiss in adoration.  Irene and Eunbi were the cutest couple in her book. Just the way they interacted with each other and how they looked into each other's eyes was so mystifying to Yena.

 "Yes, please, come sit!" Yena beckoned for the couple to squeeze in. 

By this hour, the diner had made it past its rush hour, and only one or two tables had any customers. Understanding how awkward Irene and Eunbi might feel that they would be the only ones eating, Yena and Nayeon decided to order and share another breakfast platter. Chaewon, being the slow eater that she was, picked at her plate of pancakes again. 

"You guys got any plans today?" Nayeon asked Eunbi. They had all finished eating and were making small talk over mugs of coffee except in Yena’s case. The younger girl stuck to her hot chocolate. 

"We're headed to the summer fair on campus tonight," The older girl responded.

"Oh my gosh! We're going tonight too!" Yena responded excitedly while trying to dab an ice cube on her newly burnt tongue. 

"We should head together," Irene offered with a soft smile. Yena in return only gave a gay panic laugh, not being able to handle Irene's hotness.

"Sorry Irene, we already made plans with Yena's roommate Hyewon, and her girlfriend Tzuyu tonight." Chaewon interrupted aggressively. Watching her girlfriend swoon over Irene was starting to make her feel jealous, hence the tone. 

"A shame, we should make plans sometime together, you're fun to be around with Choi Yena." 

Yena fumbled with her words, making more weird and dying noises as she tried to form a coherent sentence. She had never been complimented by somebody so hot in her life.

"I think we'll pass." Chaewon gave a fake smile to Irene. Both Nayeon and Eunbi had sat silently while watching the conversation progress.