To say that Seulgi worked her off to keep her word to Joohyun would be an understatement. She thought it was cute in the moment, but moments after spitting it out and seeing Joohyun show her around the campus—where she overheard many people having intelligent conversations, even over the downpour of rain—Seulgi realized she was absolutely ed grade-wise, and the only thing that could give her any remote chance of getting into this relatively highly-ranked university was to ace the CSAT near the end of the year.

            The now high school third year legitimately thought she was going to die with all the information going into her brain. She vaguely remembered learning that new information retained in one’s memory manifested as a wrinkle in the gelatinous organ; well, Seulgi wasn’t quite sure that her smooth brain was given enough time to adjust to the sudden change being forced onto it, because her circadian rhythm was completely thrown off and she found herself caught in the clutches of insomnia. It really , she had to admit, because being unable to sleep at night directly translated to bouts of fatigue in the afternoons, during which she had no choice but to stay awake because she didn’t know anyone other than Joy who would hand her notes if she fell asleep (unfortunately, Joy had absolutely no plans of going to a top-ten university, partly because she wanted to act and sing). This in turn meant shorter calls with Joohyun, who always complained that Seulgi needed to make more time for her (while also wondering if she had to refrain from distracting the girl from her studies). Either way, everyone suffered as Seulgi took on this major change in life: Seulgi because her poor brain was going to explode as it neared its maximum capacity, Joohyun because she felt lonelier with each passing day that Seulgi signed off after ten minutes, Seulgi’s parents because the normally smiley child was irritable nowadays, Joy because she had to ask Seulgi some things but couldn’t approach the furiously scribbling girl during breaks, and even Joohyun’s father because he had really wanted to snatch up his daughter’s friend to work on some vocals for his latest project.

            Heck, Seulgi even suffered the morning of her CSAT exam, having to ride to her exam location on the back of a policeman’s motorbike because she had a nosebleed during breakfast that made her late. She missed the encouraging text Joohyun sent and had no chance to ask her parents for luck, cursing herself for staying up the night before to review some last minute notes. The police officer had to ask her to hold onto him instead of her notebook as she perched herself precariously on the seat and flipped the pages. It was just round after round of suffering, suffering, and more suffering as Seulgi applied to colleges, grinded through exams, and waited for results. At one point, sometime in December, Seulgi seriously considered dropping out of high school and just auditioning to be an idol instead. The only thing that stopped her was her own mother telling her that people would hate her since she avoided human interaction. So college it was.

            But all the suffering turned out to be worth it when she got the notification email that results were out, and she clicked on the link with shaky fingers during the middle of lunch break. Several heads turned to her in surprise when Seulgi screamed and ran out of the cafeteria, almost tripping over her own shoes, her tray left behind on the table (she came back later and cleaned up). She rushed up to the rooftop, about to call Joohyun, before her brain suggested an idea and her fingers stopped less than a hair’s width of space away from her screen. She scrolled further down in her contacts and called her mother, knowing she’d be home for sure.

            “Seulgi? Princess, are you okay? Why are you calling me during school?”

            Seulgi smiled widely, heart still beating at the speed of a race car's engine revolution rate. She paced back and forth on the rooftop with wide strides, glad that no one was around to see her. “Mom! I got in!”

            “Got in?” There was a brief silence as her mother processed what that could possibly mean. “Wait, what?!”

            “Yeah! I can go to school with Joohyun!”

            The older woman prayed to the heavens for sending her daughter a best friend like Joohyun, because she knew that without that motivation, there was no way her daughter would have even gone to college in the first place, as pessimistic as that sounded. “That’s great, honey! Have you called her yet?”

            “No!” Seulgi all but screamed. “I have a plan. To surprise her.”

            Mrs. Kang listened carefully as her child rattled off said plan, making her realize that those past few months of cramming had indeed made her child more intelligent.

-------

            Mr. and Mrs. Bae told Joohyun that Seulgi was going to visit her one more time before Joohyun came home for break. She okayed it, too busy with work to think twice about why in the world her friend would come again when she had already toured. Afterall, Joohyun missed seeing Seulgi, so it was a win-win situation in all aspects.

            What she didn’t expect was for Seulgi’s parents to also be standing with her when Joohyun opened the door to the rather large place she was renting out near her school for the fall semester. She blinked rapidly, trying to remember if her place was cleaned up before glancing down at her sloppy outfit and rushing into her room with apologies. When she emerged a few minutes later in more presentable clothing, the Kangs had already let themselves in and gotten comfortable in her small common area.

            “Uhhh, hi mom. Dad.” She glanced briefly at Seulgi before looking back at her (basically) second parents. “I wasn’t aware the whole family was coming.”

            Mr. Kang smiled, eerily similar in appearance to his daughter. “Oh, we absolutely had to. Needed to check the place out to see what it’s like.”

            Warning bells went off in Joohyun’s mind as she dug deep in her brain for something she could possibly be forgetting. Why would Seulgi’s parents come to check in on her place? Did her parents send them? What was with their expectant faces staring at her? How come Seulgi was smiling so widely—

            Oh. OH. Joohyun’s eyes widened.

            “Did you finally get it?” Seulgi asked, standing up to walk to Joohyun and pull her into a hug. “I thought you were the smarter one out of the two of us.”

            Joohyun froze, still struggling to make sure that she wasn’t interpreting the situation wrong. Seulgi here in January, her parents checking out the place Joohyun was staying; it could only mean that Seulgi was looking into rent around this area. So she had gotten accepted into a college near Joohyun’s except for the fact that the only university immediately in the proximity of this town was—

            “OH MY GOSH, SEULGI, YOU GOT IN???”

            Seulgi winced slightly and rubbed at her ear as her smaller friend bounced around in her arms. Joohyun genuinely looked excited (and genuinely seemed like she forgot when results were supposed to come out), which made Seulgi smile and match her small hopping motions. The adult Kangs sat back and watched the two girls, whispering to each other about how they managed to only stay best friends. They were so immersed in excitedly screaming nonsense at each other’s faces that they didn’t notice Seulgi’s parents leaving silently, closing and locking the door behind them.

            “Wait, when did results come out? Why didn’t you tell me then? How the hell did I forget to ask you?”

            Seulgi calmed Joohyun down. “Hey, hey. You told me you had a bunch of projects going on, so I decided to let you focus on those and surprise you instead.”

            “Still, Seul, still.” Joohyun pouted. “I can’t believe I had to wait this long to find out.”

            “Yeah, it .” Seulgi stuck out her tongue playfully. “The people eating lunch in the cafeteria at the same time as me found out earlier than you did.”

            “Meanie.”

            “Whiny baby.”

            “Compulsive...fact hider?”

            Seulgi snorted. “I see you’ve regressed, while I have become more powerful.”

            “Wait until you start college too. It’s almost like you age faster.”

            “Maybe it’s just that your skincare routine is way behind the trends.”

            “Says the girl who washes her face with a bar of soap.”

            “Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

            “Sure.” Joohyun shook her head, smiling. “I missed you.”

            “We video call every single day.”

            “Yeah,” Joohyun replied, “but you were so busy getting smart that you left me behind to regress and become an idiot.” She knocked on Seulgi’s head. “Hmm, it seems like the brain has finally taken on some shape in there.”

            “Stupid.” Seulgi smiled. “Come here and give me another hug.”

            They stayed like that for a while before someone's stomach rumbled and both girls pulled away surprised. Neither could tell whose stomach it was nor did they admit to being the hungry one.

            “Well, let’s just hope there isn’t some person secretly living in your spare room.”

            Joohyun slapped Seulgi’s arm in horror. “Stop that! I’m living here alone right now!”

            “Well,” Seulgi smiled, “I’ll be moving in with you very soon, so no worries.” She pointed her thumb at the closed door. “Although we’ll have to kick them out once I start college.”

            They laughed, and Joohyun told Seulgi to sit down before heading to the kitchen. “Do you want me to fix you something?”

            “Can you do that without poisoning me?” Seulgi shot back.

            Joohyun closed the fridge. “Hey, I’ve picked up a lot, okay? I make pretty decent meals now.”

            “Good,” Seulgi said. “You can cook my meals for me once I become your roommate.”

            “Cook your own damn meals, you parasite.”

            “Have you ever seen a parasite cook? Of course not, because they leech off of others’ meals.”

            “Host bodies aren’t the hosts’ meals, you dingdong.” Joohyun peered at her friend. “Are you sure you didn’t fake your exam scores?”

            Seulgi gasped dramatically and clutched her chest. “Do you really think that I’m that stupid?”

            Joohyun laughed. “Yes. I still can’t believe that you turned your life around in less than a year, because I wasn’t there to see it with my own eyes.”

            “Well believe it, because I did and now I’m gonna leech off your food.”

            “Fine.” Joohyun brought Seulgi a carton of milk, opening it for her on the walk back to the couch. She leaned close to Seulgi and gave a smile that momentarily made her look like Seulgi smiling. “You’ve earned it, I guessed.”

            Seulgi nodded appreciatively. “Yes, yes. Indeed.” She sipped at her milk before turning to her friend. “You won’t be iling me, right? Because I really don’t have the social skills to make friends who I can stay with—”

            “Oh my god, Seulgi!” Joohyun interrupted. “People don’t even date me, what makes you think a girl will sleep with me?”

            “Have you not heard of one night st—”

            “Nope. We’re not having this talk.” Joohyun got up and started collecting her stuff on the table to head to her room. “I need to finish up this last thing and we’ll talk, but when we do it won’t be about this.” She stopped at her door, turning around on her heels and pointing at Seulgi with narrowed eyes. “You though. You sneaky child who ranked up sixty places in her grade within the last few months, you. I better not see any making out happening on my sofa or hear guttural noises above ten decibels or so help me God—” She paused, scrunching her nose at the thought of having to endure that, before continuing. “I’ll definitely find a way to ile you, even if it means I have to trick a man and feed him just ramyun before sending him back. No funny business, Kang Seulgi. No funny business.”

            She heard Seulgi laughing as she settled down at her desk to finish her project as quickly as possible.

-------

            “Seulgi, what the ?!!”

            Seulgi groaned in pain as she rubbed her from where she had landed on the ground after Joohyun kicked her off the bed. She looked around with one barely open eye, registering that the room wasn’t hers. She continued to rub her bottom mindlessly, only slowly realizing that she was touching bare skin where her was supposed to be. She looked down at herself. She looked at Joohyun clutching her covers to her chest.

            “What the hell is happening?!”

            Seulgi covered whatever she could with her hands as she and Joohyun looked at each other with wide eyes, breathing heavily in panic and praying to whatever gods existed that what they were thinking might have happened didn’t happen. Seulgi squeezed her eyes shut and willed herself to disappear, hating the idea that she may have done something to ruin their friendship. What even happened last night? She peeked at her older friend.

Joohyun simply groaned, clutching her head and wondering if they got drunk, because the hangover she was experiencing was truly phenomenal, in all the worst ways possible, and when coupled with their combined ness, all it did was make Joohyun want to defenestrate herself. She couldn’t possibly have taken advantage of Seulgi, not when they had promised to be best friends for life, and she was quite sure that best friends didn’t get drunk and screw each other. In a conventional society, that is.

            “Do you remember anything?”

            Seulgi shook her head. “Do you?”

            Negative. Both girls sighed in sync.

            “Listen, I don’t know what happened, but you’re probably thinking the same thing as me, right?”

            Seulgi nodded. “Best friends for life, man. Not looking to jeopardize that.”

            “So we’ll...just forget all this, if anything happened, and yeah.”

            Despite the claims they put forth, they still felt extremely awkward, especially when Seulgi shuffled out of Joohyun’s room to her own to get her clothes, shifting her hands back and forth, unsure of which parts she should focus on covering. Joohyun buried her face in her hands after Seulgi left, feeling her face flame up in embarrassment, although she wasn’t quite sure what the source of it was.

            Things got even more awkward when Seulgi started going out with a girl both of them knew from a shared class. Jisoo was bubbly, outgoing, and always on the lookout for new friends, a triple threat combo that neither Joohyun nor Seulgi possessed. It was weird that Seulgi settled for someone who was always dragging her around to meet others, but Joohyun didn’t question her choice (although she was a bit upset that Seulgi spent less time with her now). Seulgi constantly reminded Joohyun that whatever happened was just probably them fooling around after drinking a bit of alcohol, and that she had no romantic feelings for Joohyun since she was dating Jisoo. The latter two had a very casual relationship, but Joohyun didn’t fight back against Seulgi’s rambling whenever she started up, not wanting things to get even more awkward.

            However, things didn’t last long for the younger girl, who seemed very determined to distract herself from the possibility of having slept with her best friend, of all people. Jisoo broke it to her when she was visiting their place. Straightforward, no harm intended. Admirably clean, Joohyun noted.

            “Hey, Seulgi. You’re great and I’ve had a blast meeting with you these past few weeks, but I think it’d be best to end it here. We don’t really have the personalities for each other, and I think you would agree too.”

            Seulgi did. Jisoo was fun to be around, and she did all the talking for Seulgi when they went to order food and such, but it was difficult having to meet new people all the time, more so to memorize their names and faces in case she met them again on campus. Jisoo was fun, but she wasn’t comfortable to hang out with, in the same sense that she felt comfortable hanging out with Joohyun. The monolidded girl simply nodded, giving her now ex a thumbs up and wishing her the best of luck.

            “Oh, thank you, but honestly, I don’t think I’ll need much luck. College is all about casual meetings for me, you know?” She smiled brightly before motioning at the two roommates. “And you guys?”

            Joohyun scrunched her eyebrows. “Huh?”

            Jisoo maintained the upward curves of her lips, undeterred by the staccato reply. “Have you guys ever thought about dating each other? You look very good together and seem to match personalities better too.”

            “No!” Seulgi shouted a little too quickly. “We’re just friends.”

            “Oh, I see.” Jisoo nodded. Then, “Right. I completely forgot to ask you two.” Joohyun and Seulgi looked at her curiously. “Were you guys okay after I left that one night?”

            Joohyun raised an eyebrow, having no clue about what Jisoo was referring to. “What night?”

            “You don’t remember?” Jisoo scratched her head. “I mean, I guess that’s possible, because both of you were extremely drunk. You owe me one, by the way.”

            This time Seulgi spoke up. “Can you explain to us like we’re five? We have no idea what you’re talking about.”

            “Huh, you guys really must’ve out.” She got up, slowly packing her bag as she spoke. “Y’all agreed to go to a party with me after a whole three weeks of convincing on my end, but the two of you got drunk on one bottle of beer, together, so I had to drag your drunk asses to this place. Was just about to leave, when Seulgi screamed something about skinny dipping and both of you stripped to your birthday suits and jumped into Joohyun’s bed like it was a pool or something and stopped moving. I only stuck around long enough to check that you guys weren’t dead before booking it.”

            Joohyun and Seulgi stared at Jisoo wordlessly before meeting each other’s eyes. Jisoo slung her bag over her shoulder and coughed slightly.

            “Well, I’ll be heading out, but I’ll see you two in class. Bye.”

            Once she left, Joohyun plopped onto the sofa. “We are never going to drink alcohol again.”

            Seulgi crashed next to her, slinging an arm over her eyes. “I’m with you on that one.”

-------

            “Do you think we’re just meant to be spinsters?” Seulgi looked at the ceiling, watching how the light peeked through her fingers when she lifted her palm to face upwards. “You’re going to be graduating this year, and neither of us have been in a serious relationship yet.”

            “I don’t know,” Joohyun sighed, not wanting to think about it. “I don’t want to date anyone just for the sake of dating, but yes, I’m a little paranoid that I’ll end up forever alone.”

            Seulgi to her side to face her friend. “You know you people marry their friends for the tax benefits?” Joohyun eyed her skeptically, but Seulgi continued. “Maybe if neither of us are married or immediately in a serious relationship when we’re thirty-five, we can just marry each other or something.”

            “You’re joking, right?”

            Seulgi turned back. “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not.” She huffed. “You think tax benefits are nothing, but I heard that some people in Singapore will marry quickly to their friends or someone and carry on living their own lives with the tax benefits they get. Smart people, I have to say.”

            “Stop reading Wikipedia. You won’t get any smarter than you already are; I’m sure your brain has reached max capacity from all the nonsense you’re spewing.”

            “Alright, future cat lady. I’ll just have you know that you’re turning down a chance to live with this amazing human being for the rest of your life.”

            Joohyun snorted. “If you’re so big on those benefits, why don’t we just get married right now?”

            “And miss the chance to ever date anyone seriously? Don’t be ridiculous.”

            “Fine. Thirty-five but never before then.” Joohyun nodded. “Got it.” She pulled her legs onto the couch to cross them in front of her body before sighing. “I really do wish I meet someone I like.”

            “You like me.”

            “Not in that way, idiot. I mean, someone I’m attracted to.”

            Seulgi tilted her head at her friend. “I’m curious though. Has your ideal type changed since we last talked about it? Because mine has.”

            “Honey, yours changes every year.”

            “It’s changed twice, okay. Twice.”

            “CEO, writer, violinist, freelance artist, architect…”

            “Okay, you can stop now.” Seulgi made an annoyed face. “I actually have ideal characteristics now, not some random job.”

            “Ooooh, that’s a first. Let’s hear it.”

            “No, you first. I asked you first.”

            Joohyun merely shook her head. “I don’t know why you always try this with me when you know you’re gonna lose.”

            Seulgi stayed silent, wanting to protest, but she just sighed and started talking. “Well, I like older girls who have that mature vibe but physically are the opposite so that I can be the one to take care of her once in a while.” She tapped her chin, thinking. “Preferably we’d vibe well together. Similar hobbies and ideologies and stuff. An intellectual that I can have both deep and silly conversations with, now that I’ve discovered the world of academics.” She looked at Joohyun. “And like, pretty? I don’t know, I get that it sounds shallow, but I don’t want to wake up in the morning and see Shrek looking back at me.”

            “Jesus Christ.”

            “Okay, now your turn.”

            Joohyun leaned comfortably against the back of the sofa. “Yeah, I agree with you on the whole vibing together part. Like, I’d prefer if she was kinda like me. But unlike you, I’m into the complete opposite type of woman physically: she’d be younger but y as . Did I tell you that I love cat eyes? Because I ing love cat eyes. But I also want her to be like a golden retriever when she’s around me, because imagine that. y but makes you smile. Beautiful.” Joohyun smiled at the thought. “And I love smart, like that’s a given with my high standards, but it’d be nice to meet someone who was kinda creative, kind of a romantic, since I’m pretty boring. Like, they don’t have to be all out or anything, but just someone my parents would approve of.”

            They both nodded after Joohyun finished and looked at each other, neither realizing that they had just described the girl sitting next to them. Tragic, truly.

            “I have a question.”

            “As long as it isn’t about quantum physics, I’ll try to answer it.”

            “Well, good thing it isn’t,” Seulgi quipped. “It’s a little awkward though.”

            “Our entire beings are awkward, one extra question isn’t gonna damage us anymore than how we are now.”

            “Fine.” Seulgi pursed her lips. “Would you say I’m attractive? Like, either objectively or from your personal preferences.”

            Joohyun took a while to think about it, but she didn’t hesitate in her answer. “I mean definitely. And most people would agree with me.”

            “So is it the former or latter option.”

            The older girl scrunched her forehead in thought. “Both? I’m not sure.”

            Seulgi looked lost in thought. “I’m not quite sure what to think about the fact that you’re attracted to me.”

            “Hey!” Joohyun barked out, pointing a finger at Seulgi. “You’re missing out on a key point here.”

            “Which is?” Seulgi asked, raising an eyebrow.

            “I can admit you are attractive without being attracted to you!” Joohyun struggled, grasping for words that would get her point across better. “Like, I know that Won Bin is smoking hot, but I wouldn’t date him if you paid me.”

            Seulgi looked kind of offended. “That’s harsh.”

            “Listen, I’m not saying that you’re a complete turn-off to me like men are—” Joohyun stopped herself, trying to reword her thoughts. “What I mean is that you’re really pretty and all, but I value you more as a friend who I can talk comfortably to than as a person whose physical attributes satisfy my ual desires. You follow?”

            Seulgi nodded slowly. “Yeah, I see what you mean.”

            “Good, good.”

            “It’d be funny if we did date though. Like, I can’t imagine it happening, but it’d be funny.”

            “Oh, you’d be lucky to date me,” Joohyun said, puffing out her chest. “I’m nice to look at, I’m smart, and I’m good at household chores. You can’t cook or clean to save your life.”

            Seulgi sprung up, sitting with her back straight to push against Joohyun’s point. “Yeah no, I’d definitely be the better girlfriend. You don’t have a romantic bone in your body, and you only go outside because I like exploring places.”

            “Let’s agree to disagree then. Because you’re clearly wrong.”

            “Keep denying, loser. We know that the minute the two of us get into serious relationships with other people, my girlfriend will be singing praises about me.”

            “If you can get one with that arrogant attitude.”

            Seulgi crossed her arms. “Definitely.” She pulled up a piece of paper and pen. “You know what? I’ll put it on a bucket list so I’m more incentivized to prove you wrong.”

            “Who the hell makes bucket lists these days?”

            Seulgi glanced at Joohyun briefly before turning back to her paper. “Well, lucky you, because I plan on this being a best friends bucket list.”

            “I've seen even less people make a best friends bucket list. How does that even work?”

            Seulgi hummed as she wrote some stuff down. “Shouldn’t all best friends have a bucket list? Just a list of things you’ll do together before you die, or like, reach a certain age.” She held up the paper. “It’ll be fun. I’ve got dating on here, going to Las Vegas, visiting Hong Kong—”

            “Oh wait, that does sound fun. You should’ve told me it was going to be fun things, not crazy things.”

            “I mean, bucket lists have some crazy things. Like, the extent of how crazy depends on the person making it, but you gotta live life with some thrill.”

            Joohyun thought about it for a moment. She wasn’t wrong. “Fine. As long as it doesn’t include skydiving, I’m cool.”

            Seulgi gasped, quickly writing something down. “But that’s a must!”

            Joohyun tried to rip the paper but failed when Seulgi ran off with the bucket list, the words ‘GO SKYDIVING!’ clearly written out as item number thirteen.

-------

            The girls may have forgotten that there would be another year of separation once Joohyun graduated and Seulgi continued to go to school as a senior. As Joohyun got ready to go out into the real world, Seulgi badgered her to get a job nearby so that they wouldn’t have to go through the limited screen communications process again.

            “Okay, but it’s very likely that I’ll be up in Seoul once I get a job, and who knows where you’ll end up once you graduate. The job market is very limited, we can’t just pick and choose based off of where we wanna be.”

            Seulgi huffed, crossing her arms. “So you’re cool with the torture we had to go through the first time when you were in college and I was still in high school.”

            “That’s not what I mean.”

            “Well, what do you mean?”

            Joohyun rolled her eyes. “I’m saying that you can’t follow me around for the rest of your life.” She sighed. “Like, I get your concerns. Once we both have full time jobs, it’ll be hard to hang out together and all, but you can’t just abandon better job prospects if they aren’t in Seoul.”

            “Clearly you haven’t done your research, because it’s actually easier for me to get a job in Seoul.”

            “Why the hell would I be researching your major’s employment stats?

            “Duh,” Seulgi said matter-of-factly. “Because this is important and you know you wanna keep tabs on where I’ll end up?”

            “That sounds creepy and more like you than me.”

            “Whatever.” Seulgi got up from the couch and headed to the kitchen, prowling through the cabinets and shifting around stuff in the fridge until she found what she wanted. Vegetable crackers. She held it up for her friend to see and raised her eyebrows, silently asking if Joohyun wanted some. Joohyun nodded.

            “Okay, fine. Then say you do get a job in Seoul with me. We’ll still be way too busy to hang out every day.”

            “No need to worry about that.” Joohyun looked at Seulgi questioningly. “We’ll just move in together, be roommates again. Voila.”

            “Ugh, but I’m sick of you now.” Seulgi narrowed her eyes at Joohyun and elbowed her, making the latter cough out some crumbs. “Dude!”

            Seulgi ignored Joohyun’s glare as she spoke. “Well, too bad. You know I hate living by myself, so someone’s gotta stay with my lonely . And you're the lucky winner.” She grinned annoyingly at the older girl.

            “Can’t you just get a girlfriend? I’m not your husband pillow.”

            “What’d you mean?” Seulgi tilted her head at Joohyun. “Of course you’re not my husband pillow. And I don’t need a girlfriend, when you’re my girl friend,” she said, taking care to emphasize the space between the two words.

            The older girl choked again, but this time, it looked serious, which prompted Seulgi to slap her back with force. Joohyun clutched at her chest and hoarsely whispered for water, making the younger girl scurry off to get the life-saving liquid. When she returned, Joohyun’s face was very red.

            “You need to tone down the greasiness, I’m gonna get high cholesterol.”

            “Well, I didn’t say anything wrong. You are, in fact, my girl friend.”

            “Stop saying that!”

            “Why?” Seulgi feigned innocence, widening her eyes and staring at Joohyun with a few blinks thrown in every now and then. “Does it bother you?”

            “Yes!” Joohyun finished off the last of the water, slit eyes suddenly turning mischievous as she turned fully towards Seulgi. She leaned close to the younger girl, making the latter back into the sofa, before heading to whisper in her ear. “I think you just made my heart skip a beat.”

            She pulled back laughing, the laughing turned into strangled guffawing when she saw how red Seulgi’s face was. “That’s revenge!” Joohyun then got up and headed (sprinted) into her room to finish reading for her classes.

            Seulgi hiccuped, the jarring disruptions to her airflow building in quantity. She cursed at the spasmic reaction and peered into the glass Joohyun drank from, groaning when she saw that there was no water left. She got up, emitting sharp, piercing sounds as she hurried to the kitchen and drank water straight from the pitcher. Only after the hiccups subsided did she tap her chest twice to double-check and glare at her friend’s closed room door.

            “You goddamn flirt!”

-------

            Thankfully, Seulgi didn’t have to worry too much about being lonely during her senior year, because Joohyun’s cousin also went to their school and decided to move out from the dorms after her first year. Seulgi watched her move into the place with arms crossed, not sure how to feel about this specific rooming situation.

            “Yah, Seulgi, why aren’t you helping us?”

            Seulgi tightened the muscles in her arms in their place across her chest. “I can’t believe the roommate you suggested to me was Kim Yerim!”

            Joohyun grimaced as a strangled sound left from her attempts to move a box into the doorway. “I told you it’s just a temporary thing. She didn’t have time to look for off-campus housing, because” she gave the now second year a dirty look, “this is the absolute worst procrastinator you’ll have ever seen.” She straightened her back and dusted her hands, seeing that all the boxes were inside. “I promise she’ll move out by next semester, and even if she doesn’t, you graduate this year anyway, so no problems, right?”

            Seulgi watched as Yerim stuck her tongue out from behind Joohyun, putting her thumbs in her ears and wiggling her fingers. Seulgi narrowed her eyes, which earned a tsk-ing from Joohyun.

            “Don’t give me that look, Seul. You said okay last time.”

            “You got me drunk!”

            “My point still stands.”

            “I’ve got it on video too,” Yerim chimed in. “I think at one point you were also down on one knee, proposing to Joo—”

            “Stop right there, Kim Yerim, or I’ll kick you out myself.” Joohyun turned to look at her cousin, who looked sheepish.

            “Sorry unnie.”

            Joohyun then back halfway, glancing back and forth between her best friend and her cousin. She motioned with her fingers for both of them to come forward,