Shuhua ran her fingers over the new tattoo on Soojin’s wrist, curving over each color of the tiny rainbow. When the older girl came home with it earlier that night, telling Shuhua that she got it for the both of them, she could not help herself from showering Soojin with kisses and letting a few tears slip from her eyes at the grand, yet adoring gesture. 

“This has to be my new favorite tattoo of yours.” Shuhua murmured, bringing Soojin’s wrist to her lips to place multiple kisses onto the rainbow tattoo. She smiled and held it up above them, their heads resting against each other on the same pillow. 

“Did you know… that you have a habit of kissing where my tattoos are?” Soojin stated, eyes scanning Shuhua’s side profile as the younger girl kept admiring her new tattoo. Shuhua smiled, before placing another kiss on her wrist, then on the tattoo on the back of her hand, before turning to face the older girl. 

“To compensate for the pain when you got them.” Shuhua ran her fingers through Soojin’s hair, as the latter’s eyes softened at the reason behind Shuhua’s constant placement of kisses to where she was inked. 

“That’s the cutest thing you’ve ever said to me.” Soojin grinned, closing her eyes to relish in the soft scratches on her scalp. Shuhua mirrored the older girl’s smile, staring with so much love in her eyes. Shuhua has never found anything or anyone so beautiful that she could spend hours, maybe her whole life staring at and still be in awe. 

Soojin opened her eyes to see Shuhua with the same look of devotion and fondness that she had always looked at her with. She always wondered what it felt like, to be loved the way the movies portrayed it to be, like it was the best thing in the world, the best feeling. 

Soojin thought what she had with Hui was it, that kind of love, but it was not even the same in the slightest. Was it even love at all? Or just filling a void within herself that she had mistaken for love, instead of the loneliness she actually felt. 

“Earlier today…. Soyeon called you my girlfriend….” Soojin slowly said, a bit nervous to bring up their status into conversations. She had clearly been more comfortable talking with Shuhua about things that made her shakingly nervous, and Soojin was very grateful with the amount of patience and attentiveness Shuhua gave her always. 

Shuhua’s eyebrows raised at the label, surprised, nonetheless. She didn’t assume any labels between them because, like Shuhua promised, she was going at Soojin’s pace. Shuhua was just happy she had the assurance that Soojin was hers in any way the older girl was comfortable in giving to her, and that Shuhua had always been Soojin’s from the very beginning. 

“I-I told her that you are…. You know… my girlfriend…” Soojin bit her lip, eyes lowering to her fiddling hands in the tiny space between their bodies. Shuhua bit back the smile that was forming itself. “I-I mean, is that okay? I know we haven’t—, you know, I-It’s never come up yet, b-but… , maybe I shouldn’t have—, I should’ve talked with you first, before—,” She was really nervous, and Shuhua found it adorable that the both of them could still make each other feel this way even after knowing one another for years. 

The only difference now is that Shuhua is able to make Soojin’s nerves go away by a touch of her lips. Always chaste and soft. 

“Slow down, love.” Shuhua eased, pulling  away and nuzzling their noses together. Soojin gulped, her tongue prodded out to moisten her lips nervously. “W-Will you?” She quietly asked, “be my girlfriend?” 

“We kind of did things out of order, but I wanted to ask you… you know, officially.” Soojin shyly smiled, cheeks reddening. 

Shuhua grew emotional before she could even give an answer. “I was supposed to ask you..” She sniffled, rolling onto Soojin to cling onto her like a koala on a tree branch. 

Soojin chuckled, “beat you to it.” 

Shuhua lifted her face from Soojin’s neck, her hair curtaining both their faces, but Soojin didn’t miss the way Shuhua tried her best to hold back her tears. 

“Yes, of course, I will be your girlfriend.” Shuhua whispered, leaning into to kiss her girlfriend deeply. 

_

Shuhua walked out of her Korean Language lesson, both physically and mentally exhausted. She thinks she’s pretty fluent in Korean now, and she technically does not need to attend these lessons, since her company thinks that she could be using that whole two hours practicing or doing something else, but Shuhua knows there’s always room for improvement. The public has given her so much criticism on her pronunciations, and usually she wouldn’t care what people thought, but Shuhua acknowledges that she could always do better. 

Shuhua walked down the hallway, dragging her feet slowly. Yuqi walked out of the elevator doors, and Shuhua raised her hand in the air as a greeting, “Song Yuqi!” Shuhua walked towards her, walking in a stereotypical hip hop style, rhythm to her steps, hand to , and chanting “Yo Yo Yo” 

“Hey, do you know where Soojin is?” Yuqi walked up to her, not matching her energy at all, which caused Shuhua to be confused. She noticed the serious expression on Yuqi’s face, and Shuhua mirrored it. 

“I’m kind of offended that you’re not matching my energy right now.” Shuhua deadpanned, holding her opened hand in front of her, looking away, playfully offended. 

“Well, have you seen her?” Yuqi repeated, a concerned look on her face. 

Shuhua dropped all signs of playfulness in her tone, “W-Wha— why? You’re scaring me. What happened? Is she okay?” 

“You haven’t seen the news articles? I haven’t seen her, nor is she picking up any of our calls.” Yuqi said, seemingly very stressed, running her hand through her hair.

“I’ve been in class for the past two hours. Yuqi, tell me what’s going on.” Shuhua grew concerned, her heart racing in her chest. Yuqi pulled out her phone, showing her the article that had come out an hour ago. 

Shuhua took the phone, not intending to be harsh, but she was in a haste. Her eyes scanned the article quickly, eyebrows furrowing at the nonsense words. “What the is this nonsense? This is bull.” Shuhua growled, feeling the rage overtake her body. 

“Shu, we know. There’s literally been a bunch of different accusations on other celebrities for the same thing. They’re all set ups from people who have nothing better to do.” Yuqi put her phone in her back pocket, eyes rolling, also very pissed off. 

“We have not been able to reach Soojin. We’re worried, Shu, her anxiety is probably really bad right now.” Yuqi sighed, and Shuhua immediately pulled out her phone, dialing her girlfriend’s phone number. Her foot anxiously tapped on the floor with the rhythm of the ringing sounds from the phone. 

Shuhua cursed, pressing the call button again and again. “It’s past midnight, where