. . . . .

Totally by chance, Seungwan catches a sleep-deprived Joohyun leaving one of her classes the next morning – blackberry hair tied in a loose bun and the dark circles under her eyes matching her Adidas Essentials hoodie. She waves– a little too enthusiastically, and Joohyun raises a jaded brow in response.

“Did you pull an all-nighter for Psych? I got your message.”

Joohyun shakes her head at the stack of notebooks in her arm. “I was supposed to, but Jennie and her dumb dramas again.”

The junior toes the dirt, cheeks seared with petunia petals at her senior’s languid demeanour. The awkwardness sizzles away when Joohyun sleepily links her arm under Seungwan’s and urges them to walk away from uni. Despite her fatigue, her lips surreptitiously twitch into a rainbow smile when the younger instinctively carries the heavy books for her. 

They’re walking under the shade of the tree-lined footpath outside the humanities building. “Aish, have you eaten? I’m really hungry, Wan-ah.” Joohyun pauses before the bus stop. “Let’s get something to eat?”

Seungwan eagerly complies, not having the heart to tell her she’s still working off the 3 a.m McDonalds and ice cream they had last night. They end up sitting on plastic chairs at a student-friendly kimbap stall nearby. The bleary-eyed senior was torn between kimchi and tuna so Seungwan ends up ordering kimchi kimbap so they can share. 

“You know when you don’t even know you’ve been craving something until you’re eating it?” Joohyun swallows and reaches for her Cola. “This is exactly what I needed, thanks Wan.”

Seungwan watches her friend stuff rice triangles into . She looks like an over-enthusiastic puppy, when they’re seconds away from falling face first into their food bowl. Joohyun pauses when she reaches over to Seungwan’s plate and realises it’s untouched.

“Aren’t you hungry?” 

“Yeah, I can eat a little,” Seungwan hands her a tissue to dab at the kimchi remnants at the corner of her lips. “It’s just funny watching you eat like you’ve been starved for ten years.”

Joohyun’s brow quirks. “Laughing at my suffering?”

“What are you gonna do about it?”

The older’s tone drops gravely. “Don’t mess with me. You don’t wanna know the fate of the last person who laughed at me.”

Seungwan hushes her beating heart and bites down a grin, trying her best to play along. Another pressing question about Hanyang’s ice queen answered. She seems to know every rumour about her and even reinforces them whenever she gets the chance. She really doesn’t care, and it has Seungwan hopelessly enamoured. She lifts her Sprite up in a toast. “What they don’t know can’t hurt them–”

“Exactly. Great minds think alike.” 

“–unless I publish the truth.” she continues, hands brushing a ‘headlines’ motion in the air. “Hanyang University’s Mafia Princess Myth Debunked; Really just a squishy cinnamon bun. ” Her grin stretches at Joohyun’s snicker. “Yah, you’re lucky we’re friends. I’m hurting my street cred for you, jerk.”

“Psh, street cred.” The girl’s smile simmers. “Uh, by the way… are you going to Taeyeon’s party this weekend?”

Joohyun answers coolly. “Of course I am. It’s a Senior’s event, too, we kind of have to be there. Why? Are you thinking of going?”

Seungwan’s lips press into a line, eyes locked onto her chopsticks tapping lightly against the plate’s edge. Joohyun smirks around her straw. “Hm… it’s a good thing I’ll be there, huh. Who’s gonna take care of such a poor little lightweight?”

Seungwan nips back, despite her sizzling ears. “Aish, I don’t need a babysitter. Like you’re any better, unnie… knocked out cold with a single sniff.”

“Aigoo, don’t get so defensive, I didn’t mean it like that,” Joohyun muses, “I meant you’re seriously spaced out when you’re tipsy. I’m not letting anyone near you when that happens. Creeps are everywhere, trust me.”

It’s moments like this where Joohyun says things that catch Seungwan completely off guard. This among other things, of course. Like… when she texts her at 3 a.m asking if she’s awake so she can rant about how frustrating it is to evaluate Freud; when she doodles swirlies on the corners of Seungwan’s notebook during boring morning lectures (they officially sit together now; right by the fire exit). And that one time she asked to just sit with her behind the counter while she worked her shift at the cafe– CCTV be damned. 

Even after they leave the stall, Seungwan can’t shake the thought of an overprotective Joohyun. They have another class in fifteen minutes so she gently pulls them into a boba booth to fill the time. A grapefruit green tea for herself and a taro smoothie for Joohyun. 

It happens as they’re walking back to the university centre.

Joohyun asks Seungwan for a sip of fruit tea. 

The junior reaches into her coat pocket for the extra straw she grabbed before they left– it’s so Joohyun to want a taste of anything anyone around her is having. But she never gets the straw out. The crinkle of plastic stops abruptly when the older girl simply guides Seungwan’s straw, lip-stained, to her own.

Delicious.

Joohyun saunters ahead with a smug grin while Seungwan’s brain glitches like a VHS filter. 

That night, she drowns in a sea of restlessness, tossing and turning under her duvet. Yerim bangs on their adjoining wall, yelling at her to quiet the hell down.

. . . . .