Daesung was like roadkill in the other bed the next morning as Dara and Chaerin lay in Dara's bed and discussed the night before. They'd started off by remembering the three attractive boys flopping about on the floor ridiculously, but the ensuing laughing fit made both of their heads hurt even more.

"Your old friend might be the prettiest of the three," Chaerin observed. Her eyes were closed against the unwelcome light of morning through the window, her hair a mess, but she still managed to look beautiful. "I mean, Dae's Dae... in objective moments, I can see he's good-looking, but who can really be objective about their friends?"

"He's a weasel," Dara said fondly. "But Top, he's awfully pretty..."

"He is. But your Jiyong, he seems more grown-up, like he'd know just what to do with you if you wanted him to."

"He's not mine," Dara protested, then blinked back images of Jiyong doing with her just what she wanted him to. For such a vague sentence, Chaerin had made it sound remarkably obscene. "Would you have gone back with him, then, if he'd propositioned you?"

She felt weird asking that, but decided she wasn't jealous, just hungover.

"Mm," Chaerin said noncommittally, then, "But I don't think he was propositioning you anyway. This might be the time when your excuse of childhood friends is actually relevant: it sounds like he wanted to catch up."

Dara's head throbbed, making her voice come out pitiful. "But-"

"But you had on the brain," Chaerin finished, sounding a little smug. "I'm so proud."

"You know I don't do casual," Dara argued weakly.

"I didn't say you should. But we'll be here several more months; is there a reason you can't date?"

"I'm not going to date my childhood friend..." Dara started, but it came out so unconvincing that Chaerin didn't even validate it with a response.

Dara sighed, her head aching. She really had missed kissing a lot lately, and sometimes not being up for casual made life so frustrating.

"Anyway, there's no evidence he wants to date me. We've only seen each other again for two minutes!" Her voice raised on the last sentence, and Daesung gave a rattling moan from across the room.

"Please," he gritted out, but couldn't get any further.

"He has a paper to write today," Chaerin whispered. "Should I try to take him with me to the library?"

Dara raised a hand and clenched it into a fist with great resolve. "You did the heavy lifting last night. Leave today to me."

*

Despite her brave words, it took forty minutes of cajoling and bullying to get Daesung out of bed. Chaerin helped between getting ready, then took her leave with an apology, having a paper to write herself.

Dara dragged Daesung down to the coffee shop in his clothes from the night before, figuring caffeine came before cleaning up. Luckily he hadn't puked on himself, though his breath smelled atrocious.

"I'm dying," he whined, arm around her shoulders as he stumbled down the hall beside her.

They barely made it to the door of the coffee shop with him clinging pathetically onto her. She was walking sideways to maneuver Daesung through when she ran into something solid.

"Dara," said a disgruntled voice, and she dropped Daesung like a hot potato.

"Jiyong," she said, smiling up at him and glad she'd brushed her teeth and changed out of pajamas, at least. Daesung made a dire noise from where he was trying to claw himself upright in the doorway behind her, and she retrieved him absentmindedly, still processing her happiness at seeing Jiyong again. In the light of day it was feeling a lot less weird to be attracted to a childhood friend.

Jiyong looked d