“sana, i don’t wanna go!” 

“you don’t have a choice, now hurry and get dressed because i swear to god if we’re late because of you i will not be giving you any cuddles for the whole week!” 

jeongyeon scoffs and grumbles something about sana ‘not being able to keep her hands to herself for even three minutes’, but starts to get ready anyways. a clingy sana she could deal with, but she wasn’t looking forward to spending a whole night with an angry sana. a moment later, she emerges in the hallway dressed in a black, low-cut suit ; simple but effortlessly beautiful. 

“if we weren’t friends i would totally you right now,” sana says bluntly, finishing her make-up. 

“stop eye ing me,” jeongyeon catches her best friend’s eye in the mirror, not missing the way sana smirks a little at her words. 

“i know how to appreciate beauty when i see it. and you, my friend, look absolutely gorgeous tonight,” sana blows a kiss at her, and jeongyeon should be used to her flirty antics by now, but heat rises to her cheeks anyways. after all, getting complimented by a pretty girl like sana does things to jeongyeon. what things exactly, she will never admit. before she can snap out a witty reply, sana is already sitting her down before the mirror and applying foundation on her face. “sit still, you’re gonna make me mess up your eyeliner,” she instructs, and jeongyeon obeys, because one, she doesn’t want to get stabbed in the eye, and two, sana was actually doing a pretty decent job at her make-up. 

“done!” sana dusts the last of the slightly pink blusher across jeongyeon’s cheeks and steps back to admire her handiwork. “i would still totally you,” she comments, pulling on her heels that were entirely too tall. 

“you’re nasty,” jeongyeon makes a face at her, slipping on her own pair of heels (they were practically flats compared to sana’s). 

“i know you love it,” the younger woman winks at her, as they make their way out of her apartment. truth be told, jeongyeon did kind of like the compliments sana gives her occasionally. but of course, she would never admit that, either.

 

/

 

“there’s too many people here,” jeongyeon whispers into sana’s ear, clinging onto her best friend’s arm like her life depended on it. 

“relax, it’s gonna be fine! people are nice here,” sana says, then frowns slightly, adding onto her previous statement. “mostly,” 

“that’s because you’re famous! people like you, sana! they don’t care about me,” as if on cue, jeongyeon spots two women making their way towards where her and sana where standing in the ballroom. it was way too fancy and over the top, in jeongyeon’s humble opinion. there wasn’t even a need for the ridiculous chandeliers hung on the ceiling, or for the unnecessarily big space in the middle of the ballroom. okay, so maybe it was a fancy ball that only big and famous people like sana, a well-loved fashion designer, were invited to. but surely there wasn’t a need for things to be this extravagant. 

“don’t be silly, you’re my plus one! that means people who are nice to me will be nice to you, right? maybe you can make some new friends here,” sana pats jeongyeon’s arm encouragingly, giving her a small smile. jeongyeon almost starts to relax, until the two women she saw earlier stop in front of them. 

“sana!” a loud, high-pitched voice greets sana as the owner of the voice gives sana a hug. im nayeon, supermodel, and one of sana’s closest friends in the industry. jeongyeon’s met her a few times, only brief encounters, though. the woman accompanying nayeon bows politely once sana lets go of nayeon. much like jeongyeon, she was also donned in a suit, although jeongyeon had to admit, she pulled it off perfectly. 

“hey, nayeon,” jeongyeon greets the older woman. “it’s nice to see a friendly face around here other than sana,” at this, nayeon snickers when she sees the look of betrayal on sana’s face. “hi, stranger,” jeongyeon turns to the short-haired woman in the suit, extending her hand. 

“jihyo,” the stranger replies, a small smile playing on her lips as she shakes jeongyeon’s hand. 

“jeongyeon,” she introduces herself, as sana and nayeon begin to talk about whatever it was that fashion designers and supermodels talked about. “so, are you here as nayeon’s plus one?” 

“yeah, pretty much. she dragged me here, i didn’t have much of a choice,” jihyo shares, and jeongyeon can’t help but laugh at how she was in a similar situation. 

“sana dragged me here too. it’ll be fun, they said,” she sighs and looks around the ballroom, now full of people who were making small talk. jeongyeon hated small talk. but who was she to judge when here she is, talking to jihyo?

“what do you do normally, then? when you’re not hanging out with rich and famous people, that is,” 

“i’m a photographer, yeah it sounds kinda lame, i know,” jeongyeon shrugs. “what about you?” 

“i’m a florist!” jihyo replies excitedly, and jeongyeon finds it endearing how she enthusiastic she is about her job. 

“does that mean i get a discount if i visit your shop?” 

“not even nayeon gets discounts,” jihyo turns her head to nayeon, just in case she had heard her name being mentioned. it wasn’t like they were saying bad things about her, but nayeon had this uncanny knack for hearing, especially when her name was mentioned. “but maybe i’ll make an exception for you,” she finishes her sentence, beaming at the taller woman. 

jeongyeon raises her eyebrows, mouth quirked into a smirk. “isn’t it a little early to be hitting on me? we just met,” 

“what can i say? i like women in suits,” jihyo shrugs, eyes shamelessly flitting down jeongyeon’s body. 

“can’t blame you, i like women in suits too,” 

“are we talking about women? because if so, i have many things to say about how much i love women,” sana interjects, abruptly cutting into their conversation. 

“aaand... this is where we take our leave. come on, jihyo, let’s go find momo or something,” nayeon takes jihyo’s arm and starts leading her away. “no offence, sana! i love women too, just not when you’re talking about them!” she calls over her shoulder, earning her a few stares. 

“aww, come on! i was just starting to have fun!” sana pouts, which ends up in jeongyeon pinching her cheeks and calling her cute. 

a while later, after sana had finished her very passionate mini speech about why she loved women, and after jeongyeon was just about to throw a glass of champagne in sana’s face to get her to shut up, grand music starts up in the ballroom. gradually, guests take the hint and start dancing in pairs. so that was what the big space in the middle of the floor was for. jeongyeon watches, amazed, as nayeon and another woman, who she assumed was momo, danced gracefully across the ballroom. judging by the way momo had her head down to hide her blush, sana assumed that nayeon had finally made a move. she caught nayeon’s eyes and gave her a thumbs up, because that’s what good friends do, right? the older woman returns it with a wide smile, before focusing her attention on momo again. 

“may i have this dance?” jeongyeon snaps out of her daze to see an outstretched hand in front of her, and a very attractive, yet also a very small and adorable park jihyo standing in front of her, a wide grin on her face. 

“oh- uh, well, you see, i’m really bad at ballroom dancing, you wouldn’t want to-,” she starts to reject, but sana pushes her forwards, sending her barreling straight into jihyo’s arms. 

“of course she would love to dance with you!” sana shoos them off, looking like a proud mother sending her kid off for their first day of school. 

“sana!” jeongyeon is about to walk right up to her best friend and curse her out for making her look stupid in front of everybody, but she realises she’s stuck in jihyo’s iron grip, the younger leaning backwards a little to accommodate the extra weight. 

“wow, you literally fell for me, huh?” jihyo’s warm breath tickles her neck, and jeongyeon hurriedly pulls away. 

“shut up,” she mutters, shoving jihyo playfully. “now, about that dance?” 

“ah, yes, of course! let’s try this again, shall we?” jihyo smiles at her, holding out her hand once more. “may i have this dance?” 

“i at this, but if you don’t mind teaching me, then sure,” jeongyeon places her hand in jihyo’s, letting the younger lead them to an emptier part of the ballroom. 

“just follow my lead, okay? put your hand here, and i’ll put mine on your shoulder, like this. now give me your other hand, and just take a step to the right, and backwards, then left and forwards,” jihyo leads her through a confusing number of steps, although it really wasn’t that difficult to learn. it was just dancing in a square, but maybe jeongyeon had been too distracted by how soft jihyo’s hands were, and how attractive she looked and sounded while trying to teach her the steps. “you ready?” 

jeongyeon nods, unsure but willing to give it a shot. “yeah, we got this, right?” 

“you’ll be fine, don’t worry about it!” jihyo starts to lead her to an empty space near the middle of the ballroom, and jeongyeon feels like everyone is suddenly watching her, watching them. “just like how i taught you, alright?” jihyo gives her an encouraging nod and a warm smile, which jeongyeon returns with a nervous grimace of her own. nevertheless, she lets jihyo hold her hand up and places her hand on jihyo’s shoulder anyways. right, back, left, forward. she chants in her head, and it seems to work. 

until jihyo starts making conversation with her, that is. 

“so, how does being a photographer work? like do you take pictures of people?” it takes all of jeongyeon’s concentration to move her feet correctly and answer jihyo’s question at the same time. 

“uhh, yeah. sometimes i take pictures for models and stuff. but i prefer taking pictures of scenery, you know? sunsets and whatnot,” 

“did you ever take any for nayeon?” 

“um, no. not yet, at least. she deserves a much better photographer than me,” 

“oh. well, for what it’s worth, i think you’re a great photographer,” 

“you haven’t even seen any of my pictures yet,” 

“maybe if you agreed to go on a cute date with me i could see the pictures you’d take of me,” 

jeongyeon stumbles. her feet move forward instead of backwards. 

“ , , sorry!” she hurriedly pulls her foot off where it had stepped on jihyo’s own shoes, apologising. yeah, great job, jeongyeon. embarrass yourself in front of the cute lady, why don’t you? 

“jeongyeon?” jihyo calls softly, squeezing her hand a little. “hey, it’s okay, don’t worry about it, alright?” jihyo smiles, warm and pure. jeongyeon feels her hand hold on tighter to her shoulder ; a silent encouragement. 

“i told you i was bad at this,” jeongyeon complains, but continues moving her feet again. “sorry about your foot, by the way,” 

“it’s fine, really. it was kinda funny, though,” jihyo chuckles, somehow finding amusement in it. jeongyeon can’t tell if she wants the music to end, or if she wants to stay here, talking about the stupidest things with jihyo, even if she ends up stepping on jihyo’s feet. 

“so,” jihyo pauses a beat. “i was serious about the date, you know,” 

jeongyeon starts to fumble, and maybe, just maybe, she might’ve accidentally stepped on jihyo’s feet again. 

“, sorry,” she mumbles, ducking her head so jihyo wouldn’t see her flushed face. “stop doing that! you’re making me mess up and step on your feet!” 

jihyo laughs loudly, resuming their steps again. 

“stop doing what? asking you out on a date?” 

jeongyeon refuses to embarrass herself a third time. 

“exactly. it’s distracting,” she says through teeth clenched with concentration. 

“well, how else am i gonna ask you out?” 

“look, i’ll give you my number later and we can talk about it through text or whatever, but right now, i am really trying to not step on your feet again, so please, let me regain my dignity and pride i just lost while stepping on your feet,” jeongyeon manages to say, and jihyo’s face brightens. 

“that’s a yes, then?” jeongyeon smiles, shaking her head fondly at the younger’s reply. 

“sure, jihyo. it’s a date,” 

jihyo beams at her, all happy and cheerful, and jeongyeon thinks she must’ve left the sun jobless with how bright her smile was. 

eventually, the song comes to an end. jeongyeon reluctantly lets go of jihyo’s hand, only for jihyo to intertwine their fingers together once again. jihyo suddenly seems closer to her than she was before, so close that jeongyeon could almost count the stars in her eyes. 

“i’m glad i met you today,” jihyo states, and jeongyeon doesn’t know how to reply to that. 

“y-yeah, me too,” she smiles nervously, her confidence from before seeming to have vanished. 

“i’ll ask nayeon for your number so we can text, okay?” jeongyeon nods, albeit maybe a little too excitedly. 

“it was nice meeting you, jeongyeon,” jihyo whispers, before leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to the corner of jeongyeon’s lips. “i’ll see you soon!” she squeezes jeongyeon’s hand one last time, waving a goodbye. jeongyeon waves back, although the feeling of jihyo’s warm lips still linger on her skin. 

and she has to remind herself that this isn’t goodbye, it’s just goodnight.