Cause it's been a year since I started writing

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Shin Yuna woke up shortly before the alarm clock marked the time it would start ringing. She usually woke up with the alarm, but there were days when she woke up earlier. Those days were usually work days, which made her a little nervous.

She stared at the ceiling for a few moments, before turning and glancing at her roommate's bed. Choi Jisu was still asleep. Though not for long, Yuna thought.

She turned over again, and stared at the ceiling of the room. Yuna decided that she would lie there until the alarm clock rang. She felt dulled by the vestiges of sleep.

Her mind began to wander. That day she and the rest of the ITZY members would record another version of the Not Shy choreography, but she didn't know which concept had won the fan poll a couple of days ago. Would the concept she proposed have won? She would find out once she was in the practice room. Oh, and if her mind didn't fail her, they would also record content for some behind. It was going to be a busy day, but also a fun one, especially if....

The alarm interrupted her train of thoughts, causing her to flinch a little. She had become engrossed, and heard Jisu complain as she woke up. Yuna smiled, amused, listening to the older girl.

“Good morning, unnie!”

Jisu cackled something indecipherable that could be interpreted as a greeting.

Yuna stood up, struggling to collect her thoughts. Where was she? Ah, yes, Ryujin. Yuna's heart fluttered in her chest, and her cheeks grew slightly warm. Such was the effect evoking Shin Ryujin's mental image had on her.

She loved spending time with Ryujin, too much to simply dismiss it as normal. She wanted to be with her all day long, touch the dimples in her cheeks and—

“Yuna!”

She looked at Jisu, who returned a scowl.

“You okay?” she asked, and continued without waiting for an answer, “You looked like you were on the moon.”

“You're still sleepy, unnie,” Yuna replied, turning her back to Jisu so she wouldn't see her self-conscious face. “I'm fine. What's wrong?”

“We should hurry.”

“Got it.” Yuna was more than okay with the idea; this way she would see Ryujin sooner.

---

Yuna greeted Yeji, Chaeryeong and Ryujin with hugs, prolonging the one with Ryujin a little longer, and she was pleased that Ryujin allowed such a thing.

“Ryujinie,” Yuna said as they parted. She regretted the hug ending. “How do you sleep?” The question had slight undertones of genuine concern, simply because the thought of Ryujin sleeping badly didn't sit well with Yuna.

“Fine,” Ryujin replied warmly. “How ‘bout yours?”

“Great,” Yuna said, giving Ryujin a soft smile.

They both looked at each other for a few brief seconds. For Yuna, the buzz of the staff and the other girls' chatter was muffled—it was as if her attention to the sounds had been drawn away to the sight of the pretty girl before her.

The moment ended all too soon, as a staff member walked past them, laughing at something him co-worker was saying to him.

Ryujin shook her head —Yuna can' t figure out in response to what—, gave her a last glance and walked towards Yeji, Jisu and Chaeryeong's group. Yuna followed her, thoughtfully. She liked to feel what she felt for Ryujin, but she didn't like to hide it. That wasn't fun. However, saying something to Ryujin… Her mind was shutting down at the thought. It could mess up her nice relationship with Ryujin if she said something awkward.

“But I don't want to stay like this,” she thought sadly. “I want Ryujin to like me, I want her to—” She cut off the thought; otherwise she would be blushing.

Hours later, when the results of the voting were released—Ryujin and Yeji looked frustrated but relieved, which made Yuna laugh; those two kept competing for everything—Yuna was alone with Ryujin (if you didn't count the guy recording them for the behind the scenes) performing a lite version of Not Shy's choreography.

“I like the way this skirt feels,” Ryujin said at one point, pointing to her red skirt, so long that it even touched the floor. She looked at Yuna's skirt, red too. “Hey, why doesn't yours touch the floor?”

Yuna was gesturing to the camera, but stopped at Ryujin's question. The older Shin looked adorable in that green hanbok.

“Because I'm taller than you,” Yuna replied. In a split second, an idea crossed her mind. In that same split second, Yuna mulled it and finally set it in motion. “Oh no,” she exclaimed, taking a few steps towards Ryujin. “You can even see my shoes.”

Ryujin looked down at Yuna's shoes, evaluating them. It was then that Yuna threw the worry down a well.

She leaned towards Ryujin and held the position until the older girl lifted her face. Yuna lost herself in her eyes, but her body knew what to do. She moved in until she brushed her nose against Ryujin's—who had been petrified—, her heart thudding in her chest.  Before her reckless action turned unwise, Yuna pulled away, grinning, amused and dead nervous.

As Ryujin made wild gesticulations and nervous noises, Yuna swayed from side to side as a means of self-calming. She had done something crazy, driven by the urge to let Ryujin know—to let her know that she was in love with her. Yuna's body burned with embarrassment, and she gave thanks for the makeup.

“Did you see that?” Ryujin asked with tembling voice and a shaky smile. “She touched my nose!”

Her gaze fell on Yuna, who was still swaying, nonchalant. Or so it seemed from the outside; inside she was screaming, unsure whether in triumph or as a form of scolding herself for having done such a thing.

“Did it feel good?” Yuna asked, her nonchalant tone not reflecting the eagerness she felt for Ryujin to say yes.

Ryujin became calm in a heartbeat, evidencing that she was an idol not for nothing.

“It's very cold,” she said, a smile blooming on her lips.

“That's why I asked if it felt good.” Did you like it? How did it make you feel?

“It should feel good because it's cold?”

“Yes!” Yuna said. “Imagine if it were warm. It would be odd.”

“I think you're right,” Ryujin replied after a moment's thought.

Yuna celebrated profusely to herself.

Ryujin leaned back on the locker behind her, leaving both of them silent. Yuna kept rocking back and forth, feeling butterflies in her stomach.

“But seriously,” Ryujin said after a while, “this skirt is too long.”

---

Yuna went to the dormitory she shared with Jisu. Her roommate had stayed behind chatting with Chaeryeong.

It had been a fun day, but a dog named concern was gnawing at Yuna all the time. “Was what I did right? Maybe I shouldn't have done it in front of the cameras,” she thought more than once, worried. “You fool!” she later chided herself. “How do you expect Ryujin to respond to you the way you want when there' s a camera in front of her?”

However, she thought she caught something from the way Ryujin reacted. Unless she had lost her mind—quite likely—because of the crazy desire she had for Ryujin to reciprocate, Yuna noticed that Ryujin's reaction to their noses rubbing was genuine. Ryujin got shy easily, despite that y attitude she displayed on stage that drove the fans—and Yuna, let's not fool ourselves—crazy, but… Yuna thought she picked up on something else. True, her grounds were only conformed by the bunch of cliché romance books she' d read—where the protagonist turned into an idiot facing their love interest—, but dismissing a maybe right off the bat wasn’t Yuna's style.

“Or maybe you're overthinking everything,” a little voice inside pointed out to her, at which Yuna grimaced. Very likely. Thinking too much without doing anything was usually seductive.

Not in this case, right? Maybe she should forget that tiny interaction between both of them.

But what if—!

---

Yuna's inner debate continued for a long time, and by the time she forced herself to quiet her musings, it was close to eight o'clock at night. Oh, too late? No, no. Ryujin was supposed to be in the bedroom she shared with Yeji. Before her inner voice grumbled, Yuna said goodbye to Jisu and went out into the hallway.

She walked out of that one and into another and another. God, boy, was JYP maze-like. And mind you, Yuna had been visiting the building since its construction. Ryujin and Yeji's room was far away, which was strange... why on earth would you separate the group like that? How awkward! Yuna continued walking, thinking she might as well complain to someone about it.

And she was thinking that to avoid facing what she was going to do. Ask Ryujin to talk. Alone. About why Ryujin's reaction to the nose rubbing.

“God, so silly,” Yuna suddenly thought. She slowed her pace, embarrassed. It was so silly to pull Ryujin out of her surely valuable break just to mumble some questions that, quite possibly, Yuna wouldn't have the guts to blurt out. Ryujin would look at her strangely. She wouldn't laugh because Ryujinie would never laugh at her, but she would look at Yuna like crazy and, being the smart girl she was, there was a chance that Ryujin would understand Yuna's intentions and look at her with pity.

Because that will bring the scene. A little girl like Yuna believing that someone like Ryujin, the beautiful, funny and charismatic Shin Ryujin might be interested in her. In a girl that some still considered a child.

“No, no, too stupid,” Yuna muttered, and bit the inside of her cheek.

She reached the hallway where Ryujin and Yeji's door was and walked on by without so much as a fearful glance at the door. Yuna decided that a hot latte would soothe the ache inside her chest, so she continued on to the cafeteria. She drank her latte too quickly without noticing, and just as quickly left the coffee shop.

Ryujin interested in her. Ha, how idiotic! Of course not… Ryujin wouldn't want someone as bright as