Uncomfortable

Love Me Another Way
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Joohyun is serious about staying away from Seulgi, to the point of avoiding her at all cost. The first day goes alright, but Seulgi cries herself to sleep the second night. And it doesn't get easier, by the end of the week she's exhausted both mentally and physically. She's too afraid to defy Joohyun's wishes so she does her part, trying to make herself smaller in Joohyun's presence, hiding in her room whenever Joohyun is home. That's the least she can do now for making home a not so comfortable place for the leader. The girls make comments about her and directly telling her that they are worried because she hasn't been herself lately. She simply brushes it off, saying that it is the mix of boredom of the same routine, exhaustion of the idol life and a quarter-life crisis hitting her all at once.

 

It's almost two in the morning when Seulgi goes to the kitchen to refill her glass of water when she notices Joohyun's bedroom door slightly ajar with no lights coming out of it. She knocks softly to check and Joohyun is not there. The bathroom inside is empty too, and so does their shared one near her own bedroom. She knows Sooyoung went home for her sister's birthday, while Yerim is on a weekend Jeju trip with her friends. That leaves only Seungwan and herself at the dorm. Her same-aged friend must have already been asleep but Seulgi decides to disturb her anyway. She knocks on the door, softly at first. When there's no answer, she knocks louder until the half-asleep woman opens the door.

 

"Hey, sorry for waking you up, but can you call unnie and asks her why she's not home yet?" She pleads, doesn't dare to call the leader herself.

 

"Unnie is not in her room?" Seungwan asks sleepily, moving back inside to grab her phone.

 

"Nope. The bathrooms are empty too."

 

The call is answered fairly quickly. "Unnie, where are you? Why are you not home yet?" Seungwan asks and listens to the person on the end of the line speaks. "Oh, which friend?" She then makes a face at Seulgi. "I see. Everything is fine, Unnie. We're just worried." She gives a faint smile. "It's okay. Well.. uh.. have fun?" She says hesitantly before giggling. "Okay, I'll see you tomorrow. Good night."

 

Seulgi doesn't even have to ask. She already knows from the one-sided conversation she heard. It doesn't surprise her that much, yet it still hurts her the same.

 

"She's at Yeona-unnie's place. Had too much to drink so she decided to stay the night there." Seungwan relays the information to her, putting her phone back on her nightstand.

 

Seulgi wonders how much of that is true. Joohyun almost never 'had too much to drink', she's very careful when drinking outside, a habit she keeps because she has to be responsible of the rest of them. Joohyun doesn't spontaneously have a sleepover, she's always so fussy about her nightly routine, her skincare products and wearing her own clothes to bed. Lastly, friend? Yeona is not just a friend, everybody should have known that already by now.

 

"Alright. Thanks, Seungwan." Seulgi is about to shut the door close when her friend calls her. She stops and raises her eyebrows questioningly.

 

"Is everything okay between you and unnie?" Seungwan asks with a slight scrunched face.

 

She tries to keep her calm and answers. "Yeah, of course. What do you mean?"

 

Seungwan plops herself down on her bed. "I thought I was just imagining things but the fact that you asked me to call her instead of doing it yourself is just weird." She chuckles before asking, as if she knows her question sounds utterly ridiculous. "You two are not fighting, are you?"

 

"No, of course not." She answers, a little too quickly. When Seungwan raises her eyebrows, waiting for a further explanation, Seulgi contemplates if she should tell her. It takes her quite some time to make a decision while her friend patiently and kindly waits for her. "Sorry, I'm really sleepy. We'll talk some other time, okay?"

 

Seungwan seems a little bit disappointed but she nods understandingly. "Go to sleep, Seul. It's two in the morning." She shoos her away.

 

-

 

It becomes a normal occurence for Joohyun to not come home for a night or two. Although she always makes sure to inform them beforehand, mostly to Seungwan, not wanting to set a bad example for the rest of them.

 

One afternoon, Seulgi is staying at the dorm by herself. Joohyun is nowhere to be seen as usual while the rest are out trying the new escape room place in Myeongdong. She planned to join them at first, but ended up bailing on them last minute, receiving a full minute of scolding from Seungwan and the two maknaes. She takes a nap and doesn't bother to set an alarm. By the time she wakes up, the sun has long set and her room is in almost total darkness. She then gulps down her half-full glass until the very last drop, feeling extremely hungry all of a sudden. She makes her way outside and notices that the lights are on, not quite sure if she has turned it on earlier. As she walks pass the hallway to the front door, she notices a woman standing by the door.

 

"Yeona-unnie, what are you doing here?" She greets the woman with a tiny bow, approaching her. She hasn't seen the stylist for quite a while now as Joohyun only uses her service for her personal schedules.

 

"Oh, hi Seulgi. I'm waiting for Joohyun, she's getting things from her room." The woman looks up from the phone she's playing and immediately pockets it and smiles at her.

 

"Come on in then, I'll get you something to drink." Seulgi offers out of politeness.

 

"It's okay, we're leav-"

 

They are interrupted by the sound of footsteps from inside the house, followed by Joohyun's voice. "Yah! I couldn't find the strap. Are you sure it's not at your-" Joohyun shrieks in horror when she reaches the hallway, eyes widened at the sight of Seulgi. "What the hell, Seulgi, you scared me." She puts her hand over her chest. "I thought no one was home, it was so dark."

 

Seulgi's eyes unconsciously scanning the bag Joohyun is carrying, noticing a few T-shirts, some toiletries and one other suspicious thing. Joohyun seems to realize where she's looking at and quickly zips her bag. Her face flushes as she shifts uncomfortably, Seulgi can't tell if it's because of that or her slip up earlier, or both. It's fun seeing Joohyun being the one getting flustered for a change, but at what cost? The thing she just heard and thing she just saw are two things she would never ever want to associate with Joohyun.

 

"I just woke up." She answers, her peripheral vision catches Yeona covering , stifling a laugh.

 

"What time is it? How are you going to sleep later at night?" Joohyun nags, slowly going back to her big sister persona.

 

She ignores the rhetoric question and asks, "You're going out?"

 

"Yes." Joohyun steals a glance at Yeona. "I'll be back tomorrow, I've told Seungwan."

 

"Oh, okay then." She forces out a smile. "I was just offering Yeona-unnie a drink. You could at least ask her to come in, Unnie." They have a no-guest policy at the dorm and Seulgi appreciates it that Joohyun seems to be following the rule even when she thought that no one was home.

 

"You don't have to, we're leaving. I've told her that we have a no-guest policy."  Joohyun says, passing her bag to Yeona so she can put her shoes on. "Have you eaten yet?"

 

"I'm just about to." Seulgi points to the direction of the kitchen.

 

She sees Yeona looks at Joohyun for a second before offering, "We're going for dinner, would you like to join us?"

 

Seeing a slight panic in Joohyun's face, Seulgi quickly refuses. "I haven't showered yet. It's okay, you two have fun." When she feels like the stylist is going to offer to wait for her, she continues, "Actually I'm just too lazy to move, I have a full day schedule tomorrow."

 

The stylist nods understandingly and the two proceed to leave with Joohyun casually reminding her not to sleep too late. Seulgi closes the door and can't stop herself from watching them through the peephole. She hears Joohyun murmurs something she can't quite catch.

 

"She's not a kid, Joohyun. I bet she has a secret stash of toys too under her bed." Yeona says with a smirk.

 

It reminds her again of the weird-shaped device in Joohyun's bag that she has never seen before, not even in a few adult films she has watched. Seulgi doesn't want to know what that thing is, how it's supposed to work, where it has been and how it makes Joohyun feel when used on her.

 

"Don't talk about her like that." Joohyun spats before pointing the elevator button with her chin. "You haven't pressed yet."

 

Yeona's finger goes to press the button. "You're so cute like this. I don't get to see you getting flustered often." They stylist her head and pulls her in by the nape of her neck, inching closer to Joohyun's face. The singer then sneaks her hand to her waist, resting it there and..

 

Seulgi moves away from the peephole.

 

-

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Comments

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turtlenaut_ #1
Chapter 16: i love your writing style and how you carefully wrote the characters. but please, i want seul to end up with evie 😭 sooyeon popped up out of nowhere lmao, but great story nonetheless. thanks authornim!
sewcret
#2
I binge read this in one entire day, 24 hours, because i was just so hooked on your story! I was scared to read this when I saw the bittersweet ending tag. I'm a big fan of happy endings (i think i adopted that from my unhealthy obsession with romance movies), and I was really surprised when I finished without complaining once. The way you portrayed the characters in the story was PHENOMENAL. The emotions, the expressions, their feelings, it was truly a work of art! Down to the plot, it was just so good and it's nothing like I've read before. There were moments where I wanted to cry, moments where I wanted to laugh, and that's really fun when I feel like I experienced the emotions with the characters. Thank you for this amazing story, I hope to read more of your works. Some stories don't always need the ending you wanted in order for it to be your favorite. At least thats how I felt with this. Stay happy and healthy <33
ddeulgiu
#3
Chapter 16: I finally had the courage to read after i found out that there's an alternative ending. I was prepared to get my heart crashed but unexpectedly loved it and finished it in a day. Now i'm wondering why i didn't read this sooner lol. The comments section scared me tbh. The ending is very realistic. I think i've said this before but the greatest charm of silhouetteink's stories are how human, relatable, and not too fictional the characters are. That's why i'm satisfied with the ending. I'm still 100% anticipating the alternative ending tho. They seem to be very in love with their girlfriends i'm curious how will it turn out but I'm sure it's going to be as satisfying as this original one.
jelynviola
#4
Chapter 10: and who is the reference for evelyn song huhu i love evie here atleast for now
jelynviola
#5
Chapter 2: who is the reference for stylist yeona? is she a real person i want to know please
oofiee 1006 streak #6
Chapter 16: the emotions i felt while reading this story pls 😩 there is so much depth in how each scene is narrated... there are really just some people you feel so much connection to, as if you cant live your life without them. no matter how tangled your relationship reaches at one point, it will unwind and eventually just fit comfortably in your life
oofiee 1006 streak #7
Chapter 10: tbh if i was joohyun and i do like seulgi romantically, after all those pressure to give her a chance that feelings will change to disgust almost immediately... now everyones even fighting abt it 😔
nagbabasalang
#8
Chapter 17: so it's.... love me another another way? XD
Oct_13_wen_03 35 streak #9
Chapter 17: 🤍🤍🤍
ceralamperouge516
#10
Chapter 17: <3<3<3<3<3