Refusing (for the meantime) to respond to any of Bae Joohyun’s revelations unfortunately did not mean waiting. Joohyun has gotten louder─ if anything, her actions have become more pronounced and elicit rowdy cheers from her group of friends. 

Joohyun gives to her heart’s content and takes what Seungwan could give. 

She wonders how Joohyun does it. If her silence were read her way, Seungwan would have long sobbed in a corner and overindulged on the tub of caramel toffee ice cream in her fridge. No way would she be so sure to sit beside the person of her alleged affections, as if the uncertainty of words unsaid doesn’t hang above their heads. 

Joohyun has proclaimed any place beside Seungwan her throne, offered her car as Seungwan’s royal chariot─because anywhere she goes, Joohyun would try to follow. She’s treated as “the princess who’s heart I need to win,” says Joohyun. 

Seungwan would huff, roll her eyes, tell her to stop─ yet it’s all for naught. She doesn’t really stop Joohyun. 

Joohyun is an absolute menace to the semblance of control she is desperate to keep. On most days, Joohyun expertly plucks the strings of her patience.

“What are you doing, Bae Joohyun!”

“Don't stop me, Son Seungwan. You made the report for your team, he had absolutely nothing to contribute, he got praised for it, and here you are saving him moments from his imminent death.”

"How are you walking this fast—" 

"You always let people step over you." 

"That got you to like me, didn't it?" 

“Shut your mouth.”

“H-hey, Joo-Joohyun! Let go! He’s off the group!”

…

“You’re not six feet tall, Bae. Not even on your heels. Do you understand he could have easily thrown you across the hallway?’

“I’d like to see him try.”

“Stop that and think for a second. You’re too stubborn.” 

“What would you have suggested I do? Let that man take credit for what you worked hard for?" Joohyun scoffs. "Like I’d let him. After you missed movie night and I was cramped on that couch with Kim Yerim! You could’ve been having fun with your friends, you could’ve spared time for me─”

“You could’ve let me handle it. What made you think I wouldn't do anything about it?”

Joohyun sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “Because I dragged you to that cafe one too many times and you let me.”

“That was different," she states matter-of-factly. 

“How.” Joohyun deadpanned. 

Seungwan grips Joohyun’s hands. The older woman’s eyes narrow. “Because I liked you then. I like you now.” 

To witness Joohyun so red in the face, muttering a-ah, what the hell?

Seungwan had never felt fulfillment fill her to the brim. 

She’d basked herself in a sputtering Joohyun, held her in her embrace (albeit with a weak protest), and felt the flowers of happiness bloom in her lungs. The color of her laughter lured Joohyun in like a bee trapped to the brightness of a flower’s petals, her scent wafted like the sweet promise of a nectar. It drew Joohyun in, as she’s tucked safely on her neck, still flushed on her cheeks and ears ─ and Seungwan let her.  

There are parts to Joohyun that she absolutely adores, and it isn’t long until she’d realized Joohyun is a sneaky thief. 

But what right does she have to call her sneaky, when Joohyun had bravely stepped forward to announce her heist? What does it make Seungwan if she held the blueprint to Joohyun’s plans, yet has forsaken the trouble to guard herself? 

What does it make her now that she let her?

Her chest has hold of nothing but a caricature of her heart ─ a distortion that beats for Joohyun’s name, a mimicry of the real one that has long found home in Joohyun’s charge.

—

"Next one's on you."

Seungwan shakes her head, "I'm sorry, what?" 

"The next time we're here, you're paying," Joohyun clarifies, a hint of smile gracing her lips. 

"But why?" Not that she objects– Joohyun pays for nearly all the time they're together – but out of curiosity, because the rare instances Seungwan pays is only when she fights tooth and blood for it. 

Joohyun sighs in dismay, dramatic for the incoming news in favor of Seungwan. "You were right. Jennie and Jisoo are dating."

"You mean Jensoo?" 

Joohyun rolls her eyes. "You and your poor choice of a proper portmanteau." 

"And what, pray tell, could be the right portmanteau," Seungwan halts, taunting as if adding an extra flare around the word, "–that could please the royal queen?" 

"I take it back. Even letting you decide to fuse their names is a terrible choice," the older woman exhales again. 

Seungwan chortles. "Hating portmanteaus altogether, I see. I, for one, love a good portmanteau."

"Could you stop teasing me?" 

"Portmanteau. Ha! Portmanteau."

Seungwan laughs with eyes closed. Music to one’s ears. Joohyun sees sunshine set on her eyelashes. 

"Do you have a personal vendetta against the word?" she asks, eyes narrowed yet gentle. 

"Not specifically. You know,” Seungwan paused, quaffing an ungodly amount of iced tea. “–the first time you said that I had to google it." A few drops spill out, midway to talking. Joohyun sometimes forgets Seungwan can be a child. She fusses under her breath, takes a tissue to wipe the side of the girl’s mouth. "I know. You weren't discreet."

"I wasn't trying to. But I definitely could–" With brows furrowed, Seungwan holds Joohyun’s wrist. "Wait. We're straying