When Dawon was woken up from her impromptu nap (math is incredibly boring even if it was being studied by a literal woman in STEM) by a very distressed sounding Juyeon, asking if she could come over to a place over at 12th Avenue, she wasn’t expecting this.

This being a jam packed apartment room completely filled with drunk college students at the conclusion of Hell Week and onwards to the beginning of winter break. 

She meets Juyeon at the door, obviously stressed out of her mind as she manhandles a very inebriated Dayoung and Yeoreum by her sides as the two continue to sway from where they stand. When Dawon peeked over their heads, she could see the rest of their friends still partying.

“You’re here thank God. Take Dayoung.” Juyeon says, not taking no for an answer as she immediately passes on the blonde into Dawon’s arms before holding Yeoreum properly against her chest. Dawon can only look on helplessly as Dayoung whines at the change of hands and Eunseo is already walking out. “Help me take them to the car.”

Dawon just nods as she follows the instruction, glad that Dayoung doesn’t put up much of a fight as they trudge along the beaten road into where Sojung’s van was parked. She supposes that Dayoung drank a little too much beer since she was mumbling something underneath her breath too low for Dawon to follow, but when she asked Eunseo, she was surprised that Dayoung didn’t have a drop of alcohol.

“So she’s just drunk off… the vibes?”

“Yep. Pure vibes.”

Once Dayoung and Yeoreum were strapped in, they made their way back to the party because it’s three in the morning, Eunseo apparently has a paper due that afternoon, and a lot of their friends are still lost in the fray that is the house party.

“Thanks for the help. I think I can round up everyone else by myself but you’d want to take Luda-unnie home.”

Dawon smiles. “She’s not too drunk, hm?”

“She had one Strong Zero. ONE.”

“Ah, that’s my girl.”

Eunseo lets Dawon ahead as she sidelined to the bathroom so Dawon enters the place alone, bracing herself for the environment.

The sound system was at max volume and churning out what Dawon thinks is an ITZY song and she could barely fit inside of the room without bumping into anyone nor tripping over something imaginary on the floor. It smelled like beer everywhere, people included, and Dawon was suddenly reminded of why she hated everything about house parties.

“Dawonie!”

Okay, maybe not everything.

Dawon smiles at the sight of her girlfriend who looked like she had a little too much to drink and is leaning on the door frame like it's her third leg. A couple of their other friends were protectively flocking at the sides and Dawon’s anxiety fades from the what if something goes wrong that doesn’t quite escape her when her girlfriend goes to party.

“Dawonieee~” Her girlfriend calls out again, snapping her out of her thoughts. She’s pouting and Dawon can’t deny her any longer.

She moves closer, with arms open as wide as she can, and her heart jumps when Luda crashes into them, face squished against her chest. The force is a lot, objects in motion hitting objects at rest and all that, but Dawon doesn’t mind, would rather hold her girlfriend close as Luda starts to sing.

“Where were you~ I was starting to miss you~” Luda says in a sing-song voice and Dawon would have missed the reference if not for the fact that they were watching Euphoria last night as soon as Luda finished her codes and Dawon could procrastinate her readings for the next day.

“Aigoo, who gave my girl beer?” Dawon teases, poking a puffed-out cheek that has Luda chasing after it with a bite, laughing as it reminded her of a comment on her girlfriend.

The chihuahua from hell. Sounds about right.

“I’ll let you know that I can handle my beer well!”

“One beer is not handled well, baby.”

A pouting Luda causes a little uproar, Soobin falling into Hyunjung’s arms as she laughs and Sojung cackling with her head thrown back as she does it with full force. The youngest that is Yeonjung is currently dishing out perfect scores in the karaoke machine someone brought in while Jiyeon was apparently occupied with someone named Taeri (as Eunseo says).

Anyway.

“You’re such a meanie, Dawonie. Stop hanging out with Yeonjung too much. You’re becoming mean.” Luda complains, punching Dawon’s chest lightly with her balled-up fists that doesn’t hurt a lot but Dawon knows that sooner or later they’ll pick up in strength and she’d have to deal with an unattractive bruise on her collarbone the next day.

“Okay, okay I’ll stop.” She says as she carefully takes Luda’s hands into hers. Luda folds like a paper house in a storm and soon enough, Luda settles against Dawon like she belongs there.

(Which she does, technically).

“Aish, take her home. She had one beer but she wanted to fight everyone. Thankfully Jiyeon’s not here and the rest of the kids are busy.” Sojung groans before taking a sip from her red cup.

(Dawon could see that, as Soobin and Hyunjung are so close together they’re merging into one body, hears Eunseo’s very loud hollering behind her for Yeonjung to come down from the table she’s managed to climb on top of while she’s sure that Sojung has partaken with the less desirable substances associated with ragers like this, if her red eyes aren’t already a tell-tale fact of that).

“Thank you for looking out for her. We’ll go now!” Dawon replies in farewell, gently tugging Luda as they waddle outside to where Dawon has parked her car (which is a miracle by itself since the driveway was filled with haphazardly parked cars, bikes, and other forms of transportation). It’s just an unimpressive Civic but it's everything to Dawon (and by extension, Luda). 

She has just barely opened the door when Luda suddenly pushes against her chest, both hands solid on her chest, making her put out a small oof  as she braces herself against the hood. She looks at Luda who’s staring at her with glazed-over eyes.

“Baby, wh-”

“Thank you for offering a ride but I’d rather stay here! I have a girlfriend who’s gonna take me home any minute now.”

If only Luda hadn’t said it with a very, very wide smile that shows off all of her teeth, Dawon would have thought she was joking. But the moment Luda spins around her heel, almost causing her to lose her balance, to turn back towards the party, Dawon realizes she was serious.

“Baby,” She tries calling out, surging forward to try and catch the back of Luda’s jacket. “I am your girlfriend.”

The admission causes Luda to spin right back in her direction and she nearly collides with another parked car that Dawon panics that Luda will hurt herself. Luckily, Luda finds her footing in time, a drunken achievement one could say so.

“Nope! You’re just a very beautiful human who happens to look like the love of my life. I’ll be going now!”

This time when she spins, Luda actually falls and maybe Eunseo was right about her comment about Dawon’s crazy reflexes because she takes a giant step forward to hold Luda up, hands on the smaller girl’s elbows as she pushes a little so that Luda can remain upright. It helped that the beer made Luda malleable and Dawon didn’t find it difficult to keep Luda close to her as the world rights itself as per the laws of gravity.

“Careful, Ludi. Scrapes hurt.” Dawon says before Luda suddenly turns in her arms at her voice, eyes shining with recognition that wasn’t there a few moments ago, catching her entirely by surprise.

“Dawonie! You’re here!” Luda announces, wrapping her arms around Dawon’s neck and as much as Dawon would have wanted to say that she was there for a bit of time already, that remark is lost in the warmth of Luda’s hug. 

So she just basks in it, like how a good girlfriend would.

“Yep, and I’m here to take you home.” Dawon replies and yeah, maybe it is three in the morning and the air has become chilly due to the coming winter, but nothing could ever beat the sunshine Luda has managed to hide in her voice when she’s happy.

“Yay! Let’s go home! Let’s go home!” Luda happily chants as she’s the one tugging Dawon this time to her car. Dawon still opens the passenger door for her and hums as she puts on Luda’s seatbelt, Luda too engrossed in finding a CD to play on the car radio because Dawon still hasn’t bought an AUX cord to help. 

When she has finally sat down by the wheel, fixing on her seatbelt before turning to the right to ask if Luda wanted something to eat before they go home, only to find her girlfriend already passed out, snoring and mumbling things she couldn’t understand with a Urban Zukapa CD between her hands.

Dawon just smiles to herself, a little bit too in love and a little bit too endeared.

She takes care of the CD first, putting it into the slot and lowers the volume until the soft piano of “When Winter Comes” fills the empty space. It’s not the most romantic song in Dawon’s book, but the instrumental is soothing and would be enough to not rouse a sleeping Luda.

She starts the car as carefully as she can, glad that her old-like-Sojung old (as beautifully coined by Yeonjung) car decided to cooperate as it doesn’t make a fuss as it revs up to life. With a hum, Dawon shoots Eunseo a quick text that they’ll be going and begins the drive home.

(And because Dawon is a generous lover, Luda can attest to that both innuendo and not, she avoids the potholes that seem to litter the road that leads them home. It was a difficult task, her car wasn’t as graceful as it used to be, but it was well-worth the hassle and struggle as Luda only turns in her sleep once the entire drive back. Even smiles to herself and it was enough: Dawon is happy).

Since the road was empty, it only took them fifteen minutes before Dawon sees the little apartment they decided to rent by themselves. It was near campus and to where the rest of their friends were living so it wasn’t too much of a change from when they were still living in individual dorms. She would have opted somewhere near a pool or gym but Luda’s legs were short and she’s not that cruel to make her girlfriend walk an extra mile just to fuel her insane need for a work-out.

The front parking space is empty and after checking the weather app to see it isn’t going to rain anytime soon, Dawon claims it as she parks, internally happy to have done so that when breakfast time comes she could easily start up the car to buy her girlfriend her favorite coffee and pastry. They both have empty schedules come morning so she’s intent on nursing her girlfriend’s incoming hangover with utmost care.

Ah, love and what it does to people. 

(Dawon would know, she’s been in love with Luda since high school).

When the engine dies down, Luda wakes up. Her eyes are still half-closed with sleep and Dawon shouldn’t be so in love with such an ordinary moment but she is and her heart starts beating so loud in her ears and Luda hasn’t even spoken yet.

Luda doesn’t seem to notice as she stretches her arms up, sighing when the joints by her shoulders pop. She finally looks in Dawon’s direction all sobered up and Dawon is kind of glad.

“We’re home?”

This is a moment she would like Luda to remember too.

“We’re home, Ludi.” Dawon says, unbuckling her seatbelt but not taking her eyes off from Luda’s. Luda seems to copy her, the seatbelt clanking against the car with a loud knock but it doesn’t ruin the moment (not like anything could have).

“I’m home.” Luda reaffirms as she smiles, bright like the sun and Dawon could never quite look away. Not like she wanted to, anway. “Thank you for taking me home.”

And she goes forward to press the tiniest of kisses against the side of Dawon’s mouth and Dawon melts as she feels her lips tingle with a need to kiss her girlfriend back, Strong Zero beer be damned. 

“Always.”

Because with Luda, she’d do anything. If Luda wanted the stars, Dawon might as well take down the moon too.

(There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for this girl, to be honest. It’s not as scary as one would think, but then again she’s a woman in love and who’s counting anyway?)

And Luda smiles her smile again, this time a little bit softer but not less effective in making Dawon forget that it’s three in the morning and it’s freezing, because how could she remember when Luda is looking at her like she’s Luda’s whole world?

Because right now, with Luda’s brown eyes bright in the incoming morning, she looks as in love as Dawon feels.

This time, it’s Dawon who leans forward first, meeting Luda’s mid-air and she can’t help but smile and feels like this, this is a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

Luda tastes like beer and love and warmth, and Dawon wouldn’t have it in any other way.