Author's Note: Hellooo, Shoppers! I hope you're all having a swell Thursday :-D

I'm not feeling so hot physically, so I spent most of the day vegging, lounging in a hot bath and watching Westerns. 

Wbat? I like Westerns :-P

Anyhoo, thanks for the new comments, votes and subscriptions for last week's chapter! You guys keep me flying high on a windless day...or a flattering metaphor which makes sense. 

And now - for more Seulrene skinship and y bonding time. Enjoy!

In the end, their quick detour at Seulgi’s place turned into three hours of vegging and eventually snoozing on the living room couch. Seulgi woke up to the delightful sensation of Juhyun lying on top of her, their bodies completely intertwined.

They dragged themselves reluctantly from the comfy couch and got ready for their night on the town.

Instead of her usual skinny jeans, Seulgi opted for something girlier: a slinky yellow dress which cheekily came just past her hips, dressy sandals, and a black leather jacket. Juhyun fished a pair of her own skinny jeans that she’d left there during a previous sleepover out the back of Seulgi’s cupboard and donned them along with her halter top she’d worn during the day. But she reapplied her makeup, adding a darker eyeshadow and paler lipstick to the mix. Seulgi kept it simpler with her makeup, only applying a modest shade of lip gloss and light brown eyeshadow to match her caramel-coloured skin tone.

An hour later, the taxi dropped the two women outside a club in a section of Itaewon famously known as ‘Homo Hill’ – a place for the gays to lose themselves in wild abandon all night long. It was already crowded regardless of the time of the day, but the atmosphere had changed significantly since the sun went down. There was an aura of mystery and anticipation in the air with teens and adults walking through the stalls crammed with designer clothes, talking in excited murmurs.

Juhyun and Seulgi walked hand in hand through the main entrance. As much as Seulgi loathed small places with lots of people crammed within like canned sardines in oil, she quite liked the moody blue and purple decor of this bar/night club. She’d come here once before with her workmates at the start of the year. They’d finished a gruelling month-long content-focused project and enjoyed drinks together on the private terrace on the second floor with a killer view of Namsam Tower in the distance.

Seulgi didn’t care much for the standing tables on the first floor, but she was in a surprisingly good mood and bore it well as she and Juhyun enjoyed their first round of drinks. Even the K-pop tunes the DJ played were fire; this coming from a loner who thought indie rock most days was the epitome of ‘good music’.

A few straight men in the vicinity approached Juhyun at different times, offering her drinks or asking for her number. They would ignore Seulgi completely, which incensed the editor to no end. It helped that Juhyun politely brushed off all such testosterone-infused advances, her eyes staying on Seulgi the entire time.

a fat one, Gae-Sae-Ggi! Juhyun’s here with me - as my lesbian eye-candy! Damn, it feels good having a certified license in muff diving tonight…

Juhyun tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Maybe I should’ve accepted that last drink. I do love daiquiris…”

“Want me to get you one at the bar?”

Juhyun shook her head and tugged on Seulgi’s hand instead, leading her towards the crowded dance floor amidst the high wooden beams.

Seulgi had an inner meltdown at the prospect of moving her feet with steps that didn’t equate to walking. The only dance choreography she could do without any thought was the Macarena. “No, no, no, please don’t make me, Bae!”

“Come on, you’ll be fine,” Juhyun said soothingly. “Don’t you trust me?”

“I don’t trust…my feet.” Seulgi supplied.

Juhyun chuckled and kissed Seulgi’s hand. “Your feet are gonna do great.”

The kooky editor doubted that, but she went along meekly all the same.

The female DJ from earlier had taken a break, only to be replaced by another male DJ whose music Seulgi didn’t like nearly as much. Most of the tunes were weird mashups of songs that should’ve never been composed, much less paired together.

As such, Seulgi dubbed him ‘DJ Mash Potatoes’ in her mind as his annoying, amalgamated playlist droned on. She yelled the joke in Juhyun’s ear amidst the loud music, delighted when the shorter brunette cackled loudly and appreciatively. She liked it even more when Juhyun looked for reasons to keep touching her amidst their laughter on the dance floor.

Juhyun was looking ier than a K-pop idol, and Seulgi was vibing with the overall energy in the club.

Just as Seulgi got more comfortable with flailing her arms about, the song changed from an upbeat techno joint to a slower, romantic ballad.

Juhyun laughed at the change in music. “DJ Mash Potatoes did that on purpose.”

Seulgi scowled. “He’s jealous of my awesome dance moves.”

“Whatever you say, Boa.”

After that, DJ Mash Potatoes randomly switched to a fast-paced song, but one which Seulgi actually liked – an English dance track called ‘Hold Me Closer’ by Elton John and Britney Spears.

It fit Seulgi’s mood perfectly. She couldn’t take her eyes off Juhyun, her dark orbs pulsing with excitement as she moved her hips sensually in time to the catchy beat.

Either Juhyun was a good teacher, or just maybe, Seulgi was getting out of her head and loosening up for once. Wherever Juhyun moved, so did she, mimicking each step with only tiny hints of hesitation.

It felt right to hold Juhyun closer, caressing her lower back as they swayed together. It felt insanely natural that Juhyun occasionally brushed her lips over her shoulder or the hand holding her close. It made Seulgi’s head spin right along with the song.

She wanted all their dances in the future to be just like this: a seamless choreography of hearts and bodies intertwined.

The heavy pink and purple strobe lights overhead cast their own sensual glow on the club scene, which were reflected in Juhyun’s spell-binding brown eyes.

When the song came to an end, Seulgi melded their lips together with sweet kisses conveying a secret they both alone knew.

They finally got tired of dancing and made their way upstairs to the private terrace. After all that moving about, the chilly night air was inviting on Seulgi’s sweaty skin. She and Juhyun admired the landscape of the city for a while.

Seulgi had practically lived in Seoul her whole life. And still, the ancient capital always found new and thrilling ways to surprise her.

One of those pleasant surprises stood beside her, biting her bottom lip and smiling genially at the cars roaring below. Seulgi reached for Juhyun’s hand and took her into her arms, inwardly thrilled when she yielded automatically to her touch. Like most times, Juhyun leant forward and kissed her, tasting like a mesh of bitter rum and sweet strawberries from her daiquiri.

Seulgi closed her eyes and gave into the sensations, wrapping her arms tightly around Juhyun’s lithe frame, kissing till the moon shone a little brighter in the night sky.

“Omo, my feet are killing me…” Juhyun moaned haplessly.

Seulgi raised an eyebrow. “Aish, I told you not to wear those high heels.”

Juhyun tossed the offending shoes onto the carpet and stuck out her tongue at her girlfriend. “Pabo.”

“I know, I’m the worst.” Seulgi plonked herself down next to Juhyun on the couch and immediately began massaging her feet.

Juhyun closed her eyes and sighed blissfully. “Hmm, that feels incredible…”

“Gomowo. I’m self-taught.” Seulgi used her thumbs to knead Juhyun’s stiff arches bit by bit.

As far as feet go, Juhyun’s aren’t half bad. No mutant-shaped toes or a trace of foot cheese in sight. And don’t even get me started on those legs…

Seulgi ran a critical eye over pale, supple skin skimming over a healthy set of calves, ascending towards the curvaceous plains of waist and hips.

Juhyun-ah is just…wow.

Seulgi cleared and thought about sesame Shiba Inu puppies instead, re-focusing her energy on relieving her girlfriend’s aches and pains.

Juhyun opened one eye, which landed on Seulgi and her gentle ministrations. “For a moody hermit, you’re actually kinda sweet.”

“Ara, ara. I’d probably give you diabetes.” Seulgi looked up from her massaging and threw Juhyun an impish smile.

Juhyun wiggled her toes playfully in her girlfriend’s direction before remembering something critical. “Jamsima! I should be massaging you!”

“Kwenchana,” Seulgi murmured distractedly, thinking of her own feet. She was doing the most to get rid of a persistent kink in Juhyun’s right arch.

“I meant your tennis elbow.”

Now that Juhyun mentioned it, it felt pretty stiff around the tricep. Probably from dancing up a storm to DJ Mash Potatoes vomit-inducing remixes for ages.

Seulgi kept massaging Juhyun’s foot stubbornly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Juhyun glared and smacked Seulgi’s hand.

“Ow! Now, you’re just causing me more pain!”

Juhyun ignored her girlfriend’s quip and scooched closer, forcing Seulgi into a semi-horizontal position on the couch.

Seulgi watched wordlessly as Juhyun reached for her left arm with the slightest of movements. Her thumb glided purposefully in-between the knots of tension under skin which trembled beneath her touch.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow!” Seulgi whimpered when Juhyun kneaded too close to the bone in her elbow.

“Mianhe!” Juhyun made penance by kissing the sore spot better multiple times.

Maybe I should keep acting like I’m in pain even when I’m not…

This mesh of pleasure pain was playing mind games with Seulgi. Being there with Juhyun seemed too good to be true. At any minute, it could all vanish into thin air - and what would she be left with?

Perhaps a different kind of ache she couldn’t hope to contain or overcome.

She extricated her elbow from Juhyun’s hands.

Her feelings must’ve shown on her face because Juhyun’s brown eyes crinkled worriedly soon after. “Seriously, what’s going on with you, Seulgi? You’ve been weird ever since I came over last night. Do you want me to go?”

“No!” Seulgi couldn’t explain the sudden panic she felt at the thought of Juhyun leaving her in any sense.

“Then what is it?”

Seulgi sighed heavily. “Please don’t get mad, ok?”

“Ok…”

“Have you ever had a dream where you were dating or married to someone, and you had no clue who they were?”

“Of course,” Juhyun answered. “But after I woke up, I realised I was dating dream Lee Seungri and had to testify against him in court after that Burning Club ion scandal…”

“Ok, so not that crazy, but still weird.” Seulgi affirmed. “Well, I’m having that dream right now, and you’re the girlfriend that I have no clue about.”

This is it. I’m about to experience female castration first hand…

“Wait…so you think everything that’s happening to you right now is a dream???”

“I don’t think, I know. Well, I’m at least 88% sure…”

“And the other 12%?”

Seulgi’s eyes lingered for the briefest moment on Juhyun’s curvy bottom lip. “Maybe I just pull…”

“Ok, let’s say that hypothetically, this is a dream—”

“It’s definitely a dream. My appa keeps showing up everywhere.”

“How does that prove you’re dreaming?”

Seulgi smiled wryly. “He’s not in Seoul anymore.”

Juhyun’s eyes crinkled sadly at Seulgi’s words. She ran a hand through her voluminous hair before positioning herself in her girlfriend’s lap. “Ok, I’ll bite. Hypothetically, this is all a vivid dream. What’s so terrible about that?”

Seulgi frowned speculatively. “Nothing.”

“Exactly. And you get to see your appa.”

“I don’t want to see him right now,” Seulgi said in a brisk tone. Any mention of tall men with kind smiles instantly made her bristle with anger. “That’s not even the point, Bae.

The point is… I could wake up at any moment and that would ! I mean, look at you - look at us right now! This is weird and I actually like it! I’ve never felt that way before about anything…or anyone.”

Juhyun’s eyes lit up. “Is this your nutty way of saying you like having me around?”

Seulgi’s eyebrows unfurled and she just looked at Juhyun for a long time.

Really looked at her.

Juhyun was the total opposite of her: confident, unapologetic, beautiful, fun, honest, and liked hugging to a fault.

In just 24 hours, she had taken up residence inside her lovelorn heart.

Seulgi gripped Juhyun’s lithe hips more tightly, ignoring the twinge in her elbow. “It is, and I do.”

Juhyun smiled, tracing loving lines across Seulgi’s cheek. “You know, there’s nothing wrong with dreams. They give us something to aspire to and let us hold onto the things we love.”

Something clicked in Seulgi’s head again - another hidden message written in Braille. Instead of puzzling over it, she forced herself to stay in the moment with Juhyun.

“You’re right. Mary Shelley first dreamt about ‘Frankenstein’, and it became a bestseller.”

“Well, that was more of a nightmare, but point taken,” Juhyun teased, tapping Seulgi’s small nose affectionately.

“You are a unicorn, Bae Juhyun. And you’re all mine.” Seulgi marvelled, unaware that she’d voiced her thoughts out loud.

Juhyun’s breath hitched in , and she draped her hands deliberately around Seulgi’s neck.

“I think we should stop talking now.”

“Ok. What do you want to do instead?”

Juhyun answered by melding their lips together.

Seulgi’s body reacted immediately, her brain turning fuzzy as she moved her lips tentatively against Juhyun’s.

This was all very new to her.

Not kissing per se, but actually kissing someone she really liked, who liked her just as much in the moment, in any moment, really.

It was overwhelming but exciting. Juhyun was slowly stoking a fire inside her that she didn’t know had been lit long before.

Meh, what the hell - talking’s for the idiot politicians in this country…

Growing more emboldened, she moved her hand over the nape of Juhyun’s neck, drawing their bodies closer together. She ran curious fingers through her hair, delighting in the silken feel of it as well as the soft moans she drew from Juhyun’s lips with each touch.

However, she hissed in agony after keeping her elbow bent in one position for too long.

Juhyun grew concerned. “Are you sure you want to…you know, when you’re in pain?”

At any other time, Seulgi would have stopped and called it a night.

But her head was clouded with sudden longing. So much so that it distracted her from the pain, producing a new and raw ache which took its place deep inside her.

And it’s not like any medical professional I’ve seen in the past month explicitly told me that was off the table.

So…

“We’ll make it work,” she promised before fastening her lips on Juhyun’s once more.

Juhyun smiled against Seulgi’s lips. It made Seulgi’s spine tingle knowing that Juhyun knew just how to kiss her: two soft pecks on the bottom lip followed by a drawn-out, pillowy touch to her top lip, leaving her breathless and wanting more each time.

Juhyun traced soothing lines over her girlfriend’s stiff elbow while they kissed. It worked well as a physical and emotional salve, making Seulgi’s whole body heat up with anticipation. Her lips trailed over Juhyun’s soft skin, landing finally on her perfectly sculpted cheek.

They stumbled upwards from the couch, clinging to one another in a bid to stay centred with every sensation they brought out in each other. Adrenaline shot through Seulgi’s tired limbs, making her briefly slam Juhyun against her bookcase, knocking a few books onto the floor while they kissed heatedly.

Juhyun held onto the wooden frame for support, sighing in pleasure when Seulgi trailed fervent kisses down her neck and through the valley of her s. It was thrilling being with Juhyun like this: kissing her, sliding her hand under her halter top, fingertips traversing through the narrow ridges of muscle on her back.

Seulgi especially savoured the moments when she got to lay loving kisses on the tiny heart-shaped tattoo on the inside of Juhyun’s right wrist. And judging by her girlfriend’s sharp intakes of breath whenever it happened, she seemed to like it - a lot.

This would technically be their first time together, since Seulgi couldn’t remember any other time before this. And yet, she instinctively knew what to do, knew just how to touch to make Juhyun want her more. This power over someone was exciting, addictive even.

Everywhere their skin touched was electric, as if they were the only two people in the world who got to touch each other intimately like this. Every kiss was a fervent brushstroke, painting silent portraits of ecstasy over the canvas that was their trembling bodies.

Juhyun finally pulled away, but only to take Seulgi’s hand, guiding her gently towards the bedroom with determined steps and slow kisses as their passion grew.

Author's Note: Hee hee, I'm grining like an idiot because I wrote yet another scene into one of my stories. I'm such a :-P 

 And now, for more Korean phrases and references:

1) 'Homo Hill' is apparently a very popular spot in Itaewon with lots of LGBTQ-friendly bars and clubs in this foreigner-friendly part of Seoul. Sadly, I never had the guts to go there while living in Korea ;-)

2) 'Gae-Sae-Ggi' is Korean for 'bastard'. 

3) The lovely Kwon Boa is a famous Korean pop singer and like Kang Seulgi and Bae Irene, also part of SM Entertainment. 

4) 'Gomowo' is an informal way of saying 'thank you' in Korean. 

5) 'Jamsima' is short for 'jamsimanyo', which means 'wait a minute' in Korean. 

6) 'Mianhe' is 'sorry' in Korean. 

7) Lee Seungri was a Korean pop singer and a former member of the boy band Big Bang. Then he did some scandalous stuff and wound up in jail for his trouble. 'Nuff said. 

8) 'Appa' is an informal way of saying 'dad' in Korean. 

Btw, how cool a mix is 'Hold Me Closer' by Elton John and Britney Spears? I cannot stop listening to it. I thought it would be perfect for a sultry Seulrene dance in a night club ;-)

I must say, I'm quite proud of my restraint with this Seulrene love scene. The I've written in my other stories is well, uh...gross :-S I guess I'm growing up, lol. 

I'm gonna make myself a hot water bottle and take it easy. I'm aging before my very eyes :-/ Take good care of yourselves and stay safe, my darlings <3