Ever since her roommate kissed her, Byulyi hasn’t been back to her room.

She has been crashing at her friend Yongsun’s room instead, going back to retrieve her things on the days her classes and her roommate’s classes don’t overlap.

She knows she’s being so obvious about avoiding her roommate, but Byulyi couldn’t help herself.

Because Byulyi’s afraid that she’s going to lose control if her roommate ever comes close to her again like last time. Byulyi is pretty confident about her self-control, but when it comes to her roommate, who she has been crushing on for a while now and who also very recently locked lips with her, Byulyi has zero confidence that she can hold back.

Byulyi is so close to putting that incident at the back of her mind, ready to face her roommate again, when she accidentally bumps into her roommate at a joint meeting between the fine arts department and the media arts department.

Byulyi literally freezes up the moment her eyes land on her roommate. Her roommate seems a little too preoccupied with drinking and chatting to notice Byulyi there, which Byulyi is grateful for.

But as she keeps observing her roommate from the corner of the room, Byulyi can’t help noticing that her roommate, who usually holds her liquor well, seem to have gotten drunk much faster than usual.

“Byul-ah,” one of the fine arts sunbae suddenly calls Byulyi over, “you’re rooming with Wheein, right? Help take her home, okay?”

Byulyi almost blurts out that she doesn’t want to, but it also doesn’t sit well with her that someone else will take her drunk roommate back to the room that she hasn’t been in for days now. They’ll be alone and the idea of that irritates Byulyi more than she’s willing to admit.

With a soft grunt, Byulyi gently helps Wheein up to her feet. She says goodbye to the sunbaes and her friend before escorting Wheein back home.

Another reason Byulyi is worried about Wheein is the side of Wheein that only appears when she’s drunk – bratty Wheein.

Wheein keeps fighting against Byulyi, refusing to be helped or held, wanting to walk on her own, only to stumble and nearly fall if Byulyi doesn’t catch her in time. This keeps repeating a few times until Wheein suddenly jumps up a ledge and tries to walk a straight line with her arms outstretched, giggling like a little girl.

Byulyi’s patience is running thin and all she wants is to put Wheein to sleep and run over to Yongsun’s room as soon as possible. She wants to just pull Wheein away from the ledge, to safety, but she doesn’t know if she can control herself enough not to do anything stupid with Wheein in this state.

Maybe that’s why she sounds a little more irritated than she means to be.

“Hey, roomie. Get off that ledge and let’s go home.”

It’s enough to make Wheein stop, but not enough to get her off the ledge. Wheein leans forward, hands behind her back and a playful smirk on her face.

“Make me.”

Something snaps inside Byulyi.

She jumps on the ledge too, startling Wheein, but Byulyi quickly wraps an arm around Wheein’s waist, stopping her from falling backwards into the bushes below.

Byulyi quickly realizes that it’s a mistake.

Her arm keeps tightening around Wheein, pulling her closer and closer until there’s a little to no space between their bodies, staring at each other in silence.

Byulyi has a lot of things that she wants to say to Wheein, but all she can think about is the kiss they had shared and that she wants to do it again. So all her focus right now is on maintaining self-control, chanting boring passages from an obscure textbook.

But Wheein squirming in her arm is not helping. The fact that Byulyi can feel Wheein’s body getting warmer underneath her clothes also does not help.

“Wh-what?” Wheein breaks the silence forcefully, pulling Byulyi’s back to the situation at hand. “Do you have something to say to me?”

Byulyi’s heart thumps against her chest, getting louder and louder every second and she’s afraid Wheein will hear it soon. The smell of booze, Wheein’s perfume and the cold night air is making Byulyi’s head hazy and her eyes can only see the plump lips in front of her.

Just like that, Byulyi’s self-control goes out the window.

Byulyi’s free hand caresses Wheein’s cheek before cupping it gently. She sees Wheein’s eyes widen with surprise…and maybe anticipation?

“Close your eyes, Wheein-ah.”

Byulyi notices that it’s the first time she says Wheein’s name out loud and she knows Wheein realizes it too because she can see a blush forming in Wheein’s cheeks as she obediently closes her eyes.

The moment that their lips meet, they both let out a sigh.

Byulyi doesn’t know how long the kiss lasted, but a sudden cold breeze snaps her out of it. She forcefully separates herself from Wheein’s lips, panting, their white breaths mingling together. Her heart skips a little when she hears a soft little whine coming from Wheein.

“It’s cold,” Byulyi breathes, gently pulling Wheein off the ledge, “let’s go home, okay?”

Wheein nods obediently and just like that, they hold hands as they head home.

When they finally reach their shared room, Wheein starts preparing for bed. She stops halfway when she sees Byulyi still standing by the door.

“Are you not sleeping here tonight?” Wheein asks.

“I don’t know,” Byulyi replies, looking uncertainly at Wheein, “it’s all up to you, roomie.”

Wheein frowns. “Don’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Relegating me back to ‘roomie’. Say my name, Byul.”

Byulyi is a little taken aback. She has never heard Wheein calls her name so casually and she doesn’t know how to react to that. She can feel a blush creping up her neck and she instinctively look away.

“Byul.”

“What?”

“Say my name.”

Byulyi sneaks a glance and sees that Wheein is inching closer, her face is impassive which makes it harder for Byulyi to gauge what Wheein is going to do next.

“Wheein…”

“What was that? I can’t hear you.”

“Wheein.”

“Good. Here’s a reward for you.”

“What?” Byulyi is surprised by Wheein’s word and turn her head towards Wheein. “What reward-”

Byulyi doesn’t realize how close Wheein is now and the moment she turns her head, Wheein closes the distance between them in one stride and kisses Byulyi on the mouth, standing on tiptoes and not bothering to close her eyes this time.

Byulyi can feel Wheein smiling against , and it irritates her. She suddenly feels this urgent need to change that smile into something else, so Byulyi wraps her arms around Wheein and deepens the kiss.

Byulyi can feel Wheein squirming in her embrace for a moment before surrendering and returning the kiss with just as much vigour. Byulyi keeps saying Wheein’s name in between kisses and she can tell Wheein’s happy about it from the sighs and moans that Wheein make as they kiss.

“So,” Wheein breathes when they finally stop for air, “you’re staying, right?”

“I feel like you’ll kill me if I step out right now.”

“I have a lot of sharp tools at my disposal, so yes, that’s very likely.”

Byulyi chuckles and rests her forehead against Wheein’s. “I’m staying then. But I don’t know if I want to let you go just yet…”

“Then…you want to share a bed with me?”

Byulyi stares at Wheein for a long while before saying, “Just so you know, we’re not going to do anything, okay? My heart can’t take anymore excitement than this.”

Wheein slaps Byulyi on the shoulder. “Do you think I’m that desperate to get laid or what?!”

“I mean…”

A few more slaps land on Byulyi’s back before Byulyi finally asks for forgiveness. They share a quick kiss before getting ready for bed.

“This is nice,” Wheein mumbles as she wraps her arms around Byulyi and nuzzles her neck, “I can get used to this.”

“What? Being cuddle buddies?”

“That too, but mostly…just having you around again.”

“Oh. Right. I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you, Wheein-ah.”

“I thought you hated me or something…”

“I’m sorry,” Byulyi sighs, “I wasn’t confident that I could control myself around you after that kiss. I mean…I’ve liked you for a while now so that kiss really shook me.”

“Wait, seriously?” Wheein raises herself up on one elbow and stares down at Byulyi with wide eyes. “Since when? Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I don’t remember since when,” Byulyi smiles, lightly pinching Wheein’s cheek, “and it’s not like I wanted to confess or anything. I’m just happy being around you, Wheein-ah.”

“Oh.”

Blushing and smiling happily, Wheein places herself back in Byulyi’s arm and hugs her tightly.

“I’m happy being around you too, Byul,” Wheein whispers against Byulyi’s neck, “I mean, sure you’ve been a tad annoying at times, but I kinda miss that too when you weren’t around.”

“Uh, sorry for being annoying, I guess? I just wanted to share with you stuff that I like, and I wanted to like the things you like too.”

“Yeah, I know that now,” Wheein lets out a big yawn, “let’s talk more tomorrow?”

“Okay,” Byulyi presses a kiss on Wheein’s head, “goodnight, Wheein-ah.”

“Goodnight, Byul.”