Jieun likes afternoon workshops with professor Lee. He focuses less on critique and more on embracing the creative process.

They’re participating in an outdoor drawing session on a warm Fall’s day, a refreshing change from the worn easels and repetitively bland studio interior. Jieun rests under a large tree, sketchbook on her lap, covered beneath branches like an umbrella of warm gradients. She doesn’t have a particular object in mind to capture, instead focusing on the vastness of campus grounds, freshly covered with crisp and fallen leaves.

“Jieun! Mind if I join you?”

Her pencil pauses across the page, interrupted by a chirpy voice ringing above her head.

Yoojung stands in front of her, hugging her own sketchbook at her chest.

She’s petite like a porcelain doll; big eyes, button nose, tinted gradient lips all framed by dark bouncy curls. Jieun would have assumed Baekhyun was more into curved and busty girls like the redhead he’d brought home from their first encounter, or at least someone more daring, but she was certainly vivacious in her own way.

“Not at all.” Jieun smiles politely, like as if she had a choice.

Grinning, Yoojung plops down on the grass next to her, though she doesn’t open her sketchbook. She didn’t come here to draw, Jieun realizes—she just wanted to talk.

“I never had a chance to properly thank you, Jieun. You’re the classmate Baekhyun asks when I have questions, right?”

“Yes…that’s right. I’m happy to be of help.”

Classmate. Is that how Baekhyun describes her to his girlfriend? Jieun can’t decide if she’s unnerved or understanding; the term felt like a double edged sword. She wishes she had Sooyoung’s moral support but her friend skipped class to cram a last minute deadline.

Yoojung’s bright-eyed stare throws Jieun off. She wasn’t expecting the girl to be so amiable. “I’ve always wanted to talk with you. To be honest, I’m not good at approaching people, but you seem so nice.”

It was an earnest compliment, one Jieun graciously accepted. “I know that feeling, don’t worry. You can ask me personally if you have questions in the future.” 

“That would be great!” Yoojung grins a little wider. “That reminds me, I heard you and Sehun started dating the same day I confessed to Baekhyun, isn’t that such a neat coincidence? I’ve always thought we’re kindred spirits, in a way.”

We’re nothing alike. Jieun wants to retort. But she holds her tongue. What a bold statement to make for a first conversation. Instead she focuses on the little detail that refuses to escape her awareness. “You’re the one who confessed?”

“Yup! They say it never hurts to shoot your shot.” The girl giggles as she plays with a curl of hair. “I was really nervous, I’ve had a crush on him since the day I met him at that party. You were there too right? I didn’t expect him to accept so easily, it’s almost like a dream come true.” 

Jieun can’t tell if she’s boasting or genuinely expressive of her feelings. She can’t argue those weren’t Yoojung’s bragging rights. The Jieun from that point in time might have tried to warn Yoojung away, but it seems ultimately she got her satisfactory outcome. 

“I’m happy for you, it’s not easy making the first move.” Jieun’s expression hardens underneath her cordial smile. She commends Yoojung when she herself lacks the courage to do the same. It’s enviable, she has to admit. She supposes it wasn’t easy for Sehun either, even if he seemed confident she would say yes.

Yoojung asks for Jieun’s socials, which she reluctantly exchanges given her promise to help the girl out in the near future. She releases a painful exhale when class finally ends, examining the half-finished drawing she feels nothing for. The scenery looked bleak and cramped, as though her world had gotten smaller once more.

“Do you think Yoojung and I are similar?”

Jieun randomly proposes the question to Baekhyun that same evening. He stops chewing and gives a blank stare, unable to fathom what she’d just said.

They’re at the window seats of a nearby convenience store, courtesy of Baekhyun’s craving for triangle kimbap at an ungodly hour. His fridge is often in a questionable state of canned drinks and takeout boxes that Jieun contemplated whether she should bring over home cooked dishes to sustain his diet. Sometimes she does if she has leftovers, and these days she started overmaking her portions on a more frequent basis.

“Uhh…You’re both girls.” 

“Gee, that's helpful.” Jieun rolls her eyes at his blank response.

Baekhyun swallows his bite of kimbap and shakes his head. “Not in the slightest, honestly speaking. Where did you get that idea from?”

Because she said so. Jieun simply shrugs instead, “Just wondering.”

She gets a weird, inquisitive stare from Baekhyun, though he leaves the subject alone. 

“Chanyeol wants to go bowling this Saturday, as a group thing,” He informs her as he stares out the store window. “I was thinking of inviting Yoojung. She’s been wanting to meet you guys for a while now.”

“I thought you said she was shy.” Jieun doesn’t have a say in the matter. Given Yoojung’s timely approach, she likely had a hidden agenda to eventually meet Baekhyun’s friends.

“She’s shy but she’s persistent,” His tone isn’t fully sympathetic. “You did make a good point, the fact that I need to consider her feelings.”

Jieun wonders for a fraction of a second if her words had backfired and brought upon a bad omen—before quickly erasing the thought from her head. Since when did her subconscious become so rude?

“There’s no reason not to invite her. She’s your girlfriend after all.” 

Something flashes across Baekhyun’s complexion; Jieun catches it but fails to discern his emotion. It seemed almost as though he hoped she’d talk him out of it. Maybe she could, except she doesn’t want to be a hypocrite.

“How was your date with Sehun, by the way?” As usual, Baekhyun wants to be in the know about Jieun’s love life. She’s given up on avoiding the topic altogether now that her relationship is as good as public domain. 

“We went to a cat cafe. It was surprisingly therapeutic. Sehun got sulky because none of them would give him any attention.” She smiles as she recalls each time he progressively shriveled when another cat haughtily slipped away from his fingers.

“Good. They better not or Vivi would feel betrayed.” 

Jieun recognizes the name attached to a fluffy white dog Sehun kept as his lockscreen - a Bichon Frisé who pops up on some of his older feed photos, including one with Baekhyun in the mix, captioned ‘fluffy traitor loves my friends more than he loves me’. 

“I swear I’m the only cat lover among all you dog people.” She feigns disappointment and sips away at a banana milk. Her appetite isn’t strong in the late evenings but it was Baekhyun’s treat for keeping him company.

“It’s never too late to convert. Mongryong would love you, I’m sure.” Baekhyun wiggles his eyebrows as he advocates for his own Corgi. Then he pouts at Jieun’s unimpressed reaction. “I take it back, you don’t deserve his love.”

“Hey! I didn’t say anything!” 

Baekhyun bursts out laughing as she attempts to fix her expression, only to be shushed by a late-shift employee giving them the stink eye, signaling they’d overstayed their welcome.

“Oh, also, can I ask you a favor? About Saturday.” Baekhyun brings it up again on the elevator after their return to the apartment complex.

He never asks unless he’s unsure of her answer. Jieun nods him on anyway, bracing for whatever he throws at her.

“In the event Yoojung…struggles interacting with our friends. Do you mind helping her out?”

“Sure, I don’t mind.” A strange but personal request, one that still fell in line with her expectations. “But why me?”

“I think out of everyone there, you’ll probably be the one who understands her the most.”

Jieun shouldn’t be this atrocious at bowling. 

The amount of times her ball landed in the gutter is glaringly reflected by the LED scoreboard over their heads. As much as she wants to blame the flashing strobe lights there are nine pairs of eyes watching her and she wasn’t equipped to handle that much pressure. 

There are also two types of reactions among the audience—encouragement and throwing advice from Seungwan and Sehun, to blatant snickering from the devil that is Baekhyun and, to Jieun’s dismay, Sooyoung.

“Girl, I’m sorry! You’re the one who told me you’ve scored a strike before.” She attempts to reason with a quirky grin. But it was true, the last time Jieun set foot into a bowling alley she’d done just that, although four years had passed since then and she wasn’t playing in a tight sweater and skinny jeans.

As for Yoojung, she seems to be faring well thus far.

She sits next to Baekhyun on the benches, one arm s through his denim sleeve like clutching a freshly-won carnival toy. She doesn't want to play, claiming she’s content just observing the game. Seungwan and Seulgi sit to her other side, engaging her in conversation. 

They’re nice girls, Jieun doesn’t quite understand why Baekhyun remains so concerned.