"I didn't know people even still read the newspaper," Junghee was stunned. In a last ditch effort to find a roommate, she'd placed an ad in the newspaper. She hadn't at all expected to find one.

    "Yeah, well my grandma was reading the paper this morning," the other girl said sourly. "She made me come check it out." Junghee nodded. That was reasonable, even if it sounded like this other girl didn't really want to move.

    "All I'm looking for is someone who can help pay the bills. If you don't have a job, you can turn around and leave the same way you came in. I've already been threatened with an eviction notice," Junghee almost laughed at the indignation on the other girl's face.

    "Excuh-yoose the outta you. I have a job," the other girl replied haughtily. Junghee liked her already. She smirked.

    "Good. You can move your stuff in today if you want," Junghee left the door open, inviting the other girl to come look around. "I'm Junghee." The other girl stepped inside and the disgust on her face was clear.

    "I'm Gwiboon. Do they.. let you paint the walls in here?" Junghee shrugged.

    "If you can afford your own paint, I guess they couldn't stop you," Gwiboon nodded to herself, mumbling that the living room could use a nice shade of eggplant. After she stopped mumbling, Gwiboon turned and looked at Junghee.

    "I'll be moving in tomorrow. Is that alright with you?" Junghee nodded, relieved that she'd finally found a roommate.

    "Yeah. I don't have to work again til Wednesday. I can help move your stuff in if you want," Gwiboon waved her hands.

    "That's quite alright. I like my things a certain way," Junghee shrugged.

    "Whatever," she went back to her couch and sat down, paying no more attention to Gwiboon.

Gwiboon knocked on Junghee's door at 8 am sharp. Junghee scrambled out of bed, not feeling at all friendly. If she ever woke up before 10 am, there better be a damn good reason for it. When she opened the door, she grumpily handed over her key.

    "Have the landlord make you a copy," she mumbled before shuffling back to her bedroom. She fell back on her bed to sleep, but found she couldn't. Not when Gwiboon was yelling and cursing like no lady ever should. She sighed irritably and got out of bed for the day.

She made her way into the kitchen and set up the coffee pot, praying it would be done soon. Then she walked in the living room to see that Gwiboon had boxes and boxes of things, and Junghee had a feeling there were more downstairs. This time, she didn't ask if Gwiboon wanted help. She sat on her couch and turned the TV on, trying to block out the noise of Gwiboon moving in.

It didn't quite work.

Finally, after god knows how many hours, Gwiboon was all the way moved in. Her boxes were in the corner. And judging from the way Gwiboon seemed unconcerned about them it seemed they weren't going anywhere. There wasn't much in the way of furniture. Just a mattress and a purple beanbag chair that would probably go in the living room at some point. Junghee wasn't too concerned about it. Gwiboon hadn't asked for her help, and she wasn't volunteering it.

To her utter lack of surprise, Gwiboon gladly accepted her offer to make dinner. Rice, storebought kimchi, and a pan full of chicken is all she could manage to scrape together. She desperately had to go to the grocery store some time in the next few days.

The awkward air was almost unbearable during dinner. Junghee was clearly used to eating alone, and Gwiboon was clearly used to talking during a meal. Finally remembering that she hadn't explained everything Gwiboon needed to know, Junghee swallowed her last bite of kimchi and cleared .

    "Uh, I forgot to mention yesterday," Gwiboon almost looked relieved that the silence was broken. "The hot water takes a while to reach the bathroom. Like, 5 or 6 minutes. The dishwasher has been broken for the last couple of weeks, and the the maintenance man is a lazy motherer who won't come up to fix it. Oh, the bus stop is a 10 minute walk from here. Unless you have your own car, then you don't have to worry about the bus," Junghee blushed and forced herself to stop rambling.

    "Thanks for the head's up," Gwiboon smiled a little. "But I don't need to ride the bus. The restaurant I work at is like.. 5 minutes from here. It's the reason my grandma made me come check out the ad." Junghee nodded and went back to eating. She hadn't felt so awkward since her senior prom, where no guy had asked her to dance. There was a few more minutes of silence. "So.. you think you could tell me where a good place to get paint is?"

After that, they pretty much never shut up.

Junghee and Gwiboon became very good friends, though Junghee never could understand why. Gwiboon always seemed so standoffish, like she had something to prove. Junghee was more the laidback type. She couldn't have cared less about things that didn't matter to her. She could go out in public in a pair of sweats, but Gwiboon freaked out if she didn't have something fashionable to wear.

Honestly, Junghee had never had a friend like Gwiboon in her life (granted, she'd never had much in the way of friends to begin with). She brightened things up in the apartment considerably, in more than one way. For instance, the walls. She had followed through with painting the apartment (as she followed through with everything she said she'd do). Every room was now a different color, and Junghee had to admit it was kinda nice. It gave the place a homey feel that she wasn't used to.

Junghee wasn't exactly shy about bringing people back to the apartment. But if she was bad, Gwiboon was even worse. At least Junghee called ahead of time. Gwiboon usually just busted through the front door with some random guy she'd picked up in a bar.

Those were some of the most awkward nights in Junghee's life, bar none. She would be understandably irritated, but once Gwiboon looked at her with those feline-like eyes and mouthed 'sorry', she couldn't stay mad. She never could when it came to Gwiboon.

If she thought her paycheck was small, Gwiboon's was microscopic. Not that she was judging or anything, but a roommate who had a decent(ish) income would've been nice. They barely made it as it was. Every month they lived in the same apartment building was a success they celebrated by counting leftover change and renting movies.

It was during one of those movie days when Junghee looked over at Gwiboon's laughing figure and realized that she might just have a crush on her roommate. Suddenly, it made a ton of sense that she couldn't say no to Gwiboon.

It never half so much to realize how unavailable her crush was.

But everything would be okay. It was okay she liked a woman. It wasn't the first time. It certainly wouldn't be the last. And besides, she'd had crushes before. A lot of them were just as unavailable as Gwiboon. No big deal. All she had to do to get rid of those feelings was distract herself. Somehow, though, Junghee sensed it wouldn't be that easy this time.

After all, she spent every day around Gwiboon. And each day she spent around Gwiboon was just one more day to fall more in love with her.

Once she realized her feelings, it annoyed Junghee even worse when Gwiboon brought people back to the apartment. She took to leaving and going out to party whenever it happened, and only came back when she knew for sure the random guy was gone. It was obvious that Gwiboon was sorry. But, as Junghee bitterly noted, she wasn't sorry enough to stop.

It was during one of the times she'd left the apartment when she met Minjung and they quickly became friends. Even though they weren't as close as Junghee and Gwiboon, they were still pretty close. Minjung had a lot of similar interests and hobbies and they pretty much never shut up when they were together. It was a nice change from the recent tense silence between Junghee and Gwiboon.

Completely by accident, Junghee had found a distraction.

And judging from the occasional glares Gwiboon sent Minjung when they were at the apartment together, Gwiboon didn't like it. At all. In fact, the glares got mean enough that Minjung told Junghee she didn't feel comfortable hanging out at the apartment anymore.

It made Junghee happy to know Gwiboon was jealous. But.. at the same time, it ached. Because Gwiboon was only jealous since they weren't spending enough time together. Gwiboon had never brought women back to their apartment. Not once. That was enough of an answer for Junghee to try to get on with her life.

She reluctantly told Minjung about her feelings a few weeks later. At first, Minjung looked sad, but then she covered it up with an angry frown.

    "Well you're sure as hell not doing yourself any favors by running away from the issue," Junghee hung her head and nodded.

    "I know. But if she gets disgusted enough to move out, I'm gonna be out a roommate," Junghee was flat out complaining and Minjung chuckled.

    "Well, if Gwiboon moves out, I would be more than happy to move in with you," Junghee blushed at the warmth behind Minjung's statement. "Ugh, not like that. You have a nice apartment, ." Junghee smiled, but it still stung to hear those words.

In the end, Junghee decided it was better to be direct about the situation. And she wasn't disappointed. Gwiboon made a huge deal out of it.

    "What the- You like me?" Gwiboon's nose wrinkled. "Why?" Junghee laughed and Gwiboon looked put out.

    "Because you're beautiful, Gwiboon," Gwiboon blushed and started smacking Junghee on the shoulder. She laughed even harder and just like that, the awkwardness between them vanished. They didn't speak of it again, but they didn't have to.

Gwiboon still brought people back to the apartment and Minjung was still Junghee's shoulder to lean on. One of the times they were hanging out at a nearby restaurant,  Junghee leaned her head on Minjung's shoulder.

    "I'm glad she didn't freak out," she said out loud. "but her reaction really means she's not interested.." Minjung wrapped her arms around Junghee, understanding the words that Junghee didn't say.

    "At least you're still friends. You'll always have that, right?" Minjung ignored the pleading tone of her own voice, and ignored that she hadn't been talking about Junghee and Gwiboon. Junghee nodded.

    "Yeah. I guess we will," Junghee sounded forlorn, and Minjung understood completely. She squeezed Junghee tightly.

    "I'm here, Junghee. I'm not going anywhere any time soon," Junghee smiled.

    "Thanks, Minjung," Minjung blushed when she felt Junghee squeeze back. She blushed even harder when she felt Junghee kiss her on the lips unsurely. She stared disbelievingly at Junghee's smiling face. Junghee's smile fell.

    "Damn. Wow, uh.. this is really embarrassing. I thought you liked me. The signs..," she trailed off and hung her head. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again." Minjung shook her head.

    "I do like you," Junghee's smile returned. "But I won't be used, Junghee. Don't start a relationship with me because you're still trying to get over Gwiboon. Love doesn't work that way." Minjung shut . Junghee sighed.

    "I'm not using you, Minjung. I.. genuinely want to move on. With you," Minjung laced her fingers with Junghee's. She leaned over and kissed Junghee sweetly.

    "I believe you," Minjung smiled. Junghee leaned her head on Minjung's shoulder contentedly and they finished eating in companionable silence.
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Oh god, I really don't think this is good. But I wanted to finish this, and I did. I never write fluff, what the is this. OTL Sorry.

Anyway, enjoy.

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Til next time, loves. ^o~ ☺ ♥ ♫