“Aram-Unnie, here are some more,” the smiling brunette placed three bottles of nail polish on the coffee table. The existing collection of colors was now joined by pearly white, sparkly green and neon yellow.

Aram’s eyes widened in excitement. She’d anticipated this girls’ night in all day. She and Ai had waited impatiently for their dorm-mates Eunji, Hayun and Yeon-Sang to make themselves scarce. The girls had invited them to the movies, but Ai and Aram had politely declined in favor of pizza delivery and wine coolers. They were the only two in the group who maintained a tough boyish exterior. If the others found out that they liked to be girly in hiding, they wouldn’t hear the end of the teasing.

Secretly, Aram missed her long hair. The maknae had gotten used to her short locks years ago, but sometimes still wished she could wear a ponytail. Absent-mindedly, she ran her fingers over the buzzed side of her hair, and glanced at Ai. She was arranging the nail colors in a neat line, loosely following the pattern of a rainbow.

Sometimes Aram wished she were more naturally androgynous like her friend. Ai couldn’t even recall the last time her hair had reached her shoulders. She hadn’t worn a skirt since her private school uniform. Aram still craved wearing skirts now and then, but was under a strict girly ban. Their management company forbade her to even own a skirt in case she accidentally wore one in public. If she’d be caught by paparazzi, that would be the end of GI’s (fabricated) public image.

She envied Ai because the latter never had to think twice about what type of clothing she threw on. Nothing in her closet was particularly feminine. However, her boyish companion did love her makeup and beauty products. Tonight they would be able to paint cute patterns on each other’s nails without the other girls making fun of them. Tonight they could be as girlish as they pleased.

For Ai, this was as girly as she’d get. She’d combed her hair flat, and was wearing baggy sweatpants and a black muscle tee. She was already holding a vial of purple nail lacquer in her eager hands when she announced, “All set!”

Aram smiled, and brushed some leftover pizza crumbs from the couch. “Dun dun dunnn...what colors would you like?”

Pouting to push out her bottom lip, Ai gave her best aegyo (which wasn’t very good). Batting her eyelashes like Eunji would, Ai spoke in a sickeningly cute voice, “Pink, and more pink, please!”

Aram burst out laughing, and grabbed the bottle of black nail polish. “You’re getting what I give you. We don’t even own any pink!”

“What’s that, then?” Ai pointed at a particular bottle.

“Uh, dude – fuchsia. That’s so not pink,” Aram winked exaggeratedly. Clearly, aegyo was neither girl’s forte.

In her regular voice, Ai urged her friend not to make her too girly. “You know, I’m not into crazy colors like you are. Make it easy to match to my wardrobe.”

Aram chuckled. “Dear Ai, everything goes with black, white and jeans.”

Ai clasped a hand over Aram’s bent knee, and demanded, “No pink, arasso?”

Aram nodded, “Got it. Just fuchsia.”

Ai slapped her friend’s leg in disapproval, but quickly repositioned her hand. Wiggling her fingers, she said, “Paint me!”

Aram smiled while shaking the black nail color in the air. When Ai’s fingertips lay steady upon her knee, Aram began to apply an even coat of color to each nail. Once complete, Ai replaced her painted hand with her unpainted hand. Aram repeated the process with silver nail polish.

When the first coat was somewhat dry, Ai chose a bottle of brilliant blue lacquer, and gingerly slid the paintbrush across Aram’s thumbnails, taking care not to scuff her own manicure. For the rest of Aram’s nails, Ai used alternating coats of green, and the famous pink Aram insisted was fuchsia.

The girls watched a bit of TV before applying their second coats of polish. Something randomly amusing came on while Ai flipped through the channels. In minutes, Aram was laughing heartily.