“So this is my dorm,” Chorong introduces, flicking on the lights. Naeun enters the room and sets her duffel bag at the foot of Chorong’s bunk while Chorong stays leaning against the frame of the doorway. “It’s kind of small,” the older girl says self-consciously, watching as Naeun wander around her side of the room, tenderly grazing its contents with the tips of her fingers and taking everything in with curious eyes.

    Then Naeun turns to Chorong and gives her a smile that was showing too much teeth to be anything but sincere, and tension Chorong didn’t know she had eases out of her shoulders. “I like it,” Naeun says simply and Chorong flashes her a fond smile in return.

    “Yeah, well you better get used to it. You’re going to have one yourself soon, Miss Valedictorian,” Chorong teases. Naeun ducks her head to hide the light blush on her cheeks and lets out a small whine when Chorong reaches out to ruffle her hair.

    “I should’ve applied to this college,” Naeun mumbles to herself, but it’s still loud enough for Chorong to hear it. The older girl raises an eyebrow in her direction.

    “You’re too good for it,” Chorong says simply. And it’s true. Naeun has been and deserves nothing but the best, and the best is definitely not the mid-tier no-name college Chorong has been attending just to escape to the city (and away from the country life- even if it’s only for a while). “Naeun-ah, come next semester, you’re going to be attending one of the best colleges in the nation. Be happy,” Chorong advises, walking over to her bunk, where Naeun has decidedly settled into, “it has everything you’ll ever need.”

    “It doesn’t have you,” Naeun pouts and Chorong raises an eyebrow- the only sign of her surprise. Naeun seems to have realized what she had said and Chorong watches as the younger girl’s blush slowly appears on her face. Naeun bites her bottom lip and stares at Chorong like she wants to take back what she said, but she never does. Instead, the words settle in the air, bordering between pleasantly uncomfortable and uncomfortably pleasant, but luckily it disperses when Bomi bursts into the room with a loud “NAEUN-AH!”

    Chorong manages to dodge Bomi’s incoming attack, but Naeun isn’t so lucky and ends up pinned down onto Chorong’s bunk. “Unni,” Naeun giggles, trying to push Bomi off, “unni, get off; you’re going to suffocate me.”

    “Yah, are you calling me fat?” Bomi whines, bottom lip jutting out further and further with each word.

    “Yes,” Chorong answers for Naeun, yanking Bomi off of the younger girl. “So now get off of her before the country arrests you for harming one of its national treasure.” Bomi starts grumbling protests about how she’s one of South Korea’s national treasures as well but Chorong pointedly ignores her, instead focusing on studying for her exam tomorrow morning.

    “Naeun-ah,” Bomi starts once she finishes her complaints, “my friend’s having a party at her house tonight and you go with me! It’s better than hanging around this boring old person,” she sneers at Chorong but ducks behind Naeun’s back once Chorong threateningly glares at her.

    Naeun lets out a noise of contemplation, eyebrows furrowed and bottom lip between her teeth, before looking over at Chorong with indecisive eyes. “You should go,” Chorong tells her in a gentle voice because as much as Chorong wants to keep the younger girl with her, she also wants her to have fun this weekend and that definitely won’t be toying around with her phone while Chorong studies. “I have to study for my exam tomorrow so I’ll be really boring tonight,” she explains, a sheepish grin adorning her face. “You don’t want to be sticking around for that.”

    “You don’t!” Bomi agrees, emphatically nodding her head before ducking behind Naeun’s back again as Chorong sneers at her.

    “Go,” Chorong tells Naeun, attention back on the younger girl.

    Naeun nods hesitantly with a quiet “ok” before getting up and following an energetic Bomi out of the dorm.

    “Oh!” Chorong exclaims, stopping Naeun in her tracks. “My roommate- Joohyun- she’s back in Daegu for the weekend, so just take her bunk once you get back since my bed can't really fit the both of us, okay?” Naeun pauses momentarily before nodding again, leaving the dorm and closing the door behind her. The quiet settles back into the dorm and Chorong places her head onto her textbook, letting out an exasperated sigh. The dorm seems colder than before.

.

    Chorong eventually gives up on studying at around two in the morning and crashes in her bed, hoping that she’d at least pass the exam she has tomorrow morning. She doesn’t manage to sleep for long, waking up when her bed dips down and her blanket slightly lifts. “Naeun?” she calls out, voice cracking from fatigue and sleepiness.

    “Yeah,” Naeun replies, finally fully under the covers. She sidles closer to the older girl and Chorong automatically wraps her arms around her. Their legs naturally tangle together and Chorong notices not for the first time just how smooth Naeun’s skin is.

    “I thought I told you to sleep in Joohyun’s bed,” Chorong says as Naeun scoots even closer, burrowing her face into the older girl’s shoulder. The smell of smoke and alcohol from the party lingers on Naeun’s clothes and her skin, but it’s weak and is overpowered by something sweet and light- something that Chorong recognizes as Naeun’s shampoo. (It’s embarrassing how much Chorong likes it.) “It’s going to be a tight fit.”

    “That’s okay,” Naeun mumbles, voice muffled by Chorong’s skin. The material of Naeun’s shirt bunches under Chorong’s grip and Chorong revels in the warmth of Naeun’s hand as it slips under her shirt, soothing against the skin of her back. Naeun quickly falls asleep and before Chorong can follow her, she finds herself agreeing that yeah, this is pretty okay.