“Yeah, but don’t you think Seulgi has the biggest crush on Joohyun?” Seungwan asks, taking a sip of her soda.
“Well, yeah I guess, but think about it; Jackson and Youngji,” to prove her point, Sooyoung slaps the table and squints at Seungwan.
“Okay fine,” Seungwan slams her can down, “let’s see what happens first—Seulgi says something to Joohyun, or Jackson gets jealous over some dude talking to Youngji.”
Joohyun rolls her eyes, “will you guys ever stop? I mean come on, Seulgi’s just being annoying.”
Seungwan and Sooyoung look at her with raised eyebrows.
“What?”
Seungwan leans over and puts her hands on Joohyun’s shoulders and shakes her, “she likes you, idiot, everyone knows this, even my neighbour’s dog.”
“I can vouch for this, Seungwan and her neighbour’s dog talk a lot,” Sooyoung nods her head vigorously.
“Shut up Sooyoung,” Seungwan says, still shaking Joohyun by her shoulders.
Joohyun pushes Seungwan off her and stands up, “you guys are being ridiculous.”
“YAH! BAE JOOHYUN!” Seulgi shouts. Seungwan grins. Sooyoung scowls. Joohyun rolls her eyes.
Looking up at the third floor of the school, she sees Seulgi leaning out of a classroom window.
“YOU LOOK REALLY PRETTY TODAY!” Seulgi grins, with no hint of shame whatsoever. Joohyun on the other hand, feels herself go red and she knows that everyone is looking at her. One of these days, she’s going to punch Kang Seulgi in the face. Her cute, cute face. Maybe then it won't be so cute anymore. She turns her back to Seulgi (who is still grinning at her from the third floor) and walks away as fast as she can. Sooyoung and Seungwan follow, all the while arguing about who won the bet (Seungwan did, obviously, but Sooyoung hates losing anything).

    When Joohyun sees Seulgi beaming at her from her seat, she weeps internally. How could she forget? Seulgi managed to get the spot next to her in every single one of their classes together. Which was all of their classes. Metaphorical tears roll down Joohyun’s cheeks.
“Bae Joohyun, hurry up and sit down,” their teacher says, and she does so, taking as long as possible, so as to minimise the time she had to spend with Seulgi. When she finally gets to her seat she takes a short look at Seulgi and more metaphorical tears roll down her cheeks.
Seulgi leans over when the teacher isn’t looking, “you really look really pretty today,” she whispers.
Joohyun hides her face in her hands, “shut up, Kang Seulgi.”
“Why, Bae Joohyun? You’re so so so pretty and it makes my heart scream.”
“Don’t do this to me.”
“Do what? Tell you that you’re the prettiest person I’ve ever seen?”
‘Just three more periods of this,’ Joohyun thinks to herself, ’just three more periods.’

    It turns out it’s three more periods plus detention, because Seulgi doesn’t shut up in math and they both get detention. Joohyun is supposed to be at home, spending this precious time doing absolutely nothing, but instead here she is, with Kang Seulgi of all people, stuck in an empty classroom (also doing absolutely nothing). Seulgi isn’t doing anything other than smiling and staring at Joohyun, whose face is beginning to itch.
“What do you want from me, Kang Seulgi?!” she finally snaps.
Seulgi grins, a toothy grin on par with Seungwan’s -eating smile and Joohyun feels her neck prickle in irritation, “do you know when you look the prettiest?” she asks.
Joohyun sighs and says nothing.
“All the time,” Seulgi answers her own question.
Joohyun tries really hard, she really does, not to falter at the tone of admiration and innocent affection but she can’t. She just can’t. She feels herself go red again, and, in an attempt to hide her smile, she bites her inner cheek.

    Detention ends with the screech of Joohyun’s chair on the linoleum floor and Seulgi quickly slamming the door shut as she tries to catch up.
“Hey! Joohyun! Hold up!”
To turn or not to turn? That is the question. A question to which Joohyun will never know the answer to because Seulgi pulls her back. Seulgi pulls her back, and for the first time in forever, Seulgi is red and stammering and at a loss for words.
And maybe, just maybe, Joohyun thinks, that Seulgi really does have a huge crush on her.
Maybe.

    The thing is, with Seulgi, she doesn’t actually know for sure that Seulgi even has crush on her. Despite all the public compliments, she never explicitly states that she likes Joohyun. Seulgi has also never asked her out, unlike the countless hoards of boys (and sometimes other girls) she seems to attract, who flood her locker with paper confessions and questionably made chocolate. Seulgi also has a gigantic reputation of being a prankster, and Joohyun can never really be sure if this is all just a joke that will slap her in the face once she succumbs to the temptation. 

    On the other hand, Seulgi is the nicest, brightest, nicest person she’s ever met/seen/encountered. There aren’t any specific examples she can think of, but just in general, Seulgi is a ball of warmth and sunshine, and Joohyun can’t help but feel good inside whenever they’re together.
That doesn’t actually mean she likes Seulgi, by the way.
Seulgi is just—comfortable.
Joohyun is confused.

    The next day when she sees her, Seulgi is back to her loud and overly cheerful self. The compliment of the day is “you’re cute!” and its variations.
“Do you still seriously think that Seulgi is just messing with you?” Seungwan asks, “because if she is, she is really dedicated to this.”
Joohyun tries to say something but nothing comes out.
“Yeah unnie, she probably likes you more than Jackson likes Youngji, and that’s a lot,” Sooyoung nods.
“Why do you keep bringing up Jackson and Youngji? This has literally nothing to do either them.”
“I’m just saying,” Sooyoung raises her hands in defence, “they’re like the school’s otp.”
Seungwan rolls her eyes, “not your otp though, BECAUSE PARK SOOYOUNG HAS A CRUSH ON HEO YOUNGJI!”
“SHUT UP SEUNGWAN,” Sooyoung tackles her to the ground and Joohyun can’t be bothered helping either of them so she just watches.
“YOU AND JOOHYUN ARE JUST DUMB LESBIANS ANYWAY!” Seungwan screams as Sooyoung tries to cover with a hand.
Almost everyone is staring, and Joohyun can see Youngji looking over at them with a smile on her face. And Joohyun wonders if Seulgi likes her as much as Sooyoung likes Youngji.

    Seungwan and Sooyoung both end up in the nurses office, Seungwan with scratches on her face and Sooyoung with a bruise on her cheek. Joohyun thinks that there really wasn't any reason for them to be so violent, but Seungwan insists that she punched Sooyoung by accident and it really wasn’t supposed to happen. They sit on separate beds, glaring at each other. Seungwan has her scratches cleaned, and Sooyoung is given some strange smelling ointment to rub on her bruise. While Seungwan is busy complaining about Sooyoung and her temper to Joohyun, Youngji sneaks in, and when Joohyun leaves she sees Youngji sitting suspiciously close to Sooyoung, applying the ointment to her bruise and whispering things while Sooyoung presses her face against Youngji’s hand, pretending that it hurts when it really doesn’t. 

    “So, I heard that Park Sooyoung has a crush on Heo Youngji,” Seulgi says out of nowhere, while they're having a ‘self-study’ session in biology.
Joohyun blinks and looks up from her notes, “yeah…”
Seulgi hums and continues writing things in her exercise book.
There is a pause before she says, in an uncharacteristically quiet voice, “well, just so you know…Kang Seulgi has a crush on Bae Joohyun.”
Towards the end, it’s almost a whisper and Joohyun does a double take, she looks at Seulgi like she just sprouted a foot from her head, which is quite unnecessary, because she already knows, thanks to Seungwan and Sooyoung. Seulgi smiles sheepishly and returns to her book. For the rest of the day she doesn’t say much. Joohyun screams on the inside.

    After Seulgi’s impromptu confession, things change. Sort of. Seulgi’s compliments are no longer loud and obvious. Now, they’re quiet and sincere, and Joohyun thinks she likes this better. Whispered words before classes leave her smiling for hours, and sometimes Seulgi leaves snacks in Joohyun’s locker. Seungwan and Sooyoung begin to think that Seulgi has given up on Joohyun.
“Hey, did you do something to Seulgi?” Sooyoung asks, jabbing Joohyun’s shoulder.
“Yeah, does she not like you anymore?” Seungwan adds.
Joohyun grins, because she knows it’s definitely not that. Her grinning slightly creeps out Seungwan and Sooyoung, who decide it’s best not to ask anymore.

    It’s just her luck when their math teacher assigns Seulgi to her as a ‘peer tutor’ because, apparently, Joohyun’s grades have been dropping for some reason, and as Seulgi is conveniently good at math, who would be better than her to do the job (probably not Seulgi, because the reason why Joohyun has been struggling is because she stops listening and starts thinking about Seulgi and the weird bubbly feeling she gets whenever they’re together)? Seulgi grins at her. Their classmates holler. When she nervously holds Joohyun’s hand, Joohyun feels her heart drop and a sudden urge to bite her fingernails. She doesn’t really know if that’s a good thing or not.

    Joohyun finds out that her heart dropping and the urge to bite her fingernails is in fact a good thing (also a symptom of anxiety, as it turns out, which she discovered when she googled what she felt). She finds out when Seulgi catches up to her after school and asks her out to coffee. Joohyun looks over at Seungwan, who stares at her in disbelief and says something along the lines of, “what happened to ‘bros before hoes?’”
Joohyun ignores Seungwan and says yes.
The smile on Seulgi’s face has her heart dropping for the second time that day. And when Seulgi holds her hand it’s cold and sweaty and both of them are extremely nervous, but Joohyun really can’t imagine it any other way. She goes to sleep that night, thinking of Seulgi and the feeling of hot coffee warming her up inside, of shy glances and untaken opportunities, of the hungry gaps between her fingers that crave a hand to hold. 

    After that they have a few more dates, but do nothing more than what friends would, that is, just hugs and hand holding. Joohyun guesses that she’s doing a good job hiding this because Seungwan and Sooyoung still think that Seulgi has fallen out of like with her and is now pursuing one of the older girls (Teeyeon? Taeyoon? She’s not quite sure). Of course, as usual, Seulgi takes the first step beyond the boundaries they unknowingly set. One recess, while Seungwan mopes in the library and Sooyoung is busy being pampered by Youngji, Seulgi sees Joohyun sitting alone and takes the opportunity to spend some time together. She ends their alone time with a kiss to Joohyun’s cheek and the whole school erupts into cheers and screams and bets are won and lost. It seems the whole school was shipping them. Joohyun is surprised and stares in shock at the rowdy mob. Seulgi laughs because she doesn’t know what else to do. She pulls Joohyun into a hug. More cheering, more screaming. More Joohyun being frozen in her arms, but Joohyun is in her arms, and that’s all Seulgi can think about at the moment.
Joohyun feels like she is on fire.

    She’s hearing words but nothing is processing. The main point of this study session was so that Seulgi could help her with the work she was struggling with, but Joohyun finds herself staring at her lips far more than she would like to. She hasn’t blinked for three minutes.  Seulgi keeps talking, explaining some theory, but Joohyun is far more interested in making her own theory as to why Seulgi’s lips look so kissable. Joohyun’s head spins and the more Seulgi talks the more she finds herself screaming on the inside, dying to prove her theory. Seulgi talks more and Joohyun can’t take it anymore. She stares at Seulgi and blinks in a moment of confirmation. She is going to do this. Of course, Seulgi is taken completely by surprise when Joohyun grabs her face, and all she sees is a blur before a nose bumps into her cheekbone and a kiss is on her lips.
Joohyun’s hypothesis is correct: Seulgi’s lips look so kissable because they are and, Joohyun likes Seulgi just as much as Seulgi likes her.

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I LOVE SEULRENE SO MUCH I AM GOING TO CRY

ALSO I AM V SORRY TO ANYONE WHO IS WAITNG ON DBD AND MY OTHER FICS IM GETTING THERE (SLOWLY BUT SURELY) PLS HOLD ON A LITTLE LONGER I WILL COMEBACK