Nari woke up later than usual the next morning with a small headache and heavy eyes that struggled to focus as she squinted them open. Making out a blurry figure right in-front of her and an unfamiliar warmth around her body, she poked Younghee's face sceptically, causing her to flinch before peering her eyes open.
"What?"
"Ah... sorry." Nari quickly retreated her finger and turned to lie on her back as Younghee got up, "why are you here?"
"You called me."
"I did?"
"Mm," she nodded, still half asleep, "but you didn't say anything then hung up."
"Why'd you come over then.." Nari murmured.
"To check up on you, why else," she chuckled as she placed a hand on the other's head, "go wash up, I'll make us something to eat."
With no classes, they both lounged around for the day, watching tv shows half-mindedly. Surprisingly, neither brought up exams or revision despite the anxiety filled time crunch.
"...What are you doing?" Younghee asked as she felt a sudden squeeze around her arm, her eyes moving to see Nari clung onto her.
"Nothing."
"…" She let out a sigh mixed with a defeated chuckle and turned back to the TV.
For the rest of the day, whether it was cooking or lazing around, Nari stuck to her like glue. Younghee knew it was comforting for her and since it didn't seem to affect anything she was doing, she decided to let it be. But sometimes, turning a blind eye to something can lead to something more. The sound of an alarm started ringing, interrupting the show the two was watching as the time for the group dinner approached. Nari made a disappointed expression before she turned to her.
"Younghee."
"Yeah?"
"I need to get ready."
"Mm, okay."
"…" She furrowed her brows as Younghee's attention stayed on the screen, "can you do my makeup for me?"
Younghee paused for a moment before meeting her eyes with a confused expression just to say yes to the unexpected request.
The sound of music filled the room as Nari's gaze lingered on the girl in front of her. Sat on the same stool she had used everyday, in the same room, with the same makeup products, despite the familiar routine, the small addition of another person, of her, had set everything off.
She clenched her fist slightly.
It's because you're always letting me do what I want, that I feel like it's not totally hopeless.
The feeling of a soft brush against the tip of her nose and the sound of a lipstick case opening then closing concluded the momentary intimacy she had established. By the time Younghee had fitted a necklace on her, she didn't want to leave.
But, Seo Younghee doesn't like clingy people.
Compared to how relaxed and calm she felt at home during the day, the atmosphere from being surrounded by a group of strangers was anything but that. Even worse, the only seat left by the time she got there was next to the senior who had arranged the whole thing, and diagonal from Minjee.
Including her, their table had 8 people, so, surely avoiding talking to each other wouldn't be so difficult, right? Well, that may have been the case if the senior stopped roping her into their conversations.
"You're going abroad? Wow, senior you're amazing. Your grades must've been amazing to be chosen for something like that~" Hearing Minjee's overly sweet tone, Nari bit down on the side of the shot glass and glanced at her. How come she's always so nice when she's talking to guys..
"Ahaha, it's not that impressive," the guy laughed, awkwardly sliding his hands under the table before Minjee could grab it. Her annoyance at the rejection only worsened as he turned to Nari suddenly, "I heard you've studied overseas before."
"Oh." Ah.. why did I agree to come here.. She looked around nervously as if trying to find a way out of the conversation, though quickly knew there was none and she had to reply, "yeah, for most of school."
"Oh really? We actually have a few options to choose from this time so I haven't decided yet, where did you go?"
"I--"
"She went to the UK." Minjee interrupted, throwing a glare at Nari. Her first look at her ex-friend for the whole night, was hostile. "Anyway, let's not talk about that. She becomes insufferable when you mention that."
"Huh? What do you mean?" The senior looked back and fourth between the two of them in confusion, though he wasn't completely clueless to the tense air.
"Ugh," Minjee rolled her eyes, "she used to talk about living there so much that we thought she was a tour guide or something. Oh and whenever we talked about like high school days she would always try to change the topic to how different it was there, like we get it, you went to a fancy school."
Feeling confused, Nari's eyes fell on the table and stared down hard as if she was trying to prevent tears from falling.
That's not what I was trying to do.. we were all talking about our experiences so I just shared mine...
From that point on, her ears seemed to have blocked out all the noise, reducing everything to mumbles. Except even then, she would every so often feel a sharp dagger aimed towards her, and whenever she did, Nari could only helplessly keep drinking to stop anyone from talking to her.
Only one person seemingly kept an eye on her during that time but when it came time for everyone to leave, it seemed she had quickly became the centre of unwanted attention again. Lying on her arms, Nari had passed out for a while and was now unconscious as the senior glanced over.
"Hey, does anyone know where she lives?" He asked in the midst of the group dissipating. A few shook their heads at each other until someone spoke up.
"Oh maybe that girl knows."
"Who?"
"You know, the one she's with all the time."
"Oh you mean Seo Younghee?"
Out of sight, a figure flinched slightly around the corner of a wall before turning back completely.
"Alright then," the senior grabbed Nari's phone and after a few attempts of trying to line her face up with the camera, he finally managed to unlock it but quickly stumbled upon another problem as he scrolled through the contact's list. "She's not here.."
"Huh?" one of the girls replied, peering over, "that's strange, just call her most recent one then, might be her."
Pressing on the screen whilst saying bye to the few people left, the call quickly connected and a clear voice came from the other end. "Hello?"
"Oh hello, is this Seo Younghee?"
"Yes, did something happen to Nari?"
"Not exactly, she's just had a bit too much to drink and none of us knew where she lived so would you be able to come pick her up?"
"Alright, please text me the address, I'll be there soon."
"Do you want me to wait here with her?" The girl who had guessed Younghee's contact before suggested as she slipped her coat on.
"It's fine, you guys go ahead, I'll wait until she gets here," he quickly dismissed her, waving to the group as they each left. His friendly smile dropped as they were finally alone. Sitting back down in the seat besides Nari, he checked around to make sure no one was looking before turning to her, "that was exhausting. Your friend's not here yet, wanna go back to mine?" he whispered, grabbing a few strands of her hair to let fall between his fingers. "Do you know how much effort I put into getting Sera to convince you to come here in her place?" He grinned, lingering his hands on her face as she twitched from the foreign touch.
"No, how much?"
"What--" he whipped his head around to see Younghee, slightly out of breath. Her eyes trailed down to his hand as she forcibly pulled it off of the girl.
"Well, I suppose it doesn't really matter."
He backed away as she leaned in to Nari, shock spreading over his face along with disgust.
"Looks like she purposely didn't tell you something," her hand caressed Nari's face as their lips parted. Leaving the stunned senior there, Younghee carefully picked her up and headed out the restaurant. Passing the restroom area, she paused as she saw a glimpse of a somewhat familiar figure behind a wall, fingers frantically typing on her phone.
Feeling a gaze on her, Minjee looked up and immediately jumped. Younghee's eyes trailed to her phone before she quickly shut it off and parted her mouth, unsure whether or not she should speak.
"I-- I had nothing to do with this, I swear!"
She narrowed her eyes as Minjee grew increasingly panicked. Whilst she was trying to convince her with countless excuses, Younghee couldn't exactly remember why she felt like she'd seen her before.
That is until she saw the phone in her hand blowing up with messages from a particular group-chat. Younghee scoffed, "oh, it's you."
"What?"
"Mm..." Nari's head bopped around slightly before she leaned back, brows furrowed as her closed eyes faced the ceiling lights. Placing her hand over her, Younghee noticed the glaringly bitter look from Minjee and pulled Nari closer.
"Stop trying to make Nari the perpetrator of your own childish jealousies. She doesn't owe you anything so don't act like she does."
Before things could escalate, she held Nari tightly and walked out the restaurant, ignoring the distinct shouts behind her that was eventually drowned in the sound of the city's busy night life. Avoiding the crowds of students leaving pc cafes and office workers wrapping up their company dinners, she made their way to a nearby park. Feeling the wind picking up in strength through a slight breeze, Younghee sat her down on a bench and plopped down beside her to arrange to be picked up.
Somewhere along the short phone call, she felt a thud on her shoulder. Instinctively, without looking, she held her hand out and supported Nari's head. When she glanced over, Younghee felt a smile on her face. The sleeping beauty. Her pale skin glowed from the moonlight's exposure, the tip of her nose a light pink shade from the cold, her cheeks rosy, and hair flowing over her face as the breeze grew stronger; their movements freer than the leaves in the backdrop. Her heart fluttered at the sight of the girl, she couldn't ever deny it, Baek Nari really was pretty.
"Miss?" The voice from her phone snapped her out of the daydream quickly.
"Oh right, we're just outside X restaurant."
The car ride was short of a relaxing one as the driver brought up an issue she had been avoiding thinking about.
"About you moving, I will have to report to your father about the decision and details of the new place."
"...Of course you do."
"...If you don't mind me asking, why are you moving again?"
Her hands subconsciously loosened their grip on Nari as she looked at him in the rear-view mirror, "because of her."
"I see."
-
"You're a really heavy sleeper you know..?" Younghee said in a low voice as she carried Nari to her bedroom. Her apartment was luxurious for an university student, but that wasn't surprising given her family background. It was spacious with the kitchen to the right side of the front door, separated by a half wall and linked to the living room, which has a white cloud couch and a glass coffee table, facing opposite the flat screen tv. Younghee sat down on the edge of the bed, looking out the open bedroom door, even she could feel Nari's loneliness at times.
In the silent room, the sound of a phone's vibration was heard for a second.
Ari: Youngyoung, are you coming back tonight?
Against all the better judgements inside of her mind, her heart pounded at the simple text message as if something lit up; hope, perhaps. Only because she wanted it to be such.
But that's playing a dangerous game, one that she's never been able to win before. And the odds have not changed.
Right as she was about to get up from the bed, Younghee felt a hand gripping onto the end of her shirt, with just enough strength for her to notice but not to pull her back.
"Don't go."
Nari's was sat up in a hurried position, her head hung low so you couldn't see her face but it was clear she still hadn't sobered up completely.
"..Please... Stay here."
"…" Younghee grabbed her hand and pulled it off, "get some sleep."
..Ah… Right. Seo Younghee doesn't like clingy people.
-
With the door opening, Ari quickly sat up and met Younghee's surprised eyes.
"Were you out studying again?"
"...I had something to take care of."
She lied back down, pulling the blankets over herself completely and mumbling something before speaking in an audible tone again, "go to sleep, we have a tour of the place tomorrow morning." But as the sound of keys descending onto the table top hit her ears, Ari shuffled around and spoke again, "Younghee."
"Yeah?"
She hesitated for a moment before shaking her head, "never mind, goodnight." Some things were better left unsaid. Whether or not this was, she wasn't even sure.