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Through her bedroom window, the sun’s golden rays cast fractures of light across the bed, scattering satisfying heat through the soft, thin cotton of her school uniform. She really should be studying, but the warm caress of the afternoon sun is too pleasing to ignore for the sake of a textbook. It sits open in Minkyung’s lap, black lines of text left half-read. Minkyung knows she’ll memorise it later anyway.
Dongsook, however, is a completely different story. She’s currently lying upside down with her frilled-sock feet resting at the top of the bed’s headboard, her toes tapping to an inaudible beat with a soft thump thump against the wall. All of her study materials lie lonely at the bottom of her school bag, probably screaming to see the light of day outside compulsory classroom hours. Her brows are knitted in a frown of concentration, eyes fixed to the flashing screen of her phone framed between her fingers. There’s a telltale 8-bit chime as the screen fades to red and the tiny pixelated game character falls to its all too familiar death.
Dongsook growls at the screen and taps the exit button with extra force. She rolls over onto her stomach and plants her head in Minkyung’s lap, burrowing her face into the elder girl’s stomach. Her hair spills upon the textbook’s open pages, locks gleaming a golden edge in the sunlight. Minkyung sighs and pulls the book from underneath, instead resting it on Dongsook’s head with a slight grunt of annoyance from the younger. It sounds more like a disgruntled puppy whine than anything else.
The textbook is still as dry as where she last left it, printed lines morphing from strips of over-detailed information into nothing but tiny black ants of ink marching along the page. Honestly, she’s glossed over this same paragraph at least three times but it still doesn’t make any sense. Minkyung adjusts her glasses on her nose and pushes that one strand of blonde hair that insists on getting in her eyes back behind her ear. She’s not sure if she really needs to know the textbook in and out to pass her entrance exams, but she’s adamant on doing it anyway - just to be sure.
Except Dongsook is making everything so much harder than it should be with her hot breath warming Minkyung’s stomach through her soft cotton shirt. It feels gross, but at the same time it makes her heart flutter in that cliche summertime way.
“Can you not breathe so heavily?”
“Do you want me to suffocate and die?”
Minkyung raises an eyebrow.
“Don’t tempt me.”
Surprisingly, Dongsook doesn’t fight back. Instead, she nestles her head further into Minkyung’s uniform and lets out an exaggerated sigh. Somewhere, among the covers, her phone beeps for attention. She’s been quiet today, even at school, less excitable and concerningly less endearingly annoying. That fiery streak that makes Minkyung oh-so-fond seems to be drastically relinquished. Minkyung frowns.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, fine,” Dongsook murmurs, rubbing her nose against Minkyung’s navel, “’m just tired.”
Minkyung hums, turning back to her textbook. She runs the hand that isn’t turning the pages through Dongsook’s hair, fingers carding through the locks comfortingly. The room turns quiet, with only the sound of her flipping pages and the odd car driving past outside.
“I’m scared,” Dongsook whines, “about university.”
Her voice is small and uncharacteristically quiet in a way that makes Minkyung’s heart ache just a little.
“What’s there to be scared about, dumbass? You’ve got another whole year before you even have to think about it.”
“It’s not about me, it’s about you, stupid. I won’t get to see you everyday at school, it’s gonna be weird and stuff.”
“You hardly see me everyday anyway, we’re in different classes.”
Dongsook huffs and pulls her head out of Minkyung’s lap, looking up at the older girl. The sun frames her head like in those dumb renaissance portraits of the virgin Mary, except Minkyung’s whole being glows and she looks a hundred times more holy.
A cloud passes overhead and the room becomes dimmer. Minkyung smiles in that tired kind of way and lifts an arched brow.
“Is Dongsookie worried I’m gonna find a prettier girl to hang out with, or something?”
Or something. As much as she hates to admit it, that’s exactly what Dongsook is worried about. For so long, Minkyung had been hers, and hers only. Sure, she has other friends and blah blah blah, but Dongsook is Minkyung’s and she doesn’t want to be forgotten, let alone replaced.
“No, that would be impossible as I’m the prettiest girl you’ll ever meet.”
Minkyung laughs in that ugly, unrestrained way that makes Dongsook uncontrollably warm. Dongsook can’t help but giggle along with her, proud to have been the one to make her laugh in that way. Not even Chenle can make her laugh in that way.
“You don’t have to worry about losing me, you idiot. We’ll still see each other all the time,” Minkyung pauses, searching for the right words, “it’ll just be different.”
“Different can fuck off. I just want things to stay the same.”
“Don’t be a baby, baby.”
Dongsook scowls and pinches Minkyung’s leg half-heartedly. The elder girl just grins and pushes her off the bed and onto the carpet. Dongsook pretends to be hurt, but that sparkle has returned to her eyes and it makes Minkyung’s heart happy. The younger claws her way back up the bed and shoves Minkyung back into the pillows playfully, reclaiming her spot by draping herself over her stomach.
“And take those ugly ass glasses off,” Dongsook grumbles, readjusting her head on Minkyung’s thighs, “you look like a nerd.”
That’s a lie, and Dongsook knows it. Minkyung looks the absolute cutest in her glasses, cute enough to make Dongsook (who is the cutest™) go all mushy and gross on the inside. And hell, Dongsook really wants to kiss that pout off of her face.
Minkyung releases a long sigh she didn’t even know she was holding in, stretching her arms up and smiling at the ceiling.
“I love you.”
“You’re disgusting.”
Minkyung is kind enough not to mention the soft blush blooming in Dongsook’s cheeks.