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Jeongyeon doesn’t know the names of all her classmates, but there’s one she knows even if she doesn’t want to.
Im Nayeon.
They have a bunch of classes together, yet keep to themselves and sit on opposite sides of the room. Jeongyeon’s never spoken with her, and Nayeon has never spoken directly to her either, but her voice and laugh are loud enough to permeate Jeongyeon’s headphones no matter how high she turns the volume. Glancing with slight annoyance, Jeongyeon spots Nayeon leaning back in her seat and smacking—Is that Park Jihyo? —with her hand. Ouch that’s gotta hurt. She’s glad she doesn’t have to suffer that abuse.
At the end of every lecture, Nayeon packs up her stuff at the speed of light and gives Jihyo a hug, bidding her a quick goodbye and speedwalks out of the room, bag slung over her left shoulder. Jeongyeon isn’t just sitting there watching the exchange.
---
“Sorry!”
“It’s fine I said.” As loud as she is, with her voice and laugh and looks and fashion sense and personality, Nayeon’s not a bad person, Jeongyeon notes as Nayeon tries her absolute hardest to scrub the coffee out of Jeongyeon’s shirt front—which she is still wearing. “I don’t think it’s going to come out.”
Nayeon’s brows scrunch at this. “Oh yes it is.”
Jeongyeon barks an incredulous laugh. “No it’s not, just give up. I have.”
Nayeon sighs and looks back up, and Jeongyeon loses herself for the two seconds before Nayeon speaks. “Okay fine. But let me make it up to you somehow? Like I can buy you a new shirt.”
“So you can spill another coffee on it?”
“No.”
Nayeon’s glare is indignant, a little pouty, and only makes Jeongyeon want to tease her more. Nayeon lets go of the hem and the cold cloth clings against Jeongyeon’s stomach. She shivers.
“Oh sorry!” Nayeon immediately grabs the hem again and holds it away from her again. It’s comical, and Jeongyeon rolls her eyes. They’re still in the bathroom of the café, the door’s not locked, anyone could walk in.
This isn’t how she thought her first time speaking with Nayeon would go.
---
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Nayeon pulls the seat out beside her and slips into it easily. The lecture passes quickly, and they’re both busy taking notes until the end—Nayeon in her notebook, and Jeongyeon on her laptop. The drone of the professor’s voice, the resounding clicks of her keyboard and Nayeon’s occasional grunts because he speaks faster than she can write take up Jeongyeon’s mind, not leaving room for much else. It feels like a routine, going through the motions, wading through the ripples of calm waters. Jeongyeon thinks she could get used to having a seatmate.
---
Their meetings are fleeting, and annoying how Jeongyeon seems to be always staring at Nayeon’s back as she rushes out of the classroom, out of the cafe, out of the library. She makes an effort to get her to stay in one place for more than a minute, just to see if she can.
“Hey think you can spare a minute?”
Nayeon halts, two steps out the door of the coffee shop where they first met, Jeongyeon about to go in, Nayeon about to leave. They’d exchanged greetings, but Nayeon probably wasn’t expecting any further than that. Jeongyeon wasn’t either. Nayeon frowns, then spins around with a smile shining brighter than the sun. “I can, but not right now and it’ll cost you.”
Jeongyeon scoffs, plays along. “How much?”
“A cup of coffee?” She almost sounds unsure.
Jeongyeon chuckles, runs a hand through her short hair – a little habit she’s yet to kick when she’s nervous. “Is that all? I thought I’d have to sell you my soul or something.”
She was planning on buying them both coffee anyway.
“I’m not Satan.” Nayeon rolls her eyes, her tone changing to amused. “I am hot as hell though, I’ll give you that.”
“Ugh I hate you.” Jeongyeon groans, shakes her head in mock exasperation.
“Love you too!” And Nayeon's off again with a flying kiss over her shoulder. “I’ll meet you back here at five!”
Jeongyeon likes the bunny teeth she catches sight of in that grin.
---
“Why are you always in such a hurry?”
Nayeon rolls her eyes and takes another sip of her vanilla frappe. Despite Jeongyeon paying, she only ordered a small. “We’re college students living in the city, we’re always in a rush.”
“Yeah but you especially.” She’s never seen Nayeon stay in one place for longer than two minutes, minus lectures, and even then she leaves early sometimes. Jeongyeon thinks it must be stressful, rushing like that, almost like she’s running from something.
“I guess I just have a lot to do.” Nayeon winks, her smile convincing her otherwise and it’s Jeongyeon’s turn to roll her eyes.
“Like what?”
“Are you that curious, Yoo?” The lilt in her voice and the raise of her brows almost sends Jeongyeon right back out the door. Why is she even here? Speaking with Nayeon, the pretty business student that talks to everyone but never gives them the time of day.
“I will not answer that question.”
Nayeon laughs, loud guffaws and though Jeongyeon’s pretty sure she didn’t say anything funny enough to elicit it, she’s still prideful that she did. As the seconds tick by, Jeongyeon finds it harder and harder to contain her giddy smile. It’s spilling through, Nayeon must’ve already noticed, but damn if Jeongyeon isn’t trying.
Nayeon shrugs. Shoulders droop in a sad, resigned way. “To answer your question, I’ll be gone soon so I have a lot to get sorted out.”
Jeongyeon stares at her, then blinks once, twice. “...You don’t have cancer do you?” She swears to god if it’s cancer—
“What?” Nayeon barks a laugh and her eyebrows raise impossibly high. “Oh my god no I don’t have cancer!” Then she proceeds to die laughing for about twenty minutes, and Jeongyeon is hissing at her the whole time, reaching around the table to swat at her when Nayeon suddenly raises the volume. Nayeon hits her back. They go back and forth for a while, and Jeongyeon really can’t contain it anymore.
---
“Are you actually going to tell me why you’re leaving soon.” Jeongyeon groans. If Nayeon makes an innuendo one more time, she’s going to go dig a hole right here and bury her head in it.
“Okay fine I’m trying to transfer to a university in the States, and apparently that means I need to provide enough information to prove to the government that I’m not a serial killer or have some kind of disease that could start a potential epidemic. Therefore, I have a shit-ton of paperwork to get sorted out.” She pauses, sucks up the remaining whipped cream in the bottom of her cup. Pouts when she can’t get the last bit. “And lots of essays. Definitely the essays.”
“So this is your last semester here?”
“Pretty much yeah.”
They’ve reached Nayeon’s dorm hall, and Jeongyeon’s is another block away. Nayeon makes no indication of saying goodbye and Jeongyeon follows her lead. They just, stand there. “Shouldn’t you be going inside? You’re busy aren’t you?”
“Maybe~ Hey wanna come inside?” She leans over and bumps shoulders with Jeongyeon, complete with an eyebrow wiggle, sending her a step off into the grass.
“Are you propositioning me? Cause I think we’re going to have to get coffee at least three more times before I consider that offer.” Jeongyeon teases. Nayeon snorts and makes space on the sidewalk for her.
“Please, I meant to write my essays for me, if I wanted to sleep with you I’d just say so.”
“I guess you’re right. You are very blunt.”
And in that second, something happens that Jeongyeon would’ve have expected in a hundred years. Nayeon blushes. Whatever Jeongyeon was feeling before, it no longer overflows over like the trickling of water—no, it erupts.
---
It’s got to be an act. One single human being can’t have that much pride in their looks. Jeongyeon almost asks directly. But she doesn’t. That’s not how it works—not how they work.
“Do you wear anything other than flannel or denim?”
“Sorry for not spending my paycheck on fashion trends, but at least I don’t look like a walking doll.”
“Is that supposed to be an insult? You’ve got to do better than that, Yoo, I already know I’m beautiful.” Nayeon flicks her hair over her shoulder while batting her lashes.
“Yeah beautifully ignorant,” Jeongyeon mutters under her breath. “What?”
Nayeon stares at her like she just proposed or something.
“So you do think I’m pretty.” The corners of her lips twitch playfully.
Jeongyeon’s brows raise, she splutters, “Do you have selective hearing or what?”
Nayeon laughs and Jeongyeon’s suspicion that Nayeon’s just messing with her is confirmed. She still eventually ends up laughing along too. Does so until Nayeon has to leave again.
---
“You missed seeing her dance at the club last Friday. She kicked me TEN TIMES.”
“I was swinging my leg and you ran into it!”
Jihyo rolls her eyes incredulously. “TEN TIMES!”
Nayeon huffs, “Not my fault you walked into my foot.”
Becoming friends with Nayeon means becoming friends with her friends too, and Jeongyeon’s definitely not complaining when Jihyo is a literal goddess and has a higher GPA than her. And she helps Jeongyeon deal with Nayeon’s shit. The three of them have taken to hanging out and grabbing lunch between classes sometimes—whenever Nayeon isn’t running around like a mad dog.
“Well your right to swing your leg ends at my shin, so next time quit flailing like a ostrich and take Jeongyeon instead.”
“What?” Is all Jeongyeon manages to squeak before Nayeon’s whirls upon her, mouth open like she just had the biggest epiphany of mankind.
“We should go clubbing together!”
“No wait really, what?”
Jihyo claps a heavy hand upon Jeongyeon’s shoulder. “I’ll be sitting this one out. Good luck soldier.”
---
“Hey you.” It’s the promised Friday night, and Jeongyeon’s been waiting outside for a good twenty minutes now (which means she’s already gone and run out of all the funny videos on her social media) when Nayeon finally arrives.
“Hey to you too, Yoo.”
“Will you quit it with the puns on my name? They’re getting old.” She pushes off the wall, a little worried the texture of the brick might’ve scraped her leather jacket. It was actually a gift from Nayeon, said it was because Jeongyeon wouldn’t know fashion if it hit her upside the head, but a card inside said it was to apologize for ruining that shirt. Jeongyeon had completely forgotten about the shirt.
“It’s not my fault your last name’s Yoo, you!”
Nayeon looks good. Skin-tight black dress. Bare shoulders and thighs. Heels that make her the same height as Jeongyeon.
“Would you—argh.” Jeongyeon smacks a palm to her forehead. “Whatever let’s just get this over with.”
“Wow you make it sound like this is a punishment.”
“Because it is.”
Nayeon feigns hurt for all of two seconds, then grins. “Well you’re going to have a great time tonight and we’ll see if you can keep that grumpy act up.”
Where Nayeon’s confidence comes from, Jeongyeon may never know.
---
Nayeon visits Jeongyeon’s dorm room often now. Her roommate, Tzuyu, who’s a transfer student from Taiwan, doesn’t seem to mind at least. Not as much as Jeongyeon does anyway.
“Yah! Don’t spill the popcorn!”
“Yah? Don’t ‘yah!’ me!” Nayeon waves the bowl around more and Jeongyeon’s trained eyes trace it like a hawk. “I’m older than you!”
“But I’m the one that has to clean up your mess! And I’m telling you that is the last time I’m letting you stay over when you’re drunk.” She brings up the incident a couple weeks before, when Nayeon got a little too wild at the club and Jeongeyon was stuck babysitting her for the rest of the night. Some fun that was. “You vomited all over my sink—"
Nayeon gasps. “Don’t say it!”
“—And the toilet, and the carpet!”
She splutters, “I said I was sorry.”
Jeongyeon sighs, running a hand through her short locks. It’s a little longer now, she’s growing her hair out. “Yeah I know. It’s fine. But no more clubbing beca—”
“Shhh Jeongyeon just sit.” Nayeon straight cuts her off and Jeongyeon’s dumbfounded. She’s not missing anything, the drama won’t start until they hit play.
“W-Wh—”
“Shh! Just sit.” Nayeon pats the spot beside her like one would a puppy, watching Jeongyeon the whole time.
Nayeon’s existence is going to end her, strangle her, wreck her. Jeongyeon’s certain of it.
She sits.
---
Jihyo knows everyone on campus, Jeongyeon swears.
“Where you goin?”
“Out.” Tzuyu replies simply.
“Okay…” And Jeongyeon settles back into the couch with her laptop.
A beat passes yet Tzuyu doesn’t move from her spot at the front door.
“Aren’t you going out?”
“Yes, but Jihyo-unnie is picking me up so I’m waiting for her text.”
“Jihyo? You know Jihyo?”
She nods. A ding sounds and Tzuyu whips her phone out of her back pocket. “That’s her. Ok I’m going. Bye.”
And she’s gone before, Jeongyeon can say bye back. “Ok bye…”
Well that was weird.
---
“Let’s prank her.” The glint in Jeongyeon’s eyes and the elvish grin would take Nayeon aback, but it’s not the first time she’s seen that side of her rare as it may be.
And Jeongyeon calls her the crazy one.
“Which one? Jihyo?”
“Both.”
Of course. “They’re going to kill you.” Nayeon laughs. She can feel the excitement growing within her; she loves it when Jeongyeon gets in one of these moods.
Jeongyeon’s grin only widens.
---
“Yah Yoo Jeongyeon!”
“Shit she found us!”
They’re running, because they’d wanted to see the aftermath when Jihyo and Tzuyu got back from date night. Nayeon knew it was a bad idea to hide in the bushes.
(“It’s not a date night.”
Jeongyeon rolls her eyes. “Yeah, it’s not a date night when you two make plans to go out every single Friday night, just the two of you.”
“And makeout in the hallway before coming in.” Nayeon adds, munching on her cereal.
Jihyo sighs, exasperated, whirls upon the two of them cuddled up side by side on the couch. Disgustingly domestic. “And what about you two? Have you gotten to the making out stage yet?”
Nayeon coughs milk out of her nose.)
“I told you...she was going to...kill you.” Nayeon wheezes. She’s too old to be running like this. And out of shape. (She’ll never admit either of those out loud.)
Jeongyeon just laughs, guffaws, doubles over and Nayeon shoots her the stink eye.
“But her face!” Jeongyeon mimics Tzuyu’s face of fake suppressed disgust and hidden amusement when Jihyo chased them. They’d gone inside and not two minutes later (Jihyo’s room is on the second floor), Jihyo had burst out the door again, whipping her head left and before Tzuyu somehow pointed right at them in their place around the corner crouched in the shrubs.
Jihyo had given up a few streets back, probably to return to Tzuyu’s side who’d deemed it too much effort to chase the culprits in the first place.
Nayeon finds herself smiling. “Jihyo was way funnier! ‘Yoo Jeongyeon~!’ I’ve never heard her tone so high. And how the fuck did Tzuyu spot us so quickly?” She laughs and nudges Jeongyeon with her shoulder. The latter stumbles.
Chuckling, Jeongyeon wraps an arm around Nayeon’s shoulder and they stumble together, still a little out of breath from running but mostly laughing. “Come on, let’s head back.”
They grab ice cream before heading back to help Jihyo clean up all the toilet paper, just because they were passing by, and Jeongyeon remembered that Nayeon had said she was craving some the day before.
---
“Jeongyeonnie~”
“Excuse me?”
“What?” Nayeon pouts, whipping out the aegyo. “You told me to stop calling you by your last name.”
Jeongyeon rolls her eyes and pushes the glasses back up her nose, only for them to slide right back down. “That was weeks ago, and you never did listen.”
“You know if you want me to listen, you have to make me~”
“Just,” Jeongyeon glances up and pokes at Nayeon’s notebook with her pen. “Go back to writing your notes. I have to finish this chart.” Jihyo has plans with Tzuyu (again) so Jeongyeon’s stuck studying with Nayeon on her own. Finals are around the corner and Nayeon is really more of a distraction than help. Jeongyeon still invited her over anyway.
Nayeon pouts and tugs at Jeongyeon’s sleeve. Jeongyeon’s not sure she’ll make it.
---
“Another movie?”
“Well you won’t go clubbing with me anymore so what do you want to do, hotshot?”
Jeongyeon grimaces. “Something that won’t make me regret life. And don’t you have to pack or something? Did you get all your documents in order? Your new dorm number? Did the advisor get you that guide she was telling you about?”
Nayeon is moving in a month before the new term so she can get a read for the city and campus. Jeongyeon had debated whether or not to maybe convince her to stay in Korea just a while longer, but ultimately decided against it. Any time she’d earn would just be borrowed. Nayeon wouldn’t stay.
“Yes, mother. Everything’s fine.”
“What?”
“Nothing.” Nayeon checks her phone where it’s plugged into the wall and Jeongyeon gets this feeling she’s done something wrong. And an excruciating need to fix it.
“I’ll go clubbing with you if you really want, but only if Jihyo comes too. I can’t handle you on my own.” She slumps against the sofa. Might as well, they don’t have much longer.
What is she going to do without that crazy bunny? Actually listen to lectures? Watch terrible dramas on her own during the weekend? Third-wheel on Jitzu’s dates?
She’d rather kill herself.
“Seriously?” That glint is back in Nayeon’s eyes when she sits straight up on the couch, as if the light was sucked out of Jeongyeon’s instead. “You promise? Because I will hold you to that. There’ll be no going back and you’ll be stuck with my drunk ass for another entire night.”
Like she needs to warn her. “Yes I’m aware. Are you trying to get me to say no? Because I might be reconsidering.”
“Hey just trying to be considerate! And you should always get consent first right?”
“Jeez not with those jokes again.”
“So is it a yes?” She bites her lip in that way she does when she’s nervous, and she really doesn’t have to be, not with Jeongyeon.
Jeongyeon freezes. Don’t say it. It’s not funny anymore. But Jeong panicks. “Yeah as long as you don’t vomit on my carpet again.”
“How many times are you going to bring that up?”
Nayeon’s blinking at her with those eyes—Jeongyeon’s always found her eyes to be freakishly expressive yet hard to read—and Jeongyeon halts, heart and all, embarrassment rising steadily. “...I-I was just—”
“It’s fine, I was just kidding~” The corners of Nayeon’s eyes crinkle then, and Jeongyeon’s heartbeat carefully begins again.
To be honest, Jeongyeon’s not mad about the carpet (well she was at first but she’s over it now.) It’a a good memory, a funny one that only she shares with Nayeon and feels obliged to share with people who don’t know. Because it’s a privilege to be able to have such moments.
“S-Sorry.” Jeongyeon still supplies sheepishly.
“I said it’s fine! Come on, Sana and Mina are waiting!” Nayeon tugs at her elbow with both hands, doesn’t let up until they’re up and out the door and Jeongyeon has half a mind to tease her about her hand size again, but refrains because the other half is still in a daze.
She lets a small smile grace her lips. This is fine.
---
It’s the last night. The last night before Nayeon’s gone and Jeongyeon keeps feeling this itch to do something, to let something out that she’s kept bottled up, building, brimming. She bounces her left leg impatiently as they hit a red light.
She shouldn’t be this jittery while driving. It’s not safe. Jeongyeon grits her teeth.
Don’t say it. Don’t say it. Goddamn don’t say it, Yoo Jeongyeon—“Nayeon.”
She can see it in Nayeon’s eyes too, out of the corner of her eye. A hesitant expectation, a silent plea.
“Can’t you just, uh, not go?” And it’s out. It’s out and Jeongyeon’s never regretted anything more in her life. She’s also never felt so relieved.
Nayeon’s face falls, like she knew it would. “Jeongyeon…”
“Sorry.” She spits out quickly, gaze zoning in on the traffic light. “I didn’t mean to ask.”
“It’s ok.” Nayeon says. She doesn’t give Jeongyeon an answer.
The light turns green.
---
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
“But I’ll really miss you.”
One more tight hug and some muffled sniffles against her neck, and Jeongyeon’s waving goodbye to Nayeon once again. Why is it always Jeongyeon the one watching Nayeon go?
“Call me!”
“I will!” Probably because she could never bring herself to leave first. “Nayeon!”
“Yeah?” The older girl turns back a few meters away, carrier by her side and backpack slung on one shoulder—it’s so much akin a scene from one of Nayeon’s favorite dramas that Jeongyeon can’t help but chuckle before speaking. What a perfect setting.
“I love you!”
A wide toothy grin breaks out across Nayeon’s features, causing flutters inside Jeongyeon’s chest.
“I know!”
Jeongyeon rolls her eyes. An ass until the end, in true Im Nayeon style. She would expect nothing less.
They exchange one last wave and Jeongyeon sends her off with that typical exasperated smile. She’s used to the sight of her back, from all their short meetings. But this one by far is the briefest—the car ride ended in a ragged breath, baggage deposit in a skipped heartbeat, and Nayeon’s gone in an unintentional blink.
Approximately two minutes of Jeongyeon staring into the space where Nayeon disappeared around corner later, she sighs with a myriad of emotions, all of them a bit muted before the realization really sinks in. Finally, she turns around.
Ping!
[Nabongs | 6:37 pm]
I love you too <3
Jeongyeon smiles. Slips the phone back into her jeans pocket. Takes the first step back home even if the apartment’s a little empty now.
If it’s meant to be, they’ll see each other again. Jeongyeon’s certain of it.