Work Text:
“No way.” Chaewon mutters under her breath as she sees Heejin, Naruto headband shining in all of its glory on her forehead, forming hand signs in front of Hyunjin, perched on the couch aggressively meowing as what seems to be her form of defense.
Chaewon shuts the door and bolts to the room next door instead. Maybe playing bloody death matches against Hyejoo and Yerim in Mario Kart doesn’t sound so bad after all.
-
Heejin meets Hyunjin when she follows a stray cat that made its way to her front yard. They were twelve then, absorbed in the joys of childish innocence, only cared about killing time and exploring their hometown, and enjoying each other’s presence.
Chaewon meets them on their first day of university, they exchange greetings and bashful smiles until greetings become expressions of love and bashful smiles turn into guffaws, memories and inside jokes made within their circle.
The three of them eventually find a home in each other.
Heejin shares ice pops with Chaewon who always insists on giving her the bigger half. Heejin takes pleasure in the relief from the coldness of the ice pop and the warmth of Chaewon’s smile as she breaks it into two. Chaewon even offers her hugs when she gets particularly sensitive about popsicles.
(“He never made it to Naruto’s hokage ceremony.” Heejin says in between sobs.)
Hyunjin quickly commits Chaewon’s food preferences to memory, develops a sixth sense of reading Chaewon’s mood, and takes it upon herself to be the best booty-call-but-it’s-food to ever walk the face of the earth.
Hyunjin spends more time in Heejin’s room than she does in her own. It’s not unwelcome, in a way that Hyunjin doesn’t stand out among the pieces of furniture she owns, even among her precious Naruto figurines. Hyunjin just slots herself in Heejin’s space naturally, like it was always meant to be that way.
She stares at her lying comfortably on her bed, eyebrows knitted together, head hanging off the edge as she prepares to do a handstand on her carpeted floor.
It’s no surprise to Heejin how Hyunjin easily fits in the spaces of her heart.
-
Three pages into her essay, Heejin stretches her limbs and leaves her room for a snack, remembers the cheesecake she refrigerated from the bakery as a celebratory gift for making it through half of her exams.
She opens her phone and smiles fondly at the picture of her and Chaewon and Hyunjin on their first late night convenience store run, frowns at the numbers above their heads telling her that she only has at least 3 hours to sleep before her anatomy and physiology class.
She groggily finds her way in the dark and sees someone hunched over the kitchen table with nothing but their phone screen as their source of light. Heejin squints at the screen and recognizes the green haired man wielding a sword with his mouth.
One piece?
“Hyunjin?”
True enough, Hyunjin’s head snaps in her direction, fork wedged between her lips, eyes wide. Heejin glances at the table and sees a whole container of cheesecake, the contents nearly empty. What a coincidence, Heejin thinks.
Oh.
Heejin goes through what she thinks are the stages of food grief. Despair, betrayal, hunger, and ungodly rage.
Since then, Hyunjin has been doing all the dishes. Chaewon asks her why, putting a hand on her forehead to check if she has a fever.
Hyunjin thinks back to the night the crime happened and only replies with “Retribution.”
-
Heejin is immersed in her biochemistry notes, momentum that of a volleyball rolling high up in the air right when the spiker slams their hand into it, when she feels someone carefully taking off her headphones.
It should be alarming that Heejin doesn’t budge at all. It could’ve been a thief that broke into their house with the intention of stealing all their electronic devices, but when she turns her head and she sees the culprit putting them on, cheeks slightly flushed in her post-workout haze, lips forming into a pout, Heejin would willingly give her heart away to this thief.
“Avril Lavigne? Really?”
“I am a woman of culture, Hyunjin!”
-
In nights where Heejin struggles to keep herself afloat and steady when the waves of homesickness hit her, she finds an anchor in Hyunjin.
“Cuddles?” Heejin asks her one night.
Hyunjin stares, thinks of her 7am class the next day. Closes her laptop and opens her arms for Heejin.
-
Hyunjin feels safe. It’s all Heejin thinks about when she feels her warmth seep through the fabric of her big orange sweatshirt, when she locks their hands together without thinking, firm and strong yet soft around the edges, when she looks up at those wide and heart-wrenchingly beautiful eyes and sinks into the depths of them, when she tilts her head and feels her kiss even before their lips touch, feels Hyunjin smile even when she looks away. Feels it in the way her breath tickles her ear and the way she holds her just a little bit closer.
And Heejin just feels.
That’s how Chaewon finds them the next morning. Heejin sprawled over half of Hyunjin’s body on the couch, limbs a tangled mess (she thinks she sees Heejin’s hand holding Hyunjin’s right ear as if she’s holding something so fragile), Heejin’s hair on the verge of spilling into Hyunjin’s slightly open mouth.
Chaewon deliberately takes out her phone and takes several photos in different angles.
[chaewon]: sent 42 photos
good morning >:)))
[hyunjin]: so that’s why i dreamt about hairy shi tzus forcing their way into my mouth :3 cute
[heejin]: STOP
-
Chaewon’s soft spot for Hyejoo manifests itself in her agreeing to coffee dates whenever the opportunity presents itself.
The problem: Chaewon’s system cannot handle even the slightest bit of caffeine and she doesn’t have the heart to reject the americano Hyejoo always gets for her since she always arrives first.
The first time it happens, Hyunjin finds her in the middle of the night on their kitchen table staring blankly at nothing at all, hair tousled, bloodshot eyes, fingers twitching uncontrollably.
The third time it happens, Hyunjin just carries her wordlessly back to her room and buys her an extra carton of milk on her next grocery trip.
The eighth time it happens, Hyunjin and Heejin find out the reason behind her nocturnal episodes from Yerim and decide that it’s time.
Chaewon comes home to them sitting on the opposite edges of the couch, holding a banner etched with the word “intervention”, all capitalized, staring at her soullessly.
Heejin puts a megaphone to her mouth, “Stop drinking coffee.” Simple and clear.
Hyunjin nods solemnly.
Chaewon comes clean to Hyejoo that day.
(“Unnie, you should’ve just told me. I could’ve just ordered something else for you.”)
-
Heejin opens the door to Hyunjin and Chaewon throwing pieces of popcorn at each other in a heated competition of catching them with their mouths in mid air.
“Kobe!”
Chaewon succeeds and gets a standing ovation from Hyunjin.
“Bravo!”
Chaewon mock bows.
Heejin is home.