Chapter Text
The air conditioner whirs in the calming quiet, sending a burst of cool air over her, she basks in it. Closing her eyes for just a second before opening them again. She recognizes the sound of quick fingers sliding across keyboards and it’s the smell of coffee beans and fresh pastries filling her nostrils that all ground her in a way. She always liked her job, they were never too busy, plus, the students that came in were mostly regulars and hung up on their own lives so they never really bothered her. She didn’t mind all that much, though, she wasn’t much of a people person anyway. She rocks lightly on her feet, surveying the place for a bit before the bell on the door jingles, signaling the end of her contentment.
She doesn’t even attempt to smile, the newcomer is doing that big enough for the both of them.
“Dongie,” The way her wide eyes are accompanied by a huge face-splitting grin makes her look more unhinged than usual.
It’s scary, yet intriguing.
Handong waits, almost stiffly under her friend’s expectant gaze, before tilting her head, hoping she picks up on the silent question.
She doesn’t.
Or she does, but she’s pretending not to for some reason. Was she too excited to say anything? Was she trying to play with her maybe? Who knew, but either way, it was annoying, so she lets out an exasperated sigh, a sound that she finds herself making a lot around her shorter counterpart, and rolls her eyes.
“What do you want, Bora?”
“What do I want?” She gasps out, Handong resists rolling her eyes again at her dramatics, “Why do you think I want something?”
“Because you always want something,” Dami chimes smugly, placing the box of books she was holding at her feet.
“No one asked you,” Bora sneered, eyes squinted in irritation.
Handong laughs at that as Dami pushes herself up to sit on the dark wood counter.
“True,” She concedes, “But you’re still a leech, so where do we go from here?”
“So really Bora,” Handong says, before she has a chance to respond, her oldest friend hated being snarked at, and her best friend lived to get under her skin, truly a recipe for disaster, “Why are you here?”
She purses her lips, then opens her mouth to speak.
“And just so you know,” Handong holds up a finger, “I only asked because you walked in here smiling like a fucking maniac. So,” She waves her hand as if to say go on, “Spill.”
“Okay, fiiine,” Bora comes closer, leaning against the counter, her smile has returned, just not as big as it was before. That settles Handong in a way, “A friend of mine is having a party and I want you guys to come.”
She finishes, giving Handong her most hopeful of looks and it almost makes her feel bad knowing what she was gonna do next, almost.
“No.”
Bora huffs and she swears she could hear the soft stomp of a foot, “What about you, Dami?”
“Hell yeah, I– wait,” She cuts herself off, “When is it?”
“Tonight.”
Dami hisses, an apologetic grimace directed at Bora, “Shit, no, I can’t make it tonight.”
And Bora looks positively put out, “Why not?”
“I have a date,” She shrugs helplessly.
Bora crosses her arms, “You know, I always knew you’d be the type to ditch your friend for a girl,” She spits menacingly.
“Didn’t you ditch us last week because that girl from your chem class finally called you back?” Dami retorts, lazily. “Besides, ” She adds holding a finger up, “Dongie’s gonna go, so it’s not like you’ll be alone.”
Handong perks up at that, a frown curls at her lips, “What? No, I’m not,” She looks between the two of them, Bora’s eyes shine pleadingly, while Dami waits with raised eyebrows, “I’m not,” She says firmly, in hopes they’d understand, in hopes they’d leave her be.
But she’s never been that fortunate in her life, so why would that change now?
“C’mon, Dong, please,” Bora stands from her seat, leaning over the counter she was behind, a pout forming on her face. Handong stares her down, unfaltering.
“Bora, No.”
“Dong,” Dami says from beside them, she splits her eyes from Bora’s, “I get parties aren’t your thing, but they can be fun! I promise, and you wouldn’t leave one of your best-est friends hanging, would you?”
Handong drags her hands over her face, sighing, “Fuck you, fuck both of you. And that’s not even a word.”
“Wait, so does this mean-”
“Yes,” She answers Bora like it physically pains her to say the word, and it does a little, because fuck, she would rather do anything else than have to babysit a grown-ass woman at a college party with annoying college kids.
“YAY! ” She reaches over more, pulling Handong into a bone-crushing hug, arms tight around her neck.
She plants her feet and throws her hands out to grip the counter. She doesn’t want to fall forward and embarrass herself in front of strangers.
Bora echos “Thank you’s” in her ear, and Handong pats her back awkwardly before pushing her away, “You're so annoying, leave me alone.”
“Gladly,” She brushes the nonexistent dust off her pants, grinning widely, “The party starts at 9, so I’ll be around yours a little before 10, be ready!”
Handong rolls her eyes and waves her off, watching her go as she walks-no skips out the door.
“It won’t be bad,” Dami smiles at her, a faded blue strand of hair falls into her face and her cheeks puff out slightly.
“Go away.”
True to her word, Bora got to her place a little before 10 and they took Handongs car, parking it a ways off. She listened absently to Boras ramblings about the girl from her chem class as they made the short trek to one of the frat houses across campus. She feels good, better than she thought considering she was going to a party she was less than happy about attending. Maybe it was the weather, she always liked this time of year, mid-September, right after the heat from the summer stopped, but just before it started getting cold, perfect. She looks around her, the moon shines above them and the stars sparkle from afar. They’re getting closer to the house, she can tell by the faint sound of trap music coming from the direction they walk in. Bora can tell, too, if the way her words leave her mouth faster and her excited smile grows wider is any indication.
Nervousness starts to bubble up as they near, she hates feeling nervous because it’s just a party, what’s there to be scared of? But for some reason she is, and she can’t help it.
“Listen, Dong,” Bora breaks her out of her musings, she hums, and almost jumps when she feels a small hand slide into hers, “I know you don’t like these sort of things, but I’m really happy you came with me.”
The sudden earnest confession floors her a bit, then she shakes her head, squeezing Bora’s hand, “You don’t have to thank me,”
“I-I know, but I wanted to,” Her eyes are drawn to concrete they walk on, Handong has to hold back a laugh, they didn’t have heart-to-hearts often, or at all really, but it was amusing to see someone so headstrong display bashfulness like this. Cute even. She yanks Bora’s arm, pulling the smaller girl to her side then wraps her arms around her.
“Stop being so sappy,” She chides firmly into her soft brown hair.
Bora laughs, the high-pitched loud one that she has heard enough times to not even be fazed by it, and pushes her away.
“Shut up,” She wiggles herself out of Handongs grasp, rolling her eyes playfully before pulling her toward the crowd of people standing outside a nice-sized house.
Handong stands, back against the wall, holding a half-drunk cup of beer she had been nursing since she walked in. She contemplates pulling out her phone again, but rereading her messages a third time would make her feel more like a loser than she already does. She glances in the vague direction of where Bora went dancing, who, granted, offered to stay hidden in a random corner with her, but the way she was watching the other party-goers have their fun made Handong send her off with a wave a hand and an unbothered, “I’ll be fine here, just go.”
She was bored, her beer was warm and left the worst taste in her mouth. Bora was, decidedly, fine on her own, from where she watched. She straightens up, stretching her limbs for a good measure before making her way to the kitchen, to find some water.
Lucky for her, there weren’t many people in there, so she could get a good look at the variety of drinks splayed across a huge table.
But unlucky for her, there wasn’t a nonalcoholic beverage in sight. She runs an annoyed hand through her hair before she looks around, eyes zeroing in on a refrigerator. Maybe there was something in there. She walks over, prying it open with the last bit of hope she has. Only for it to be slaughtered by the sight of wine coolers filling the fridge to the brim.
She set her jaw and clenched her fists, why the fuck was there no water? Anywhere? Not even soda or juice, just drinks. She stared at the bottles in disgust, did the host want their guests to die of alcohol poisoning or something? Why was it that-
“Uhh, you okay?”
She’s pulled out of her thoughts, embarrassed by how crazy she probably looked, glaring at a refrigerator.
“Yea-yea, no, I’m good,” She closes the door and turns around, blush spreading up her neck.
The girl, who had previously called out to her, nods, amused if the way the ends of her lips are turned up is anything to go by. It bothers Handong that she can’t tell what she’s thinking, but what bothers her, even more, is how she feels the need to defend herself from the stranger.
“It’s just there’s nothing but, that, to drink,” She motions in the direction of the table.
“Ahh,” She nods again, this time, in understanding, “Yea, it’s always hard finding something normal to drink at these things - just- gimme a minute,”
Handong squints in confusion, then shock washes over her as the girl drops to the ground to crawl under the table. She shifts, standing closer, trying to block the view from others, the girl's skirt was short and the thought of some creep catching a look made her feel uneasy.
She steps away quickly when the girl pops out, dragging a medium-sized cooler with her, opening it, and reaching in, “You good with grape?” She stands handing the can of soda to Handong.
“Yea,” She takes the can, hand grazing delicate fingers, “Yea, thanks.”
“No problem,” She gives Handong a big smile, one that shows almost all her teeth, “See you around?”
“Sure,”
She turns on her heels, white shoes squeaking on the floor as she walks away.
Ok, so maybe parties weren’t so bad after all, Handong realizes when she goes outside to get some fresh and runs into some people she knows from her history of art class and ends up losing track of time getting to know them better, outside of school. But losing track of time meant losing track of Bora, who she just noticed she hasn’t seen since before she had trouble getting something to drink, which was over an hour ago. Panic rises in her chest, still, she manages to conceal it enough to excuse herself pulling out her phone to call only to get her voicemail. She should’ve known that wouldn’t work, that girl never answers fucking her phone.
Handong makes her way quickly through the house asking any vaguely familiar faces if they’ve seen Bora, until she reaches the backyard, having no luck whatsoever in her pursuit.
She hears a groan, suddenly, the sound was close enough to frighten her, but far away so she couldn’t exactly pin where it came from, but her attention is quickly diverted when her phone pings and Boras name lights up the screens, the message, ‘ don t wiat fr me :P, that grl frm chem totlly wants me,’
Then another, ‘ tht means i m geting laid..,,,,’
And another, ‘ aoutcorrect didnt hlp me once omff g’
She rubs at her brow as if to ward off a headache. Sighing in relief. Yeah, she was a little annoyed at having to go on a wild goose chase for nothing, but at least her friend was safe, she really couldn’t be angry.
She turns, ready to go back in but she hears something again, it wasn’t a groan this time, but a sniffle. Her head snaps in the direction of the noise, eyes adjusting in the darkness to see someone a little far off from her left sloppily sitting on the grown, tapping angrily at a phone screen.
Handong stands there for a moment silently feeling sorry for the girl, who sways a bit before leaning against the tree, probably drunk. Handong then decides this wasn’t her business and it would be her best bet to leave as soon as possible.
But things never quite work out the way she wants them to, she realizes bitterly when she makes eyes with the girl as she looks up. For a moment they just stare at each other, her pleading eyes burn deep into Handongs and it makes her breath catch. It was the girl from earlier who got her the soda.
For a split second, she contemplates ignoring the very clearly distraught girl but that would be kinda rude and she’s trying not to be too much of an asshole these days, and leaving a sad drunk person alone like this was something an asshole would do.
She walks over to her, stopping some distance away, giving her some space, “Are you okay?”
In response she gets loud, boisterous, almost manic laughter that alarms Handong, she takes a step back, noticing a quarter-full bottle of vodka sitting next to her.
Yikes.
“Hey you- you’re grape girl,” She says with a small giggle, settling down. She looks up at Handong, visibly out of it.
“Uhm, I- yeah, yeah, I guess,” She comes closer, moving to sit on the ground as well, “But you’re more grape than me.”
The girl tilts her head in confusion, she allows herself to think it’s cute then pushes the thought away, no, this wasn’t the time.
“The hair,” Handong supplies, a small smirk plays on her lips.
“Oh, oh,” She laughs again, this time more subdued, more genuine, bringing her hand up to pull softly on a lock, “I forgot.”
“You never answered my question,”
“Hm?”
“I asked if you were okay,”
Dark, curious, unreadable eyes peer into hers. Handong doesn’t like how exposed it makes her feel, in a way like if the girl wasn’t absolutely off her rocker, she’d be able to bring all her greatest fears to light. The thought sends a chill down her spine.
“Not at all,”
She rasps, voice small, defeated, Handong frowns.
“But I will be,” And she wants to believe her, she does, but the long swig she takes from the bottle on the ground and those unreadable, sad eyes that hide something under the surface, tell her otherwise.
“Right, so,” Handong moves into a crouching position in front of her, “I’m gonna head back in, do you wanna come with?”
The girl scoffs, slurring, “No,” She takes another drink, “I’m cool here,”
Handong turns her head to the side, clenching her jaw. The temptation to leave strong, but she’s a good person so that was out of the question.
“You’re really not,” She puts her hand out, “C’mon, I’ll help you up,”
Handong internally rolls her eyes at the disgusted look the girl throws towards her hand, “H-How do I know you won’t like,” She scrunches her face, staring as pointedly as a drunk person could, “take advantage of me or somethin’.”
“Uh, well if I was planning on doing that, I wouldn’t be trying to get you to go inside where other people are,” she folds her hands, shrugging, “and my name is Handong, so if something were to happen — which, I promise, it won’t — you’d have my name, and I’d get in trouble.” She finishes, sadly, that bullshit explanation was the best she could do, especially considering the way her thighs ached due to her less than comfortable position.
“Whatever, just help me up, and don’t you dare try anything!” She warns.
“I won’t,” Handongs rolls her eyes, pulling her up, making sure can stand on her own before letting go slowly, “You good to go?”
“Mhm.”
Good, Handong nods to herself, “So what’s your–“
Her words die on her lips when she feels the weight of a body slouching against her.
“Shit. ”
Handong manages to get the girl to one of the vacant downstairs bathrooms, telling her to stay put before running to the kitchen to grab her something to drink. She groans in annoyance when she remembers there was no water anywhere to be found.
Stupid party, she thinks, possibly for the millionth time that night, as she dumps a wine cooler into the sink, rinsing it out before filling it up with cold water from the tap. Sure, it would leave a gross aftertaste, but the girl needed water if she wanted to make it home in one piece tonight.
She knocks lightly when she reaches the bathroom, only letting herself in when she hears a weak, almost inaudible, “ Come in,” through the door. The girl is sitting on top of the closed toilet seat, even with droopy eyes, she still warily regards the bottle Handong is holding, she looks rough, very rough.
“It’s just water,” She comments, handing off the glass bottle to the girl, “I promise,” She adds, catching her skeptical glance.
Handong finally allows herself to relax after the girl takes the water. Tonight was busier than she expected, taking a physical toll on her as well. She was tired, she wanted to go home, snuggle under her warm blanket and drift off to sleep with the familiar sound of her cat’s soft purring from the end of her bed.
But she couldn’t, not when she dumbly took it upon herself to become an unofficial babysitter for the night.
Pushing her feelings aside, she watched the girl thoughtfully, deciding the next course of action would be getting her home.
“Did you come with anyone?” She asks carefully, “Is there anyone here who can take you home? Or anyone I could call?”
She has to wait some time before she gets a response, “Mhm,” Her voice sounds raspy and dry despite the water she just drank, “I- With my friends, my friends are here,” She slurs.
“Ok,” Handong nods, “Do you think you can walk?”
She blinks up at her before nodding, “I think I’m good now.”
Handong helps her up and they slowly make their way out of the bathroom, they pause though, when they’re outside the door, she has to make sure the girl is steady enough to walk so she doesn’t have to basically drag her this time, she is. She’s about to tell the girl to grab onto her arm so they could go, but she freezes, grabbing Handongs hand squeezing it tight.
“Are you okay?” Handong worries immediately, “Do you need some more time or-”
“Gahyeon,” An unfamiliar voice calls out, she turns to see two girls coming their way, one of them is smiling big, “Hey, I didn’t know you were coming tonight.”
There’s a panicked glint in her eyes, Handong notices, when she turns back to face the girl, who she now knows is named Gahyeon.
Handong frowns at her obvious discomfort. Ignoring both of the girls, she scans Gahyeon’s face, “Are you ready to go?” She asks, hushed.
“I-I’m-”
“Gahyeon,” The other one speaks up this time, her tone is firm, way less friendly than the other girl’s, “Who’s your friend?”
“I uhh- She-”
The first girl gasps loudly, cutting Gahyeon off, turning all attention towards her, “Is this like, your new girlfriend?”
Handongs morphs in shock at the excited words, she meets Gahyeons eyes or at least tries to, but she looks like a deer caught in headlights.
This would end badly if they didn’t get out of there now. She’s not sure who these people are but Gahyeon was clearly uncomfortable, so she takes charge, wrapping a protective arm around her, dragging them away from prying eyes.
She keeps moving until they’re outside, stopping only to check in with Gahyeon, “You okay?”
“You ask that a lot,” She retorts slowly.
Handong laughs, scratching awkwardly at her nape, “Yeah, well I don’t think you’ve answered me truthfully all night.”
Gahyeon scoffs, nibbling at her bottom lip.
Handong has to look away before she gets distracted, “Uhm, if you want, I could take you home.”
She almost forgets the other was drunk as hell when they met again until she giggles, almost child-like, “You’re nice.”
She raised an eyebrow, that wasn’t a word that was associated too much, or at all, really.
“Thanks,” She holds her arm out, “You coming?”
Gahyeon latches onto her.
Halfway through the walk to her car, she feels her shiver and gives her the flannel she was wearing. Handong figures the kindness she displayed tonight is enough to last her a lifetime.
They make it to the car safely, when they get in Handong sends Bora a quick text letting her know that she’s leaving and she’s just about to ask Gahyeon where exactly home is until she realizes the other girl is out cold, slumped against the window.
Thankfully Dami isn’t home, Handong thinks as she settles Gahyeon onto the couch in their shared apartment, she wouldn’t know how to explain the sleeping stranger she brought home, especially not this late. Especially not when she was this tired. After leaving some Advil and a glass of water on the coffee table, she trudges to her room, she needs to get herself ready for bed.
God, caring about the well-being of others was so tiring, next time she feels generous, she’ll just donate to a charity or something.
~~~
When she wakes, she walks into the living, disappointed to see a sleeping figure on the couch. If this were one of the movies she enjoys watching, the Advil and water would be gone and her cough would be empty.
But this was real life, and real-life drunk people don’t wake up at the ass-crack of dawn after a night of heavy drinking.
Handong sighs heavily, making her way to the kitchen to grab a drink of water. She contemplates waking her up but throws the thought out of the window when she hears stirring come from the living room. She looks in the direction of the sound to see Gahyeon sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“Good Morning,” Gahyeon jumps, and Handong holds her hands up, “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,”
“No, no, don’t be, It’s fine,” She breathes out, shaking her head. She looks around for a good measure before picking up the pain meds and downing the water.
“Thanks for this and last night,” She smiles weakly, standing when she finishes, Handong likes that she doesn’t leave room for awkwardness when she says, “Uhm, so I’m gonna go.”
“No problem,” Handong resists sighing in relief, “Have a nice rest of your day,”
“Right,” She nods, “bye,”
“Bye,”
With that, she returns to the kitchen, placing her glass in the sink, racking her brain for something she might want to eat for breakfast.
“Holy shit, It’s true.”
Her head whips around quickly at the sound of her roommate’s voice, “What?”
“Dude, how could you keep this from me,” She places a bag of what she assumes is pastries from the cafe they like to go to the divider between the living room and kitchen, “God I thought they got you mixed up with someone else,” She rambles on, incredulously.
“Keep what from you?”
Dami rolls her eyes, “You don’t have to play dumb, I know now.”
“You know what now?” She’s about two seconds from yanking some hair from her scalp, it was way too early for this.
“About you and Lee Gahyeon,” She squints her eyes, “Duh,”
“Me and who?”
“Are you okay?” Dami reaches her hand out to touch Handongs forehead.
Handong slaps her hand away, “Of course I am,” she rolls her eyes, “Are you okay? Since you wanna come in here and accuse me of keeping something from you, and not even tell me what.”
“About the fact that you have a girlfriend,” She says slowly, in a duh tone, Handong freezes, “And that said girlfriend is Lee Gahyeon.”
"Dami," Handong swallows thickly, tempering her shock, "I'm not dating anyone,"
Her roommate tilts her head in confusion, "Then why was she just here?"
"Because she was drunk and I helped her out," Handong throws her hands up, "There's really nothing more to it."
"Oh." She purses her lips, "Is that all that happened last night?" She questions, "Because a lot of people seem to think you two are dating."
"Yes," She groans out, annoyed, then she sighs, "God I was hoping to never have to talk to her again, now I have to clear all this shit up,"
"Was she that bad last night?"
Handong mulls over the question, "I mean she wasn't exactly bad," She shrugs, "She just seems, I don't know- She seems messy,"
Dami nods at that, "I hear her and her friends are a messy bunch," She leans her elbow on the divider, "Your best bet is nipping this in the bud before she brings that mess to you."
"Don't worry," Handong meets her friend's eyes, "I definitely will."