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When what had to be an angel banished from heaven for being too beautiful first walked into her physics class, Jungeun wasn’t expecting her life to be turned upside down. Sure, she might have internally squealed and swooned over that dashing smile and charming greeting (not to mention that extra glimpse of skin Jungeun witnessed when Miss Fallen Angel moved her head the right way), but a simple admiration of her new classmate didn’t mean that much. It wasn’t supposed to, at any rate.
But it did.
It all started when Jung Jinsol somehow decided that Kim Jungeun was to be her seatmate for the rest of the semester.
“Hey! I reserved this seat for you,” Jinsol said on the very second day of class.
Indeed, there was a chocolate bar sitting right in the middle of the desk Jungeun had occupied the day before. If Jungeun had any plans to shimmy past Jinsol to sit at the other end of the aisle (and most assuredly, that had been the plan for the sake of self preservation), they were instantly shot to pieces when Jinsol’s smile broadened and she handed the bar of chocolate directly to Jungeun.
“I’m allergic to peanuts,” Jungeun blurted out in a poor attempt to escape the situation.
Jinsol’s eyes widened, and Jungeun wanted to curse at how adorable this stranger’s panicked expression was.
“Noted,” Jinsol said seriously before retracting her gift and looking at Jungeun expectantly.
Jungeun sat down.
She was greeted with peanut-free chocolate the next day, and she wondered if it was somehow spiked with extra sugar as she snacked during a particularly boring stretch of the lecture. To her right, Jinsol was chewing thoughtfully on the end of her pen, and Jungeun wanted to scoff.
Sure, go ahead and look like you’re a world famous idol pretending to be a student, why don’t you?
It took considerable effort for Jungeun to not roll her eyes when Jinsol actually said “Aha!” and snapped her fingers when something clicked. Really, this was becoming a bit too much for Jungeun; it was clear that Jung Jinsol would be nothing short of a complete and utter distraction if Jungeun continued to sit next to her.
Jungeun continued to sit next to her.
It wasn’t really by choice because what else could Jungeun do when Jinsol continued to leave offerings on her designated seat? Jungeun actually made it a point to show up before Jinsol one week into their shared class, but in the five minutes it took for Jinsol to appear, Jungeun was bombarded with horrific mental montages of pouty lower lips, crestfallen faces, and—god forbid—abandoned chocolate.
And so Jungeun slinked back into the seat Jinsol personally picked for her just in time to be greeted by a blindingly bright smile.
Mission: failed, but at least Jungeun got her daily dose of cocoa and sunshine, right?
She was actually starting to suspect Jinsol had some sort of vendetta against her physique when the other student never failed to produce a chocolate bar out of nowhere whenever they met.
Every. Single. Time.
The quad in the center of campus was a hotspot for students, Jinsol and Jungeun included. Coincidence or not, it didn’t take Jungeun too long to realize that her favorite reading spot under the tree on the northwest side of the quad was also where Jinsol’s friend group liked to congregate. She had nearly jumped out of her skin the first time a hand holding a chocolate bar came poking out from the other side of the tree, but that soon became a regular occurrence every time Jungeun took respite there.
Even better or worse was the fact that Jinsol seemed to have a Jungeun detector. On a particularly hot day, all it took was for Jungeun to set one foot into the quad for Jinsol to zoom over from the complete opposite side, grinning breathlessly with windswept hair that Jungeun’s fingers itched to fix.
“This is for you,” Jinsol said proudly, holding out a far too familiar object.
“You already gave me one in class today,” Jungeun mumbled.
“I know.”
As usual, Jinsol’s smile brightened when Jungeun accepted her gift, and she actually had the gall to raise her other hand to comb through her hair, her biceps on full display under the sun. Jungeun forced her eyes away, not foolish enough to be caught staring. Unfortunately, her brain worked against her and she could only suck in a breath when she saw the faint sheen of sweat on Jinsol’s collar bones.
Jungeun fled the scene not long after that.
As the weeks passed, Jungeun tried to tell herself that she had the situation under control. It was a hard lie to sell, especially when her stomach started doing funny things before she even reached their shared classroom. To make matters worse, a friend of a friend turned out to be Jinsol’s friend’s girlfriend, and so their social circles melded together, Jungeun forced to spend even more time in Jinsol’s proximity.
To be fair, Jinsol was a good friend. Too good of a friend, if you asked Jungeun. She was slowly getting used to seeing the world in a new light, vibrant and vivid with the laughter and warmth Jinsol brought into her life. Endless heart palpitations and the occasional dry mouth aside, being around Jinsol was comfortable.
It was addicting in a way, and that thought sent Jungeun into a full panic one night as she caught herself neglecting her studies in favor of scrolling through images upon images of Jinsol on social media.
This was bad, Jungeun realized. This was bad and Jung Jinsol was doing nothing to stop this impending catastrophe.
Neither was Jungeun herself, but at this point in time, it was far easier to blame the other party for her own failures than to—heaven forbid—properly self-reflect.
Besides, Jinsol actually had the audacity to send baby animal memes. Baby animal memes. Jungeun had no particular fondness for neither babies nor animals, so who was Jinsol to make Jungeun giggle at her cellphone at 3am in the morning?
The final straw was when Jungeun scored a 70.16% on their physics midterm.
She could pinpoint the moment when everything had gone wrong: the night before, when instead of properly reviewing Chapter 7 in her textbook, Jungeun had been lured into a phone call with Jinsol. Their “paired study session” was derailed in less than ten minutes, the conversation turning into gossip about their friends before somehow morphing into a heart-to-heart about future plans, dreams, and wishes.
“You’re amazing,” Jinsol had whispered when Jungeun detailed the blueprint of her life that involved learning the ins and outs of her father’s grooming business so that she could use that knowledge to open an animal shelter.
“You’re amazing,” was what Jungeun’s brain replayed that entire night, studying be damned.
“You’re amazing,” was what she continued to hear even as her friends clowned her for barely passing by the skin of her teeth.
“You’re amazing,” Jinsol repeated when they parted ways after their post-midterm survival celebration. Her smile as she handed over a bar of chocolate was so ridiculously soft that Jungeun felt a strange prickling in her eyes, and she knew that this was the breaking point.
Jung Jinsol was far too attractive, far too generous, far too kind, and far too good for someone like Jungeun to even exist near, and so Jungeun took matters into her own hands.
She ignored her.
It wasn’t an easy feat considering how Jungeun couldn’t bear to escape her mandated seat in physics, but outside of class she did her best to evade Jinsol. She started taking the long way around campus, avoiding the heart of the school where her own heart remained. It took a lot of willpower, but her replies to Jinsol’s texts grew shorter and shorter before fading away, leaving her feeling as empty as her phone’s blank screen. She didn’t quite manage to wean off of Jinsol’s chocolate tributes, unfortunately, and Jungeun often found herself sitting in a deserted hallway after class, munching on the now-bitter sweetness all by her lonesome self.
It didn’t even take two weeks of minimal Jinsol for withdrawal symptoms to show up. On the most basic level, Jungeun was noticeably grouchier and snappier, a fact oh so helpfully pointed out by their mutual friends.
“Do you need some chocolate?” Yerim had asked kindly when Jungeun nearly glared a hole into their group project for English III.
“A– Are you on your… you know?” Sooyoung had squeaked before bolting out of the chemistry lab room.
“You need some sun,” Haseul had declared as she dragged Jungeun out of the cave that was her room.
“You are useless,” Hyejoo had cackled when Jungeun refused to enter her favorite bookstore because someone was in there.
Still, Jungeun’s “imitation of the Grinch”, as put by Park Chaewon, was nothing compared to the internal suffering she was going through. Everywhere she looked, Jungeun could have sworn she saw glimpses of blue. Everywhere she turned, Jungeun could feel the faintest imaginings of warmth. Everywhere she was, Jungeun could feel a wisp of Jinsol nearby, one that faded the instant Jungeun remembered how she was alone.
This sucked, Jungeun thought grumpily.
And it only sucked more when Dream Jinsol showed up.
Sleep was one of the few moments of peace Jungeun could find, for she could effectively pass out for at least six hours with nothing to disturb her. Her dreams tended to be on the nonsensical and easily forgotten side, and for a while they continued that way, letting Jungeun wake up untroubled with no recollection of what she saw with her eyes shut aside from vague recollections.
Of course, Jung Jinsol had to ruin that.
Dream Jinsol was radiant in all her imaginary glory, glowing brightly like a beacon in the darkness. Despite her brilliance, however, she was nothing compared to Jungeun’s memory of the real thing. That’s not to say she wasn’t dangerous though, something Jungeun realized in 0.1 seconds.
It was truly a testament to how lethal the real Jung Jinsol was when all Dream Jinsol did was touch Jungeun’s cheek for the rollercoaster in her chest to start at full speed again. Dream Jinsol must have noticed that somehow considering how her smile turned into a familiar, self-assured smirk, one that was insufferable and irresistable at the same time.
As Jungeun debated between screaming and squeeing, Dream Jinsol spoke.
“I miss you, Jungeun,” she said breathily, her thumb tracing across Jungeun’s lips. “Don’t you miss me too?”
Without waiting for an answer, Dream Jinsol tilted Jungeun’s chin back and leaned forward, eyes slowly drifting shut.
And Jungeun fell out of her bed.
“That’s enough!” she shouted at the carpet before grabbing her sweatpants and keys and bolting out of the room. She was sure she looked like an utter mess (she sure as hell felt like one) as she stormed down hallways, though fortunately there weren’t any gossip-inclined eyes at this time of the night.
All it took was one knock for the source of her problems to open the door.
“You!” Jungeun said accusingly as she jabbed Jinsol’s chest with a finger.
“Me?” Jinsol blinked, looking far too beautiful for someone who was supposed to have just gotten out of bed.
“How dare you?” Jungeun hissed. “I’m trying so hard– I have to do my best to avoid you on campus, I have to ignore your texts, and I can’t even read under my favorite tree anymore! I’m going through all this trouble to stay away from you, and you have the nerve to show up in my dreams!?”
“I showed up in your dreams?” Jinsol gasped in delight before backtracking. “Wait, you’re avoiding me?”
“I blocked you on twitagram, for heaven’s sake.”
“Your finger slipped?”
“Jung Jinsol.”
“Okay, okay,” Jinsol grimaced. “So uh… Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?”
“Yes. No. Maybe. Ugh,” Jungeun groaned in frustration. “You’re just really bad for my heart, okay?”
“I know CPR.”
“I– That’s–” Jungeun opened and closed her mouth like a fish before getting her scrambled bearings back together. “That’s not the point! And before you ask me what the point is, I don’t know. I just… I just miss you, okay?”
Jinsol pursed her lips with an expression that clearly said she was trying not to laugh. She cleared her throat before speaking up again.
“Well, if you miss me so much, maybe you can stop avoiding me?” she suggested lightly.
“You didn’t even realize I was,” Jungeun muttered. “How could you not notice after I ignored your message about adopting a dog?”
“I thought you were busy. I didn’t want to assume the worst,” Jinsol confessed, her usually cheery expression giving way to something more fragile and delicate. “I… I really like you, and I don’t know how to cope with the idea that you might hate me.”
Jungeun’s heart crumbled right then and there, and she almost pulled Jinsol into an apologetic hug until she fully processed Jinsol’s entire sentence and the true force of her words smacked into Jungeun like a truck.
“Wait, you like me?”
“... I don’t give chocolates to just anyone, you know.”
“Could have fooled me,” Jungeun shot back even as an unstoppable grin stretched across her face.
“For the record, I bought like twenty boxes of chocolate for you and only you,” Jinsol said sternly, placing her hands on her hips. “I asked Hyunjin how to win someone over and she was like ‘woo them the way you’d want to be wooed.’”
“I can’t believe that worked,” Jungeun sighed. “Worked too well, in fact.”
“Well, I for one am very glad,” Jinsol said gently, slowly reaching over to take Jungeun’s hands in her own. “I really like you, Jungeun.”
“I really like you too,” Jungeun returned, mouth curving upwards. “And not just because of the chocolate.”
Jinsol laughed, pulling Jungeun closer and pressing their foreheads together.
“Does that mean I don’t have to get any more?”
“Don’t you dare stop.”
With a last cascade of giggles, Jinsol and Jungeun finally pressed their lips together in a simple but sweet kiss.
Chocolate has nothing on this, Jungeun thought as one kiss turned into a series of pecks. The fact that it was roughly 4am at this point was lost to the wind as Jungeun basked in the joy of reciprocated feelings and the realiziation that things weren’t as dire as they seemed.
An errant memory popped up in the corner of her mind, and Jungeun chuckled before pulling away exactly three inches away from Jinsol, not wanting to be any further apart than that.
“Hey, Jinsol?”
“Hm?”
“I’m not actually allergic to peanuts.”