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Chaewon was lounging on her bed when a ball of energy bursts into her room and throws itself onto the older female’s bed. She lets out a small “oof” as she falls onto her back, a human being in her arms, giggling and pressing kisses all over her face.
“Hi, hi, hi, baby!” The person grins, smiling down at Chae. The female laughs up at her girlfriend, pulling her into a soft kiss, arms hooked around the younger’s neck, tangling in her long hair. A soft groan travels into Chaewon’s mouth and she takes it as a cue to pull away.
“Hey, you.” The short haired female grins. Wide expressive eyes that shone with excitement and mischief, pouty lips that were currently set in a pout made up the features she loved the most about her girlfriend, Huh Yunjin. Chae sits up to peck her lover’s lips one more time before pulling away to hear what had gotten into the younger for her to bound all the way over to Chae’s dorm and pounce on her like a lion.
“I heard from another senior that you skipped classes today. Are you okay?” The tiny frown on Yunjin’s lips didn’t sit well with the older woman. Chae leaned in and kissed her parter again briefly, pulling away and licking at the wetness on her lips. Huh, she didn’t even realize that Yunjin’s lips were slick with spit.
“I’m fine, Yunnie, I just woke up feeling a little shitty, nothing a day of rest won’t fix.” She tries to be dismissive, but Yunjin’s pout remains firmly in place as she gets off the bed and then grabs at Chaewon’s hand to drag her up as well.
“Unnie, I know that you probably want to remain isolated in this room and fix your mood yourself, but, I think going on that picnic that we have been thinking about would do you a lot of good. I can whip something together if you let me use your kitchen. You shower and get ready.” Chaewon smiles at her partner fondly. Yunjin isn’t exactly the spontaneous type, but being with Chaewon, some of the spontaneity seems to have rubbed off on her.
“You can use my kitchen, you know you can, baby. But what are you even going to make? I haven’t gone grocery shopping yet.” Yunjin shrugs and taps Chae’s nose.
“Finger foods exist.” The double entendre is not lost on either of the two, breaking into giggles as soon as the implication was understood. “Not like that, but I mean if you think some head will help––” the younger female began to put her hair into a ponytail. Chaewon shrieks with laughter as she stops her partner, laughing at the other’s eagerness.
Yunjin smiles down at her girlfriend, proud that she managed to get her to laugh and smile when she looked out of it when she’d entered the room. The linguistics major knows that her girlfriend is a solitary person and doesn’t really enjoy sharing her burdens with other people. Neither is Yunjin (and realistically, who does enjoy sharing their burdens with other people?) but with Chaewon, she will bottle everything up until the point that it begins to weigh on her and upset her until she began feeling like the way she’s feeling now.
Growing up in the West, Yunjin usually has to convince her partner to look after herself as well and put her mental health first. Not that Chaewon doesn’t know that she should, it’s more like the upbringing in the Asian continent is one that hides mental illnesses and sees them as weaknesses. In common households it is seen as an excuse and seen as a disgrace. While she is glad that it’s slowly starting to become a more talked about subject, especially among those closest to her, Yunjin knows that it’s easy to slip back into old habits and shy away from seeking the help that you need.
“Alright, I’ll go shower and get ready…” the older woman bites her bottom lip, sending a small smile up at her lover who seems to hold eternal fondness in her eyes. Chaewon thinks that she could fall in love with Yunjin’s gorgeous eye smile and the way she conveys her warmth as a tangible thing. Sometimes Chae feels like she will become heated if she just looks at Yunjin for too long. She really was her sun, the centre of her universe.
“Proud of you,” Yunjin murmurs, connecting her lips with her lover’s, an arm snaking around her, pulling her closer as the kiss deepens. Even after being together for two years, the younger woman never misses the opportunity to explore the elder’s mouth and render her dazed and a little moony-eyed as she went about her day.
“Why are you skilled with your mouth?” Chae pouts when they pull away, her eyes donning that telltale glassy quality and her speech slow as she works to find the right words. There’s a satisfaction in kissing someone until they can barely think and Yunjin is the queen of that practice. Maybe not with her exes, but with bubbly and bright eyed Chaewon? Yunjin was the expert in taking her apart and then putting her back together.
“Because I have an unnie who looks at me so adorably, that I just feel this deep need to be good for her in every way.” Yunjin teases. “Well that, and I speak three different languages and need a skilled mouth for that.” She’s pushed away, resulting in her laughing at the adorable furrow of her older partner’s brows. The hospitality and tourism major grumbles something about smartass girlfriends as she pads away to the bathroom, only grabbing her robe with her.
Cute.
That was the only way that Yunjin could describe her girlfriend’s antics at the moment. She was being cute and pretending as if she was some sort of ferocious feline, stalking off towards the bathroom with glowing cheeks.
Yeah; Yunjin absolutely loves her.
.・゜゜・✧༺♥༻✧・゜゜・．
Yunjin parks in the designated area before turning to her girlfriend who had fallen asleep on the way over. “Ah…so you were tired too…” A small smile plays on her lips as she kills the engine and quickly exits the car and rounds to Chaewon’s side. The young linguistics major grabs the picnic basket from the backseat before she opens her partner’s door.
Her eyes commit the older female’s features to memory, admiring how gorgeous her girlfriend is. Yunjin gently flicks Chae’s chin, gently coaxing her to wake.
“Hm…?” She groans, eyes fluttering open as she looks around, her unfocused eyes looking at Yunjin for a second, trying to recall why and where they were. “Did I fall asleep on the way over?” the older female yawns, covering her mouth with a perfectly manicured hand (courtesy of Yunjin saying they needed an expensive date night idea since she’d gotten paid recently.)
“You did, you looked really peaceful.” She chuckled, moving away to let the older female step out of the car. Chae was wearing a pleated light blue skirt that hit just above the knees and billowed gently in the light breeze, paired with a simple blue t-shirt underneath a cream cardigan. She looked cozy and opposite of Yunjin dressed in her dark-wash, flared jeans, green crop top and black cropped jacket; soft and dark.
That’s just how Yunjin and Chaewon were, opposites who complemented each other perfectly. The perfect Yin and Yang that balance each other out. When one was too much, the other would instantly be there to ground the other person and take some of their energy. The same worked in reverse as well, if someone was running low on energy, they would do an energy transfer full of giggles and jokes and above all, love.
“Where are we?” The two begin walking away from the car after Yunjin locks the doors. There were very few people around, only three or so cars surrounded Yunjin’s, and the trail looked fairly empty as well.
“Just a small hike. That place that we went when we were bored and just really needed to get out cause the covid restrictions were too much. We’ll go out to that first look out point and have our little picnic.” Chaewon nods, still too sleepy to contribute anything substantive to the conversation.
“That’s why you told me to wear sneakers?” She asks in a quiet voice when they begin walking on the dirt path. Yunjin nods and pauses to hold on to her partner as she stumbles with her footing briefly. “Careful, little lamb, don’t want you to fall…unless you’re falling for me of course.” The moment the words leave her mouth she grimaces. “Yuck. You’ve got me saying all these cheesy lines for you Chae Unnie.” The younger female complains, arm around her partner as they make the last bit of the walk up the base of the mountain.
Even though they were just at the first landing, they still managed to look out over the city of Seoul as the sun hung low in the sky. The blue was slowly morphing into purples and oranges, a few streaks of scarlet peeked out as well, blurring together and giving the couple the perfect landscape to stare at while they have their picnic.
“I’d say we have about an hour or so of daylight left. Let’s eat then we can stargaze.” Yunjin suggests, opening up the basket and taking out the blanket that she had packed away for their trip. Part of the younger female wants to coo at how adorable her girlfriend was, sluggishly walking to take the other end and spread it over the green grass.
.・゜゜・✧༺♥༻✧・゜゜・．
“What will we do when the stars start to get boring?” Chaewon asks later when they had filled their stomachs and sipped their sparkling juice. They were both legal, but Yunjin had to drive and Chae didn't need a hangover the morning after as she needed her full brain capacity in order to focus in her class.
“We can go to an arcade, hang out in either of our dorms or, there’s a beach, a little ways away from here. We can take a walk along the beach if you want.” Chae nods as she considers the options.
“I feel like we aren’t wearing the right kinds of shoes for walking on the beach. No offence, but if you walk on the beach––especially along the shoreline––in sneakers, I’m going to judge you.” Yunjin tips her head back in laughter, the pure, bubbly sound resonating off the rocks around them and hangs in the air for a moment before slowly fading away, ushering in a new wave of laughter.
Chae didn’t think it was possible, but she might just have to admit that she is in love with a laugh. Of course she is in love with the person who owns the laugh as well, but the melodious quality of the sound was definitely a reason to fall further in love with the person. The older female cocks her head slightly as she observes the shadows dancing across her partner’s face, the setting sun kissing the already honeyed skin of her lover.
Yunjin had full cheeks that were illuminated by the light and made Chaewon want to lean forward and gently sink her teeth into them while at the same time, made her want to press a million tiny kisses to the apples of her cheeks. Her nose slanted downwards and rounded out in a way that made the older woman want to give her younger partner many nose taps––affectionately called boops––as she praised her features.
It was already established that the hospitality major was in love with the younger’s eyes and mouth; the warmth that her gaze emulates. Her mouth was full and plush, not to mention that she had a wicked tongue, ready to hurl insults and curses at the mere implication a loved one was wronged, that Chae found to be inexplicably attractive. But the same lips and mouth that spoke harsh words in defence of others also whispered the softest praise meant only for Chaewon’s ears. Promises upheld to the day were uttered from that very mouth that could out cuss a sailor on a good day.
“Are you done admiring?” The older female startles as her muse speaks, a raised brow quirked in her direction and an amused smile painted her pretty lips.
“Never done admiring you.” She says honestly. The other female rolls her eyes affectionately and carefully manhandles her woman into her arms, leaning back against the tree as they watch the last rays of sunshine disappear behind the horizon.
Home, if Chaewon had to describe it, was the feeling of inner warmth that kept her heart pumping steadily and gave her a healthy flush, paired with outer warmth that shielded her from the harsh outdoors. Home was safety and security; it was a sanctuary for all her private thoughts and her private feelings. Home was a feeling of belonging, of walking into a place and just knowing that stability and belonging stem from that place.
To Chae, home was always an abstract idea. A house is not a home, nor is a dorm.
Maybe they once were. Once many moons ago.
But as she laid on the blanket, Yunjin laying over her, their lips slotted together under the moon and stars; Chaewon knew that home was abstract and that she would always be home as long as Yunjin was by her side.
A home never pushes information out of its inhabitant, it waits patiently, lets them digest the thoughts and embraces them lovingly when the words finally come out; no matter how garbled and unintelligible. A home doesn’t try and fix its occupant, only try and make them the best version of themselves, all their flaws and all their strengths.
Chae may not have said anything to Yunjin about what is on her mind today, but with a love like theirs, Yunjin knows that Chaewon eventually will.
And when she does, Yunjin will be waiting with open arms.