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it’s christmas time again this year and sadly this time, ryujin wasn’t able to set up the christmas tree together with her family this year. she lies on her bed, smiling at the decorations in her home as her mom pans from decoration to decoration, telling the short-haired the funny memories that her family had, especially the time when byullie had knocked over the star on the tree just after her brother had struggled to put it on.
“that’s great, mom.” ryujin smiles, head resting in the palm of her hand, “can’t wait to come back and have a nice dinner with you guys again next weekend. practice has been super hard these days.”
ignoring her whines, her dad comes into the frame with a grin that ryujin wants to roll her eyes at. she knows what her dad was about to say, “so, when is our jinnie bringing a spouse back?”
and rolling her eyes she did, “dad, i just said that i don’t have time for these sorts of things just last year. you know a spouse isn’t on my priority list right now.”
her mom pouts, “ryujin, you know that we are excited for you to have a spouse right, we don’t even care whether it is a boy or a girl. we just want you to be happy. maybe when you get a partner, all your worries will be wiped away, just like your brother.” she can’t help but groan at the way her family is.
her brother pops into the frame, nodding her head, along with his fiance, “it’s true, ryujin-ah. i’m literally about to get married next year.” ryujin also hears dallie meow, in what seems to be agreement.
“okay, okay. i get it.” raising her eyebrows in frustration as she purses her lips, “i’ll bring one home this time around.”
“what?!” the frame gets cluttered with her family members trying to ask ryujin questions. this was the point where she knew that she had messed up. she shouldn’t have said that she’ll bring someone back. “ryujin, answer us. you’re bringing someone home this year?”
say no, ryujin. say you’re joking. “yes, i am.” ryujin whispers out. ugh, intrusive thoughts.
she hears her mom scream as she starts to ramble about all the things that she will cook, the buddae-jiggae, kimchi jeon, samgyetang and so much more that ryujin couldn’t process, now that she was flooded with one thought.
how am i going to get a girlfriend in four days?
ryujin rubs her hands together, taking a deep breath, hyping herself up in front of yeji and chaeryeong’s shared door. she knew that yeji was in lia’s room, so at least she didn’t have to ask in front of her leader. before she let her thoughts overwhelm her, she knocks on the door three times.
“come in,” she hears. twisting the doorknob, she walks into the room, closing the door behind her gently, not wanting to startle the girl that was sitting on her bed, reading a book with a pair of glasses resting gently on the bridge of her nose. ryujin knew she was pretty, but not this pretty.
chaeryeong looks up slightly to acknowledge ryujin, giving her a gentle smile, expecting her friend to speak of her request.
the thousand and one ways that ryujin had penned down in her mental notebook go blank as she stood right in front of her same-aged friend. a few seconds more and it’ll turn awkward, ryujin knows that. so she goes to sit on chaeryeong’s bed.
“you’re acting weird.” chaeryeong notes, raising her eyebrow at ryujin, already suspicious of whatever the short-haired girl wanted to do.
ryujin just smiles awkwardly, heart pounding against her chest in fervour. she has never asked chaeryeong for a request like this before. they were close, but not this close.
“look…” ryujin starts, “ my family has been pestering me about… getting a partner. and i… well i accidentally told them that i will bring someone.”
ryujin knew that she had caught chaeryeong’s attention when her eyes had stopped gliding across the page of her book, “okay, there’s a catch! there’s a catch. i, i will get you gifts! i will bring you out for a very nice meal after, i will provide three months' worth of dog food for both chae-ri and chae-so! can you just…um, just pretend to be my girlfriend for that weekend?”
at the end of her entire speech, chaeryeong has not moved one bit. and ryujin knows that she is thinking. she could see chaeryeong’s gears shifting in her brain, the bits and bobs slowly getting oiled up by her brain juice.
chaeryeong looks at her with her signature expressionless look, “okay.”
“okay?” ryujin repeats, to see chaeryeong nod. to make sure she asks again, “okay?”
“yeah, okay.” chaeryeong smiles. “but i have one more request.”
ryujin looks at her expectantly, “it doesn’t just start from the weekend. it starts tomorrow morning.”
“start… the fake girlfriend thing? tomorrow morning?” ryujin clarifies.
chaeryeong just smiles and nods, “yes, fake girlfriend.”
“why, why tomorrow morning?” ryujin asks.
“don’t you think it would be unrealistic if we were to start from the weekend? you don’t want to get found out by your family right?”
ryujin still doesn’t understand why it has to start so soon, but she obliges. she can’t turn up to her family dinner empty-handed, could she?
so she comes up with a plan.
—--
chaeryeong wakes up to the smell of french toast. she walks out of her room to see ryujin in front of the stove, hand on her waist as she flips the toast, the light sizzling sound being the only sound other than the tune ryujin was humming.
she pads behind ryujin wanting to ask what she was doing, only to have ryujin turnaround and embrace her in her arms, “hi, my chaery,” she sings songs. chaeryeong almost cringes, totally caught off guard by ryujin. she knew ryujin was like this, but she never expected it this early in the morning, and ryujin has absolutely no reason to be doing this. or does she?
“hi ryujin,” chaeryeong says wearily, “had a good rest?”
“of course, did you?” ryujin looks at her sweetly, removing her hands from the pan to cup the taller’s face. chaeryeong tries not to look away. she rummages through her head, trying to find out why ryujin was like this. and then it clicked. chaeryeong mentally face palms.
well, she was the one that wanted this after all. she had to keep up the act. chaeryeong smiled back lovingly, going in to press a peck on the latter’s cheek, giggling as she said, “yep. thank you for making breakfast.”
if only she saw the way ryujin had swooned slightly.
“of course, anything for you, jagi.” if anyone were to walk into the kitchen right now, they would never know that they were doing this because chaeryeong had asked ryujin to. it felt too… normal. it feels like this was them every day. both chaeryeong and ryujin feel this way. ryujin still doesn’t understand why chaeryeong wanted this, since they already acted this way. ryujin tries to make up excuses, that maybe chaeryeong thought about how her parents knew how they were on camera and they needed to act a little more lovey-dovey. yeah, that must be it.
chaeryeong goes to sit at the table, ryujin whisking by with a plate of freshly cooked french toast, maple syrup drizzled across in a zig-zag motion. not to forget the dollop of whipped cream that the short-haired knew chaeryeong liked. it was essential.
“thanks, jagi.” chaeryeong grabs ryujin’s hand lightly as she was about to leave. she grabs her utensils and cuts a piece, “would you like a taste?”
ryujin looks at chaeryeong’s outstretched arm, the piece of toast that was drenched in maple syrup calling out to her. she opens her mouth, letting chaeryeong feed her. ryujin can’t help but smile, her dimples showing, but she isn’t sure whether it was due to the sweet taste of the french toast, or because of the sweetness that chaeryeong was showing her.
she doesn’t know how she is going to last another three days.
—--
interlacing her fingers together, ryujin enters the practice room with a huge stretch. she knew it was going to be a tiring day, especially since they had eight hours of practice lined up in front of them. their new album was just about to be released and they should not be slacking, especially since their last single didn’t do as well.
it was probably because the song was about boys. ryujin kind of knew her fans weren’t as keen on such a song.
her eyes land on her leader and her girlfriend sitting together on the couch, snuggling together as they were laughing at a tiktok that was playing on the older’s screen. yuna was nowhere to be found, probably late from her lunch date with yujin. her eyes then dart towards the last girl that was sitting on the floor.
chaeryeong was doing her usual stretches, preparing herself for the gruesome workout that they were going to endure. not wanting to third-wheel her two unnies, she naturally makes her way towards her fake girlfriend.
“hey,” ryujin catches the attention of the dark-haired girl, “didn’t know you would leave the dorm so early.”
chaeryeong smiles, “thought i’d come in to warm up first. you know how long i take to warm up.” ryujin nods and chuckles, “yeah, i know. think you should warm up more than usual, practice has been harsh on everyone lately.”
ryujin takes a seat on the floor and rests her palm on the knee guard that chaeryeong had on, she had to put up the act of girlfriend, “you should take care of yourself, babe. don’t want you getting hurt.”
what came out of chaeryeong’s mouth shocked her though, “i don’t have to worry, knowing you’d carry me back to the dorm.” a light blush rises to ryujin’s cheeks, mouth agape as she can’t come up with a cheesy comeback.
the taller leans into ryujin, whispering against her cheek, “you will, won’t you?”
ryujin struggles to breathe.
throughout practice, ryujin could not stop looking at chaeryeong. she tried her hardest to focus on practice, but she was sure that chaeryeong was trying to make her blush.
ryujin was sure. was she?
dinner was, thankfully, much more bearable. no flirting, no whispers into her ear, no kissing on the cheek. though chaeryeong was sitting right next to her, there wasn’t much happening, and she has got to be thankful because she doesn’t need a flirty fake girlfriend acting up on her.
maybe she thought of that too early.
“jagi, ahh,” chaeryeong prompts, smiling widely as she brings the twirled-up spaghetti towards ryujin’s mouth. with flushed cheeks, all she could do was smile and touch chaeryeong’s knee in appreciation. she was too embarrassed to do anything else.
she blushes even harder when chaeryeong wipes the sauce off her chin.
she has yet to learn whether chaeryeong is even doing this on purpose. she has no idea whether she would rather it be on purpose or not anymore. the weird looks that she is getting from her other band members seem to say otherwise. but all ryujin knew was that she was enjoying this a little too much. what makes ryujin think that she might not be doing this on purpose was the hand placed on her lap underneath the table.
it was time for ryujin to do something else. she has to be the better fake girlfriend.
—--
two days to the dinner and ryujin has another trick up her sleeve.
chaeryeong wakes up on thursday to a bouquet of roses on her bedside table, a pastel pink card right beside it with the words be ready by one in a cursive font. knowingly, this makes her heart flutter.
it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence for her to have her heart skip a beat in front of ryujin. everyone knew that she had liked ryujin for a long time, except ryujin herself. her love for ryujin was the elephant in the room, but ryujin had to be the mouse that scares her without knowing it.
of course, she was doing this for herself. she had to at least four days of being ryujin’s fake girlfriend. she has kept this under the rug for years, and the opportunity has come. chaeryeong had to be smart to take it, right?
it’s just for a few days. this won’t hurt either of them. chaeryeong was sure.
her date was in a few hours, just enough time to get ready and look suitable for her fake girlfriend.
chaeryeong loved everything, including the parts where ryujin had held her hand in a romantically platonic manner, and the additional flowers that she had gotten at the start of her date (that started at her room door). if chaeryeong had, to be honest, she would have done this for free. she didn’t need the gifts or the presents, or the free dog food. she knew that she would be satisfied with ryujin looking at her like she was her world.
even though the conversations that they have were about the same as usual, the vibe of the restaurant and the classy music that lingered changed the entirety of the dinner. it felt as if they have never met before and they were on their legitimate first date.
maybe it was the lighting, or maybe it was the way ryujin had dressed. or maybe it was the spark in ryujin’s eyes that maybe she does like her and all of this isn’t play pretend. but chaeryeong could only dream.
maybe it was the way ryujin had looked at her like she was the most important thing in the world, but the one thing that stood out for her the entire night was the way ryujin had kissed her.
—--
it was awkward. she felt awkward. ryujin felt like she had made it awkward. maybe she shouldn’t have kissed her. heck, maybe she shouldn’t have run away after she had done that.
ryujin throws her head into her pillow, hitting her bed as she groans out in frustration. she doesn’t even know why she did either thing.
she still remembers the soft knocking on her door, with chaeryeong’s mellow voice asking whether she was okay. but all the more, ryujin wouldn’t answer her. she was embarrassed, she didn’t want to face chaeryeong again after that. she felt bad that she had left her hanging, but she was lost in her cloud of thoughts.
what would chaeryeong think of her? would she think she was weird? maybe she’d think that she was taking it too far. she did say that she wanted to fake a date for a few days, but there wasn’t any boundary drawn. she felt like she had crossed into a grey area.
ryujin’s scared that she might have drawn her personal feelings into this. over the past few days, the things that chaeryeong has been doing, the subtle touches, the stares that were longer than usual, the giggles that catch her attention a lot more than usual. it felt different, different
did she kiss her because she likes her? or did she do it in the heat of the moment? she doesn’t know. she doesn’t know.
—--
ryujin was prepared to go back home alone this year.
from the way she and chaeryeong weren’t talking for the past day, she figured that she wouldn’t have a fake girlfriend to bring back home. all she would have to do was just tell her parents that they broke up and that she’ll find someone else next year.
it’s a great excuse. she was so ready to use it. just that when she was prepared to head out her door, chaeryeong comes saying, “i’m coming with you.”
now ryujin doesn’t know what to say, she did not plan this out, she did not plan to tell her family that she was quote-unquote dating lee chaeryeong, her bandmate. it wasn’t like her family was against chaeryeong either, all the more, they like her.
maybe ryujin should’ve planned this out. why was her head on the ground?
“i never told my family who i was bringing along as a date.” ryujin breaks the silence in the car “but thank you for coming along. i do appreciate it.”
ryujin swears that she hears chaeryeong smile, but she could never be too sure. after all, only chaeryeong would know.
“sorry about that night,” ryujin blurts out, mentally scolding herself for doing it so abruptly, “i don’t know what i was thinking. it was rude of me to do so.”
“which part?” she hears chaeryeong chime in, voice yet again expressionless.
the younger felt stumbled. if she had to be honest, she didn’t know. she didn’t know whether she felt sorry for kissing her or for running away, or even for both. ryujin knows that chaeryeong would rather have her be honest, “i don’t know”.
“i’ll give you till tonight to think about it.” chaeryeong sighs, clearly done with the conversation.
dinner was going splendidly, better than ryujin anticipated for it to go. chaeryeong seemed like she had put on her ‘fake girlfriend’ mask and ran alongside whatever her mom was saying. she was glad to see that chaeryeong had kept to her promise, but to see that she could so easily fake it all was a little (very) concerning.
chaeryeong answered every single question perfectly, just like she was her girlfriend. the subtle lap touches, the intertwining of their fingers, and the subtle looks of love. it was all planned out by chaeryeong, to get them both comfortable with whatever she was doing. ryujin was thankful.
everything after the dinner went smoothly as well, transitioning into a two-hour-long game of mario kart. ryujin already knew they were both competitive, so why was it that she felt like she had to give in to chaeryeong? (ryujin wouldn’t admit that she wanted to see a smile on chaeryeong’s face).
“we’re so glad that you joined us this year, chaeryeong-ah.” ryujin’s mom exclaimed, already falling in love with ryujin’s fake girlfriend, “please do join us next year again, we’d love to have you. or maybe even for chuseok! ryujin will fill you in with the details.”
“ah, of course,” chaeryeong says with a grin that ryujin recognizes to be slightly off, “if i’m able to! thanks for inviting me over for dinner tonight. it was great!”
ryujin and chaeryeong were already headed towards the door when her dad ran up to them, “hold on!”
the two turn to look at ryujin’s dad and what he was holding in his hand above them: a mistletoe.
“come on, don’t be shy, we know that you guys have probably already smooched more than we think that you guys have,” ryujin’s mom says excitedly “kiss already!”
safe to say, ryujin was scared. she doesn’t know what chaeryeong is feeling, she doesn’t know how to reject her family, and she doesn’t know whether she should call off the fake girlfriend thing, she doesn’t know.
but one thing she does know is that if she doesn’t take her shot now, she’s going to miss it forever. she knew that she couldn’t screw up now. before chaeryeong could say no, she pulls her in by the waist, grabs her jaw and brings her in for a tight kiss, their lips pressed together firmly. ryujin was sure she heard fireworks in the background as their lips touched.
with lids heavy, they say goodbye to ryujin’s parents, who were giddy with enthusiasm. ryujin grabs chaeryeong’s hand and makes their way towards their car. on auto-pilot, they both get into their seats before ryujin turns towards chaeryeong, who was in the passenger seat.
without any exchange of words, their lips touch again, this time with more passion and more fervour. it doesn’t seem like they had to say anything, especially with their lips dancing to the rhythm of adoration in the air. it was different, everything about this kiss was different.
maybe it was the way chaeryeong had her arms around ryujin’s neck, or maybe it was ryujin’s fingers that were digging into chaeryeong’s sides, or maybe even the way they lost track of time, drunk on each other’s presence.
ryujin takes her chance. pulling away, they rest their foreheads against each other. without hesitation, ryujin finds it in her to say, “i’m sorry about walking away because i realized that all i ever wanted was to be with you because i have fallen for you this christmas.”