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The next time they hung out was as awkward as Jungyoon expected it to be. Doyoung hung around like a ghost in Jungyoon’s door frame for a good thirty seconds before Jungyoon even noticed she was there. When she did, she startled so badly that she knocked half the contents of her desk off onto the floor. An empty glass bounced on some wayward linens and rolled under the bed, thankfully unbroken.
Doyoung clicked her tongue. “Messy as ever, I see.”
From elsewhere, Jungyoon’s mother’s voice rose high, in concern. “Is everything all right in there, girls…?”
“Just fine, Mom!” Jungyoon called back. “Just… being clumsy, as always! Hahaha haha…”
Then Jungyoon turned her attentions to the intruder. She curled her upper lip as if it were Doyoung, Her Most Sadistic Tormenter and not Doyoung, The Object Of Her Tenderest Affections standing judgmentally at the threshold. Then her heart started pounding, and her conscious thoughts caught up to her.
Why was Doyoung here? Well, they were friends now, and visiting friends after school was normal… which might be a good argument if Doyoung was anything approaching normal. Except there was that one time, when Jungyoon had been sick, but that seemed like an extenuating circumstance. Unless…?
“Did I forget something at school?” Jungyoon asked, but Doyoung curled her lip in the same offended way that Jungyoon just had. She shook her head.
What a funny pair they made.
“Punishment,” Doyoung said, taking that suspicious moment to close the door behind her.
Jungyoon’s heart pounded even harder. She gulped. “For having a messy room?”
Doyoung stared at her like she was the greatest idiot to have ever lived, which, to be fair, wasn’t very different from how Doyoung usually looked at her. “No. Although – you’ve been healthy for weeks. What’s your excuse?”
“Just tell me what you’re punishing me for, then, geez!”
“Picking a lame movie and then forcing me to sit through the whole thing while you were passed out. This time we’re watching something I want to watch.”
Doyoung shook a plastic convenience store bag and Jungyoon heard the sound of two pudding cups rattling. So… Doyoung hadn’t been totally freaked out a few weeks before. Jungyoon had been privately panicking over nothing. The fact that Doyoung wanted to come over and spend time with her again made her so happy she thought she was going to be sick.
“You look nauseous,” Doyoung pointed out.
Jerk.
~ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ~
Doyoung’s choice of film was horrifying, and it took an exhausting amount of pushing and prodding to get Jungyoon to accept her fate. Nevermind about the pudding cups – after a few scenes, Jungyoon wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to eat again. It seemed this really was a punishment, and that Doyoung was still her Most Sadistic Tormenter, after all.
Jungyoon quickly learned that there were advantages to watching a scary movie with the girl you secretly liked, however. Namely: she could hide her face in Doyoung’s shoulder and have a perfect excuse.
The first time wasn’t even on purpose.
“What was that?!” Jungyoon cried. “What was that thing? Oh, no – oh no, no, no, no, don’t go in there, lady! Are you crazy?!”
“Shut up. Seriously.”
“Wait no please don’tyou’regonnagetAGH–”
For a second Jungyoon couldn’t tell if the scream that came after was the lady in the movie’s or her own. When she lifted her head from the crook in Doyoung’s neck, the expression on Doyoung’s face told her everything she needed to know.
Jungyoon felt sheepish. But it seemed like it was the screaming that annoyed Doyoung, not the touching. She wondered when it had happened that Doyoung was suddenly okay with Jungyoon’s touch.
Was it possible…? Jungyoon felt like she was going to drive herself crazy. She didn’t even know if Doyoung liked girls.
The second time was… a little more on purpose. Jungyoon felt in her bones that there was a jumpscare coming, so she hid her face right before it happened. Doyoung clicked her tongue, but didn’t make Jungyoon move.
Then the third time:
“This part’s going to get pretty gory,” Doyoung said.
“Wait, you mean you’ve seen this before?”
“You’re going to want to look away.”
Jungyoon’s breathing was shallow and she wasn’t sure if she was reading the implication right. But she wouldn’t be Jungyoon if she didn’t jump recklessly into every decision. Face burning, she… well. There wasn’t really a word for what she did next except cuddle.
Doyoung clicked her tongue again. But she didn’t freak out and she didn’t move her.
Jungyoon didn’t bother lifting her head again. The movie was uninteresting to her, and it didn’t seem so scary when there were no visuals to match the sounds. Usually she couldn’t keep her mind from racing, but there was something oddly relaxing about lying here, on her bed, half-tilted toward Doyoung, cheek squished against Doyoung’s bony shoulder. She focused on the up-and-down of Doyoung’s breathing and marveled at how calm it was.
Doyoung was a marvel, in a lot of ways.
~ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ♡ ♥ ~
Jungyoon didn’t remember falling asleep. When she’d started paying attention to Doyoung’s calm breathing, it calmed her down, too. And then she must have felt so calm that, well…
“I can’t believe you fell asleep again,” Doyoung said.
Jungyoon blinked around and noticed that the laptop was off, pushed toward the edge of the bed, and that Doyoung was still lying down at her left, playing some kind of game on her phone. She hadn’t moved Jungyoon away.
“And you say I have lame taste in movies…” Jungyoon bat back, but she really didn’t mean it as an insult – that was just how they talked to each other, and she just didn’t know what else to say.
Jungyoon turned to her right, to look out the window, and then realized how late it had gotten when she saw the spread of stars above, glittering between the branches of the trees that lined her street. The silence stretched on awkwardly, but even so, Doyoung didn’t get up to leave.
Jungyoon thought of having it like this every night: the stars shining above them, and Doyoung resting peacefully at her side.
The thought embarrassed her so much that she hid her face in her pillow, and Doyoung - even though she had no idea what Jungyoon was thinking about - couldn’t help but quietly laugh.