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“Do you think they’ll let us take it?” Jiwoo jokes, pointing at the life-sized IU standee that’s watching over them eating.
Jungeun knows Jiwoo isn’t actually completely joking. IU seems to be collecting a bit of dust from leaning against the chiller, and there’s a crease on her left leg. Inside, the chiller is stocked with rows and rows of Jinro soju, and the top of the chiller has a banner with IU daintily holding a shot glass. Briefly, Jungeun wonders how much royalty the artist has raked in.
“You might have better luck smuggling this.” Jungeun points her spoon at the menu card on their table which, unsurprisingly, has IU advertising soju on the flip side.
Jungeun can see the gears turning in Jiwoo’s brain.
Jiwoo does end up asking the waitress about the standee, who naturally tells her with an apologetic smile that she isn’t allowed to take it.
“What did you expect?” Jungeun says afterwards as she holds the door open for Jiwoo, smiling when Jiwoo loops her arm in hers.
“It was worth a shot.” Jiwoo chirps.
Jungeun absentmindedly listens to the scrape of their sneakers on the gravel, glances at how the breeze dances through Jiwoo’s bangs. They wander with no set direction, content to simply explore this new neighbourhood.
“You know, I still think about those IU shot glasses.”
Jiwoo is tip-toeing on a curb as Jungeun loosely holds onto her hand, fallen leaves crunching beneath them.
“You always think about them.” Jungeun tightens her grip when she catches Jiwoo swaying a little over too much to one side, “I still can’t believe you didn’t buy it!”
“I can’t believe it either!” Jiwoo bemoans.
She still remembers the exact convenience store that she saw it in, a box of soju bottles with two shot glasses, each with IU’s sparkling smile on it. Heck, she’d even sent a picture of it to Jungeun that day, and then proceeded to leave the store IU-less. Horrible.
It’s been at least a year or two since then, and the elusive shot glasses have never emerged again.
Jiwoo hops off the curb still holding Jungeun’s hand. Jungeun continues teasing her till they come across a bingsu shop to spend the rest of the afternoon at.
Jungeun visits the studio Jiwoo works at whenever she’s free. Perks of freelancing. Sometimes she finds Jiwoo in the middle of teaching art classes, sometimes she finds her and her colleague from pottery class flinging leftover clay bits at each other for fun.
“Kim Jiwoo, stop terrorising Hyunjin.” Jungeun announces her presence at the door.
“She started it!” Jiwoo exclaims, right as Hyunjin aims another little nub at her apron.
“Hey Jungeun.” Hyunjin’s grin is big and wide, bright like the noonday sun outside.
Jungeun holds up paper bags with their lunches inside. Jiwoo and Hyunjin immediately scamper around picking up the stray clay projectiles. Jungeun unpacks their food for them on one of the low tables, flecked with dried clay pigment and scattered with tools.
Jungeun likes the studio. Its large windows always let in just the right amount of sunlight and the thick trees shield it from the bustle of the outside world. If she’s lucky, she gets to see what Jiwoo and Hyunjin are working on themselves.
“Jiwoo was talking about the IU shot glasses again.” Hyunjin says, swirling her coffee.
Jungeun counts down on her fingers, “That makes it,” Jiwoo buries her face in her hands, “Five days since she’s last mentioned it.”
“I wasn’t an IU fan then!” comes a muffled whine, “I’ll never see those glasses again!”
“This is one of those things that will tie your soul to this world and you’ll come back as a ghost.” Hyunjin deadpans, and the other two can’t help but laugh.
“A vengeful soju ghost.” Jungeun bites her straw, grinning.
“What the heck, they’re just shot glasses.” Jiwoo tries to reason with herself.
“But IU.” Jungeun says.
“But IU!” Jiwoo groans.
“Everything that IU touches becomes golden, huh?” Hyunjin pats Jiwoo’s back.
Jungeun finds a vacant corner of the studio after lunch to set up her laptop. Her fingertips run along the wooden desk, covered end to end in paint, despite the studio’s staff’s best efforts to lay down newspaper each lesson. Jiwoo always said it’s what gives the place its charm.
Jiwoo strolls in with Jungeun’s coffee, “You left this outside.”
Her usual work apron is just as splattered as the table, and Jungeun is perturbed as to how her fingers already have paint on them.
“We should start charging you rental, you know?” Jiwoo says.
“I’ve paid my dues in coffee.”
Jungeun’s playful smile is enough to power Jiwoo through the rest of her classes.
At the end of the day, when Jungeun is lying in bed, she has one last meeting to attend to. The notification slides into the corner of her screen just as Jiwoo comes out of the shower and flops down next to her.
[Jeju planning]
“I can’t believe you sent me a calendar invite.”
“Of course, this is serious business.” Jiwoo snuggles into Jungeun, who gently pushes back her damp hair for her.
They’d kept throwing around the idea of going on a little holiday together for the longest time ever, but things would always pop up. Finally, Jiwoo declared that they should lock in some dates once and for all, otherwise they’ll “never cross the ocean at this rate”. It’ll be their first trip with just each other.
“How long shall we go for, you think?” Jungeun purses her lips.
“One week? So we can take our time.”
Jiwoo watches a slow, but gradual smile creep its way up Jungeun’s lips. They can already hear the distant, steady crash of the ocean waves.
“Sounds perfect.”
When they both finally wrench their eyes away from the laptop, Jiwoo asks if Jungeun would like to sleep over, because it’s late. Technically, Jungeun can catch the last train home, and technically, they’ve already settled the important parts of their trip.
“Yes please.” Jungeun says.
They used to take afternoon naps like this after school, legs always brushing and someone’s head tucked into someone’s shoulder. Jiwoo is so used to it, so she falls asleep in no time, now with Jungeun’s arm slung over her waist.
The leaves change colour as the weeks trickle by, though it only serves to increase Jungeun’s nerves. She has run out of ideas for Jiwoo’s birthday present. It’s both a blessing and a curse they’ve been friends for so long. She keeps racking her brain but always comes up empty.
“I’m sure Jiwoo will love whatever you get her.” Hyunjin says.
“You think?” Jungeun sits curled up on a stool next to Hyunjin, watching her slender fingers dip into the spinning clay on her pottery wheel, gently tugging its shape wider.
“I know so.”
“What’re you getting her?”
“I’m splitting with Jinsol for a film camera.”
“Damn, why didn’t I think of that.” Jungeun presses her cheeks with her hand, “Do you know what Sooyoung’s getting her?”
“A Tanjiro figure, I think?”
“ Damn, why didn’t I think of that either?”
Hyunjin laughs, “Wanna share the camera with Jinsol and I?”
“I’ll keep you posted.” Jungeun mumbles, furrowing her brows in contemplation, “Thanks Hyun.”
Hyunjin gives her a thumbs up. Jungeun stares at the bowl slowly taking shape on the wheel, spinning, spinning, spinning.
She snaps her head up.
“What if I get her the IU shot glasses?”
Jungeun has at least five separate tabs open to search for the shot glasses. She even joined a few IU kakaotalk channels to try her luck. She’s walked into every convenience store that she comes across. She keeps refreshing her search result across second hand platforms.
Nothing so far.
The closest she’s gotten were listings that had the box of soju, but no glasses.
“Why are the prices so atrocious?” she mutters to herself, “Where are my shot glasses?”
Jungeun gets desperate and starts setting her location parameters to beyond Seoul.
It’s about a week into her search when she sees it. A picture of a soju box with two shot glasses inside, just like the picture Jiwoo had sent her years ago. She frantically scrolls down. Two sets available. Jungeun rushes to message the seller. She can practically hear the angelic chorus blasting in her brain.
Sooyoung picks up her phone on the third ring.
“Say… um… Sooyoung, would you happen to be going to Busan anytime soon?” Jungeun mumbles.
“...Come again?”
Jungeun rattles off her plan for Jiwoo’s birthday present, constantly refreshing her chat. It’s been about twenty minutes.
“I think I might be going back, mm, next next we-” Sooyoung nearly drops her phone hearing Jungeun yell across the line.
“It just got sold?!” Jungeun has leapt to her feet from her chair, “Both sets? The fuck!”
Sooyoung listens to Jungeun mumble incomprehensibly.
“Would you like me to check the stores when I go back?”
Jungeun makes a pitiful whine, “Mmyes… Thank you, I owe you.”
“Please, it’s a small thing.” Sooyoung grins.
In the meantime, Jungeun decides to try her luck at the airport. Both Incheon and Gimpo. She even tries asking her colleague who’s returning from a vacation to check the duty-free section. Sadly, nothing again.
“I want to punt myself into the sun.”
“Did you say something?” Jiwoo asks, poking her head out from behind her canvas.
“Nah, just work stuff.” Jungeun makes an excuse.
“You look like you want to punt yourself into the sun.”
Jungeun smirks. She feels like such an open book to Jiwoo sometimes.
Jungeun walks over to Jiwoo and rests her chin on top of her head, “How’s it going?”
Jiwoo wrinkles her face at her painting, “Well, it’s going.”
Jungeun pats Jiwoo’s head, “I like the colours.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
The canvas is slowly filling up with a turquoise ocean, little ships in pencil sketches floating on the horizon.
“Are you already dreaming of Jeju?” Jungeun chuckles.
“Seems so.” Jiwoo doesn’t miss the way Jungeun briefly tilts her head down to brush her lips against her hair, fleeting as it is.
“Will the rest manage fine without you for a week?”
“Yup, we got a new hire in recently, actually. Hyunjin said she was her junior in school.”
As if on cue, Hyunjin’s voice bellows from the back of the studio, where the kilns are.
“Ryujin, need some help!”
Before Jungeun can register anything, a blurry human form practically leaps down the ladder from the storage loft and thunders past them, followed by a muffled clatter of… something and Hyunjin’s bright laughter.
“She’s great.” Jiwoo says cheerily.
“And I think the studio will be in flames when you get back.”
Jungeun feels the dread trickling into her stomach with each passing day. It didn’t help that Sooyoung came back soju-less from Busan, though Jungeun did treat her to lunch for her efforts.
“Any luck so far?” Sooyoung asks.
Jungeun hangs her head in defeat. Sooyoung gives her a sympathetic pat.
“Jiwoo will like anything you get her.”
“That’s what Hyunjin said too…”
“Well,” Sooyoung nudges her dejected friend, “It’s true.”
Jungeun looks up to Sooyoung’s encouraging smile, but it does little to wipe the pout off her face. Sooyoung is silent for a moment, thinking.
“Hm, hey, have you tried searching Jeju?”
Jungeun’s eyes widen and she sits up straighter. They share a look as Jungeun gets her phone out. They hold their breaths as Jungeun is scrolling. Sooyoung cranes her neck forward when Jungeun’s breath hitches, motioning for her to lay her phone down on the table.
There it is, the product listing that Jungeun has been waiting for. A box of two soju bottles and two shot glasses with IU’s face on them. The price does make her blanch just a little bit. But for Jiwoo, she’ll travel across the sea, literally.
“Are you getting it?” Sooyoung doesn’t quite know why she’s whispering.
“Just messaged them.” Jungeun whispers back.
The minutes crawl by like hours. Jungeun hasn’t budged an inch.
Then, a little green circle pops up next to the seller’s profile picture, three bouncing dots appear as they’re typing.
[Hello! Yes, it’s still available!]
The angelic chorus is back in full force. Jungeun nearly crumples to the floor in relief as all the tension drains from her body. Sooyoung almost topples her chair as she stands up, mouth dropping open. She then realises they turned a few heads their way and sheepishly pulls her chair back in.
Now, Jungeun will have to figure out how to sneak away from Jiwoo when they’re in Jeju, but that’s the least of her worries.
Everyone is rounded up for a movie night as an early birthday celebration for Jiwoo.
“Because you’re whisking her away to Jeju on the actual day!” Jinsol fakes a frown, arm slung over Jiwoo’s shoulders.
“The accommodation was cheapest then!” Jungeun cries out in defence.
Jinsol breaks into a smile at Jungeun’s expression, feeding her a stick of eomuk as compensation.
The lights are dim as a movie plays through the dusty projector Sooyoung dug out from the depths of her storeroom. Half of them are strewn over each other on the bed, the other half still sitting on the floor picking away at dinner and cracking open new soju bottles.
Someone is joking about the IU shot glasses again, and Sooyoung flashes Jungeun a knowing look as she passes her a shot glass. Jungeun’s dimples pop up as she downs it, before lying back down and shuffling her head to the edge of the bed, nestling between Jinsol and Jiwoo’s heads. Jiwoo reaches up and strokes her hair.
When Jiwoo’s in the bathroom, Jungeun runs to fetch the cake from the fridge.
“You know,” Hyunjin speaks up, everyone leaning in closer, “Ryujin asked if Jungeun and Jiwoo are a thing.”
Jinsol lets out a laugh so big it’s almost a yell.
“Everyone but them thinks they’re a thing.” Sooyoung’s laughter echoes down the hallway as she runs off to help Jungeun.
At the end of the night, Jiwoo gets her face smeared with cake by at least three people, and Jungeun can’t stop grinning when she tells Jiwoo her present is still on the way.
It’s a cloudless day when they finally depart for Jeju, and the sky is golden by the time they check into their accommodation. Jungeun is the first on the bed, Jiwoo quickly following suit.
Jungeun rolls her body to face the window, where a shining sliver of sea can be seen. Jiwoo props herself up, watching Jungeun watch the distant waves. Jiwoo thinks she’d be content even if they spent the whole week just like this.
“Kinda lazy to move.” Jungeun mumbles into the blanket.
“Gotta have dinner.”
Jungeun groans. Jiwoo leans over her, hair falling on both sides of Jungeun’s face.
“I saw a convenience store on the way here, wanna just get dinner from there?”
Jungeun frowns slightly, “You sure? Don’t you want dinner out?”
Jiwoo can tell that Jungeun is tired from all the driving, even if she wouldn’t say it out loud.
“Sooyoung said the Jeju hard boiled eggs hit different.”
Jungeun frowns some more in disbelief, “Wh- How? ”
Jiwoo giggles and slides her arms under Jungeun to prop her up, “I dunno, let’s find out.”
They end up holding hands on the pretence that it’s cold, but they don’t let go even when they’re in the warmth of the store.
The hard boiled eggs in Jeju do, indeed, hit different.
Jungeun hasn’t woken up to the sight of Jiwoo in a long time, not since their days of after-school naps and extracurricular camps. The familiarity bubbles in her chest, like a little gurgling stream, as she looks at Jiwoo through her sleepy vision. Now, they’re not scrambling awake to jostle with their schoolmates in the bathrooms anymore, or waking up to groggily see each other off at the bus stop.
Jungeun finds herself grinning. There’s no rush. She tucks herself closer to Jiwoo and lets herself fall back asleep.
Time passes leisurely. The itinerary is sparse, with lots of space in between to relax or change plans.
Jungeun brings a book to read when they’re at a cafe with large floor to ceiling windows stretching end to end, though she finds herself more interested in watching Jiwoo paint. Jiwoo has her portable case of watercolours, diligently gazing at the rolling waves that can be heard even through the glass.
Jiwoo only looks up when Jungeun places a slice of cake in front of her.
“You probably wanna hang around here a little longer, right?” Jungeun sits back down, eyeing Jiwoo’s half complete painting.
Jiwoo doesn’t quite know why, but the gesture makes something in the depths of her chest flutter.
“C’mere.” She slices a portion of the cake and holds her fork up to Jungeun.
The cypress trees seem to stretch on forever, gently rustling in the breeze. It’s almost empty at this time of the day. Had it not been for the other cars in the carpark, Jungeun would’ve felt like they have the whole forest to themselves. Jiwoo comes up to her after purchasing their entry tickets and slips her hand into hers as naturally as one breathes. It’s become such a habit now, that Jungeun never thinks about it.
Except this time, she sort of does. She finds herself strangely aware of the weight of Jiwoo’s hand in hers, the lines of her palm, the way her thumb runs over her knuckles. Jungeun is content to let Jiwoo lead the way, while the sun steadily climbs higher and starts to warm their skin.
What a sight, when the trail opens up into a field of tall grass that looks like it came straight out of a painting. What a sight, Jungeun thinks, when Jiwoo is smiling that wide smile of hers, already venturing into the shimmering grass, hand still intertwined with Jungeun’s.
The wind picks up suddenly. Jungeun quickly slaps her hand onto the top of Jiwoo’s cap to keep it from flying away, causing Jiwoo to yelp in surprise. They stare at each other, both rather startled, while the wind continues to whip at their hair.
And then, they’re dissolving into laughter.
Jungeun finds her opportunity to slip away from Jiwoo when they’re at a manga cafe. She will finally be nudged to catch up on Demon Slayer, and Jiwoo will finally start watching Mob Psycho.
Jiwoo’s fiddling with the projector controls in their shared cubicle when she hears Jungeun’s voice. She pokes her head out from the curtain and helps Jungeun transfer their drinks to their little table. Jungeun climbs up the ladder and slots herself beside Jiwoo.
The cubicle is a cosy fit, complete with puffy pillows. Their shoulders constantly brush, though it’s not an unwelcome feeling. Jungeun keeps checking the time between chapters, anxious to meet up with the seller.
“Gonna go to the bathroom.” Jungeun mumbles to Jiwoo, who looks utterly engrossed in her anime.
The moment she’s down the ladder she starts jogging. She wonders if she should’ve given herself more time to reach the meeting point, but she didn’t want to be gone too long that Jiwoo would get suspicious.
Jungeun is a little out of breath by the time she arrives at another cafe. She spots the seller outside, holding onto a canvas bag that, to Jungeun, contains pure gold.
“Hey- huh?” Jiwoo tilts her head quizzically at the bag Jungeun is holding when she returns.
“So, um, happy birthday.” Jungeun grins at her (still out of breath because she sprinted back).
A puzzled Jiwoo gingerly peeks into the bag as Jungeun settles down next to her. Jiwoo catches a glimpse of the box and slaps a hand over her mouth. She looks at Jungeun with wide eyes. Jungeun gives her a look that says, it’s exactly what you think it is.
“Shut up.” Jiwoo breathes. She carefully pulls the box out of the bag, being greeted with IU’s glowing smile, “ Shut up. ” She flips the box.
Two shot glasses, each with IU’s face on it.
“Kim Jungeun, shut the fuck up.” Jiwoo gawks at the box, while Jungeun tries her hardest not to laugh too loud.
“How did you-?”
“Karrot.”
“Then- wait, the seller was on Jeju ?!”
Jungeun nods.
Jiwoo’s mouth still hasn’t closed, and Jungeun thinks she looks hilarious. And adorable.
“Oh my god, I could kiss you.”
Jungeun’s smile falls. Hold on.
“Okay then.”
Wait, no, hold on. Why did she say that? Jungeun thinks Jiwoo must be joking. They’ve joked around like this before, yeah, Jungeun’s just joking too, right? But somehow, Jiwoo hasn’t laughed it off yet.
“... Really?” Jiwoo breathes.
She’s blushing. Jungeun can see it. Oh god, she’s so red. Shit, her own heart is thumping against her chest. Really hard. Shit, shit.
“Really?” Jungeun asks back instead, searching Jiwoo’s face for any sign that she’s pulling her leg. No, she knows Jiwoo well. She really isn’t joking.
Jiwoo nods a little more stiffly than intended. In all her years of being friends with Jungeun, this is the first thing that doesn’t come smoothly to her. This is the first time she’s deathly nervous of what Jungeun might say. She can feel her own heartbeat right up to her ears, loud and clear.
Before Jiwoo can disintegrate into a bundle of nerves, Jungeun kisses her.
It lingers.
Jungeun can taste Jiwoo’s lip gloss on her lips.
Soft, Jiwoo thinks. Jungeun is soft, soft.
When Jungeun starts to pull away, Jiwoo doesn’t allow herself time to think or get worried and immediately kisses back.
And so it lingers some more.
It’s the same feeling Jiwoo feels whenever Jungeun shows up at the studio, the same feeling Jungeun feels when Jiwoo smiles at her. Something warm, something happy.
There’s a moment of stunned silence when they break the kiss, neither quite believing what they just did. Jungeun realises Jiwoo has been clutching onto the IU soju glasses the entire time, and that laugh finally escapes her.
It’s so infectious, that Jiwoo can’t stop her own laughter, lightly smacking Jungeun over and over again because she’s so damn flustered.
When Hyunjin is organising the shelf of equipment by the window, she spots two familiar figures strolling up the tree-lined path to the studio. She can see Jiwoo cheerfully swinging a big bag of tangerines back and forth. Briefly, Jiwoo stops walking. Jungeun stops too and tilts her head in question. Then, Jiwoo leans in and kisses her.
Hyunjin drops everything and runs all the way to the pottery classroom, where Ryujin is glazing a pot. She can barely hold back the giggle in her voice.
“Remember when you asked me if Jungeun and Jiwoo are a thing?”