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Soojin and Shuhua are sitting side by side in the older woman’s bed, with Shuhua leaning against her. Her head is on Soojin’s shoulder, her eyes peering down at the laptop in her friend’s lap. The two are watching a movie, one that Soojin had chosen. A few minutes after the movie had started, Shuhua not so subtly at all moved to grasp Soojin’s hand with hers. Soojin had chosen not to point it out, and instead pretended she didn’t notice.
In all honesty, Shuhua wasn’t paying attention to the movie in the slightest. Her attention was fully focused on the warm body of her friend, and also the warmth of her hand. She never really pays attention to any movies she watches with Soojin, more so enjoying the excuse to cuddle up close to her. In her defence, it is a difficult task to focus on watching something when there is a pretty woman so close to you.
Another couple of minutes pass, and Shuhua feels Soojin’s hand curl around her own. She practically instantly gives the Korean a surprised look, mostly out of reflex than free will.
“My hands were cold,” is what Soojin says as an excuse. It’s a lie, they both are well aware of it.
However, in spite of it being a lie, Shuhua decides to let it go. She lets it go because she didn’t want Soojin to let go of her hand if she had accused her of lying, and because if Soojin decided to tease her about being the one to hold her hand in the first place she isn’t entirely sure if she’d be able to defend herself without getting overly flustered.
They’ve held hands before, countless times, even. Yet it feels different somehow. It’s not different in a bad way, Shuhua is almost positive there is no way she could hold hands with Soojin and have a single thing to complain about. It’s different in the way that Shuhua’s heart genuinely feels like it’s having multiple small explosions. Her heart races so much from Soojin’s presence, she probably doesn’t even need to work out.
“You look hot.” Soojin says, out of the blue. Had she been staring at her? What did she mean by hot? Shuhua tries not to make assumptions, but the thought of Soojin finding her, of all people, attractive keeps surfacing in her mind.
“H-Huh?” She chokes out. That was absolutely not the word she wanted to say in response. In a perfect world, she would’ve said thanks, or literally anything other than a pathetic sounding ‘huh’.
Shuhua takes it as a small victory that her own flustered state managed to make Soojin flustered, “No- flushed. You look flushed, feverish,” she hurries to explain.
The younger one stays quiet, and they both go back to watching the movie. Shuhua only stays focused for a few seconds before looking down at her and Soojin’s intertwined hands with a smile, just barely resisting the overwhelmingly strong urge to fidget with Soojin’s fingers. Soojin probably wouldn’t mind, but Shuhua feels like she has been acting way too weird.
Nothing happens out of the ordinary until about halfway through the movie, Soojin leans her head against Shuhua’s. This was probably a result of her getting too tired to keep her head up right herself, but Shuhua doesn’t mind it.
The only thing she does mind, however, is that for some reason she acts on complete impulse. There is not a single thought behind her actions as she brings Soojin’s hand up to her lips and gives it a small kiss. This isn’t out of the ordinary, but everything she does feels different due to the changed atmosphere of her and Soojin’s friendship.
“Why?” Soojin asks, with a tilt of her head that makes Shuhua’s heart melt.
“I like the feeling of your skin on my lips.” Shuhua internally fights herself, because genuinely who says that?
“.. Would you like the feeling of my lips on your skin?” What the hell.
“I- I don’t know.” Shuhua is lying, because she knows for certain she would love the feeling of Soojin’s lips anywhere on her.
Soojin starts to lean in, probably just to kiss Shuhua on the cheek, but of course Shuhua’s brain turns to mush. She immediately squeals in surprise and hides her face from Soojin.
She doesn’t know how Soojin’s face looks right now, and for once in her life she doesn’t want to know. “You always try to kiss me but when I try to kiss you, you turn away,” Soojin points out. Shuhua thinks it’s just an observation. It’s hard to tell. She also can’t tell when Soojin paused the movie, because it hasn’t been playing for some amount of time.
“Kiss me then! I won’t turn away!” Shuhua suddenly chooses to face her friend again, perking up at the opportunity to kiss her.
“No, you will.” The Korean insists, rolling her eyes.
“I won’t! I promise!” She says.
Soojin does end up kissing her after that, with no warning. Shuhua squeaks from surprise against Soojin’s soft lips. It’s barely even a kiss, the elder probably being far too shy to actually kiss her. It’s more so just a press of their lips, but Shuhua still enjoys it. The moment is over far too quickly for Shuhua’s taste.
There’s an awkward silence hanging in the air, before it’s cut with a bit of laughter from Soojin. It’s obviously forced, but Shuhua thoroughly appreciates the easy escape from awkward silence and instead being able to take the kiss as a joke. That’s all it would be, and all Soojin would let it be.
Shuhua still doesn’t disconnect their hands. It’d be awkward to do so now. Instead, she just keeps a gentle, considerably less firm grasp on Soojin’s hand. Once Soojin unpauses the movie, she does actually focus on it, not wanting to make an awkward situation even more awkward.
——
For once in her life, Shuhua was doing dishes. Without anyone asking her, even. If you had told her that 5 years ago she’d end up doing dishes for six people including herself, she wouldn’t have believed you. In retrospect, this is probably going to be the only time in her life she actually does dishes.
The only reason she had agreed to do them was because Soojin was stressed out. The Korean would never actually admit that she’s stressed, but Shuhua could tell. The other members probably could as well. So really, Shuhua technically didn’t have to be the one doing dishes because someone else would probably end up doing them so Soojin doesn’t feel so overwhelmed. However, she wants Soojin to know that she did the dishes. Why? So Soojin thanks her. It’s kind of pathetic, really.
Despite the pathetic motives behind her actions, she has leaned over the kitchen sink, hand cleaning every single dish left in the sink. This is probably the most effort she has ever put into cleaning something, and it’s genuinely all because of a small (more like huge) crush.
“What the hell?” Is what Yuqi says when she walks into the kitchen, observing the incredibly rare, never seen before sight of Shuhua cleaning out of free will by pure accident. Yuqi probably came in to do the dishes herself, to avoid another just as rare sight, but this time it would be a genuinely pissed off Soojin.
Shuhua turns to look at her, “I’m doing the dishes.” She states, as if trying to tell Yuqi she indeed isn’t hallucinating.
“Are you feeling sick? Do I need to get Soojin-unnie to-“
The youngest cuts her off with a shriek that really was not necessary. “No! I’m not sick! I just wanted to do the dishes!”
“You never want to do the dishes.” Yuqi claims. Both of them are naturally loud people, so it’s not hard to hear each other over the sound of running water.
“I want to do them now.” Shuhua says, scrubbing a plate.
“Why?” Yuqi asks, evidently a bit worried and creeped out.
Shuhua shrugs, “I don’t know, just because.”
The Chinese decided to leave the kitchen, probably scared that Shuhua was possessed. “Right,” she mutters before she is fully out of the kitchen.
Shuhua sighs out of relief. She probably shouldn’t be so secretive about her motives, because it’s a well known fact that Shuhua loves Soojin. Well, maybe to everyone except Soojin, but it’s still one of those things that goes without saying. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and Shuhua loves Soojin. It probably wouldn’t even surprise anyone if Shuhua said that she was doing the dishes just for a thank you from Soojin.
If she has learned one thing from this experience, it is that doing the dishes is a very boring activity. She’s definitely never doing this again due to how repetitive it is. Unless she gets a thank you from her favourite person, which she proudly admitted in front of her members. Or even better, a hug. Then she might consider doing the dishes again.
She finally finishes, with there being no more remaining plates, bowls, cups, or utensils in the sink. Whilst turning the water off, she mentally gives herself a pat on the back. Shuhua leans back up, away from the sink. There’s a small soreness in her back, but it’s easily ignorable. However, she would definitely end up complaining about it later.
Once she turns and starts to leave the kitchen, someone else walks in. Only it’s not Yuqi this time, it’s Soojin. Shuhua awkwardly gives her a small wave, but Soojin looks confused.
“Did you do the dishes?” The Korean asks, half concerned, half genuinely confused.
Shuhua nods, “Mhm!”
Soojin is about to accuse Shuhua of lying, but before seeing the damp fabric on her shirt. It doesn’t fully eliminate the possibility of lying, but she highly doubts Shuhua would put that much effort into deceiving Soojin.
“Thank you?” It comes out as something more similar to a question. Either way, Shuhua seems happy with that response.
“You’re welcome, Soojin-unnie!” The younger replies, overly enthusiastically.
The taller woman chuckles, jokingly responding with, “How can I ever repay you?”
“You can repay me with a kiss!” Shuhua absolutely did not mean to say that. She is mentally thinking of what to put onto her will, because there is no way she could possibly recover from that one.
But she doesn’t need to draft up her will. Not yet, at least. Soojin moves forward, and the soft lips that always took up a shamefully large portion of her brain met hers again. It’s not as quick this time, it may have lasted for another second or two, Shuhua isn’t sure, she isn’t counting. It lasts for long enough for Soojin’s hand to reach up and cup her face. When that happens, Shuhua is pretty sure her legs are trembling.
It does not last long enough for someone else to walk in on them kissing, much to Shuhua’s relief. However, when they do pull away, they both force a small chuckle. It was just a joke, right?
Soojin gives Shuhua a pat on the head, “Thanks again for doing the dishes,” and practically speeds out of the kitchen. Shuhua doesn’t question it, mostly because she was so distracted by how red Soojin’s face was. She’s almost sure her own face was just as red, if not even more.
Maybe Shuhua would do the dishes again if that’s her reward.
——
The third time it happens, the two are cuddled up together in Soojin’s bed. They never did end up talking about any of their shared kisses. There was no reason to, since they both laughed afterward. They were jokes.
Shuhua doesn’t mind if they never talk about them. Especially not when she’s pressed against Soojin, one of the older’s arms wrapped around her waist and one of her hands being grasped by Shuhua.
Shuhua is playing with Soojin’s fingers. Despite the two sharing a pillow right now, which would mean that it’s rather hard to look away from each other, Shuhua is not looking at Soojin’s face. Instead, her eyes remain fixed on Soojin’s hand. Soojin is staring at her, she can feel it. She doesn’t mind it, either.
She didn’t come to cuddle with Soojin for any valid reason, other than ‘just because’. The more important thing is that Soojin agreed. Without Shuhua needing to give her a hundred reasons as to why she wanted to cuddle. Had Soojin wanted to cuddle with her too? Shuhua refuses to let herself think of that option, because she would immediately start giggling.
It’s quiet, but not awkward. The only noises in the room are the sound of Soojin’s breathing, along with Shuhua’s, and the much louder but not that loud fan the Korean has in her room.
“Unnie,” Shuhua looks up from Soojin’s hand, momentarily forgetting that Soojin was looking down at her. They nearly kiss, but Shuhua immediately flinches and looks back down. She has completely forgotten what she was about to say.
Soojin seems to have forgotten that Shuhua even spoke, because she looks a bit surprised before deciding to cut the tension with a joke. A joke that definitely wouldn’t be funny.
“It’s okay, I wouldn’t have minded if you k-“
Soojin can’t even finish what she was going to say due to Shuhua’s lips meeting hers. Shuhua certainly did not need to be told twice that the Korean wouldn’t have minded if they did kiss.
It’s a much longer kiss. Soojin is kissing her back. They are kissing each other. Repeatedly. Shuhua shifts so it’s easier to kiss Soojin. She knows that if she had the choice, she would choose to not let this moment end.
Much to her disappointment, Soojin pushes her away once she hears footsteps near the door. It’s understandable, since it’d be kind of hard to explain why you were kissing your best friend. Despite the younger being well aware of Soojin’s rational reasons for stopping, it still kind of stings.
The door doesn’t actually open, neither do they resume kissing. Soojin just stares at her, expression entirely unreadable. Soojin isn’t the one who laughs first this time to cut the tension, instead it’s Shuhua. Soojin doesn’t end up laughing at all, and just says a very dry sounding, “Hah..” It was probably the best she could do. Shuhua doesn’t blame her, she probably wouldn’t be able to laugh it off easily either, if she was behaving normally.
“I’m going to go, uh, get something to eat.” Shuhua whispers, unable to make her voice any louder.
Soojin hums, removing the singular arm she had over Shuhua. The latter has never been more relieved to leave Soojin’s room.
Shuhua doesn’t actually get something to eat. She instead sprints to her own room, lays down on her bed and screams into her pillow. Unfortunately for her, she can still feel the ghost of Soojin’s lips against hers.
She isn’t sure she likes this inside joke anymore. Would she still happily participate? Yes, absolutely.
——
It’s been about a week of Shuhua avoiding getting too close to Soojin. She isn’t making the conscious decision to do so, she just internally panics every time she sees Soojin and genuinely doesn’t think her heart could handle kissing her again, even as a joke. So to be safe, if Soojin tries to get closer to her, Shuhua moves away. It’s probably even more strange than Shuhua willingly washing the dishes, as Shuhua is practically attached to Soojin 24/7.
So, Shuhua really can’t be surprised when Soojin asks about it when the two are playing with Haku and Mata. Yet she still manages to be surprised. She really should get better at predicting things.
“Are you okay? You’ve been avoiding coming too close to me for a bit.” She asks, and Shuhua turns to look at her as if the older had asked the weirdest question ever.
“I’m not avoiding you,” she begins, but Soojin cuts her off.
“No, you are. You’re about a metre away from me when normally you’d almost be touching me.” She states, before choosing to continue, “I’m not going to force you to tell me why you’re avoiding me, but I will force you to tell me whether or not you’re fine.” Soojin lets Haku have the rope toy the two had been playing tug of war with so she could focus on talking to Shuhua.
Shuhua chews on the inside of her mouth for a few seconds, “I’m not trying to avoid you, but I promise you I’m fine. I’m just being weird.”
Soojin sighs, seeming to accept that answer. Maybe not believing it, but she accepts it. Shuhua is glad that Soojin doesn’t push the matter any further, but feels a bit guilty for making her worry.
Even though Shuhua knows she’s going to screw this up somehow, she moves over so she’s brushing up against Soojin. Mata had lost interest in the toy, so now Shuhua had no excuse to avoid Soojin. She didn’t actually want to avoid her in the first place.
Soojin stares at her like she has gone crazy. “What are you doing?” This is quite possibly the only time Shuhua is aware of how weird she is being.
“Nothing,” is what she says in response, propping her head up on Soojin’s shoulder.
In an attempt to make their friendship normal again, Soojin catches Shuhua off guard and pinches her cheek. It didn’t actually hurt, but Shuhua wasn’t expecting it and instinctively screeched.
Of course it made Soojin feel bad. Shuhua has gotten really bad at not upsetting Soojin in some way. “Are you okay?” She asks, and when Shuhua is about to say yes, Soojin starts talking again, “Do you need an ice pack?”
Shuhua was doing so well at not saying stupid things. Maybe not well for a normal person, but well for her. Of course she had to ruin it by saying, “No, I just need a kiss!” She replies in a dramatic way.
Soojin pecks her on the lips, before Shuhua immediately pushes her away and squeals out of genuine panic and worry for the health of her heart. When she senses Soojin’s unexpressed state of concern, she hurriedly says, “I meant on the cheek!”
Soojin herself panics this time, “You were moving around too much!” They both knew full well that Shuhua was almost completely still.
They both laugh, maybe because of the absurdity of Soojin’s lie, maybe so they could excuse this one as a joke as well.
——
The next time is a genuine accident. Not a mistake, Shuhua would never let herself think of it as a mistake. She’d like to hope that Soojin shared the same sentiment, but she’s not weird enough to ask that question.
Shuhua was whispering to Soojin while she and the other members were watching a movie. It was mostly jokes about the plot of the movie, and when her jokes were actually funny Soojin told Shuhua to be quiet. It would’ve sounded offensive to Shuhua if it were anyone else, but since the words came out of Soojin’s mouth she didn’t mind it.
Sometimes Shuhua does accidentally get too loud, which prompts Yuqi to yell at her to be quiet. However, since Yuqi yelled at her, Shuhua starts yelling at Yuqi. The argument makes Minnie get involved, and yell “Shut up!”
Soojin wordlessly thanked Minnie for getting both of them to be quiet, and everyone goes back to watching the movie. Except for Miyeon, she fell asleep a while ago.
A few minutes later, Shuhua and Soojin both turned to whisper to each other at the same time, resulting in them kissing. They both giggle quietly about it, before quickly getting quiet again once they sense Yuqi’s overflowing annoyance that was mostly playful and not genuine.
——
The sixth time it happens is late at night. Soojin was probably half asleep, sleep getting disturbed by Shuhua entering her room.
“What-” Soojin sounds slightly annoyed as she sits up, before Shuhua lays down on the bed next to her, and she can hear the soft sobbing.
Shuhua felt terrible about disturbing Soojin’s sleep. She had suspected the Korean to be wide awake, which is why she came to her in the first place. “Wait— I’m sorry, I’ll go,”
“No, no. Stay here. I don’t mind.” Soojin likely wouldn’t be able to sleep if she just let Shuhua cry herself to sleep alone.
She doesn’t leave, instead hugs her friend and cries into her shoulder. “I’m sorry for bothering you all the time.”
The Korean shakes her friend, before realising Shuhua can’t see her, “You don’t bother me, I promise.” Had she been too cold too Shuhua by accident?
“I want to go home,” the younger one says quietly. “I regret coming here.”
Soojin stays completely quiet. It’s all she really can do. She’s not from another country, so she doesn’t want to say anything that might make Shuhua feel worse. The other doesn’t seem to mind Shuhua’s lack of response.
In between sobs, Shuhua continues, “You’re the best thing about Korea. The others are the second best.”
All Soojin does is wrap her arms around Shuhua, doing her best to comfort Shuhua physically. She’s not good with words, she doesn’t trust herself to not say anything wrong.
Shuhua starts rambling in Mandarin, before stopping. “I miss my family. I miss Taiwan.” Her sobs aren’t as frequent, but Soojin can feel Shuhua’s tears making the fabric of her nightshirt damp.
“What do you like about Taiwan?” She asks, hoping to make Shuhua think about what she likes about her home rather than what she hates about where she is.
Shuhua hiccups a bit before answering, “I don’t feel alone in Taiwan.”
Soojin isn’t sure if she succeeded, so she decides to stop speaking. However, Shuhua seems to have stopped crying. She decides to take it as a small victory.
“Can I sleep here?” Shuhua asks in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. She probably didn’t even need to ask, as Soojin probably wouldn’t let her leave.
“Of course.” She says, and Shuhua wastes no time getting under the covers.
Shuhua speaks up again, “Soojin?” Her voice shakes a bit, Soojin thinks it’s from the fact that she was crying a few moments ago, but she can’t be sure.
“Huh?” Soojin looks at her, and Shuhua’s previous tiny burst of confidence seems to fly out the window.
Shuhua is slowly leaning in for a kiss. Soojin knows she’s going slow to give her a chance to reject it, but she has no desire to. Instead, Soojin is the one who connects their lips. They disconnect a few moments after, but neither of them laugh. It’s most definitely not a joke this time.
“Good night, Shuhua.” She mutters.
Shuhua mumbles something inaudible, but they both fall asleep not too long after.
——
Bonus
Shuhua is holding tightly onto Soojin’s hand, obviously not planning on letting go anytime soon. Soojin doesn’t want her to let go either, as it is rather cold outside on their walk and Shuhua’s hands are warm. It’s pleasant. She probably wouldn’t be as cold if she hadn’t given Shuhua her coat as soon as the younger started to complain about the cold.
Their relationship changed after that night. Shuhua hasn’t asked Soojin what they are, but she’s confused. They’re friends who kiss way too often for it to be friendly.
“Shuhua, you look like you swallowed a bug.” Soojin says. Shuhua had very clearly forgotten that Soojin could see her face.
“Oh.” Is all Shuhua replies with.
Soojin seems worried, “Are you okay?”
Shuhua was about to lie, but then takes this as an opportunity to ask Soojin the question that has not left her mind for way too long.
“What are we?”
“We’re humans.” Soojin replies dryly.
“That’s not what I meant— like are we friends?” She asks. If Soojin said they were friends, she’d probably start crying right then and there,
“Am I really just a friend to you?” Soojin asks with a teasing smile.
“No! I mean- am I a friend to you?”
The Korean giggles, and Shuhua feels her heart flutter at the noise. “I don’t kiss my friends. We’re girlfriends, Shushu. Don’t overthink it.”
Shuhua has to bite her tongue to stop herself from screaming out of excitement. Instead, she has a huge smile on her face for the rest of the walk. She probably would scream about it as soon as they got back to the dorms, but that would be an issue for future Soojin and Shuhua to deal with.