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Chapter Text

Sticky, sweaty, and dizzy. These three feelings weren't on Im Nayeon's agenda for her third Friday night in college. If you had looked at her meticulous and beautifully kept planner that she took with her everywhere, you would see penned in baby blue ink, 'sleep'. Instead of 'sleep', she was in the basement of some frat house, wedged between at least sixty or so college kids, and drunk off her ass.

Now, Nayeon wasn't a prude shall we say... but she wasn't exactly the party animal that you'd think of when you watched a stereotypical movie about college. Nayeon was more of a social bookworm. She had been a straight A student all the way from kindergarten through high school and had only been to a few parties that her best friend threw while her parents were away. Speaking of, where the hell was Jihyo?

Nayeon forced her way through the sea of people crammed into the basement, as she tried to call Jihyo's name over the deafeningly loud music. When Jihyo dragged her to this party, she promised Nayeon she only had to stay for an hour, and she'd leave with her whenever that hour was up. It had been almost three hours now and Jihyo was nowhere to be found.

As she fought her way through the crowd to try and make it up the steps, she tripped over a partially empty beer can. She went down quickly but was pleasantly surprised when her face didn't make immediate contact with the gross sticky floor. It took her a minute to get her bearings but once her eyes focused enough, she found herself a few inches away from a girl with round glasses and short blonde hair.

"Hey are you okay?" The girl's voice barely cut through the outrageous volume of the music and Nayeon's drunk brain, but Nayeon managed to piece together her question.

"Uh...yeah. Sorry about that. I'm not used to drinking a lot, so I think I'm a bit clumsier than usual." Nayeon smiled and felt a blush creep up her cheeks as she looked at the girl who saved her from a disgusting fate. Although there were three of her now, the three that she saw were pretty. The only problem was that she couldn't figure out which one was the real one and which were the ones her alcohol in her system had conjured up.

"It's okay. There are plenty of drunk girls here so one more isn't going to hurt the floor. You're too pretty to be kissing a floor that's caked in beer and whatever the hell's down there though." The girl laughed and let go of Nayeon's arm. "My name's Yoo Jeongyeon by the way. I'm a freshman."

Nayeon couldn't help but stare at the girl. The combination of all the alcohol she had and the very quick movement she just experienced was making her vision blurry and her thoughts extremely slow.

The girl looked at Nayeon and awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck as she took a look around. "Did you come here with anyone? I think you may want to go home before you pass out or trip again."

In an almost robotic way, Nayeon just nodded her head and wordlessly thanked Jeongyeon as she pushed her way past another large group. She made her slow and wobbly ascent up the steps, wanting to take Jeongyeon's advice to get the hell out of there.

"It was uh- it was nice to meet you whoever you are! Get back safely!" Jeongyeon yelled over the music, waving to Nayeon who was now almost all the way up the steps. She didn't know who that girl was, but she was kind of cute.

Nayeon stumbled out of the frat house and took a deep breath of the fresh night air. She tripped again but was able to catch herself on a small tree by the sidewalk. She leaned against it and enjoyed the feeling of the cool bark against her hot cheek. She looked up at the moon, not many thoughts in her head. "Is this what the next four years will be like? Big parties and sticky floors?" Nayeon spoke out loud, knowing that the moon couldn't say anything back but still finding comfort in its bright glow.

//

"Jihyo, I swear I am going to kill you the next time you even think about dragging me to a party." It was 2:15 pm and Nayeon was still in bed with her comforter pulled all the way past her head. Her whole body felt heavy, and every little sound made her head feel like it was going to explode.

Even when she was in high school, she had never had a hangover. Now she knew why Jihyo and her home friends would never be willing to go to the mall with her early in the morning after those parties. She didn't want to do anything the rest of the day except lay in bed, take some kind of headache medicine, and maybe sip on a Gatorade if she could keep it down.

"Ya Jihyo are you alive?" Nayeon spoke again and barely opened her eyes to see the figure of her best friend and roommate sprawled out across her own bed. Nayeon tried rolling her eyes but even that made her head throb. Instead of getting up, she opted for weakly throwing one of her stuffed animals at the girl's back.

Jihyo groaned when she felt the small plush hit her and rolled over. She slowly opened one eye to stare at Nayeon. "Hey, I wasn't the one who decided that three shots of tequila and chugging two beers right after was a good idea. You can blame yourself for that one."

Nayeon sighed and rolled over on her back. She moved her pillow over her head, enjoying the few seconds that the cool side offered her face. Jihyo was right but she wasn't going to give her friend the satisfaction of agreeing with her. It was going to be a long day.

//

Alkanes, alkenes, and alkynes were swimming in Nayeon's head. She had been stuck in the library for the past few hours reviewing the material she hadn't been able to even begin to think about the past two days due to her murderous hangover.

Chemistry and science in general had always been her strongest subjects in high school but organic chemistry was a whole different beast. It was now, as her brain struggled to picture these molecule structures, that she thought maybe being able to skip chemistry I and II wasn't such a blessing.

"I can almost hear your brain about to short circuit over there. You okay?" Jihyo didn't look up from her textbook as she asked her friend. Nayeon is one of the smartest people she knows so it must have been extremely hard if she'd been staring at the same problem set for the past 20 minutes.

"This shit makes no sense! I'm telling you that whoever made organic chemistry did it just to make people suffer. We're just about to start the fourth week and I already feel like my brain's going to split in half." Nayeon groaned and let her head hit the table, letting out a small 'ow'.

Jihyo finally tore her eyes away from her textbook and glanced at Nayeon. She playfully rolled her eyes and took out her phone to take a quick picture of her friend's misery.

"I'm glad that my pain and suffering is funny to you."

"How the hell did you know that I took a picture? I don't even have my ringer on for the camera to make a noise. Do you have eyes in the back of your head or something?" Jihyo poked the back of Nayeon's head which drew a small chuckle out of the other girl. "Seriously though why don't you just take a quick break? I'm about to get a coffee anyway. Join me so you're not just sitting here clouding up the room with the smoke from your brain dying out."

Nayeon took a moment to think and lifted her head up as she weighed her options. Sit here and stare at the same sheet she'd been looking at for almost an hour or join her best friend to get coffee that may help her focus better? It seemed like option number two was the best.

//

Two coffees, a granola bar, and a few handfuls of M&Ms later and Nayeon was finally starting to understand what she had been looking at for the past two hours. She sat up from her hunched over position at the table and stretched her arms up. When she looked up, she saw the side profile of a blonde girl with glasses who looked...familiar? But where the hell had she seen someone who looked like that? She definitely wasn't in any of her classes.

There weren't a ton of female biochemistry majors and the ones Nayeon had seen, she had already introduced herself to. She stared at the girl for a moment but gave up after a few seconds of not recognizing. It was most likely just someone she had passed on campus or a girl that Jihyo had told her about in one of her philosophy classes.

"Did I do anything stupid at the party?"

Jihyo looked up from her phone, a slightly exasperated look on her face. She laid her phone down and leaned back in her chair, gently taking Nayeon's hand in hers. She looked at the other girl for a moment before patting her hand a few times, setting it back down in her lap. "I'll tell you for the millionth time Nayeon. We were so far apart from each other and so far gone that even if you had a gun to my head, I wouldn't be able to tell you a thing. Besides, that party's old news. You've got plenty more to go to and forget."

Nayeon rolled her eyes and waved her hand, dismissing her friend's sarcastic response. "Well, I'll tell you for the millionth time that you're not dragging me out to anymore disgusting frat house basement parties. It was way too crowded in there and I'm pretty sure that if I hadn't left whenever I did, I would have contracted some new universe-ending disease."

The two went back and forth like this for a few minutes. Jihyo was trying to defend her gross frat house parties and Nayeon was trying to explain that nothing good would come out of them other than getting a little free booze.

As they bickered, neither of them noticed a small table a few rows away whispering and glancing their way occasionally. One of the heads belonged to the blonde girl with glasses and the other two looked like they were her friends. The blonde girl stared at Nayeon intently, following her lips and smiling at the laughs that tumbled from her whenever Jihyo made some ridiculous suggestion to try and get Nayeon to another party. She's cute in the daytime too and when I'm not absolutely wasted. I guess it wasn't just the beer talking.

//

Ah winter. The beautiful snow, the twinkling lights, couples holding hands, and department stores playing the same 10 Christmas songs on a loop for weeks on end. Unfortunately, Nayeon couldn't fully experience all the wonder and magic of the holidays until she was finished with finals... which weren't ending until Friday. And it was only Monday. She may have been in college for less than 6 months, but she felt like it had already been years with the amount of work she'd put in so far.

There was only a thin layer of snow on the ground and the sun was peeking through the clouds, but Nayeon felt like she was trudging through a blizzard. She was exhausted, stressed, and didn't want to do anything other than go back to her dorm and sleep for the next 24 hours.

"Get a hold of yourself Im Nayeon. Just finish this week strong and you'll have nothing to do except sleep and eat cookies for the next four weeks." Nayeon whispered these words of motivation to herself as she went to open the door to the health science building. As she pulled it open, a girl ran into her and knocked a few books out of her hands in the process.

"Oh, shit I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to run into you!" The girl quickly apologized and bent down to wipe the snow off of Nayeon's books. She stood up and was about to hand them back when she stopped and tilted her head to the side. "Hey wait. You're the girl from the Alpha Phi party at the beginning of the semester, aren’t you?"

Nayeon fought back a glare and looked the girl up and down, eyebrows knitted together in confusion. She slowly reached for her books and put them back in her arms. "I'm sorry. I don't think I remember seeing you at the party."

"Oh... yeah I guess not. You were a little drunk." The girl laughed but it was cut short by Nayeon's cold stare. "You really don't remember me?"

Nayeon was getting impatient now. The last thing she needed today was a random girl laughing at her and knocking her belongings into the snow. She just shook her head and held her books a little tighter.

"Well, uh nice to meet you again. My name's Yoo Jeongyeon. I kinda saved you from faceplanting into the floor that night." Jeongyeon let out a small chuckle and stuck her hand out for Nayeon to shake.

It took a second for Nayeon to register what was happening, but she hesitantly shook the other girl's hand. "I'm Im Nayeon and it was certainly... interesting to talk with you but I have to go take a final now." Nayeon waved and quickly walked into the building, leaving Jeongyeon alone on the steps in the cold.

//

"Nah I don't think I know a Yoo Jeongyeon. Are you sure you're not just imagining someone because of how tired and stressed out you are?"

Nayeon punched her friend in the arm and scoffed. "Momo it's not funny. You should have seen the way she laughed at me after she told me how we supposedly met. It was so annoying and honestly a bit rude."

"Maybe she was just trying to make you feel less bad about almost eating shit after tripping like an idiot. Hey! Maybe it would have fixed your bunny teeth if she would have just let you fall."

Momo smirked and laughed, high fiving Sana who commented on that and sat beside them at their table in the dining hall.

"God you're both unbearable. I've known you two and Mina for less than five months and It's like I'm surrounded by three devils." Nayeon rolled her eyes and sat back as she picked at the soggy fries on her plate. Momo, Sana, and Mina had known each other since birth. They grew up in Japan but moved to the U.S. after they finished middle school. It wasn't too hard for them to get into the same college since they were all extremely smart and their families were pretty well off financially.

"Hey watch it. We're three pretty devils." Mina joined the small group and patted Nayeon's back. "In all seriousness though, Nayeon, I don't think that girl was trying to make fun of you. Maybe she just wanted to be your friend. Maybe she doesn't have any friends y-"

Mina was cut short by Nayeon hushing her and not-so-discreetly pointing to a table behind the three Japanese girls. "That's her!" Nayeon whispered to her friends and lowered her head, trying to hide behind Momo when Jeongyeon suddenly turned to look at the four girls blatantly staring at her and her friends.

Jeongyeon squinted a bit to try and see who was ducking behind one of the girls. She moved her head a bit and smiled when she noticed it was Nayeon, the cute girl she met at the party and again at the beginning of the week. She waved to Nayeon who just hid her face even more.

Momo, Sana, and Mina watched the very odd little interaction and turned around, throwing questioning looks at their friend.

"What? I didn't want her to come over and start up a conversation or something. And- look! She's definitely talking about me. She just glanced over here and laughed. Again!" Nayeon groaned and the frown that was on her face quickly turned into a glare. "I bet she's telling her friends that I’m the stupid girl that tripped and faceplanted at a party. You know what? Whatever. I'm not going to let her ruin the weekend for me. I'm done with finals and now I can relax and do nothing."

The Japanese trio nodded in agreement and changed the subject, not wanting to hear Nayeon grumble on about the three girls sitting behind them. Nayeon was right though. All they had to think about now that finals hell was over was family, food, the snow, and many Christmas movies. They talked for a while and ignored whatever looks and laughter was coming from the table behind them. They could deal with all of that when they got back from winter break.

//

Jeongyeon waved when she saw Nayeon's entire table staring at her and her friends. She frowned when the girl ignored her though and continued to talk with her friends. Maybe she was just having a really important conversation and didn't have time to acknowledge Jeongyeon's presence.

"Who were you waving at?" Tzuyu stuffed a few fries in her mouth and glanced over to the table of girls in the corner. "Do you know them?"

"You remember that cute girl I told you guys about that almost faceplanted at the party at the beginning of the year?

This sparked the memory of a drunk Jeongyeon coming back to the dorm from the party and dramatically recounting the story to her friends. They started laughing and imitating Jeongyeon "heroically" saving Nayeon.

"Oh of course we do. She was the damsel in distress that would have gotten a face full of sticky floor and stale beer that she wouldn't have been able to wash off for months if you didn't risk your life to save her." Dahyun snickered when Jeongyeon punched her arm.

"You're all such dicks. But anyway, that's her and I'm assuming those are her friends. I saw her at the beginning of this week when I was coming out of the health science building. I accidentally bumped into her and knocked her books over. It was honestly like a movie and a little romantic." Tzuyu, Dahyun, and Chaeyoung looked at each other and then back at Jeongyeon with an amused look. "Well maybe not romantic per se. She was kind of looking at me like I said something offensive when I introduced myself again."

"We can obviously tell you've got a crush or something on this girl. Did you at least get her name this time? We’re getting tired of referring to her as 'tripper'." Chaeyoung chuckled and raised her hands in defense when Jeongyeon sighed and shot her a small glare.

"Her name's Im Nayeon. I tried to talk to her a bit more, but she had to take a final, so she was in a bit of a rush."

"Sure, she was just in a rush. That's why she also ignored you just now when you waved at her and turned around like she had seen a ghost." Chaeyoung was on fire today for making Jeongyeon feel like she had no luck with women. She wasn't going to let it get to her though. Not this time.

"I'm sure she has a perfectly good reason why she didn't wave at me. She probably just didn't even see me or thought I was waving to someone behind her." Jeongyeon knew that the second option was impossible since Nayeon's table was in the corner by the wall, but she wanted to keep her options open. "Anyway, though, I'm not giving up on her. I can tell that she's a good person."

Jeongyeon's friends shot each other another questioning glance. They weren't so sure about this whole ordeal, but they certainly weren't going to get in the way of Jeongyeon's quest for love —especially if it involved Jeongyeon embarrassing the hell out of herself. They would pay good money to see that any day.

Chapter Text

"Are you kidding me!? Dahyun's head is like a calculator. You've just never seen her blast through a differential equations worksheet. I don't even feel like we're taking the same class because she finishes the homework so fast. Just yesterday she..." Nayeon had blocked Momo's babbling out at this point.

Sophomore year came way faster than Nayeon had liked. They were already halfway through their first semester, and she was even more stressed than she was this same time freshman year. Whoever said that it only gets harder as you get older was right. Introductory organic chemistry was a thing of the past. Now it was intro to biochemistry, intermediate organic chemistry, and general physics that were the bane of her existence. Momo usually helped with her physics homework but for the past half hour she was too busy gushing about her class crush.

"Momo please. I'm sure Dahyun is a freaking genius, but I have to get this done before I start on my biochem and English. I promise I will let you show me whatever boring ass space documentary you want if you stop talking about Dahyun and help me finish this homework." Nayeon was begging at this point. She had spent her morning working with Mina on memorizing all the bones in the body from their anatomy class, so her brain was functioning much slower than usual and Momo going on and on didn't help.

Momo stopped her rant and thought over Nayeon's offer. She did like space, and it was rare that the girl was ever willing to watch even two seconds of the documentaries that she loved. She decided to shut up and get Nayeon through the rest of the worksheet, already going through the documentaries she could pick from in her head.

//

"What's up dorks!" Jeongyeon set her bag down by one of the free chairs in the study room that was now occupied by Tzuyu, Momo, and Nayeon. The three looked up at her questioningly as she took a seat, opening her laptop. "What?"

"You do know that you're also a dork, right? I mean you literally have a sticker on your laptop that says 'Engineering wisdom: If it ain't broke, consider adding more features'." Tzuyu pushed the top of Jeongyeon's laptop down so she could read it. Jeongyeon just shrugged and pushed it back open.

"Hey, don't be jealous because I've got cool stickers on my laptop." All three of her friends just laughed and went back to their work, ignoring the biggest dork who had joined them.

It took a lot of 'Hey Nayeon! We met at the party, remember?' and 'Are you sure that you don't want to join me and my friends for lunch?' for Jeongyeon to even get Nayeon's attention for more than just a glance over her shoulder and an annoyed eyeroll. Once they both realized they somehow had an introductory physics class together their second semester in freshman year though, they ended up spending time together. Much to Nayeon's disappointment and Jeongyeon's joy.

To their friends, Jeongyeon and Nayeon were barely acquaintances. To them, the pair were only spending time with each other because their friend groups ended up getting along well. To any outsiders, they looked like best friends since Jeongyeon was constantly over at the Japanese trio plus Nayeon and Jihyo's apartment due to her best friend having a massive crush on one of them. Chaeyoung tried to play it off like it was just to get help with her biology class, but Jeongyeon knew it was much deeper than that.

//

"This professor sucks. He really thinks that this thermodynamics class is the only class that anyone is taking. I think I've already spent two hours this week doing his homework." Nayeon's head shot up when Jeongyeon said this. Jeongyeon looked up at her, a little shocked to be receiving such a cold stare from the girl. It wasn't unusual for Nayeon to be glaring at her, but Jeongyeon couldn't even begin to think about what she said this time that offended her.

"Two hours? You think two hours is bad? Try two hours and multiply that by four. Yep. I've already spent eight hours in the past two days trying to do my o-chem class and lab work." Nayeon was shooting daggers at Jeongyeon at this point. She never understood why the girl joined them for their almost daily homework/study sessions since she never ended up doing any homework or studying. She really didn't understand why she had to gloat about having such a light workload either. Nayeon had gotten the message the first million times they did homework while Jeongyeon just sat there playing games on her computer.

Jeongyeon gave Nayeon a sheepish smile as Tzuyu just patted Nayeon on the back. "Don't mind her. I think she forgets sometimes that she isn't the only person who goes to this school." Tzuyu gave her friend a warning glare to which Jeongyeon just shrugged her shoulders at, already well used to the indifference and almost dislike Nayeon felt towards her.

While the three of them argued about whose homework was the hardest and most time consuming, Momo was typing away on her phone. Jeongyeon stopped and turned to the Japanese girl, tapping on her shoulder. "Who ya texting there pal?" Jeongyeon tried to glance at her screen, but Momo quickly turned it off, shoving it in her pocket.

"None of your business, Miss mullet." Momo rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her laptop, ignoring Jeongyeon's side-eye at the mullet comment.

"I don't really care who you're texting, but do you not have any homework, Momo? You're usually writing down some long ass complicated equation on your paper or complaining about gravity or something." Tzuyu looked at Momo's laptop screen which was showing a paused YouTube video of some guy cooking dishes from TV shows.

Momo just shook her head and leaned back in her chair, a smug smile on her face. She had obviously missed the entire argument her friends had just had due to her next comment triggering Nayeon's fight response. "Pfft. No. My electricity and magnetism class is a piece of cake, Sana helped me write my English paper yesterday, my wave mechanics lab got pushed to next Thursday, and I don't have my culinary class until Friday. I'm free for the rest of the day."

The group watched in slight fear as Nayeon eerily turned to Momo and tried to put her in a headlock. "Why the hell are you here then! You're not even helping me with my homework! You're just sitting there texting your crush like a moron."

Momo barely avoided the attack from her friend, using Tzuyu as a shield. "Don't blame me! Blame mullet over there. You were only slightly aggravated and stressed before she sat down with us. And how do you know I'm texting my crush! You get mind-reading powers or something, woman?!"

The Japanese girl wasn't wrong. Nayeon was in a very very slightly less shitty mood before Jeongyeon walked in the study room. It didn't mean that she wanted to kill Momo any less though. Or Jeongyeon for that matter.

Instead of committing murder, Nayeon just rolled her eyes and started packing her things. "You're both annoying. You're fine Tzuyu." Tzuyu smiled and stuck her tongue out at her other friends, forcing Momo to stop using her as a human shield.

"Oh you know you love me." Momo smiled and hugged Nayeon before she left for her next class. Jeongyeon tried to at least give the girl a high five or a handshake but she completely passed by her, hugging Tzuyu instead and bolting out of the room.

"Smooth move there mullet." Tzuyu chuckled and turned her attention back to her homework, ignoring the hurt look that Jeongyeon had.

"What's up with me just being 'mullet' now? I really like the mullet look for your information and I am pretty smooth. I just haven't been able to get Nayeon to see the super awesome and cool side of Yoo Jeongyeon. She's just seen the serious and hard-working side."

There was a brief pause after Jeongyeon said this before both girls bust out in laughter, leaning on each other for support so they wouldn't fall out of their chairs. This lasted for a few minutes before Jeongyeon decided she had enough. She packed her things and bid them a half-hearted farewell before heading back to her apartment. She wasn't getting anything done with the two hyenas there and she didn't have much of an incentive to stay since Nayeon left for class.

//

Ever since they met at that frat party freshman year, Jeongyeon couldn't get Nayeon out of her head. She spent the rest of the semester that year looking for her and when she finally ran into her, she thought she was going to pass out from excitement. From then on, each time she "ran into" Nayeon she tried her best to be nice to the girl. She offered to walk her to class, study with her, and even get her food from the dining hall if she was too tired to get it herself.

It seemed like every time Jeongyeon tried though, Nayeon either brushed her off or ignored her. Fortunately for Jeongyeon but unfortunately for Nayeon, she is a very persistent person. It took half a year, but she finally convinced the girl to at least say hi to her when they passed by each other. Now, they had made it all the way to sitting at the same lunch table or in the same study room without Nayeon wanting to strangle Jeongyeon for her bad jokes or subconscious bragging about her ease with classes... sometimes.

Nayeon's friends were good people too and they got along with her friends. It seemed like a win-win situation. To Jeongyeon, Nayeon was the perfect girl. She was extremely smart, beautiful, funny, and really nice. Well at least to her friends and other people. She definitely wasn't the nicest to Jeongyeon but that was okay.

In Nayeon's mind, the situation was the complete opposite. Jeongyeon was like a little lost puppy that wouldn't leave her alone. Sure, she was smart, pretty, and nice, but it didn't make up for the fact that Jeongyeon was also one of the most annoying people she had ever met. She was always making bad jokes and never seemed to actually be doing homework. It was like sitting with Momo when she was watching her documentaries or playing on her phone, but the difference was that Momo actually did homework and Nayeon had seen Jeongyeon pull a textbook out maybe twice in the past year.

At this point Nayeon was only hanging out with Jeongyeon because her friends got along with Jeongyeon's friends and Mina and Momo had a crush on her friends. That and Jihyo threatened that if she didn't at least try to expand her friend group she'd pick some random people from her class and start inviting them over to the apartment.

//

Nayeon found herself at yet another party this year. Thankfully, this time it was outside and not in someone's tiny ass apartment. Jeongyeon had invited all of them over to a party thrown by some guy she was friends with in her fundamentals of materials class. He had a pretty big backyard given that his apartment was the size of a shoe box. Compared to the last few parties she had been to, this one had considerably better music and there were less people, which meant more space for her to actually move without spilling her drink all over herself. She maneuvered her way through the small groups of people, almost making it to her group before she stopped in her tracks. She took a few steps back to get a better look, squinting her eyes to see Jeongyeon and... some brunette she'd never seen before.

"Do you really think that Dr. Alberto is really going to make the midterm that hard?" Jeongyeon took a sip from her drink and leaned against the wire fence beside her. She looked down at the smaller girl from her thermodynamics class. Seulgi was one of the few girls that Jeongyeon had become friends with within her major. Mechanical engineering wouldn't have been Seulgi's first pick, but her parents wanted her to go for something that would provide financial stability.

"Well, I heard something about it being a three-hour exam from some of the juniors who had him last year." Seulgi grimaced and shivered at the thought. She already hated the class, and this was just going to solidify that.

"That's gotta be illegal or something. How the hell are we supposed to sit there for three hours and focus on one exam? He can barely keep people's attention for five minutes because he talks so slow." Jeongyeon did an impression of their professor, causing Seulgi to bust out into laughter.

Nayeon watched the whole interaction from afar. She had no clue what they were saying but there was something in her that was getting annoyed. She didn't like the way that girl was looking at Jeongyeon or the way she was laughing at whatever bad joke she told her. As she continued to stare at the pair, Jihyo came up from behind, startling Nayeon when she put her hand on her shoulder. "Stalking your best friend Yoo Jeongyeon?" Nayeon rolled her eyes and shook Jihyo's hand off, turning to look at her friend.

"First of all, she's not my best friend. You know that better than anyone else. Second of all I'm not stalking her. I just noticed that she was talking to someone that she's never mentioned before, and I was curious."

Jihyo raised a questioning eyebrow as she finished her drink. She handed Nayeon her empty cup and took the half full one from her. "It looks like you're a little j-e-a-l-o-u-s." She smirked as she spelled out the word, enjoying the slight blush that formed on Nayeon's cheeks.

Nayeon just rolled her eyes and shook her head, looking down into the now empty cup she was holding. She checked the time and gave Jihyo a quick hug, deciding that she didn't want to watch Jeongyeon talk to a random person anymore. "Whatever Ji. I have to go. Don't get too drunk!"

Nayeon took the long way back to her and the girls' apartment. It was still cold enough to wear a jacket but not so cold that she had to have five layers on. She sighed, watching as her breath disappeared under the light of the moon. She stopped and looked up, basking in its glow.

Ever since she was little, her mom had told her that even if she was a million miles away, they'd always be looking at the same moon. Nayeon still thought about this every now and then even as she grew older. Now she would look at the moon, silently or sometimes even verbally asking it questions. It would never answer her back, but it felt good to at least have them out there.

Whenever she told Momo about this, the girl obviously gave her some long-winded explanation about how weird it was that people talked to a planet despite the fact that it was a literal mass of rocks and whatever materials she had rattled off. Nayeon wasn't sure. She had kind of tuned her out after Momo said it was weird.

"What the heck was that about? Why do you think I'd feel so weird that Jeongyeon was talking to some girl? I'm obviously not jealous. I think Jeongyeon's one of the most annoying people in the world." Nayeon asked the moon who, in response, said nothing and continued to glow. She sighed and shook her head as she started walking again. She'd never get an answer but maybe someone out there in the universe heard her. At least she hoped so.

//

A caffeine addiction and a severe lack of sleep weren't exactly what Nayeon wanted for her sophomore year but at least she was on spring break. She had originally planned to just sleep and do nothing, but Jihyo had other plans.

Instead of staying in her room and catching up on missed sleep, Nayeon was at the beach, laying out on a chair under a huge umbrella. This was one time she'd give Jihyo credit for dragging her out of the apartment. She could feel her thoughts drifting and her body getting lighter as sleep took over her. Unfortunately, it was quickly interrupted by a frisbee knocking her sunglasses off her face. She shot up, looking for the person who committed the heinous crime. The glare that developed on her face when she saw a sheepish Jeongyeon coming her way could be seen halfway across the world. "What the hell is wrong with you!"

Jeongyeon slowly made her way over to Nayeon's beach chair. She cautiously bent down to pick up the frisbee, but it was snatched up by Nayeon before she could get to it. "Heeey Nayeon." Jeongyeon gave her friend (kind of) a meek smile and held her hand out for the frisbee. "I'm really really sorry for hitting you in the face but can we have the frisbee back?" Jeongyeon hoped that including her friends in the blame would help but it unfortunately didn't.

Nayeon crossed her arms, the frisbee still tight in her grasp. She shook her head and raised an eyebrow at the girl standing in front of her. "I don't see why I should give it to you when it will most likely end up over here again hitting another part of my body." Nayeon pretended to think for a moment, enjoying making Jeongyeon wait for her. "The only way I'm giving this back to you is if you tell this whole beach that I'm not bad at drinking. You have to say that I'm the best."

Jeongyeon groaned and hung her head. It had been one of Jeongyeon's big teasing points to mention at any party to whoever would listen that Nayeon was bad at drinking. It was true too. The girl had an extremely low alcohol tolerance and ended up passing out after a few shots or a few drinks. "Why would I say that if it's not true?"

Nayeon just shrugged her shoulders. She picked her sunglasses up and put them back on top of her head, laying back in her chair with the frisbee on her stomach. "I guess you don't want the frisbee that bad after all." Jeongyeon turned around to see the group she was playing with throw up their arms, urging her to get the frisbee back so they could continue their game.

If there was one thing Jeongyeon and Nayeon could agree on but still butt heads about, it was pride. They were both extremely confident and proud of anything they did. Jeongyeon folding like this and shouting what Nayeon wanted was an extremely harsh blow to her ego, but she really wanted the frisbee back. Jeongyeon took a deep breath and cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted. "Im Nayeon is not bad at drinking! She is the best!"

A smile made its way to Nayeon's lips as she leaned up in her chair. She gave Jeongyeon a few slow claps before extending her hand with the frisbee in it. Their friends didn't seem to understand what was going on but that didn't matter to Nayeon. As long as she was able to see Jeongyeon admit to something, it was worth it. "See? That wasn't so bad."

Jeongyeon half-heartedly thanked Nayeon before she ran off to continue her long awaited game. Nayeon watched the group for a few passes, not noticing Chaeyoung and Mina take a seat beside her. "Are you just watching Jeongyeon throw the frisbee?" Mina laughed when Nayeon jumped a bit as she asked this, putting a little more emphasis on 'just' and 'Jeongyeon' to get her point across.

"What? No. That's weird." Nayeon shook her head and slid her sunglasses back on her face, looking at the two sitting beside her. Thankfully, her blush was hidden by the large sunglasses and the slight sunburn she had gotten when they first got to the beach.

"Minari is right. It sure looked like it and your head wasn't even moving to follow the frisbee." Mina suggestively wiggled her eyebrows which earned a laugh from Chaeyoung and an eye roll from Nayeon.

"Just because my head wasn't moving didn't mean that my eyes weren't moving as well. And Minari? Really? Couples are the worst." Nayeon fake gagged and laid down, closing her eyes to try and get back to her original plan of sleeping.

Meanwhile, Jeongyeon was in the process of getting hit on the side of the head by a particularly hard pass of the frisbee. "Ow! What the hell Jihyo?" Jeongyeon picked her hat up from the sand that had gotten knocked off and recovered the offending object, holding it in her right hand.

"It's not my fault you were too busy drooling over Nayeon. I said heads up, but you were too entranced." Jihyo just shrugged her shoulders, and they continued their game.

The rest of the day quickly went by, much to the girls' dislike. They still had a few days left for their trip, but it felt like the days were only a few minutes long. Jeongyeon sat down in the sand beside Dahyun and Momo who were busy digging a hole. "Trying to make it to the center of the earth there?"

Momo looked up at Jeongyeon, squinting her eyes and putting her arm up to shield her face from the sun. "Well, we're not exactly building a pyramid here, mullet." Dahyun chuckled and glanced up at the two girls, continuing her digging.

"Ha ha. You're a funny one Moguri." Jeongyeon let out a fake laugh and watched the two for a while, helping them for a few minutes before she got up and walked over to where Tzuyu and Jihyo were. She looked at their interesting creation in the sand with a confused expression. "Is it a person getting dragged into the pits of hell?"

Tzuyu and Jihyo immediately glared at her. Jihyo threw a handful of sand in her direction before she scoffed. "No. It's a mermaid. You just don't understand and appreciate art."

"Sure it is. Hey Chaeyoung! Come look at this sand thing." Jeongyeon called Chaeyoung over who begrudgingly got up from her comfortable cuddling spot with Mina. "What do you think this is?"

Jihyo wiped the hair from her face with her less sand covered hand, waiting as Chaeyoung took a long look at her and Tzuyu's beautiful masterpiece. "Is it uuuh a spider?" Chaeyoung gave Jihyo a small smile which quickly disappeared when Tzuyu rolled her eyes and punched her in the arm.

"God you're just as bad as Jeongyeon. It's a mermaid! How does this look like a spider?" Tzuyu pouted and stood up, looking down at the mermaid. It absolutely didn't look like a spider or someone getting dragged into hell. She knew that Jeongyeon wasn't the most artsy person, and she knew that Chaeyoung was more into abstract art, so she called Mina and Nayeon over for a better opinion.

"It's a mermaid, right?" Mina asked and looked at Nayeon who agreed, nodding her head. Jihyo flipped Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung off as she got up and did a little victory dance with Tzuyu.

"Yes! Thank you! These two idiots thought it was someone getting dragged into hell and a spider." Jihyo proudly smiled at the mermaid and wiped her hands off, enjoying the argument this had created. She watched in amusement for a little, quickly noticing that Jeongyeon had stopped saying anything and was just staring at Nayeon like she was the only person on the beach. She had a hunch that Jeongyeon may have liked Nayeon, seeing as she was constantly trying to get them all to hang out together, but this solidified it. An evil smile formed on Jihyo's face as she thought of the numerous ways to tease both of them. It was now her number one goal to get them together before they graduated.

//

Jeongyeon found Nayeon in the library one morning at 6 am. She had gotten up early to try and finish some homework she forgot about before class and the library was the best place to go when she had no motivation to work so early in the morning. She walked over to the study room she usually sat in and was startled when she found Nayeon there. The poor girl was halfway off the desk with one hand in her lap and the other barely holding onto a highlighter. She had a jacket crookedly draped across her back and her hair was covering her face. There were two MCAT study books opened, and a few papers scattered around covered in blue sticky notes and multiple-choice answers.

It was hard but Jeongyeon managed to stifle a laugh at Nayeon's disheveled appearance. She was used to the girl dressing casually and sometimes looking tired, but this was a whole new level. She snapped a quick picture of her since she knew that Jihyo would want to see it and slowly backed out of the room, gently closing the door.

A few minutes later Jeongyeon returned with a breakfast sandwich and a bottle of water. She carefully laid them down on the desk before she fixed Nayeon's jacket to better cover her body and brushed her hair out of her face. When she finally saw the girl's face, she felt her heart skip a beat. Even though she saw Nayeon most days, it still amazed her at how beautiful she was. It was too bad that she still didn't like her the way Jeongyeon liked her, but Jeongyeon was determined to not give up on her. She'd make it through that grumpy exterior someday.

//

When Nayeon woke up, her neck felt like it had been in the same position for the past seven years. She gingerly got up, groaning at how sore her body felt. It wasn't the first time she'd fallen asleep studying at the library, and she had a feeling it wouldn't be her last. She tried to roll her head around to stretch her neck and noticed a bottle of water and a small sandwich across from her. She took a hand from her neck and picked up the water bottle, turning it around to see the sticky note on it.

"Good luck! Don't study too hard :)" Nayeon smiled as she read this aloud, looking out of the small window of the study room that gave her a view of the library. It didn't seem like anyone was there except her, but she hoped she'd be able to find the person who gave this small gift to her eventually. It was still fairly early though so she didn't expect them to stick around. The small gesture made her heart flutter and she mentally thanked whoever was smart enough to also get her food. Before she crashed around one this morning, she had completely forgotten to eat dinner, so she was starving.

It was finally time to study for the MCATs and usually Mina would be joining her for the extra study sessions, but she must have had the right idea to go home before she passed out on an uncomfortable wooden table. Nayeon finished the breakfast sandwich and opened the door, throwing the wrapper out in the trash can outside of the room. She turned to walk back in when she saw Jeongyeon sitting in another study room a few doors down from hers. Nayeon tilted her head in a mix of confusion and surprise. She had only seen the girl actually doing work a handful of times, so it was weird to see her actually doing work, especially at this hour. Nayeon watched Jeongyeon for a bit, admiring the fierce look of determination and concentration on her face. It was something foreign for her to see from the girl and it was a pleasant change from the usually relaxed and barely stressed Jeongyeon she frequently interacted with.

Nayeon could now cross Jeongyeon studying and doing homework off the list of things that were almost impossible to see. Unfortunately, she now had to add on never finding the kind person who looked out for her in the library when she woke up. Nayeon shrugged her shoulders and walked back into her study room, sitting down, and taking a deep breath. "You win some, you lose some."

Chapter Text

D-14. Nayeon and Mina only had two weeks left before they took the MCAT, and the stress was almost palpable in their apartment. The two had barely slept or eaten anything in the past few days and their housemates had been avoiding them in fear of getting yelled at for being too loud or interrupting. They had started their studying for the big test extremely worried and nervous but as they kept working, their confidence grew.

Unfortunately for Nayeon, her confidence completely crumbled yesterday when she woke up and felt like someone had run over her. Her head was pounding, her body was aching, she was coughing, and she would freeze to death without a blanket covering her but would sweat to death with one. She was lucky she had such nice friends to take care of her, but they were all in class when Nayeon woke up from her long nap.

"Of all the weeks I could get sick, it had to be before I'm supposed to take one of the most important tests of my life." Nayeon groaned and put a hand up to her sweaty forehead. She really wanted to get up and get a cold towel or something, but she knew the second she moved, her body would start aching again. The extra strength ibuprofen she took in the middle of the night had worn off and she really didn't want to make things worse for herself.

Nayeon rolled over and picked up her phone, thinking about who she could call that would be willing to bring her more medicine, but the only person who came to her mind that wasn't busy was Jeongyeon. Nayeon grimaced at the thought of Jeongyeon's overbearing presence, but her sick brain and coughing fit overpowered her conflicting emotions. She called Jeongyeon and closed her eyes, waiting for a few rings before the girl picked up.

"Hey, Nayeon! What's up? Miss me?"

Nayeon rolled her eyes and let out a sigh. "In your dreams, Yoo. No. I just need something and everyone that isn't you is busy."

Jeongyeon sighed and in a fake hurt tone responded, "Ah you're breaking my heart, Miss Im." She was going to go on teasing Nayeon but heard her cough a few times and groan in pain. "Are you okay? Wait. Are you sick?"

The line went silent, Nayeon not wanting to admit that she was indeed sick. The last time she had a tiny cold Jeongyeon heard about it from Mina, Jeongyeon was at her house with a giant first aid kit, soup, and whatever other medical items she had in the apartment. Jeongyeon took Nayeon's silence as an answer and got up quickly from the couch, already making her mind up to pay the girl a visit whether she liked it or not.

"Don't worry Nayeon. Dr. Yoo will be over before you know it!" Jeongyeon hung up before Nayeon could protest and packed all the medicine she had in her bathroom before she left her apartment. Normally she'd just be excited that she'd get to spend one-on-one time with Nayeon and take care of her, but Jeongyeon knew that it was more important this time to nurse the girl back to health. She had worried about her for the past few months because of how hard she'd been studying for the MCAT. The test was important and Jeongyeon understood that, but she wished that the girl at least tried to take a little time to herself every once in a while.

//

"Nayeon! Are you in bed?" Jeongyeon's voice cut through the quiet apartment and Nayeon sighed as she mentally prepared herself for Jeongyeon's presence. She called Jeongyeon into her bedroom, barely managing to turn the lights on in the room. She squinted for a second to let herself adjust to the light, letting out a weak laugh at Jeongyeon standing in her doorway with a backpack stuffed full of what she guessed was medicine and a big container of chicken noodle soup.

"You know you look like a huge dork right now, don't you?" Nayeon asked as Jeongyeon took her backpack off, setting it down by the girl's bed. She walked out to put the soup on the kitchen counter and came back with a full glass of water and a digital thermometer.

Jeongyeon playfully rolled her eyes and nodded, ignoring Nayeon's comment as she took her friend's temperature. "A solid 101.2. You're not exactly burning up but you're not exactly normal either," Jeongyeon teased and shot Nayeon a wink before she bent down to open her backpack. She looked through and pulled out a few bottles, looking at all the labels before she held one of them up for Nayeon to look at.

"Does Dr. Yoo need some help?" Nayeon raised an eyebrow and a small smile formed on her lips when Jeongyeon gave her a shy nod. Nayeon took the bottle from Jeongyeon and read the label, laughing a little. "Not quite the one I need. At least I hope I don't also have diarrhea on top of everything else." She handed a now blushing Jeongyeon the bottle back before she closed her eyes, thinking about her symptoms. If there was only one pro of being a biochemistry student with hopes and dreams of becoming a doctor, it was being able to know what medicine would help and what wouldn't. "You want to learn a little about medicine while you're here?"

Jeongyeon tilted her head a bit but slowly nodded. She dumped out the contents of her backpack on the floor and lined up all the bottles as neatly as she could with all the labels facing up so she could easily read them.

"Okay. I have a cough, my head hurts, my body aches, and I have a low-grade fever. Do you have any guesses?" Nayeon watched Jeongyeon carefully look through all the medicine laid out as her hand hovered over one of the correct bottles. She held up a bottle of ibuprofen and handed it to Nayeon.

"Ibuprofen for the headache and body aching?"

"Bingo. What about the cough?" Nayeon gave Jeongyeon a weak smile as she slowly pushed herself up to lean against the headboard of the bed. She took a sip of water and took the ibuprofen before she handed the bottle back to Jeongyeon.

"Uh this one?" Jeongyeon picked up a packet of Nyquil, drawing out another small laugh from Nayeon. Jeongyeon knew it wasn't the right thing, but she loved hearing the girl laugh so she was willing to be wrong this one time.

"Not quite. If I was trying to go to sleep that wouldn't be the worst option, but I want to be awake and not coughing my head off right now. Robitussin or Mucinex would be the best things for me because..." Nayeon started to go more in depth about which one would be better. Jeongyeon was following her at first but the more technical she got with it, the more lost she was. She looked at Nayeon a bit confused but let her babble on, enjoying hearing her talk so passionately.

Nayeon didn't even realize how much more extra and unnecessary information she had given Jeongyeon until the girl was handing her the tiny lid full of Robitussin. She felt the tips of her ears heat up a little and quietly thanked Jeongyeon, grimacing at the gross medicinal cherry flavor. She took a sip of water and handed Jeongyeon the lid back. "Sorry about rambling. I'm used to talking with Mina about this kind of stuff and I sometimes forget that not everyone wants to hear about all the intricacies of medicine."

Jeongyeon just shook her head and gave Nayeon a smile. She started to put the medicine back in her bag and crossed her legs, sitting back and leaning on her hands. "It's okay. I like it when people talk about the things they're passionate about. Even if I don't understand it, it doesn't mean I can't learn."

//

It was four in the afternoon when Jeongyeon checked her phone again. She had been at Nayeon's apartment for a few hours now getting some of her homework done. She knew she could have just left her once she gave Nayeon the medicine and the soup, but she made the excuse that she could get her homework done while she was there and that it would have taken her more time to go home and then start her homework. Jeongyeon stretched and got up, opening the fridge to see if there was anything she could snack on while she took a break.

Nayeon shuffled out of her room, a blanket wrapped around her and her fuzzy bunny slippers covering her feet. She leaned against her doorframe; an amused smile spread across her face as she watched Jeongyeon look through her fridge. "Finding anything good?"

Jeongyeon jumped back and closed the fridge as she turned with a small Ziplock bag full of blueberries in her hand. She looked down at them and back up to Nayeon, holding them up for her to see. "I uh got a little hungry. I can put them back though." She was about to open the fridge again when Nayeon held up a hand to stop her and sat down in the seat across from where her things were set up.

"Eat away. They're Jihyo's and she still hasn't bought me breakfast yet as a thank you for dragging her home from a party a few weeks ago." Nayeon chuckled and flipped one of the papers over that Jeongyeon had scribbled notes on. Her eyes scanned over the numbers and figures drawn on the paper, but her brain wasn't able to process anything that was on it. Even when she wasn't sick, she sure as hell couldn’t understand any of it.

"Want a crash course on the Bernoulli equation?" Jeongyeon asked and sat down, popping a few blueberries in her mouth before she set the bag down. Nayeon hesitantly nodded as Jeongyeon tore a blank piece of paper out of her notebook. She drew a small diagram to help visualize the question in her textbook and wrote down a long equation. "If I'm trying to find the velocity of water exiting the hose, I use this equation. If I use the density of water, factor in gravity, and the atmospheric pressure of the nozzle of the hose, then I can easily calculate it." Jeongyeon tried her best to explain the problem but knew she had completely lost Nayeon when she finished. She looked up and proudly showed off her work, laughing when Nayeon's mouth was open, and her eyebrows were drawn together.

"This makes me feel a hell of a lot better about the homework I have to do. How do you keep all these numbers in your head?" Nayeon looked through Jeongyeon's homework, unable to grasp the advanced equations and math messily written on them. Jeongyeon just shrugged and put her pencil down before she ate a few more blueberries.

"It's really not too hard. Momo and Dahyun actually have to do some of this stuff too and I'm sure they're better at it than I am. I've always been pretty good at math, and I like doing hands-on things so I just kind of closed my eyes and landed on mechanical engineering. Worst case scenario, it will take me an hour to finish this problem set."

Nayeon's eyes widened as she skimmed through the lengthy questions. "An hour?! This would take me a week to even start." Nayeon playfully rolled her eyes when Jeongyeon just shrugged her shoulders again. She got up and refilled her water glass and sat back down.

They stayed there in comfortable silence for almost an hour. Jeongyeon finished the rest of her homework and Nayeon sipped on some of the soup that Jeongyeon had brought her. She looked up every once in a while, just to watch Jeongyeon deep in concentration. The more she looked, the more she noticed about the girl- and not just physically. Nayeon was sure that Jeongyeon had at least one class today, yet she'd been here almost the whole day just watching over her and taking care of her. Now that she thought about it, Jeongyeon was always acting like that.

Just last week Nayeon had forgotten to pack a lunch and she didn't have time to get anything before her chemical analysis lab. Jeongyeon had a class at the same time, but she was late for it because she picked food up for Nayeon before she went to it. Last year they were watching a fireworks show and Nayeon forgot a jacket. They were all freezing but Jeongyeon still gave her jacket to Nayeon, playing it off that she was too hot with it on.

Is Jeongyeon taking care of me because she likes me or does she just do that with everyone?

Nayeon was snapped out of her thoughts when Jeongyeon waved her hand in front of her face. "Ya Earth to Nayeon. You okay there?"

Nayeon shook her head and let out a sheepish laugh. "Yeah. I'm just...thinking."

Jeongyeon wiggled her eyebrows as a smirk formed on her lips. "Thinking about how beautiful and attractive I am when I'm doing homework?" This earned another laugh from Nayeon and a playful punch in the shoulder.

"In your dreams Yoo Jeongyeon."

"Oh, I always dream about you, Miss bunny." This caused a bright red blush to form on Nayeon's cheeks. Sure, they'd come up with teasing nicknames for each other over the years they had known each other, but this was the first time Jeongyeon had actually given her a nickname that wasn't annoying. Nayeon excused herself and made a b-line for the bathroom to try and settle her quickly beating heart.

//

The temperature had finally dropped, Halloween decorations were being put up, and the only things that Nayeon and Mina had to worry about were what they were going to dress up as for the Halloween party they were hosting and the MCAT scores coming out. At the moment, Nayeon and Jihyo were planning to dress up like Catwoman and Superwoman. Mina was going to be a penguin since it only required her to put on a penguin onesie. Sana wanted to be a princess and argued that even though she was a princess last year, it would be different this year. Momo was going to be... a sexy Albert Einstein.

"Momo how are you going to make Albert Einstein sexy? He's old as hell and there's nothing about him that's even remotely attractive. Don't you want to do a couple’s costume with Dahyun?" Mina judgingly looked at her friend as they walked through the costume section of the department store. She glanced over at Dahyun who had an equally unattractive costume in her hand.

"I think she would make a cute Einstein. I'm going to be the Hulk." Dahyun smiled and held up the green bodysuit and face paint.

Jihyo and Sana popped up behind them with their princess and superwoman costumes and looked at the three friends as they laughed and pointed to Dahyun and Momo. "This is exactly why they're perfect for each other. Even though Momo's going to be a weird old guy and Dahyun's going to literally be green, they still love each other."

//

Like usual, Chaeyoung and Dahyun showed up on time to the party and Jeongyeon showed up an hour late. Nayeon couldn't stay mad for too long though because Jeongyeon brought her favorite drink. She laughed when Jeongyeon turned around to show off her full costume of someone going on a safari riding an inflatable dinosaur. Jeongyeon poured a drink for herself and Nayeon before she carefully made her way through the crowd, apologizing whenever the head of the dinosaur bumped into anyone.

"Like my costume, bunny? You don't look too bad either." Jeongyeon pointed to the dinosaur with a cheesy grin and handed Nayeon her drink.

"Thank you, and yes I do. It certainly screams Yoo Jeongyeon." Nayeon took a sip of her drink and shook her head as she gave the girl a small chuckle. Nayeon also felt like she was going to explode. It had been happening only recently since that first time when she was sick in her kitchen, but Jeongyeon kept calling her bunny.

"Hey, wait. I thought Jihyo was supposed to be Superwoman. Why is she dressed up like a knight?" Jeongyeon pointed to Jihyo and Sana who were talking to some of the people they invited.

Nayeon rolled her eyes and sighed, taking a few more sips of her drink. "She was. Sana somehow convinced her that the knight costume would be better since they could show off that they're a couple." Jeongyeon snorted and pulled out her phone to take a few pictures of them.

"I don't think they need a costume for that. They're practically on top of each other all day." Nayeon nodded in agreement. She was about to ask Jeongyeon a question when her phone rang. She excused herself and put the phone up to her ear, barely able to hear Mina over the music.

"I said the MCAT scores are out! Come to the front of the house!" Nayeon hung up faster than she ever had in her life. She pulled Jeongyeon out with her for moral support and the four of them stood there, shivering as Mina and Nayeon nervously looked at their results.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait until the party is over? I mean what if you get a bad score?" Jeongyeon questioned them but shut up when she got a death glare in response. She looked to Chaeyoung who was standing with them who just gave her a pat on the back, signaling that she agreed but couldn't do anything about it.

It was tense for a few minutes. Nayeon and Mina were holding their breaths as they waited for the website to load. The suspense was about to kill Nayeon, and she was about to give up and listen to Jeongyeon's advice when the page finally loaded. She panicked and closed her eyes as she handed her phone to Jeongyeon. "Damnit. I'm too scared to look. What does it say?" Mina had done the same and gave her phone to Chaeyoung. They decided it was better for them to read the scores as they held onto each other for dear life.

Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung looked at each other before they scrolled down to see the scores. Jeongyeon was first to break the tense silence as she looked up at Nayeon. "It says that you got a 525. Is that good?" Chaeyoung nodded in agreement and turned Mina's phone around, showing a score identical to Nayeon's.

Everyone knew that Nayeon was a naturally loud person but combined with a surprisingly loud Mina, the combo was almost deafening. Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung covered their ears at the scream the two let out. They watched in amusement as Mina and Nayeon jumped around and celebrated like little kids.

"Holy shit, Mina! That's only 3 points away from a perfect score!" Nayeon screamed again and hugged her friend tighter. The long months of late study sessions, gallons of coffee, and lost sleep had finally paid off. They never had to look at an MCAT study book ever again.

//

Unlike the past two years around finals week, Nayeon wasn't stressed out of her mind. The feeling of impending doom was still there, but with the MCAT out of the way, a good portion of her usual stress was gone. She took her finals with unusual ease and was actually able to enjoy the entirety of the holiday season. By the time she finished her finals, she was gathered at her apartment with her friends for their little Christmas party and gift exchange. The year had been really hard on her, but she was finally seeing results from the work she had been putting in for the past three years.

"Jeongyeon, I swear if you don't give me my sweater back, I'm going to steal your laptop!" Momo had been chasing Jeongyeon around for the past five minutes. Dahyun had given her an ugly Christmas sweater with a stupid physics joke on it and Jeongyeon stole it from her, threatening to donate it to charity.

Nayeon watched with Tzuyu as the two ran back and forth, Momo eventually grabbing the collar of Jeongyeon's shirt. She snatched the sweater out of her hand and put it back on. She shot Jeongyeon a glare before she walked back over to Dahyun.

Jeongyeon pouted but sat down on the floor in front of Nayeon. "I was just trying to save her from wearing the ugliest sweater I've seen in my life." Nayeon laughed and patted Jeongyeon's head reassuringly, handing her the can of beer she had abandoned when Momo showed up in the sweater. She watched as her friends talked and took in the warmth of the room.

As the group slowly trickled in, Jihyo passed by Nayeon on the couch and Jeongyeon sitting on the floor in front of her. She smirked at Nayeon and gave the girl a subtle thumbs up. Jeongyeon was oblivious to the brief interaction since she was playing a game on her phone and Nayeon wasn't sure why Jihyo was being so weird until... oh shit I'm literally playing with Jeongyeon's hair. Nayeon slowly took her hand away and immediately earned a small whine from the girl below her.

"Hey that felt nice. Why'd you stop?" Jeongyeon briefly looked up from her game as a pout formed on her lips.

Why does she look so cute like that? Cute? Im Nayeon what the hell are you thinking right now?! "Oh, uh sorry Jeongyeon." Nayeon hesitantly resumed running her fingers through the blonde's short hair and tried to ignore the feeling in the pit of her stomach. This was exactly what normal friends who are strictly just friends did with each other all the time... right?

//

Dinner was a success, and everyone was sprawled out on the furniture trying to digest. Momo's culinary skills had come in handy once again. Nayeon closed her eyes, content with how the night was going until she heard a grating yell from her best friend.

"Ya! Everyone it's time for the gift exchange!" The group groaned and slowly sat up when Jihyo came out of her room with all the presents. She set them in the middle of the room, and they all made a circle. "I think it's only fair for Sana to start since her birthday is the closest."

Momo rolled her eyes and leaned back against Dahyun. "You just want her to go first because you think she got you in the gift exchange drawing." Sana stood up and smiled when Jihyo stuck her tongue out at Momo. She walked around the circle, teasing them a bit before finally landing on Momo. She excitedly gave her friend a hug before she sat back down.

The excitement in the room grew when Momo pulled out a jacket and a homemade shirt from Sana. Now that they had broken the ice, everyone felt less full and more excited to see what they had gotten each other and who was going to get a gift from who.

Sana got homemade chocolate from Dahyun who had painstakingly gone through three different mixes before making the perfect one. Even though it didn't need to involve any math, she somehow made up an equation for the perfect ratio of the chocolates mixed together. Dahyun also got a handmade chocolate from Momo along with a purse that she'd been going on and on about for the past three months. The poor girl only gave Momo a quick kiss on the cheek and received various 'ew' and 'get a room' comments from her friends.

Tzuyu got a wool hat from Chaeyoung that was very much her style and Chaeyoung got a hand knit strawberry patterned bag that had 'Strawberry Princess' written on the front from Mina. It was a surprise how she kept it from her for so long since they were with each other almost every single day. Mina got a projector and projector screen from Jihyo since she tended to have a lot of stay in movie dates with Chaeyoung. Jihyo got a camera from Tzuyu who specifically said it was for "making memories".

Now all that was left was Jeongyeon and Nayeon. This surprised everyone the most except Jihyo. No one noticed the devilish smile the girl had as she watched her friends. When she set up the gift exchange, the rest of them had randomly picked each other, but she made sure that Nayeon and Jeongyeon were together.

Jeongyeon was usually, or so she thought, smooth and able to tease and flirt with Nayeon with ease. Now though, she was a little less confident. Her mind was running rampant at the thought of Nayeon hating her gift. She slowly pushed it over to the girl and grabbed hers, waiting until Nayeon opened it first.

"Ya! Yoo Jeongyeon, you did not get me this!" Nayeon giggled and Jeongyeon opened one eye, feeling relieved that Nayeon in fact did like the gift. The room burst into laughter at the duck shaped snow mold. None of them understood why that was the gift she was over the moon for, but it was still fun either way.

Jeongyeon looked down at the small box in her hands and as expected, it was well wrapped. But that didn't stop her from tearing into it. Red and green striped paper went flying and as she opened the box, her disappointment was immediate. All that was in the box was a blue sticky note with the words, 'I owe you a gift'. Jeongyeon looked up and showed Nayeon the box as she tilted her head in confusion.

Nayeon scratched the back of her neck and let out a nervous laugh. "Sorry Jeongyeon. I really tried but I couldn't find anything that really jumped out at me that you'd like."

Jeongyeon just nodded and put on her best smile to try and hide the disappointment she felt. Sure, she didn't expect Nayeon to get her the best or most thoughtful gift in the world, but she expected her to at least get her something. A book. Maybe a new notebook. She would have even settled for a pack of gum or a singular piece of candy.

//

The first week after winter break was tense between Nayeon and Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon didn't speak to the girl the entire time and still hadn't said anything to her despite having studied with her twice now. Nayeon had tried a few times to get Jeongyeon to acknowledge her by teasing her about her homework or her hair, but nothing seemed to work. Any time she tried to get her attention, Jeongyeon either flat out ignored her or pretended that she was talking to one of their friends about something so important that she couldn't be interrupted.

Much to Jeongyeon's disappointment, Chaeyoung managed to get dragged to Nayeon and the other girls' apartment, bringing her along. She sat on the couch, intent on ignoring Nayeon as she did her homework with Chaeyoung and Mina who were sitting on the floor across from her. Jeongyeon didn't even notice that Nayeon had gotten up and was standing in the hallway until she cleared her throat. She glanced up to see Nayeon waving her over to go into her room with her. Normally Jeongyeon would be all about that, but she wasn't so sure since she was still upset with the girl.

Nayeon impatiently and insistently pointed to her room. She looked over at Chaeyoung and Mina to help her who just looked at Jeongyeon, silently telling her to go with Nayeon by the looks they gave her. Jeongyeon let out a heavy sigh and set her pen down. She got up and slowly walked into Nayeon's room before she carefully shut the door behind her. She leaned against the door with her arms crossed and watched Nayeon dig through her closet, bringing out yet another neatly wrapped box. "Oh goodie. Another box with another message?"

Nayeon rolled her eyes at Jeongyeon's sarcastic tone and handed her the box. She sat down on her bed as Jeongyeon eyed her suspiciously. "I promise it's not another 'I owe you' note. Please just open it."

This time, Jeongyeon carefully opened the box, enjoying the annoyance on Nayeon's face as she took her time. She pulled out what looked like a glasses case and tossed the now empty box to the floor. A small smile formed on Jeongyeon's lips as she opened the case, revealing a brand-new pair of glasses and a small note. She read the note and put the case and note in her back pocket. It was simple but it said everything she wanted to hear from her friend. Jeongyeon looked up at Nayeon and smiled, putting the glasses on and relishing the blush that had made its way to Nayeon's face. "How'd you know I needed new glasses?"

Nayeon nonchalantly shrugged and walked over to Jeongyeon, adjusting them so they sat better on the bridge of her nose. "I noticed you hadn't been wearing them lately, so I just assumed you needed a new pair. It's a Christmas gift but also... a thank you and a sorry for taking care of me and being so nice to me even though I've been an awful friend to you. I got them for you before the gift exchange, but they came in late."

The muffled sounds of Mina and Chaeyoung talking could be heard through the door, but Nayeon's room was quiet. It was only then that Jeongyeon noticed how close Nayeon was to her. How her slightly too big beige sweater draped over her. How beautifully and simply she'd done her makeup. How soft and red her lips looked. Jeongyeon's breath hitched in her throat as her eyes lingered on Nayeon's lips. Her eyes flickered back up to meet Nayeon's as her heart beat out of her chest.

It was dark out and the only light in the room was from the lamp on Nayeon's bedside table and the moon. It shone through the slatted blinds that were halfway up on the small window by Nayeon's desk. The moon cast a cool glow and in Nayeon's mind, it was almost as if it was telling her to stop thinking and just do it. Stop thinking and kiss this girl.

It had been three painfully long years with Nayeon. Every tiny interaction they had was playing in Jeongyeon's mind as her eyes darted between Nayeon's beautiful dark brown eyes and her lips. Without realizing, her body was slowly moving closer to Nayeon's, causing the already small gap between them to grow impossibly smaller. She stopped once she felt Nayeon's breath on her lips, ready to pull away at any moment. Before she could even get a chance though, Nayeon gently wrapped her hand behind Jeongyeon's head to close that impossibly small gap.

Nayeon's lips were so much softer than they looked, and they tasted just like the peppermint chapstick she religiously used. Jeongyeon's eyes fluttered closed as she moved her lips against Nayeon's and wrapped her arms around the shorter girl's waist. She pulled her closer and smiled into the kiss when she felt Nayeon's arms wrapped around her neck.

When they finally separated, Nayeon leaned back in to peck the goofy smile on Jeongyeon's lips. Jeongyeon pulled Nayeon closer and hugged her small frame. She sighed happily and buried her face in her neck. "You have no idea how long I waited to kiss you."

They stood there in the middle of Nayeon's room for a while just enjoying each other's warmth. Jeongyeon was rubbing lazy circles on Nayeon's back when she pulled away slightly. It had been three painfully long years, and she finally kissed the girl of her dreams. She looked down at those deep brown eyes she loved so much with a wide smile and planted a gentle kiss on her forehead as she whispered, "Merry Christmas, bunny."

Chapter Text

It took three days, but Jeongyeon and Nayeon finally moved all their things into the new apartment. It wasn't huge but it was enough for the two of them. Towards the end of their junior year, it had been decided that the group needed a change. Dahyun and Momo moved in together, Chaeyoung and Mina, Sana and Jihyo, and Tzuyu and her girlfriend Sowon.

It wasn't a hard decision for them to make but it took them all almost two weeks to move out of their shared apartments. Nayeon was surprised at how much shit she managed to accumulate over the past three years, and she was even more surprised at how much Jeongyeon didn't have. She knew the girl was freakishly clean with her personal space, but she didn't think that meant she was a minimalist as well. In reality, Jeongyeon did have a lot of stuff. Nayeon just had an insane number of belongings. She was a compulsive shopper and if she saw something cute online, 9 times out of 10 it would be at her doorstep the next week.

When Nayeon and Jeongyeon told the group they were dating, only Momo was surprised. She somehow had no clue about them even remotely liking each other. "I thought you guys were always just arguing and staring at each other because that's what Sana and I do all the time." Nayeon wondered how someone could be so smart yet so dumb when it came to things like this.

"Hey, bunny? Did you know if I put my box of old textbooks in the living room?" Jeongyeon yelled from their bedroom as she looked through all the boxes stacked around the room.

Nayeon quickly scanned over the living room and sat down the picture frame she had just unpacked. She carefully stepped around the maze of boxes and spotted a box with 'Yeon's bookz' with a z scribbled on the top. What a dork. Nayeon playfully rolled her eyes and slid the box into their bedroom. "Is it the one with Yeon's books with a z instead of an s? Also, you do know we're both Yeon, right baby?"

Jeongyeon hopped up from her crouched position and smiled, dancing around the boxes to get to her girlfriend. She nodded and kissed Nayeon's cheek as a thank you before she cut the box open. "I don't need all of these, but I think I accidentally put my textbook for my energy conversion lab in here. She shuffled through all the books and finally found the one she needed.

"Why are you keeping all these anyway? Do you really think you'll ever use your English 101 textbook ever again?" Nayeon held the worn and almost falling apart book up, accidentally putting a new tear in it from the way she was holding it.

Jeongyeon just shrugged her shoulders and took the book from her, putting it back in the box. She slid it to the side and opened another one. "Maybe I can give it to some poor freshman who has to deal with Professor Lee's incessant ranting about why English is the 'most important class that a freshman will ever take'." Jeongyeon was able to imitate the old professor's voice well, causing Nayeon to giggle. She left Jeongyeon to open the rest of her boxes and went back to the living room, sighing at the sea of cardboard in front of her. It was going to be a long weekend.

//

Mina was seconds away from throwing her textbook across the room and through the window of her and Chaeyoung's apartment. She had been studying with Nayeon for the past hour and nothing was making sense to her. "How the hell are you majoring in this?!" She sat back and pointed to the textbook in front of her, running her fingers through her hair. "Looking at this makes me feel about as stupid as Chae does whenever she's watching Dahyun or Momo write long ass math equations in the library. No offense babe." Chaeyoung just shrugged from her seat in the kitchen and continued to work on her art history paper.

"Now you know how I feel when you tried to tell me that molecular biology is easy." Nayeon threw her hands up in defense, patting her friend on the back to try and offer some kind of reassurance. "We can take a break if you want. You're thinking so hard that I can see your brain shriveling up in there." Nayeon playfully poked Mina's head and got up to grab water from the fridge.

Mina laid back against the couch and let out an exasperated sigh. She hung her head in her hands and rubbed her face before looking up at Nayeon's concerned expression. "I think I might die by the time this semester's over. We're barely halfway through and I already feel like my brain's going to give out before we graduate."

At that word, 'graduate', Nayeon grimaced. This was one of the many times she was reminded that she was in fact not a freshman anymore and that she had applied to medical school. She stood in the middle of the living room, water in her hand as she zoned out, eyes focused on the picture of Mina and Chaeyoung on a ski trip that was hung above their couch. It could have been the stress she had been under the past four years or the idea of their college life ending sooner than she expected, but tears started to form in the corners of her eyes.

"Wow you okay there? I don't like biochem either, but I don't think it's something you need to cry over. Especially since you're literally getting a degree in it." Mina awkwardly joked as she stood up and pulled her friend to sit beside her on the couch. Nayeon was quiet for a while, sniffling and wiping the few tears that fell down her cheeks. She rested her head on Mina's shoulder. She thought about everything they had gone through and all the hours they had worked to get to where they were. To get to the finish line and graduate. To leave it all behind.

"Do you ever think about where we're going to all be after we graduate? I've been thinking about it more and more recently and I know that it's not realistic that we'd all stay in the same place... but I don't want us to all split up." Nayeon lifted her head off Mina's shoulder and looked into the girl's eyes intently. She couldn't read her expression but noticed that Chaeyoung had tuned in at some point. The shorter girl walked over and sat on the arm of the couch, pulling Mina in to lean back against her. Mina looked up at her girlfriend and gave her a small smile, silently thanking her.

"I do think about it. I uh-" Mina's expression changed to one of guilt and Nayeon could tell she was holding something from her. She wanted to pry to get the answer out faster but she knew it wouldn't help her situation. "I mean we," she said as she motioned between her and Chaeyoung, "we have thought about it. Since Chae can create her art pretty much anywhere, we decided a few months ago that she's going to follow me wherever I get into medical school."

Nayeon's face dropped a little as she listened, disappointed that they felt like they had to keep this from her but even more disappointed that she hadn't even bothered to have that kind of conversation yet with Jeongyeon. "How did you figure it out? Wasn't it hard to talk about?"

Chaeyoung nodded and laid her head on top of Mina's. "It was really hard. We had a pretty big fight about it first, but I realized that I wasn't being the most rational. I was being pretty selfish at first but then I realized that I could make my art and do what I love wherever but Mina can only go to one medical school. It was only fair that we went where she needed to go first and then figure out another place to live after she finished if that's what we want later."

The way Chaeyoung explained it made it seem like it wasn't too hard of a decision. Sure, having a fight with Jeongyeon about this kind of thing wasn't exactly on the agenda, but she knew that they had to talk about it eventually. The problem was, when was she supposed to bring it up? Jeongyeon had been so busy lately that the only things she had been doing were class work, working on her senior project, and sleeping. It seemed like the carefree and easy going Jeongyeon took a backseat to the serious and adult Jeongyeon. Nayeon wasn't too familiar with this new Jeongyeon, and it worried her a bit to have that conversation with her.

//

The great outdoors. Something Jeongyeon, Dahyun, Jihyo, and Tzuyu absolutely loved and something Nayeon, Momo, Sana, Mina, and Sowon hated. Chaeyoung was indifferent but as long as she was with Mina she'd go anywhere. For their last winter break, the group decided that a week camping in the middle of nowhere was the perfect thing.

Of course it was Jeongyeon's idea. The only way she was able to convince most of the girls to go was the promise of stereotypical winter camping activities like campfires, snowball fights, skiing at the resort nearby, and an abundance of hot chocolate. Jeongyeon initially tried to get them to tent camp but everyone except her was opposed to the idea. Freezing on the ground in the middle of winter wasn't exactly how they wanted to go out.

All the girls were ready for the two large cabins they had rented for the week to be dark, dusty, and filled with bugs. No one really knew what to expect since Jeongyeon had done all the work making reservations for the trip. As they rode their way through the snow-covered forest, Nayeon was pleasantly surprised when they pulled up in front of two beautiful log cabins. There weren't any broken windows, the doors were actually on their hinges, and bugs weren't coming out of the sides.

Jeongyeon glanced over at Nayeon who was looking in awe. She laughed and playfully punched the girl's shoulder as she put the car in park. "Did you guys think we were gonna be in some horror movie cabin? I'm much nicer than that ya know." She turned around and saw equally surprised looks on Momo and Sana's faces. They both slowly nodded, not taking their eyes off the sight in front of them. Jeongyeon just shook her head and got out, encouraging them to help her get their things inside since she was the one who drove there, and she really didn't feel like hauling everything in by herself.

When Jeongyeon had told them to pack bathing suits they were all more than confused since it was the middle of winter, but once they were in front of the steaming hot tub, it clicked. Nayeon and Sana were giggling like little kids as they ran back inside to change, excited to spend a good portion of their time just soaking in the hot water. Jeongyeon and Jihyo both crashed on the couch for a few hours after they had unpacked everything, exhausted from the almost four-hour drive. Sure, it was only four hours but having to listen to 8 very loud and very talkative girls the entire time was more than enough stress and excitement for the drive up.

Jeongyeon woke up, groaning at a wet hand pressed against her cheek. She opened her eyes and jumped off the couch, startled at the smiling bunny toothed face that was mere centimeters away from hers. "Owww." Jeongyeon rubbed her back and sat up as she shot her girlfriend a glare. "Did you have to wake me up like that?"

"Hey at least it wasn't Momo waking you up. I may be wet and pruny from the hot tub, but her hands and face are covered in juice from the orange that she's been attempting to peel for the past few minutes." Nayeon pointed to a very sticky Momo. Somehow the girl had gotten the orange everywhere but the inside of her mouth.

Jeongyeon looked at her and pulled out her phone, taking a few pictures in case she needed to blackmail her later. "Again, I don't understand how she's so damn smart but so dumb when it comes to certain things." Momo just rolled her eyes and flipped Nayeon off with her pulp covered hands before going back to her messy activity.

"Well now that I'm up I guess we should start having some fun. I can get Jihyo up to help me make drinks." Jeongyeon pushed herself up off the floor and stood in front of Nayeon who had made a tiny puddle on the floor from her wet bathing suit. "Maybe you should get dried off and change before you get anything else wet." Nayeon nodded and flashed her a toothy smile, turning around but stopping once Jeongyeon started to walk away. She snuck up behind her once Jeongyeon was in the kitchen looking through the fridge and wrapped her in a big wet hug.

Momo broke into a laughing fit as she threw her massacred orange away. "At least I'm voluntarily getting wet. Nice one Nayeon. I'll be in the shower if you need me!" She turned away, still giggling at the image of a wet Jeongyeon trying to get away from her girlfriend.

"Bunny! Ugh now I'm all wet." Jeongyeon pouted and peeled her girlfriend off her, unsuccessfully drying herself with Nayeon's damp towel. "I just wanted to be nice and make you a drink but now my shirt's soaked." Nayeon shook her head and chuckled as she kissed Jeongyeon's forehead.

"Maybe I didn't want a drink yet. Jihyo's still not awake and everyone except Momo, who's now in the shower, is in the hot tub." Nayeon wiggled her eyebrows and gently pressed her lips against Jeongyeon's neck, immediately causing the taller girl to blush. She glanced outside behind Nayeon and over to the couch at a snoring Jihyo and nodded, quickly understanding what Nayeon was getting at.

"But what about the girls? I know they're not going to last in the hot tub for much longer before they start to get hungry or want something else." Jeongyeon gulped as Nayeon continued to ignore her, peppering needy kisses up and down her neck.

"We'll have to be quick then. I still need to get this wet suit off and you certainly don't want me to catch a cold, do you?" Nayeon looked up at Jeongyeon and wrapped her arms around her blushing girlfriend's neck. Her eyes had gotten slightly darker, and she had that playful smirk, telling Jeongyeon that Nayeon was going to get what she wanted whether she liked it or not. Jeongyeon stared into her eyes, her desire taking over and scooped Nayeon up, carrying her to their room bridal style. She closed the door and made sure she heard the lock click before she laid Nayeon on the bed. The last thing she wanted was an interruption.

//

After they finished dinner and cleaned the dishes, Tzuyu pulled out the large bag of games they brought with them. They started with a game of Cards Against Humanity and quickly realized just how messed up their senses of humor were. By the time it was over, Dahyun had won, and they had each learned something new about each other that they may or may not have wanted to know. They played a few more games and as the night went on, Jihyo and Jeongyeon continued to make drinks. By the time they started Uno, Sana and Momo were passed out on the couch and Sowon was asleep and clinging onto Tzuyu like she was going to disappear if at least one part of her body wasn't touching the taller girl.

"That is such bullshit! You can't just stack three draw twos on there!" The game started to get heated as Jihyo and Nayeon tried to argue the stupid made up rule that Jeongyeon and Chaeyoung claimed had been a real rule since they were kids. "I have never played Uno like that in my entire life."

"You obviously never correctly played Uno before then." Jeongyeon pulled the three draw twos that Jihyo had picked up off the pile and put them back on the pile where they rightfully belonged. "You can look it up if you're so worried about it!"

"Fine I will." Jihyo grumbled and pulled her phone out to look up the official rules for Uno. Nayeon looked over her shoulder, skimming through and seeing the rule for any draw two or draw four cards. They both read at the same time and shouted out in triumph.

"Aha!"

"It's not a real rule and the official Uno rules say so!" Jihyo stuck her tongue out at Jeongyeon who just scoffed and took her phone out of her hand. She and Chaeyoung read the rule and rolled their eyes as they handed Jihyo back her phone.

"Well, I think Uno is wrong. Everyone that I know back home plays Uno that way." Chaeyoung crossed her arms and frowned, leaning back into Mina who just patted her on the head, enjoying watching the drama.

"Sure, little tiger. The official Uno rules are wrong." Nayeon laughed, putting emphasis on 'official', and stood up to refill her water. She had figured out her drink limit freshman year and had been extremely cautious with it ever since, not wanting a repeat of the horrendous hangover she had after her first college party.

Jeongyeon whined and laid her cards down, pouting like a little kid as she reached for Nayeon who sat back down. "You're supposed to agree with me not Jihyo. I'm your girlfriend." Jeongyeon laid back in Nayeon's lap, only mildly enjoying having her hair played with since she was still upset over these new "rules".

"I'm sorry Jeongie, but if the official rules say that you can't stack draw cards then you can't stack draw cards." Nayeon smiled and kissed Jeongyeon's cheek, laughing as she kept whining and grumbling at the unfairness of it all. She looked over at Mina, and Chaeyoung who was also still sulking, and rolled her eyes. "It's like we're babysitting kids. At least Jihyo's kid is asleep. I would be worried about her spine though."

Mina and Jihyo both agreed as they glanced over to the couch, snapping a few pictures of Momo who was fully on the couch and Sana whose torso was on the couch and the lower half of her on the floor. It looked uncomfortable as hell, but it didn't seem to bother her since she hadn't woken up even with all the yelling.

//

Skiing was a disaster for Momo, Jeongyeon, and Nayeon who were the least skilled. Jihyo, Tzuyu, and Sowon did okay and only fell a few a few times but Chaeyoung, Dahyun, Sana and especially Mina were like pros. Mina claimed that she had never been skiing before but the way that she was gracefully going down even the hardest slopes begged to differ. On the other hand, Nayeon and Momo had to hold hands because if they didn’t, they'd fall. Even little kids were passing them and going faster. Jeongyeon was making fun of them and taking pictures for a while until she ended up faceplanting in a thick pile of snow. Karma's a bitch.

The rest of the week went by with many of the same activities. They played a ton of board games, Momo made a mess with almost everything she ate and drank, and there was plenty of yelling during any kind of playful argument from Jihyo and Nayeon. They were best friends but that didn't mean that their friendship stopped them from being the most competitive people on the planet. Even a simple game of rock paper scissors ended up with them wrestling each other on the floor. Jihyo claimed that Nayeon only won because of her, and I quote, "freakishly huge hands that would even scare an NBA player".

It was all going smoothly, and everyone was just enjoying the company and fun they were having until halfway through the trip. It was a little warmer and they decided to have at least one campfire since they were technically camping. Jihyo and Jeongyeon managed to start a fire without burning themselves and Dahyun and Sana got the s'mores things together. As expected, Chaeyoung burnt the hell out of every single marshmallow she roasted, and Momo's hands were completely covered by the end of her first s'more.

"Chaengie, I don't think that burning your marshmallow that much is healthy for you." Mina looked over at her girlfriend's extremely singed marshmallow, grimacing as she heard how crunchy it was when she bit into it.

"It gives it that extra bit of flavor. Maybe I like carcinogens." Chaeyoung said this through her mouthful of burnt marshmallow and smiled.

Once Momo somehow cleaned all the marshmallow off herself and Chaeyoung got tired of burning hers to death, they comfortably sat around, staring into the warm glow of the fire, and telling stories. Even though most of them had known each other for four years and some even longer, there were still so many stories and memories to reminisce over. It was crazy for any of them to think that it was all ending soon. Of course, they'd still be close friends and visit each other, but they knew that nothing would be exactly the same as it was at this moment.

"So have you guys thought about where you're going to be after we graduate?" Surprisingly, Sowon was the first to break the comfortable silence they had settled into for a while. She had only been a part of the group for a year, but she fit in well immediately. She was almost as tall as Tzuyu and had the same sense of humor as them, which was a bonus.

Nayeon tensed up at the question and looked down. After she had the conversation with Mina and Chaeyoung, she never bothered to bring it up with Jeongyeon. She had tried to on multiple occasions, but it never felt right so she'd always pretend like she was asking about something else.

Jeongyeon felt Nayeon tense up and wrapped her arms a little tighter around her. She just thought that Nayeon was getting cold.

"Momo and I talked about it a while ago and we both decided that since we're pretty similar in our majors, it shouldn't be too hard to find jobs in the same city. We were thinking of somewhere in Virginia but it's still up in the air right now." Dahyun spoke up first.

"Tzuyu and I want to check out Massachusetts. We took a long weekend vacation up there with her parents and ended up really loving Boston."

"Since I can make art anywhere, Mina and I agreed to go wherever she gets into medical school. It'd be the easiest on her and I don't really have a preference where I live as long as I have Mina and I can make art." This drew some awes from the group as Chaeyoung pulled Mina a little closer.

"Jihyo and I want to move to either Vermont or New York City. There's not really any reason why but they sound like fun places to live." Sana smiled as Jihyo kissed her on the cheek. They also didn't really think too hard about where they were going to be after college, but they knew they wanted to be with each other and be close to both of their parents. Vermont or New York City would fulfill that goal.

That just left Nayeon and Jeongyeon. The group fell silent as all eyes were on the couple. Nayeon had never felt nervous around her friends until now. She felt immense pressure to give some kind of answer but genuinely had none. She swallowed and carefully untangled herself from Jeongyeon. She suddenly got up and looked around the group. "I think I'm getting a little cold and tired. I'm gonna head to bed early. Night guys." Nayeon gave a small wave before she quickly walked inside, leaving everyone else confused.

It was getting colder out as it got later but Nayeon had just said that she was warm and comfortable. She also said that she was wide awake since she had slept so long the night before. They all watched until Nayeon disappeared around the corner and then everyone's attention was on Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon just looked at them and gave them an awkward smile as she rubbed the back of her neck. "We uh- we haven't exactly talked about that quite yet."

Chaeyoung and Mina knew that Nayeon was waiting to talk to Jeongyeon about it but even they were surprised that she still hadn't done it. "Oh. Is there a reason you guys are waiting?" Jihyo looked at Jeongyeon, her eyes full of concern.

Jeongyeon just shrugged her shoulders and looked down, fiddling with the hand warmer she was holding. "I guess it just didn't come up and I wasn't really thinking of it. We've both just been so busy that it wasn't really the biggest thing on our minds." Jeongyeon was silent for a moment as she looked back at the cabin, watching as the light in her and Nayeon's bedroom turned off. She got up and collected the blanket she was sitting with. "I think I'm gonna head in too guys. Good night."

Jeongyeon walked into the cabin, briefly relishing the warmth that hit her. She set the blanket down on the couch and took her jacket off, throwing it on the back of one of the armchairs. She walked down the short hallway and gently pushed open the door to her and Nayeon's bedroom, reaching for the light switch.

She frowned as she saw Nayeon curled up in the comforter, her back to her. Carefully, she made her way to bed. She leaned down and gently rubbed Nayeon's back. "I'm sorry we never talked about the future or anything like that. I don't want to ruin anything, but I think now would be a good time to talk about it before we wait any longer and let it sit."

//

As corny as it sounds, the tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife. To celebrate their acceptance into the still unknown medical schools, Jihyo decided to host a congratulatory party at her and Sana's apartment. They had been drinking, eating, and having a fun time for a few hours before Mina pulled out her and Nayeon's acceptance letters. The mood in the room changed almost immediately as shaky hands started to slowly open the letters. They had received them in the mail the day before the party but they both wanted to wait so they could open them with their friends. Something about the excitement of it and having support in case the results were unexpected. To make it even more of a secret, Chaeyoung and Jeongyeon colored the names of the colleges in with black pen so they couldn't see who it was from before they opened them.

Nayeon fumbled to open the envelope without dropping it, knowing that even if she didn't get into the medical school she really wanted to get into, there were still a few that had already accepted her. She felt like she was going to pass out as she slowly took the letter out of the envelope. Knowing that this one paper held her entire future was more stressful than any exam she'd ever taken. She looked at Mina and counted to three as they unfolded the letters at the same time.

"Congratulations Im Nayeon on behalf of the admissions committee for your acceptance to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine!"

"Congratulations Myoi Mina on behalf of the admissions committee for your acceptance to the NYU Grossman School of Medicine!"

They knew it was impossible, Momo had babbled on about it enough times, but Nayeon and Mina thought time had stopped. Nothing else mattered at that moment except the words written on those papers and the cheers from their friends and girlfriends surrounding them. It almost felt like a dream and neither of them were willing to pinch themselves in fear that they'd wake up.

Nayeon's head was swimming as she felt Jeongyeon pick her up and swing her around in the air. She barely processed anything her girlfriend said as she blindly kissed her, still unable to believe the words she had just read out loud. She kept re-reading the letter until Jihyo finally pulled her into a bone crushing hug, snapping her out of the blissful daze she was in.

"Our little Nayeon and Mina are going off to NYU!" Jihyo was sobbing at this point as she squeezed the life out of Nayeon. Nayeon looked over to Jeongyeon, trying to plead for help with her eyes as Jeongyeon just stood there shrugging her shoulders. Who was she to get in the way of her best friend congratulating her? It wasn't every day you got into the medical school of your dreams.

"Ya. Now New York City is really going to be crazy. Mina and Nayeon in the same city is dangerous. Maybe Nayeon should have accepted Cornell medical school instead so at least there'd be some distance between the crazies." Momo laughed and congratulated her friends as she dodged Nayeon's various attacks.

//

Jeongyeon took her time saying her goodbyes even though they all still had the rest of their last semester together. Nayeon patiently waited for her, sitting on the steps of Jihyo and Sana's apartment. She looked up at the sky, enjoying the chill of the winter air and the way the slight breeze stung her cheeks.

The moon was beautiful as it cast a cold glow on the small circle of apartments. It was moments like this when Nayeon did most of her thinking. It was a quiet night as the sound of her loud and rambunctious friends was muffled by the closed door. She was still in awe of the letter she was holding onto for dear life in her cold hand, but there was still that tiny feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach.

Nayeon gazed up at the moon. She thought about that letter Jeongyeon got in the mail and the conversation she had with her that night in the cabin. Nayeon was sorting through mail a few weeks after their trip and found a letter addressed to Jeongyeon from a company her girlfriend had mentioned a few times. When she asked Jeongyeon about it, she just took the letter and tossed it on her bedside table. She told Nayeon that it wasn't anything important and she'd wait to open it once Nayeon found out what medical school she wanted to go to.

She wished that the moon could give her any kind of answer. She knew it was selfish to stop Jeongyeon from taking such a good and well-paying job if that was what the letter was about, but a part of her wanted to be selfish. A part of her wasn't sure that if she and Jeongyeon had a long-distance relationship that it would work. Unfortunately, Nayeon's thoughts and unspoken questions for the moon were cut short before she could get any answers as Jeongyeon stepped out beside her.

"Ready to go, bunny?" Jeongyeon looked down at Nayeon, smiling at the slight blush that formed on her cheeks from the cold. Nayeon gently nodded and got up, her hand immediately searching for Jeongyeon's. She put her best smile on and decided that she didn't want to ruin the night. They could always talk about the future tomorrow and the moon would always be there to guide her.

//

"Baby you're gonna be late for your own graduation if you don't hurry up!" Nayeon was impatiently standing with Jeongyeon's parents by the front door of their apartment. Since they were in different programs, they had separate days for graduation. Nayeon's was the day before and her parents had cried through the whole thing. Her dad pretended that he only shed a few tears, but she could tell by the way he was squeezing her mom's hand that it wasn't the truth.

"I know! I just can't get this fucking zipper to work!" Jeongyeon yelled from their bedroom in frustration. Nayeon rolled her eyes and excused herself to help her girlfriend.

"Are you sure you're graduating with a mechanical engineering degree and almost perfect grades?" Nayeon teased her and smoothly zipped up the graduation gown. "And watch your language. The look your mom gave your dad told me she wasn't too impressed about what you just yelled out."

"Thank you and I'm sure she's heard worse from my dad." Jeongyeon laughed and kissed Nayeon on the head before ushering her out of the room. Her parents gasped when they saw her in her cap and gown, her mom already starting to cry a little. "Mom you can't cry yet. We haven't even gotten to the part where I'm walking on the stage." Jeongyeon shook her head and smiled as she wrapped her mom in a gentle hug.

"I know. It just seems like it was only yesterday that we were scolding you for wetting the bed and now here you are about to graduate college." Jeongyeon groaned and pushed her parents out of the apartment before they could bring up any more embarrassing memories of her childhood.

//

Picture after picture after picture was taken at the group's big graduation party. It felt like the whole school showed up even though there were only about 50 people at the small venue. Jihyo, AKA the expert party planner, made sure to invite all their friends from their respective majors as well as some family members.

"Do you remember that one time Jihyo spit chocolate milk all over that girl in our science class?" One of Nayeon and Jihyo's old friends bent over in a fit of laughter as she brought up the memory that caused Jihyo to blush bright red.

"I didn't mean to! She made a stupid ass joke, and I thought it was really funny at the time!" Jihyo raised her hands in defense as she shot her friend a playful glare.

"Sure it was Ji. I don't even think I laughed back then. What kind of love does an Italian eel find? A moray." Nayeon retold the joke and the three of them were silent for a second before busting out into another fit of laughter.

The party was a success despite the number of people in such a small space. There weren't too many places left since Jihyo had planned at the last minute. Nayeon felt like she was at a crowded frat party all over again as she tried to squeeze her way to her girlfriend. She stood on her toes to try and see if she could find where she was standing, just barely spotting the top of her head. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Yoo, for having a daughter that's taller than me. Nayeon thought this as she finally made it to Jeongyeon, smiling up at her as she reached for her hand.

"So Jeongyeon. Nayeon told us that you got an offer from a company in DC. That's great!" Nayeon's mother congratulated her, causing her to blush. It turns out that the company was only located in Washington DC. Jeongyeon and Nayeon talked about the offer and Jeongyeon was more than willing to say no to it and find something else to be with Nayeon, but they still hadn't agreed on anything.

"Oh, thank you so much. I'm still not even sure if I'm going to take it though. We still need to talk about a few things especially since Nayeon will be in New York City." Jeongyeon let out a nervous laugh and squeezed Nayeon's hand for silent reassurance.

"Well whatever decision you make I'm sure your parents will be proud of you. We know we're proud of our Nayeon." Nayeon's father patted Jeongyeon's shoulder and congratulated her again before going back to speak with the other parents.

As soon as they were out of ear shot, Nayeon turned towards Jeongyeon, cupping her face in her hands. "Are you okay? I'm sorry they brought that up. I told them not to."

Jeongyeon just gave Nayeon a toothy grin and nodded. She set her hands in Nayeon's and brought them to her lips for a gentle kiss. "I'm okay. I promise. And I wasn't exactly lying either. We still haven't really talked about it, and I haven't accepted their final offer yet."

Nayeon looked down at her feet and let out a sigh. "I know and I'm sorry. I just... I want the best for you, but I also want to be selfish. It's so hard." She wrapped her arms around Jeongyeon's neck and pulled her into a hug. Jeongyeon silently nodded and squeezed Nayeon a little tighter.

She knew exactly how her girlfriend felt. Ever since that discussion they had in the cabin, it had been on her mind. What was going to happen to them once all of this was over? She would never let her know but a few times, Jeongyeon caught Nayeon sitting outside on their front steps just staring up and talking to the moon as if it had all the answers to her questions.

Maybe it did. Maybe she should ask the moon what to do.

"Yoo Jeongyeon! Im Nayeon! Get your asses over here so we can take a group photo! Don't think I won't take it without you because I absolutely will." Jihyo yelled at them across the venue and thankfully due to her megaphone level voice, they were able to hear her well enough.

Nayeon smiled and pulled Jeongyeon over with her, politely pushing through the small groups of people. She jumped on Jeongyeon's back as they stood on one end of the group to pose. Jihyo thanked her dad and handed him the phone, quickly getting into the picture beside Sana.

"Say graduation!" They all smiled and even though it was one of the happiest days of their lives, there was still an unspoken feeling in the air. As the hours went on and as the party went on, they realized that everything was coming to an end. No more late-night study sessions or spontaneous group trips to get pancakes at 3 am. Now they had to start their own lives in new cities and make new friends.

Nayeon stood there and watched as her friends all huddled around Jihyo, laughing at the funny photos that her dad made them take. She wanted to capture this moment. She wanted to freeze time and remember them like this. She felt like she was being dramatic since she knew that they would all be friends and keep in touch but knowing that it was never going to be exactly like this again made her heart ache. It ached even more when Jeongyeon looked up at her with that big goofy smile, waving her over to join the group.

As Nayeon shuffled over to them, Jihyo put her phone away and took a few steps back to wrap her arms around Sana and Momo. The rest of the girls followed and soon they all took a few steps in, making one giant group hug. It was quiet now despite the people talking around them. They could hear each other sniffling but no one dared to make a joke. It was too precious of a moment.

It was then that Nayeon decided to stop worrying until at least tomorrow. Over her four years in college, the friends she made, and all the things she experienced, she learned that life is always going to be unexpected. In the moment it may suck or be the best thing in the world. Regardless, you have to take that leap of faith. And who knows? Maybe it will change everything.