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“Would you rather spend 24 hours with… actually, it says “member of your choice” in both of these options, so, let’s say someone like Minnie? Orrrr, spend 24 hours with Yuqi?” Miyeon read through a sheet of paper picked out from the fish bowl filled with Would You Rather? questions intended for either of the two girls. It was Miyeon’s turn to choose, and, seriously? What kind of choices were these?
No offense to Minnie of course. She’d be great person to be with, both as a woman and an older non-biological sister. She was aware the Thai had a good sense of humor and knew how to keep a conversation going, but… for 24 hours? Wouldn’t that tire both of them out? They could talk and maybe play for a couple of hours, but of course, Soyeon’s an introvert and Minnie might be one as well, so they’d need to recharge. That’s fine—but it’d be awkward, in a sense…
What more if she had to spend the time with Yuqi?
Hell on Earth, that’s for sure.
“Soyeon-ah!!!” Yuqi’s voice came booming throughout the small room. She jumped to sit on Soyeon’s bed right next to where the owner was sitting and scrolling inattentively on her feed. Soyeon huffed in mild irritation and turned to look at the redhead, who was now lying on her side with a hand supporting her head and winking.
“What do you want?”
“Why are you so hostile?” Yuqi pouted. “I did nothing wrong, no?”
“What you did wrong was barging into my room like that,” Soyeon sighed, had her personal space been invaded.
“Oh really?” Yuqi sat up and locked eyes with the Korean. “Does that make me a bad person? Do I have to make up for my crimes?”
“No, I…”
“Bad dog?” Yuqi leaned her face close to Soyeon’s and flashed her greatest attempt on puppy-eyes to appear more convincing. The brunette coughed and quickly backed away; she didn’t know if it was because of the distance of their lips being barely 2 inches apart, the room suddenly warming up, the unnerving eye contact, or simply the way Soyeon couldn’t handle a person being that close to her.
“You’re so annoying,” Soyeon grunted and pushed Yuqi away by her shoulders.
“Am I now?”
“Always have been,” she replied and lay back on her bed, putting her weight on the headboard. Defeated, Yuqi playfully rolled her eyes and moved to sit next to her.
“What were you doing anyway?” Yuqi grabbed a pillow near them and held it close to her chest—it smelled much like Soyeon. The scent was somewhat citrusy and comforting, and it enveloped her nicely much like a warm hug. As how fun it is to mess with the older girl, Yuqi didn’t want to actually push her to her limits and have her do something she might regret doing at the end of the day. Like having to deal with never-ending silence when Soyeon refuses to greet her back in the halls of CUBE.
“Nothing,” Soyeon replied. “Oh- wait, actually, all kinds of stuff! I was working on a patent on my brand new scientific invention that’ll drastically change the course of society for the next 5 centuries until you decided to barge into my room and bother me!”
“But you were on your Instagram feed just now,” Yuqi smiled. Smiled like an idiot. A fucking idiot. God, how does she always win?
“I hate you, really.” Soyeon crossed her arms, long nails lightly grazing the skin of her bicep, eyes away from the combination of aggravation and cuteness personified that is Song Yuqi. Her eyes caught the sight of their legs, and from this view, she found that Yuqi positioned her body to completely face Soyeon.
“If you hate me so much, why haven’t you kicked me out of your room yet?”
“Well, I would’ve, but…” Soyeon nipped her bottom lip.
“But what?”
There isn’t any reason. She doesn’t hate Yuqi like that—everything she’d said was simply… empty. Empty feelings, empty threats.
“Well, do you want me to?” Soyeon glared at her. And, as always, Yuqi knew she was simply feigning displeasure. She could either give a genuine reply to such a question, or play along as if she were actually terrified of being dragged out of the yellow hued room. “Because I’d gladly do so.”
Soyeon hadn’t looked too entertained all day, and time has also passed since the last time they actually had a proper conversation together, so why not shoot a shot?
“Oh, no, please don’t!” Yuqi whined and grasped Soyeon’s hand. “Please, ma’am, I’ve done nothing wrong!”
Soyeon stared at her with wide eyes and furrowed eyebrows at the abrupt action. Her social battery was nearly out for the day, and she would be pissed although after seconds of not saying anything, Yuqi was silently nudging her to at least say something or tag along with her antics.
“I might as well just have to kick you out,” Soyeon’s lips lightly curled into a smirk. Of course, she didn’t miss the way Yuqi beamed at her reply, red varsity jacket moving along with her body as she chuckled.
But suddenly, Soyeon’s lips slowly fell to a straight line and her eyes seemed as if they’d seen the dark age of the universe. Yuqi frowned at this, and moreover, her actions, did she actually push her too much?
“No?” Yuqi blinked at her, but Soyeon stayed quiet. Instead, she grabbed the arm Yuqi used to support herself, wrapped it around her, and sighed.
She looked calm as day. Yuqi was going haywire.
“Sorry, excuse me. I’m just not… in the mood right now.”
“No, it’s, it’s fine,” Yuqi muttered. “Don’t be sorry. I know you’re tired from everything you’ve been doing.”
Yuqi harshly bit her inner cheek to at least keep her composure and to stop her from evaporating when Soyeon scooted closer to her, their bodies in contact with each other, and rested peacefully in her warmth. Hm, tired Soyeon is a lot different from active Soyeon—oddly a bit too affectionate than what she’s used to.
“Honestly, my bad I’ve been bothering you all night, I wasn’t aware you needed some time alone,” she laughed at herself and her ignorance. A little fool she made of herself, really. But, her heartbeat started to pick up a bit as her palms got sweaty. “But it’s… definitely not because of me, right?”
“No,” Soyeon blurted out in half a second. “I mean,” she coughed. “No, you weren’t bothering me. It’s nothing about you.”
The reveal eased Yuqi a bit. Just another one of her worries erased and reassured.
“I can leave if you want me to,” she offered.
Soyeon didn’t know what to say. She especially didn’t want to sound so pathetic by saying, no, don’t leave, just stay here by my side because you’re oh, so charming with your newly dyed short red hair, soft bunny hat, and red varsity jacket paired with black jean shorts! like her heart desperately wanted her to, but her mind told her to be more… rational. And most importantly, hidden.
“Do you want to?” The unpleasant feeling gnawed at her. It’s really not like she wanted Yuqi to leave, but..
“You respond to my question with another question,” Yuqi chuckled, and a subconscious grip on the shoulder meets Soyeon. It wasn’t meant to be harsh nor sarcastic; oddly enough, it felt soft. “You’re really something, Jeon Soyeon.”
“I didn’t mean…” she sighed. “Well, I wouldn’t mind if you left, but—“
“You really want me to leave that bad, do you?” Yuqi squinted at her in scrutiny. She closely observed the brunette’s expression to see if she had anything to hide—in this case, not really, at least.
“Let me finish,” Soyeon interjected and stared at her dead in the eye. Yuqi nodded and made a zipping motion with her lips, “It’s not like I want you to leave, but I wouldn’t mind if you really had to. Or wanted to, for that matter. A little company wouldn’t hurt either.”
“So, you want me to stick around for a while?” Yuqi beamed and her eyes shimmered as if celebratory fireworks just went off in her head. “Mm, seems like Jeon Soyeon, the Jeon Soyeon, is finally warming up to me after being covered in ice for ages!”
“Who are you talking to?” she groaned. Some of the things Yuqi liked to do made her cringe, albeit not in a bad way, if that’s even possible. She’d just learned to accept the dork within her if they were gonna be stuck with each other for a while.
“You are no fun. At all,” Yuqi verbally and proudly expressed her depreciation; blew a raspberry, and stuck out a thumb upside down much to imitate a dislike. “Crybaby.”
“Not a crybaby.” The redhead rolled her eyes.
“Are too.”
“No I’m not! I’m so much more than just a crybaby. Unlike you, I’m—“
Her rambling quickly watered down to white noise going through Soyeon’s ears. She lay there and stared at Yuqi’s lips which let out words she didn’t bother paying attention to. Probably whining about nonsense, but she let her mouth run anyway.
Soyeon didn’t know what came over her, but her hand reached above to hold Yuqi’s soft face, porcelain-like cheeks squished between her thumb and the rest of her fingers, her lips forcing shut together. “Yuqi,” she simply stated. And when the latter didn’t dare to say anything, Soyeon gave her face two light squeezes. “Mm, much better. Crybaby.”
The younger merely glared at her, gaze laced with disdain, mad eyes staring into Soyeon’s mischievous ones.
“You’re so much more bearable when you don’t talk…” Soyeon grinned, and shortly after, she found herself leaning in towards her lips, and…
“Soyeon? Soyeon, are you there?” Miyeon called in concern. It’s been almost 10 minutes since she let Soyeon think about her answer for a bit. Almost 10 minutes since she picked up her phone because she’d gotten an important text message from staff at work regarding a tiny confirmation. When she looked up from her phone, the younger was still there sat idly. Except her face was redder than the last time she saw it.
Soyeon shook her head.
“Are you alright?”
“Yeah, yes,” she coughed. “Yes of course. Sorry, where were we? I got too caught up thinking about some things that came up this week.” Ha, liar.
“We can stop playing if you’re tired,” Miyeon calmly said.
“No, no, I’m okay. What was the question again?”
She mentally punched herself for being so awkward in front of her friend. Who knows how long she’s been waiting for her to finish daydreaming, pondering, and thinking too much about such a simple choice? Although she might be a little pissed Miyeon interrupted her before her best part.
“So, back to the question. Would you pick Minnie or Yuqi?”
“Ah, uh, I guess…”
Miyeon looked at her expectantly, eyebrows raised and ears all open.
“I guess Minnie-unnie. She’s cool. What about you?” Miyeon hummed, seemingly pleased with her answer. Honestly, why is that?
“Hmm, I’d also choose Minnie. I know she’s a fun person to be with.”
Soyeon looked down on Miyeon’s hand and narrowed her eyes at the Chanel Coco Crush ring sat on her middlemost finger. She recalled the older saying how it’s just a friendship ring! or it’s just a tiny little gift! ; she’d bought the excuses then with a little bit of doubt until she saw Minnie wearing that exact same ring. And if Soyeon was asked truthfully on what she thought, in what world do friends spend nearly 5 million won for some friendship rings? And show it off to the whole world while they’re at it? Was she lying? Was she trying to deceive Soyeon? Maybe. Obviously.
Of course you’d know.
“What? What’s with that look?” Miyeon clasped her hands together as she suddenly grew conscious from Soyeon’s harsh stare that could bore holes through her fingers.
“Nothing,” Soyeon muttered.
“If I’m being honest, Minnie is a much more acceptable choice. I seriously can’t stand being with Yuqi for more than 10 minutes, she always has something to say,” the girl laughed, and Soyeon grinned.
And she totally didn’t answer the Thai’s name just because she loved her so much. Anyway,
“Yeah, you’re right.”
But it wasn’t so bad, no?
Fine, 24 hours with Yuqi. Yeah, Yuqi. Definitely Yuqi.