Chapter Text
Soojin and Hosook broke up around a week ago. They had a big fight over Hosook kissing their friend Yoonji while drunk multiple times over a span of a few months. Hosook tried to defend herself by saying she wasn’t in the right state of mind, which Soojin believed at first, but had to hear from Namjoo that it was a lie.
Her whole body hurt that week. Her chest ached, and the tears in her eyes seemed to amplify when one dared to slip. Soojin just couldn’t grasp the fact she was going to marry this girl one day, and she goes to kiss her best friend. Oh, it hurt her soul in ways she never imagined feeling.
Soojin expected Hosook to at least be partially affected, but she (devastatingly) heard from Namjoo that she was making multiple posts about Yoonji everyday. Namjoo unfollowed her after that, and Soojin didn’t dare look up the username she remembered too well.
Even after a month, she couldn’t move on. She couldn’t understand why the tower of bricks just kept falling; maybe she hadn’t found her cement yet, but she didn’t even know what that cement was. She tried to comfort herself about it, because she knew that if Hosook could move on, she could too.
Really though, she knew why she moved on that quickly, and that was because Yoonji and Hosook were infatuated for months. Now looking back, she did notice the way Hosook refused to get her off after she did for her, or the times she’d rather stay in and hide out in the other room than attend a party that Soojin wanted to go to. When she did that, it always stung and now she knew why.
For the simple reason of: she didn’t want to be seen with Soojin.
Every time those words hit her head again, her jaw clenched and tears welled up into her eyes. She wondered with the way she was handling this situation if she’d ever get over Hosook. Probably not.
But now, a few months have passed. Honestly, she didn’t think she was fully over Hosook, but she was getting there. She found herself not feeling panicky when the smell of her perfume came from another person. Although the vanilla rose would probably be ingrained to her scent, it wouldn’t be as bad as it would a week or two ago.
So, today Soojin decided to go out and do something for herself. She hadn’t exactly caught up on her self care since the event, besides from when Namjoo got her some skincare items. Even then, she struggled, but today she wanted to actually try.
She looked up on her phone for the traffic status, and it was pretty busy. When the traffic was crowded, she always took the subway. It was good to switch every so often; her car probably wasn’t as environmentally friendly as a subway.
Soojin got up from her bed after that, walking to her closet. She showered previously and put on lazy clothes so she wouldn’t get makeup all over her fresh ones. She picked out a random pair of light blue jeans, and a white band tee shirt. She threw it on her bed, and finally grabbed a wooly yellow cardigan. It felt cute.
Now, she just had to do her makeup quickly. Soojin went to her makeup bag, pulling out foundation, blush, and a range of pink eye shadows. She always liked the softer styles claiming it fit her face well -- it did. Once it was done, she threw on her clothes feeling pretty for the first time in months – it was like she was resparking.
Whilst grabbing her phone and a headband that she pushed her hair back with, she got the idea to text Namjoo. Maybe she wanted to go to the mall with her and get some coffees as they did so. Namjoo was one of the only people she knew that still liked doing that which was perfect.
Texting Namjoo was always easy too. If you texted her, she’d respond within a few seconds of the message. Soojin always found that funny because it was only like that with her, or at least what she recalled the last time they talked. A part of her found that adorable, but didn’t say that because she knew Namjoo would grow really red and start whining.
Like expected though, Namjoo texted back almost instantly saying, “You don’t even have to ask.”
So, Soojin texted her the details and said to meet her at the subway. She grabbed her own bag, stuffing a random essential oil in it and a bottle of water just in case. She was always a panic packer, because she never used the things she usually brought, but that never stopped her.
Soojin walked out of her apartment, walking half a mile into the city before reaching the stairs down to the subway. It was loud, but thankfully it wasn’t as crowded as she expected for a Saturday.
She went down the stairs, going to sit at a random bench to wait for Namjoo. She knew her text was probably short notice, so she didn’t expect her to be there as quickly as she was. It did take around ten minutes for Namjoo to finally reach where she was.
Namjoo was wearing a more casual outfit than she was, but that was usually typical for her. She didn’t dress up much unless she had an event that required it – or in the middle of the night when she knew she had to work in the morning. Soojin wasn’t judging her though, because she was just as guilty.
When Namjoo saw Soojin, she smiled with her dimples highlighting her face. Soojin always admired those dimples; she’d occasionally poke them when she smiled, and she was determined today was that day.
Instead of their usual hug, she just poked. Namjoo ended up giggling and lightly pushing her shoulder. “Seriously?”
“Yes seriously, they’re cute.” Namjoo just rolled her eyes, but couldn’t stop the blush that was apparent on her cheeks. Soojin took notice of it, but didn’t mention it because she didn’t want her to be too flustered to talk.
Internally, Namjoo was squealing, but she chose to hide that as well. The two of them started to walk towards the subway doors, quickly getting in before they had to wait for the next stop.
Once the subway started to move, they talked about their random interests to drown out the other people talking as well. Soojin was the one who listened more than talked since she knew Namjoo loved to just ramble about things. Honestly, she found it almost too cute, but tried to push that to the back of her mind.
It took around 15 minutes to get off at another station, and thankfully the mall was just half a mile away. Usually Soojin would’ve complained about this prior to her move to the city, but now she was just used to it – which was why she never wore anything but sneakers everywhere.
By the time they made it there, it was around 1:00 P.M. and the mall was decently packed, but that didn’t stop them from having fun. As Soojin looked up to Namjoo, it always felt like she was a kid looking up to an adult despite only being in a two inch difference. She spoke regardless, pulling out a twenty from her bag, “You want coffee, or tea, or something?”
Namjoo nodded, pulling out her own money, but Soojin just shook her head. She gently took the money out of her hands, putting it back into her sweat pants. “Hm-mm. I’m paying.”
As Soojin started to walk, Namjoo caught up and pouted at her. “Unnie, I can pay for myself. Really, it’s okay.”
“You always get me stuff Joo-yah, let me get you your americano.”
Namjoo wanted to protest that, so she just spilled out one that didn’t make sense. “How did you know that–”
Soojin couldn’t help but let out a laugh when she said that, accidently cutting off Namjoo. “You act like you don’t come over to my apartment with an Americano every time. Besides, you’re my best friend; I'd be an idiot if I didn’t know your favorite order by now.”
“Okay, fair but,” She pouted more as they reached the corner cafe, knowing she wasn’t able to do anything about it now. “I can pay, I promise it’s okay.”
“You’re too sweet, but I'll get it, okay? You don't have to feel guilty or anything like that. I want to get you this.”
Namjoo pouted again, but nodded. Soojin always knew that she had trouble accepting things, but she didn’t mind comforting her for it. Namjoo would move on after it was done, or at least she hoped – usually she did though, to Soojins observations.
Soojin ordered their drinks, paying for them in the end. She got green tea with mixed berries, and of course, Namjoo got her americano. She did end up moving on from it, because now they were in her favorite store: Barnes N Nobles. It went hand in hand for both of them; Namjoo liked to graze over all of the books and see their covers, while Soojin liked to see if they had her favorite Vinyl records and pick through the different CDS.
Although, they started with the books first. Namjoo aimed for philosophy and anything that had a deep complexity or meaning behind it. She liked to look through and read them, then write reports on them to get out her post-read excitement.
She ended up picking out Demian/Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse, and then looked around for 15 more minutes before they went to the music section. Soojin did the same as Namjoo: looked around, and studied the covers of the albums. Eventually, she reached for a Laufey Vinyl, and they paid and left.
They didn’t stay at each store for too long, usually just grazing through it and leaving with one or two things. It took a few hours for them to finally finish their mall journey, and by that time Soojin was complaining about her hunger.
“M’hungry. I didn’t get a chance to eat before I left the house.”
“So, do you wanna go somewhere, or–”
“Yes.” She cut in, giving Namjoo her sweet smile that she always found adorable.
“We could go somewhere in the mall, maybe go somewhere and sit in or something..?”
“Let’s go somewhere. I don’t know if I want mall food right now, it makes me sick.”
Namjoo nodded as they started to exit the mall. Thankfully they only had a couple of bags, so the walk back to the subway wasn’t as degrading.They both had a silent agreement that they’d go somewhere that was close to Soojin’s apartment; this was always how it was when they had days like this.
When they made it to the subway, they got into the container and started to talk about where they wanted to go. Soojin was the first to bring it up, since she had been thinking about it the whole half mile.
“We could go to that one place. That one by the bakery?”
“The Italian one? I’m down.” Namjoo pulled out her phone after that, typing up the place's name to make sure she had it right. She did, and made sure to keep that tab open for future reference.
The subway finally came to a halt, and they both got off with their bags. Soojin offered that they could make a quick stop back to her place so that the bags wouldn’t be a bother, and Namjoo agreed.
They walked the way back to her apartment, dropping off the bags, and getting back to walking. From there, the walk to the Italian place wasn’t long, so using Soojin’s car wouldn’t serve all that much purpose.
They finally made it to the restaurant, and they stayed for around an hour to eat. It was mostly just talking about random things, and what they’d do after this. Soojin suggested that Namjoo stay over for the night since it was a Saturday, and she agreed.
Eventually, they left the place and walked all the way back to her place. They both plopped onto the couch from being so tired and full, when it finally hit Soojin. It was probably the first day she hardly had a thought about Hosook.