Work Text:
spending time with saebi is all easy giggles, intertwined fingers, earnest eyes. sometimes she turns to look at saebi’s laughing profile, little crinkles forming at the corner of her eyes when she scrunches them too hard, and marvels at how saebi’s joy seems to make everything glow a little brighter.
she certainly doesn’t mind the way saebi is draped over her in the loveseat that is a touch too small to accommodate both their taller builds at once - revels in the warm weight of saebi’s torso wedged beside her own and the arm thrown casually around her waist.
right now, the horrors of the impending finale are nothing but a distant crashing of waves in the back of her mind, secondary to the tinkling lilt of saebi’s voice recounting how she found jiyoon angrily ranting at some malfunctioning vending machine.
***
koko heard the rush of water and jeemin’s shrill yell of indignation even before she saw saebi, wild eyed and grinning, thundering down the narrow corridor, jeemin ostensibly in hot pursuit.
“JEONG SAEBI! YOU LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT! WHO EVEN PULLS THESE SORT OF PRANKS ANYMORE????? GET BACK HERE SO I CAN-“
“koko! help me hide!” saebi stage whispers, yanking koko along somewhat unceremoniously by the arm.
“WHAT? you little punk, what’d you do to jeemin this time!” koko manages to hiss, narrowly avoiding faceplanting and forced to sprint along with saebi.
“JEONG SAEBI! YOU BASTARD!!” jeemin’s sandals slap against the vinyl flooring in the distance, the volume of her scream notching up. beside koko, saebi lets out a high pitched giggle, and for a fleeting moment koko indulges herself in admiring the rosy glow of saebi’s cheeks.
and not a moment too soon before saebi abruptly shoves her into a broom closet, a choked off gasp of surprise wrenching itself from koko’s throat. the door creaks in protest as saebi jerks it closed - the slap of jeemin’s scandals echo down the hallway, past the broom closet door.
saebi stumbles a little too conveniently into koko, sending various bottles tumbling to the floor and crowding her against the wall. for a heartbeat, all is still, and saebi is so close koko can feel the warmth of her skin and smell the clean, floral scent of her shampoo, see the individual wavy hairs falling over her face. the thump-thump-thump of koko’s heart against her ribcage seems so loud it might be audible in the space between their breaths.
koko swallows, mind blanking as she flicks her eyes up to meet saebi’s. her dark, round eyes, bright and sparkling even in the thin shaft of light the broom closet door allows in.
she feels her mouth go dry.
“saebi-yah,” she whispers, as though speaking louder might shatter the moment, “don’t look at me like that.”
“like what?” saebi says softly.
the nerve, the audacity to say that, with her eyes sweeping over and drinking in every inch of koko’s face, her pupils blown out and corners tipped up in an eye smile.
“like… like you’re in love with me.”
saebi’s eyes flatten out into crescents, dimple winking into existence as she grins, and it takes the very breath from koko’s lungs. she is dimly aware of the sensation of her own fingers flexing and curling into the material of saebi’s jacket, the swish of the polyester reassuring her of her own corporeality.
“is it that obvious?”
koko thought to herself, i must be dreaming. but if this is a dream, let it be so. let me enjoy this for a while before i wake up and realise it was all in my head.
and then saebi smirks a little lopsidedly, one hand coming up to cradle her cheek and the other bracketing her waist, and, well, koko thinks she might die.
and when jeong saebi kisses her, she is sure she will never be the same again. she is sure that the universe just tilted on its axis, because how could it not, after such a momentous event?