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"Hey."
Seongje lazily lifts her eyes.
"Baku."
She sits down on the steps nearby, not far from the park. Either of them could have sat on a bench somewhere, but both chose not to be like normal people.
"Rough day?"
"Mm."
Seongje hums noncommittally. Since when does Baku care?
The intruder on her proud solitude glances at the scattered band-aids, rubbing alcohol, bandages, and a pack of cigarettes lying nearby. Seongje looks battered.
"Here."
Seongje gives her a lazy look.
"I don't like Milkis."
"You want my Fanta then?"
She shakes two cans in her hands. Grape or plain banana. Between two evils...
"Fine, give me the Milkis."
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."
"You got nothing better to do?"
They aren't friends. They don't hang out, don't talk, don't cross paths except to settle scores in fights. Not even their own scores — just over something or other. They aren't classmates, not even from the same school. But Baku acts as if everything listed were untrue. Or what is she even thinking?
"Well, I was just passing by. We run into each other a lot, huh?"
"Not really."
Although, if she thinks about it, Baku did pop into her sight more often than the others. Always showed up with Gotak in tow, stood up for Sieun, kept an eye on that shorty with glasses. Always had her finger in every pie.
And she seemed to see Seongje even more often than mere chance would allow. Or were they just that lucky?
A few times, Baku had shown up right at the end of fights, so the only thing left was to drag the exhausted bodies of her friends back to their homes. Such a caretaker. A few times she'd walked past when Seongje was fighting some strangers all by herself. Their eyes had met. By accident. A few times, Baku had called out to her somewhere in the middle of the street and said hello. On purpose.
"Why don't you ever say hi to me?"
She says it completely on point. Seongje doesn't look her way.
"Why would I? We're not friends."
"Hm."
And she was right. Seongje clicks the tab on the can and takes a sip. Too sweet for her. Baku now just drinks silently beside her. Seongje doesn't want to drink (and she still doesn't like Milkis), so she sets it aside. When the other finishes, she stands up, crushing the can in her hand.
"Don't litter."
"When I leave, I'll write your name on the can on purpose and leave it right here."
Baku laughs. Waves at her and walks away.
Seongje is alone again.
"Hey."
Seongje lifts her head.
"You again?"
"Yep, and you again. Here."
She holds it out.
"I don't drink Milkis."
"Ah, right. You want my Fanta?"
Seongje snorts.
"I'm having deja vu."
She takes it again from her outstretched hand. Baku sits down next to her once more. She could have stayed standing, she could have not stayed at all, but for some reason she chose to sit down with her.
"You've got blood under your nose."
"And you've got a fucking stupid mug."
She snaps back. Baku frowns and rummages in her pocket. Holds out a handkerchief. She doesn't see any bandages or alcohol nearby this time. Does she treat her wounds depending on her mood?
"Wipe your face. Why stupid?"
Seongje levels a look at her and touches her nose with her knuckles. It really is blood.
"Because you've got no business staring at me."
She takes the handkerchief and wipes her face. Baku looks away when it's offered back. She clicks the tab on her can and takes a drink.
"Keep it."
"I don't need it."
Baku shrugs.
"Throw it away then."
Seongje shoves it in her pocket. She'll toss it in the nearest trash can.
Baku finishes her Fanta and leaves. Seongje listens to the sound of her footsteps fading away.
"Hey."
She's not even surprised anymore.
"Hey."
"Here."
"Why not Milkis?"
"They didn't have any."
And you don't like it.
Seongje lets the fizz from the 7UP spray out. She liked this one.
"Put out the cigarette."
"Why would I?"
"It stinks."
"So do you."
Today must have been World Compromise Day or some similar bullshit, because Seongje silently grinds the smoldering cigarette butt against the asphalt. Not at all because of the 7UP instead of Milkis.
"Not treating the scratches?"
"Don't give a damn. There's barely any blood."
Seongje is disheveled, as usual. Baku, as usual, sits next to her. Seongje flinches back as soon as she raises a hand toward her.
"And what are you doing?"
"Stop twitching like that. Your hair's sticking out, I wanted to fix it."
Seongje runs her hand along the length of her hair. There are tangles on her crown. Baku huffs and reaches out anyway, quickly combing through them with her fingers and smoothing it down as it was. Better now.
Baku presses her broad palm to the back of Seongje's head. Seongje eyes her sideways. Her hand slides down from the crown, gives the ends a little tug, and runs down her back in what seems like a gesture of encouragement. She gives a short pat and removes her hand.
"Go home, it's late."
"You first."
She's deflecting again. Baku agrees.
"I'll go too. I'm desperately tired."
And yet, she still sat down with her for some reason. Seongje stands up. Baku rises after her.
"Good night."
"Mm."
She finds the handkerchief with dried blood in her pocket. Drops it along with the cigarette butt into the nearest trash can. Baku is calling after her back.
"'And good night to you too, Park Humin.'"
"Yeah, see you."
"You too!"
They bumped into each other by chance, and Baku chose to stay on purpose. She would approach her if she spotted her from afar. She’d wave, even if she was with her classmates. She’d start a conversation while Seongje stayed silent or snapped back.
Now she bought her 7UP. Or something else, if neither that nor Milkis was available.
Seongje put out her cigarettes.
Baku fixed her hair for her. Sometimes brushed dirt off her clothes.
Then she started leaving her hand on her back.
Then she started sitting closer than a meter away. Now their knees were almost touching.
"They say it’s going to snow tomorrow."
"You watch the weather forecast?"
"Nope, Juntae told me. Dress warmly."
Seongje snorts.
"And who spent half the winter in a jacket and athletic shorts under a skirt?"
"I'm built tough! You better not get sick though."
"Such a caretaker."
She mimics her.
Seongje doesn’t notice how she stopped tensing up when Baku approached or sat down beside her. Gradually and steadily, Baku had cemented herself into her routine, just like fighting and smoking after fights, lost in her own thoughts, had become part of it. Now sometimes, among her "own thoughts", Baku flickered through too. But Seongje didn’t want to call her a friend. Wouldn’t acknowledge it. She’d been burned before, and now she kept her guard up three times as high.
"Why no hat?"
"I hate hats. Hey."
Baku catches up to her in the middle of the street, ruffling her hair. Seongje hated having her hair touched. But Baku just smiles.
"Hey. Stop."
Grabs her by the elbow to stop her. Pulls off her own hat and stretches it out in her hands. Seongje recoils, continuing to walk.
"Put that the fuck away. I look like a total dickhead in hats."
"Let me see!"
Baku goes for her while Seongje fends her off. Her hands are freezing in the cold — she’d been walking with them in her pockets before, and now she had to wrestle with the girl, and even lose. Seongje stops, standing there with a bright red hat pulled all the way down to her glasses. Her bangs are pinned against her forehead, strands around her face getting into her mouth. Baku bursts out laughing and snaps pictures from every angle.
"You look like such a dork."
"Really? You’re not lying?"
Baku shoves the phone almost under her chin, takes another photo, and then scrolls through the gallery. Seongje peers through the gap between the hat and her glasses at the photos. She lets out a breath that’s almost a laugh too.
"Idiot."
"Hey, leave it!" Baku doesn’t let her pull the hat off, still giggling.
"You want me to keep walking around looking ridiculous?"
"No. Maybe. A little."
"Underline the correct answer."
"Put it back on! Your brain’ll freeze, and then I won’t have anyone to laugh at."
"Oh, so that’s how it is."
They tussle for a while longer, taking the hat off and pulling it back onto Seongje’s head, until she finally throws it several meters ahead so Baku would back off. Baku just snorts with laughter. Doesn’t get offended.
"Want me to send you the photos? Give me your number."
"Why the hell would I want that embarrassment in my gallery? No."
"Mm."
Baku walks past her to pick up the hat, brushes off the snow, and finally puts it on herself. She sways comically from side to side, all puffed up in her down jacket, waiting for her, and says:
"Well, give me your number anyway."
"Why?"
"I need it."
"Why?"
"Give it and you’ll find out."
"Pfft."
Baku shoves her phone into Seongje’s hands. Seongje gives her a look, then types in her number. Hands it back. A couple of seconds later, a notification pops up. Twelve photos. A tongue-out emoji.
"I’ll block you."
"Don’t you dare. I just got your number, and you’re already blowing me off! Give me a chance!"
"Don’t waste it then."
In Seongje’s contact list, among her parents, Baekjin, and a dozen useful numbers for union business, now hung the name "Dumbass". In Baku’s list, among friendly nicknames, shortened names, and silly inside jokes, a fourth entry under 'B' appeared: "Brat".
And to the "Brat" she now sent funny videos and memes, and pestered her with questions about how she was doing. She talked about her own life too, ignoring or not noticing the fact that she hadn’t been asked. It didn’t faze her because Seongje replied anyway. At first with long pauses, then faster. Then almost immediately. Now, sometimes it was Baku who didn’t notice the messages right away. She’d answer one with five of her own, and a couple of minutes later, they’d all be marked as read.
After a few months, Baku changed "Brat" to "Jeje". She knew she was still saved as "Dumbass", but by now their chat history was endless. Dozens of stupid photos from both sides had been shared; Baku even embarrassed her own friends in the messages, on the calls making them all say hi. Seongje would snort and not reply. They called each other quite often too. Seongje never passed on any greetings to anyone.
Baku was loud. Noisy and open. She expressed emotions directly, laughed at the top of her lungs. For some reason, she laughed especially often and loudly with Seongje — at any sarcastically said nonsense. She didn’t always get the sarcasm at first, then she’d crack up once it hit her that she’d been fooled again. Her friends got used to her laughter every thirty seconds, her phone clamped between her shoulder and ear.
She confessed her love just as openly, with fire in her eyes. And they started dating after the talk. Not a fully open-hearted one — no long stories about the history of the feelings, no compliments or lists of liked traits, no counting the days since realization — but Baku still managed to blurt out a bunch of things. Maybe some of the items from that list slipped through. Maybe all of them. No one had ever confessed to Seongje like that before, and Seongje had never made such confessions herself. It took her a little longer to process than she wanted to drag it out for. So Baku wouldn’t have time to realize she’d caught her off guard. But she did admit to reciprocating.
It wasn’t that it happened so unexpectedly, and it wasn’t that Seongje didn’t see it coming. In fact, it was almost the exact opposite. It happened too naturally. Too easily, too smoothly. Baku got close to her, won her over, you could even say gained a drop of trust, and then suggested they get together.
It wasn’t that Seongje had ever been the one others orbited around, so such attention stunned her at first, but Baku was too simple and transparent in all her actions and her entire character overall, so there was no time for awkwardness or anticipation of the moment. The moment arrived as soon as Seongje had relaxed enough and Baku had pestered her to her heart’s content. She confessed without unnecessary delay. They started dating without dawdling either.
Baku was loud, open, and she loved just as loudly. She invited her on dates, showered her with compliments, kept buying her sodas. Remembered — not Milkis. Turned out, not Fanta either.
Once, she handed her a small bouquet.
"Pfft… hahah… HAHAHAHA!"
Seongje laughed loudly while Baku fidgeted on the spot.
"You don’t like them?"
"What the hell do I need flowers for? What kind of idea is that?"
"What do you mean, 'what for'… We’re dating… You’re my girlfriend… I thought… it would be cute…"
"I’m more charmed that you thought I might want flowers. Keep your weed bouquet for yourself."
"Well, I already bought it."
Baku looks hurt but doesn’t lower her outstretched hand. She frowns. Gets angry. At Seongje or at her own stupidity? It looks extremely funny.
"Take it."
"Dumbass. What am I supposed to do with it? Are we gonna walk around with it?"
"Uh… I don’t know. No one’s ever given me flowers, and I don’t know what girls do with them when they get them at the start of a date."
"Maybe they leave them in the car."
"Oh, right, maybe. Well, I don’t have a car."
"I noticed."
"Anyway, we hit six months in our chat."
"Today?"
"Nah… A week ago."
"So why flowers? And wait, are you marking dates?"
"Nope, I was just looking for our first photos to show Gogo, and turns out we had an anniversary. So don’t throw them away."
"You’re celebrating a texting anniversary now?"
"Come on, Jeje, I don’t remember dates at all, but this is a clear marker of when you stopped snarling at me and we, you could say, finally became friends. I wanted to do something nice for you, and you’re just making fun of everything."
"Gonna rename me back to 'Brat'?"
Baku stays silent, sighs, and shakes her head.
"No. I like you being a brat."
"Hahah."
Seongje examines the bouquet. Ordinary dried flowers. She didn’t know the varieties. Baku, she was sure, didn’t either. Looking for symbolism in them was pointless — they simply meant ‘I like you.’
So dumb, yet it felt nice.
The bouquet would lie on the lid of the arcade machines in the PC bang, then she’d almost forget it at a fast-food joint. At home, she’d struggle to find a place for it — she shoved it into an unused cookie jar and put it on the windowsill so it wouldn’t just lie around. It didn’t need water anyway.
Baku would coo out loud when she noticed it on a video call weeks later. Seongje would brush it off, saying she’d forgotten about it. She kept glancing at it herself from time to time.
Seongje doesn't know how to care for someone. She can flirt — yes. But truly care? No. Baku both doted on her and cared for her. Humin.
"Humin-ah."
Seongje drawls tiredly, a little irritated. Baku is rustling something near her phone's speaker; voices are audible in the background. Then a loud pop nearly deafens her, and the girl curses faintly in the distance. Did she drop her phone?
"Hey, Jeje."
"Hey."
"I'm at the school sports field with friends. Where are you?"
"In your neighborhood. Thought we could meet up."
"Come over."
"To you guys?"
"Yeah. Hang on a sec. GUYS!"
Seongje pulls the phone away from her ear again.
"MY GIRL'S COMING OVER!"
Seongje bites her lower lip. Humin hears something in response, though the announcement sounded more like a statement than a question. She speaks again in her normal tone.
"All good, we'll wait."
"Mhm."
Baku is one of those people who constantly talks about her people. About her dad, her friends, her classmates, her girlfriend. And all of the above knew about the latter just as well. Her girl. Such a dumb thing. Seongje had never been anyone's "girl" before.
"Does she have to come?"
"Gotak, that's rude."
"She pisses me off."
"Don't say that in front of Baku. It upsets her."
"I can hear everything."
Humin turns around, shoving her phone back into the pocket of her loose sweatpants. Hyuntak crosses her arms over her chest. Sieun sighs. Juntae sides with Sieun.
"Seongje isn't that bad. Baku loves her for a reason."
"I love her for everything."
She replies firmly. Any negativity behind her back really upset her. Especially about the people close to her.
"Jeje is cool, and she's changed. How much more time has to pass before you all forgive her? You fought, so what? Now she's not bothering you."
"I just don't get why we have to invite her to hang with us."
"Because Baku wants to."
"Yeah. I want to spend time with both you guys and her. I'm not choosing between you."
"Nobody's making you choose. It's just still weird for us that Seongje is..."
"Not being a bitch. Though she's not great at it."
Sieun sighs again. Hyuntak was being too harsh, though judging by the stories, the two of them really did have a long history of unpleasant encounters. That's why she's so pissed. Maybe she's just worried Baku might get hurt. Childhood best friends and a girl who used to only give them hell. Gotak had every reason to be cautious and prejudiced. Though she could probably tone it down a bit now.
"She can act however she wants as long as she doesn't start fights. And lately, you've been the one provoking them more often, Gogo."
"Tell her."
Sieun steps closer to Hyuntak, speaking under her breath. She raises her eyebrows first, then shifts her gaze to her friend. Sighs now too.
"Sorry. I'm just worried about you. If she ever hurts you, I'll kill her."
"She doesn't hurt me."
She says a bit more calmly.
"But you guys don't mess with her either. She's not as heartless as she seems from the outside."
"I'm not the heartless one?"
Seongje approaches from the side. No one noticed her until she was almost right beside them. A tired smile. They can all see it's forced. She's holding it together so they don't think she could actually have feelings. She'd never heard of such a thing.
"Actually, I'm a killing machine and a serial maniac, so you better watch out or I'll kick your asses half to death."
"Yeah, right."
Gotak rolls her eyes as Humin breaks into a wide smile, stepping toward her. Humin smiles at her warmly, tenderly. Her hand slips under the unzipped hoodie, pulling her in by the waist.
Everyone sees Seongje instantly lose all her feigned smugness and sarcasm. Just for a moment. While Humin kisses her, cradling her cheek with her other hand.
She really did act differently with Baku. Every time, her "heartless maniac" persona accidentally cracked, letting something... human slip through? Wow.
"Glad to see you."
Humin continues to stroke her cheek with her thumb. Hyuntak bounces the basketball hard against the ground, shaking off the weird feeling from the sight. She never wanted to witness something like that with someone like Seongje. What a scene. Gross. Sieun also walks toward the hoop. Huyntak passes the ball to Juntae. Seongje allows herself to lean her head slightly into the touch. Baku's hands are warm.
"I can't stay long, I'm tired. Just wanted to see you."
"Of course, babe, glad you came. Wanna play basketball with us?"
"I'll wipe the floor with you and then go."
She winks. Never misses a chance to compete. Humin nods cheerfully.
"Let's go."
It's two against three: Seongje and Sieun versus Baku, Gotak, and Juntae. That way, because Hyuntak swore she'd score ten points in a row against Seongje, and Humin just wanted to go head-to-head with her. And Juntae, as the least experienced player, joined them. Sieun was a good shot but a slow runner and kept losing the ball on offense. So overall, the teams were pretty even.
Seongje taunts Hyuntak when she scores their first point. Annoys her with shoves and trips. She constantly steals the ball from Sieun and never passes. She practically dances circles around Juntae, scoring another point right over her head and fingertips, despite Juntae's comparatively smaller height. Her advantage of half a head, a third, or a few centimeters — depending on who — came into play, though the two serious basketball players quickly adapted to all her slippery moves (and tricks), so they scored another five points. Sieun just kept rolling her eyes every time Seongje started trading verbal jabs with Hyuntak again, and she'd charge only at Seongje, teaming up with Humin to trap her.
They shove, laugh, yell, probably too loud for the late evening, when Baku bumps into Seongje's side hard enough for Hyuntak to steal the ball, and they both tumble onto the court on top of each other with loud laughter. Sieun vainly tries to defend against the basketball player, blocking only one of three consecutive shots, and Humin pounces on Seongje again, wrapping her arms around her from behind and locking her legs so she can't get up.
"Let me go, you octopus! You're leaving Sieun alone against Gotak and her!"
"They can handle it without us!"
Cutting off with laughter, she rolls onto her back with Seongje on top of her as she kicks her legs, both of them grabbing at each other, crumpling their clothes and tangling their hair. Humin swings her full weight sideways to pin Seongje on her back to the ground, pressing her shoulders with her strong hands. In the heat of the moment, she captures her lips in a kiss, caught up in the thrill and intensity of the moment. Seongje wraps her arms around the other's neck, also hiding their faces from view. Both breathe heavily, kissing messily, clutching at shoulders and hands, until Seongje finally lets her head fall back onto the court surface with a laugh. Humin laughs into her neck, holding her tight.
"Are we interrupting?"
"You are!"
Seongje barks back at Hyuntak quickly, though she never stopped smiling. She's completely out of energy now. Her legs were already about to fall off, and she got carried away by the competitive rush.
"If I'm too wiped to get up and end up crashing right here, will you kick me awake and roll me to my school tomorrow?"
"If you can't get up and end up crashing right here,"
Baku rises on her elbows to meet her smiling gaze. Still holding her. Still pressed against her stomach. Seongje is beautiful. And breathing hard.
"then I'll stay with you, and we'll freeze together in each other's arms. You look really beautiful right now."
"It's late spring, it's warm already."
Sieun comments, and Juntae nudges her elbow.
"You're ruining the romance."
Seongje looks into the eyes opposite hers. There she goes again, saying whatever comes to mind.
Humin laughs, finally collapsing onto the ground too, sprawling next to the girl. She exhales.
"Glad you came."
"Yeah, it was fun in the end."
Juntae glances at Hyuntak. She gives a reluctant nod.
"And you guys really didn't want to see me."
"We all did!"
Humin shouts over her, lying down and tilting her head upside down, silencing her friends with a look.
"Tell her, quick!"
"We did."
"Sure did."
"Of course."
"Hahahah."
Seongje adjusts her glasses on her nose, exhales. It's cool to have people to laugh with. And nice that Humin shares this with her. Her friends, their time together.
"Alright, come on, get up. Still gotta walk you home."
Humin swings her legs, getting up. Offers Seongje a hand. Grabs it firmly, pulling her up in one go. Everyone says goodbye, and on the way, she buys two 7UPs.
"No Fanta today?"
"Today, I want it all with you."
Seongje fell in love when Humin first fixed her hair and stroked her head. A gesture so… unnecessary.
Maybe she fell in love when she bought her that first 7UP. Though 7UP is nothing.
Maybe when she first sat down beside her late one evening.
But still, probably, it was when she smoothed down her hair. Because she noticed it and decided not to stay indifferent. To fix it, simply because she could. And she kept her hand there because…
"Do you remember how you used to find me in random places and just sit next to me?"
Seongje suddenly breaks the shared silence. They were both lost in their own thoughts. And Seongje was thinking about Humin.
"Of course. I was happy whenever I saw you. You always looked so lonely and sad, I felt sorry for you, so I’d come over."
"Is that the only reason?"
"Well…"
Baku holds her hand tightly, stroking her knuckles with her thumb.
"And I was just interested in you, I wanted to know you better. Around others, you were all sarcastic and showy, so those quiet evenings felt like a real discovery to me. That's when I started liking you. I wanted to be with you.’
"Fell in love?"
"To be next to you. In those lonely, quiet moments. But fell in love too. I wanted to cozy up close from the start, but you probably wouldn't have let me."
"No. Though you had the guts to reach over and fix my hair."
"Did I? Don't remember. But speaking of which…"
Humin pulls her by the hand, making her stop. Lets go, then uses both hands to adjust something on her head. Seongje watches her eyes darting over her hair.
"Because of you, I have this feeling like I used to walk around looking like a complete scarecrow."
"Well it’s not that bad."
Humin snorts, leaving her palm resting comically on the crown of her head, like some sort of benediction.
"But you are kind of a mess."
"Who's a mess here?"
Baku squints, laughing, as Seongje tousles her short haircut with her palm, making her hair stick out in all directions. She looks like an overexcited puppy.
"Now we match. Gimme your glasses."
Seongje hated when people touched her glasses or tried them on. She’d hand them to her crew during fights, but any jokes about her bad eyesight earned the person a couple of "friendly" slaps.
Humin slips them off her face by the bridge and puts them on herself.
"Do I look like you?"
"Hahah, wait, hold still."
Baku makes faces and spins around as Seongje takes a few pictures. She immediately presses against Seongje’s side, peeking at the phone.
"Ugh, I can't see shit, take them back."
She hooks the glasses back onto Seongje’s nose. Seongje adjusts them and shows her a couple of shots. Humin then snatches the phone right out of her hands, holding it up above their faces.
"Smile for me, Je-ya."
Seongje hated when people touched her phone. Into the camera, she smiles, sticks out her tongue, then flips the middle finger. Baku snuggles up to her, hugs her shoulder, and now takes a bunch of selfies of them together, clogging up the gallery. Unlike Seongje, Baku was a bad photographer — taking a million, often blurry shots. Impatient, that's why. She immediately selects them all and forwards them into their chat. As soon as the upload starts, she hands the phone back. She did this all the time. Seongje didn’t even tense up, because Humin didn’t care about any other chats, any other photos, anything else Seongje kept on her phone. Personal boundaries, in general, meant nothing to Humin either, but for some reason, she didn’t make Seongje uncomfortable. Probably because she did it unintentionally and without malice.
Humin collapses onto her bed, jostling Seongje, who's already lying on stomach on the mattress. She tosses two bags of chips down beside her. Leaning her back against the wall and squishing a pillow under her, she taps away at something on her phone while the other immediately opens a bag and starts crunching.
Humin turns on YouTube at almost full volume. Seongje always teased her for being deaf as an old person, while Seongje herself is grinding through some game, shoveling in another handful of chips between every level cleared. Not much to talk about — they've already been hanging out together half the day. Humin just occasionally tilts her phone toward Seongje to show her something funny.
She herself doesn't know what to do with her hands, or maybe she just couldn't keep them off the other girl for too long. So with her right hand, she digs into the chip bag, holds her phone with a bent knee, and with her left, she buries her fingers in Seongje's hair. Well, why else would she be lying there, if not for Baku to have something to do with? Seongje doesn't react, keeps playing. Humin doesn't make a big deal out of it either: scritching her scalp, tucking strands behind her ears, gathering hair from her shoulders to one side of her neck. Strokes her neck too. Seongje doesn't react. Humin's hand slips under the collar of her t-shirt. Traces patterns on her back. Her palm is, as always, warm.
Seongje doesn't get too distracted, but curses out loud anyway because she's stuck on a level. Sure, it's more fun when there's a challenge, but this one had been frustrating her for a while now.
"Gimme."
Humin drops her phone in front of her and snatches Seongje's out of her hands. Seongje doesn't resist, taps to unpause the video on Humin's phone. Some kind of sports challenge in entertainment format. Who watches this stuff regularly?
A notification pops up from "Gogo".
“‘BAKU’”
“‘Are you with your idiot again?’”
Seongje glances up at the girl. Ignoring it? Or didn't notice? She twists around, so her feet are near Humin's head, and opens the chat. Who's the idiot here, anyway?
Hyuntak gets a reply a couple of seconds later. With a photo. A selfie of Seongje lying down, with Baku in the background, holding her phone in its recognizable bright blue case with an angry face decal. Giving her the finger.
Seongje laughs when an identical selfie of Hyuntak flipping the bird arrives below it. She flips back over, stretching her arm out to show the open chat to Baku.
"Hold on, I'm gonna lose. Oh. Damn."
Her gaze, torn between the game and the photo-filled chat visible in her peripheral vision, involuntarily darts to the latter. Humin lets out a breathy laugh.
"Ask her what she wants."
Baku, on the other hand, was the type to share her personal space, her private messages, pretty much anything personal, with just about anyone. Well, with close people. She'd already told her dad about her, even introduced them... When bringing Seongje home, he'd just snort at her matter-of-factly. Everything was just that simple. No drama, no secrets. Probably why other people's boundaries didn't faze her. Not much fazed her at all. Seongje types a message. Hyuntak replies quickly.
"Wants to play co-op."
"You down?"
It's the two of them on Humin's PC. Taking turns or however it goes. Usually they just mess with each other, shoving and yapping about who gets to swap in next.
"Bet."
Seongje now smoked outside, pressing the phone against her ear during calls. Sometimes she'd call, then cancel as soon as she heard footsteps approaching after a while.
She kept walking around looking disheveled, and Humin, besides constantly forgetting to at least sometimes comb her own short hair, now also sometimes showed up looking ruffled. Everyone remembered it wasn't from fights. And Seongje would wrench the arms of anyone except Humin who tried to mess up her hair. Well, mostly Hyuntak. With Baku, she only messed back.
Turns out, grape Fanta wasn't Humin's favorite soda. It's just that, at the end of the day, for some reason it was mostly the only one left on the half-empty shelves in the corner of the store. Otherwise, she'd drink anything without preference. She asked Seongje once why she kept buying her the same thing — that's how they found out.
In Seongje's contacts, new entries appeared: "Dumbass 2", "Nerd", and "Shorty". Nicknames, so no one would think they were friends, though they really did start texting and calling her now and then. Not just about Baku — just because. Especially Hyuntak, again. They had an ongoing history of sending each other the finger, both as emojis and photos. Sometimes featuring Baku's face in the frame too. That kind of thing went both ways. She saved the others' numbers so she wouldn't have to ask who it was every time. Idiots of her Dumbass. If she could group contacts, she'd label all three of them that way.
And among "her own" in her thoughts, Humin was now firmly anchored. Her Humin, without a doubt. And Humin herself, in front of everyone, still called her — "my girl." So dumb. She liked it.
Just like she liked all of Baku too.