Work Text:
“Will you be my partner?"
It’s only been six months since she'd asked.
Beside you, Jaehee turns a page in one of the books that’s been taunting her for several weeks now. Reading for pleasure when there was so much to do just wasn’t feasible, she’d said. Seeing the concern in your eyes, though, she’d appended her excuse with a promise – in the evening following the grand opening of the café, she would take a break and relax. It was an acceptable compromise; you hadn’t been able to deny that opening a small business was taking a lot of work, but you weren’t about to let her neglect her health, either.
“How’s your first book in months going, babe?"
Jaehee turns and plants a kiss on your cheek. “Honestly… I can barely focus.” She manages a sheepish grin. "I’m still too excited about today."
You can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, it was definitely an exciting day."
“It was so nice of all the boys to drop by."
“Jumin looked like he was ready to kill someone. To be honest, I’m surprised he even showed up considering both of us turned him down on the assistant thing."
“He’ll get over it. Yoosung will make a fine chief assistant for him soon enough."
You raise an eyebrow and both of you burst into laughter.
“Don’t be like that,” Jaehee gives you a teasing push as she catches her breath. “He’ll grow into the job eventually. He already knows Jumin fairly well, after all. And he’s already been an intern ever since the party six months ago."
“Fair enough, fair enough…"
Only six months… It felt like an eternity, sometimes. Some details of the party have already faded from your memory in much the same manner as the top floors of skyscrapers fade from existence in a thick fog, although other details remain, bright and vivid as though they’d only just occurred.
“One, two, mic test."
Jumin broke off mid-sentence at the interruption.
"Is Mr. Han in the party room? If you are, Mr. Han, you must return the RFA member you just took with you."
You began to search for the source of the announcement. Your gaze landed on Jaehee, on the stage. Shivers ran down your spine.
“Oh, there you are."
Murmurs swept through the crowd – she was looking for Jumin, there he was, over there. And yet, you knew, that announcement had been for you. She was looking for you.
You couldn’t take your eyes off her, some glowing celestial being, looking for you. The glowing was simply the stage lighting, you knew, and yet…
She was so beautiful.
You stood, dazed, as she continued speaking, as swarms of women began to swarm Jumin. His hasty goodbye drew your attention to him momentarily, and then Jaehee was speaking again—
“—I’ll leave the mic. Thank you for your cooperation.” You looked back to the stage, but she was gone.
Where had she disappeared to?
And then, the sound of your name from behind you. You spun around on the spot to face her.
“Found you.”
Her smile had sent butterflies dancing in your stomach and thrills of adrenaline through your heart, at that time, and ghosts of those nerves light up at the memory. You can still recall the conversation leading up to Jaehee's proposal – a business proposal, at the time, by all means, but in retrospect it was almost comical that neither of you had fully understood it to be a romantic one. She’d said that a friendship between two women can be just as powerful as true love, but the fact that friendship was still only friendship had always felt vaguely unsatisfying. Soon enough, though, there wasn’t much time to spend mulling that thought over. Starting a new business required so much work that neither of you had had time to properly evaluate your feelings towards each other.
Or perhaps, you were only able to understand your feelings because there was so much work to do. ‘Old habits die hard’, they say – the truth in that old adage was one of many things you’d learned in the past six months. While Jaehee may not have enjoyed the heavy workloads assigned to her by Jumin, it was the only way she knew how to get work done. In the first month of your joint venture you had often found her awake late at night trying to write up business proposals, or having skipped a meal by accident, all because she didn’t know how not to set a hard schedule to keep up with. Finally, you’d had to put your foot down—
You need a night off, Jaehee, you’d said.
Please, take a break. Take care of yourself, you’d said.
“I suppose… I’m regressing, aren’t I?” The exhaustion in her voice rang through, plain as day even over the phone.
You felt something squeeze at your heart, and clutched your cell phone a little tighter. “Jaehee… Please don’t sound so disappointed with yourself."
“I’m sorry…”
“Shhh, there’s no need. Let me come over tonight – we can watch some of Zen’s musicals and relax a bit.” You kept your voice light, and prayed that she’d say yes.
“…That sounds lovely, actually. We should do that."
You breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll be right there. Cheer up, Jaehee! We’re gonna have so much fun!"
“Yes.”
“Right then, see you soon!"
“Thank you for always supporting me. It means a lot… See you soon.”
There had been a smile in her reply, you’d felt it, but something else, too – something unspoken, some unfinished business. At the time, you had brushed it off, but later that night, you ended up learning something new about Jaehee. Although ‘learning' is perhaps the wrong word for it, when, really, you’d always known, hadn’t you?
You were sitting on the couch under a warm blanket, half-empty bowl of popcorn perched on the couch beside you. Jaehee was moving around in the kitchen, and finally she emerged carrying two steaming mugs of hot chocolate.
You couldn’t help but smile as she approached. She placed the mugs on a side table, then moved the near-empty popcorn bowl to join them and sat down. You offered her the other half of the blanket, and she pulled it over her legs, shyly.
“Shall we continue with the movie?” you asked, reaching for the remote.
“In a moment…” She glanced to the side. “I have… something I wanted to tell you."
You raised an eyebrow. “Yes?"
“Thank you… For everything… For supporting me when things got tough back in the RFA, for saying yes to helping build a café together, for supporting me still. For watching out for my health, and stopping me when I get too far ahead in my work."
You almost laughed. “Jaehee… You know it’s nothing. You’re my best friend. I’d do anything for you."
“And so would I, for you.” She took a deep breath. “Listen… You’re my best friend too. But, more than that."
Sparks shot up your arm as she grabbed your hands.
“Jaehee…” your hands trembled in hers. Her face was suddenly impossibly close as she leaned towards you, close enough that you could just make out her golden-brown irises behind the reflection of the tv in her glasses.
“Listen… I love you. I think… I think I always have.”
Your heart was racing. This was so beyond anything you’d have ever anticipated—
And yet, somehow, not.
“I… know. I know what you mean. And Jaehee… I love you too."
You reached up to pull her closer, hand cradling her jawline, every nerve ending in your body on fire.
Before you could so much as register the feel of your lips against hers, her arm was around your back, pulling you towards her with a sharp tug that had you both falling. You broke the kiss as you both landed, propping yourself up on one arm. Below you, Jaehee was grinning mischievously. You met her gaze with a smile of your own, and pulled off her glasses using your free hand. You froze before leaning down, though, caught off-guard by how beautiful she was.
“You’re staring,” Jaehee raised an eyebrow in amusement. Heat flooded your cheeks.
“You have such beautiful eyes, you know. You should show them to me more often."
“Come closer, and you’ll be able to see them better,” she teased, a hand already on the back of your neck, pulling you into another kiss. You barely had time to toss the glasses onto the side table, beside the two mugs of cooling hot chocolate and half-bowl of popcorn, where they would sit forgotten until morning.
No, you hadn’t really learned, per se, that she loved you, that night. But you did learn a few other things – how soft Jaehee’s hair is, for instance, or that Jaehee uses peach lip balm, or what your own name sounds like whispered with reverence in your ear in the late hours of the night. The most important lesson, though, was that even a friendship between two women could be romantic; a powerful friendship as strong as true love could simply be true love.
Butterflies flutter through your stomach at the memory, and you reach beside you to run your fingers through Jaehee’s hair. It had grown so quickly – another thing you’d learned about her. She continues reading, but tilts her head into your touch ever so slightly. You lean over and nuzzle her cheek with your nose, and she giggles.
“Jaehee…"
“Mhm.” She continues reading.
“You know today… We really did it."
“Mm?"
“We created a space of our own. Just like you wanted."
She turns her head, and golden-brown eyes meet yours.
“Yes, love… We did, didn’t we?” The warmth of her smile envelops you.
She’s glowing – maybe it's a trick of the light, but you prefer to think otherwise.
You’re so beautiful, Jaehee.
There's a hand on the back of your neck, and you find yourself reaching for her glasses.