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Go Yeongeun woke up in a body that wasn't hers. Again.
She realised this immediately when the alarm played classical violins instead of her usual playlist. She had long since stopped panicking — that reflex had extinguished around the tenth time she'd found herself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, wearing unfamiliar pyjamas (a plain matching striped set, nothing like the mismatched casuals she preferred), and, well. Unfamiliar everything else. Including the anatomy.
Without looking, she reached for Baek Saheon's phone where he'd left it on the nightstand.
It still unlocked with his thumbprint, thankfully. She noted, with mild irritation, that he'd added more locks to his notes since the last instance — the man was trigger-happy with his security measures, sealing away tabs and applications. As if he had anything worth stealing. Annoying. She made a mental note to do the same on her own phone, should she find the time to.
She typed quickly: I have a test this week, so I'll head over soon to collect my textbooks. don't touch my laptop. also, I made dinner plans with soleum, so please don't be weird
Three minutes later, her own phone buzzed from across the room. Baek Saheon, in her body, had written back: idc ill do what i want, followed by a DONT USE MY PHONE.
She rolled her eyes at the ceiling and slid off the bed.
Things hadn't always been like this between them. Before the fifteenth of August, 202X, they had led perfectly satisfactory lives utterly independent of each other. They had known of each other, of course, and known they were soulmates. The condition was too hard to ignore. A cursory search online had yielded a handful of other pairs with a similar affliction, but little else in the way of solutions: officially, there was nothing that could be done but fulfil the bond. And there was nothing they wanted less.
That was before Kim Soleum landed in both their lives.
"Go Yeongeun-ssi," greeted Kim Soleum.
Baek Saheon ignored him and dissolved into the crowd.
"Excuse me? Yeongeun-ssi," called Kim Soleum again. He began waving his arm, which, at his height, made him near impossible to ignore — even though all Saheon wanted was to get through his break undisturbed. There had to be things he needed to do, and places he needed to be; he was certain. But there Kim Soleum was, cutting through the crowd in pursuit, one arm raised high like a flag, trying to catch his — Go Yeongeun's — attention.
It made sense they were friends. Both of them were so persistent. Like the cockroaches that survived every can of insect spray he bought.
He clicked his tongue when Kim Soleum finally emerged from the sea of bodies.
"Go Yeongeun-ssi," Soleum said, slightly breathless. He tilted his head and blinked up at him from beneath long lashes. "I was trying to find you earlier — it's a bit noisy today, isn't it?"
Saheon rolled his eyes. The gesture was not lost on Kim Soleum, who furrowed his brows.
Just then, another man — more handsome, with a sharp, piercing eye (singular; the other was hidden beneath a medical patch) — arrived, parting through the crowd. It was, of course, Go Yeongeun, in his own body.
"Kim Soleum-ssi!" she exclaimed excitedly, then turned to Saheon, her features flattening back into impassivity. She nodded once. "And Go Yeongeun-ssi."
Saheon felt the vein in his temple throb as Yeongeun immediately pivoted back to Kim Soleum. He observed, with no small degree of delight, that Soleum's eyebrows drew together at the sudden shift — though he still responded politely, the same way he always did when faced with Saheon's backhanded comments. Saheon wasn't afraid to call them backhanded; that was precisely what they were. Still, he sometimes almost felt as though he were kicking some small, defenceless animal, when Soleum didn't rise to the bait — a cat, perhaps.
Well. That didn't matter.
What did matter was that Go Yeongeun and Kim Soleum were not people he was particularly keen to spend time around. Though, he thought, catching her eye again — if she was going to use his body so irresponsibly, then he would do the same. And they would see how she liked that.
He opened his mouth to speak, only for her palm to slap over it.
"Mmmhf—"
Kim Soleum blinked.
Go Yeongeun smiled at him — she was aiming for somewhere between encouraging and sheepish, though she had little idea how expressions of geniality would form on Baek Saheon's face. She'd tried, more than once, to school his features into something more palatable, practicing them over and over in the mirror, if only to reduce the number of sharp-eyed glances thrown her direction whenever she showed up for his classes. The man seemed to make enemies easily. That was the only explanation she had for the way people looked at her, and the spear up his arse all the time she wouldn't attempt to dislodge — but what made it frustrating was that he wouldn't even perform the bare minimum of cordiality with her friends, simply because he harboured some personal vendetta against being generous.
Admittedly, if he hadn't been such a terrible person in general, she could almost understand the frustration. Apparently, Kim Soleum had nearly taken his eye out when he'd moved in — his right arm had presumably spasmed mid-ladder step, and he'd dropped an assortment of objects onto Saheon. But that was really his own fault for walking under ladders in the first place. Everyone knew that. Even Saheon had to know that: it was basic safety.
More importantly, between her friend and her unwanted soulmate, she knew which side she preferred. Kim Soleum was funny, and incredibly smart — one of the top students in Mechanical Engineering, which was also Saheon's major. It made sense that Saheon held a vendetta there too.
Before she could say anything else, she felt a sharp elbow dig into her ribs.
She glanced at Baek Saheon. He tilted his head toward a quieter corridor branching off from the courtyard, then raised an eyebrow.
Not here, that look said. Too many people. She could feel them on their backs, even without looking back to check.
"Kim Soleum-ssi, Go Yeongeun-ssi" she said, lowering her voice. "Let's all talk somewhere else. Follow me."
She turned and walked toward the corridor without waiting for a response. Behind her, she heard both their footsteps follow hesitantly.
"Yeongeun-ssi told me about the dinner you were having, and invited me along as well." She couldn't cancel it — not on Baek Saheon's behalf, even though she was the real Go Yeongeun — but she also wouldn't let Soleum sit alone with him, if she had any say in the matter.
"...Is that so," Kim Soleum said, his voice deliberately pitched slower. He sounded reluctant — which Yeongeun could understand, really; she wanted to tear her hair out as well — then turned to Baek Saheon.
Yeongeun stared at Baek Saheon. Baek Saheon stared back.
She released his face, immediately grabbed his hand, and squeezed.
Baek Saheon yelped.
"Right, Yeongeun-ssi?" She beamed at him. She would feel this later, when she returned to her own body. But it needed to be done.
One of the few advantages of inhabiting Baek Saheon's body: his insane grip strength.
Reluctantly, Baek Saheon nodded.
"Yeah," he muttered, eyes downcast. "I invited her."
"...I understand," Kim Soleum said, after a pause. Then he turned to Go Yeongeun, his eyes darker than usual. "Baek Saheon-ssi, I must insist that you stay out of matters you clearly aren't part of. Whatever Yeongeun-ssi has told you — whatever arrangement you think you have—"
Yeongeun blinked. "Soleum-ssi," she tried, raising Saheon's free hand in a placating gesture. "It's not what you think—"
"Then what is it?" Soleum's voice stayed polite, but there was an edge running beneath it. "Because from where I'm standing, it looks like you're squeezing her hand until she gives in. It looks like you forced her to say yes. And she can't even look at me."
He stepped closer, and Yeongeun stepped back; realising with a sinking clarity, what he was seeing.
Oh no, she thought. He thinks I'm abusing myself.
"Soleum-ssi," she said again, more firmly. "You've misunderstood. I would never—"
"You're doing it now," Soleum said quietly. His gaze flicked down to where her hand still gripped Baek Saheon's — her own hand, technically, but he didn't know that. "You're still holding her hand, and she hasn't pulled away once. Tell me, Baek Saheon-ssi — have you ever given her a choice?"
The silence stretched.
Baek Saheon — the real one, trapped in Yeongeun's body — lifted his head.
It was a strange thing, watching her own face reveal nothing, except a blank-eyed apathy. Yeongeun had always thought of herself as someone whose feelings showed — her mother used to say she wore her heart on her sleeve, after all — but Baek Saheon had drained all of that away. Her face, under his control, was a blank wall. A door that had been locked from the inside.
"Let go," he said flatly.
Yeongeun released his hand.
Soleum exhaled, something tight in his shoulders loosening. "Yeongeun-ssi," he said gently, turning toward Baek Saheon, "you don't have to go along with whatever he wants. You can tell me. I'll believe you."
Baen Saheon stared at Soleum for a long time. Then he laughed. It was a short, ugly sound, entirely wrong coming from her mouth. "You think I'm the victim here."
"I think," Soleum replied carefully, "that you've been very quiet. And that he's been very loud."
"Soleum-ssi," Yeongeun said, stepping between them, "I need you to listen to me. I am not abusing her. I am not threatening her. And I am not—" she paused, searching for the right words, "what you think I am right now."
"Then what are you doing?" Soleum asked. "Why does she look like she wants to be anywhere else?"
Because he's Baek Saheon, Yeongeun thought, and he always looks like that. But she couldn't say that, so she said something else instead.
"You're embarrassing her," she lied. "And me. This wasn't supposed to happen like this."
From behind her, Baek Saheon made a sound — something between a scoff and a snort. "Embarrassing," he muttered, flat. "Right. That's the word."
Yeongeun ignored him.
"Like what?" Soleum asked, his gaze flicking between them. His brows were still furrowed; they were gong to be permanent now, but the way he was glaring at her; and he had a terrifying glare, really, though she hadn't noticed.
Yeongeun took a breath. "I asked Yeongeun-ssi to set me up on a date with you. For dinner. Today. She's nervous because she's been trying to keep it a secret. And I'm nervous because—" she gestured vaguely at herself, "—because this isn't how I wanted you to find out."
"You have got to be joking," Baek Saheon said from in front of her. His voice was flat, but there was something underneath — a kind of exhausted incredulity. "This is what you're going with?"
Soleum was staring at both of them now, his brow furrowed. "You're... asking me on a date?"
"Yes," Yeongeun said.
"Nnh," Baek Saheon said, or more accurately, did not say, as Yeongeun's fingers had found its way around his mouth again.
"And you thought... grabbing her hand and dragging her around was the way to... what? Soften me up?"
"No," Yeongeun said. "I was saying goodbye on her behalf. She has somewhere to be. We both do."
"We do not—" Baek Saheon spat around her fingers. "Don't tell me what to—"
"Well, we're leaving now," Yeongeun announced, already turning, already dragging him toward the exit with a hand over his mouth, as he struggled, pushing half-heartedly against her grip. Enough to let her know he wasn't happy, but not enough to actually stop her.
"Seven o'clock. Don't be late."
Behind her, she heard Soleum say, "I didn't even agree to—"
But she was already around the corner, pulling Baek Saheon into an empty stairwell.