Work Text:
Jang Kyujin would say that she’s always been a little flirty with everyone she meets; a little wink when shaking hands with someone hasn’t hurt her (yet), and it’s even better when someone matches her energy and reciprocates right away (she’s still waiting on that one). She’s an extrovert, sue her damn! If it’s any consolation, she really only flirts with girls, partly because there’s no harm in a straight girl queening it out with her fellow girls, and also because, well, she likes when pretty girls flirt with her too. For what reason, she doesn’t know. Maybe it’s her ally energy.
Her flirting preferences aside, Kyujin’s learned that you can’t make that many friends if you’re too reserved with how you talk to people. Well, maybe unless you’re Haewon. But that’s Haewon; she’s friends with everyone for some reason.
So, it’s never a surprise when Kyujin sees her talking to someone new around campus. The only difference now is Haewon’s actually introducing the new friend to their group of five, and this girl is stunningly pretty. Woah.
“Hey guys, meet my project partner in econ, Kim Jiwoo. We just met today, but I trust her with my life, I think,” Haewon says while one arm is wrapped around the girl’s, Kim Jiwoo's, shoulders and her hands poke at the new girl’s cheeks. ‘Cute,’ Kyujin thinks. Wait, what?
The girl raises two hands in greeting. “Nice to meet you guys,” she says before smiling really wide and bowing her head at everyone.
Kyujin can’t help but notice how big Jiwoo’s hands were when she raised them, and how pretty Jiwoo’s almost-heart-shaped smile is, and how cool Jiwoo’s silver hair was when she bowed her head. ‘Wow, she’s really attractive.’ Kyujin needs to stop thinking immediately.
Surprisingly, Yoona acknowledges the newcomer first. “Nice seeing you again, Jiwoo.”
“You too, Yoona unnie,” Jiwoo responds. Haewon’s eyes flit between the two girls.
“The two of you know each other?”
Yoona gives a hum in response. “We used to sit next to each other in Ethics last semester,” she explains. “She’s really cool, don’t worry, you can trust her with your life, unnie.”
“Huh,” Haewon removes her arm around Jiwoo’s shoulder, “small world. Guess that makes things easier.”
Lily’s voice cuts through the conversation, cooing at their new friend. “Aw, Jiwoo, you’re so cute! Welcome!” She turns to Haewon before speaking, “Haewon, can we keep her?”
Haewon looks genuinely caught off guard and is about to say something until Jiwoo cuts her off by flashing Lily a thumbs up. “Sounds good,” she agrees enthusiastically. Lily cheers and claps at that.
A hand beside Kyujin beckons at Jiwoo before the owner speaks, “I’m Jinsol! You can sit between Kyujin and me over here,” she says before scooting to make space. Kyujin nods at Jiwoo before scooting the other way. Haewon pats Jiwoo on the back before taking a seat between Lily and Yoona, while Jiwoo moves toward the space Jinsol and Kyujin made.
Kyujin holds her hand out for Jiwoo to shake when she sits. “Nice to meet you, I’m Kyujin,” she says, winking before she can even help it.
A pause.
She sees the corner of Jiwoo’s mouth twitch before chuckling and shaking her hand. “Nice to meet you too,” she says, bringing Kyujin’s hand up to her lips and placing a light kiss between her knuckles. Kyujin feels her face heat up. What.
Jiwoo just smiles at her before releasing her hand and turning to Lily, whose introduction Kyujin didn’t get to hear over… whatever just happened.
Kyujin feels her heart beat a little faster than it usually does as she tries to focus on the conversation everyone’s started having. She stays quiet, trying to pick up on the context clues she’s hearing. She feels a pair of eyes on her before seeing Yoona staring at her with an eyebrow raised, mouthing a question: ‘Are you good?’
Kyujin nods at her before turning her attention back to the conversation, silently breathing slower to force her heart to calm down already. She wonders if it’s because she skipped out on yoga this morning. She mentally chastises herself before deciding there’s no use in dwelling on it. She feels her heart slowly return to a more normal pace.
‘Weird,’ she thinks, ‘well, nothing to worry about.
Kyujin’s in the library with Lily because the older girl asked for Kyujin’s help on her History paper. Kyujin hasn’t really been much help though; Lily seems like she already knows what to do with her paper anyway. Kyujin guesses she just wanted to have someone with her while she works. ‘Parallel play,’ Kyujin recalls, ‘is that how Lily unnie referred to it?’
Her eyes wander all across the library, trying to find a distraction, before spotting Jiwoo entering the place with a few people. Their eyes meet. She gives her a wave. Jiwoo smiles and sends a wave back before disappearing into a conference room with the group she came with.
Kyujin’s only known Jiwoo for about two weeks, but it didn’t take her long to realize that Jiwoo is kind of everywhere. More than that, though, she also realized that Jiwoo’s really good at flirting back at her.
She first realizes it the day after they met, coincidentally ending up at the same restaurant and having to share a table during the lunch rush. Kyujin made a joke that she ‘didn’t think I’d be seeing your cute face so soon,’ and Jiwoo made a face at her, before saying ‘and I didn’t think I’d be on a date with you today when we just met yesterday.’
Kyujin responded by slapping her on the arm and laughing. They’ve ended up meeting a bunch of times after that; random encounters and planned hangouts alike.
Every time they meet now, it feels like Kyujin’s started to look forward to their next banter. It feels easy with Jiwoo; Kyujin thinks it’s because Jiwoo doesn’t try too hard when responding back to her. The conversation just flows when they’re together.
Jiwoo’s even a lot cooler than she expected her to be: she gets along well with everyone in their group, she’s pretty chivalrous for someone with such a cute face, she’s even close to Kyujin’s age, which means they’re kind of on the same wavelength when it comes to humor, plus the whole play-flirting thing they have going on. Kyujin always thought that it’s fun to be silly-flirty with someone. They’ve even started using pet names like ‘babe’ when teasing each other. Really, it’s great. Everything’s good and well.
Except for the fact that Kyujin feels really weird whenever Jiwoo reciprocates all of her flirting and teasing. That’s never happened before with anyone else that she flirted with.
At first, Kyujin chalked up the whole heart-racing at Jiwoo kissing her hand on their first meeting thing as being caught off guard at someone matching her energy; most people either stutter or laugh the whole thing off when she flirts with them, after all. But Jiwoo isn’t even the first person to play along with Kyujin’s weird way of bonding; quite a few of her friends like to go along with her too, which makes the whole heart palpitations thing with Jiwoo even more weird.
Kyujin decides it’s nothing to worry about, though. ‘Oh well,’ she shrugs, turning her attention back to Lily who’s still busy with her paper, ‘no skin off my back.’ A few irregular rises in her heart rate at random aren’t gonna kill her.
Really, there’s nothing wrong with Kyujin flirting with Jiwoo. To add to that, there’s definitely nothing weird with how much she flirts with her too. At least she doesn’t think there is, not until Haewon points it out.
“So… Jiwoo, huh?” Haewon says, flipping through a book that Kyujin’s sure she hasn’t been paying attention to for a few minutes now. A recommendation from Lily unnie, no doubt. The two of them are hanging out together at a cafe; Kyujin because she has a paper to finish for her Philosophy class and Haewon because she had nothing to do and decided she’d rather spend time with the younger girl rather than waste her day reading webtoons in bed.
“What about her?” Kyujin asks, tearing her eyes away from her laptop screen. She needs a break from typing anyway.
Haewon stares at her. “You guys flirt.”
“What’s wrong with that?”
“You guys flirt… all the time.”
“I’m flirty. I flirt with everyone,” Kyujin waves a dismissive hand at Haewon’s observation. “You know that, unnie.”
“Okay, sure,” Haewon squints at her. “Except, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but you actually haven’t flirted with anyone else besides her. Ever since you guys met. You don’t even make kissy faces at Jinsol anymore.”
Kyujin frowns at that. Ignoring that Haewon thinks that she flirts with Jiwoo a lot, what she said can’t be right. She’s a self-proclaimed flirt; she’s definitely flirted with someone else recently! She racks her brain trying to recall the last time she flirted with someone other than their new friend. “That’s not true,” she denies, “I flirted with that cashier at the burger place, remember? I got us both discounts.”
“That was a month ago.”
“And?”
Haewon crosses her arms and cocks her head to the side. “We met Jiwoo three weeks ago.”
Well, shit. Kyujin furrows her brows, trying to think of an even more recent time she flirted with someone random. She comes up empty. She thinks she feels her eyebrows almost touching each other as she starts to think even harder. Haewon cuts off her train of thought with a sigh.
“Sorry, kid, didn’t mean to make you think so hard on it.” Haewon smiles at her. “Just a funny thing I noticed. You should stop flirting with random girls anyway; the discounts aren’t really worth it.”
“You’re saying an employee discount on a six-dollar burger meal isn’t worth it?”
“No, it’s not, Kyu. Not if it’s gonna hurt your chances of getting together with someone,” Haewon says, shaking her head and chuckling.
Kyujin snorts at that. Not like a relationship with someone is something she’s really interested in right now. The right guy that fits her type hasn’t even shown up in her life yet: older than her by no more than a year, cute face with cool mannerisms, plays along well with her, not too serious, likes physical touch… puppy-vibes basically. Yep, that’s Kyujin’s type.
“I don’t really think flirting with Jiwoo unnie, or anyone else for that matter, is gonna hurt my chances of finding someone to date,” Kyujin turns her attention back to her laptop, now a little bit wistful, wondering when she’ll finally meet a guy that’s her type. “Flirting with her makes me feel good! It’s fun having a friend that always reciprocates well with me.”
Haewon stares at her for what felt like hours before nodding. “Whatever you say, Kyu. Just know I’m here if you ever want to talk about your romantic life. Who knows, maybe someone who’s your type is closer than you think.” Haewon closes her eyes and turns her head towards the ceiling before continuing. “Puppy-vibes, was it? I think that’s what you described it as when you were a freshman.”
Kyujin hums and briefly glances at Haewon before turning back to her Word document. “Unnie,” she starts, fingers typing away, “I know that you know basically everyone on this campus. If I find out that you know someone who’s my type and you didn’t introduce them to me, I’ll end our friendship right now,” she says, tone holding no bite at all.
“Oh please,” Haewon scoffs. “If I knew someone who’s exactly your type, trust me, I’d have already introduced them to you the day I met them.”
Jinsol lets out a guffaw. “Dude, why did you invite me to this place? Actually no, scratch that. This is great. Who would’ve thought you’d be really bad at archery? Like laughably so.”
She throws a scowl at Jinsol, who isn’t even looking at her, too focused on taking as many pictures as she can of Kyujin’s FITA target, making sure the arrows stuck to the wall behind it are in the frame.
“Shut up,” she complains, setting her bow against the wall, “it’s my first time doing this. Of course I’m gonna be bad at it!”
Jinsol snorts, enjoying how unsuccessfully Kyujin tries defending herself. “Yeah, except you’re not just bad. If anything, you’re really horrible at this, Kyu.”
Kyujin responds by sticking her tongue out at her like a little kid. Jinsol copies her.
“Wow. Real mature, Jinsol,” she jeers. Jinsol just laughs in her face, very loudly and very annoyingly.
They’re lucky the archery place has private rooms instead of those communal booths where everyone can look at anyone’s targets and be judgy as hell. Kyujin wouldn’t be able to handle the embarrassment of not only being publicly bad at something she had to spend money on, but also of being laughed at by Jinsol of all people. Unfortunately, a private room doesn’t mean there’s noise-cancelling as well.
Kyujin hears the click of the door to their room and turns to the source, apology for Jinsol’s volume already at the tip of her tongue before stopping herself upon seeing Jiwoo show up instead of some angry millennial. Geez, she really is everywhere.
“Oh,” Jiwoo says, “it actually is you guys. I thought I recognized Jinsol unnie’s laugh.”
Kyujin frowns. “You recognize Jinsol’s laugh?”
“Well, yeah,” Jiwoo grins, tilting her head. “I think anyone that’s ever met her would recognize that loud-ass cackle anywhere.”
“Hey Jjyu,” Jinsol greets her, wiping tears from her eyes, “you here alone?”
Jiwoo shakes her head in response. “I’m here with some of my friends. Just wanted to check if it was actually you and say ‘hi.’” Jiwoo turns her attention to Kyujin.
“Didn’t think cutie Kyujinie would be here though,” she says, tone teasing, “you don’t really strike me as the type of person that likes archery.”
Jinsol beats Kyujin to the punch.
“She’s not; she’s actually genuinely horrible at it,” Jinsol snickers, gesturing at Kyujin’s target. Jiwoo looks over at it and scoffs.
“You cannot be for real, Kyujin,” she says, smirking at her.
Kyujin pouts at all the teasing. “I just need practice, okay? I didn’t think it would be this hard!”
Jiwoo laughs as she walks over to her, tapping a finger on Kyujin’s lips to stop her from pouting. Kyujin freezes at the contact and just stares at the girl in front of her.
The sound of something dropping loudly on the floor breaks Kyujin out of her stupor.
“Sorry,” Jinsol says, bending down to pick up her phone, “slipped from my hands.”
Jiwoo snickers at Jinsol, walking backwards and returning to her original place outside the archery room. “Well, I’ll leave you guys to it. I have to get back to my friends now.”
Kyujin nods at her, while Jinsol just hums in recognition, attention still focused on her phone.
“See you next time, unnie,” Jiwoo says, looking at Jinsol. She turns her attention to Kyujin. “See you, babe.”
Kyujin hears Jinsol make a noise that registers to her as sounding confused. She ignores that.
“Bye, babe,” she responds to Jiwoo.
Jinsol makes another noise. Kyujin ignores that one too.
Jiwoo gives them both a big smile and frantically waves them goodbye before closing the door behind her.
‘Well, that was weird,’ she thinks, watching Jiwoo disappear behind the door.
When Kyujin turns her attention back to Jinsol, she’s looking at her with a weird face that she can’t decipher. ‘Constipation’ seems like the best word she can use to describe the look on Jinsol’s face.
“What?” she asks her probably constipated friend.
“Did you just call each other ‘babe?’”
“Yeah? Why?”
“And you’re fine with that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she asks, confused at Jinsol’s reaction. “I like it,” she adds.
Jinsol blinks at her.
“Nothing,” Jinsol says in a tone that sounds even weirder than she looks. Kyujin’s worried she actually might be having stomach problems. “I just… have to text Yoona right now. Yeah,” Jinsol declares before turning her attention back to her now cracked phone and, Kyujin presumes, rapidly texting Yoona.
Kyujin nods her head in understanding. Jinsol and Yoona share a dorm room, so it would make sense for Jinsol to ask the latter to buy some medicine for her. She hopes the stomach bug isn’t contagious.
“Hey, kitty,” Yoona says, grabbing her attention, “what do you think about Jiwoo?”
Kyujin and Yoona are sitting together on a bench at the park just a few minutes from their campus. Kyujin was on a walk and ended up seeing Yoona sitting alone while staring blankly ahead, so she decided to sit down beside her so she wouldn’t feel lonely. This was the first time in five minutes that either of them said anything.
Kyujin tilts her head at Yoona’s question. ‘Where did that come from?’ she wonders.
“I like her,” she says. Yoona looks at her. “She’s a really great friend,” Kyujin ends. Yoona turns her attention back to the scenery in front of them, letting out a sigh.
“That’s good. I like Jiwoo, too.”
Kyujin hums. “Why are you asking, unnie?”
“Just thought about her, I guess. Jinsol mentioned you guys saw her the other day.”
Right. Kyujin hopes Jinsol feels fine now.
“Oh yeah, we did. Jinsol and I saw her when we were hanging out a few days ago.”
Yoona hums at that. “Right, cool.”
A silence stretches over them.
“You know,” Yoona starts again, “Haewon unnie said the two of you talked about how much you flirt with Jiwoo.”
‘Damn,’ Kyujin thinks, ‘does everyone think we flirt too much?’
“Do you think so too, unnie?” she asks, now feeling a bit conscious of how she must be acting with Jiwoo. She hopes she isn’t making the girl uncomfortable or anything.
Yoona shakes her head, eyes still staring forward. “No, it’s cute. You guys are cute. I don’t think she minds either, if you’re worried about that,” she pauses, turning her head to look at Kyujin, “unless… it’s you who feels weird about the whole thing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Like, do you feel any sort of way when you flirt with Jiwoo or when she flirts with you?”
“I don’t think so?” Kyujin wonders where Yoona is trying to go with this conversation.
“You don’t think so?”
“I don’t… think… so,” Kyujin concludes, unsure. What are they even talking about anymore?
“Okay. You don’t think so. If you don’t think so, then I guess that’s alright too.”
Kyujin feels infinitely confused at how they got to this conversation. “Sorry unnie, but why are we still talking about Jiwoo right now?”
“I was just…” Yoona trails off, turning her head back to observe what’s ahead of her.
“Just?” Kyujin says, prompting her unnie to keep talking.
“Just… thinking.”
“…About?” Kyujin thinks getting anyone in their friend group to continue what they’re talking about feels like pulling teeth sometimes.
“About… what Haewon unnie mentioned about you and Jiwoo. About something Jinsol texted me the other day and then something she told me a few months ago. About Ethics class last semester. About how Jiwoo kinda reminds me of Lily unnie sometimes. I’m just thinking about a lot of things, I think,” she lists off.
Kyujin hums, satisfied at finally getting the conversation rolling again.
“Well, if you wanna talk about them, I’m always here to listen to you, unnie.”
A pause.
“Kyujin, how do you feel when Jiwoo flirts with you?”
Kyujin raises an eyebrow at that. She thought the Jiwoo conversation was over with already. She decides to just humor her.
“It’s fun.”
“…That’s it?”
“I mean; I guess it makes me feel good too.”
“Good… in what way?”
“I don’t know. I guess, good like, ‘Oh it’s nice to banter with someone like this!’ kind of way?” she offers.
“Nothing else?” Yoona presses.
Kyujin almost mentions the weird heart rate she gets when she’s with Jiwoo sometimes, just to give Yoona something to work with before deciding against it. There’s no point in doing that; Yoona isn’t even studying medicine.
“Nothing else.”
Yoona rubs her temples. “Okay, let’s talk about something else then,” she grumbles.
“Alright, unnie.”
“So, when you flirt with girls, do you do it only because you think it’s fun or is there some other reason?”
“What?”
“Like, I know you say you think flirting with people is fun and all that because you’re an extrovert, but do you think you only do it because you’re an extrovert or is there some other, maybe underlying, reason you like flirting with girls?” Yoona asks, her expression looking like she’s trying really hard to hint at something.
Damn. Kyujin might as well stop flirting with people entirely if her friends get this bothered about the whole thing. She’s never felt this confused before.
“I don’t think I do?”
“Okay. I’m gonna make this really simple for you. Kyu, do you ever think that maybe you might be,” Yoona says, gesturing at nothing in front of her.
“That I’m maybe what?”
“I see,” Yoona says, sounding almost disappointed. “I guess you don’t.”
Kyujin shakes her head. “Sorry unnie, I really don’t know where you’re trying to go with this,” she says, feeling a little bad over how lost she is in their conversation.
Yoona gets off the bench and stands in front of Kyujin.
“I didn’t really think I’d have to be the one to tell you this, but I’m here right now, and we’re having this talk, so I might as well.” Yoona pats Kyujin’s shoulder. “Kyu, the only person you’ve ever said you had a crush on was some random barista at the café we used to go to. Then we found out three days later that they were just a really handsome girl.”
Kyujin looks at her, confused, not understanding what that had to do with anything. She sees Yoona glance at her watch as she continues to pat Kyujin’s shoulder. Yoona’s eyes almost bulge out of their sockets from how wide they went.
“Oh shit, I’m so sorry, Kyu. I have class in three minutes, and the building is a four-minute run. I really gotta go. Call me when the gay thing resolves itself,” she sputters out before taking off and sprinting to wherever her next class is, leaving Kyujin even more confused than she was at the start of the whole conversation.
The gay thing? What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Kyujin’s almost positively sure she knows what Yoona meant. It hits her like a freight truck would hit some girl before she’d be transported to another universe where she’s actually the daughter of some emotionally unavailable ruler of a kingdom, and she has to–
She cuts herself off. She really should stop reading those weird stories Haewon sends her.
Whatever. LMFAO. It’s whatever! She might be gay! Big wahoo, almost all her friends are. She guesses she might’ve just missed the memo or something. She’s not even sure if she actually is, anyway. She’ll have to cross that bridge when she’s on it, which she definitely isn’t right now. Right now, she’s just trying to enjoy her bubble tea with Lily.
Lily invited her out as a thank you for when she (barely) helped Lily with her History paper. Kyujin accepted the offer immediately, finding any distraction better than having to overthink about her possible sexuality. It’s honestly really nice, sitting outside the tea shop and sipping her taro drink while listening to Lily’s voice. She feels thankful for Lily and her ramblings on… what was she talking about again?
“And then this random guy just started ranting about ‘San Clemente Syndrome,’ talking about how much it supposedly just drags on and on,” Lily says, animatedly and trying really hard to hide how irritated she is. She’s not doing a very good job. “Like I get that it’s a book club and we’re here to discuss our opinions, but really! If you don’t have anything substantial to share, why did you even volunteer to talk!” She huffs out in annoyance, furrowing her eyebrows and crossing her arms like a little kid who got told they can’t have any more fries. Kyujin thinks she looks cute.
All Kyujin can do is nod in faux understanding, not really understanding what a ‘Sahn Kluhmentay Syndrome’ is supposed to be. The last time Kyujin read a fiction book was back when she was a high school senior and Yoona recommended a book about cannibalism to her. She didn’t get past thirteen pages before dozing off and forgetting all about the thirteen pages she read.
Lily notices how lost Kyujin looks and shakes her head, giggling. “Sorry, I’m rambling again. Anyways, so, what’s up with you these days, Kyu?”
Kyujin hums, thinking about it. She elects to ignore the bridge she’s trying really hard not to have to cross. “Nothing much, unnie,” she says, sipping at her bubble tea, not getting a single pearl. “Just the same-same; exam season is soon, though. Have you studied for your exams yet?” she asks, tilting her head and setting her drink down.
“My projects for the important stuff are going pretty smoothly,” Lily replies. “Everything else I’ll just get Haewonie to tutor me on if I need it. I’m only really having problems in Physics anyway,” she shrugs.
Kyujin’s about to tell Lily that maybe it’s not a good idea to ask Haewon, who she’s pretty sure only barely passed her own Physics class last semester, for help, but Lily’s eyes turn to something behind Kyujin. “Hey,” Lily says, pointing at whatever it was, “isn’t that Jiwoo?”
Kyujin turns around and spots a Jiwoo-like figure running towards their direction, who waves before slowing down. Kyujin returns the wave at the arriving person, actually Jiwoo, and picks up her drink again, determined to finally chew on a boba pearl this time.
Jiwoo stops beside their table, hands on her knees and trying to catch her breath. “Hiya! Sorry, can’t chat right now! I’m really late for my Economics class,” she pants out, tying her hair back in preparation for another sprint. Kyujin stares at her now exposed nape and ignores the weird feeling in her stomach before focusing her attention back to maneuvering her straw, blindly trying to locate a pearl. She takes another sip.
“Aw okay, you should hurry then! Let’s catch up next time,” Lily replies, shooting Jiwoo a thumbs up. Kyujin just hums in agreement, still drinking from her cup. Did they even put boba in her drink?
Jiwoo looks at her before blowing a kiss and smirking. Kyujin returns the favor with half a hand heart. ‘Damn, Haewon unnie was right,’ Kyujin thinks. Jiwoo smiles at Lily before she waves goodbye to the two of them before taking off, sprinting towards the campus. Kyujin finally feels a pearl at the end of her straw and sips.
“Run safe,” Lily yells in Jiwoo’s direction. “Bye puppy!” she adds.
Kyujin almost chokes on a boba pearl. She coughs violently, trying to not get herself killed in such a stupid way. Thankfully, only Lily’s around to notice her blunder.
“Oh my god! Kyujin, are you okay?” Lily asks, like she didn’t just call Jiwoo that crazy ass nickname.
Kyujin’s thoughts feel like they’re racing at a hundred miles an hour. What the hell was that? Who just calls someone else by ‘puppy?’ Especially when they’re not even dating… or a thing, at least! Wait. Oh god. Oh god. Is Lily cheating on Haewon with Jiwoo? Is Haewon in on it? Is it like some weird pet play thing? Should she ask her? Okay, maybe she shouldn’t ask her. Like, it’s not really her place anyway! Kyujin’s open-minded, actually! She heard polyamory’s in right now. But Kyujin’s really curious now, plus Lily doesn’t seem like a poly kind of girl. She’s pretty sure Haewon’s monogamous too. Still, it’s kind of weird to ask someone why they would call another person ‘puppy’. Yeah, that would be a really awkward thing to ask someone.
Her mind decides it’s better to just ignore what Lily said and focus on getting her breathing back in order. Her mouth can’t stop itself from asking, though.
“Why did you call Jiwoo ‘puppy?’” she asks, cringing. She definitely did not sound very open-minded.
Lily tilts her head in confusion. “Cause Jiwoo’s like a puppy!” she answers easily, like that explains things. “The same way you’re like a kitty! Our little kitty Kyujinnie!” she coos at her.
‘Oh, I guess that does kind of explain things,’ Kyujin thinks. She feels herself relax. She should’ve remembered Lily’s just a little silly like that; it’s like when Lily started calling Kyujin a ‘kitty’ back when they met two years ago, and it just stuck as a teasing nickname. Everyone in their group got assigned an animal at some point; Kyujin figures it was about time Jiwoo got one too anyway. She scrunches her face at Lily, who’s still cooing at her.
“Alright, alright unnie. I’m a kitty, I get it.” She says, relenting to the older girl’s teasing. She brings a hand up beside her face and imitates a cat’s paw.
Lily smiles at her, satisfied at the reaction. “It’s cute, don’t you think?”
“Me being a kitty?”
“Well, you already know you’re a kitty,” Lily giggles. “I meant about Jiwoo being a puppy.”
Kyujin leans back against her chair and thinks, nodding her head in agreement as she thinks about it. A puppy. Yeah, Jiwoo does kind of give off puppy vibes, doesn’t she? She likes pats the same way a tiny Maltese puppy would. Puppy-like vibes. Jiwoo’s a little unserious and plays along with Kyujin like a puppy would. The vibes of someone who kind of acts like a puppy. Huh. Jiwoo is like a puppy. A puppy that Kyujin thought was cute the moment she saw her. A cool puppy. A puppy that’s almost a year older than her. Puppy. Kyujin feels like really fucking cold water just hit her in the face. Damn.
Kyujin really wishes her mouth didn’t ask Lily for clarification.
No problem. Kyujin’s good at ignoring things that definitely don’t affect her at a fundamental level. Because this situation doesn’t affect her at a fundamental level. Not at all. She’s also really good at acting like things are fine. She’s a great actress. ‘Maybe I really should’ve joined that acting troupe Jinsol invited me to,’ she thinks.
The idea of asking Jinsol if her offer still stands is cut off by a pair of hands covering Kyujin’s eyes. “Guess who,” a voice that sounds a lot like Jiwoo, but Kyujin wishes it isn’t, says in a teasing tone. Kyujin removes the hands over her eyes and turns around to look at the culprit. Unfortunately for her, it actually is Jiwoo.
Jiwoo pouts at her. “You didn’t guess.”
“Sorry,” Kyujin smiles apologetically. “I already knew it was you. If it makes you feel better, I recognized your voice.”
Jiwoo whistles, smiling mischievously at her. “Flirting with me again, are you, Kyu?”
Okay, well, Kyujin didn’t really mean it that way, but it’s too late to turn back now, lest she make the situation awkward. She decides to just play it safe.
“Aren’t I always flirting with you?”
“Are you implying that flirting with me is just something you do for no reason, Kyujinie?” Jiwoo puts a hand over her heart in mock hurt. “Do you not find our flirting sessions so special and beautiful and worth something?”
Kyujin feels her face heat up as she scrambles to explain herself.
“That’s not what I meant! I’m just saying we flirt a lot! Like, it’s not weird if I am flirting with you, you know! It’s fun to flirt, isn’t it? We both like flirting with each other, don’t we? Unless you don’t like it when I flirt with you. Oh gosh, do you feel uncomfortable when I flirt with you? You’d tell me if I was making you feel weird, wouldn’t you? Promise me you’ll tell me immediately if me flirting with you makes you uncomfortable, swear to me, Jiwoo!” Oh god, someone shut her up now.
Jiwoo saves her from further embarrassing herself by cutting her rambling off with a laugh.
“Okay, okay, calm down, Casanova. I was just teasing you,” Jiwoo offers her a smile. “You’re very cute, don’t worry. A pretty girl flirting with me is the least of my problems. I like flirting with you too, okay? I don’t feel uncomfortable at all,” she ends, shaking her head while chuckling.
Kyujin feels relieved hearing Jiwoo doesn’t feel uncomfortable about the whole thing; she’d feel horrible if she was unknowingly making Jiwoo feel like she’s being cornered and forced to go along with her.
The relief doesn’t last very long, though, as Kyujin feels like a ton of bricks landed on her when she finally registers that Jiwoo referred to her as ‘a pretty girl.’ It takes every neuron in Kyujin’s body to keep herself from asking Jiwoo to repeat what she just said… the calling Kyujin ‘a pretty girl’ part, mostly.
Kyujin needs help. Expeditiously.
“Aren’t you even gonna acknowledge that I’m literally having what might possibly be my gay awakening slash realization right now in your dorm room?”
Since the gay thing isn’t technically resolved yet, Kyujin decided not to bother Yoona and thought bothering Jinsol was the next best thing for her problem. So, Kyujin finds herself now in Yoona and Jinsol’s dorm, sitting on the older girl’s bed as Jinsol furiously types away on her laptop at her desk, trying to finish a case study that she, quote unquote, ‘didn’t even know had today as the deadline.’
Jinsol doesn’t even turn to her or stop her fingers from typing at her laptop. Kyujin feels a bit bad because she can tell that her ass is not finishing that case study tonight.
“Girl, I’ve known you were gay ever since we met in high school. Also, straight girls don’t follow Bada Lee on TikTok.” Kyujin frowns. “Plus, you literally listen to Yves.” Wow, stereotyping much?
“I like her music! What’s wrong with that?” she sighs, exasperated. God forbid a bisexual(?) girl get a little niche and esoteric.
“No straight girl ally has ‘Kiss a Kitty’ by Chuu in their Spotify Wrapped 2025.”
“It was an ironic coincidence!”
“Oh please,” Kyujin sees Jinsol’s eyes squint at her screen as she speaks, word document bouncing off her blue light glasses, “remember a few months ago when you got drunk and told me that you think you had a crush on Lily unnie?”
“I told you that in confidence, and I said it was just a friend crush!” Kyujin yells before wincing and lowering her voice. “Everyone gets like that! I was just admiring her. Lily unnie’s cool, and she’s like cute, you know?” Kyujin’s arms flail as she tries to explain her younger self. “Like a puppy! Plus, Lily unnie’s really nice! I mean like, come on, who wouldn’t like her? Haewon unnie definitely wasn’t immune. It’s normal! Lily’s just that kind of person. L-O-L!” Okay, not helping her case. Who even says ‘L-O-L’ in real life?
Jinsol stops typing and lets the silence stretch before looking over at her. “Sure,” she agrees in a tone that did not sound agreeable at all. Her eyes return to her screen, and Kyujin sees the reflection in her glasses turn from white to green before speaking. “Whatever helped you sleep at night,” she says, hand moving from her keyboard to her mouse. Is she seriously playing Solitaire right now?
Kyujin stands up and groans as she walks over to Jinsol, closing her laptop before she can protest against it. Jinsol huffs in annoyance. “Dude.”
“Don’t dude me,” Kyujin says, putting her hands on Jinsol’s shoulders and violently shaking the girl. “I don’t know what to do,” she wails, just loud and dramatic.
Alright, alright!” Jinsol puts her hands on Kyujin’s arms to stop her. “Stop shaking me, damn!” She motions for Kyujin to sit back down on her bed, and Kyujin relents. The older girl crosses her arms and lets out a sigh.
“Look, Kyujin,” she starts, “I don’t really know what you want me to say. If you like Jiwoo, there’s nothing wrong with that. She’s chill, and everyone in the group already likes her.” Jinsol shakes her head and continues. “I don’t see what the big deal is, really. Plus, she’s literally gay too.”
“The issue is that I didn’t even know I was flirting with her for realsies! I thought I was doing it for like, bonding activities! How was I supposed to know I was actually unconsciously in love with her and actually just wanted to flirt with her? God, she definitely thinks I’m some stupid straight girl that doesn’t take gay girls seriously.”
Jinsol grimaces as she processes what she just heard. “Okay, well, I said you liked her, but now you just admitted you might actually be in love with her, so now I kinda don’t know how to react.”
Kyujin flops onto her stomach on the bed and screams into Jinsol’s pillow. She hears Jinsol sigh for what feels like the tenth time in thirty minutes and walk over to her. She feels Jinsol patting her on the back. “Chin up, player; it’ll be fine. At least you're sure you're gay.”
Kyujin has never felt worse. She should’ve just called Yoona.
The gay thing has been resolved. Unfortunately, the Jiwoo thing has now taken its place.
Haewon stares at her across the table, blowing bubbles into her iced americano. ‘Gross,’ Kyujin thinks. Why did Yoona have to take an exam today of all days?
“So… Jiwoo, huh?” Haewon says, setting her americano down on the table.
“Right,” Kyujin nods, avoiding eye contact.
Haewon nods in return. “This situation feels really familiar.”
“Unnie, just shut up and tell me what to do already,” Kyujin complains.
Haewon just looks at her and smirks, thoroughly enjoying watching her normally composed friend lose her mind inside a coffee shop. It’s not every day that the Jang Kyujin is at a loss for how to act with another person. ‘Fucking asshole,’ Kyujin thinks, scowling at the girl across from her.
“What you have to do is actually pretty simple, Kyu,” Haewon states, smirk still present on her face. “Just tell Jiwoo how you feel. What’s the harm in that?” She ends her statement with a gulp of americano.
Kyujin stares at Haewon like she just grew a second head. Or maybe she did because advice like the one Haewon just gave her simply could not have been given by an actual human being. Maybe it was Kyujin’s fault for asking a T-type for advice on feelings.
Kyujin drops her head on the table, groaning. She hears Haewon let out a low whistle.
“Look, Kyu,” Haewon tries again, tapping her fingers on the table. “I wouldn’t tell you to confess to Jiwoo if I didn’t think you at least had a shot. I mean, no guarantee she’ll say yes or whatever, but I mean if it helps, she does always flirt with you. That’s gotta mean something.”
Kyujin lifts her head from the table, studying Haewon’s face for any tells to see if she’s messing with her, but Haewon looks pretty serious, all things considered. Kyujin considers the probability of success if she were to ever confess to Jiwoo. Worst case scenario is Jiwoo lets her down, and Kyujin has to accept that her first gay experience ended in a failure and the girl who rejected her is her exact type. Yeah, no; Kyujin would rather match the amount of caffeine Haewon drinks a day before she lets something that horrible and tragic happen to her.
She slams her head back down on the table. She hears Haewon go back to blowing bubbles in her drink.
‘To confess or not to confess, that is the question.’ She weighs her options in her mind.
Kyujin is not fucking confessing to Jiwoo. She can’t believe she even considered listening to Haewon’s advice; she must have been insane that day. So, she does the next best thing to prevent herself from having to think about being gay and being, probably, in love with Kim Jiwoo: she avoids her.
The only problem with her plan is, just as she noticed a few weeks ago, Kim Jiwoo is everywhere.
It’s bad enough that Kyujin has to skip out on lunch hangouts with everyone because she’s too scared of how she’ll have to act around Jiwoo, but she can’t even come to any previously planned hangouts because, well, Jiwoo is there too.
Italian food with Yoona and Jiwoo? Kyujin bailed and said she had a last-minute exam to study for.
Ramen with Lily? Kyujin found out the restaurant was a five-minute walk from Jiwoo’s apartment and told Lily she was actually coming down with a fever.
Video call with Jinsol? Kyujin heard Jiwoo’s voice in the background and promptly dropped the call, turning on airplane mode for good measure.
Reschedule of that Italian food hangout with Yoona and Jiwoo? Kyujin said she had another exam.
Drinking with Haewon? Okay, Kyujin was actually there until Haewon told her that Jiwoo would be showing up later that evening. Kyujin snuck out of the restaurant when she excused herself to go to the bathroom. She still feels bad about having to leave Haewon looking like a loser drinking alone before Jiwoo would show up. She hopes the wire transfer to Haewon for the cost of her meal was enough of an apology.
Reschedule of the reschedule of that Italian food hangout with Yoona and Jiwoo? It was actually Yoona who forgot she had an actual exam that day. Kyujin believes there was a god that was looking out for her that day.
‘It’s what’s best right now,’ she resolves. Better to let her feelings run their course and avoid her friends for a few weeks rather than have to do breathing exercises every time her heart starts to race when Jiwoo calls her some stupid pet name that totally isn’t cute. Yep, a few weeks of bailing on hangouts can’t be that bad. She’s doing a pretty good job being sneaky about the whole thing anyway.
“Are you avoiding us or something, Jang Kyujin?” she hears a voice that feels terrifyingly familiar behind her. Damn. Yoona’s never sounded this mad before.
Kyujin didn’t really know what she was thinking when she decided to stay in the campus library and study during lunchtime; lunchtime when their friends all meet up on the same campus. She’s lucky only Yoona found her right now. ‘I knew I should’ve taken up Eunchae’s offer to go bowling,’ she thinks, mentally chastising herself for choosing to be a good student rather than go play hooky.
She keeps her gaze ahead of her, eyes scanning the room, trying to find the nearest exit to run to. Unfortunately for her, a hand grasps at the collar of her shirt, preventing her from leaving her current position.
“Don’t even think about it, Jang Kyujin.” ‘Yep,’ Kyujin thinks, ‘definitely mad.’
“Okay, okay,” she relents. “I won’t run; now let go of my shirt already. I just ironed this today,” she pouts, bringing a hand to flatten the area of her shirt that Yoona balled up.
Yoona sits across from her and waits. They stare at each other. Kyujin blinks. Yoona blinks back at her. Kyujin lets out a laugh, very obviously fake. She has got to work on her fake laugh. “Anyway, unnie, I don’t really know what you’re talking about.”
Yoona rolls her eyes. “I don’t have time for your jokes right now, Kyujin. I have an exam in fifteen minutes, so we either talk about this right now or you’ll have to settle with talking to Jinsol, and you know she’s gonna cry the moment she asks if you’ve been avoiding us. So, speak.”
“What kind of game development major has exams this often?” she asks, genuinely perplexed at how Yoona still has exams right now. It’s not even exam season anymore.
“Me. Now answer, or I’m leaving and texting someone else to talk to you tonight,” Yoona says, pulling out her phone and placing it on the table.
Kyujin, as she finds herself lately, weighs her options. She can either talk about it (kind of) with Yoona right now when she’s not ready to talk about it or end up crying with Jinsol in the girls’ dorm room for hours on end. She’s tempted to go with the second option, but she has plans tomorrow with Hyunseo, and she isn’t really keen on nursing a crying-induced headache while outside.
Avoiding Yoona’s stare, Kyujin looks at the table in front of her, the plastic texture suddenly seeming very interesting. “I’m not necessarily avoiding you guys. I’m just… really busy with a bunch of projects I… forgot… I had.”
She knows Yoona sees through her lie the moment she said it. Everyone knows Kyujin doesn’t forget whenever she has a project she has to do. She’d have been better off saying her dorm ceiling caved in or something less ridiculous than the idea that she forgot to do a project.
“You’re not very subtle, you know,” Yoona states, taking a look at her phone screen before turning it back over. “You’ve cancelled on every plan we’ve had, and you don’t even show up during our shared lunches anymore. I know your exams are done, so it doesn’t make sense for you to keep saying you have to study for something.”
Kyujin can’t keep herself from avoiding Yoona’s gaze any longer. She finds her unnie still staring at her. Kyujin stays quiet. Yoona breaks the silence.
“Is this about Jiwoo?” she asks.
Kyujin winces at being found out. “How did you know?”
“Haewon unnie told me that you guys talked about Jiwoo a few days ago.” Snitch. “She didn’t tell me what you two talked about, but I just connected the dots,” Yoona reassures her. Kyujin doesn’t really feel reassured, but whatever.
Yoona waits for Kyujin to say something before realizing she’s not gonna talk yet. She continues.
“Jiwoo asked about you the other day, you know. Asked how you were doing and if she did something wrong; she said you barely respond to her texts. She feels really bad about the whole thing, you avoiding us, I mean. She doesn’t know you like her. I think. Maybe,” Yoona grimaces, noticing that she’s rambling now.
That makes Kyujin feel even worse. She didn’t really think almost two weeks of avoiding her friends would be that obvious, but the situation begs to differ.
“Sorry,” she says softly, hoping Yoona can hear how apologetic she feels. “I shouldn’t have been so immature about the whole thing. I’ll fix it. Don’t worry, unnie.”
Yoona smiles at her, shaking her head. She brings a hand to pat Kyujin’s head before standing up.
“It’s okay, Kyu. It’s not immature; I know the whole thing’s really heavy and confusing for you. No need to push yourself right now. Just promise me you won’t avoid us anymore. Jinsol and Lily unnie have been really sad about not seeing you,” she states. “We all are.”
“Okay, I promise.”
Yoona hums in approval before removing her hand from the top of Kyujin’s head and grabbing her phone to glance at it. She puts it back in her pocket then turns her attention back to the younger girl.
“I have to go now; my exam’s starting soon. Call me later if you want to talk more, okay? Don’t do anything stupid. Bye, kitty.” She waves goodbye, which Kyujin returns, before turning her back and leaving for her exam.
Kyujin watches Yoona’s figure disappear behind the library’s doors before taking her phone out and locating Jiwoo’s contact profile. Yoona may have told her not to do anything stupid, but she decides fixing her relationship with her friends isn’t considered stupid… the ends justify the means, right?
‘Might as well get it over with,’ she thinks.
She sends Jiwoo a text, asking if they can talk. Jiwoo responds almost immediately, inviting her over to her place. Kyujin gathers her things and heads towards Jiwoo’s apartment.
Okay, now that Kyujin’s actually in Jiwoo’s unit, she realizes she actually doesn’t know how she’s supposed to approach this conversation. She was honestly too preoccupied with not backing out at the last minute while she was walking to her destination.
‘How am I supposed to tell her that I just found out I’m gay, and we have to stop play-flirting because it makes me feel weird and guilty and, I think, a little horny?’ That just sounds ridiculous to say out loud.
Well, she’s here now: standing awkwardly at Jiwoo’s bedroom doorframe, staring at Jiwoo who walks towards her bed and sits down on the edge. She pats the space beside her, motioning for Kyujin to sit. Kyujin feels eyes follow her as she sits down, and Jiwoo turns her body to her before bringing her legs up and crossing them on the bed. Kyujin mimics her.
“So,” Jiwoo starts, “what did you wanna talk about?”
God, she hasn’t seen Jiwoo in so long that she feels her heart immediately start to race from their close proximity. She has to duck her head to prevent herself from just word-vomiting all over the moment. She’s never been this nervous in her life.
Jiwoo continues to stare at her, waiting patiently.
It takes Kyujin a moment to compose herself before gingerly taking Jiwoo’s hands in hers and squeezing them before looking up and staring into her eyes. Pretty, she thinks. It is genuinely not the time for that right now. She feels Jiwoo squeeze her hands back, and she has no choice but to just come out with it in whatever way she can: “Jiwoo, I’m gay.”
“I know,” Jiwoo nods sagely. #whatdatmean.
The pause is pregnant like that one person’s fanfic. Kyujin can’t help but furrow her eyebrows and squint at Jiwoo’s face. “What do you mean ‘you know?’” she asks, incredulously.
Jiwoo shrugs like Kyujin just told her the weather and not something she’s been grappling with for the past few weeks. “Like, right, you’re gay, continue,” she says.
Kyujin cannot believe this is her life.
Kyujin tries her best to school her expression, which she’s sure makes her look insanely ridiculous right now. This has got to be the most humiliating scenario she’s ever found herself in. She removes her hands from Jiwoo’s, slowly bringing them to hide her face in her palms, groaning.
“I’m–” she stops herself and looks at Jiwoo through the gaps of her fingers. She can’t think of anything that can help salvage the moment or her dignity. “That’s all I had to say,” she surrenders.
Jiwoo blinks at her. Jiwoo tilts her head at her. Then Jiwoo crosses her arms.
“Wait, I’m sorry,” Jiwoo shakes her head, “so are you coming out to me right now?”
Kyujin stares, hands still over her face, before slowly nodding. Jiwoo mouths an ‘ohh’ as she nods as well, matching Kyujin’s own. “Thanks for telling me then, Kyujin.” Jiwoo gives her two thumbs up.
Kyujin feels her face heat up from embarrassment.
“No problem,” she responds, voice a little muffled before removing her hands and continuing, “it’s kind of a recent development.”
Jiwoo raises an eyebrow. “You mean you weren’t gay before this?”
“No! I mean like–“ Kyujin’s hands flail wildly as she tries to compose herself and look for the right words. “I was! I just– I didn’t know. That. I already liked girls before I knew; I just, like, I didn’t know it was in a gay way. You get me?” Kyujin doesn’t miss the growing smirk on Jiwoo’s face. ‘Fuck my life, she looks so hot like that,’ Kyujin thinks. It is still not the time for that.
“Yeah, yeah, sure, I get you,” Jiwoo says in a teasing voice. She leans back on her bed, laughing softly. “It’s chill, congrats on the gay thing,” she says, pausing to stare at Kyujin. “So, is that all you wanted to tell me?”
Well, isn’t that a question. Honestly, the only things Kyujin wants to say right now are ‘Can you sit up again cause the bottom of your shirt kinda rid up when you laid down, and I’m trying really hard not to stare at your stomach’ and ‘Did everyone else know I was gay before I did?’ Kyujin chooses to stay silent and shrug her shoulders, gesturing for Jiwoo to talk instead.
Jiwoo smiles at her, saving her from further embarrassment. “Alright, I have a question then.”
Kyujin nods. “Yeah, shoot.”
“So, all those times when you were flirting with me, were you doing it as a straight girl bit or did you mean any of them?” Jiwoo asks.
‘Oh my fucking god.’ Kyujin feels like the room’s spinning.
She gapes at Jiwoo, trying to process the question while simultaneously studying the girl’s smiling face, looking genuinely curious. Kyujin debates between saving herself from further embarrassment by denying anything romantic so they can save it for another day and just getting the whole thing over with and telling Jiwoo how she really feels. Well. She goes with the latter; she’s already here and embarrassed enough, might as well rip her fucking leg off too.
Kyujin releases a breath she didn’t know she was holding in. “If I say I like you,” her voice feels small, “would that make things weird?”
A smile blossoms on Jiwoo’s face before she sits up properly and puts her hands on Kyujin’s cheeks, chuckling. “No, I’d be pretty happy actually,” she says, stretching the cheeks in her hands and earning a whine from the younger girl. “I like you too.”
Kyujin’s mouth hangs open as she processes what she just heard. This isn’t really the development she expected when she was thinking about ends justifying the means and all that. She notices Jiwoo still smiling at her, waiting for her to talk.
Kyujin should be chill about this; she’s felt enough embarrassment for the day.
“That’s great!” She cringes at herself.
Jiwoo’s smile widens, giggling at Kyujin’s embarrassment. She lies back down on her bed, inviting Kyujin to lie down beside her. Kyujin obliges despite how insane the idea makes her feel.
The silence around them is inviting, and Kyujin finally feels like she can focus on calming herself down from everything that just happened. She notices Jiwoo yawn and close her eyes. Kyujin brings her own attention to Jiwoo’s ceiling, thinking of how she got here.
She never really imagined Jiwoo liking her back, truly believing Jiwoo was just being chill and nonchalant about the whole flirting back with a straight girl thing. Okay, well, maybe Jiwoo actually was chill and nonchalant about the whole thing, but from like a flirting with a gay girl perspective. Actually, Kyujin can’t believe she bagged a girlfriend when she only found out she was gay a few weeks ago. Wait, girlfriend? Are Jiwoo and her even dating?
“Jiwoo,” Kyujin breaks the silence, “are we dating now?”
Jiwoo hums, not even opening her eyes. “I sure hope so,” she says, snuggling up to Kyujin. She feels Kyujin stiffen under her hold and laughs. “Now, shut up and let me nap.”
“Okay. Cool. Nice. I’ll nap too,” Kyujin says as calmly as she can. Jiwoo responds by snuggling even closer to her. Jesus, Kyujin feels like she’s about to explode.
Kyujin makes a mental note to call Yoona if she survives this.