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Kyung arrives fifteen minutes late and already talking.
"I asked for lunch with you," she says to Jaeyi, dropping into the booth like a boulder. "I did not ask for the two of you as a package deal."
"We come as a unit now," Jaeyi says, not looking up from the menu. "Sorry."
"She's really not sorry," Seulgi says.
"I guess Seulgi can give me some unique insight, after all," She doesn't have the energy to fight that battle too. "Since she managed to tame someone as insufferable as you, Yoo Jaeyi."
"Hey!" Jaeyi barely protests before her food arrives.
Kyung orders a coffee, black, and some bland whole grain sandwich, like she's punishing herself for something, and gets straight into it.
"So we were supposed to get dinner Tuesday. I picked a place — delicious hotpot, all-you-can-eat, good value — and Yeri said, and I quote, 'whatever, I don't care where we eat.' So I made the reservation. And then she didn't want to go. Because, apparently, she 'wasn't in the mood' for that kind of food. Which — fine, sure, but I spent forty minutes researching the best price-per-serving in the area."
Seulgi sets down her spoon. "All-you-can-eat."
"Yes?"
"You wanted to take Joo Yeri to an all-you-can-eat restaurant."
Kyung blinks. "It's great value."
Jaeyi makes a small, noncommittal noise into her bowl of black bean noodles.
"Maybe she genuinely didn't care when she said it," Seulgi offers, picking up her spoon to stir her bibimbap, "and then she changed her mind. That happens to people."
"It's not about the restaurant," Kyung says, a little sharp.
"Then what's it about?"
Kyung doesn't answer that one directly. "And there's groceries too. I told her I'd just pay for her groceries this month, since I've been at her place a lot lately and I want to cook her some healthy meals — because she definitely doesn't eat enough fiber — and she looked at me like I'd insulted her and all of her ancestors. 'I don't need you to buy me things.' I wasn't buying her anything, it was just broccoli!"
Seulgi pauses for a moment and looks intently at Kyung.
"Did you say it like that?" Seulgi asks. "Or did you say it as I noticed you don't have food in your house, let me fix that?"
Kyung opens her mouth. Closes it.
"Because those are different sentences," Seulgi says, mild, devastating. "One of them is just about groceries. The other one is about her struggle to keep a full fridge, and I don't think she's very appreciative of you calling it out."
A beat passes between them.
"And then there's the scheduling thing," Kyung continues, because she is not done, "I try to lock down one evening a week, just one, in advance, so I'm not sitting around waiting to find out if she's free — and she keeps picking up shifts on top of it. Doesn't tell me until the day of."
"Does she need the money?" Seulgi asks.
"That's not — I'm not saying she shouldn't work—"
"That wasn't the question."
Kyung's jaw tightens. Her ears are on fire. "Yes. She needs the money." Kyung's voice tightens. "I already offered to cover expenses and she refused — which, fine, but I just want us to exist as an actual couple somewhere in her calendar, not just two people who have sex whenever she gets a day off."
"So you still have sex," Seulgi asks.
"Yes—" Kyung's voice cracks high, sudden, but she recovers fast despite the blush on her cheeks. "Of course. But it seems like it's the only thing we can do without fighting these days."
"That does sound like a lot," Jaeyi says, warm, committing to absolutely nothing. She slides the sugar toward Kyung's coffee without being asked. Kyung takes it. Doesn't notice she's doing it.
"We should have picked a dinner — so Yeri could join us and give us her side of the story," Seulgi says, setting her empty bowl aside. "Or at least we could be drinking soju instead." As if the complaining would go down easier drunk.
Kyung doesn't miss the jab. "And risk seeing you two sucking face after twenty minutes? No, thank you. I need advice from sober, not-horny sources." A little nervously, she adds, "And Yeri's doing a double shift today despite my objections. There are labor laws, and she just lets her employer exploit her like that."
"Well, we have Pathology in half an hour," Seulgi says. "You might want to get to the point so we can actually advise you."
Kyung is stunned into silence by the bluntness of it. Seulgi steps away to the washroom and settles the bill.
"I'm doing this whole thing wrong, aren't I?" Kyung asks Jaeyi once Seulgi's out of earshot, defeat written across her face. "With Yeri."
"Maybe. You're both pretty stubborn. But you love her, right?" Jaeyi asks, cautious.
"Of course I love her," Kyung says, and it comes out fierce, angry. "I've loved her for years — long before we even got together. And now that we're actually trying this, it's like everything I do is proof I'm not good enough for her. Or that I'm just not good at loving her."
Silence falls between them.
"Feels like I have to build a case for why we should stay together," Kyung mutters finally, head low, "and I keep losing every argument."
She should've known it would come back to old wounds. Seeing Jaeyi and Seulgi so happy and in sync pokes at something painful — jealousy, if she's honest. Not of Jaeyi herself, but of how in control she seems to be of her own relationship. No fights, no arguing, no trying to convince the other of what's best for them. That kind of peace looks so effortless it feels unreachable.
Kyung wraps both hands around her coffee cup like she's protecting it from something. "So how does it work," she says, not quite meeting Jaeyi's eyes. "You and Seulgi. Who — I don't know. Who decides things?"
Jaeyi examines her nails, unbothered. "I do, obviously."
Kyung's eyebrows lift. "Obviously?"
"Yeah. I'm definitely the one in charge in this relationship," Jaeyi says, like it's simple fact — brag dressed up as certainty.
A beat. Then, from just behind Jaeyi's shoulder:
"Babe." Seulgi sets her receipt down on the table — unhurried, like she's been standing there a moment already. "Stand up."
Jaeyi stands.
Kyung's mouth opens slightly.
"Sit down."
Jaeyi sits.
"Look over here."
Jaeyi looks. Immediately. No delay, no eye-roll, no questions. She just looks. At Seulgi. Like it's the easiest thing in the world.
Seulgi tilts her head, unhurried, cataloguing. "Hm. Interesting." Then, as if taking advantage of the moment, she reaches up and brushes some imaginary dirt from Jaeyi's cheek.
Jaeyi is slightly taken aback but enjoys the attention, visibly melting into the touch. She recovers fast, the way she always does — straightens her spine, reaches for the thread of the conversation like it's still hers to hold. "Anyway." She turns to Kyung, chin up, the performance sliding back into place like a mask clicking shut. "Watch this." Then, to Seulgi: "Babe, can you bring the car around, please?"
"Of course, my love." Seulgi doesn't move to get the car.
Jaeyi looks at Kyung, satisfied, arms crossed. "See?"
Kyung is speechless. Seulgi notices.
"Have you had your breakthrough yet, Kyung?" she asks, a smirk threatening the corner of her mouth.
Jaeyi reaches over and takes Seulgi's hand without being asked. Seulgi lets her.
Kyung looks at them — at the ease of it, at the absence of strategy, at the way Jaeyi's hand fits into Seulgi's palm like it belongs there — and understands, finally.
Jaeyi doesn't strategize around Seulgi. She gloats and melts and Seulgi doesn't punish her for either — just brushes her cheek and lets her brag about silly things. Never testing, never fixing. Just choosing her, over and over, the way you breathe without thinking about it.
Jaeyi gets what she wants by just letting Seulgi be.
Kyung thinks about the hotpot. The broccoli. The calendar slot she tries to lock in every week like a court date.
"Yeah—" Kyung starts. "Yeah, I think I have."
It's not that Yeri doesn't love her. It's that Kyung doesn't know how to be loved without making it a trial she has to win.
And Kyung has been trying to win Yeri. Trying to prove she's worth the effort, that she can be a good girlfriend, that their love can survive whatever messed them up in the first place. But Yeri isn't fighting her. Kyung is fighting herself — the part that learned love is something you have to earn.
"Good. Glad to be of help." Seulgi's tone closes the subject. She turns to Jaeyi for a quick peck on the lips. "I'll get the car. Don't stall."
"I won't." Jaeyi holds eye contact with her a long moment — saying more with one look than her mouth ever could.
"Bye, Kyung," Seulgi says as she goes. "Good luck."
Jaeyi follows her exit with her eyes the whole way, heart-eyes and all.
"So this was you being in charge?" Kyung asks, pulling Jaeyi out of her reverie.
"Of course." Jaeyi turns back to her, unbothered. "I'm in charge of one thing: making sure she knows I love her. Everything else — I just trust her. She stays because she chooses to, Kyung. That's the whole thing."
Jaeyi stands up, straightening her jacket.
"Yeri already chose you. Just trust that she knows what she's doing."