Just how fast the night changes for cairistiona
For: cairistiona
Title: Just how fast the night changes
Pairing(s): fem!Chanyeol/fem!D.O, side fem!Baekhyun/fem!Tao
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Making out while tipsy
Length: 4k
Summary: Chanyi has had a crush on her roommate for ages, and jumps at the chance to kiss her during spin the bottle. But things don’t go exactly as planned.
Author's note: I tweaked the prompt the teeniest bit, I hope that’s okay! (I’m just a sucker for meddling Baekhyun…) But dearest recipient, I hope you enjoy this! And thank you to the lovely mod for putting together such a fun exchange!
Baeksoon has a gleam in her eyes that Chanyi knows all too well. She can’t be stopped at this point, and Chanyi is almost too tipsy to care anymore, but the next words out of her mouth are pushing absurd.
“We should play a kissing game!” She pauses and hiccups, but doesn’t lose her momentum. “Like spin the bottle!”
Chanyi is about to scoff at her and ask if they’re all back in high school, but the group is actually agreeing. And sure, everyone is a bit more susceptible to Baeksoon’s ideas when they’ve been drinking, but seriously? Spin the bottle?
“We don’t even have a good bottle,” she pipes up, hoping to derail this before it can get started. Baeksoon grins and chugs the rest of the wine cooler in her hand, wiping her mouth with her forearm and sleazing back, “Now we do.”
Yiyin is blushing on the couch as she tries to sneak glances at Sehyun, who notices immediately and crosses the room with a smile on her face. The two make quick work of clearing a space for everyone to sit and they all crowd in, buzzing with half-drunk excitement. Chanyi catches snippets of phrases and a word that sounds like experimenting.
Clearly, this is going to happen, so she might as well accept it. There are plenty of people here, so it’s not very likely that she’ll be matched up with Kyungjin. And even though she knows she should be embarrassed about crushing on her roommate, she can’t help but think about them getting locked in the closet together. Hands gliding over skin, mouth crashing into those unfairly perfect collarbones...
She’s startled from her fantasy when Baeksoon hoots and places the bottle in the middle of the circle.
“Shall we have our dissenter spin first, everyone?” Baeksoon is staring her down like she has something planned, and she probably does. There's a rowdy chorus of agreement and Chanyi braces herself, reaching for the bottle and giving it what she hopes is a lighthearted spin.
The thing whips around and it feels like the air has been sucked out of her tiny living room. The others are watching intently and Chanyi hopes no one hears her sigh in relief when the tip of the bottle stops in front of Aitao. Aitao is good; Aitao is calm and easy. Chanyi is a bit surprised that she hasn’t actually kissed her before--Aitao is a cuddly drunk.
Their kiss is quick but not unpleasant. Aitao’s lips are sticky with lip gloss as usual, but incredibly soft. Chanyi sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and savors the taste of artificial bubblegum left behind. A snicker from the other side of the circle lets her know that Baeksoon had noticed.
“Wasn’t so bad, right?” She motions at Aitao to spin and seems nothing short of overjoyed when the bottle ends up pointing at her. Aitao motions for her to crawl across the circle and Baeksoon ends up straddling Aitao's hips. It's a bit obscene, but they all probably should have expected it. The two are known for their... closeness. Chanyi has walked in on them more than once, and been invited to join more times than she'd like to acknowledge.
They break apart, lipstick and lip gloss tackied over both of their mouths. Baeksoon crawls back over to her spot and it’s her turn now. She reaches for the bottle in the center, smirking at Chanyi as she gives it a light spin. She definitely has some sort of plan.
The lipstick-covered mouth of the bottle comes to a stop and points at Kyungjin. Chanyi steals a horrified glance at Baeksoon, whose exterior remains as cool as ever. Kyungjin shrugs her shoulders and leans in--Chanyi can’t look. She blindly grabs for the nearest cup and throws all of its contents down her throat.
She can’t bear not knowing, though, and chances a look. Baeksoon has expertly swerved Kyungjin’s lips and is kissing her cheek with her typical I’m Baeksoon and I pull shit laugh. The relief hits Chanyi’s stomach at the same time as the alcohol does, leaving her scrambling towards the kitchenette for a glass of water with a face as red as whatever noxious liquid she’d just ingested.
Water attained and face hopefully back to normal, she turns back to the group in her living room and sees them all waiting patiently for her. She’s about to smile and thank them, but Baeksoon beats her to it.
“We wouldn’t want her to miss Kyungjin’s turn, right?” The implications drip off her words and she adds an exaggerated wink in Chanyi’s direction.
Rolling her eyes to hide her hopefulness, Chanyi takes her place in the circle and waits for everyone to stop looking between her and Kyungjin. It doesn’t really stop, It doesn’t really stop, so Kyungjin takes initiative and gives the bottle a half-hearted spin.
And of course, because this is just her luck, Chanyi feels everyone's eyes travel up the length of the bottle and come to rest on her. She lets her gaze flit to Kyungjin, who looks almost as impassive as always. Everything is a bit too quiet when Chanyi clears her throat and looks at Baeksoon.
She gets an encouraging nod in response and finally looks to Kyungjin. She appears to be fine, and Chanyi is feeling a bit bold after that drink, so she makes her way across the tight circle. And, god, maybe it’s just her but the air feels a hundred times heavier.
Sitting in front of Kyungjin shouldn't make her so nervous. They live together, for chrissake. Her heart is in her throat as she leans forward, hands folded in her lap so she's not tempted to brush Kyungjin's hair out of her eyes. It's all so cliche but it's so real and she can't believe this is happening in front of everyone they know. Well, everyone important.
Chanyi can't quite get a read on Kyungjin, her face remaining unchanged for the few seconds they've been sitting like this. She's not sure she wants this to end, this anticipation, but she's so ready when their lips finally meet.
It's quite the task to hold herself back, to keep this short and simple, but Chanyi manages. It’s over soon and she crawls back to her spot in a daze. The kiss had been just about everything she’d imagined it would be. Kyungjin’s lips, pursed so delicately and as intoxicating as what Chanyi’s been drinking all night.
Everyone is looking expectantly at her when she returns to her spot, and for a moment she worries that her crush is obvious. Yiyin pipes up, though, words retaining a cheerful lilt through the slurring, “It’s your turn to spin now!”
Chanyi’s back straightens and she nods thanks at Yiyin before carelessly spinning the bottle. She’s already gotten more than she could have imagined, so not much else feels important right now.
Her mind screeches to a halt on that thought when the mouth of the bottle ends up slipping to a stop in front of Kyungjin.
Baeksoon hoots, and that can't mean anything good. Chanyi is really fine, she doesn't want to make Kyungjin uncomfortable or anything. Grimacing in a show of apology, as a way of saying we might as well get it over with, she looks up at her roommate through her bangs. Kyungjin remains impassive as ever, not even a shade of discomfort on her face.
Other people might be buoyed by that, but Chanyi has lived with Kyungjin long enough to know that’s just her face. Her heart barely even rises in her chest (and even that could be from the drinking) when their eyes meet. No need to be excited, no.
“Well, you know the rules!” Baeksoon’s voice crashes into Chanyi’s musings and she realizes that no, she doesn’t really know the rules.
“What, so we just kiss again?” She moves to crawl back across the circle, but Kyungjin is shaking her head.
“No, we have to do--”
“Seven minutes in heaven!” Baeksoon interrupts, low oohs filling the room.
Oh. Oh god. Chanyi’s eyes widen comically and she figures she must look like Kyungjin now, all owl eyes and faux astonishment. She lets out a tipsy giggle before remembering that time actually hasn’t stopped and all of her friends heard her giggle about being trapped in a closet with her roommate.
Looking around the hushed circle, she notices that most of her friends are laughing along. Right. They’re all just having fun. None of them know that she’s had a crush on Kyungjin since freshman year except--no.
Baeksoon.
Mischievious eyes glint in front of her as Baeksoon approaches, Kyungjin groaning as she uses the couch to hoist herself to her feet and trailing after her. It’s all clear now. This is another one of Baeksoon’s hare-brained schemes. She’s been relentless since she found out--only after shoving cocktail after cocktail at Chanyi--and lord knows who’s she’s involved this time. The worst part is that Chanyi can’t bring herself to say anything about how evil this is, just in case Kyungjin hears.
So, she lets herself be dragged off to the nearest closet, head hanging. What a cruel way to get her to confess. Who cares if she’s been hiding this for almost four years? Who cares if she was never gonna say anything anyway? Baeksoon is meddling, and Chanyi absolutely plans to let her have it. She’s just gonna wait til morning, when her lovely friend’s head is pounding and her throat tastes like bad decisions and daquiri spit.
Kyungjin delicately sets herself down on the dusty floor of their small laundry room and doesn’t bat an eyelash when Chanyi topples through the door, clearly pushed by Baeksoon. The door slams behind her with a sordid your time starts now, lovebirds and then they’re alone.
It’s a lot harder to fume when Kyungjin is patting the spot beside her, wide eyes following Chanyi’s jerky movements.
“So,” Kyungjin starts. “Should we follow the rules of the game?” Her voice is low and maybe Chanyi’s projecting her desires or she’s too tipsy or something else because she must have imagined the tremble at the end of Kyungjin’s question.
"Do you..." Chanyi pauses and makes sure to look into her roommate's eyes. "Do you want to?"
Kyungjin turns her head away and her voice sounds... guarded, almost. "Yeah," she breathes.
Chanyi's heart jumps for joy, landing somewhere in her throat and keeping her from speaking properly. A few squeaks come out instead, but Kyungjin turns around and smiles at her, clearly amused.
Her face is a little less stony than usual. Chanyi's afraid to chalk it up to anything other than the booze. Still, it's like she can feel flowers growing in her ribcage.
Kyungjin moves in slowly, and doesn't meet Chanyi's eyes until she's nearly straddling her. Her eyes flash up, then, before darting back down to Chanyi's lips.
The eye contact had actually felt hot, and Chanyi holds in a whimper. The sense of purpose in Kyungjin's eyes leaves nothing ambiguous. They both want this. Kyungjin leans in, big eyes nearly boring through Chanyi's lips with their intensity. She makes eye contact again and cocks her head.
"Yes," Chanyi sighs, watching her breath waft at Kyungjin's stray hairs. It must reek of alcohol. Before she can put too much thought into it, her lips are once again enveloped in Kyungjin's. Their mouths mesh together, pulling apart and reconnecting, finding new ways to fit.
Chanyi could drown in Kyungjin's soft sounds. Her hands are roaming over Kyungjin’s back, hardly daring to go lower than her waist.
And she feels so clumsy, alcohol stiffening her muscles, but Kyungjin is precise--lips flitting all over Chanyi’s jaw, neck, collarbone… She relaxes into the situation and--
"Whoa!"
The door slams open, whacking the wall and grazing Chanyi's knee.
"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Yiyin bursts into the space, clamoring to get close to Chanyi's knee.
"Yiyin, it's not even bleeding." Kyungjin, as ever, remains unperturbed, not even phased by Chanyi stiffening up underneath her and turning what must be a horrendous shade of magenta.
Yiyin matches, though, the pink actually looking kind of nice on her. Rude. She's struggling to get a sentence out, one hand still reaching for Chanyi's knee.
"Yiyin, what's taking so long? Their time was up like three minutes ago."
Baeksoon stops short when she gets an eyeful of the cramped laundry room. There's a teary Yiyin cooing over Chanyi, who feels like she's going to throw up, and Kyungjin looking annoyed at the interruption. Chanyi can almost see lightning bolts shooting out of her eyes and wonders why Baeksoon doesn't look terrified.
But Baeksoon is Baeksoon, and she's probably resisting the urge to whip out her phone and tweet a picture of this catastrophe.
"Everyone, out." Kyungjin has pulled away from Chanyi a bit, but remains on top of her hips. Yiyin slinks away, still muttering apologies. Baeksoon stays a split second later, that gleam in her eyes letting Chanyi know that everyone is going to be chattering about this as soon as Baeksoon can get the words out around her smirk.
Kyungjin must recognize this too, because she looks back at Chanyi with a softer face. "Do you want me to sneak you back to your room?" The whisper is loud in the small space, the worry seeping into her tone.
“That’d… That’d be nice,” Chanyi gets out. They disentangle themselves and manage to leave the laundry room undetected, since everyone is too busy talking about them to notice them.
Still, Chanyi can feel Baeksoon’s eyes burning on the back of her head, even if she isn’t actually looking. Must be an evil genius thing.
They make it down the hall to Chanyi’s bedroom and Kyungjin points at the bed. Chanyi sits down and watches as Kyungjin tiptoes out of the room, returning soon with a glass of ice water. The cubes clink as she sets it on the nightstand, sort of like chimes.
Chanyi’s head is still fuzzy and she’s happy to comply when Kyungjin insists she lay down. “You should go to bed,” she says, not without a hint of concern. Chanyi opens her mouth to say she’s fine, really, but is stunned back into silence when Kyungjin presses a kiss to her forehead.
“I’ll go tell them you’re sick or something, distract them.” She looks at the door and lets out a sigh. “Don’t worry, okay?” All Chanyi can do is nod and watch as her longtime roommate, longer-time crush walks out the door and gently shuts it behind her.
Well, this is confusing.
/ / /
And Chanyi is still confused hours later, when she hears the noise of the party start to dwindle.
She can’t sleep, she needs to figure out what this means for her and Kyungjin. Did the kissing actually mean anything? Will things go back to what they were before? What if their friendship has gotten all fucked up because of this? Does Kyungjin know that Chanyi likes her? Has she always known, but been too nice to say anything for fear of hurting her?
Climbing down the fire escape is looking more and more appealing. Certainly better than facing Kyungjin again and dealing with that embarrassment. Chanyi is seriously considering the fire escape now, the alternative too mortifying to even imagine. The panic wells up inside of her and she wants to scream. How could she have messed up like this? It all seemed harmless when she was drinking, but sobriety and hindsight are 20/20. She could cry, and very nearly starts, but the door opens at the worst possible moment.
She doesn't know whether she should be relieved or humiliated when it's Kyungjin that steps into the room. Probably both. It's not Baeksoon, at least. Or Yiyin again, trying to stroke the tiny mark on her knee and practically crying over it. It's Kyungjin, though, and it's too late to pretend to be asleep so Chanyi braces herself.
"Whoa, are you okay?" There's that concern again, and Chanyi really shouldn't be surprised by it. They're friends, roommates even, and of course Kyungjin would be concerned. Tonight feels different, now that they've full-on made out in the laundry room down the hall. Chanyi's not sure if they're even friends anymore. Something more, or something less.
"Not really," Chanyi forces out around what threatens to become a sob. "I messed everything up tonight. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, I don't think." Tears are building up at the corners of her eyes now, but she wants to keep going, to finally get everything off of her chest.
"I really like you, Kyungjin, and now I'm afraid that--" Kyungjin's hand settles onto her knee and tightens, startling her. Kyungjin nods at her to continue.
"I'm afraid that now we won't be able to move forward, as friends or as... something else." Chanyi hiccups and lets the tears fall, refusing to make eye contact with Kyungjin until a hand gently lifts her chin up.
She feels terrifically undesirable at the moment, with her running mascara and the alcohol lingering on her breath. Looking into Kyungjin's eyes makes her want to hide her face again, but she should probably stand behind everything she just said. No matter how scared she is.
The hand holding her chin up drops back into Kyungjin's lap and Chanyi strengthens her gaze. The sniffles subside as she realizes that she's been trying to say that for years and has actually gotten it out this time. Crisis aside, that's something to be proud of.
Because Chanyi refuses to look away, she watches as Kyungjin scoots towards her on the bed, and she sees Kyungjin’s fingers shaking nervously, and she sees the look on Kyungjin’s face as she leans in. Finally, Chanyi closes her eyes and lets Kyungjin’s lips meet hers.
It’s better when they’re not being pushed together by some game, she decides. Now, she knows that the way Kyungjin has to keep pulling away to smile is all authentic. Their lips touch in time with Chanyi’s heartbeat--at least until she gets a bit too excited and her heart rate gets too fast to keep up with.
Eventually, Kyungjin ends the kiss and sits back with relief on her face. She’s got a sentence forming on her tongue, but Chanyi realizes that she’s not nervous anymore. Well, she is, but not in the same way. Instead of fretting about irreparably damaging their friendship on her own, now she can worry about screwing things up with Kyungjin. (Or maybe even things going well.)
“Hey,” Kyungjin starts, voice soft as ever. She looks burdened, and the weight of something brings her brow down. “I think maybe I was the one that messed things up tonight.”
Cocking her head to the side, Chanyi wonders what Kyungjin could possibly have done. She’d instigated the kissing, sure, but that wasn’t unpleasant. Besides, they could talk about this now.
“I was the one who put Baeksoon up to playing that stupid game,” she says. The words hang in the space between them, almost visibly floating around the room. Chanyi, stunned, considers plucking one from the tense air before Kyungjin takes a deep breath in and turns back to face her.
“I’m really sorry for causing this whole thing. I…” She grits her jaw. “I should have just told you I had feelings for you, instead of coming up with this whole scheme. I’m sorry.” Silence fills the room. Chanyi’s unsure what to say, doesn’t know how to communicate that it’s okay.
Still, she has to try. Tears are starting to decorate Kyungjin’s long eyelashes.
“It’s okay, yeah?” Chanyi reaches out this time, taking one of Kyungjin’s hands in her and tracing patterns over her palm. She hopes it’s soothing. “Means to an end, or something like that. At least we’re here now.”
Kyungjin laughs and a tear trails down her face as she climbs onto the bed proper. Chanyi pulls her in close and continues mumbling awful cliches in her ear. She’d keep it up all night, if only to hear Kyungjin’s giggles get more and more genuine.
“It’s not like I didn’t want to kiss you, you know,” she says, rather loudly. Kyungjin nods and buries her face back into the crook of Chanyi’s neck.
From there, she mumbles, “I know. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know.”
“You knew?! Who told you? Was it Baeksoon? I knew she would! Can’t trust her with any--” Kyungjin taps on her stomach lightly and she stops.
“Well, she did give me final confirmation.” Chanyi makes a move for her phone on the nightstand but stops when Kyungjin gives her another tap. “But give me some credit. You’re pretty obvious.”
Chanyi squawks, “Obvious how?” And then she remembers the week where she only listened to angsty love songs about liking your best friend. And that day Kyungjin had caught her looking through a folder on her computer where she saved all her practice confession letters. Maybe she had been obvious.
“But then why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Chanyi’s almost hurt by the delay. They could have been together for a long time by now.
Kyungjin’s breath tickles Chanyi’s neck as she answers, “I didn’t want to admit that I liked you back. It felt like… Like I was afraid to screw this up. Us.”
Chanyi runs a hand through Kyungjin’s hair, undoing the loose braid with her fingers. She’d braided it earlier today, but that feels like ages ago. “If I’ve had feelings for you this whole time, and our friendship is fine, then I think that we could try this.” She tightens her arm around Kyungjin’s shoulders.
“If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t. But if we both want to try, then why shouldn’t we?”
The room’s quiet again, but Chanyi expects it this time. She knows that no matter what Kyungjin says, they’re going to be okay. Years of friendship don’t just disappear.
Kyungjin’s breath rattles and Chanyi feels her ribs expand as she breathes in. “You’re right. Of course we should try this.”
Trying to lighten the mood, Chanyi quips, “I just can’t believe you waited so long to kiss me.” A smug grin down at Kyungjin earns her a playful kick and she struggles to get out of the bed for all of two seconds.
Chanyi yanks her back, letting Kyungjin land fully on top of her. Their faces are close, smiles nearly touching between them.
With an exhilarated, wild look, Kyungjin says here’s to trying and leans forward to kiss Chanyi deeply. She feels the tiny shocks all the way down to her fingertips where they’re resting on Kyungjin’s sides.
Their kisses deepen until they’re both breathing heavily, hands wandering to places Chanyi’s seen plenty of times but never gotten the chance to touch. Everything feels so new, so sparkly. It surprises her when Kyungjin pulls away, but her face is just as red and her eyes have a darkness to them that Chanyi can only attribute to the same want she’s feeling.
“Maybe we should save this for a night when neither of us have been drinking or crying,” Kyungjin gets out between short breaths.
Chanyi nods her agreement and motions at Kyungjin to lay back down beside her, this time under the covers. Kyungjin happily snuggles up next to her and Chanyi can feel something like a firework burst in her chest. She almost laughs at how corny that sounds, letting a grin spread across her face instead.
Kyungjin wiggles next to her and pops her head up excitedly, saying, “I just realized, now we can get a smaller apartment! Cheaper rent!”
Chanyi can’t help but laugh at that, then she thinks about how absurd this night’s events would have sounded even twelve hours ago and she can’t stop laughing. Kyungjin joins in soon enough and they both fall asleep with aching cheeks.
Before she finally dozes off, Chanyi tries to etch this moment into her head. She never wants to forget how this feels, as if a giant burden has been lifted off of her shoulders. She wants to remember this first time holding Kyungjin, their first kiss in front of all of their friends, and even Baeksoon’s smarmy looks at them throughout the night.
Everything around her is warm in every way she can imagine, and Chanyi can’t imagine anything better.
Title: Just how fast the night changes
Pairing(s): fem!Chanyeol/fem!D.O, side fem!Baekhyun/fem!Tao
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Making out while tipsy
Length: 4k
Summary: Chanyi has had a crush on her roommate for ages, and jumps at the chance to kiss her during spin the bottle. But things don’t go exactly as planned.
Author's note: I tweaked the prompt the teeniest bit, I hope that’s okay! (I’m just a sucker for meddling Baekhyun…) But dearest recipient, I hope you enjoy this! And thank you to the lovely mod for putting together such a fun exchange!
Baeksoon has a gleam in her eyes that Chanyi knows all too well. She can’t be stopped at this point, and Chanyi is almost too tipsy to care anymore, but the next words out of her mouth are pushing absurd.
“We should play a kissing game!” She pauses and hiccups, but doesn’t lose her momentum. “Like spin the bottle!”
Chanyi is about to scoff at her and ask if they’re all back in high school, but the group is actually agreeing. And sure, everyone is a bit more susceptible to Baeksoon’s ideas when they’ve been drinking, but seriously? Spin the bottle?
“We don’t even have a good bottle,” she pipes up, hoping to derail this before it can get started. Baeksoon grins and chugs the rest of the wine cooler in her hand, wiping her mouth with her forearm and sleazing back, “Now we do.”
Yiyin is blushing on the couch as she tries to sneak glances at Sehyun, who notices immediately and crosses the room with a smile on her face. The two make quick work of clearing a space for everyone to sit and they all crowd in, buzzing with half-drunk excitement. Chanyi catches snippets of phrases and a word that sounds like experimenting.
Clearly, this is going to happen, so she might as well accept it. There are plenty of people here, so it’s not very likely that she’ll be matched up with Kyungjin. And even though she knows she should be embarrassed about crushing on her roommate, she can’t help but think about them getting locked in the closet together. Hands gliding over skin, mouth crashing into those unfairly perfect collarbones...
She’s startled from her fantasy when Baeksoon hoots and places the bottle in the middle of the circle.
“Shall we have our dissenter spin first, everyone?” Baeksoon is staring her down like she has something planned, and she probably does. There's a rowdy chorus of agreement and Chanyi braces herself, reaching for the bottle and giving it what she hopes is a lighthearted spin.
The thing whips around and it feels like the air has been sucked out of her tiny living room. The others are watching intently and Chanyi hopes no one hears her sigh in relief when the tip of the bottle stops in front of Aitao. Aitao is good; Aitao is calm and easy. Chanyi is a bit surprised that she hasn’t actually kissed her before--Aitao is a cuddly drunk.
Their kiss is quick but not unpleasant. Aitao’s lips are sticky with lip gloss as usual, but incredibly soft. Chanyi sucks her bottom lip into her mouth and savors the taste of artificial bubblegum left behind. A snicker from the other side of the circle lets her know that Baeksoon had noticed.
“Wasn’t so bad, right?” She motions at Aitao to spin and seems nothing short of overjoyed when the bottle ends up pointing at her. Aitao motions for her to crawl across the circle and Baeksoon ends up straddling Aitao's hips. It's a bit obscene, but they all probably should have expected it. The two are known for their... closeness. Chanyi has walked in on them more than once, and been invited to join more times than she'd like to acknowledge.
They break apart, lipstick and lip gloss tackied over both of their mouths. Baeksoon crawls back over to her spot and it’s her turn now. She reaches for the bottle in the center, smirking at Chanyi as she gives it a light spin. She definitely has some sort of plan.
The lipstick-covered mouth of the bottle comes to a stop and points at Kyungjin. Chanyi steals a horrified glance at Baeksoon, whose exterior remains as cool as ever. Kyungjin shrugs her shoulders and leans in--Chanyi can’t look. She blindly grabs for the nearest cup and throws all of its contents down her throat.
She can’t bear not knowing, though, and chances a look. Baeksoon has expertly swerved Kyungjin’s lips and is kissing her cheek with her typical I’m Baeksoon and I pull shit laugh. The relief hits Chanyi’s stomach at the same time as the alcohol does, leaving her scrambling towards the kitchenette for a glass of water with a face as red as whatever noxious liquid she’d just ingested.
Water attained and face hopefully back to normal, she turns back to the group in her living room and sees them all waiting patiently for her. She’s about to smile and thank them, but Baeksoon beats her to it.
“We wouldn’t want her to miss Kyungjin’s turn, right?” The implications drip off her words and she adds an exaggerated wink in Chanyi’s direction.
Rolling her eyes to hide her hopefulness, Chanyi takes her place in the circle and waits for everyone to stop looking between her and Kyungjin. It doesn’t really stop, It doesn’t really stop, so Kyungjin takes initiative and gives the bottle a half-hearted spin.
And of course, because this is just her luck, Chanyi feels everyone's eyes travel up the length of the bottle and come to rest on her. She lets her gaze flit to Kyungjin, who looks almost as impassive as always. Everything is a bit too quiet when Chanyi clears her throat and looks at Baeksoon.
She gets an encouraging nod in response and finally looks to Kyungjin. She appears to be fine, and Chanyi is feeling a bit bold after that drink, so she makes her way across the tight circle. And, god, maybe it’s just her but the air feels a hundred times heavier.
Sitting in front of Kyungjin shouldn't make her so nervous. They live together, for chrissake. Her heart is in her throat as she leans forward, hands folded in her lap so she's not tempted to brush Kyungjin's hair out of her eyes. It's all so cliche but it's so real and she can't believe this is happening in front of everyone they know. Well, everyone important.
Chanyi can't quite get a read on Kyungjin, her face remaining unchanged for the few seconds they've been sitting like this. She's not sure she wants this to end, this anticipation, but she's so ready when their lips finally meet.
It's quite the task to hold herself back, to keep this short and simple, but Chanyi manages. It’s over soon and she crawls back to her spot in a daze. The kiss had been just about everything she’d imagined it would be. Kyungjin’s lips, pursed so delicately and as intoxicating as what Chanyi’s been drinking all night.
Everyone is looking expectantly at her when she returns to her spot, and for a moment she worries that her crush is obvious. Yiyin pipes up, though, words retaining a cheerful lilt through the slurring, “It’s your turn to spin now!”
Chanyi’s back straightens and she nods thanks at Yiyin before carelessly spinning the bottle. She’s already gotten more than she could have imagined, so not much else feels important right now.
Her mind screeches to a halt on that thought when the mouth of the bottle ends up slipping to a stop in front of Kyungjin.
Baeksoon hoots, and that can't mean anything good. Chanyi is really fine, she doesn't want to make Kyungjin uncomfortable or anything. Grimacing in a show of apology, as a way of saying we might as well get it over with, she looks up at her roommate through her bangs. Kyungjin remains impassive as ever, not even a shade of discomfort on her face.
Other people might be buoyed by that, but Chanyi has lived with Kyungjin long enough to know that’s just her face. Her heart barely even rises in her chest (and even that could be from the drinking) when their eyes meet. No need to be excited, no.
“Well, you know the rules!” Baeksoon’s voice crashes into Chanyi’s musings and she realizes that no, she doesn’t really know the rules.
“What, so we just kiss again?” She moves to crawl back across the circle, but Kyungjin is shaking her head.
“No, we have to do--”
“Seven minutes in heaven!” Baeksoon interrupts, low oohs filling the room.
Oh. Oh god. Chanyi’s eyes widen comically and she figures she must look like Kyungjin now, all owl eyes and faux astonishment. She lets out a tipsy giggle before remembering that time actually hasn’t stopped and all of her friends heard her giggle about being trapped in a closet with her roommate.
Looking around the hushed circle, she notices that most of her friends are laughing along. Right. They’re all just having fun. None of them know that she’s had a crush on Kyungjin since freshman year except--no.
Baeksoon.
Mischievious eyes glint in front of her as Baeksoon approaches, Kyungjin groaning as she uses the couch to hoist herself to her feet and trailing after her. It’s all clear now. This is another one of Baeksoon’s hare-brained schemes. She’s been relentless since she found out--only after shoving cocktail after cocktail at Chanyi--and lord knows who’s she’s involved this time. The worst part is that Chanyi can’t bring herself to say anything about how evil this is, just in case Kyungjin hears.
So, she lets herself be dragged off to the nearest closet, head hanging. What a cruel way to get her to confess. Who cares if she’s been hiding this for almost four years? Who cares if she was never gonna say anything anyway? Baeksoon is meddling, and Chanyi absolutely plans to let her have it. She’s just gonna wait til morning, when her lovely friend’s head is pounding and her throat tastes like bad decisions and daquiri spit.
Kyungjin delicately sets herself down on the dusty floor of their small laundry room and doesn’t bat an eyelash when Chanyi topples through the door, clearly pushed by Baeksoon. The door slams behind her with a sordid your time starts now, lovebirds and then they’re alone.
It’s a lot harder to fume when Kyungjin is patting the spot beside her, wide eyes following Chanyi’s jerky movements.
“So,” Kyungjin starts. “Should we follow the rules of the game?” Her voice is low and maybe Chanyi’s projecting her desires or she’s too tipsy or something else because she must have imagined the tremble at the end of Kyungjin’s question.
"Do you..." Chanyi pauses and makes sure to look into her roommate's eyes. "Do you want to?"
Kyungjin turns her head away and her voice sounds... guarded, almost. "Yeah," she breathes.
Chanyi's heart jumps for joy, landing somewhere in her throat and keeping her from speaking properly. A few squeaks come out instead, but Kyungjin turns around and smiles at her, clearly amused.
Her face is a little less stony than usual. Chanyi's afraid to chalk it up to anything other than the booze. Still, it's like she can feel flowers growing in her ribcage.
Kyungjin moves in slowly, and doesn't meet Chanyi's eyes until she's nearly straddling her. Her eyes flash up, then, before darting back down to Chanyi's lips.
The eye contact had actually felt hot, and Chanyi holds in a whimper. The sense of purpose in Kyungjin's eyes leaves nothing ambiguous. They both want this. Kyungjin leans in, big eyes nearly boring through Chanyi's lips with their intensity. She makes eye contact again and cocks her head.
"Yes," Chanyi sighs, watching her breath waft at Kyungjin's stray hairs. It must reek of alcohol. Before she can put too much thought into it, her lips are once again enveloped in Kyungjin's. Their mouths mesh together, pulling apart and reconnecting, finding new ways to fit.
Chanyi could drown in Kyungjin's soft sounds. Her hands are roaming over Kyungjin’s back, hardly daring to go lower than her waist.
And she feels so clumsy, alcohol stiffening her muscles, but Kyungjin is precise--lips flitting all over Chanyi’s jaw, neck, collarbone… She relaxes into the situation and--
"Whoa!"
The door slams open, whacking the wall and grazing Chanyi's knee.
"Oh no, I'm sorry!" Yiyin bursts into the space, clamoring to get close to Chanyi's knee.
"Yiyin, it's not even bleeding." Kyungjin, as ever, remains unperturbed, not even phased by Chanyi stiffening up underneath her and turning what must be a horrendous shade of magenta.
Yiyin matches, though, the pink actually looking kind of nice on her. Rude. She's struggling to get a sentence out, one hand still reaching for Chanyi's knee.
"Yiyin, what's taking so long? Their time was up like three minutes ago."
Baeksoon stops short when she gets an eyeful of the cramped laundry room. There's a teary Yiyin cooing over Chanyi, who feels like she's going to throw up, and Kyungjin looking annoyed at the interruption. Chanyi can almost see lightning bolts shooting out of her eyes and wonders why Baeksoon doesn't look terrified.
But Baeksoon is Baeksoon, and she's probably resisting the urge to whip out her phone and tweet a picture of this catastrophe.
"Everyone, out." Kyungjin has pulled away from Chanyi a bit, but remains on top of her hips. Yiyin slinks away, still muttering apologies. Baeksoon stays a split second later, that gleam in her eyes letting Chanyi know that everyone is going to be chattering about this as soon as Baeksoon can get the words out around her smirk.
Kyungjin must recognize this too, because she looks back at Chanyi with a softer face. "Do you want me to sneak you back to your room?" The whisper is loud in the small space, the worry seeping into her tone.
“That’d… That’d be nice,” Chanyi gets out. They disentangle themselves and manage to leave the laundry room undetected, since everyone is too busy talking about them to notice them.
Still, Chanyi can feel Baeksoon’s eyes burning on the back of her head, even if she isn’t actually looking. Must be an evil genius thing.
They make it down the hall to Chanyi’s bedroom and Kyungjin points at the bed. Chanyi sits down and watches as Kyungjin tiptoes out of the room, returning soon with a glass of ice water. The cubes clink as she sets it on the nightstand, sort of like chimes.
Chanyi’s head is still fuzzy and she’s happy to comply when Kyungjin insists she lay down. “You should go to bed,” she says, not without a hint of concern. Chanyi opens her mouth to say she’s fine, really, but is stunned back into silence when Kyungjin presses a kiss to her forehead.
“I’ll go tell them you’re sick or something, distract them.” She looks at the door and lets out a sigh. “Don’t worry, okay?” All Chanyi can do is nod and watch as her longtime roommate, longer-time crush walks out the door and gently shuts it behind her.
Well, this is confusing.
/ / /
And Chanyi is still confused hours later, when she hears the noise of the party start to dwindle.
She can’t sleep, she needs to figure out what this means for her and Kyungjin. Did the kissing actually mean anything? Will things go back to what they were before? What if their friendship has gotten all fucked up because of this? Does Kyungjin know that Chanyi likes her? Has she always known, but been too nice to say anything for fear of hurting her?
Climbing down the fire escape is looking more and more appealing. Certainly better than facing Kyungjin again and dealing with that embarrassment. Chanyi is seriously considering the fire escape now, the alternative too mortifying to even imagine. The panic wells up inside of her and she wants to scream. How could she have messed up like this? It all seemed harmless when she was drinking, but sobriety and hindsight are 20/20. She could cry, and very nearly starts, but the door opens at the worst possible moment.
She doesn't know whether she should be relieved or humiliated when it's Kyungjin that steps into the room. Probably both. It's not Baeksoon, at least. Or Yiyin again, trying to stroke the tiny mark on her knee and practically crying over it. It's Kyungjin, though, and it's too late to pretend to be asleep so Chanyi braces herself.
"Whoa, are you okay?" There's that concern again, and Chanyi really shouldn't be surprised by it. They're friends, roommates even, and of course Kyungjin would be concerned. Tonight feels different, now that they've full-on made out in the laundry room down the hall. Chanyi's not sure if they're even friends anymore. Something more, or something less.
"Not really," Chanyi forces out around what threatens to become a sob. "I messed everything up tonight. It wasn't supposed to happen like this, I don't think." Tears are building up at the corners of her eyes now, but she wants to keep going, to finally get everything off of her chest.
"I really like you, Kyungjin, and now I'm afraid that--" Kyungjin's hand settles onto her knee and tightens, startling her. Kyungjin nods at her to continue.
"I'm afraid that now we won't be able to move forward, as friends or as... something else." Chanyi hiccups and lets the tears fall, refusing to make eye contact with Kyungjin until a hand gently lifts her chin up.
She feels terrifically undesirable at the moment, with her running mascara and the alcohol lingering on her breath. Looking into Kyungjin's eyes makes her want to hide her face again, but she should probably stand behind everything she just said. No matter how scared she is.
The hand holding her chin up drops back into Kyungjin's lap and Chanyi strengthens her gaze. The sniffles subside as she realizes that she's been trying to say that for years and has actually gotten it out this time. Crisis aside, that's something to be proud of.
Because Chanyi refuses to look away, she watches as Kyungjin scoots towards her on the bed, and she sees Kyungjin’s fingers shaking nervously, and she sees the look on Kyungjin’s face as she leans in. Finally, Chanyi closes her eyes and lets Kyungjin’s lips meet hers.
It’s better when they’re not being pushed together by some game, she decides. Now, she knows that the way Kyungjin has to keep pulling away to smile is all authentic. Their lips touch in time with Chanyi’s heartbeat--at least until she gets a bit too excited and her heart rate gets too fast to keep up with.
Eventually, Kyungjin ends the kiss and sits back with relief on her face. She’s got a sentence forming on her tongue, but Chanyi realizes that she’s not nervous anymore. Well, she is, but not in the same way. Instead of fretting about irreparably damaging their friendship on her own, now she can worry about screwing things up with Kyungjin. (Or maybe even things going well.)
“Hey,” Kyungjin starts, voice soft as ever. She looks burdened, and the weight of something brings her brow down. “I think maybe I was the one that messed things up tonight.”
Cocking her head to the side, Chanyi wonders what Kyungjin could possibly have done. She’d instigated the kissing, sure, but that wasn’t unpleasant. Besides, they could talk about this now.
“I was the one who put Baeksoon up to playing that stupid game,” she says. The words hang in the space between them, almost visibly floating around the room. Chanyi, stunned, considers plucking one from the tense air before Kyungjin takes a deep breath in and turns back to face her.
“I’m really sorry for causing this whole thing. I…” She grits her jaw. “I should have just told you I had feelings for you, instead of coming up with this whole scheme. I’m sorry.” Silence fills the room. Chanyi’s unsure what to say, doesn’t know how to communicate that it’s okay.
Still, she has to try. Tears are starting to decorate Kyungjin’s long eyelashes.
“It’s okay, yeah?” Chanyi reaches out this time, taking one of Kyungjin’s hands in her and tracing patterns over her palm. She hopes it’s soothing. “Means to an end, or something like that. At least we’re here now.”
Kyungjin laughs and a tear trails down her face as she climbs onto the bed proper. Chanyi pulls her in close and continues mumbling awful cliches in her ear. She’d keep it up all night, if only to hear Kyungjin’s giggles get more and more genuine.
“It’s not like I didn’t want to kiss you, you know,” she says, rather loudly. Kyungjin nods and buries her face back into the crook of Chanyi’s neck.
From there, she mumbles, “I know. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t know.”
“You knew?! Who told you? Was it Baeksoon? I knew she would! Can’t trust her with any--” Kyungjin taps on her stomach lightly and she stops.
“Well, she did give me final confirmation.” Chanyi makes a move for her phone on the nightstand but stops when Kyungjin gives her another tap. “But give me some credit. You’re pretty obvious.”
Chanyi squawks, “Obvious how?” And then she remembers the week where she only listened to angsty love songs about liking your best friend. And that day Kyungjin had caught her looking through a folder on her computer where she saved all her practice confession letters. Maybe she had been obvious.
“But then why didn’t you say anything sooner?” Chanyi’s almost hurt by the delay. They could have been together for a long time by now.
Kyungjin’s breath tickles Chanyi’s neck as she answers, “I didn’t want to admit that I liked you back. It felt like… Like I was afraid to screw this up. Us.”
Chanyi runs a hand through Kyungjin’s hair, undoing the loose braid with her fingers. She’d braided it earlier today, but that feels like ages ago. “If I’ve had feelings for you this whole time, and our friendship is fine, then I think that we could try this.” She tightens her arm around Kyungjin’s shoulders.
“If it doesn’t work out, then it doesn’t. But if we both want to try, then why shouldn’t we?”
The room’s quiet again, but Chanyi expects it this time. She knows that no matter what Kyungjin says, they’re going to be okay. Years of friendship don’t just disappear.
Kyungjin’s breath rattles and Chanyi feels her ribs expand as she breathes in. “You’re right. Of course we should try this.”
Trying to lighten the mood, Chanyi quips, “I just can’t believe you waited so long to kiss me.” A smug grin down at Kyungjin earns her a playful kick and she struggles to get out of the bed for all of two seconds.
Chanyi yanks her back, letting Kyungjin land fully on top of her. Their faces are close, smiles nearly touching between them.
With an exhilarated, wild look, Kyungjin says here’s to trying and leans forward to kiss Chanyi deeply. She feels the tiny shocks all the way down to her fingertips where they’re resting on Kyungjin’s sides.
Their kisses deepen until they’re both breathing heavily, hands wandering to places Chanyi’s seen plenty of times but never gotten the chance to touch. Everything feels so new, so sparkly. It surprises her when Kyungjin pulls away, but her face is just as red and her eyes have a darkness to them that Chanyi can only attribute to the same want she’s feeling.
“Maybe we should save this for a night when neither of us have been drinking or crying,” Kyungjin gets out between short breaths.
Chanyi nods her agreement and motions at Kyungjin to lay back down beside her, this time under the covers. Kyungjin happily snuggles up next to her and Chanyi can feel something like a firework burst in her chest. She almost laughs at how corny that sounds, letting a grin spread across her face instead.
Kyungjin wiggles next to her and pops her head up excitedly, saying, “I just realized, now we can get a smaller apartment! Cheaper rent!”
Chanyi can’t help but laugh at that, then she thinks about how absurd this night’s events would have sounded even twelve hours ago and she can’t stop laughing. Kyungjin joins in soon enough and they both fall asleep with aching cheeks.
Before she finally dozes off, Chanyi tries to etch this moment into her head. She never wants to forget how this feels, as if a giant burden has been lifted off of her shoulders. She wants to remember this first time holding Kyungjin, their first kiss in front of all of their friends, and even Baeksoon’s smarmy looks at them throughout the night.
Everything around her is warm in every way she can imagine, and Chanyi can’t imagine anything better.