Chapter Text
“What do you think?”
Jungha looks up from the book she had been reading, eyebrows furrowed as she runs her gaze up and down Taehee’s body. Taehee cocks her hip, hand on her waist as she turns to give her roommate a 360 view of how the short black bandage dress hugs her body. She sends a wink for added charm points, but Jungha’s blank face doesn’t crack once. Taehee sighs. Jungha gives her a slight nod before she turns back to her book like this isn’t an emergency. Which it is!!!
“Do you even care?” No response. “Why do I even bother!” Taehee huffs, shoulders slumping, melting into her usual droopy posture.
“You’re making a really big deal out of nothing. Either he likes you or he doesn’t. And note: if he goes out with you for your looks alone he probably isn’t worth dating,” Jungha doesn’t even look up from her book, seemingly totally disinterested in their conversation but Taehee catches the way her eyes flicker between watching her and looking at the page in front of her.
She watches Jungha carefully, how tense her shoulders are, she’d thought they’d moved past this.
“Will you at least come with me? You promised, remember?” Taehee prods further. If she isn’t going to get a potential boyfriend tonight she should at least manage to bond with Jungha over alcohol. The other girl is quiet for a few moments before she rests her book on her lap.
“Promise not to abandon me during the party and I’ll come with you,”
“Deal.”
Jungha can’t keep the smile from blooming on her face. Taehee grins.
*******
The party is in full swing when they finally get there. It’s almost midnight, around an hour after they had left the house. They get to the non-descript grey apartment block on a non-descript street a few ways away from the city center late because Taehee is shit with directions; the journey would have taken around twenty minutes if Tae could tell left from right. Jungha drove them to the party because Taehee had insisted that she couldn’t drive in her heels, she’d also come to terms with the fact that if ever she and Tae went to a party she would always be the designated driver.
Tae is already out the car before Jungha even turns the engine off, looking ready to go and party and be social and be herself. Jungha watches her run her slim fingers through her bone-straight shoulder length black hair. She’s beautiful and bright and kind and everything Jungha’s not, and the thought of her inadequacies almost makes her start the car and take off, but then Tae raps on the windshield and looks at her expectantly, eyebrows raised.
“You aren’t thinking of taking off, are you?”
“…No,”
Tae smiles in reply, “C’mon. Let’s get some somaek in you, I want to introduce you to some friends of mine.”
The alcohol is a bad idea, but isn’t it always?
Taehee is smashed. Jungha had assumed that with the frequency Taehee went to these low-budget, seedy college parties she’d at least have a high alcohol tolerance in place of the common sense one got from experience but once again Taehee trumped her expectations.
The girl is propped up on a wall, trying to flirt with some guy (was it Hoseok?) and succeeding only in making an utter fool of herself. Jungha feels all the embarrassment of the moment for her, she wants to go and whisk her away but she’s caught up in a boring one way conversation with some girl called Yoonji who is a good foot shorter than her. It is kind of cute maybe, the way she has to crane her neck to look into Jungha’s eyes but that’s really it. Maybe she’s different in the daylight.
“I’m sorry I- I have to go get Tae before she-“
Yoonji smirks, but her eyes reflect a little bit of hurt.”It’s okay, look out for your friend. I could tell you aren’t really into the science of gluten,”
Jungha grimaces and Yoonji shrugs. She squeaks out an apology and retreats, cursing herself for her lack of tact.
She pushes her way through the crowd, mumbling apologies as the people she passes give her dirty looks because of her jostling, well- the ones sober enough anyway.
When she finally gets to Tae she’s fully irritated and covered in an assortment of drinks, little wet patches in her jeans, damp fabric against the skin of her forearms. It only heightens the feeling of disappointment, maybe anger, that makes her chest heat up when she looks at Tae.
Hoseok is smiling, a bit greasy but his hands are nowhere near her body. He’s got one hand in his pocket, the other holding a red solo cup to his lips as he takes a sip. He stands with the relaxed posture of a dude who knows he’s going to get some tonight.
Tae notices her first. She beams and Hoseok looks over his shoulder still smiling until he sees that it’s her and then it dims somewhat.
Bet.
“Jungha! Meet Hoseok! Hoseok, this is my roommate Jungha,” she’s staring expectantly at Jungha, or what she thinks is Jungha slightly to the left of her face. She’d introduced them before. This was Hoseok’s apartment actually, he was throwing the party in collaboration with his roommate and some tall guy who lived above them; Jungha had met them all at the beginning of the party but apparently Tae had forgotten that. She smiles politely, ignoring the exasperation shining through Hoseok’s eyes.
“Hi,” she turns to Tae, frowning slightly,” You’re really drunk,”
“That’s the point, stupid,” Tae laughs. It’s not the good kind, where you’re also in on the joke. Hoseok looks at Tae, then back at her. He’s smirking, it’s mocking too, and it seeps into his tone when he says,
”You weren’t joking when you said she’s really uptight,”
Jungha’s thankful that the lights in the room are dimmed, hopefully he can’t see the red that dusts her cheeks.
“I’m not uptight,”
“Sure,” both of them laugh, then Hoseok points vaguely in the direction of their tiny kitchen, ”Why don’t you go find something to drink, we have a great selection.”
It’s a clear dismissal. She glances to Tae for some support but she’s smirking too.
Fine. Fuck her.
“I’m leaving,” she says finally and Tae nods. Hoseok lets his arm wander and his palm lands on Tae’s hip, pulling her closer.
In the car she lets the tearsof embarrassment fall. Tae was so mean. So fucking mean; and Hoseok too. She sniffs, wiping her snot and tears with the sleeve of her hoodie. Hoseok that asshole. That stupid greasy fucker. Get yourself a drink- she takes a shaky breath- fuck his stupid drinks! I am not uptight-
Get a grip.
They aren’t friends. Taehee is just her roommate. She probably invited her to be polite, maybe to make Jungha stop giving her dirty looks when she walked into their kitchen with her smeared make up from the night before still on her face and her eyes unable to open because of a hangover headache.
They were too different. Tae was loud and bright and Jungha was reserved, more quiet, afraid of attention. Somewhere in their interactions Jungha had noted the way Taehee thought of her as lesser. It was in the small things, like how she’d roll her eyes when Jungha wore the same hoody to class for an entire week, or how she’d pretend to listen whenever Jungha had to gush about something Intresting she’d read or seen. She had come to this party hoping that she would manage to make herself look cooler in Tae’s eyes but she’d only managed to play the much hated role of the mother hen.
When Tae walks into the kitchen the next morning she isn't in her usual hangover get up. Her face is clean, albeit puffy and she's wearing the large t-shirt she uses as pajamas. Jungha watches her from where she's propped on the kitchen counter eating cold cereal. She's careful to keep her face blank. Taehee gives her a shy smile. Her lips are a little dry.
"Good morning," she says it quietly as she stretches her arms, twisting this way and that. Jungha hums, majorly because she does not want to betray herself through the emotion that her voice will carry. The urge to ask how and when she got home is strong but she remembers mother hen and keeps quiet.
The entire breakfast affair is awkward overall. Half of the time she spends hoping she and Tae will work out whatever problems they have, that Tae will apologize. The other half is spent berating herself when she realizes that she's foolish for waiting for an apology. Tae doesn't think she's wrong, and she's too immature to try and talk it out between them and get Jungha's perspective. Tae avoids any eye contact with Jungha as she sits at the little plastic kitchen table, choosing to add more scratches to its yolky-yellow surface. She could burn a hole through it if she keeps looking at it like that, Jungha thinks. She finishes her breakfast, gulping down the milk before she washes her bowl and puts it on the dish rack to dry and leaves.
It's going to be a while until they can be comfortable with each other again.
She doesn't have any classes today, but she does have work. A four hour shift at a stationery shop a few blocks away from where they live. She doesn't mind it. The pay is okay and its not too far and the store manager gives her free pens. It's cool. She gets ready earlier than usual because she can't really be in the apartment right now due to obvious reasons. She decides not to take her car, she needs a little walk anyway.
Tae looks sort of alarmed for a second when she sees Jungha ready to leave for work, but then she cools her expression into one of mild curiosity and asks where she's going.
"To work," Jungha replies as she turns to lock her bedroom door. A beat of silence, then,
"Oh. Okay,"
Tae enters her own bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her and Jungha lets out a quiet sigh when she's sure the other can't her her.
Really, it's fine. It's okay. She had been hoping that once she'd moved out of the dorms she'd get a good roomate and they'd be best friends and-
Whatever.