Work Text:
When Haerin had invited Jihye over to hang out and watch movies with her, this was certainly not what she thought she was getting into. She had expected for it to just be a chill, quiet afternoon with a few cuddles here, as the girl was accustomed to seeing from her girlfriend. The younger girl had been… weird today. She was talking a lot more than normal and actually responding to Jihye’s flirty comments. The switch up in the girl was confusing the hell out of the older girl- not that she was complaining or anything! She was ecstatic that the other girl was opening up more. It was just a very weird thing to be seeing.
She had even managed to convince the girl to start writing her little notes of encouragement on sticky notes to put on Jihye’s desk at home. That was just- unheard of really. Something really was shifting between the two of them, and while it was just a little concerning and confusing to Jihye, she sure as hell was not going to voice her complaints.
She would much rather have a clingier, more affectionate Haerin than the closed off one she had initially met ten months ago. They were only three months into their relationship, mind you, but any advancement she could make with the girl, she was going to do it. It had taken Haerin two of those months to get comfortable enough to initiate a kiss for the first time. They were taking baby steps!
They had been sitting on the younger girl’s bed, their hands intertwined and laying in the minimal space between the two when Haerin had started her rambling- again. This had already happened twice in the two hours that Jihye had been with her.
“Can I tell you something?” Jihye heard the other girl whisper against her shoulder. “Like something important.”
Jihye slightly tilted her head down in response, catching the other girl’s gaze in the process. Haerin seemed to be fighting herself on whether or not to continue, so the older girl gently removed the girl’s head from her shoulder and moved to sit directly in front of the girl. A pout made its way onto Haerin’s face as Jihye did so. She gave the younger girl a go on, i’m listening look.
“Okay, so,” Haerin started, looking anywhere but at Jihye, “You- Uh- You make me really happy. And I'm not just saying that, I mean it, really. Like just seeing you or hearing your voice, even if it’s on facetime, it just- it makes my day, y’know? You make my days. Only you. And I wanted you to know that cause, y’know, I don’t say it that often. You’re special to me and I want you to know that.”
Jihye nodded her head during the girl’s rambling, a soft smile appearing on her face as she watched the girl’s hands move as she talked. She added a few, yeps and mhms here and there, letting Haerin know that she was at least partially listening in on the conversation. Jihye would be a liar if she said that she was really even focused. She was sure that if someone was watching the interaction, they would one hundred percent understand just how she felt about the younger girl with just one look at her face.
But she really couldn’t help herself- how could she? Haerin had just appeared in her life one day and had stolen every bit of attention from Jihye without even trying. The girl really was that special. She was more than just her tough exterior- Haerin was incredibly sweet, more so than a lot of the people she had interacted with, and she was so, so loving and it was clear upon the first time she had gotten the other girl to open up to her that Haerin had a huge heart.
And Jihye truly wanted to spend the rest of her days showering every single bit of affection that she could on the younger girl. She deserved it, really, especially with how special Haerin made Jihye feel without even trying.
What she was focused on, however, was the girl’s lips as they moved to form words directed toward her. If she was being honest, she probably couldn’t even have told someone what Haerin was talking about in the first place. She was almost completely zoned out, but for her girlfriend’s sake, she jumped back in to listen to the rest of what the girl had to say. Regretfully.
“You make me so, so happy, Jihye. Like, happier than I’ve ever been before. Like you put a smile on my face without even trying,” Haerin continued, pausing as she reflected on something she had seen earlier in the day, “Which reminds me! I saw this cat and it reminded me of you. It was so cute, Ji! This kitten randomly came up to me when I was walking home from practice. It was like a- uh- orange tabby? I think? I don’t really remember all that well but it was so, damn, cute.”
“It kind of looked like you, now that I think about it actually. It was really small and it had some really tiny fangs sticking out of the corner of its mouth. It also purred so loud! I thought I was going crazy, but it was actually happening.” Haerin’s face was lighting up in the cutest way possible as she talked about the cat. Jihye swore she could see a twinkle in the other girl’s eyes and the smile that she wore was so, so sweet.
“I have a video of it on my phone, I think? I want to show you it because I swear Ji, you’ll have never have seen one that cute and you’ll agree with me-“
Jihye waited a moment before leaning forward and gently pressing her lips against the younger girl’s. Haerin’s were just as soft as they had always been, tasting faintly of the strawberries the girl had been snacking on a few minutes before she had begun her ramble to Jihye. The older girl had felt Haerin freeze up at the sudden contact, but just a few half-seconds later, the girl was moving her lips against Jihye’s. She felt Haerin’s hand gently cup her jaw, the girl’s thumb rubbing a few soft circles against the edge of it. After a few more seconds, Jihye pulled away, lifting her own hand up to intertwine their fingers together and brought their conjoined hands down to rest on her knee.
“Why’d you stop talking, baby ?” Jihye inquired, a small smirk present on her face as she watched Haerin’s face flush, her cheeks turning a dusty pink at her words. Jihye’s head tilted in her palm, waiting for the girl in front of her to come back from wherever she had gone to in the moment.
She raised a singular eyebrow at the younger girl, a soft smile replacing her former expression as her eyes traced Haerin’s soft facial features. The subtle curve of her jaw as it joined the rest of her face’s bone structure, the sharp point of the girl’s chin that Jihye enjoyed running her fingers along, the subtle pout that was apart of the girl’s neutral expression that the older girl loved to kiss off her face, the soft curvature of her nose and her thinner, sharp eyebrows- Jihye could go on and on about every single little detail she loved about the girl.
Haerin had snapped out her own thoughts by the time Jihye had finished with hers, the younger girl’s eyebrows furrowing and the pout on her face deepening. She let out a soft chuckle at the change in expression, the corner of her eyes bunching together. Jihye didn’t let her eyes stray away from the younger girl’s, waiting patiently for Haerin to collect her thoughts and respond to her. Her eyes softened once more when she saw the younger girl take a deep breath in and out. She was so unbelievably adorable in the older girl’s eyes and she was one-hundred percent sure it was evident on her face.
“Anyways, it was literally the cutest cat I think I’ve seen in a while. No, it was definitely the cutest I've EVER seen. I think you would’ve loved it if you had seen it, too. Oh! I got to pet it too! It was so soft, like I don’t think you could comprehend how soft it was, babe.” Haerin continued where she left off, her hands moving around as she explained what she thought of the cat she had seen earlier that day.
Jihye bit down on her bottom lip to prevent a soft laugh at the girl’s insistence of continuing the tangent she had gone on just minutes before.
Jihye noted that the other girl had called her babe for the first time, but decided not to bring it up to the other girl. The younger girl used words of endearment very sparingly. She didn’t want to fluster the girl and never hear that word used when referring to her again. The soft smile on her face returned as she nodded along to what the girl said, half paying attention to what was happening and half staring at the other girl’s lips.
“So, about what I said earlier,” Haerin started, pausing long enough to capture Jihye’s full attention again, “You agree, right?” She finished, her eyes glinting with hope.
The older girl pondered on her possible response. She could return the same energy as Haerin had- pouring her heart out and telling her exactly how she felt about her- or she could tease the other girl. She could feel Haerin’s thumb rubbing circles against her knuckles as she continued to formulate a response in her brain.
It was the little things that the younger girl did that left Jihye feeling on top of the world. If she texted her saying that she hadn’t had enough time to eat lunch because of school, Haerin would show up at her parent’s house’s door with a bag of takeout for the two of them to share. If she said that she was exhausted and just wanted to nap, the younger girl would wordlessly offer up cuddles and comfort. If they were watching a scary movie together and a scene left her just a bit frightened, Haerin would pull her into her shoulder, kiss her head and whisper sweet nothings in the older girl’s ear until she calmed down.
Walking on the sidewalk? Haerin would make sure Jihye was the furthest she could be from the street. Jihye couldn’t sleep at two a.m.? Haerin was just a call away to sing her to sleep. Jihye needed someone to help her with studying? The younger girl was there, no questions asked. Just how had she gotten so damn lucky?
Jihye pulled herself out of her thoughts to respond to the younger girl, leaning her head slightly back up to make eye contact with her.
“Yes.” Jihye confirmed, putting an emphasis on the s sound at the end of the word. She watched as the other girl gave her a are you serious look. She felt the corner of her mouth twitch up in response.
“That’s all?” Haerin questioned, her brows furrowing as she studied the older girl’s face for any sign of this being a joke.
Jihye stifled a laugh as she muttered another yes to the younger girl’s question. She loved to tease her whenever she would actually talk about her feelings. Haerin had a habit of bottling things up, especially her feelings toward Jihye, so whenever she could get the girl to crack, even the tiniest amount, she jumped at the opportunity to tease her. It left Haerin feeling embarrassed and Jihye very happy with herself.
“No explanation on your end? Just a, ‘yes’?” Haerin pushed, the frown on her face deepening at the lack of a meaningful response from the older girl.
“Yes.” Jihye affirmed, noting that the other girl had ceased the circling of her thumb. This was about to get interesting.
“Not exactly fair, but whatever.” The younger girl huffed, her brows remaining furrowed and a slight pout forming on her face. Jihye knew exactly how to press the right buttons to get what she wanted.
“Whatcha gonna do about it, hm?” The older girl teased, a smirk plastered on her face as she waited to receive the response she was hoping for.
She watched as the gears turned in the other girl’s head and the girl bit the inside of her cheek, a habit Haerin had picked up that gave away when she was thinking intensely about something. Whatever the girl was planning, she seemed to light up before making her move.
What Jihye had not expected, however, was her shy and timid girlfriend- who rarely ever initiated anything with her- to grab a fistful of the strings of the hoodie she was wearing and pull the older girl closer to her. She had also not expected the usually gentle and sweet girl to roughly press her lips against the older girls.
Jihye felt the air get knocked out her lungs and she was sure if she had been standing, her knees would have collapsed under her. This was a new side of Haerin that the older girl had not seen before. The Haerin she was familiar with would not have been so bold. She was frozen in shock at the feeling of the younger girl’s lips moving against her own, so much so that she had forgotten that she was supposed to reciprocate until she felt the other girl start to pull away from the lack of response.
Jihye lifted one of her hands to place it gently on the back of the girl’s head, guiding her back into a more gentle and comfortable kiss. The older girl played with the baby hairs she found there as their lips moved together, pulling away a few seconds later. She rested her forehead against Haerin’s, staring directly into the younger girl’s eyes.
“Wow. You, uh. Yeah.” The older girl stuttered, attempting to steady her breathing and gain control over her rapidly beating heart.
Haerin’s mouth twitched upward into a smirk of her own, an eyebrow raising at the normally composed girl’s stutter. The cocky and smug expression on the younger girl’s face was new to Jihye. Safe to say she liked it. The other girl lifted one of her hands to move a strand of hair back into place behind Jihye’s ear, breaking eye contact for a moment to do so. She could feel the heat radiating off her cheeks at the action.
She then felt the girl in front of her freeze, as if she finally realized what she had just done. Her expression turned neutral and she moved her head away from Jihye’s, pink beginning to dust her own cheeks. The older girl let out a soft laugh as the other girl brought her head down and covered it with her hands in embarrassment.
Some things would never change with her.