Work Text:
"I think we'll be friends forever."
The thought lets its way out of Sojung's mouth before she can even consider if it's too vulnerable for the two of them. She chooses not to peek at Jiyeon's reaction, instead keeping her eyes scrunched closed in the face of the sun.
In the beat of silence that follows, she winces as she imagines Jiyeon turning to stare at her with disgust and prepares to receive the teasing of a lifetime.
"Are you high?"
"No?"
"Really?"
"...Yeah?" Sojung's head rolls to the side to finally open her eyes, shielding them with one hand. "When would I have gotten-- Jiyeon, we've been together all morning."
"I dunno, just sounded like the type of sentimental thing high-Sojung would say then deny the next day." Jiyeon cracks a smile. "Gummies for breakfast?"
"Ha, ha."
Jiyeon giggles and pulls her knees up to her chest for her cheek to lean on. Strands of long, wet black hair fall across her face, leading Sojung's eyes down to the splotches of lakewater they've left on the old tie-dye shirt she's lent to Jiyeon.
"Did you mean it?"
"Hm?" Sojung starts, distracted. "Oh, that. You think we won't?"
"Well, everyone says that," Jiyeon scoffs. "Especially kids," she says under her breath.
"Okay, well, I mean it," Sojung grumbles. As if high school seniors are still kids.
Jiyeon cocks an eyebrow. "Promise?"
"Uh, yeah? Weirdo." Sojung's stomach does a small flip. She looks at the grass beside her, tugging at it absentmindedly instead of returning Jiyeon's focused gaze. "Sure, I promise," she mocks with a smile she hopes comes off as playful.
Jiyeon, disbelieving, narrows her eyes at Sojung. She turns to her long discarded backpack and pulls something out, does something on the far side of her that Sojung can't see from the ground.
Then she turns and holds out a folded piece of paper.
Sojung sits up, adjusting her bathing suit. It's her turn to cock an eyebrow.
"What's this?"
Jiyeon's face is straight, unreadable.
"Contract," she says, matter-of-fact. She gestures impatiently for Sojung to take it.
Sojung lets out an apprehensive laugh and opens it.
By signing on the line below, I, (print name here), agree to remain friends with Kim Jiyeon until the end of time, or until death do us part.
x ………………………………… (sign name here)
"Crazy bitch," Sojung mumbles as she takes the pen from Jiyeon. A smile forces its way through her teeth and past her lips as she presses the paper flat against her thigh.
"You love it though." Jiyeon leans back onto her towel, using the momentum to flip her hair out of her face.
Sojung may be shaking her head, but even still, she signs her name away to Kim Jiyeon - right on the dotted line.
"What are you gonna do with this?"
Jiyeon shrugs. "Frame it? Send it to you in 30 years when we've stopped talking to each other?"
"Better get it notarized," Sojung jests, "and keep it for at least 10 years. My signature's gonna be worth thousands."
"Of pennies?"
Sojung snorts as Jiyeon bursts into giggles again.
When she returns the contract, water has already bled across it from Sojung's damp skin and bathing suit.
"Hey," Jiyeon scolds, "this is a legal document - you couldn't manage to keep it dry?"
Sojung, hitting her limit of Jiyeon's teasing, pretends she's about to smack her. Jiyeon flinches with a squeal. A small play fight ensues.
Jiyeon may be a skeptic, but to Sojung, these moments feel like they could last a lifetime.
Plip.
"I just felt rain," Sojung groans. "You couldn't choose to skip on a day with good weather?"
"It looked fine this morning!" Jiyeon protests. They scurry up to gather their towels and bags.
A sprinkle becomes a downpour in a matter of seconds. The two of them are shrieking, sprinting through the path in the woods. holding their bags over their heads despite the fact that all of twenty minutes ago they were pulling each other underwater in the lake.
Days like these with Jiyeon don't need to make sense. In fact, Sojung prefers when they don't; when they let themselves float away in some other world that's all their own. They could stay like that forever. Of course, that works out better when they're not rudely interrupted by torrential rainfall.
When they make it back to the car, they make eye contact, Jiyeon's smile widening into a grin as they both laugh at themselves.
"We're gonna be friends foreeever," Jiyeon sings teasingly.
Sojung, embarrassed, whines and buries her face in her hands, mumbling something like "shut the fuck up." Still, the corners of her lips twitch and her nostrils flare from the effort of holding back a grin of her own.
In the back pocket of Jiyeon's shorts is a soggy leaf of notebook paper, the ink from her hand spreading like watercolor across its surface into that of Sojung's until they're utterly and permanently indistinguishable from each other.
Thankfully, Jiyeon knows even without it being written on a page that she has until the end of time to have Sojung sign her name to her all over again.