Chapter Text
For as long as she could remember, Kim Dokja hated mornings. They were awful, annoying things that deprived her of sleep and forced her to wake back up from whatever world had stolen her away in slumber, only to face the real world. The real world, of course, included things like taxes and papers and everything that made Kim Dokja regret ever having the idea to dive into getting a second degree after barely surviving her first, but she chalked that up to a temporary moment of insanity.
These days, however, there was one silver lining to mornings. Kim Dokja dragged herself out of bed, threw on pants and an old sweater that wasn’t as soft as it had been a few years ago, and quickly tugged a brush through her hair. She didn’t have the energy to do anything with it, so it hung loosely just past her shoulders. Looking at her dishevelled appearance in the mirror, she snickered to herself at the sheer lack of effort.
There was a time when Kim Dokja had actually put in the time to look as nice as she could every morning, but she had quickly decided that it wasn’t worth it. It wasn’t like a cute dress or the lack of eye bags would change anything—no, the morning would be alright no matter how gross she felt or how exhausted she looked, and that was what really mattered. Taking a deep breath before opening the door to her bedroom, Kim Dokja tried to steel her nerves and then strode out into the living room.
“Oh, you’re up?”
Kim Dokja’s heart skipped a beat as her roommate’s low and velvety voice filtered into her ears, instantly capturing her attention. Yes, this was the good part of mornings.
“You’re early,” Yoo Joonghyuk remarked as she stood in the kitchen, lounging against the counter with a damp towel around her neck and some disgusting healthy concoction in her cup. On regular mornings, she’d drink herbal tea, so the weird protein shake told Kim Dokja that her roommate had just come back from a jog. Just as expected, her short hair looked as though it was a bit sweaty.
But really, what made Kim Dokja feel tongue-tied wasn’t her hair or her posture. No, it was what she was wearing. Looking as though she had finished that workout only a few minutes ago, Yoo Joonghyuk was wearing a comfy pair of black sweatpants and a loose crop top that showed off her toned abs when she raised her drink to her lips again. Kim Dokja could feel it in her bones; today was going to be a very good day.
Yoo Joonghyuk’s dark gaze seemed to pin Kim Dokja in place. “Class?”
“Yeah,” Kim Dokja hurried to reply. “Business communication skills.”
Yoo Joonghyuk just hummed and took another sip in a nonchalant way that should be illegal.
Kim Dokja forced a smile onto her face. “Are you streaming today?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool, I’ll tune in later if I have time,” she said in as casual of a tone as she could manage.
It was hard to stand in the same space as Yoo Joonghyuk like this, which was ridiculous considering that they had been roommates since before Yoo Joonghyuk had decided to drop out of university only a year and a half into their undergrad. Back then, Yoo Joonghyuk had made the decision to give up on business to focus on pursuing gaming and esports. Still, it was easier to watch Yoo Joonghyuk through the comfortable distance of her gaming channel than in person; at least then Kim Dokja didn’t have to worry about seeming weird. As though catching herself with that thought, Kim Dokja averted her eyes and pretended that she hadn’t been looking directly at her roommate in a way that might get awkward if she found out. “Well, I’ll just head—”
“Eat first.”
Kim Dokja blinked and looked up at Yoo Joonghyuk’s expression, only to notice that her lips were now curved into a frown.
When she didn’t answer, Yoo Joonghyuk sighed and placed her cup on the counter. “You were planning on leaving without breakfast again.”
Oh fuck, she couldn’t handle this today. The crop top and breakfast were fine on separate mornings—welcomed, even—but all at once it was just too much.
“Really, it’s fine,” Kim Dokja laughed, hoping her flustered state wasn’t visible, “I’ll grab something on the way.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s eyes narrowed. “I made omurice with demi-glace.”
That damn woman… how dare she use Kim Dokja’s weakness against her like this…? Yoo Joonghyuk knew that she couldn’t resist her favourite food and that she wasn’t in a rush today because that class wasn’t for a few hours, but this just wasn’t fair!
Kim Dokja stayed silent for a second too long, and the corner of Yoo Joonghyuk’s lips curved into a smirk as though she knew she had won. “It’s in the fridge. I expect it to be gone when I’m done showering.”
And, with that, Yoo Joonghyuk turned and silently walked out of the kitchen, leaving Kim Dokja to die in peace. As she sat at the table, shoving that stupidly good omurice into her mouth, Kim Dokja once again wondered who gave Yoo Joonghyuk the right to be such a menace.
Kim Dokja settled into her seat in the lecture hall next to Yoo Sangah, who she had briefly spoken to a few times. She was quite nice, and if Kim Dokja was more of an extrovert, maybe she’d actually put in the effort to get to know the other woman. Unfortunately, Kim Dokja would rather sit in her room and read web novels until 3 a.m. than meet anyone new. Still, Yoo Sangah was a good person to sit next to because she was quiet and studious, unlike some people who preferred to sit at the back of the room.
As she sat down, Yoo Sangah turned to her with a smile. “Did you see the email about today’s class?”
“An email?” Kim Dokja asked, surprised that Yoo Sangah was speaking to her in the first place. She thought they had this unspoken agreement to just study quietly next to each other.
“The professor wanted to let us know that we’re having a surprise guest lecturer today.”
A guest lecturer? Kim Dokja kind of pitied whichever poor guy would have to stand in front of a bunch of tired students and pretend that everyone was paying attention.
However, before she could ask if Yoo Sangah knew who the lecturer was, the door swung open and a tall woman walked confidently into the room. Kim Dokja didn’t recognize her as a classmate—she would definitely have remembered someone like that in her class—and she couldn’t look away.
The woman had dark hair tied back professionally into a form of twisted bun, a smart-looking blouse and long black skirt, and an aura that demanded respect. Of course, that wasn’t even counting her face. She was gorgeous in a way that Kim Dokja found difficult to describe. She wasn’t dainty like an idol, but her face was more glamorous than most hallyu stars could ever hope to be. Her beauty was mature and sharp like a knife, and Kim Dokja was a bit nervous that it might be a killing blow.
“That’s Yoo Jeonghyeon, the director of N’gai Marketing,” Yoo Sangah whispered, completely unaware of Kim Dokja’s crisis. “Choi-seonsaengnim invited her to speak about the importance of skip-level communication and the basics of upper management.”
All she could do was nod in response and hurry to get out her laptop to take notes. “I see.”
The second the clock hit 10 a.m., Yoo Jeonghyeon looked at the class with a discerning gaze, looking at every student for a few seconds before moving onto the next. “Good morning, everyone. It’s an honour to be sharing my expertise with you all today.”
God, even her voice was nice. Kim Dokja did her best to shake off the sudden nerves that came from being in the presence of a beautiful woman and tried to focus on the lecture, no matter how difficult it was. Often, she found herself just watching Yoo Jeonghyeon speak, getting lost in the sound of her voice and realizing after a few minutes that she hadn’t been paying attention to what the words actually meant at all. Why was the shade of her lipstick so distracting?
Damn it. Kim Dokja was certain that the actual topic of the class was both fascinating and important (if she went by the full page of notes that Yoo Sangah had already taken), but her page was annoyingly sparse. There was only a single paragraph of notes from when she was genuinely attempting to pay attention, but the last sentence wasn’t even finished and even cut off in the middle of a word because of how distracted she had been.
Unfortunately, an hour and a half seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and the next thing Kim Dokja knew, Yoo Jeonghyeon was wrapping up the lecture.
“Thank you, Choi-seonsaengnim, for inviting me today,” Yoo Jeonghyeon said with a polite nod at the teacher, snapping Kim Dokja back into the present. “I hope that this class has been enlightening for many of you, and perhaps some of us may end up working in the same industry in the future.”
With that, Yoo Jeonghyeon checked her watch and politely excused herself. As she left the room, Kim Dokja found her gaze chasing after the woman’s confident stride until she could no longer hear the click of her heels on the tile. Suddenly, Kim Dokja snapped out of her daze and grimaced at her document, still unchanged from earlier. Why was it so hard to focus? Kim Dokja knew how to deal with beautiful women—she did live with Yoo Joonghyuk, after all—but maybe all that exposure had (somewhat) desensitized her to Yoo Joonghyuk specifically. Well, maybe that was for the best; Kim Dokja really didn’t want to make things awkward with her small crush on her roommate, but she could totally feel comfortable with being distracted by a pretty woman who she’d likely never see again.
She was fine. Everything was fine.
A finger tapped on her shoulder and Kim Dokja flinched before turning around, only to see Yoo Sangah standing there with a sort of awkward smile. “Um, Dokja-ssi, I saw that you weren’t really taking notes, so I was wondering if you’d like a copy of mine.”
“Oh, yeah, um… thanks,” Kim Dokja replied awkwardly, trying to force a smile onto her face. “Sorry, I think I’m not feeling too well, so I couldn’t really focus…”
She felt like an ass for lying to Yoo Sangah like this, but there was no way in hell she was admitting that she was too busy internally drooling over the lecturer to pay attention.
Yoo Sangah laughed slightly, a strange glint in her eye. “Don’t worry, I understand. Do you have a KaTalk? I can send it to you there.”
Kim Dokja nodded and quickly added Yoo Sangah to her contacts list in the messenger app. She was only the third contact that had ever been added, after Yoo Joonghyuk (the last message was a complaint about Kim Dokja wasting money on instant ramyeon again) and a landline number—later converted to mobile—that had been added by memory but never used.
(“Remember, Dokja-yah,” a soft voice spoke in her memories, “in case you get lost, you need to know eomma’s phone number.”)
… No, that didn’t matter right now. Once she had confirmed that Yoo Sangah had sent the document, she bid the other woman goodbye and left the lecture hall. Thankfully, that was her only class for the day, so Kim Dokja hurried to the university library, where she would hope that her favourite corner was empty so she could study and read whatever book caught her fancy until she decided to go home. She could—and would—spend hours in that place, even forgetting to eat because she was so engrossed in whichever story she decided to read that day. Like that, Kim Dokja passed the time until a message flashed on her phone screen.
[Sunfish: Stream at 6.]
6…?
Oh. Kim Dokja looked at the clock in the corner of her screen, only to see that it was far later than she had expected. She had completely forgotten to eat lunch, but the omurice had been filling enough that she was fine. Well, it was time to go home and watch Yoo Joonghyuk stream whatever video game she felt like playing today. It wasn’t much, but watching the stream helped Yoo Joonghyuk in a small way, so Kim Dokja was happy to do it.
Quickly, she typed a simple ‘k’ as a reply and began packing up her things to leave. The train was full on the way home, but Kim Dokja managed to stand in a corner where she wouldn’t be too cramped before hurrying off at her stop. By the time she reached their apartment and unlocked the door, Kim Dokja saw the stream notification pop up on her phone. She was running a bit late, but Yoo Joonghyuk probably wouldn’t mind.
To her surprise, though, Kim Dokja found a plate of japchae sitting on the table with a hastily scrawled note that said ‘Eat, you fool’ sitting next to it. Steam still wafted off the noodles, and Kim Dokja felt her heart melt. Yoo Joonghyuk must have only finished it a few minutes before beginning her stream setup, and it was a small touching gesture that was both wonderful and agonizing.
Yoo Joonghyuk wasn’t someone that Kim Dokja could have. Someday, she’d move out, find a man, and probably get married if she didn’t become some super popular esports gamer. Then, that nameless guy would get to eat her amazing cooking, and Kim Dokja would… well, she honestly didn’t know where she’d be in this nightmare. Probably working at some 24-hour convenience store as the stereotypical exhausted cashier, or some pencil pusher at a mid-tier company. Either way, Yoo Joonghyuk’s romantic life didn’t concern her; she wasn’t interested in women.
Kim Dokja stood there for a moment, feeling a bit upset, but took a deep breath and shook it off. She had food to eat, and it was guaranteed to be good. The noodles looked delicious, all the vegetables were cut precisely the same size, and they all seemed to be cooked to perfection. Seriously, how was that woman even real?
After finishing the absolutely amazing japchae, Kim Dokja put the dish in the sink and mentally promised to wash it later—she didn’t want to make too much noise while Yoo Joonghyuk was streaming—and retreated to her room to watch the stream. After settling into bed with headphones, Kim Dokja clicked on the link and watched as Yoo Joonghyuk’s face and hand cams popped up, along with a stream of some new MMO that Kim Dokja only recognized from an ad she had seen.
Yoo Joonghyuk was grinding mobs and doing some basic quests, so the stream was pretty relaxed overall. Maybe she was just taking it easy today, but that was fine. While focused Yoo Joonghyuk was nice to look at, relaxed Yoo Joonghyuk was just as good. Kim Dokja watched carefully as the character skillfully dodged several attacks through movement alone, and she was once again impressed by Yoo Joonghyuk’s skills in games. No wonder she had dropped out of that management program to pursue this instead, and she seemed far less stressed overall.
Honestly, Kim Dokja found that Yoo Joonghyuk’s streams were the best to watch—not that she watched all that many to begin with, though. She rarely talked, letting the gameplay speak for itself, and her keyboard wasn’t overly clicky. To make things even better, Yoo Joonghyuk’s nails were short enough that they didn’t make noise when typing or pressing skill keys. It was the kind of stream that Kim Dokja could find soothing, and she knew that she wouldn’t be missing anything that Yoo Joonghyuk said in the process of staring at her roommate’s face.
Kim Dokja didn’t particularly like typing in chat either, but she knew that Yoo Joonghyuk was always aware that she was watching. Well, that was mostly because after the stream, she’d always go bother Yoo Joonghyuk, who put up with that for some reason. It was their routine, even though Kim Dokja wasn’t sure when it had started.
After the stream finally ended a few hours later, Kim Dokja walked into Yoo Joonghyuk’s room without knocking, only to see the other woman putting her headset away on its stand on her desk. She didn’t even blink when Kim Dokja flopped down on her bed, as usual.
“That was a good stream,” Kim Dokja remarked in an airy tone. “What made you decide on an MMO this time?”
When Yoo Joonghyuk didn’t answer, her smile turned into a frown. “Is something wrong?”
“How was your class?” Yoo Joonghyuk asked instead of answering. Well, that was to be expected, she supposed.
Kim Dokja sighed and leaned back further on Yoo Joonghyuk’s bed. “It was fine. The guest lecturer was distracting, though.”
Yoo Joonghyuk paused and looked at her with a strange expression on her face. “... Distracting?”
Where should she even begin?
“She was really pretty,” Kim Dokja said offhandedly, “and her hair seemed really nice too. Manageable, unlike mine.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s frown only deepened. “Your hair is fine, Kim Dokja.”
How flattering. She just laughed and waved her roommate off. “Joonghyuk-ah, you don’t need to lie to me. I know my hair is thin and doesn’t like holding any styles, and while I’d love to let it get longer, I don’t want to spend a ridiculous amount on shampoo. I’d even be tempted to cut it short if that didn’t mean constant upkeep to make sure it looked nice.”
Kim Dokja glanced over at Yoo Joonghyuk and her short yet thick hair, and wanted to sigh. Life was just so unfair.
“Speaking of, why don’t you grow your hair out?” Kim Dokja wondered, holding herself back from trying to reach out and see if Yoo Joonghyuk’s hair was as soft as she imagined it to be. “I think you’d look really pretty with it long. You might look a bit like the speaker today with it, actually.”
In an instant, Yoo Joonghyuk seemed to flip through a few expressions before finally landing on irritation. Okay that settled it, something was definitely off with her today. Kim Dokja crossed her arms and scowled a bit. “Seriously, what’s wrong?”
Yoo Joonghyuk stared into her eyes for a second before sighing. “You really don’t know?”
“How could I when you’re not saying anything?” Kim Dokja retorted. She wasn’t a mind reader!
Yoo Joonghyuk pursed her lips slightly and her gaze bored into Kim Dokja’s soul, as though she was in the process of trying to extract some kind of secret. She opened her mouth, paused, and closed it again for a few more moments.
“It’s nothing. Just some assholes in the chat trying to flirt with me,” Yoo Joonghyuk said dismissively.
Ah, shit. It was something from the chat. The chat that Kim Dokja never bothered to read. That chat.
Had they also made some kind of comment about her short hair?
“And I’m not growing it out,” Yoo Joonghyuk continued, to Kim Dokja’s surprise. “I like it this way.”
There was something about the way she said it that made it sound far more personal than a simple haircut had any right to be, but she had no idea what any of it meant to Yoo Joonghyuk. She knew that the woman cut her own hair semi-regularly and always refused Kim Dokja’s offers of assistance, but she had just assumed that it was for convenience.
For a minute, Yoo Joonghyuk just stared at her silently as she clicked her short nails against the wood of her desk rhythmically. It sounded like Kim Dokja’s heartbeat, and it was hard to look away from the void of her dark eyes. It was like there was something nebulous hanging over them, but Kim Dokja didn’t know what Yoo Joonghyuk was waiting for.
Suddenly, Yoo Joonghyuk sighed and turned back to her computer. “Goodnight, Kim Dokja.”
Ah.
She wasn’t in a talking mood anymore, apparently. Those idiots in the chat earlier must have really pissed her off, and it wasn’t worth pushing her too far. Wordlessly, Kim Dokja stood and walked out the door. Just before it closed; however, Yoo Joonghyuk spoke once more in a somewhat gruff tone.
“If your hair gets long and you run out of shampoo, just borrow mine.”
Kim Dokja froze, her heart leaping up into her throat, as a small smile found its place on her lips.
“I’ll hold you to that, Joonghyuk-ah,” she replied casually, “so don’t complain if you suddenly run out.”
Though she couldn’t see the expression on Yoo Joonghyuk’s face, Kim Dokja could still hear the small amused snort she let out as the door finally clicked shut.
Sometimes, when the library was too busy for her tastes, Kim Dokja would go to a small cafe that was a bit more out of the way than most students would be willing to go. Despite the artsy exterior, ‘Háidēs’ had drinks and snacks that were fairly affordable, and the older foreign woman who owned the place with her husband was lovely. Though Kim Dokja didn't go often, the owner always seemed to remember her.
This was the case one Thursday afternoon when Kim Dokja stepped through the door of the cafe to the light sound of a wind chime.
“Oh, it's you again, dear!” The lady at the counter exclaimed with a bright smile as she looked up and recognized Kim Dokja’s sheepish expression. “It's been a while, hasn't it? The usual green tea? Would you like a snack with that today?”
“No thank you, just the tea is fine,” Kim Dokja replied and immediately passed over the exact amount that she had long since memorized. Immediately, the owner set to work steeping the tea, humming to herself all the while. As nice as the snacks here were (made by the owner's mysterious husband, who was apparently quite the baker), Yoo Joonghyuk had essentially threatened her to not ruin her appetite before dinner that night, and who was Kim Dokja to refuse?
After waiting patiently, a steaming mug of tea was passed to her and Kim Dokja took it with a smile. Taking her usual seat by the window, she pulled out her laptop and began working on a paper that was due in a few weeks. It wasn’t particularly interesting, but the tea made the experience better.
Out of the corner of her eye, though, she noticed a face that looked somewhat familiar at first glance. For a second, she thought that Yoo Joonghyuk had somehow tracked her down, but Kim Dokja brushed off that thought for two reasons. Yoo Joonghyuk wouldn't be caught dead in a restaurant, and this woman's hair was far longer than her roommate’s. It was wavy and silky-looking, and it suited her very well as it flowed loosely down her back. Honestly, Kim Dokja couldn't help but recognize that the woman sitting alone on the other end of the cafe was very pretty— No, no, she couldn’t let herself get distracted. She had a paper to work on, dammit.
As she pulled out her laptop to work on her latest assignment and busied herself with that, Kim Dokja still couldn’t help but glance over periodically. It was strange—she was usually the kind of person who kept to herself—but part of her wanted to go over and speak to the woman. Unfortunately, Kim Dokja was terrible at socialization, intimidated by pretty women, and behind on her paper because she had admittedly spent too much time watching more of Yoo Joonghyuk’s streams instead of working on it. After one last glance, she focused on her work, padding the word count slightly just out of frustration.
After a few minutes of that, however, Kim Dokja was pulled out of her working headspace as the chair across from her was pulled out and someone sat down, placing what she could smell was a mug of coffee on the table. Annoyed at the disturbance, she glanced up with a frown and prepared herself to tell off whoever was bothering her, but Kim Dokja was surprised to see the woman was sitting there and looking at her with slight amusement.
“Um… hello?” Kim Dokja asked, completely speechless. Actually, now that she looked closer, she did recognize her. Kim Dokja had no idea why the guest lecturer from her class had decided to approach her, and her heart rate sped up with her nervousness.
“Hello,” the woman replied, and Kim Dokja struggled to ignore the way she almost jumped in her seat at the words. “You’ve been looking over at me quite a lot, so I got curious. Can I help you?”
Shit. Fuck. She had not been anywhere near as subtle as she had hoped. This was bad and it could end up being anywhere from humiliating to downright catastrophic if Kim Dokja didn’t manage to talk her way out of this.
With a nervous smile, her gaze darted back down to her blinking cursor on her screen before she admitted, “Oh, sorry, you look like someone who did a lecture for my class the other day and I wasn’t sure if I was just mistaken, though, so….”
At that, the woman nodded in understanding before her eyes lit up in recognition. An almost sly smile spread across her lips. “I’m Yoo Jeonghyeon. It’s a pleasure.”
Yoo Jeonghyeon. So it was her after all.
“So I wasn’t wrong,” Kim Dokja muttered under her breath. “Sorry, it was probably awkward, but I thought I might be confusing you for someone else.”
Yoo Jeonghyeon raised a brow expectantly, and Kim Dokja’s heart jumped into her throat. What was she…? Oh shit, she hadn’t introduced herself in return. That was rude.
“I’m Kim Dokja.”
As though satisfied, Yoo Jeonghyeon nodded and leaned back in her chair, looking thoughtful for a second. “I remember you now; you were sitting in the third row next to that brunette. You seemed quite invested in my lecture.”
“Um, yes. Very invested. I learned a lot about… uh…” Kim Dokja’s voice trailed off as she racked her brain for any shred of information about that lecture. She couldn’t remember a damn thing other than how good the lecturer’s lipstick had looked.
Fuck.
“Skip-level communication?” Yoo Jeonghyeon prompted, her tone slightly amused.
“Yes, that. Very important things.”
This was a disaster. A complete and utter disaster.
Yoo Jeonghyeon laughed a bit before taking a sip of her own drink that she had brought over. “Very important indeed. Something seems to be on your mind, though, so why not tell unnie your worries?”
… Unnie? Already? They barely knew each other, but Kim Dokja couldn’t exactly say no when an older woman prompted her to use a closer honorific like that… and, well, she was extremely weak to beautiful women. Damn it.
Letting out a sigh, she looked down at her paper and realized that there was no way in hell she’d be able to focus on it now. She could always just half-ass it three days before the deadline if she had no other choice; that was how she had gotten through her undergrad when she was too busy to give everything equal attention.
“It’s not really that important, but um…” Kim Dokja glanced away. How could she even admit this? Well, it’s not like she’d ever run into Yoo Jeonghyeon again, so it was probably okay to talk about it and then pretend it never happened. It would be fine. “I kind of like my roommate, and I really don’t think that’s going to go anywhere at this rate.”
Humming, Yoo Jeonghyeon took a sip of her drink. “That sounds complicated. Still, isn’t it difficult to live with a man in the first place? I can’t imagine liking one after living together; the last thing I’d want is to feel like I have to mother my significant other.”
For some reason, Kim Dokja couldn’t help but feel like she was being tested as the older woman looked directly at her.
Anxiously, Kim Dokja glanced around the cafe. It wasn’t busy, but she was still nervous enough to admit something like this in public that she leaned forward and cupped her hand around her mouth to whisper, “No, my roommate is female.”
At that, Yoo Jeonghyeon’s eyes widened somewhat and a small smile crossed her face. Without missing a beat, she leaned forward, resting her elbow on the table and supporting her cheek as she tilted her head to the side. “Is that so?”
“She kind of reminds me of you a bit… wait, no, that sounds wrong,” Kim Dokja sputtered, trying desperately not to seem like she was flirting with this woman she barely knew. “I mean that your names sound kind of similar… but I don’t think she’s interested in women.”
“Oh, I’m not bothered, don’t worry,” Yoo Jeonghyeon replied, her gaze never leaving Kim Dokja’s face as she took a long sip. “So tell me, why do you think she wouldn’t be at least intrigued by someone as cute as you, hm?”
What?
“Uh… she’s never mentioned anything about liking girls in all the time I’ve known her, and I don’t really get the feeling that she’d be interested in me even if she was,” Kim Dokja replied quietly, looking down and clasping her hands in her lap to twiddle her thumbs.
“Tell me about her then.”
Where should she even start?
“She’s not exactly the most interested in feminine stuff,” Kim Dokja admitted, thinking back to a few of their conversations. “Honestly, I’m surprised she puts up with me. I know I’m more of a mess than super feminine or anything, but she probably still feels weird when looking at the difference in our stuff. We can’t share clothes or much else because of it, even though I’ve kinda always wondered what her sweaters are like.”
With a sigh, Kim Dokja couldn’t help but remember that one fuzzy white sweater that had hung practically unused in Yoo Joonghyuk’s closet for as long as they had been living together. She had always wanted to try it on, but she felt too awkward to ask, and she had never seen her roommate pull it out either. Maybe it was sentimental or something.
“She also likes stuff like working out and video games, and I’m not exactly into either. I’ll watch video games, but I’m not the biggest fan of playing them normally. I just end up trying to break the game in interesting ways, and she gets frustrated when watching me because I don’t try to play it properly. Oh, but she cooks for me a lot because she gets fed up with me filling a cupboard with instant ramyeon when I go shopping on my own.”
Yoo Jeonghyeon looked at her with an expression that she couldn’t quite place. “Oh really. And, remind me, you’re absolutely certain that this roommate of yours can’t be interested in women in any way?”
“No.” Kim Dokja hung her head. Although it was painful to admit, it was kind of freeing too. Maybe by voicing her doubts and finally talking about it with someone, she could get over this hopeless crush and move on.
“Out of pure curiosity, does she happen to have shorter nails on one hand?”
Kim Dokja looked up in surprise at Yoo Jeonghyeon’s words. “What?”
“You heard me the first time,” the woman replied, a sly smile curling at the edge of her lips. “The answer?”
“Uh…” Fuck, her brain was rebooting. Why was Kim Dokja such a disaster in front of beautiful women again? “She does, but it’s because she hates the sound of her nails clicking on her keyboard.”
“On only one hand? That doesn’t seem practical.”
Oh, this Kim Dokja had an answer for. It was obvious, thanks to Yoo Joonghyuk’s gamer nature. “I don’t know if you play many video games, but you only need 3 fingers on your left hand for WASD. That’s what she uses the most, so clearly those are the only ones that bother her."
Yoo Jeonghyeon raised a brow, took a long sip of her coffee, and didn't break eye contact with Kim Dokja the entire time. It was hard to look away, but Kim Dokja couldn’t help but feel the slightest thrill upon being pinned under this woman’s gaze. She felt almost… desired, which just wasn’t something she was accustomed to feeling. It was weird, in a kind of good way, but still weird.
As soon as her mug was back on the table, Yoo Jeonghyeon laced her fingers together and rested her chin on them. “Your roommate is truly missing out if your words are true. But… maybe that’s a good thing.”
A… good thing?
“I’m sure you’ll need some time to get over her, but don’t worry, unnie will listen to you any time you need to talk to someone.”
Kim Dokja could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. Why was everything about her so intense? Why was she so insistent about this?
Yoo Jeonghyeon just smiled, her lipstick drawing Kim Dokja’s gaze yet again, and she seemed to know it. “It’s a shame I didn’t notice you before; I would have bought your drink for you had I realized we’d have such a pleasant conversation. Though, perhaps we should account for a longer discussion next time. How does dinner sound?”
What was even going on!? Kim Dokja could barely focus, her assignment was virtually forgotten, and it was all she could do to open her mouth and say, “I—”
And then she was saved by her phone going off. The ringtone was distinctive—an upbeat and poppy girl group track that she had jokingly assigned to Yoo Joonghyuk’s contact over a year ago and never bothered to change, to her roommate’s chagrin—and Kim Dokja instantly picked it up.
“Joonghyuk-ah, what’s up?” Kim Dokja asked, somewhat breathlessly. “You don’t normally call me at this time.”
Yoo Joonghyuk’s lower voice seemed to have a bit of a crackle to it as it floated through the speaker. “Pick up some green onions on your way home. And not the floppy ones like—”
“What’s that?” Kim Dokja said quickly, cutting Yoo Joonghyuk off and covering the speaker a bit as she started packing her things. “I have to go home right now?”
“What? You fool, aren’t you studying right now? Are you in a hurry because some asshole is bothering you?”
Kim Dokja glanced over at Yoo Jeonghyeon with an apologetic smile. “Sorry, my roommate needs me.”
“Kim Dokja, answer me—”
The woman just nodded, looking vaguely amused. “I see.”
In the background of the call, Kim Dokja could hear something that sounded like Yoo Joonghyuk stomping down the hallway and then opening the door a moment later. “Kim Dokja! Are you at the library? Forget about the onions, I’ll meet you halfway.”
“Alright, I’ll be home soon,” Kim Dokja replied quickly, realizing that she might have just caused a bigger mess.
“Now you choose to answer? Where are y—”
And then Kim Dokja hung up. Yoo Joonghyuk would absolutely be angry at her later, but she was kind of hot when she was mad, so Kim Dokja didn’t mind that much. After quickly downing the last of her tea and packing up her things, Kim Dokja waved awkwardly at Yoo Jeonghyeon. “Thanks for listening to me, but I should get going.”
“It was no problem. Anyway, I should be leaving soon too, work calls. But, before that…” she replied, after checking the time on her phone. After returning it to her pocket, Yoo Jeonghyeon held out her hand with a pleasant smile. “I’ll leave you with my contact, alright? Call me anytime.”
Still a bit flustered, Kim Dokja handed over her phone without a second thought and watched the older woman key her number into Kim Dokja’s Kakao Talk, making her contact number four. After a moment, she realized something. “But aren’t you busy? With… company stuff.”
Wow, how to sound lame in front of a pretty woman, right? Kim Dokja wanted to melt into the floor and die just from the sheer embarrassment of her own words. However, Yoo Jeonghyeon’s response caught her off guard.
“Don’t worry, unnie will make time for you.”
Oh.
“Well, uh, good talk!” Kim Dokja replied awkwardly, taking her phone back and shoving it in her pocket. “See you…?”
Yoo Jeonghyeon’s gaze seemed to sharpen slightly as she nodded. “Soon, hopefully.”
Okay, Kim Dokja had definitely hit her limit when it came to interacting with hot women (who were not Yoo Joonghyuk), so it was time to go. All she could do was nod and hurry out the door to intercept her roommate before Yoo Joonghyuk could go and disrupt the peaceful sanctity of the library in a futile attempt to find whatever corner Kim Dokja usually hid herself away in. And they could get their non-floppy green onions on the way home, too.