CASUAL || Shinez

Chapter 5

"I have to warn you," Yunjin says, slowly, as she slips her skates on. "I'm gonna be really fucking bad at this because I've never skated a day in my life."

"No worries," Kazuha laces the boots up with ease, as if she's done it a hundred times before. "My parents wanted me to be good at all things beautiful and feminine, so I have about nine years of ice skating training under my belt."

Yunjin blinks. And then whistles, long and low. "Didn't know I was fucking ice skating royalty."

Kazuha rolls her eyes before shaking out her hands and standing. "I'll do a spin and then come get you?"

Seeing as how Yunjin is still struggling with lacing up her boots and how she's too prideful to ask Kazuha for help— she nods and waves the taller girl off. "Sure, sure, I'll see you in a bit."

Kazuha spares her one last dubious glance before elegantly slipping into the rink, and Yunjin watches her for a second, all grace and long limbs, twirling around the adults and children alike. It's only when her heart hiccups uncomfortably in her chest with the reminder that this is not a date and Kazuha does not like her like that — even if she was all chivalrous and charming the entire time — that Yunjin looks back down at the limp strings in her hands and goes back to lacing them.

A million and one thoughts.

That's how many she has.

It's about a million more than she's used to having.

She's so caught up in them that she doesn't even look up again until her skates are fastened to her feet tightly; which means it's entirely a jumpscare when she scans the crowd for Kazuha and finds her pressed up against the wall of the rink, bracketed on one side by a girl who's just a little too close for comfort.

Yunjin's heart falls to her toes.

She wouldn't be flirting with another girl in front of me, would she?

It can't be. Kazuha's not like that. And sure, maybe Yunjin hadn't known Kazuha long enough to be making those kinds of judgment calls, but it just feels... Well, it feels illegal, but Yunjin knows that's dramatic. What it really feels like, though, is cheating. Which is silly, and stupid, because they're not together, and Yunjin doesn't even know if that girl is anything to Kazuha.

Every single reminder of that is like rubbing her face on sandpaper. It's humiliating to be so smitten over someone who doesn't want the same from her.

So she ambles out onto the rink, slipping and sliding and gripping the wall for dear life, and makes it out to Kazuha. (She looks surprised to see Yunjin— surprised and guilty. That only makes the sinking feeling in Yunjin's stomach worse.)

"Hey, guys," she breathes heavily, barely holding herself up using the wall. Kazuha's eyebrows shoot to her hairline before she's skating away from the girl and grabbing Yunjin's forearms.

"Yunjin," she shakes her head, worried. "You should've waited for me to come get you."

The girl behind her tilts her head to the side, eyes narrow, and Yunjin hates the way she's looking at them. Looking at her. As if she's competition. As if they're fighting over Kazuha. She doesn't even know Yunjin, for fuck sake. Besides, it's not like she's the one who's been sleeping with Kazuha for the last two months, so even if it was a competition, clearly Yunjin's the one winning.

"Who's your friend?" Yunjin asks, smiling bitterly.

Kazuha blinks, as if she's only just remembered the other girl. "Oh, this is— uh, this is Karina," still holding Yunjin's forearm she twists out of the way to introduce the two girls. "Karina, this is Yunjin. My friend."