To cheeky-ssam -
I
am
so
sorry
IM SO SORRY GUYS I TOOK AGES AND THEN I GIVE YOU THIS... thing. I don't even know anymore BUT IM SO SORRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! I'm also kind of worried it isn't completely on point for the prompt u sent me so overall I just feel rlly bad about this :( I hope it's not too terrible.
I genuinely feel so bad, like actually bro, I sincerely hope you have requests out to better writers than me, or at least writers that have an actual update schedule.
I beg for your forgiveness @cheeky-ssam. Please forgive me for literally falling of the face off the earth and then showing up with this.
Also, guys, if you need anything spicy, saucy or just really mintomi, feel free to check out cheeky-ssam's account. Dude, reading those mintomi oneshots has lowkey (highkey) forced me to ship it because asdlkfjlsakdfjlsdfjk IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE WHEN ITS WRITTEN WELL LIKE THATTTTTTTTTT-
*
"Ain't never seen two pretty best friends." A common phrase.
But don't you worry - Minju and Hitomi weren't friends. In fact, they were on opposite sides of the appreciation spectrum: Minju was absolutely bewitched by Hitomi while Hitomi hated Minju's guts, her heart and soul, her every cell, the very last atom that made up the tip of her pinky finger.
Okay, maybe not that harshly.
But that's how Hitomi thought she hated Minju (she didn't).
Of course, they were very pretty though. Hitomi was a relatable kind of beauty - soft, sweet, and somehow pulling off regular, "I just got out of bed", tee-shirt-hoodie-sweatpants kind of outfits. Her hair was the only thing that made her style somewhat unique, being an interesting sort of purple that was streaked with whites and lighter tones.
Minju was something more of an ethereal kind of beauty. Her lush, glossy hair seemed to glint silver in the light, but other than that, it was a pitch black that tapered off at her mid-back. It was a kind of insult to her clean, perfect appearance as it could never be tamed (trust me, all of the theater kids tried). Her hairline had a little peak at her forehead, making her face a heart.
Yes, her hair was something of a sensation.
Was Hitomi and Minju's relationship something of a sensation? Depends on what you consider a sensation.
The Incident of Hot Pink Hair Dye wasn't something that people considered a "sensation", but it was memorable.
And for some reason after this, Minju was still absolutely infatuated.
"Hii, don't ignore meeee," Minju whined, scampering after Hitomi as she tried to make her way to history in peace. Obviously, it wasn't going well.
"Minju, I swear to god, can you please-"
"-keep being a beautiful, gorgeous, lovable friend? Of course!"
Hitomi sighed, thoroughly fed up for the day. 'Friend'? The audacity!
Speeding up her pace, she practically sprinted to Ms. Kwon's classroom. Waving a quick hello, she trudged to the very back corner of the classroom before dumping her bag next to her chair and pulling the hair tie on her wrist, annoyed.
And then Minju came running in.
Hitomi groaned inwardly and tried to hide behind her book.
This didn't work all that well because save for Ms. Kwon, Hitomi was the only person in the classroom.
Minju trotted over like a lost puppy finding its owner. Smiling, she sat down next to the suffering girl covered by her Ancient Civilizations book.
Students came in, dropping their bags unceremoniously as Hitomi had. She caught Jeongin's eye and he practically cackled as she mimed slamming her head against the wall, as she undoubtedly would later. This slightly annoyed her, but it was all fine when the last seat left was next to Hwang Hyunjin and Jeongin had what was essentially a panic attack before sitting down with the complexion of a cherry.
Children were shushed, roll was called, and class started. It's not like Hitomi cared - as far as she was concerned, it was just a "Get through history to make it to math. When you're done with math, you can ditch after break."
But constantly checking the time wasn't making it go by any faster. Hitomi tried looking away for long periods of time as if telling the clocks she didn't care before looking back, only to find it had barely been two minutes. She tried staring, practically boring holes through the stupid hour hand, but she only found that this seemed to make the clocks tick slower.
"Ms. Hitomi! How about you?"
Snapping her head away up from her phone, Hitomi's face heated rapidly as she mumbled something really intelligent, like "uh...?"
She could already see Jeongin stifling a laugh.
And then Minju, Hitomi's saving grace, whispered, "Nineveh."
"Nineveh. It's Nineveh."
"Thank you, Hitomi. So, the Assyrians..."
Blushing madly, Hitomi leaned over slightly and begrudgingly whispered back out of the corner of her mouth, "Don't think this means anything at all, but thank you. This doesn't change ou-"
She didn't finish her sentence, however, because Minju had already flung herself at the purple-haired girl, leaving her speechless, trying to shove Minju off, and ignoring the way Minju's hands around her bare arms was making her ears ring and racking her entire body with tingles. "You're welcome!"
"D-don't touch me."
*
Oh. My. God.
Study hall had been cool and refreshing like a rain in LA (meaning cool but overhyped), but Hitomi's patience was still running thin.
Thin enough to use analogies, at least.
After all, even if the entire city was covered in a mist, the moist air could only do so much for a full-scale fire.
And if we're still speaking in analogies, Minju was currently gasoline. In the fire.
"HII! HII! WAIT FOR ME HII-CHANNN!" Hitomi could hear Minju's chaos approximately five minutes before she ran up behind her, almost knocking her over with a hug. Inaudibly murmuring a string of unsavory words, Hitomi wriggled herself free from Minju's death grip. This apparently meant nothing to the elder girl, as she continued jogging behind Hitomi, unapologetically unabashed.
"Hii, Hii, Hii, Hii, Hii, today I met this really really nice girl in twelfth year and she r-"
"Shut. Up. Please," Hitomi spat through her gritted teeth. She just could not deal with this right now. She didn't have the energy to deal with this little baby-fox-like creature.
That wasn't a weird describing word for Hitomi. Her best friend had a website and a strange obsession with foxes (it's Yang Jeongin, in case you couldn't tell).
She could feel a scream gathering and forcing its way up her throat and as much as she didn't like Minju, she didn't want anyone to see her lose her chill.
"Okay." Minju's face dropped for a few seconds before brightening again as Hitomi slung her backpack over both shoulders instead of just one. "Your backpack is so cute!"
"Thanks." Hitomi harshly swallowed and bit her bottom lip. Finding this wasn't going to keep in the boiling feeling at the bottom of her stomach, she squared her jaw and stretched her neck.
"I love your strawberry keycha-"
And somehow, that was it for Honda Hitomi.
She screamed.
It was either that or screaming words and screaming hurtful words usually doesn't end well.
It started all chesty, the sound vibrating through her rib cage and warming up her limbs, but then it just got high. She sounded like a four-year-old, screaming at the top of her lungs until she ran out of breath.
Without looking back at Minju, she ran.
But of course, Minju followed.
Fortunately for Minju and unfortunately for Hitomi, Minju was a faster runner. By the time Hitomi had run out of stamina, Minju had already caught up with her breath and was relaxedly walking beside her.
Minju poked her shoulder. "You okay?"
"No." Hitomi pointed her finger at her nose and then circled it once to show Minju her face. "Is this the face of a person who's mentally okay to you?!?"
"I suppose it isn't. Maybe the face of perfection, though... I'll have to think on that one."
Hitomi's heart positively fluttered and she gulped. At this point, she was sure her cheeks resembled tomatoes. Grumbling about soft things and how she hated soft things (she loved them, but no one has to know), she shoved Minju away. Minju laughed. Hitomi shrunk into her oversized sweatshirt and backpack. "Demon."
"If I'm a demon, then you're an angel," Minju said in a somewhat sing-songy voice.
"Leave me alone."
"Fiiiiine. But there was j-"
"Nope."
"Not e-"
"Nope."
"I c-"
"Nope. Silence."
"B-"
"What about the concept of silence do you not understAND-"
*
Hitomi had an issue.
She had walked home Minju, you know, like a decent human being. Minju apparently lived alone in a house that was half way into the forest, and Hitomi, being your average eleventh grader, had loads of homework, so she just dropped Minju by the edge of the forest, etcetera etcetera, yada yada yada. This wasn't really a big thing until Hitomi added up her findings.
So here was the issue - as Hitomi sat on her bed and thought over her day as she tended to do on strange ones, she found that she couldn't stop thinking about Minju.
And it wasn't fantasizing about dying Minju's hair green just to see her scream in abject terror.
It was about noticing how her hair really did look silver in the light, how her canine teeth came down a little further than the regular person. Noticing how she lived alone in the forest in a house that Hitomi hadn't even seen.
It was weird.
And unfortunately, from what Hitomi had been listening to in his lectures, it was a Jeongin kind of weird.
Yang Jeongin was usually this chill, oversized-blue-sweater-and-black-jeans, "I-don't-give-a-flying-fuck" kind of kid. But he had his moments of geek-ery, and his particular area of geekiness was foxes.
Hitomi had a sneaking suspicion of what Minju could be if her observations really meant something.
Sighing, Hitomi dialed up her friend's number and desperately tried to ignore the 793 spams and 24 missed calls, all most likely about a certain Hwang Hyunjin in social studies.
"HITOMI WHY DIDN'T YOU ANSWER MY CALLS?!?"
"Uh... dance. Had to meet with my... er, my dance instructor for a choreography mistake," Hitomi lied.
"Liar. I saw you walk home with that girl that keeps pissing you off. But it doesn't matter because DUDE DID YOU SEE WHO I WAS SITTING WITH?!?"
Hitomi inwardly pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes, I did."
"HWANG. FREAKING. HYUNJIN. BRO, I WAS KIND OF DYING INSIDE! HE SAID HI AND WAVED AND I THINK I HAD A HEART ATTACK BECAUSE HE'S SO FREAKING CUTE OH MY GOD, HITOMI, I'M SUFFERING. HE ASKED ME FOR MY NUMBER TOO, BUT I THINK IT WAS FOR THE PARTNER PROJECT BUT HE STILL SMILED AND AAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH-"
Jeongin made some strangled noise before Hitomi heard a really loud crash and Jeongin muttering an apology for dropping his phone.
"Anyways, what's up with you? I'm sure you don't want to hear my gay panicking. What's going on in your miserable life?"
"Just met this... girl," Hitomi almost said 'unidentified being who could be a threat to the earth' but decided to hold off on the geeky stuff until she had actually asked the King of the Geeks. "She's kind of... strange."
"How strange? Like, too nice strange or me strange?"
"Just strange." Hitomi exhaled a huge breath. "Look, her canines are too long and her hair is silver and she has a widow's peak and she lives alone in the forest and you might be surprised but I actually listen to your rants sometimes and she sounds like a were fox and now I'm worried for my life because you're supposed to be the weird supernatural-believing geek but she's so annoying that I'm thinking she's a human but there are so many reasons why she's NOT human and now I'm in pain."
The line went silent for a second. "Oh... wow. That's... wow. Okay. Hmm... does she have a tail?"
"Um, I wouldn't know that, but I don't think she does. She usually wears skinny jeans."
"But her hair is still black?"
"Yeah. Just silvery."
"Do you remember her from grade school?"
"Hang on, I can grab a yearbook." Hitomi quickly grabbed the third yearbook she'd ever received and flipped through her year. "She's not in my grade..."
"Check the grade above."
"Weird request, but sure." Hitomi kept going, page by page, until she found what she was looking for. "Kim Minju, age 9. Her teeth aren't as long here, and she's in the year above me. Huh. Why do you know all of this weird crap?"
Ignoring her question, Jeongin continued. "Now try checking last year's yearbook."
"Gosh, thanks for helping me be a stalker here, Jeongin."
"Any time. I'm a really great worker."
Hitomi rolled her eyes and trudged over to her book cabinet. Fishing out the yearbook from last year, she carded through the of both the year above her and her year. Confused, she checked again before going over all the names of all the students and finding no Kim Minju.
"She wasn't there last year."
"Okay." Jeongin took a breath. "So my very expert guess is that she's a recently bitten girl. Probably made it for first semester and maybe even half of second semester last year if you remember her, but disappeared for long enough to miss picture day and to be kept out of the yearbook. Now she's back and has to make up for half a year of stuff. Why was she gone so long? She got bitten by a were fox. This means that she's still getting used to transforming every full moon and probably just got used to getting into human form. Simple way to check if my theory is correct: apparently, were foxes lose control over their human form when their super drunk or asleep." And then, as an after thought: "I don't get the hair though. That's usually the first thing that changes."
"Woah woah woah, hold up there. You want me to knock her out or drug her?!?"
"If you want to know that badly. I didn't specifically tell you, you just decided you wanted to"
"Yang Jeongin, you are simultaneously the most helpful and useless human being I've ever met. Good night!"
"Good night! Have fun knocking out a hot girl you're super in love wi-"
Hitomi hung up. She groaned resting her forehead on her palms.
There was no way she was going to get Minju drunk.
*
She was getting Minju drunk.
Up until this moment, Hitomi had forgotten about the strange connections Minju had and she'd forgotten her classmates love for anything illegal.
Minju being the most popular student in the school made it easy.
Before first period, Hitomi went to get her things from her locker and was greeted with one if the warmest back hugs she'd ever gotten. Heat rising in her cheeks, she turned her face to see who it was.
Suddenly, her face was a mere inch from Kim Minju's.
"Hi!" Minju smiled.
"G-get off. Just because we talked yesterday doesn't mean we're friends today." Hitomi pushed Minju's arms away and wriggled around until she was free.
Minju's face flashed with hurt for half a second before her regular bubbly expression was back.
"Sooo..." Minju started, stepping closer to Hitomi. "Yesterday, I was sitting with that really nice senior that I was telling you about..." Minju inched half a step further. "She sits with the popular girls from their grade so I ended up sitting with that girl that has a pet duck," one centimeter further, "and those girls that used to be the literal talk of the school, you know, the dance team captain and girl that founded the video game club..." Minju was two inches from Hitomi's face, "Miyawaki Sakura, remember her? And so she's having this party later today, and you only have tennis on Mondays and Fridays, so..." Minju was now hovering over Hitomi's face. Hitomi was squinting her eyes, not liking where this was going. "Can you come to Miyawaki Sakura's party with me?"
Hitomi leaned back, hand on her chin, thinking. "Can you buy me strawberry milk at lunch for the rest of the week?"
"Sure!" Minju grinned.
Hitomi nodded curtly.
"Wait, so... is that a yes?"
Hitomi scowled. "Fine."
"YES! I DIDN'T THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY!" Minju ran up and threw her arms around Hitomi for the third time in two minutes. Hitomi grumbled.
"I can take that back you know."
"You won't and you and I both know it. But anyway, earlier, I- Hitomi wait! Hii, Hii, Hiiiiii, hang on, wait for me!"
*
"Can you come with me? I'm sure Hyunjin will be there," Hitomi said.
Jeongin looked up from his salad with squinted eyes. "Dude. He asked me to come with him yesterday. I mean, I'm not trying not to read too much into it, but... hey," he dramatically pressed his hand over his chest in mock betrayal, "didn't you read any of my texts?"
Hitomi shrugged unapologetically. "Not really, no."
"Wow. I feel so loved. Just- wow. I have such amazing friends."
"'Friends'. You said that plurally?"
"Yup."
"You have one friend. And it's me. And I'm a terrible friend. So that sentence should have been, 'I have literally no good friends.'"
"Fine then, I'll change it." Clearing his throat, Jeongin spoke in a really nasally, annoying voice that Hitomi assumed was a really bad impression of her voice. "I have literally no good friends."
He dropped the weird voice and grumbled, "The only friend I do have is too busy thinking about her future girlfriend to care about me and my future b- OW, DUDE! DIDN'T WE MAKE, LIKE, A PACT ABOUT NO TWISTING OF ARMS?"
"YES, AND I RIPPED IT THE SECOND I GOT HOME!"
Hitomi started patting Jeongin's head really forcefully and Jeongin sunk further down in his chair each time as he tried and failed to bat her away. Groaning, he flailed around his blue sweater paws. "Help me! Save me from this actual freaking- OW, stop killing my brain cells! What the frick br..." Jeongin's eyes widened as his gaze rose up behind Hitomi's shoulder. Hitomi turned to see what it was.
A wicked smile spread across her face.
Mischief glinting in her smile-crinkled eyes, Hitomi waved, inwardly cackling at Jeongin's unforgivably red face. "Hi Hyunjin. How's it been?"
Hyunjin sent her a smirk of his own. "It's been great, thanks. I'd ask how you're doing," Hyunjin elegantly raised one eyebrow, "but right now, I'm more interested in this pact of no twisting arms."
Hitomi's inner cackle finally made an appearance. "Oh, I'd love to tell you, but I think Jeongin would tell it better," she said, giving a much bigger emphasis on 'Jeongin' than she needed to.
Still tomato-faced, Jeongin quickly shook his head. "Nope, nope, I'm good." Then peering behind Hitomi's shoulder again, his expression flashed with smugness before he schooled his facial features. "Why don't you tell our small audience about how much you hated when I'd twist your arm?"
Hitomi snorted, arms crossed. "I'd hardly call one person a small audience."
A smooth voice filled with interest sounded right behind Hitomi, making her jump. "Two, actually."
Hitomi spun around and was met with a very amused Kim Minju.
And yes, Hyunjin had a pretty face, but Hitomi's stare was glued on the girl beside him.
Why was she so much prettier now then she was four hours ago?
Same clothes, same unruly hair, and yet, Kim Minju had never looked more beautiful just standing there, hand on her hip, making a similar expression to the one Hyunjin was wearing. The light seemed to bounce off of her hair perfectly and her weird, overly bright clothes that Hitomi had always hated reflected the light just as well, giving her this weird, halo-ey thing. Hitomi couldn't explain it. She was just... pretty. Much too pretty to be standing her, chatting with Jeongin and her about a pact they'd made when they were seven about not intentionally hurting each oth-
She was still standing there.
Crap. Hitomi glanced back at Jeongin, all of her swagger evaporated. They made eye contact and had a conversation that went something like this.
Jeongin: Ha, that blew up in your face.
Hitomi: Shut up. Help me.
Jeongin: No.
Hitomi: No... with added sarcasm?
Jeongin: Just no. I'm not helping you dig yourself deeper into the six-foot deep hole you've just dug.
Hitomi: Screw you.
Jeongin: Right back at you.
Hyunjin and Hitomi's temporary alliance to embarrass Jeongin ended when Hyunjin and Minju looked at each other like, aren't they cute?
Eyes gravitating back toward Jeongin, Hyunjin broke the silence. "Well, I just came to ask..." Hyunjin blushed, staring bashfully at Hitomi. "C-can I borrow Jeongin for a minute?"
Hitomi almost answered before Jeongin cut in. "Pshh, she doesn't control me." He stood and followed Hyunjin just outside.
And Hitomi went from being in a happy friend group to one-on-one.
One-on-one with a pretty girl.
She wasn't good with pretty girls.
Help.
"So..." Minju propped up her face on her hands. "I was wondering what color you wanted to wear for later? I was thinking blue but I didn't know what you had planned and stuff so I brought a few options and they're in my bag and I can go get them now if you want." She flashed a blinding smile.
Hitomi looked away.
For eyesight reasons.
Not because Minju was a little prettier today than she was yesterday.
Nope.
"Yeah, sure, sounds good. I didn't bring any of my dresses though..."
"That's fine. I brought, like, fifteen different dresses with different colors so you can just pick one that matches a dress that you usually wear."
"Cool," Hitomi nervously laughed, feeling very uncool.
She was definitely feeling very not-chill when Minju grabbed her hand and yanked her down the windy hallways of the school to her locker.
"Here!" Minju rifled through the things in her locker, giving Hitomi's flaming face a couple seconds to get it together. "Red, purple, black, white, gold, green, and blue!"
Hitomi put her hands behind her back, pacing slowly around the dresses. The red one looked like it was made of huge flower petals on the sleeves and the skirt. The purple was pretty bland, although the color was nice. The black one had weird sleeve-ties, the white one looked like a wedding dress, the gold was like a toga, and the green was a two-piece not entirely suited to Hitomi's taste.
But the blue one...
Hitomi gulped.
Short and fitted, the dress was a sapphire jewel-tone, halter top sleek and slightly revealing in the back.
Hitomi wasn't entirely sure she could handle a Kim Minju in a short, jewel-tone dress, but she couldn't say no.
"Yeah, the blue looks decent."
"Great!" Minju shoved the dresses back in the bag that she then shoved into her locker. Dusting off her hands, she gave Hitomi a quick squeeze. "Okay, I have study hall now so I have to go but I'll see you later at the party!"
And just like that, Hitomi was left alone with a super accelerated heartbeat, tingling arms, and a really hot date.
*
BREAD KIDNAPPER:
Ey
where'd you go?
Fiona Spoon Worm Yang:
sry :)))))
w/ hyunjin and posse of stray cats
BREAD KIDNAPPER:
?
should i be worried?
Fiona Spoon Worm Yang:
yup
minho looking at pictures of his cats and some kid just insulted them and now he looks mad
jisungs tryna make him chillax
but he looks rrrrrllllyyyyy mad
BREAD KIDNAPPER:
mk
ive decided i want nothing to do w/ ur shenanigans
bai
Fiona Spoon Worm Yang:
byeeeeeeeee
Hitomi, unsuccessful at getting someone to chat with, attempted to put her phone back in her pocket, realized she didn't have a pocket, and irritatedly stuck it in her purse.
She and Jeongin had biked together, but as soon as they'd entered the skyscraper of a house that Miyawaki Sakura owned, Jeongin had been whisked off by Jung Wooyoung who had likely led him to the, "posse of stray cats."
So... she was alone.
Fantastic.
Crossing her arms over the skin left exposed by her blue top, Hitomi made her way to the table of food, looking at her phone like she actually had someone to talk to.
Now that she thought about it, maybe it wasn't the best idea ever to wear an off-the-shoulder croppy shirt in the middle of the night.
Weaving her way through the crowds, Hitomi was shoved, bumped into, and some dude even tried resting his elbow on her shoulder but she had scampered away before he could actually touch her.
Finally stumbling out of the mob, Hitomi wiped the sweat off of her brow, congratulating herself on not falling and dying that entire time even in three inch heel-
"Ah!" Stupid heel.
She launched forward like a feisty, purple-haired projectile smack into...
her date.
Kim Minju.
Yelping slightly, Hitomi untangled her arms from Minju's, hastily stepping back. "Sorry," she muttered under her breath before looking up.
And all of a sudden, it felt like she was still flying through the air like she had when her heel had stepped just off balance.
Minju. Was. Gorgeous.
Somehow, the dress wrapped around her in all the right places, tight at the top and flared at the hips. It went down to her lower thighs, leaving her long legs exposed as well as her shoulders, her arms, and her entire back. The blue complimented her dark, wavy hair, which was looking particularly silver. In fact, Hitomi could almost see the wavy strands glint silver in the light and then stay that color as they one by one turned the shade of the bangles on Minju's wrist.
And her hair, which had almost come down to her waist, was only just below her shoulders.
Hitomi glanced at Minju's hand and let out a curse.
Her glass was half-full of red wine.
Nervously laughing, Hitomi grabbed the cup out of Minju's fingers, ignoring her whines. "Come one, let's go. Time to go back home, okay?"
"I don't want to gooooo." Minju pouted and Hitomi almost gave in.
And then Minju's eyes flashed blue-green.
Like a flickering light, they turned from warm brown to sparkling cadet blue, on and off, faster and faster until they stuck there, a shining sea green.
Hitomi's eyes widened. "Okay, yeah, we're going."
Placing her hands on Minju's back, she pushed Minju back through the crowd, biting her inner cheek as Minju's hair slowly turned half silver, half black.
"Nice contacts!" A pretty girl with cropped orange locks shouted at Minju.
Minju giggled obnoxiously, waving her fingers at the girl. "You too."
At the girl's confused look, Hitomi shouted back, "She means thank you."
Once out of the horde, Hitomi grabbed Minju's arm and yanked her outside.
Shivering at the direct contact with the crisp, 1:42 am air, Hitomi pulled Minju harder.
She refused to look back at the older girl as she shrunk down into something so small it made the dress look like a circus tent.
Hitomi only stopped when she was far away from the Miyawaki household and when the hand in hers was small and furry.
Gently letting go of the paw, Hitomi squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds before turning to face what could be tall and scary and all fangs and claws and might hurt her-
She was interrupted by a small whimper.
Sitting before her was a small, grey fox.
Hitomi could no longer think straight as she was hit with millions of different emotions - awe at this creature, fear of what this creature could do, but mostly caring because she was just about the most delicate thing Hitomi had ever seen. The fox was lithe and had sharp lines, but she was still a baby. Her fur was a sleek, shining silver but it poofed out in little fluffs, especially around her cheeks, and for some reason, her ears were black. Her legs were strong but they were rather short and they ended in small paws. Her tail was a lovely, majestic thing, but it was still on the smaller side, just like the rest of her body.
And as Hitomi gazed upon Kim Minju, she wanted nothing more than to take the fox in her arms and protect her from any dangers the world could throw at her.
Slowly, hesitantly, Hitomi reached her outstretched hand toward Minju. Minju drew back and bared her teeth, shaking, but eventually relented, leaning forward to smell Hitomi's palm. Hitomi gently ran her fingers along the little fox's head, smiling unknowingly.
"Do you want to come home with me?" Hitomi murmured.
Minju looked up with these big brown eyes that held an unbridled, aching hurt. Confusion. A crestfallen, pained, pitiful loneliness. Hitomi's chest clamped and she gently scooped her up. Minju buried her face in Hitomi's arm. She was shivering and Hitomi could feel her rapid-fire heartbeat. Pulling the fox cub closer, Hitomi ran to her bike, deposited Minju in the basket, and pedaled hard all the way home.
*
Fiona Spoon Worm Yang:
hey
where are u
im leaving
judging by the lack of your bike, im going to assume you left too
im done with hwang hyunjin
call me tmrw
*
When Hitomi woke up the next morning, Minju was gone, evaporated like a dream.
Hitomi biked to school alone.
This wasn't an irregular occurrence, but it would have been nice to bike with Minju or something.
Hitomi couldn't explain it - she felt closer to Minju, somehow, for some reason. Maybe it was that dress, maybe it was the party, maybe it was undergoing a weird supernatural change with her, but she couldn't stop thinking about her. Her eyes, her lips, the elegant slope of her nose, the stupid hair that never flattened down.
Maybe Hitomi would have actually figured out where she stood with Minju had she not noticed Jeongin's bike.
Or rather, the lack of it.
She also noticed Jeongin's empty seat in math.
And history.
And Japanese.
But his stuff was in his locker.
By the time lunch rolled around, Hitomi was thoroughly confused because Jeongin wasn't at their table either.
Where would Jeongin go if he didn't want to be found?
Well, home for one, but Hitomi was trying to be optimistic.
Maybe the gymnasium... possibly that one little place out behind the middle school building...
Or maybe it was the library.
Yes, the library sounded promising.
After taking a few bites of the bread she had brought, Hitomi shoved her lunch back into her locker and took off toward the library.
And yes, Yang Jeongin was usually a chill kind of kid. But this had clearly been a pretty weird couple of days because the last thing Hitomi had expected to see was Jeongin crying so hard he couldn't breathe in the back of the library.
"Woah, woah, what's wrong?" Hitomi put her hand on Jeongin's back, not knowing how to deal with crying but wanting him to stop.
Jeongin swallowed, using his sweater to wipe the tears still running down his cheeks. "Hyunjin."
Hitomi's heart stopped just for a few seconds before she whispered, "What did he do?"
"I-I..." he took a deep breath, although it was shaky as hell. "I just didn't know he was with Felix. You know, h-he invited me t-to Sakura's party and..." Jeongin's lower lip quivered. "I th-thought it might be as more than, you know, friends. B-but apparently not."
Just like that, Hitomi's feelings toward Hyunjin shattered to make way for something hot and angry coming up from the bottom of her stomach.
Inwardly seething, Hitomi put her arm around Jeongin's shoulders and held him like that for a few minutes.
"Take my bike."
"What?" he said, voice broken.
"You can ride my bike back to mine. I'll probably walk anyway."
"Okay," Jeongin said, puffy eyed and out of it. Hitomi watched him quietly exit the library before storming out the back entrance.
Stomping through hallways and past students that looked at her like, "is she okay?", Hitomi stepped right up behind Hyunjin's table. He was laughing. Laughing.
She vaguely felt someone pull on her arm, call her name, but her vision was red.
He couldn't be laughing when Jeongin was crying his eyes out.
"Dude, you've got someone behind you." Some random kid with dark blue hair pointed at her. Hyunjin turned.
His smile fell.
Snarling, glare still prominent on her face, Hitomi reached up and slapped Hyunjin hard across the face.
A gasp froze the table and spread to the rest of the cafeteria. One of the guys stood up.
Hitomi didn't give a shit.
"That," she growled, "was for Jeongin."
The hand on her arm let go.
Hyunjin stood up, resquared his jaw, and stared at Hitomi, full of sorrow and defeat. "I deserved that, didn't I?"
"There had better be a pretty fucking amazing explanation for this," Hitomi practically spat.
Hyunjin still looked miserable.
The eyes in the cafeteria followed the two as they made their way outside.
As soon as Hitomi had pried herself and Hyunjin away from the watching students, she rounded on him. "I was just in the library with Jeongin. He was crying. Jeongin doesn't just freaking cry, but the best part about this..." Hitomi snorted, "I think you know that already."
"I-I... I do," Hyunjin said, looking down, resigned,
"So you better get cracking on that explanation of yours because I was 99.99% sure you liked him back, but here you are. Dating Felix. Jeongin looked terrible this morning and Changbin looked rather..." Hitomi bit her lip, searching for the right words. "he looked like he hadn't slept all night. And if this is true, if you really didn't like Jeongin after all," Hitomi paused, squinting and then rewidening her eyes, fire dancing around in each pupil. "That would mean that you were playing with him. And if you were giving false hope to my best friend..."
Hitomi took a deep breath in and let it out.
"I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt, but Hwang Hyunjin if you played with Jeongin's feelings I swear your life will be a living hell."
Hyunjin was still staring at his shoes. "Okay."
"Okay."
"Okay." He took a breath. "Felix and I aren't dating."
"Alright, this is a start."
"At the party, I... I don't know. I saw him with Wooyoung," Hyunjin clenched his jaw. "I wanted to make him jealous." When Hyunjin finally looked up, his eyes were shining with regret. "When San and Woo were texting on our group chain this morning I knew I... screwed up. Majorly. And I'm sorry. But I don't know what to do anymore. Jeongin hates me, Changbin hates me, you hate me, life hates me, heck, the universe hates me. I don't know what to do. I don't know." Hyunjin sat down and wrapped his arms around his knees, looking more vulnerable than Hitomi had ever seen him.
Hitomi's heart twinged with guilt, although she hardened her expression, trying not to look sorry for him.
Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, she tossed it at Hyunjin. He just barely caught it, jolting a little as it almost bashed his nose in. Half of Hitomi wished it had.
Funny, she thought. I've given away my only transportation and connection to other people to get my ship together.
"Call him."
Hyunjin's eyes widened as he stood and did a sort of panicky thing. "What?!? No I can't do that, he hates me! He went home because of me! I can't talk to him! I'll screw things up even more! I'm the king of screwing things up! I screwed this up and I'm just going to screw it up even more!" Hyunjin ran a hand harshly through his hair, pacing. "Dude, Seungmin's lock screen is literally a screenshot of him saying, 'Hyunjin, wtf did you do with my phone?!? It's dark now?!?' and me going, 'lol screwed with ur settings' and then 'have fun' with a bunch of kissy emojis. I can't do th-"
Hitomi sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking that even if Hyunjin was practically a foot taller than her, he was just a big baby. "Look, if I know you at all, you're really not going to respond to any more scolding, so Hyunjin, as much as it pains me to say this, you don't screw things up. You literally sat there in your seat right in front of Jeongin in sixth grade and he somehow got a massive crush on y-"
"Sixth grade?" Hyunjin's eyes softened.
Hitomi scowled. "Sixth grade. If that isn't a reason on its own... then I don't know. Freaking call him. My locker is the one two left and one down from Jeongin's. Just chuck the phone in there when you're done."
With that, she watched as Hyunjin gulped and slowly typed in Jeongin's number. She could vaguely hear Jeongin say, "Hitomi?" She walked away when Hyunjin said, "H-hey, it's me. Hyunjin. Hwang Hyunjin. The guy from history, although you probably know that, and the guy who invited you to- gosh, I'm screwing this up. HITOMI I TOLD YOU I WOULD SCREW THIS UP!"
Hitomi was already three hundred paces away, but she looked back, still walking. She was just about to stick out her tongue before she smashed into someone. Yelping an embarrassing yelp, she fell over on top of this person.
Looking down, she found she had crash landed into Minju.
Minju groaned, scrunching up her nose. "Ouch."
Hitomi winced, noticing having someone's knee rammed into one's thigh probably isn't very pleasant. "Sorry."
"No, it's fine." Minju's face was still crinkled up in this way that, Hitomi realized with a start, was actually very cute.
Staring at Minju for a bit longer, she blurted, "Has anyone told you that you're adorable?"
Minju's eyes widened as she did a double take. "What?"
Hitomi rolled her eyes. "I just called you cute, idiot."
Minju squinted. "Are you sassing me?"
Hitomi heaved herself up with a teasing smile. "Honestly," she offered Minju a hand. "it's like you've never even met me."
Minju's lips turned up as she took Hitomi's hand, and when she stood, Hitomi found their faces much closer than she had anticipated.
And suddenly, remembering the awkwardness of the night before, she jerked back, putting a few feet of space between them, even though it felt like more than a few feet. They were practically miles away, a coldness drifting between them.
Minju frowned.
Then her eyes widened.
And she stepped back.
"Do you hate me?"
Small and frightened, that was not the voice of the Minju Hitomi knew.
Confused, she blurted, "No, why?"
"I..." Minju looked down at her feet. "no one wants to be my friend after they see... that."
For some reason, Hitomi's heart panged a little at the word "friend".
Get it together, Honda. "I'm still your... friend."
Minju looked up slowly, as though she was somehow scared of the short, purple-haired girl in front of her. "Really?"
"Y-yeah... I guess."
Minju flinched before looking down. "So no?"
"No... I don't know." Hitomi ran a hand through her hair. "It's just that I kind of thought that maybe you wanted to be... more than friends. You invited me to a party and wanted to have matching colors and you're always following me, but then you say that you want to be friends and now I'm just confused because Jeongin just got his heart broken by a really tall boy that looks really scary but he's really just a rant-y kid and-" Hitomi cut herself off, noticing the strain and the pace of her voice.
She stepped back further, lacing her fingers together and looking down at them, talking in a smaller voice she'd never known she had. "I just thought you liked me more than... that."
When she looked up, Minju was standing close to her again.
Her eyes latched on to Minju's lips.
She leaned in. Minju tilted her head just a little.
"HITOMI!" Her heart jolted as she jumped back.
She forced a smile on to her face, eyes large as she turned back to the voice. "Hyunjin!" she spluttered. "What a surprise!"
Speaking through her teeth, she asked, "What brings you here at this very second of my life?"
Hyunjin, oblivious to her irritation and carrying her phone in his hand, continued. "Is there a kind of food that Jeongin likes?"
Letting out a couple nervous giggles, Hitomi rocked back and forth on her feet. "Uh... we go to Universe sometimes. It's this bakery off the corner of Fourth and the owner's name is also Hyunjin. Tell her you guys are friends with me and she'll give you, like, a 50% discount. I buy stuff from them all the time and I have all of their mugs and weird bags."
Hyunjin eye-smiled, which, even as a proud lesbian, Hitomi had to admit was kind of cute. "Thanks!" He handed her back the phone and ran back in the direction of the cafeteria.
Inhaling and exhaling loudly, Hitomi spun back to face Minju. "Should we continue where we left off, or...?"
She looked up at Minju, who had her hand over her mouth, stifling giggles of her own.
And then they were both laughing. Hitomi laughed so hard her eyes watered and no sound could come out of her mouth and Minju doubled over in a fit of wheezes.
When they both calmed down, Hitomi looked up at Minju and found she didn't need to kiss her to feel lightheaded.
Her heart was beating fast enough looking at the serene face of the girl in front of her.
"We'll figure something out, yeah?"
Minju hummed in response.
Suddenly, Hitomi had an evil thought.
A smirk flashed over her face.
"What do you say we stalk Jeongin and Hyunjin's date?"
*
There was something that already made Hitomi's heart beat fast about holding Minju's hand as the welcoming bell rung above their heads.
There was something so fuzzy and warm about cutting Hyunjin off as he got out his credit card and paying for double what they ordered.
There was something that just made Hitomi smile so wide her cheeks hurt about watching Hyunjin gape in betrayal, watching Jeongin lay his head on Hyunjin's shoulder, watching Minju slap Hyunjin's arm and say, "Gaping is impolite, loser."
There was something so sweet about wanting to laugh and cry at the same time out of happiness as Hitomi sat down with the people that had become her friends, each with some caffeinated drink and a form of bread.
"I see why you're so obsessed with this stuff," Hyunjin said through puffed cheeks.
Jeongin rolled his eyes. "Bread is literally life."
"IT IS!" Kim Hyunjin yelled from behind the counter. Minju and Hitomi giggled as Jeongin saluted.
Hitomi noticed the way Hyunjin's entire face softened watching his date.
Jeongin suddenly slapped the table. "Minju!"
Minju slapped the table. "Jeongin!"
"Why is your hair black!"
Minju cocked her head, confused, before chuckling. "Oh. I dye it."
Hitomi snapped her fingers. "Oh! That's why your ears were black when..."
"Yeah."
Hyunjin side-eyed them all at the same time. "Am I missing something?"
Jeongin patted his arm. "Don't worry about it, baby."
Hyunjin flushed the color of the strawberry and the topic switched.
Conversation flowed easily between the four, although eventually Jeongin and Hyunjin left to go see the "posse of stray cats."
And Hitomi went from being happy with her friends to happy with her date.
One-on-one with a pretty girl.
While Hitomi wasn't usually good with pretty girls, Minju was different.
Yeah, Hitomi stuttered every couple of sentences and her face was beet-red most of the time, but something between them felt... right.
"Sakura and Chaeyeon were having this conversation the other day with Eunbi about why they should or shouldn't stop all the games when dinner time comes instead of letting the video game finishes or the round or something and Sakura and Chaeyeon do this thing..."
Hitomi wanted to listen, but watching took so much focus and was so much more entertaining.
Resting her head in her hands, her eyes caught on the way Minju's long, slender fingers seemed to talk as much as she did, palms opening and closing in a way so cute that it made Hitomi's cheeks tingle a little. The way Minju was constantly smiling, playfully smirking between laughs and giggled. The way Minju's eyes glistened like hundreds of fireworks had been ignited and tossed into the sky.
And oh, how Hitomi wanted to see if she could feel those fireworks on her lips.
"...-chan? Hii-chan? Were you even- mph!"
Maybe she wouldn't back down this time.
Surging forward, she pressed her face to Minju's. Immediately, like she had been waiting for this moment, Minju dug her fingers into Hitomi's shirt, like she needed time to commit the feeling of their lips together to memory.
And oh, how there were fireworks.
Thousands, millions of colors bursted as loudly as Hitomi's heart, which was pounding in her rib cage more than it ever had. Small and large, little explosions littered their endless sky of conflicting emotions and incredible warmth.
Hitomi's heart widened until she felt it would cover them both. Love blanketed them, hovering over their heads and slipping through their fingers on to the ground. It gave them their own bubble, their own small world to live in when everything else kept moving.
Moving is overrated, Hitomi thought giddily, wanting this moment to last forever. Wanting this moment to never move on and dissipate into a hazy memory with a window into a storm, a blizzard of emotions. Not when she could continue to feel those emotions.
It lasted a short infinity - too small and endless all at once. Surprise added a sort of flair a sea of what seemed to be right, absolutely perfect, and not unexpected at all. Unexplained, unprepared, and irreplaceable, but not unexpected. A separation from reality to a different world, but a union.
When the physical touch too was separated, their infinity kept going. Both girls just stared, faces too close for friends, much less enemies. And the world continued on - cars drove, birds flew, Hyunjin made bread, skies grew grey as fog rolled in from the beach, but the infinity was locked between their eyes, and it wasn't going away.
"We can make it work."
"Yes, we can."
*
You know, I wanted to go THE END there, or something that implied they all had happy endings because I'm listening to just the right song rn and im smiling like an insane person. Not a wide smile, just a closed-mouth-keep-in-the-laughter kind of a smile.
Anyways.
Sup dudes.
Lol sorry I don't know what that was (referring to the thing I put at the top of the A/N and the entire story).
So.
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GUYS IM SO SO SO SO SO SO SORRY ABOUT NOT POSTING FOR LIKE TWO MONTHS IM NOT EVEN GOING TO MAKE EXCUSES IM JUST A LAZY BUTT AND I DIDNT WORK FOR A REALLY LONG TIME SO IM REALLY REALLY SORRY AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH IM LITERALLY DOING THAT WEIRD NERVOUS LAUGH THAT I DO WHEN IM LIKE "PLEASE DONT KILL ME" THAT IS THE EXTENT OF HOW SORRY I AM
On a side note, I'm currently writing my 2kim sad book, a somewhat short (not rlly) winrina story, a woosan story, like, two minsung stories, and I have a bunch of other weird ideas. Idk I always thought of myself as a oneshot writer but my imagination has been more creative than usual, so we'll see.
Anything eventful going on in y'all's lives?
Currently writing in no particular order:
- Started this saga of chaekura things based on a song. idk its fun.
- Spy AU (hiinak): gave up. its the end. goodbye. say goodbye to this story I give up.
- Android AU (hyekkura): IDEASSSSSS I THINK I CAN DO IT ISNT THAT GREAT?!??!
- Roommate AU (kangbi ft ssamyen): my imagination is trash
- Arranged Marriage AU (2kimz): Started this in my math journal during study hall but I just finished my last year at this school so im getting kinda nostalgic and sad every time I try to add on. I'll try anyway lol. It's a fun prompt.
- Childhood enemies AU (annyeongz): JUST FOUND THE PLOT LINE MAP HAHAHHAHAH (ive been making plot line maps to help me just because of how bad my writing is when I don't have a plot line. which is more than half the time. but its fine cuz now maybe ill do better??)
- Tattoo shop AU (kangbi): I'll get back to this I swear
Requests are always welcome (sry this last one took so long aaa) and thx for reading luvsss