chaewon had never been so excited over a spontaneous idea. she was always nervous to do something like this, afraid her father would get angry over a haircut or a new style of clothing.
"okay where do we go." hyeju stood up and turned to chaewon, who was still on the ground. "where do we get hair dye."
chaewon smiled and used her moment to take hyeju's hand in hers.
"follow me!"
chaewon was expecting hyeju to let go of her hand eventually, but all she did was readjust her hand to lace their fingers together.
chaewon walked quickly, she didn't want hyeju to rethink her decision and drop her hand.
when they arrived at the door, chaewon could feel hyeju's sleeve brush on her arm. her muscles froze in realization of how close they were, but hyeju pulled their hands behind her back and brought chaewon back to the world.
technically their hands were hidden, but anyone could look at them and know what was happening. chaewon smiled at the thought that hyeju barely cared.
hyunjin was the one that opened the door when she knocked. her eyes washed over chaewon and when they landed on hyeju, her nails started digging into chaewon's hand.
"hey hyunjin! we were looking for yerim?"
hyunjin nodded and gave chaewon a quick smile, but before she turned she glanced at their arms being so close.
when yerim came up to them she looked at the same spot hyunjin was, but quickly pretended like she didn't see anything.
chaewon looked to hyeju, but hyeju didn't seem troubled by people noticing.
she turned back to face yerim, "i was wondering if you brought any of your hair dye? you talked about doing that before."
yerim laughed, "i did, i thought i would end up getting bored here. what color? i have multiple purples, a mint color, and a light pink."
"we'll take the mint dye."
chaewon turned to hyeju, unsure of hyeju's choice. but her small smile was enough to convince her.
they brought all of the supplies back to chaewon's group bathroom.
"heejin and sooyoung haven't been here lately, i think they got into a fight," chaewon tried talking her way out of the awkwardness while hyeju was sectioning her hair, "and jinsol has, obviously, been spending all of her time in the infirmary."
chaewon tried to look at herself in the mirror, but her eyes would drift up to look at hyeju. she held her breath when she felt nails graze the back of her neck.
"let me know if i somehow hurt you, i don't wanna pull your hair too tight or something."
"no, you're fine." chaewon subtly smiled to herself.
now she's worried about me
the process was painstakingly slow. hyeju didn't want to miss any sections, and gowon was caught by surprise every time the cold dye would touch her scalp and then hyeju would apologize.
but chaewon was very happy to see such a big change on herself.
hyeju stepped around chaewon's chair and ended up in front of her, examining her head to see if there were any spots she missed.
when she was done she lifted up chaewon's face by placing her fingers under her chin. they locked eyes, and chaewon's mind went crazy.
hyeju's eyes fluttered down and back up again, and it took everything for chaewon to not scream.
this is not happening
she was right, it didn't happen. hyeju's hand dropped back to her side before she could make a move.
hyeju said something but it felt like chaewon's ears were full of cotton.
"sorry, what did you say?"
hyeju chuckled, "i said we should reintroduce ourselves. like a fresh beginning. i'm sorry for being awful."
"you're fine hyeju, don't worry about it." chaewon hurt so bad knowing what hyeju has suffered. hyeju was apologizing for being a bad person, when it was a way to keep herself safe.
"okay, well," hyeju put her hand out in front of her. "i'm son hyeju, an annoying ex-alcoholic traumatized brat. what's your name?"
chaewon smiled as she took hyeju's hand. "nice to meet you, i'm park chaewon, a person with too much empathy for people who don't deserve it and an overwhelming urge to people-please."
they shook hands and then let go, but chaewon already missed her touch. despite nothing really happening, chaewon was giddy.
"you're cute."
the smile chaewon didn't realize was on her face dropped out of shock.
"what?"
she looked up at hyeju a split second before hyeju leaned in and melded her lips with hers. chaewon's hands found hyeju's hips and hyeju pressed harder into chaewon, causing chaewon to release a sound into hyeju's mouth. hyeju pulled back but chaewon felt her hands on the back of her neck.
"i was waiting for your dumb ass to finally do that."
hyeju smiled and let out a pant. she pulled a hand away from chaewon's neck, and they both laughed at the dye on it.
"you're cute too."
hyeju placed a light kiss on chaewon's lips, "let's watch something while we wait to wash out the dye."
✰ ☾ ✰
day three since yeojin said yerim was only a friend. yerim was starting to wonder if it was worth it to ignore yeojin, but her heart ached every time she saw her.
i'm protecting myself.
yerim sat up in bed and tried to see if there were any figures outside through her frosted door.
it's become routine for yerim to get ready in an empty dorm, then spend her day in the library. no one was ever there, and the space was isolated enough from the main areas.
today on her walk over, she heard a voice from a room a few doors down from the library. she considered knocking, but realized it wasn't worth it to be possibly threatened by someone like heejin or sooyoung.
so she stood by the entrance of the library to try to listen.
"she...recovering...bad idea..."
the voice was speaking very hushed, but the tone carried through the door.
already nervous she had been eavesdropping for too long, yerim stepped into the library and stood behind a bookshelf.
while trying to protect her own identity, she missed the identity of the person walking by the entrance. the blur she did catch was unrecognizable.
her legs were shaking by the time she sat down at a table.
who is discussing jungeun's recovery in a secret room?
she tried to distract herself by reading something new, but the book she picked dropped some pages on the ground.
except they weren't pages.
they were notes, notes about the ship and statistics and names of mina's associates.
yerim recognized the handwriting. she had seen it multiple times, in notes left for jungeun.
i need answers
the next moment she remembered was jinsol's face when yerim stomped into the infirmary.
"is something wrong yerim?"
she held up the notes she ended up crumpling in her hands, "why do you have notes about the ship."
"oh," jinsol looked down at jungeun, who was unconscious as ever, then chuckled.
"it's not really a big deal, just something me and her researched when it was announced we were off trajectory. we tried figuring out what happened, but we couldn't figure anything out from being inside the ship."
"and the names of mina's associates? all of the people helping with this project?"
"we wanted to figure out if there was anyone to contact and ask."
"was there?"
jinsol closed her eyes, annoyed. "no, there was no way to figure out their contacts. no records of any phone numbers anywhere on the ship. why are you being to pressing about this?"
yerim crossed her arms, annoyed now that jinsol was annoyed with her. "did you think there was something suspicious going on?"
"i didn't, but jungeun did. i helped her look for answers because we had nothing else to do, and she was very set on something being wrong."
"did you ever consider that maybe she was right, with her in a coma now?"
jinsol scoffed, "what the hell are you implying? are you saying this condition is her own fault?"
"no!" yerim put her hands up, "it's not her fault. but i heard someone talking about her recovery in a room we've never been in."
"where?" jinsol readjusted the way she was sitting.
"a few doors down from the library. have you ever gone past the library?"
"no."
"are you busy right now?"
"i'm never busy nowadays."
jinsol stood up and they walked together to the door where yerim heard the voice.
"it's cracked open."
the pit in yerim's stomach dropped further. "i'm rethinking this."
"i'm not. let's go in."
yerim stepped in after jinsol, who pulled her by the wrist, and it took a couple seconds for her eyes to adjust.
except, there was a light in a corner behind a file cabinet. there were three of them, zigzagging back and forth across the room.
jinsol flipped on the light and a yelp ensued.
"what are you guys doing here?" jinsol placed her hand on her hip, still clutching yerim's wrist.
yerim stepped in the room more and saw what, or who, jinsol was seeing.
"we could say the same about you two."
✰ ☾ ✰