“Can you put sunscreen on my back?”
Y/n blinks her eyes open, momentarily blinded by the brightness of the sun.
Sana is looking down at her, the water dripping down from her wet hair on Y/n’s stomach making her jump and shiver.
“Sure.” Y/n sighs and sits up. Her skin feels really hot, and maybe she should move her blanket underneath a tree to hide in the shades, but Jungkook said she looks like an uncooked chicken earlier and now Y/n’s self esteem is hurt.
It’s anotherr hot summer day and Minah insisted on going to the lake to swim and because Sana’s parents have work today, they took her instead.
At least that’s what Sana’s saying; if you ask Y/n, it’s just an excuse, because Sana and Jungkook are having way too much fun jumping down the cliffs at the side of the lake.
There’s mostly just kids their age scattered around the water, drinking cold beer in the stuffy summer heat, music blasting through bluetooth speakers.
After last night’s events, Y/n is somewhat glad that they didn’t stay in. It would’ve given them too many opportunities to be alone and talk about what happened and why it happened.
Y/n knows she’ll eventually have to tell Sana about everything if she wants things to work out between them, but she wants to talk about her feelings for Sana first before anything else.
Thankfully, Sana didn’t ask her any questions for the rest of the night. She gently coaxed Y/n into coming back outside, helped her calm down and assured her that no one outside would be able to tell that Y/n cried.
Sana sat next to her for the whole night, carefully avoiding the subjects that might upset Y/n and trying to draw the attention away from Y/n because it was clear that Y/n was still shaken and tired by what happened.
It’s that sort of behaviour that sends a pleasant kind of pain to Y/n’s heart; Sana being so naturally caring and protective over her. She knows by now that she’s drawn to people like that and that there’s a reason for that, but Y/n fell for Sana way before the younger started acting that way.
Y/n shuffles back on the blanket, making room for Sana to sit down in front of her. She shivers when Sana’s cold skin brushes against the insides of her legs where the younger sits down. Y/n has an itching mosquito bite near her ankle and Sana touches it, scratches at it until Y/n laughs and tells her to stop.
“Why aren’t you coming into the water?” Sana asks, still panting a little from jogging back to where Y/n was sitting. “It’s too hot here.”
“I’m not really a water person.” Y/n mumbles, squeezing some sunscreen on her palm and spreading it between both her hands. “Also our things might get stolen.”
Sana chuckles, her shoulders hunching up a little when Y/n places her palms on her upper back. Sana’s skin is so tanned now; it looks like caramel in the sunlight, golden and bright.
“This isn’t the city, Y/n.” Sana tilts her head back, closing her eyes as she basks in the sunlight. Y/n keeps comparing her to the sun, but that doesn’t come out of nowhere. Sana loves the sun. Maybe that’s why her whole being is bright and warm. “Everyone knows everyone here. No one’s going to touch our stuff.”
Y/n hums and focuses on coating Sana’s back with the sunscreen. “Did you do your arms?”
“No. I didn’t put any on.”
“You’ve been running around like an idiot for almost an hour.” Y/n chides her. “I hope you get sunburned.”
“You don’t mean that.” Sana turns to look at her over her shoulder, pouting. “You’d feel bad for me.”
“No.” Y/n snickers at the whine leaving Sana’s lips, squeezing some more sunscreen on her palm. She doesn’t know what comes over her, but she dips her index finger into the cream and lifts it to draw something on Sana’s back.
“Are you writing something?” Sana asks, trying to look over her shoulder but failing to see what Y/n is doing. “Please don’t draw a penis. My little sister is here.”
“It’s not a penis.” Y/n rolls her eyes.
“What is it?”
“I’m not saying.”
“Y/n!”
Y/n throws the sunscreen bottle on Sana’s lap. “Do the rest of your body.”
She’s about to reach out and wipe her drawing out but Sana ignores her and stands up, turning to the group of people sitting a few feet next to them. “Hyunwoo!” She shouts, making a tall guy look up from where she was playing frisbee with her friends.
“Sana! What’s up?”
“Dude, what’s on my back?” Sana shouts, turning around. Y/n blanches a little.
The guy squints her eyes for a moment before smiling brightly. “Bro, it’s a heart!”
Sana’s mouth forms an O, and she stands frozen for a second. “Thanks!”
“You at the bonfire tonight or what?”
“Of course!”
“Nice, see you there!”
Sana slowly turns around and sits down in front of Y/n again, this time facing her. Y/n’s face is burning and she tries to come up with an excuse but her mind is blank.
“A heart, huh?” Sana tilts her head at her, a smile tugging on her lips.
Y/n shrugs, trying to pull her legs back but Sana suddenly reaches out to grip her ankles, stopping her from moving away. The younger is squinting her eyes because the sun is shining directly in her face, and she looks so good like this, her hair dark and wet, skin glowing and a little flushed, her muscles flexing underneath.
Y/n wants to surge forward and kiss her so bad, wants to press her down into the grass and kiss those teasing smirks right off of Sana’s lips.
Sana brushes her thumb over the bone on Y/n’s ankle, pulling a little until Y/n’s close to bracketing Sana’s hips with her legs.
“It’s easy to draw.” Y/n tries. She loves how Sana’s touch makes her feel, and she wants Sana to touch her more, and the thought makes her blush and hide her face by looking to the side.
“Sure.” Sana’s smiling at her, looking at Y/n like she’s the only thing in the whole world, like there aren’t handsome boys in swimming shorts running around.
Y/n bites her lips and tries to ignore how Sana’s eyes darken, flickering to follow the movement. She shifts her legs, Sana’s palms sliding up to her calves, making Y/n shiver.
Why are they playing this stupid game? The tension between them is giving Y/n actual stomach pains, she’s aching to be closer to Sana and she can’t quite believe that she’s the only one who feels it.
“Sana can you tell your little sister to stop being the devil for a second?!” Jungkook jogs up to them, panting heavily. “She threw a leech down my pants.”
Y/n and Sana quickly move apart, but not quick enough, because a smirk appears on Jungkook’s face as soon as he catches them doing it.
“You must’ve done something to deserve it.” Sana snorts, moving to stand up. She reaches her hand out for Y/n to take and helps her get up, giving her a soft smile that makes Y/n’s heart flutter.
“I only said I liked her necklace.” Jungkook sighs.
“She has a crush on you.” Sana rolls her eyes, but she doesn’t let go of Y/n’s hand, pulling her into her side. “But she hates that, so she tries to hurt you. Because it’s your fault for being so pretty. Her exact words.”
“Huh.” Jungkook furrows his eyebrows. “I mean, I can’t blame her.”
Sana shoves him, laughing. She tugs Y/n along when they walk to the lake where Minah is playing alone in the water.
Jungkook asks her something and Y/n turns to look at him with a raised eyebrow.
“I’m not really on talking basis with your right now.”
“What? Why not?” Jungkook asks, looking slightly worried.
“Because you called me an uncooked chicken.”
Jungkook stares at her for a second before throwing his head back to laugh. “Aw, Y/n, did you take that to heart?”
Y/n shrugs and Jungkook laughs even more.
“Oh come on. You know you’re beautiful. I was just joking.”
“Okay.” Y/n shrugs.
“Y/n I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at me. Sana, Y/n’s beautiful right?”
Sana looks back at them, smiling brightly when she meets Y/n’s eyes. “The beautifulest.”
Y/n looks away to hide her smile.
-
Kang Seulgi – Y/n decides – is a little crazy.
That night Jungkook shows up at Sana’s house before they leave for the bonfire, together with a girl just as tall as Sana clinging to his side, only to jump Sana as soon as she opens the door.
It’s a wild greeting, the girl making weird animal noises and Sana is laughing.
Seulgi, she learns, went off to college on the other side of the country and her and Sana never managed to come back home at the same time, which is why they didn’t catch a glimpse of each other for nearly two years. Apparently they were inseparable as children, Sana, her and Jungkook and… well, Roseanne.
“Who’s this?” Seulgi asks after finally stepping out of Sana’s embrace, not so subtly checking Y/n out. Her hair is bright orange and it should look stupid but it looks good. “You’re cute.”
Y/n opens her mouth, awkwardly shuffling on her feet while she tries to come up with the right thing to say.
Seulgi smirks and reaches her hand out. “I’m Seulgi. What’s your name, love?”
“Seul.” Jungkook mutters, picking up on the sudden tension radiating off of Sana. “Be nice.”
“I am being nice.” Seulgi pouts, her hand still hanging in the air awkwardly.
Y/n takes the offered hand. “Y/n. Nice to meet you.”
Seulgi squeezes her hand, her eyes glinting mirthfully. “Are you scared of me? Don’t be. I’m not trying to get in your pants. You’re good looking and I thought I’d let you know.”
Y/n blinks at her, finding that she’s being genuine. “Thanks.”
Sana suddenly grips the back of Y/n’s shirt and even though the touch is hidden from Seulgi’s view, the movement of her arm makes the girl’s eyes flicker to where Y/n and Sana are pressed together.
The corner of Seulgi’s mouth moves up into a smirk but she remains silent, sending Y/n a wink before she starts ushering them out of the house with too much enthusiasm.
-
They’re on a clearing, in the middle of a cornfield, in the middle of nowhere, and Y/n thinks she might just get murdered tonight.
The place is cramped with people their age, it smells like alcohol and weed and there’s a very large bonfire in the middle of it all, guys and girls sitting on logs around it.
Sana and the other two get swamped with shouts and greeting when they arrive and Y/n can’t even being to describe how thankful she is for Jungkook who sticks to her side through it all. He’s less loud than Sana and Seulgi, just claps others’ hands when they come up to him and exchanges a few quick words with them before he moves on.
Sana and Seulgi on the other hand immediately jump into conversations with what has to be their old high school friends, accepting the drinks that get pressed into their hands.
“Give them an hour.” Jungkook mumbles, handing Y/n a beer before making her sit down somewhere less cramped, away from the drunk crowd. “You’re okay though, yeah? I don’t really like stuff like this but Seulgi makes me go every year. Way too many people.”
Y/n’s never related to anything so much. “I’m okay. Although I feel like I’d be screwed if you weren’t here.”
Jungkook chuckles, his nose scrunching up. Y/n does that too, as Sana liked to tease her about. “Hey, sorry about Seul before.” He mumbles. “She tends to scare people off but that’s just how she is.”
“She seems nice.” Y/n answers, laughing when Jungkook looks up at her with scepticism. Y/n’s eyes move over the crowd, trying to find Sana but she’s kind of gone. She tries not to worry. This is Sana’s home town, she probably knows these places like the back of her hand.
Jungkook is giving her that strange look again, the one from yesterday after the water fight.
“What?” Y/n sighs, turning to look at the boy. His eyes are sparkling with the bonfire mirrored in them and the piercings in his ears reflecting the flames in the dark.
“You and Sana” He starts, nibbling on his lower lip for a moment. “What’s holding you guys back?”
Y/n fiddles with the can of beer in her hands, a timid smile tugging on her lips. “…Is it that obvious?”
“Uhm… if even I can tell, then yeah, it’s quite obvious.” He smiles, clearing his throat awkwardly. “So… why are you guys, like, just ignoring it?” Jungkook shuffles a bit closer, tonguing the inside of his mouth which has to be a habit of his because Y/n’s seen him do it several times now. “I probably shouldn’t get involved, like we don’t know each other that well, but Sana was not that well off when she came home this summer. It’s got something to do with you, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, we… uhm.” Y/n stutters like an idiot. She turns to face Jungkook properly and contrary to his previous experiences, she doesn’t feel the urge to lie and change the subject. Maybe it’s Jungkook’s genuine expression or the innocence behind his eyes. Or maybe it’s because they’re both so… alike? Jungkook’s almost just as much of an introverted and awkward mess as Y/n is. “We have a bit of a history. Sana and me we—”
“You…?”
Y/n licks her lips nervously. “We, uhm. Were kind of together? But not really. I didn’t want to put a label on our relationship and it just— it ended up getting a bit messy. I, uh, actually came here to fix things but I think Sana wants to stay friends so I’m… I don’t know. I don’t want to rush anything and mess it up again.”
“But you still have feelings for her, right?” Jungkook cautiously asks. “You love her?”
Y/n takes a nervous breath, her heart flipping. She looks up to where Sana is standing, listening to something a girl is whispering in her ear, laughing, surrounded by so many people and Y/n’s just watching from the sidelines as always. She nods her head, her face heating up and Jungkook’s smile is almost as bright as the bonfire in front of them.
Jungkook’s smile dims, his eyes following Y/n’s line of sight. “Do you know what happened between her and a friend of ours back in high school?”
“Yeah.” Y/n looks away from Sana. “Yeah, I do.”
Jungkook nods his head, nibbling on his lower lip. “The way I know Sana, she probably didn’t tell you all of it. It was a kind of a mess, Y/n.” Jungkook scoffs and shakes his head.
“What do you mean?” Y/n carefully asks.
Jungkook looks like he’s having an internal battle, like he isn’t sure if he’s allowed to tell Y/n more when Sana obviously kept stuff from her. Y/n sees the exact moment the younger decides to just screw it, taking a deep breath as he presses the heel of his sneakers into the muddy grass beneath them. “You have to know, this is a freaking small town, word gets around really fast. People love gossiping and hating on others. When this whole thing with Sana and Roseanne came out, it was— it was bad. They’re really narrow minded here, or you know, at least they were, back then… you can imagine the backlash.”
Y/n averts her eyes for a moment, looks at the green shards of glass on the floor and stupidly thinks someone could get hurt before looking at Sana again.
“Sana’s family basically got dismissed by the whole community. Mine and Seul’s families were the only ones to stick with them.” Jungkook continues. “Roseanne’s parents took her and like, fled the country and Sana just kind of had to do the cleaning up. And then her boyfriend left her on top of that—“
“Wait” Y/n interrupts him, her chest feeling tight and sore as she listens to the story Jungkook is telling her. “Sana told me they broke up. As in, it was a mutual agreement.”
Jungkook blinks at her, shrugging a little uneasily. “No, he left her. I mean, they loved each other, but his parents were against it… I guess she wants to forget about it, yeah? It’s understandable.”
Y/n sucks in a breath, her stomach feeling really heavy all of a sudden. “I didn’t know.”
Jungkook gives her a sympathetic look, gnawing at his lower lip. “Her mom isn’t even talking to half of her family anymore because they weren’t accepting it” Jungkook continues, sounding like he wants to say more but he stops himself, shaking his head. “You know, the reason I reacted the way I did yesterday is cause I saw how she looked at you. After what happened with Roseanne I honestly just didn’t expect Sana to do anything serious with a girl again, especially not here in this town where everyone just knows, but she looks at you like the sun shines out of you’re ass.”
“I didn’t know that.” Y/n repeats herself, shrugging her shoulders a little helplessly. She was so caught up in her own problems that she didn’t stop to consider what Sana might’ve been through in her life before she met Y/n. Sana’s always been so bubbly and carefree, Y/n never even considered the possibility of her having her own issues. “She never told me.”
Jungkook looks a little anxious for a second. “Please don’t— don’t tell her I told you, okay? She’ll kick my ass. I’m not really good with secrets.” Jungkook chuckles awkwardly, fixing the beanie on top of his head. It’s warm outside; Y/n wonders if he isn’t sweating under that thing.
Y/n stares at Jungkook for a while. “You’re actually quite good with words.”
Jungkook blushes and takes a sip from his beer. “I haven’t talked that much since my last presentation about web engineering.”
Someone suddenly throws their arms around both Y/n and Jungkook from behind, pushing herself between them to sit on the log that definitely isn’t meant for three grown up people. “What’re you guys talking about?”
“Seul.” Jungkook groans and tries to push the girl away. Seulgi instead just leans in and nuzzles her nose into Jungkook’s hair and Jungkook starts grinning at the action. “Stop it, dude. We were having a serious conversation here.”
Seulgi sighs and places her chin on Jungkook’s shoulder, turning to look at Y/n. Her eyes move somewhere else, to Sana who’s talking to a cute boy with a bright smile on her face. Seulgi looks at Y/n again and reaches out to ruffle her hair. “This isn’t a night for serious conversations. You need to get shit faced and throw up behind our old elementary school. It’s mandatory.”
----