but she survived | sae-byeok x ji-yeong

loving with a hazy mind

Not one person in that room was sleeping, even though their minds were foggy and their eyes fought to get closed just for a moment. But that one moment could cost them everything, their life included. Sae-byeok was looking between the three players that were spread out in the room, each of them sitting on their beds, also observing their opponents. The girl looked to her left, where she expected to see the sight she had seen just a minute ago. A Ji-yeong sitting, head resting on her arms that were hugging her bended knees, calmly looking around. But that had now been replaced with Ji-yeong having her eyes shut, head now laying on her arms. She couldn't be sleeping now! Now was the, maybe, most important moment to be awake. Sae-byeok removed the blanket that was covering her slender body and stood up, headed towards the snoozing girl. 

"Ji-yeong," Sae-byeok whispered, awkwardly patting the top of her head.  

Ji-yeong woke up with a bolt, holding up her hand in defense, but took it down slowly, inspecting it, when finding out there was no longer a knife in her hand. "Wow," she yawned, rubbing her eye. "That was embarrassing." 

"It's fine," Sae-byeok answered, looking around. "You are beginning to fall asleep and that is not safe. So I was thinking if you wanted me to stay in your bed with you. It would be safer for you to sleep, I'm not really tired, so I could kinda make sure nothing happens to us. Like we don't even have to touch, you can sleep in peace, it's just safer if I'm close to you so I can protect you quicker if anyone here tries something. But it's only if you want to, of course." 

Ji-yeong not accepting or declining her offer made her unwillingly ramble. But she couldn't control it. It was like her brain had chosen to go on auto-pilot and just talk. She didn't know if it was to tease her or the girl genuinely didn't know if she wanted to or not. Either way, Sae-byeok's face got hotter and hotter with each unnecessary word that came out of her mouth. "You gonna kill me when I sleep?" Ji-yeong finally asked, her face completely serious. 

A wrinkle of confusion formed in between Sae-byeok's eyes. "What? No-"

"Good enough. Come here then," Ji-yeong lifted the thin blanket, waiting for the puzzled girl in front of her to lay down. Sae-byeok's expression didn't change. No, it actually turned even more confused, her mouth hanging slightly open like she wanted to say something, but chose not to, and instead just silently joined Ji-yeong on her rock-hard mattress. 

Ji-yeong's hand was about to embrace the girl's torso, when she stopped herself, mid-air. "Was it  for your sake we weren't gonna touch or mine?" 

Sae-byeok immediately got what the girl was gesturing to, and decided to grab her wrist and guide it over her stomach. She carefully opened Ji-yeong's fingers, making her hand rest, totally flat, on her own side. Ji-yeong put her head on her chest, letting out a small hum of - what Sae-byeok guessed was - satisfaction. "Are you laying comfortably now?" the tall girl questioned, putting her arms around Ji-yeong's waist. 

"Mmmm, wait a second," Ji-yeong answered, moving further into the girl like the distance between them was not fulfilling her needs. 

When she had moved completely in between her legs, lying on her stomach and head still resting peacefully on her chest, she smiled satisfied. "I am now. Are you okay with me laying here or is it too much?" 

Sae-byeok had, at first, been a bit shocked by the very sudden and intimate position the girl had chosen to put herself into. But it was not a negative shock. Actually, on the contrary. Her stomach swarmed with what felt like a trillion butterflies all at once. "I'm okay with it, now rest." 

Ji-yeong obeyed, soon falling into a dreamless sleep. It was scaringly fascinating to watch as she relaxed her features, the small grin never fading though, and simply just letting herself melt into the tight embrace she had on the freckled girl.