ENTHRALL° s.th

020

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THE COAST
EVENING
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✧──────✦ "how'd you even manage to pull this, jaehwa?" rumi is spread out on one of the beds, rolling around in the sheets while gaeul is on the other.

"i asked taehoon." jaehwa says simply as she leans down to spit out her toothpaste. when she walks out of the bathroom, rumi is locking the door (lock and chain both) and pushes her to sit in the desk chair while gaeul and her stand.

"how did you get him to agree?" gaeul squints at her, pushing her phone's flashlight into her face all police interrogation style.

jaehwa pushes them away to lay on the bed, propping her head up with a pillow. "i just asked him and told him my back hurt."

"and where were you for the rest of the day today?" rumi interrogates.

"i was helping taehoon clean up his face. you saw, it was all busted."

gaeul and rumi tell her to stay there and go to talk in the bathroom.

"we have something to tell you."

jaehwa is a little nervous and sits up straighter in the bed. they look at each other before blurting out a string of words at the same time.

"taehoon totally likes you!" they finish it off by looking to the side and sighing. "we get it, your welcome! you don't have to thank us."

jaehwa's face doesn't change, but the tips of her ears are burning red and searing through her hair. she huffs and lays down in the bed facing away from them. "what? that doesn't make any sense."

gaeul speaks up, "no, it totally does. he wouldn't have just switched for anyone. so you really, really, must have him wrapped around your finger." jaehwa just looks at them blankly when their faces look like they had just won the lottery.

"you realize he could just be doing me a favor since i helped him clean up, right?" they shake their heads and stand at the end of the bed with their arms crossed.

"out of everyone you know, you know that i, rumi, should know about love and all. and i, rumi, should also tell you that you like him back!"

gaeul nods in agreement and jaehwa can sort of see where their point is coming from. she'd never really liked someone, too busy with practice or the schoolwork she never ended up finishing. and now with the whole red ears, red face stuff going on all of a sudden, it kind of made sense. it actually made a lot of sense.

but how was she supposed to respond when taehoon is always there to walk her home, or bandage up her brass knuckle wounds. was a girl just not supposed to crack under pressure when a guy you're super close to (a friend??) is all of a sudden perfect and can do no wrong?

gaeul snaps her fingers and jaehwa peers up at her from the covers, "it all makes sense now!"

rumi looks a little irritated, now that gaeul pieced together something she hadn't, but still tunes into the news.

"you guys remember at the meeting a couple weeks back when jihyeok convinced taehoon to join our company?" they nod. "he must have promised to help him out with jaehwa!"