speeding up my heartbeat / purinz

03

(DECEMBER, SIX MONTHS AGO)

Yunjin looks hot.

She changed her outfit approximately twenty-eight times, and finally settled on black shorts that make her legs look ten miles long and her ass look great, and a white shirt that's unbuttoned enough to show off the gold chain necklace she's wearing but not enough that she's in danger of flashing someone. She's fluffed up her hair to the appropriate level of I woke up like this without making it look like she spent over an hour on it (she did), and by the grace of God and a few YouTube tutorials, her winged eyeliner is perfectly symmetrical.

So yeah, Yunjin looks hot, and she knows it. Sooyoung knows it. Haseul knows it. Kahei knows it, and has the manners to at least compliment Yunjin when she opens the door to her. Sooyoung barged straight past her asking what flavours of soju she bought and Haseul barged straight past her yelping about needing to pee.

"Wow," Kahei says. "You look nice."

"Your message said make an effort, " Yunjin says. "I figured that wasn't optional."

Kahei beams at her. "You know me so well."

As a rule, Yunjin doesn't really do the whole club scene. She always feels like the oldest person in the room surrounded by teenyboppers, and why would she go out to some overpriced club where she can't hear herself think with a mile long queue and a strict dress code to get drunk when she could do that at a nice bar where she can actually hear herself think, or at home on her sofa with her friends where she doesn't necessarily have to put on pants.

Of course, none of that accounts for Sooyoung.

"To surviving another December in the hospitality industry," Sooyoung says loudly when the four of them are assembled in the kitchen with shots of soju in hand. "With an average of only one terrible Yelp review per week, only two new staff members quitting after the third day, and half our monthly budget spent on Starbucks in order for us to make it through the seventh fourteen-hour shift in a row."

They tap their glasses together in a toast, Sooyoung spilling a bit with her enthusiasm, and throw back their shots.

"Okay." Sooyoung claps her hands together. "Let's get fucking wrecked, bitches."

And they do. They pregame for another hour or so in Yunjin's apartment, and then Haseul books an Uber to a newish lesbian club in Itaewon called Wonderland. They get to skip the sizable line waiting outside in the snow and have access to the VIP bar because Kahei somehow knows the owner, Han-something-or-other.

("So do you just know her or do you know her?" Sooyoung asks, accompanied by the sleaziest wink Yunjin has ever seen in her life.

Kahei's ears turn pink even as she glares at Sooyoung, which answers the question without her having to say a word.)

Wonderland's drinks are on the expensive side, but they're strong, and Yunjin feels the alcohol hitting her sooner than she expected, almost stumbling as she makes her way to the restrooms.

Inside the restroom, there's a girl waiting in line. She's wearing a backless dress in a deep shade of crimson, and heels that make her slightly taller than Yunjin. Her blonde hair is loose around her shoulders, and both her lipstick and her nails match the shade of her dress. Yunjin almost stumbles again, but this time has nothing to do with alcohol and everything to do with the fact that this might be one of the hottest girls she's ever seen in her life.

Another rule: Yunjin doesn't tend to do one night stands, or any kind of casual sex, really. She's much more of a long-term romance with candles and rose petals kinda girl, even if it's been a humiliatingly long time since that's happened, but if Wonderland attracts girls that look like this then suddenly it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if she happened to bump into someone hot and fuckable.