Signals

Signals: Part 5

Karina was resting her head on Winter's shoulder as they spent the quiet Saturday afternoon rewatching one of their favourite TV shows. She could hear Winter's phone buzzing on the side table and felt the girl try to reach for it without moving too much. She smiled to herself when her girlfriend leaned back after somehow getting hold of her phone. She didn't bother looking when Winter opened the message and continued to watch the show, but after a brief moment, Winter motioned for her to look at her phone. She straightened up and took the phone from her girlfriend to read the message from Giselle.

Apparently, Yeji was with Giselle when Ning Ning called to hang out, and they were inviting Winter and herself to join them. She resumed her position against Winter and let out a content sigh.

"I'm too comfortable, but they can come over and we can order food," she said, passing Winter back the phone.

Winter let out a soft chuckle. She held the phone up to her and sent a voice message instead.

"Come over, we can hang out here and order some food later."

Almost immediately, Giselle replied with her own voice message. It started with a light-hearted laugh. "I just know that was Karina's reply, somehow. On our way, we'll bring snacks."

With that, Karina heard Winter told their friend through a new voice message, "Yup, also can you please get us some of that chips you got last time that she liked? The one with truffles. Thank you, see you later."

Karina grinned to herself, snuggling more into Winter as the girl put the phone aside to continue watching their show. 

"What do you wanna order later? Anything you feel like having?" Winter asked after a while, her palm rubbing Karina's thigh affectionately. "Or do you wanna wait till they come by? It might take a while though, y'know Gi's gonna overbuy the snacks."

She let out a giggle, knowing that their friend was always indecisive about snacks and would end up buying all of them. Karina pouted thoughtfully, trying to decide if they should order their dinner early so their friends would have something to eat without waiting too long.

"We can order later, I don't have any cravings right now."

Winter straightened up a bit, making Karina sit up to look at her questioningly. "Do you still want that udon from the japanese restaurant? You brought it up a couple of days back."

She shrugged. "It's fine, Yeji isn't a big fan of udon."

Her girlfriend shook her head before grabbing her phone again. "It's okay, we'll order that for us, then order something else for them later so we can all share a bunch of different things."

Karina watched with a full heart as Winter focused on ordering for them what she had wanted to eat in the past week. When the younger girl's cheeks puffed as she scrolled the online menu on her phone, Karina leaned in to give her cheek a kiss.

Winter turned to look at her with a quirked eyebrow, her lips pouting. Karina gave her a kiss on her lips and watched as her girlfriend's pout turned into a bashful smile.

"I love you," Karina told her with a grin.

Winter's smile widened and she gave Karina another kiss before turning back to her phone. "Love you too, silly."

---

Winter arrived home an hour later than usual to an unusually quiet and dark apartment, which she found odd because Karina should be home by then. Her girlfriend always waited for her, no matter how late it got.

"Karina," she called out, switching on the lights and putting her bag down on the dining table. "Babe?"

Receiving no response, she grew worried and checked the bedroom. The room was dark and she could see Karina was curled up in bed. She didn't think much of it, thinking the girl must have had a long day and fell asleep. She quietly went to take her clothes and went for a quick shower.