can you see me? / purinz

a swing and a miss

Chaewon manages to survive the next couple of days through willpower alone. She survives the Christmas party in the other dorm where Yunjin moves around on the couch until Chaewon and Kazuha are next to each other. She survives Yunjin's pictures in Cosmopolitan. She survives Yunjin's Weverse post with caption "So sweet, my ChaeChaeJjang '' and only rereads it twice. Or maybe three times. Or ten. She even manages to write her own post, after a few hours of editing (Is it weird to say "I'm touched" about a portable charger?) If anything is going to be the death of her, though, it's Yunjin's attempts at being a wingwoman.

Yunjin seems to have learned everything she knows about relationships from watching those animes she loves so much. Her attempts at matchmaking are awkward, to say the least. All day at practice, wherever Chaewon is, Kazuha ends up there too, both girls looking lost and confused as if they're not sure how they got there in the first place. Wherever Chaewon and Kazuha are, Sakura, Eunchae, and Yunjin are nowhere to be found. Lunch break comes and the three other girls disappear in the blink of an eye, leaving Kazuha and Chaewon awkward and confused in the HYBE basement.

"Why are they acting so weird?" Kazuha asks.

"Yunjin's making trouble," Chaewon sighs, "She's something else, isn't she?"

"It's sweet seeing you guys all in love with each other," Kazuha says shyly.

Chaewon's head snaps up to look at her, "What are you talking about?"

"I mean for the past few days you've been all..." Kazuha lets out a long sigh and smiles dreamily.

"What?" Chaewon crosses her arms, "I have not!"

"You totally have," Kazuha teases, "And you've been laughing at her jokes. Even when they're not funny."

"She's been funnier lately," Chaewon protests.

Kazuha smiles, "You really like her, don't you?"

"It doesn't matter if I do," Chaewon says, "She doesn't feel the same."

"You know, she's mentioned that chicken voucher you got her like ten times this morning," Kazuha says.

"She just likes chicken."

"Or maybe she likes the girl who gave her the chicken," Kazuha wiggles her eyebrows.

Chaewon shakes her head, "She likes you. If I get my hopes up it'll only hurt more in the long run."

"Maybe you should talk to Kkura about it," Zuha suggests, "She's been helping me a lot with getting over you and stuff. She knows a lot about these things."

Chaewon doesn't have time to process this new information before they're interrupted by a familiar voice.

"We're ba-ack."

Chaewon's chest tightens up at the sound.

"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything," Yunjin says, poking her head into the room with a smile that suggests she sincerely hopes she's interrupting something.

"You're not," Kazuha assures her.

"We've had a good talk, so you can stop disappearing now," Chaewon half-jokes.

Tell her how you feel , Kazuha mouths when Yunjin's back is turned. And Chaewon tries. She really does try. But when Jennifer Huh is looking at you, it's not so easy to say things like that.

When she and Yunjin meet in the bathroom by coincidence, Chaewon's mind starts racing. Should I really do it in the bathroom? She wonders. Then again, there's not many other places where they get privacy.

"Yunjin," she calls as the younger girl moves to leave, "Wait."

"Hm?" Yunjin turns back to her.

"I wanted to say that, um, you look really good today," Chaewon finishes lamely.