fake it till you make it | purinz

0.5

The plane ride to Japan is... interesting, to say the least.

Chaewon has to remind herself repeatedly that she can't just hold Yunjin's hand, that she can't just lean her head against the younger girl's shoulder, that she definitely can't kiss her in thanks when she wordlessly offers to share her chips.

What she can do is look, and she spends a good hour doing just that when Yunjin falls asleep near the end of the flight. A displaced strand of hair slowly slides down during that time until it bisects Yunjin's eye and the corner of her mouth.

Though she feels a bit jumpy while she does it, Chaewon covertly tucks it back behind Yunjin's ear.

If she lingers a bit with her fingertips grazing Yunjin's cheek, well, she's the only one that has to know that.

-

It is as the hotel staff are loading their suitcases and equipment onto a luggage cart that their lead manager-nim decides she'd like to drop a bombshell.

"They only had four available rooms and they're all singles so you two will be sharing a bed, okay?" She doesn't even look up from her clipboard.

Chaewon stops in her tracks. Yunjin shoots her a look.

"I don't care," Yunjin shrugs coolly, playing the awkward beat off.

Call it a defense mechanism, Chaewon chuckles nervously. "Uh, of course that's fine," she says.

Yunjin shakes her head at her, but the set of her mouth betrays that she's holding back a laugh.

-

Side by side, Chaewon and Yunjin lay in their hotel bed in Japan, two feet of frosty air between them. Chaewon rolls to one side, away from Yunjin; Yunjin sighs loudly, still on her back. Neither seem capable of escaping into the respite of sleep.

Finally, Chaewon hears Yunjin shuffle among crinkling sheets.

"Wanna just practice?" she asks.

Chaewon is stunned enough to turn towards her suddenly.

With wide, guileless eyes, she replies, "Now?"

Yunjin shrugs. "We're alone, aren't we?" Then, "If you want to."

Though she's aiming for nonchalance, there is an air of anxiousness about the way she hesitantly meets Chaewon's eyes. They have never before practiced like this: in the dead of night, with absolutely no one to possibly interrupt them, laying together in a bed. Chaewon can only swallow and nod.

They meet halfway, Yunjin reaching for Chaewon's waist at the same moment Chaewon curls a fist into Yunjin's sleep shirt. When their lips meet, there is the familiar swoop in Chaewon's stomach, a neediness that pushes her to kiss Yunjin more insistently.

Yunjin, for her part, is frustratingly slow and deliberate, her mouth lingering on Chaewon's lower lip before sliding towards the upper. Chaewon can only abide by it for so long before she becomes bereft, overcome with the rushing of blood in her veins.

"Hyej-" she starts to whine, fed up, kicking her legs out, and then Yunjin is licking into her mouth like she was waiting for this. She hauls Chaewon closer with a sure grip at the small of her back, and suddenly Chaewon is only whining lowly into Yunjin's mouth.

They stay that way for hours, Chaewon losing track of time in the intoxication of it all until she's melting and yawning between kisses. Finally, Yunjin pulls Chaewon into a snuggle by the back of her neck and wraps herself around the smaller girl.

Within minutes, Chaewon is floating into a warm, dreamless sleep.

-

She wakes up with a realization.