Touch You (M) (Purinz/Yunjin x Chaewon)

Chapter 9 (M)

Yunjin's peacefully taking a break from studying in the living room, headphones on and a book in her hand, when she sees a boy Chaewon brought home tumbling down the stairs. Hm, she thinks. That was fast. The boy doesn't spare her a glance as he storms out, slamming the door as he does. Yunjin scowls. Whatever Chaewon did to him, the door isn't at fault.

Or whatever he did to Chaewon, she thinks and stands up without realizing it. She's about to climb the stairs when Chaewon comes out of her room. She too doesn't even look at Yunjin as she brushes past her, wearing only a robe and a scowl. The brunette heads straight to the kitchen and Yunjin has no choice but to follow.

"Trouble in paradise?" she asks, leaning against the doorpost and watching Chaewon rummage through the cabinets. The brunette finally gives her a quick glance, seemingly only now realizing she's standing there.

"What?" She sounds irritated. "I don't even know his name."

"So you're finally seeing the error of your ways and coping like a stable adult would?" she teases, watching as Chaewon finally finds what she was looking for. A whiskey bottle stashed in an empty Captain Crunch box. Smart. Neither Yunjin nor her father would ever touch that box with a ten-foot pole.

Chaewon rolls her eyes as she unscrews the cap. "We're seventeen," she reminds Yunjin. "We are supposed to make fucked up choices and not deal with them the right way. You keep forgetting that."

Yunjin grabs the bottle Chaewon's about to tip in her mouth. This is alarming. She's seen Chaewon come home wasted and she's seen her high as a kite, but she's never seen her about to chug whiskey straight from the bottle. In the house, alone, without her friends and loud frat party bass reverberating through her chest. It looks like Chaewon's progressing from social drinking to quiet alcoholism and that just won't do.

Chaewon makes a disgruntled noise of protest but Yunjin still wrestles the bottle out of her hand and carefully screws the cap back on. "I'm not forgetting that," she says. "And I'm eighteen."

The brunette scoffs. "Since when?"

"Since last week."

Chaewon looks taken aback by her admission. "Oh." She watches as Chaewon frowns slightly, blinking. "Why didn't you... I mean, I didn't know it was your birthday last week."

Yunjin feels like she has to explain. "It's not that big of a deal," she says. "I don't care about my birthday. I don't have time to celebrate." It doesn't convince Chaewon whose frown deepens. So she continues. "I bought myself a gift and everything. Celebration is... taxing." It is. She's not lying when she says it isn't a big deal. She doesn't get what it is about birthdays that has people so excited. It's just a day. A day when she has permission to buy whatever she wants for herself, within the reasonable limit, of course - if 1500 dollars can be considered reasonable to blow in one day. She sends the money to The Trevor Project every year and treats herself to a 20-dollar ice cream and her father pretends he's proud of her.

Chaewon gives her a long look and Yunjin smiles inwardly when it inevitably falls to her lips. She holds her breath as the brunette slowly leans closer to her. Chaewon smells like sex and something uniquely her. Something Yunjin misses, she realizes.

Her eyes are about to flutter closed when the bottle is snatched from her hand. She scowls as Chaewon smirks at her, holding it proudly.

"Well," she says. "If you find it 'taxing' to celebrate, I'll do it for you." She tips the bottle mockingly. "Cheers."

Yunjin merely watches her. Notes the flush of her cheeks, the frustrated quirk of her eyebrows, the labored breathing, and something clicks and falls in place.