THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT US. winrina

19: Caught 2.0

Answering the door to her singer-songwriter girlfriend, not-so-girlfriend — they haven't talked about it yet — is not what Minjeong planned on doing today. She wanted to simply go back to the routine she had before their trip to Japan, which was to drown herself in the ocean called university. But here she is, hand gripping the doorknob, face to face with Karina who's standing on her and Yizhuo's doorstep.

"Hey," Karina greets with a timid wave. Half of her face is hidden behind her large beige scarf around her neck, and it makes her appear smaller than her actual size. "Can I.. come in, if you don't mind?"

Minjeong, heaving a silent sigh, steps backwards into the dorm and slinks over towards her previous spot; her study. She doesn't bother asking why Karina's here, too tired after a whole day of work to argue about trivial things at the moment. But even so, she's grateful for her roommate who is currently absent and probably still stuck in traffic. (She said something about a car accident? Minjeong has no idea.) Otherwise, there would be a shit ton of explaining to do, meaning more work.

She watches as Karina steps inside, shrugs off her scarf so that it merely drapes around her shoulders, and gently shuts the door behind her.

It's a foreign sight. To see Karina in the premises of what she has been calling home for the past two to three years is quite interesting. Although the artist's presence she is already familiarized with, it doesn't deter the uncomfortable feeling of having a guest inside your territory; Minjeong's learned that far too many times before. (Hint: The time — actually, three times — Taehyun thought it'd be a great idea to break a few rules and enter their dorm, a.k.a the girls' dorm. Batshit crazy, by the way. Don't do it. He almost got jailed.)

After a long while of just Minjeong staring and Karina awkwardly shifting around on her feet, the owner of the dorm decides she should break the silence. "Why are you here, Jimin?"

Oh, yikes. That wasn't supposed to sound so mean and rude. But what's done is done, so Minjeong instead tries to pay more attention to the way Karina reluctantly takes more steps into and around the room.

She looks fairly out of place, but just a good amount of... Minjeong to blend in. (That makes no sense. But you get the point. If not, then she's basically saying that they've been spending too much time together.) But with the way she tours herself around the room, it almost looks like she's been here countless times before; well, if we ignore the fact that she nearly tripped over Yizhuo's sheets strewn out on the floor.

"I'm just, uh.." The artist trails off at first. She takes in the collection of albums (her own) on Yizhuo's shelves, failing to mask her shock that shows through her slacked jaw. (A very copious amount of Karina albums are stacked on the shelves. Imagine two or three copies of the same album in one space, with photo cards cased and framed around them.)

And then when Karina finally reaches Minjeong's side of the room, she slows down. An almost embarrassed smile etches itself onto her small face. "Do you really want to know?"

Minjeong takes a while to form an answer because the only thing that she seems to be thinking about is how gorgeous Karina looks standing right in the bright yellow sunlight leaking into the room through the blinds.

"What's the worst that could happen, right?" She questions once she snaps out of her reverie.

There are a lot of answers to that. She expected Karina to say something out of pocket or maybe even chuckle. What she doesn't expect is for Karina to cross the short distance between them and bend forward when she's right in front of her.

Karina appears before her eyes in a blink. And before she can say anything, Karina is kissing her softly and soundly.

But she doesn't respond, doesn't do anything. She stares and stares at Karina's closed eyes, admiring smooth skin up close. There's a crease in between Karina's eyebrows when she guides her gaze there. That's when Karina pulls back.