Some girls do

Chapter 26: Kazuha

At first, I think I'm in my old room, at my actual house, with my giant yellow lab, Dusty, sprawled across me. He always used to sneak in whenever my mom forgot to shut my door after she peeked in before work every morning.

But then I hear Bangchan shout, "I'm out," the way he always does before leaving, and it all comes rushing back: where I am, what happened last night.

The weight shifts against me with a little hum, an arm snaking its way over my side. Definitely not Dusty, then.

I crack open my eyes and find Chaewon tangled up around me. I'm trapped under the blankets with her on top of them. I take in her still-sleeping form, torn between being furious she's in my bed and marveling at how peaceful she looks right now with her face relaxed and her hair spilling out around her.

But I can't let this happen.

I take a deep breath and lean into her with a sort of half-stretch, half-shove gesture that knocks her just enough to wake her. I can tell when she really registers what's going on, her sleepy confusion giving way to big, wide eyes.

Her entire body goes tense as she scrambles backward to the end of my bed.

I push up to my elbows. "Yep," I say, looking down at her.

"I'm sorry."

"For coming here last night to tell me that you didn't need me, or for ending up in my bed after I put you on the couch?"

"Both?" She runs her hand over her face. "I panicked when I heard your brother drive up last night. I was planning to sleep on your floor, I swear. I don't know what happened."

"Why'd you panic?"

"I didn't want you to get in trouble because I was here," she says, wrapping one arm around her shoulder.

I tilt my head. "I texted him to let him know. It was totally fine."

"Oh," she says, and then we both just sit in super-uncomfortable silence.

"I'm going to hop in the shower," I say when it's clear she doesn't have anything else to add. "Will you still be here when I get out?"

"Probably not."

I nod. It's not like I wasn't expecting that answer.

I take my time in the shower, trying really hard not to think about the fact that in the last thirty-six hours or so, the girl I like kissed someone else, kissed me, showed up drunk on my doorstep to tell me there are other hot girls—which is the part I'm really trying not to cling to, because for her to say "other" implies that she might actually be including me in the "hot girls" category—and then slept in my bed all night, which I am too much of a heavy sleeper to even have been able to appreciate.

Cold water forces me out of the shower before I'm ready to face the truth: Chaewon will be gone when I get back to my room, and last night will just be another memory to toss on top of the mixed messages from girls I like pile.

I wrap myself in a towel and pad to my room, hesitating before I walk in. It's fine that she's gone, I remind myself . . . except Chaewon didn't actually leave after all.

"You're still here," I say, clutching my towel a little tighter as water from my hair drips down the side of my face.

She swallows hard, her eyes widening before she looks away. "I'll give you a chance to get dressed," she mumbles. "Can I borrow your bathroom?"

"Sure?" I say, still sort of shocked.

I dress faster than I ever have in my life and then fly around trying to straighten up before she gets back. Not that I didn't just leave her alone in my mess of a room for fifteen minutes. I'm sitting on my bed, trying to look nonchalant, when she opens the door.