chuutacked, CHUU-VES [✓]

↬ hi, stranger

"Yerim!" 

Jiwoo panted as she frantically entered Yerim's tiny bookstore after sprinting the entire way there from her studio. She'd flung the thin glass door open, cringing slightly at the loud slam it made as it made contact with the wall, her fist desperately clinging to the crumpled sticky note Sooyoung had given her. 

Yerim ambled out from behind a shelf to greet Jiwoo, who was busy using the sleeve of her shirt to dabble away sweat droplets. "Hi, Jiwoo! Need a book?" Yerim questioned, propping her body up on the counter, gesturing at her many stocked shelves with her hand. 

"No," Jiwoo chirped with a beaming grin, "I came to thank you, for recommending this romance book to me." Yerim raised an interrogating eyebrow at Jiwoo, who she figured was exhibiting her usual backwards, sarcastic humour. "Oh, yea. No problem," Yerim grumbled with an exaggerated eye-roll, "What did you really come here for, Jiwoo?" 

"Huh? I came here to say thank you, for the book recommendation." 

"Huh?" Yerim questioned, raising herself from the counter, her eyes boring into Jiwoo with pure confusion. Yerim had suggested the book as a mere joke and hadn't expected Jiwoo, who had made a name for herself in their extended friend group as being passionately against love, to actually purchase it, let alone read it. 

"You liked it?" Yerim asked, sparking a chuckle from Jiwoo, "No, Yerim. I hated the book, it was terrible.. But, it was an excellent conversation starter." Yerim turned in time to catch a wink from her friend, who was still beaming idiotically. 

"Wait, are you telling me you finally like someone?" 

"I'm not sure if I do, but.. I might?" Jiwoo said shyly, sliding Sooyoung's perfectly written note into the front pocket of her pullover that she had put on before leaving the studio. "Is he cute?" Yerim squealed as Jiwoo jammed her hands into the pocket, folding and unfolding the note carefully, "Oh, um him? Oh, yeah, he's cute, sure." 

"I wanna know all about him Jiwoo! How'd you meet? Your studio?" Jiwoo nodded and she felt her face heating up, Yerim chuckled and playfully punched her friend on the shoulder, "We should go get ramen tonight, maybe with Hyejoo and Chaewon? I'm sure they'll want to hear all about this rebel who changed our Jiwoo's entire outlook on life," 

"Sounds good, Yerim. Meet you there at six?" Jiwoo mumbled in question to which Yerim nodded enthusiastically, "Yep! See you at six; three hours!" Jiwoo pushed open the door to Yerim's bookstore and exited quickly, desperate to escape the situation she'd accidentally put herself in. 

She had three hours to think of something to tell the girls about Sooyoung, something besides the fact that she was a girl. Splendid. 

She kept her eyes locked onto the concrete as she walked the familiar route home, inspecting the cracks in the sidewalk as she made her way back towards her apartment. Lost in thought, everything surrounding her became a blur, the sounds were silent and the people were nonexistent as she walked. 

My 'man crush' needs a name, I can't call 'him' Sooyoung, can I?  That would raise suspicions, I don't want to do that. Why didn't I just say it to her face? "Yerim, I think I like a girl, her name is Sooyoung. She's pretty and kind, you'd like her." I'm a coward and this is my punishment.

Jiwoo delved further into thought and drifted farther from reality, which is why she didn't notice the large gash in the concrete that other pedestrians were swerving around. "Hah, look Soo, that girl's not paying attention. She's going to trip." A man on a bar stool outside a small cafe snickered towards the girl he was sitting with. 

"Hm? Where?" The brown-haired girl replied, looking up from her phone to see a short girl with familiar red hair getting dangerously close to a large crack in the concrete, lost deep in thought. "She looks familiar," The girl grumbled, squinting to get a closer look, "Wait, I know her!" She pushed herself from the stool quickly, running towards the girl. 

"Jiwoo, look out!" 

Jiwoo snapped out of her concentration upon hearing her name, and she turned her head milliseconds before a thin frame collided with her own, not hard enough to knock her over completely but hard enough to cause Jiwoo to stumble back into the side of a brick building. Jiwoo winced, before slowly opening her eyes to see who had caused her near tumble"What the h- Sooyoung?"

"Hi, stranger," Sooyoung mumbled, flashing Jiwoo an apologetic smile, "I can explain! I was sitting outside the cafe with my brother and he said something about someone about to trip over the crack in the sidewalk so I looked up and it was you so I tried to help you. Please don't be mad at me-"

"Cafe huh? I could use some coffee." Jiwoo commented absentmindedly, "Wanna come with me to get some?" Sooyoung asked, hope glistening in her eyes. "I would love too, but I have to get ready, I'm going out to dinner with my friends later.. Hey, you should come, Sooyoung." 

"Me? Are you sure?" 

"Mmmhm, of course." Jiwoo nodded, "We're going to the ramen place, two blocks past my studio on the left side of the street. See you at six?" 

Sooyoung nodded, "See you at six." 

Jiwoo turned back to walking, carefully stepping around the gap in the concrete, making her way homebound with more of a smile on her face and fewer worries in her head.  

a/n: soo you guys convinced me to expand chuutacked beyond a oneshot uwu i'm not sure how long the story will be, but it's fun to write~