The Scent Of You

Chapter 12

Amelie has a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It's a perfect moment.
A soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city.
A surge to love, an urge to help mankind overcomes her.
-Amelie (The Movie)

Seungwan isn't sure who initiated it, her or Joohyun, but she isn't one to question the attractive forces that draw them together almost at the same time. She sees Joohyun's eyelashes flutter just as her own eyes close, and then all of a sudden their lips are pressed against each other's. Seungwan cups Joohyun's face in her hands, tilts it for better comfort, allowing her to deepen the kiss. She feels arms being thrown around her neck as Joohyun's fingers tangle in her hair and draw her even closer.

The taste of Joohyun is indescribable - sweet is too general a word, delicious too much of an understatement, perfection a cliche - but she is all these and more. Seungwan lightly grazes her teeth on Joohyun's bottom lip, eliciting a sharp gasp from the older woman and causing her to dig her fingernails a little too deep on the back of Seungwan's neck. She instinctively winces at the sudden pain, pulling back and effectively breaking the kiss. Joohyun is by her side in a second, fingers gingerly touching where they were just gripping a moment ago.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Seungwan chuckles and takes Joohyun's prying hands in hers. "I know, I know, don't worry about it." She turns her gaze downwards, her thumbs smoothening out the creases on Joohyun's palms. "I should be the one apologising, really. It was wrong of me to keep things from you."

Joohyun leans forward to plant another quick kiss on the woman's remorseful face. "Well, you saved me and Yeri, so... let's call it even?" She pulls one hand out from Seungwan's grasp and extends her pinky, and Seungwan links it with her own.

"Deal."

*

After a while, Joohyun leaves to check on Yeri, and Seungwan is left with her own thoughts. They bounce around in her head as she thinks of the night's events in full detail - the speed at which the fire burnt through the building and its support beams, Joohyun's stricken face, Yeri lying immobile on the bed... and, Seungwan remembers with sudden clarity, the thick, blue liquid that flowed unnoticed to Joohyun's doorstep.

Kerosene, Seungwan realises angrily. Some bastard threw kerosene on the old building and set it on fire, no doubt to harm either Joohyun or Yeri or both. Unless the two girls had made enemies with anyone -- highly unlikely, knowing them -- Seungwan is pretty sure she can guess who was behind the attack.

A quick knock causes the door to her private ward to shudder in its frame. "Excuse me," a gruff voice says from the other side, "this is the police. Can we talk to you for a second?"

*

Joohyun pokes her head through the small gap between a door and its frame, watching as Seulgi occupies herself in the quiet room with preparing a cup of instant ramen. She also sees Joy at the side of Yeri's bed the same way she was next to Seungwan's, fast asleep with her arms folded under her head. Slinking soundlessly into the room, Joohyun tiptoes her way to Yeri's bed, and the sight gives her pause.

Hooked up to a multitude of machines that beeped and hummed in low tones, Yeri sleeps with an oxygen mask strapped to her face. Her expression is serene, at peace, almost as if her life wasn't in any danger just hours before. Joohyun tucks away the untamed locks of copper hair that cover Yeri's eyes and cups the young girl's cheek in one hand, her mind swimming with unspoken apologies.

"Here," Seulgi whispers as she presses a tissue into Joohyun's hand. The latter realises the wetness on her cheeks are from the tears streaking down her face and quickly dabs at them. "Sit down, there's a sofa over there." Once Joohyun makes herself comfortable, Seulgi thrusts a pair of disposable chopsticks at Joohyun before setting two hot cups of ramen on the table in front of her.