yerim has two exams tomorrow, a paper due wednesday, and a collage essay to finish, but she still has time to video call joohyun. joohyun is staring at yerim through the screen, eyes full of adoration, mouth full of food, and yerim laughs into her hand.
“what?” yerim asks, and joohyun smiles, swallowing the food in her mouth before speaking.
“you’re cute.”
yerim feels herself blush at that statement, and pats her cheeks before replying with a quiet “you’re cuter.”
they always talk like this, when yerim’s supposed to be finishing her work, when joohyun has nothing better to do really. sometimes joohyun stays silent and watches yerim finish her work so they could watch the same shows. sometimes yerim talks to joohyun through her hello kitty plush, in her attempt to be cute, and joohyun is grateful she can’t reach through the screen to strangle yerim. (she can call yerim annoyingly cute though.)
yerim finishes in comfortable silence while joohyun makes a small bowl of cereal for herself. when she comes back, yerim is hugging a small toy bear to her chest, and joohyun giggles.
“is that the one I sent you?” joohyun asks, and yerim nods slowly, then flashes a small smile. then, she takes a deep breathe, sucking oxygen in before speaking.
“my graduation is soon, like in one week, the 24th, and i really wanted you to come down. i mean, you don’t have to come down but it would mean a lot if you did, we never meet in real life before so it would be –“
“nice.” joohyun finishes for her, and yerim breathes again, letting out the breathe she didn’t know she was holding. joohyun leans forward, allowing her head to rest on the keyboard of her laptop before she said.
“I’ll try.”
that’s more than yerim could’ve asked for.
-
joohyun stands in the back of the crowd, her hands tucked in the pockets of her hoodie, and thinks ‘this is nice.’ it was nice, if she allowed herself to be honest. the heat that settled around town since the beginning of june seems to have been nice today, since there was a light breeze that allowed itself blow every once in a while.
joohyun clutches her phone, and smiles when she thinks about how yerim was so excited when she asked what the name of her school was again. yerim had spammed her with nonsense language before she finally sent the address, and joohyun had said she would hit yerim on the head when she saw her.
now standing her, as the principal talked on and on about the school year and how great it was for the seniors, joohyun can’t see it happening. The man keeps talking, talking for so long that she doesn’t know when they started calling names. joohyun curses and wishes she took the moment from when the man was talking to move to the front. she begins to stand on her toes, hoping to see over the crowd when,
“kim yerim.”
she jumps automatically, spotting the black haired girl making her way toward the man, smiling brightly, and joohyun is amazed. not even the screen could show how bright yerim’s smile was.
-
they meet after, somehow. joohyun allows herself to get lost in the crowd, wondering if yerim is looking for her when she bumps into her. yerim is staring at her with tear filled eyes, and her makeup is mess up, joohyun smiles at how cute she is. joohyun breathes, and steps forward to wipe yerim’s cheek when yerim attacks her in a hug.
yerim is as short as she is, even in heels, which is good. her shortness fits her appearance, joohyun decides, as she picks yerim up by the waist, and yerim squeals. she spins her around, before setting her down and kissing her forehead once.
“you know, i’m grateful you’re shorter than me.” joohyun says, and yerim blushes and sticks her tongue out. it was then joohyun realizes this could work. when yerim grabs her hand and drags her to meet her friends, joohyun knows for a fact that this will work.