soju
Since that day the two girls relationship changed, you won't be able to tell if you weren’t their roommate tho, because it can only be seen in the little actions, the looks and the tenderness of it all when they were in the privacy of their room.
Meals went from being an alone not caring about the other routine, to a daily seoyeon-cooks-yooyeon-watches one while having little conversations between bites about everything and nothing at the same time.
They both didn't open up yet, it felt like they knew each other without needing to know about their pasts, nothing mattered more than their present, in the moments they spent together in the softness of their conversations and stares. while both were trying their best to not think of more than a friendship that was built on the little trust that came with living in the same space.
But when the mood is too bright, something has to ruin it right?
It's been 2 months since college started and seoyeon's grades weren't the worst but she wasn't top of her class either because this is college not high school anymore and high achievers were everywhere. To her, her grades were normal. She was still a straight A student, but her parents didn't care about what she thinks. As she spent her time enjoying life she totally forgot about those expectations they forced on her.
That was how she lived until she got the phone call, the one that will show yooyeon a side of seoyeon she has never seen before.
Just imagine your usually happy-go-lucky roommate turning to a literal zombie after a one minute phone call? you can't right? yooyeon couldn't either but she didn't have to imagine because her roommate looked like she wanted to throw herself out of the window right now, as she walked back to their room with her head down and without uttering a single word, she went straight to bed.
Seoyeon woke up in the middle of the night, confused, it was 3am, why was she awake?
But then everything came crushing down at her as she remembered the phone call she had with her mom that evening a phone call that left her wondering again if her parents ever saw her as a human being not a robot. As she recalled her mother's words that stung, seoyeon couldn’t help the tears that came with them.
"Hello mom" she said a little too enthusiastically forgetting for a moment that it was her mother not her "mom"
"Nothing to be happy about." there it was the reminder that it was in fact her mother.
"I heard from your professors that your grades aren't that great" she continued and seoyeon was confused.
"My grades are a perfect A what do you mean not that great?"
"Perfect A not a perfect A plus" okay what? A plus? really?
"What even is the difference mother"
"The difference is that there is someone better than you. And I didn't raise you to ever be second" that was just dumb actually and it made seoyeon mad, really mad.
"You weren't even the one to raise me, it was my grandmother" this was the first time seoyeon talked to her mother like this but honestly? she didn't care.
The silence on the other end tho, that was deafening.
"My driver will pick you up this weekend for a family dinner. be ready, 2pm, Saturday" huh?
"But-" she hang up, of course she did, there she goes again wanting her words to be the last in the argument.
When seoyeon finally shook her head out of that memory, she found herself standing in front of their open fridge and listen seoyeon never drank alcohol before and her first ever drink being a bottle of soju wasn’t really that great of an idea and she knew it but it looked way too inviting and it was also the only thing that can make her forget all her problems in that moment, so she took a glass out of the cabinet and sat on her desk with the bottle in hand, hoping her roommate wouldn’t wake up.
It was about 3:30 or 4 in the morning when yooyeon heard quite sobs coming from inside her room, at first she thought she was dreaming, a dream about her 5 years old self being held by strangers as she watched her father’s car burn, but the sobs sounded way too real, way too close for it to be part of her imagination.
As she opened her eyes she found where the sound was coming from, the girl looked too fragile in that moment, sitting on her desk sipping straight from a bottle of soju, wait what?
That made yooyeon fully wake up, as she watched her roommate putting the bottle of soju, the one she just bought that morning, down as she let out quite cries. yooyeon moved on autopilot, she was used to this sight, waking up in the middle of the night to someone sobbing in her room, but back then it was kids sad at the idea of never getting adopted, this time is was different but it was still someone breaking down right in front of her eyes for whatever reason.
Remembering the state of her roommate when she came back from that call, yooyeon knew it was pretty much the sole reason for the girl’s broken state right now and as she approached her, trying her best not to freak her out, yooyeon turned the chair.
And okay she might has underestimated how bad her roommate’s state looked, when the other girl looked at her with wide eyes, terrified yet broken yooyeon took the girl in her arms, she wasn’t much of a physical touch person, or maybe she was but she never had the chance to be in a state that required physical touch and at that moment, it felt like all seoyeon needed was a hug, for someone to hold her while she cried and that’s exactly what yooyeon provided.
When the girl buried her face in yooyeon’s shoulder, her cries got higher, more heard, as if she was holding them back all night long to not wake yooyeon up and that thought made yooyeon’s heart break. Yes they weren’t close on a personal level yet but they were close enough to tell each other what’s wrong right? She didn’t want to ask questions as seoyeon kept on crying in her arms, and the position they were in wasn’t great for either of them so yooyeon took seoyeon’s hand in hers and led her to her bed, as she laid down, the girl wouldn’t even let her go so yooyeon so had no other choice but to lay next to her and hold her till her cries stopped as she kept on telling her
“I’m here, I’m here now”
The conversation probably has to wait till tomorrow because right now seoyeon was asleep, deep in her dreams as she held into yooyeon like it was the only reason keeping her grounded. She stopped crying about half an hour ago and it was already too late for yooyeon to sleep again as she kept on wondering what might be the reason for the tiny human laying in her arms broken state, and as she looked at the girl, seoyeon looked so in peace, it’s like she wasn’t violently shaking about an hour ago saying some incomprehensible things. But for now yooyeon couldn’t do much as she spent the next few hours till their alarms rang looking at the girl in her arms.