Finally

"—and then she's begging me to go harder, like actually begging, so obviously I—"

"Oh my god, shut up." Jinsoul throws a pillow at your head from across the couch. "Seriously. Shut the fuck up."

You catch it, grinning. "What? You asked how my weekend was."

"I asked if you did anything interesting. I didn't ask for a play-by-play of you fucking some random girl." She's glaring at you over her glasses, that annoyed look she gets when you've pushed too far. You've seen it a lot lately.

"It was pretty interesting," you say, because you can't help yourself. "Very interesting, actually. Want me to describe—"

"No." She cuts you off, going back to her phone. "I really, really don't."

This is routine by now. You tell her about your latest hookup, she gets annoyed and tells you to shut up, you tease her about being prudish, she throws something at you. It's been like this for months, ever since you started actually having success with dating apps.

Jinsoul's your best friend. Has been since college, back when you were both awkward and single and spent weekends gaming instead of going out. Difference is, you eventually figured out how to talk to girls. She... didn't. Still hasn't, as far as you know.

Not that she's bad looking. She's hot as hell, objectively. But she's also got this whole nerdy, keeps-to-herself thing that apparently doesn't translate over very well to the dating scene. Oversized hoodies, glasses, constantly has her nose in a book or her laptop.

You watch her scroll for a second, then decide to go for it.

"It was Chuu, by the way."

The scrolling stops.

Not dramatically, she doesn't gasp or drop her phone. Her thumb just... stills. A half-second pause that she covers immediately by scrolling again, slightly too fast now.

"Okay," she says.

"Just thought you'd want to know."

"I really didn't."

"She says hi, actually."

"She does not."

"She didn't," you admit, "but she did ask about you after. Like genuinely asked, not small talk. Wanted to know if you were seeing anyone."

Jinsoul's jaw shifts. Just slightly. "Cool."

"I told her no. That you don't really—"

"Cool," she repeats, louder.

You should stop. You know you should stop—you can read Jinsoul better than anyone and every signal she's giving is the polite version of I will actually get up and leave. But there's a different feeling tonight. Usually her annoyance is surface-level, the kind she shakes off in ten minutes. This is something else. She's not looking at you at all now, which she usually does even when she's pissed, because Jinsoul's the type to maintain eye contact out of sheer stubbornness.

"She's a good time," you say, mostly just to see what happens. "Really good, actually. Very—"

"I know what Chuu is like." Flat. Quiet.

Interesting.

"Do you?"

"She's my friend." She finally looks up, and there it is—not quite anger, something more complicated than that sitting right behind her eyes. "Can you please just talk about literally anything else."

"Sure." You shrug, lean back into the couch cushions. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Anything."

"Okay. Did you finish Horimiya?"

"Yes."

"Was it good?"

"Yes."

"Cool." A pause. "Chuu told me she—"

The second pillow hits you square in the face.

You're laughing before it even falls to your lap, fully delighted, and you hear her exhale hard through her nose—that sound that means she's trying not to smile and winning by the smallest margin.

"You're insufferable," she says.

"You love me."

"Genuinely debatable right now."

The TV's got some cooking competition running on mute, and for a few minutes you actually let it sit quiet. Jinsoul pulls her knees up to her chest, hoodie sleeves pulled down over her hands, and goes back to her phone. Normal. Routine. Except she's sitting a little more coiled than usual, and twice you catch her starting to say something and swallowing it.

The third time, it comes out.

"Was it actually her?"

You glance over. "What?"

"Chuu." She isn't looking at you. "Was it actually her or are you just saying that to be annoying?"

"Would I make that up?"

"Yes."

"Fair. But no. Friday night, after Heejin's thing." You watch her process that—Heejin's party, which Jinsoul left early, which Chuu stayed at. The math is easy and unpleasant and you can see her doing it. "It just kind of happened."

"Mm."

"She's really—"