She doesn’t do that stuff

This must be heaven. At least that’s what Sooin thinks as she watches three adorable puppies run around the play pen. Four adorable puppies, if you count the girl with jet black hair running ahead of the pack, dog treat in hand. Her heart swells hearing the peals of laughter as the girl tumbles onto the floor in mock surrender, the puppies leaping over themselves to get at the treat conveniently stuffed into her shirt pocket.

“Anna doesn’t do that stuff,” Sooin says. It should be final. After all, who knows more about Anna than her roommate of eleven months?

Gawon rolls her eyes so far up into her head that the only thing showing were the whites streaked with red veins. 

“Anna does, and a whole lot more too.”

She looks away from her best friend and from her lying lies. 

Work has screwed Sooin over more times than she has fingers to count. 

But this time, life tosses her a bone. Her boss cut the site visit short due to extenuating circumstances (read: wifey found out about side piece and is threatening a divorce) so the entire team gets an impromptu holiday.

What Sooin really wants though is to sleep for days on end after taking a fifteen-hour redeye from New York to Seoul. She opted to head back home immediately, because home is where her super soft king-sized bed is.

Home is also where Anna is. But what she doesn’t expect was to see a stranger sitting on her couch, sipping a glass of wine.

“Who the fuck are you?” Subtlety was never Sooin’s strongest suit, but the shock of seeing a girl she’s never met before brings down her social filters. The stranger in question is dressed in a very nice slim-fitting maxi more suited for a party than an innocent house call, which raises her hackles.

The poor thing moves her mouth like a fish, shoulders stuff as she tries to say something. “I’m with Jang-jang?” 

It’s more of a question than an answer, but the nickname leaves a sour taste in Sooin’s mouth. Only a select few get to call Anna that, plus the girl in question has never invited anyone over to their apartment behind her back. They’ve been living together for almost a year at this point, and Sooin has not heard anything at all resembling a dating life from her roommate. Not that she had ever deigned to ask, since she herself has no friends besides Gawon and zero interest herself to date, on account of the long working hours.

It strikes Sooin that all this sneaking around might be Anna’s way of being considerate, about the unspoken agreement to keep the apartment just for the two of them. A smaller part of her wonders about the implication of skirting said agreement — that, she pushes deep down into her subconscious, alongside the raging crush on her roommate.

Said roommate emerges from the kitchen, also holding a glass of wine. Sooin’s eyes roam up and down, drinking in the sight of Anna Tanaka dressed in a deliciously short halter top that shows off her pale shoulders and thighs. 

It irks Sooin to no end that the stranger does a once over at Anna in the very same way. 

And when the stranger heads to the door to leave, Sooin very pointedly ignores looking at her. Definitely not because she was distracted by the prominent lipstick mark on the back of Anna’s shoulder.

It irks her even more that Gawon was right.

“I told you so.” 

The curse at the end is left unsaid, but Sooin hears it all the same. It’s her turn to roll her eyes. She chooses to remain silent, fuming as her best friend raises a tanned hand to call for a top-up on their free-flow mimosas. 

It’s their monthly brunch, a standing arrangement ever since their college days. Back then it was weekly, but ever since Gawon became Gawon and Yunjin, sacrifices had to be made. So once a month, they meet at exactly eleven a.m. to catch up about anything and everything.

Except, apparently everything but Anna. Sooin’s roommate was introduced to her by Gawon, who had moved out to live with Yunjin. A friend of a friend, Gawon had said, which was all Sooin needed to know. It took her all of three days of living with her new roommate to catch feelings, and Gawon seems to have cottoned on, but kept her mouth firmly shut about any and all things Anna.

Which is why when Gawon leans forward and whispers conspiratorially after sipping her mimosa, Sooin clenches her fingers. “You’re jealous.”

“Of my roommate? Get a grip.” She fiddles with the now-cold food on her plate.

Gawon shakes her head, leaning back on her seat as she sips more of her drink. 

After the stranger had left, Sooin and Anna stood awkwardly in the living room. 

“Sorry, unnie, I didn’t know you would be back so soon.” The younger girl chews on her bottom lip, eyes shiny and wide even in the dim lighting. Sooin sighs, and says it’s okay, because she doesn’t really have it in her to scold her roommate.

They made a pact that very night. No more bringing people home without a heads up. An unintended but welcome development was that Anna started opening up to Sooin about her love life. Which includes asking for advice about dating.

Sooin complies, of course, because who could say no to Anna Tanaka?

But Sooin didn’t agree to be helpful.

“Can you believe her?” Anna whines, kicking off the slingback pumps. Sooin licks her lips at the memory of just a few hours ago, staring a bit too long at how those very heels accentuated Anna’s calves before saying yes, that’s the one. 

Sooin looks back up. “O-oh, yeah, she sounds horrible,” she croaks just in time.

“I mean,” Anna huffs as she collapses onto the couch, skirt bunched up mid-thigh. Sooin digs her nails into her palm to restrain herself from leering outright. “Who could have known that a restaurant called ‘Green Pastures’ was actually a steakhouse?”

“Yeah, sounds like an easy mistake.” But Sooin knew. Anna had matched with another girl on Tinder, and Sooin took it upon herself to recommend a restaurant. It took a surprising amount of research to find a steakhouse that could plausibly pass off as being anything but that if one were to give its name a cursory glance.

So when Anna’s vegan date blew up on her upon arriving at said restaurant, Sooin was more than ready to console her roommate with some wine and a movie night. She basks in the latest victory as she cuddles with Anna under a shared blanket, the younger girl nodding off as Encanto plays in the background. 

Yes, latest. 

Last week, Sooin had suggested a theme park located three hours drive out of Seoul for a first date. Conveniently leaving out that said theme park closed a few months back. So Anna and her date spent an entire day doing nothing, to her delight.

And the week before that, Sooin bought two tickets for Anna and her date to watch a K-Pop concert together. Conveniently leaving out that they were seated in completely opposite sections of the arena.

“Jang-jang,” Sooin asks from the living room couch. “Are you going out?”

Anna raises an eyebrow, giggling at her roommate. She’s by the door, bag in hand. “Yeah. Don’t stay up for me, okay?”

Sooin’s eyes travel down. Anna’s in a lacy white dress, all pleats and ruffles. Dark eyeliner, pink blusher, red lipstick, diamond necklace, pearl earrings — dressed to the nines, really. She kneels to secure the straps on her white heels. 

Sooin thinks she will die if she lets her roommate go out tonight when she’s all dolled up for someone who’s not her.

Especially not when it’s eight in the evening. Prime hookup time.

“Don’t go,” Sooin says before she can stop herself. 

Anna whips her head up. “Huh?”

“It’s dark out, so it’s not safe.”

“I’m taking a cab?”

“Let’s just stay home and watch some Netflix? I can get us food delivery. I’m starving,” Sooin rubs her stomach unconvincingly. Anna sighs, because for some reason she too finds it hard to say no to her roommate. She kicks off her heels and begins the laborious process of taking off all her accessories, placing them one by one on a wooden tray they have by the cubby at the entrance just for that purpose. 

“Why would you wear all that for a hookup?” Sooin inquires, pointing at the jewelry adorning her person. 

Anna laughs airily as she approaches Sooin, kicking her shin teasingly as she does. “You wouldn’t get it. It’s like unwrapping a present.”

“Then let me unwrap mine,” Sooin mutters. Anna stills, arms by her side as she allows Sooin to come even closer. The older girl wraps a finger around the necklace, waiting patiently as Anna grasps her long black hair into a makeshift ponytail so she can pry open the clasp with her fingernails.