9:01 AM

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“Hey. Hey?”

You’re used to mornings.

To flinching awake from warm sunlight dancing across your face. To the fit of your clothes from the night before clinging to your dry skin. To the weight of your comforter enveloping you whole, never letting you get a single footstep off your mattress.

What you aren’t used to is seeing your best friend half-naked and smiling right into your face at nine o’ one in the morning.

What you aren’t used to is waking up next to An Yujin.

“You’re finally awake. You had me up all night from your snoring, dude,” she starts, bunching up her share of the sheets closer to her chest. But the folds and waves of cream and white do little to obstruct your view of her chiseled collarbone. “Do you remember anything?”

Her last words send a ringing through your skull, and suddenly, it all comes crashing down at once.

The aftertaste of tough spirits in the back of your throat when you swallow. The unsteady focus of your vision when you blink your eyes open and closed. The blaring of heavy bass against your eardrums. The curve of her body against yours. The scattered and sprawled cotton and linen of both of your clothes as a testament to the hurried act of—.

When your mind finally settles onto her again, Yujin’s clenching her teeth, tongue peeking out along with her dimples, as she whispers, “So … that happened …”

You don’t want to, but you have to ask. “Did we …?”

“We did. At least, I think we did?”

Yujin reaches beneath the layers, gasping as if she struck gold. With a crinkle of her nose, she withdraws her hand back to the surface. But not before smothering her fingers against the side of your bed. “Yeah … Yeah, I’m pretty sure we did.”

Your own hands come out of the covers as you tear your fingers through your hair, laying dead-flat on your back. “We … we just …”

Your eyes burn holes into the ceiling as you realize what this meant.

You had sex with your best friend, An Yujin.

You think back. Back to where it all began. From before last night. From before any of this.

You and Yujin have gotten more in touch lately because she needed someone following her most recent breakup. You obliged because why wouldn’t you say no to your best friend from college? She’s quick to turn your no’s into yes’s, yielding certainties from your guesses, and before you knew it you’re caught in a whirlwind that is An Yujin.

And now you’re here. In bed with her. Not having remembered a single damn thing from it.

Neither of you have said a word for the past few minutes now. But how can you? The moment you so much as even glance to the side you’re immediately met with the toned slope of her back peeking out to greet you from the covers. The sunshine filtering in through the curtains painting her face in a halation of gold. The twitch of her fingers tapping a code against her pelvis.

“Yujin, I am so … so sorry,” you groan, hand coming over your face—partially in frustration, partially to not be tempted to look any further, “I … You can take the sheets. I’ll just need my—.”

“Boxers?”

Cloth slaps against your face as you find your underwear landing across your visage. You hear chuckling from behind it as Yujin draws closer to you. “It’s cold out there. Up to you if you want to go commando and freeze your balls off.”

You wince. Normally that would fly, but considering what happened, you temper yourself. “Yujin, it’s nine in the morning. In August. I can already feel how it’s anything but cold.”

She taps the empty space between you with a pout. “It’s cold. Please?”

Blinking twice, you throw your boxers aside along with your caution as you slide up next to her, burying yourself to the chin. Yujin does the same until you’re both shoulder-to-shoulder under the sheets. Bare. Nude. Not a single layer between you both.

“You know what, you’re right. It’s getting warmer already,” Yujin teases, and you feel her wriggling in place. Her hand finds your lower stomach as she turns to face you. “But I don’t mind.”

“You’re … awfully calm about all this,” you raise, your own hand frozen by your sides like you’re a freshly-produced cadaver. “I … Yujin we just …”

“Yeah?”

“And you’re … ok with that?”

“It’s one night. Big deal,” she throws, tapping your belly. And you’re not sure what hurts more—the fact that you thought it meant something or the way that you hoped it meant something. Sleeping together. “You sound like you don’t know that I sleep around, dude. Are you sure you’re awake?”

You feign a yawn. “Hard not to fall asleep when I’m talking to you.”

She pushes your face out of the way, and you kick gently at her feet, and before you know it, the two of you are wrestling on your mattress like a bunch of children jostling about at a sleepover.

When she calms, she rests her chin on your shoulder and gazes up at your cheek. “What is it?”

“Huh? Didn’t say anything.”

“You look like you want to though.”

You shrug, tucking your own chin in so you can see her while you ask, “I don’t know, was I … was it any good at least?”

“It was different.”

“Different. Right.”

Could have been good. Could have been ample. Could have even been decent.

Different. Sex with you, according to An Yujin, was different.

You sigh. This is getting worse. It’s only nine in the fucking morning and your Sunday’s already gone to shit. Shouldn’t have drank too much. Shouldn’t have indulged Yujin’s pestering. Shouldn’t have replied to her every text, succumbed to her every whim, heeded her every beck and call in the hopes of her—.

“Hey, chin up, buddy. At least you weren’t a one-shot,” she raises, and there’s a lilt in her voice when she says this—a lilt you know she subconsciously produces when she’s trying to be flirty at the bar. “You’re part of the reason why I can’t just … get up from here.”

“What’s the other reason, Ciroc?”

“Ciroc. About three bottles.”

“Jesus, Yujin, what the fuck did you get us last night?” you spew, and she’s quick to tap the side of your face and laugh alongside you. But she’s also quick to fall back and slide her fingers across the cleft of your chin. “Hey … um, thanks. By the way. For last night.”

“Don’t thank me. I figured you just needed different.”

“Yeah—no, I … I just needed you.”