#also I am KINDA TIPSY | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pbaz7 · 2 months ago

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FINDING PEACE IN YOU: PART 4

paige x azzi

warnings: sexual content

word count: 12k

A/N: I struggled bringing my plot to life on this one for some reason. It’s not terrible but it’s definitely not my best work😭 also it’s completely unedited because I was being harassed so be warned lol. Let me know what you think and happy game day!!!

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Azzi wasn’t one to dwell too much on social media—she knew better, she barely even used it. But she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t been on it a little more recently; and that the posts after Paige’s first away game in Minnesota hadn’t gotten her gears turning.

As she scrolled through her timeline there were pictures and videos of the team walking into a club to celebrate their first win of the season. Paige looked amazing—her blonde hair wavy and slightly tousled, a confident smirk on her lips, her jewelry shining from the camera flashes, her outfit fitting her perfectly. It was the kind of pictures that would’ve had Azzi playfully rolling her eyes a few months ago, when she’d just met the blonde, knowing how easily Paige could get who she wanted. But now? Now, it just made her stomach tighten.

What really caught Azzi’s attention was how many women were lingering around in the pictures.

Some were just fans Others were players from the Lynx, people Paige probably knew. But of course there were the ones who stood a little too close in the group pictures. The ones whose eyes lingered when Paige wasn’t even looking in videos.

What the hell am I doing?

Azzi knew better than this. She definitely wasn’t insecure, and Paige had given her a reason to doubt her. Still, something unsettled her. Maybe she just missed her, or maybe it was the way the past had taught her to be wary even when things seemed great.

As Azzi scrolled through the posts, her expression remained unreadable. She wasn’t upset—not really. Paige hadn’t done anything wrong. Still, that didn’t stop the small, unfamiliar feeling creeping up her spine. Something she wasn’t used to dealing with.

Jealousy.

Muttering a few words under her breath, Azzi locked her phone, then immediately unlocked it again and scrolled to Paige’s contact. She wasn’t about to sit here playing detective when she could just call her.

The phone rang three times before Paige picked up, her voice coming through with a slight, telltale sign of tipsiness. The background quieter than Azzi expected.

“Wassup, gorgeous?”

Azzi felt the tension in her shoulders ease, just slightly. “What are you up to?”

“M’ just at the hotel bar with Arike, Lyss, DiJonai, and some random stragglers,” Paige said, her words lazy, like she was comfortably slouched in a chair somewhere.

“I thought you told me you were going to be at the after-party for most of the night?”

“Yeah,” Paige sighed. “Wasn’t feeling it for real.”

That had Azzi pausing. Paige wasn’t exactly the life of the party, but Azzi knew she wasn’t one to turn down a good time, especially after a win.

“Way too many people,” Paige added, almost like she could sense Azzi’s thoughts. “Too much going on.”

Azzi hummed in understanding, letting the last of her unnecessary overthinking fade away. Paige had already left the club. She’d opted for a quiet drink instead.

“What you doing, gorgeous?” Paige asked, her voice a little playful now.

“That’s the second time you’ve called me that in less than a minute.”

“‘Cause you are,” Paige said easily.

Azzi shook her head, unable to stop the small smile tugging at her lips. “Are you drunk?”

“Prolly,” Paige admitted with a quiet chuckle.

“You’re probably drunk?” Azzi repeated.

“Mhm,” Paige hummed. “But not like bad drunk. Just a little tipsy maybe.”

Azzi leaned back against her bed, relaxing now that she’d heard Paige’s voice. “So, you ditched the after-party to sit at a hotel bar with Arike and them and be kinda drunk?��

Paige laughed. “I ain’t ditch it for real. Just…left. Like I said…too many people. Too much going on.” She paused, then added, “’Sides, I’d rather be on the phone with you. Can’t do that at the club.”

Azzi rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop the warmth that was spreading through her chest. “You’re smooth when you’re tipsy, you know that?”

“I’m smooth all the time, don’t play with me.”

“You gonna go up to your room soon?” Azzi asked.

Paige made a noise that sounded like she was stretching. “Yeah, probably. You tryna tell me to go to bed?”

Azzi smiled. “Maybe.”

Paige exhaled dramatically. “Damn. You don’t even wanna talk to me?”

Azzi bit her lip, shaking her head at Paige’s antics. “Go to bed, P.”

Paige huffed out a soft laugh. “Ight lemme just FaceTime you first.”

Azzi rolled her eyes but said, “Okay.”

Two seconds later, her phone lit up with an incoming call. She swiped to answer, and Paige’s face filled the screen, her expression already a lazy, lopsided grin. Her hair was slightly tousled, and the dim lighting of the hotel bar cast soft shadows across her features.

Azzi raised an eyebrow. “What are you already grinning about?”

Paige shrugged, still smiling. “Nun.”

Azzi wasn’t convinced. “Yeah, right.”

Paige finally focused in on Azzi’s demeanor, eyes narrowing just slightly before she tilted her head and sat up slightly. “Why you look stressed? You good?”

The question caught Azzi slightly off guard. Even through a screen, even slightly drunk, Paige still noticed everything. That alone made something in Azzi's chest loosen.

Azzi exhaled softly, her lips curving into a small smile. “I’m great now.”

Paige licked her lips, the intent in her gaze changing. “What, I made you feel good huh?”

Azzi wanted to roll her eyes, to deny it, but she didn’t just raised her eyebrows.

Paige sighed dramatically as she sant further into the booth she was sitting in, her voice a little softer now. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too.”

Before she could say anything else, Paige glanced up at someone offscreen. A second later, Azzi heard a voice in the background. “Who you talking to?”

Paige’s grin was huge when she said, “My girl.”

Azzi froze.

Her girl?

They hadn’t made anything official, hadn’t even had that conversation yet. But Paige said it so casually, like it was already a fact, like there was no doubt in her mind that Azzi would be hers eventually. Azzi’s stomach did a ridiculous flip, her heart picking up speed, but before she could even process it, Rickea suddenly appeared on the screen, taking the phone out of Paige’s hands.

Rickea was definitely drunker than Paige, her expression exaggerated as she pointed a finger at Azzi. “You stole my wingwoman.”

Azzi blinked. “Hm?”

Rickea groaned, waving a hand in the air. “You got her pussy whipped. She wouldn’t even look at nobody else tonight, let alone talk to them so I could get with their friend. Awful night for me. Zero outta ten.”

Azzi let out a soft laugh, clearly amused. “I’m… sorry?” The words came out more like a question than an actual apology.

Rickea shook her head, then leaned in closer to the screen, lowering her voice to a supposed whisper that wasn’t even close to quiet. “Imma tell you a secret.”

Azzi raised an eyebrow, already bracing herself.

Rickea glanced around then whispered loudly, “Paige needs to get laid. That girl been tense for weeks.”

Azzi’s mouth fell open slightly, caught between shock and stifling a laugh. Paige, on the other hand, was immediately reaching for the phone with an exasperated, “Alright, bro.”

There was a brief shuffle before the screen shifted, and Paige was back. “Ignore her.”

Azzi tilted her head slightly, a teasing cadence in her tone. “So, you don’t need to, quote-unquote, ‘get laid’?”

Paige squinted at her through the screen, lips pressing together like she was trying to figure out how to respond. “I ain’t say allat,” she admitted, shifting in her seat. “I’m just saying I’m not tense or nothing, you know?”

Azzi hummed, clearly unconvinced. “Mhm.”

Paige narrowed her eyes. “Why you say that like you don’t believe me?”

“Cause I don’t.”

Paige let out a dramatic sigh, shaking her head. “Man, y’all love painting me as this sex deprived, miserable person.”

Azzi laughed at this. “I mean… Rickea said you’ve been tense for weeks. Weeks, P.”

Paige scoffed. “Rickea don’t know what she’s talking about.”

Azzi raised an eyebrow. “So you haven’t been tense? What you don’t want me?”

Paige huffed, shifting in her seat. “Nah like, obviously, I want—” She stopped, shook her head, and started again. “I mean, if you was here, then yeah, maybe—” She groaned, running a hand down her face. “Nah, what I’m trying to say is—”

Azzi bit her lip, amused. “Go ahead. Take your time.”

Paige shot her a glare through the screen. “You’re annoying.”

Azzi grinned. “And you’re deflecting.”

Paige exhaled. “Man, shut up.”

“I’m just saying, you sounded real confident telling people I’m your girl, but now all of a sudden you don’t have anything to say?”

Paige groaned again, running a hand through her hair. “Why you gotta bring that up?”

“Because I liked how it sounded,” Azzi admitted.

Paige paused, her expression shifting. “Yeah?”

Azzi nodded. “Yeah.”

Paige let out a breath, her lips curling into a slow smile before she said, “Bet.”

Azzi rolled her eyes, shaking her head as she changed the subject. “You need to rest and drink some water before your flight tomorrow.”

Paige frowned. “I’m tryna keep talkin’ to you, though.”

Azzi raised an eyebrow. “You can talk to me in your room.”

Paige squinted. “Why you keep tryna send me to bed?”

“I’m not,” Azzi said–she definitely was, she could tell Paige was tired and would crash within 10 minutes of being in her room. “You’re just in public, and I don’t wanna filter what I say.”

Paige stilled for a second, like she was processing what that meant, then Azzi watched her scramble up from her seat so fast it was almost impressive.

Azzi smirked. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Paige, already halfway out the bar, just said, “Hold that thought,” before the screen went a little dark.

Azzi heard the shuffle of movement, followed by Paige’s voice calling out to her teammates, “I’m goin’ to bed.”

In the background, Rickea and Dijonai immediately started booing. Paige just laughed, the sound a little muffled, and then Azzi saw her moving toward what looked like the elevators.

Azzi was about to say something when she heard a voice—someone stopping Paige. “Hey, can I get a picture real quick?” the person asked. “We were at the club with y’all earlier.”

Paige sighed quietly but stopped, clearly obliging. “Yeah, yeah, for sure.”

Azzi watched as Paige posed, the flash going off before Paige mumbled, “No problem.” With that, she finally stepped into the elevator, the doors shutting behind her.

The call cut in and out until Paige stepped off the elevator and into her room, shutting the door behind her. She looked down at her phone, her lips curling into a small smirk. “Wassup.”

Azzi smiled at her saying, “Hi again.”

Paige chuckled as she kicked off her shoes, her movements a little sluggish but still controlled. “How was work today?”

Azzi leaned back against her pillows, watching Paige through the screen. “It was good. Just scheduled appointments and check-ins, nothing too unexpected.”

Paige smiled at that. “That’s good. You eat?”

Azzi hummed, nodding. “Yeah.”

Paige propped up her phone, adjusting the angle before stretching her arms over her head with a small groan. “Good, what’d you have?”

Azzi smirked at the domesticity of it all. “You checking up on me now?”

Paige rolled her eyes. “Man, just answer the question.”

Azzi hummed. “I had some salmon, rice, and veggies earlier. Happy?”

Paige grinned. “Very. Proud of you for eating real food.”

Azzi scoffed. “What does that mean?”

“You be playin around sometimes, acting like coffee is a meal.”

Azzi shrugged. “Sometimes it’s all I need to get through the day.”

Paige gave her a pointed look. “If I said that, you’d give me a whole lecture about what my body needs for like twenty minutes.”

“That’s different.”

Paige scoffed. “It’s not.”

Azzi crossed her arms, leaning back against her pillows. “It is, though. You’re an athlete, you burn way more calories than me. Your body literally needs more fuel.”

“Doesn’t mean you can just run on caffeine and sheer will?”

Azzi smiled. “It’s been working so far.”

Paige gave her a pointed look. “Mmhm. Until one day, you just randomly fall out.”

Azzi rolled her eyes. “Alright, that's dramatic.”

Paige shrugged. “I’m just saying, don’t let me catch you slipping. Imma absolutely pull the ‘I told you so’ card.”

“Noted.”

Paige grinned, satisfied. “Good. Now, did you drink water too, or am I about to be disappointed?”

Azzi sighed dramatically. “Yes, Paige, I drank water.”

Paige grinned. “Damn, look at that—sexy, responsible woman over there. Drinkin water and shit.”

Azzi rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

Paige just laughed, grabbing the hem of her shirt and pulling it over her head before walking out of frame.

Azzi immediately frowned. “Where’d you go?”

A few seconds later, Paige reappeared on the screen, now wearing a pair of shorts and a sports bra. She smirked as she sat down. “What, you tryna get a show?”

Azzi tilted her head slightly, eyes flickering over Paige’s toned frame before humming. “Maybe.”

Paige let out a low chuckle. “You gotta pay for allat.”

Azzi played into the joke, as she bit her lip. “What’s the going rate these days?”

Paige’s jaw dropped dramatically. “Wowww. That’s crazy.”

Azzi smiled. “I’m just trying to be an informed customer.”

Paige leaned closer to the camera. “Ahh, so you tryna make a purchase?”

Azzi tilted her head, pretending to think about it. “Depends on what’s all included in the package.”

Paige let out a low laugh, licking her lips. “Premium service. Real exclusive type service.”

Azzi raised an eyebrow. “How exclusive we talking?”

Paige’s grin grew, her tipsiness making her bolder. “Like… only available for one person, kinda exclusive.”

Azzi hummed, playing along. “And what if I want a trial run before committing?”

Paige sucked her teeth, shaking her head. “Nah, this ain’t no free sample situation. You either all in or not at all.”

Azzi’s voice is a little softer when she says, “I tried to remember? You stopped me.”

That brought a shift in Paige’s expression. Her smirk faltered, turning gentle as her eyes searched Azzi’s face. She nodded slowly.

“I did,” Paige said softly. “I was just tryna respect you gorgeous.”

Azzi’s features softened in return, her voice sincere. “And I appreciate that.”

Paige smiled at her, eyes growing heavier. “Tell me about your day?”

Azzi settled further into her bed, adjusting her phone as she watched Paige’s face relax. “You sure you’re not going to fall asleep on me?” she teased.

Paige let out a soft chuckle, already nestling into her pillow. “Nah, I wanna hear you talk.” Her voice was quieter now, more at ease. “Just tell me about your day.”

Azzi smiled at that, something warm settling in her chest. “Alright.” She thought for a moment before starting. “Well work was good—mostly just check-ins and scheduled appointments like I said, nothing too crazy. I had this one client who swore they were dying over a minor sprain, though.”

Paige let out a sleepy laugh. “Mmm. You saving lives out here, huh?”

Azzi smirked. “Always.”

Paige hummed in response, eyes slipping closed but her lips still curved in a small smile. Azzi kept talking, telling her about little moments from her day—her workout that morning, grabbing coffee, the book she’d started reading. Paige would mumble something here and there, making it clear she was still listening, even as her responses got slower.

Eventually, Azzi heard Paige’s breathing even out, her face peaceful on the screen. Azzi just watched her for a moment, the sight of Paige so relaxed making her chest tighten in a way she wasn’t ready to unpack.

Softly, she whispered, “Goodnight, Paige.”

Paige stirred just enough to murmur back, “Night, Az,” before fully drifting off.

Azzi smiled to herself, shaking her head fondly before ending the call, letting herself relax into bed as well.

…

The next time Paige and Azzi saw each other was the day Paige returned to Dallas. She had just picked up Lukas from her mothers house, the little boy practically bouncing in his seat in the back, a bright grin on his face as he was excited to see his mom after being apart for so long.

As they drove down the familiar Dallas streets, Lukas chatted about everything from starting school in the fall to the new toy he wanted that his uncle showed him.

Paige pulled up outside Azzi’s clinic, shifting the car into park as she glanced at Lukas through the rearview mirror. The little boy was peering out the window, his small brows furrowed in curiosity.

“Where are we?”

Paige unbuckled her seatbelt, stretching her arm over the passenger seat as she turned to look at him. “We’re picking up Azzi.”

At the mention of her name, Lukas immediately went quiet, mumbling out a quiet, “Oh.” His tiny fingers messed with the strings of his hoodie, and a faint pink dusted his cheeks.

Paige caught the reaction instantly, smirking as she tilted her head. “Oh?” she teased, dragging the word out.

Lukas shifted in his car seat, suddenly hyper focused on the straps across his chest. “Nothin’,” he mumbled, eyes darting away.

Paige chuckled. “You excited to see Azzi?”

There was a pause before Lukas gave a quick, almost shy nod. “She’s nice,” he admitted quietly.

Paige’s smirk softened into a smile. “Yeah, she is.”

She unlatched her door and turned back to him. “You gonna come inside with me or just sit there looking shy?”

Lukas hesitated, his little legs swinging. “I’ll go.”

After helping Lukas out of the car, Paige took his hand and led him up to Azzi’s clinic. When they got off the elevator the same receptionist from last time looked up, offering a polite smile. Paige returned it with a small nod.

Azzi was waiting for them just past the desk, standing with her hands in her pockets. Paige gave her a quick once over taking note of the white button up that was slightly undone and the heels Azzi had on.

Maybe it was the fact that they hadn’t seen each other in days, or maybe it was something else entirely, but the moment Azzi stepped toward Paige, the hug that followed felt different.

To anyone watching, it would seem like nothing more than a warm embrace—Azzi’s arms wrapping around Paige’s shoulders, Paige’s arms circling her waist. But to them, it felt like something else entirely.

Azzi melted into it just a little too much, the weight of her body pressing against Paige’s completely as she let out the smallest sigh against her hoodie. Paige felt the way Azzi’s fingers curled slightly against her back, how the warmth of her breath tickled her neck.

Paige, in turn, held on just a second longer than necessary, her lips brushing the curve of Azzi’s jaw as she whispered, “Wassup, beautiful?”

Azzi stiffened for half a second, just enough for Paige to notice, before she pulled back, keeping her expression neutral.

Their eyes met.

Lingering.

Reading each other.

Their eye contact lasted long enough that the receptionist cleared her throat softly, a subtle reminder that they weren’t alone.

Paige smirked as she shifted her weight, finally glancing away. Azzi, on the other hand, bit the inside of her cheek, schooling her expression before turning her attention down to Lukas, who had been watching the interaction with his wide, curious eyes.

Azzi crouched slightly, offering the boy a warm smile. “Hey, buddy,” she greeted, her voice softer now.

Lukas, still flustered from before, rocked on his heels before shyly mumbling, “Hi.”

Paige watched the exchange with amusement, her heart beating a little faster than it probably should have been.

Azzi stood up, her gaze flickering to the small bowl of candy on the receptionist’s desk. She grabbed a piece, then turned to Paige with a silent question in her eyes, lifting the candy slightly in Lukas’s direction.

Paige let out a quiet laugh, nodding. “Yeah, he can have it.”

Azzi grinned and crouched again, holding the candy out to Lukas. “This is for you.”

Lukas’s eyes widened slightly, his shyness momentarily replaced with excitement as he reached for it. “Thank you.”

Azzi chuckled. “You’re welcome.”

Paige watched the exchange shaking her head. “You tryna win him over with candy already?”

Azzi smirked, glancing at her. “Is it working?”

Paige looked down at Lukas, who was now inspecting the candy like it was a prized possession, his tiny fingers gripping it tightly. “Yeah… definitely.”

Azzi turned back toward the receptionist, giving her a small wave. “Goodnight, Kelly,” she said with a smile.

“Goodnight, Dr. Fudd. Paige,” Kelly replied, her tone slightly teasing as she subtly glanced between Azzi and Paige.

Azzi rolled her eyes but smiled before following Paige and Lukas toward the elevator. As the doors closed, the three of them stood in comfortable silence, Lukas still clutching his candy while sneaking glances at Azzi.

When they got outside, Paige immediately reached for Lukas’s hand, keeping him close as they walked to her car. Azzi attempted to open the passenger door but Paige stopped her and with her free hand, she pulled open the passenger door for Azzi.

Azzi arched her eyebrow but smirked as she slid into the seat. “A real gentle woman,” she teased.

Paige snorted. “You’re welcome.”

Once Azzi was settled Paige shut the door for her and turned her attention to Lukas, opening the back door and lifting him up into his car seat. She stepped back, watching as he carefully buckled himself in, his small hands fumbling with the straps.

“You got it?” Paige asked.

Lukas nodded, determined. “Mhm.”

Satisfied, Paige shut his door and made her way around to the driver’s side, sliding in behind the wheel.

For the most part, the car ride was quiet as they drove to Paige’s house. She wanted to give Azzi time to wind down, having heard how draining her days can be sometimes. Azzi didn’t seem exhausted, but she wasn’t rushing to fill the silence either. She simply gazed out the window, her body relaxed in the passenger seat.

In the backseat, Lukas had talked himself out for a bit. He stared out the window, occasionally kicking his feet as he took in the sights passing by. Every now and then, he’d say something random—commenting on a car, a dog he saw on the sidewalk, or just mumbling a thought that popped into his head.

Paige, of course, always responded, laughing at his little observations or answering his occasional questions. One hand was lazily gripping the wheel, the other resting on the gear stick, fingers drumming lightly against it.

Eventually Azzi glanced down, noticing the movement before subtly reaching over. She slid her hand over Paige’s, fingers curling around her wrist for a second before tugging it toward her lap. Paige let her, exhaling a quiet chuckle as Azzi interlaced their fingers, resting their joined hands on her thigh.

Neither of them said anything. Paige’s thumb brushed against Azzi’s skin absentmindedly, and Azzi just let herself enjoy the warmth of Paige’s touch. It was simple, but there was something grounding about it. Something comforting.

A few minutes later, Paige pulled into a spot near a small café, glancing in the rearview mirror. “You hungry, little man?”

Lukas perked up immediately, nodding. “Yes!”

Azzi chuckled, shaking her head. “Didn’t even hesitate.”

Paige smirked, already knowing the answer before she asked. “Figured I’d stop now so he’s not up too late.”

Paige ran inside and ordered some grilled chicken wraps for all of them, and a fruit cup for Lukas. As she pulled back onto the road, the smell of the food quickly filled the car, and Lukas hummed in satisfaction from the backseat.

“That smells so good,” he mumbled, his voice sleepy but happy.

Paige grinned, glancing over at Azzi. “See? Man’s got priorities.”

Azzi smiled, giving Paige’s hand a small squeeze. “Can’t argue with that.”

As Paige pulled into the garage, the car had barely come to a complete stop before Lukas was already unbuckling himself. The second the lock clicked, he swung the door open and bolted inside, his small feet pattering against the floor as he rushed to reunite with the toys he had been separated from while staying at his grandmother’s house.

Paige chuckled, watching him disappear into the house. “Big head didn’t even say bye,” she mumbled.

Azzi laughed as she stepped out of the car, stretching her arms above her head before following Paige inside.

As soon as Paige set the food down on the island, she turned to Azzi and pulled her in by her waist. Azzi barely had time to adjust before Paige’s lips were on her neck, pressing slow kisses against her skin.

Azzi exhaled softly, her arms winding around Paige’s shoulders as she tilted her head, offering more access. Paige hummed against her skin, trailing her lips lower, taking her time as if she was reacquainting herself with the feeling of having Azzi this close again.

Azzi sighed at the sensation, her fingers threading through the hairs at the nape of Paige’s neck, nails scratching lightly. “Missed me, huh?” she teased, though her voice came out softer than intended, reflecting just how much she was feeling it too.

Paige smirked against her skin, pressing one last open mouthed kiss beneath Azzi’s jaw before whispering, “Maybe a lil.”

Azzi pulled Paige toward her lips, her voice a soft whisper against the small space between them. “Liar,” she whispered before closing the distance, pressing their lips together.

Paige melted into it, her hands tightening around Azzi’s waist as she let herself sink into the warmth of Azzi’s mouth. It had only been a few days, but it felt like forever. She could feel Azzi smiling against her lips, could feel the way her fingers curled into her hair.

Just as the kiss was about to deepen, Paige heard the sound of small, hurried footsteps making their way toward the kitchen. Her instincts kicked in and with a quiet sigh, she tugged playfully on Azzi’s bottom lip before pulling back, smirking when she saw the way Azzi’s eyes fluttered open, a little dazed.

Azzi exhaled, blinking as if she was snapping herself out of it. “You’re evil,” she whispered.

Paige grinned, stepping away just in time for Lukas to come sprinting into the kitchen, completely oblivious to what he had just interrupted.

Paige glanced over at Lukas, who was bouncing on his feet, eager to eat dinner. “Go wash your hands so you can eat.”

Lukas nodded and dashed toward the sink, stepping onto his little stool that was positioned for him to reach the faucet. He hummed quietly to himself as he scrubbed his hands, focusing intently on the task at hand. Paige smiled at him before turning her attention back to the food, moving everything to the table,

As Lukas finished washing his hands, he hopped off the stool and walked over to the table, his eyes scanning the seats. “Ma, can I sit there?” he asked, pointing to the seat next to Azzi.

Paige laughed, raising her eyebrows at Lukas's sudden preference for the seat next to Azzi. "Go ahead," she said. She pushed his food over toward that spot, smiling as Lukas happily scooted into the chair beside Azzi and began to dig into his food.

Paige handed Azzi her food before sitting across from her, offering a small smile. Azzi’s lips quirked into a smile of her own as she murmured, “Thank you.”

The dinner started with easy conversation between Paige and Azzi, filled with them talking about the past few days and plans for the upcoming weekend. Lukas chimed in here and there, his voice cutting through the conversation with random, innocent comments or questions. It felt effortless—comfortable, even—until Lukas suddenly stopped, looking up at Paige with a serious expression on his face.

Paige was in the middle of talking to Azzi about her game on Sunday when Lukas suddenly cut in, his voice serious. "Ma, I got a question," he said, pausing with his kids-wrap halfway to his mouth.

Paige looked over at him, raising an eyebrow. "Wassup?"

Lukas set his wrap down. "Can I have a girlfriend yet?"

Paige’s mind raced, her face briefly going blank before she recovered. She was prepared for a lot of things, but not that—certainly not from her freshly four-year-old. She glanced at Azzi, who was struggling to suppress her laugh.

Paige cleared her throat, trying to keep her voice steady. "No, buddy," she said, simply.

Lukas looked a little bummed, his small brows furrowing. "When can I have a girlfriend?"

Paige nearly choked on her own laughter at the sheer seriousness in his voice, but she composed herself, trying to act like it wasn’t the most absurd thing she'd ever heard. "Dude, why are you asking? You're, like, four."

Lukas just shrugged, his cheeks turning a little pink as he looked down at his plate. Paige couldn't help but laugh, shaking her head. "16, maybe," she said, figuring that might be a reasonable answer for when he'd actually be ready for a girlfriend.

Lukas looked up at that, trying to do the math with his fingers, clearly confused. After a few moments, he looked back at Paige. "How many years is that?" he asked earnestly.

Paige took another bite of her food, smiling despite herself. "Twelve," she answered casually.

Lukas stared at her for a moment, his small brows furrowing in thought. Then, in his innocent, matter-of-fact way, he turned to Azzi and asked, “Excuse me. How old will you be in 12 years?”

Paige froze for a second, her wrap halfway to her mouth. She glanced at Azzi, whose eyes widened in surprise at the unexpected question.

Lukas stared up at Azzi, his blue eyes wide and serious, still waiting for an answer. Paige squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, trying to come up with a way to explain this to her four-year-old. She put her food down and let out a quiet sigh, then looked at Lukas. "Lukas, buddy..." she trailed off, clearly struggling to find the right words.

Lukas looked at her expectantly, waiting for a response from one of them. Paige gave up trying to come up with a more tactful response and just went with the straightforward answer. "You can't date Azzi, buddy."

Lukas blinked a few times, then scrunched up his face. "Why not?"

Paige sighed, glancing over at Azzi, who could see how much Paige was struggling. With a soft smile, Azzi finally spoke up. "I'm a little too old, Luke.”

Lukas looked between the two of them as he tried to make sense of it all. “Even in twelve years?”

Azzi let out a soft laugh, her eyes crinkling as she smiled at him. “Yes, even in twelve years.”

Lukas let out a thoughtful “Oh,” and nodded slowly, accepting the answer as fact. But he wasn’t done yet. He then looked at Paige. “Ma, do you like Azzi? She’s not too old for you right?”

Paige blinked, once again caught slightly off guard by the abrupt shift, “Yeah, I do,” she said with a soft smile.

Lukas tilted his head side to side. “Like… like like?”

Paige chuckled again, reaching for her glass of water. “Yes, Lukas. Like like like.”

Lukas hummed thoughtfully, his spoon full of fruit paused in midair as he mulled it over. Paige watched him for a beat, a small hint of nervousness in her smile. “Is that okay with you?”

He shrugged, already turning his attention back to his plate like the weight of the conversation hadn’t even touched him. “Yeah,” he said casually, scooping up another bite of fruit. “She’s pretty.”

Paige blinked, then burst into quiet laughter, glancing across the table at Azzi—who was doing a terrible job of hiding her smirk behind her water glass.

“Well,” Azzi said playfully, leaning an elbow on the table, “guess I’ve got son approval now, huh?”

Even though Azzi was addressing Paige, Lukas nodded through a mouthful of food. “Mhm. You can stay.”

After that, the rest of dinner was pretty uneventful—filled mostly with Lukas’s nonstop chatter, bouncing from one random topic to the next now that he had food in his stomach. Paige and Azzi let him lead the conversation, throwing in playful questions to keep him going.

But even as they talked, Paige couldn’t help but notice the way Azzi’s foot kept brushing against her leg under the table.

Once dinner was cleared and Lukas had finished the last of his water, Paige stood and stretched. “Alright, time for bath and pajamas,” she said, nodding for Lukas to follow her.

He grumbled in protest but still grabbed his toy car and trudged after her toward his room.

Azzi smiled at them before catching Paige’s eye. “I’ll hop in the shower while you do that,” she said softly.

“Sounds good.”

…

When Azzi finished her shower, she oiled and detangled her hair before pulling it into a messy bun on top of her head. She slipped into one of Paige’s old college shirts—the UConn logo stretched across the front with the number 5 on the back.

She padded downstairs, the sound of laughter greeting her before she even reached the bottom step. As she rounded the corner, she paused in the archway, smiling at the sight in front of her—Paige and Lukas were tangled up on the living room floor, both laughing like crazy.

Lukas was squirming beneath Paige’s hands, squealing through fits of laughter. “Ma! Stop, stop! That tickles! I gotta breathe!”

Paige grinned, completely unbothered by his protests as she continued to tickle him. “Nah that’s what you get for splashing me in the tub!”

Azzi leaned against the wall, her heart softening at the sight.

Lukas finally managed to roll on top of Paige—she let him, of course—and he immediately launched his counterattack, his tiny hands moving clumsily as he tried to tickle her sides.

“Ha I got you now!” he declared, his grin huge.

Paige exaggerated her reaction, squirming under him as she laughed. “Ahh! No, not the tickle monster!”

Through her playful flailing, she caught sight of Azzi standing there, leaning against the archway. Her smile softened the moment she saw her, eyes flicking to the UConn shirt hanging comfortably on Azzi’s frame. It was an old one—faded lettering and all—but it looked ridiculously good on her. Paige smirked, eyes trailing over Azzi for way too long before she scooped Lukas up with a grunt and stood.

“Alright, go play with your toys for a bit. I gotta go shower.”

Lukas nodded, already halfway to his favorite corner of the living room, which was packed with cars, a mini ball and hoop, and a table with art supplies all over it.

As soon as his back was turned, Paige crossed the room toward Azzi. Without saying anything, she grabbed her hand and tugged her around the corner and out of sight. Azzi let herself be pulled, curiosity dancing in her face—until her back met the wall gently and Paige stepped into her space, hands on both sides of her waist.

Paige mumbled, “You look good in my shirt.”

Azzi tilted her head, smirking now. “Do I?”

Paige nodded, eyes flicking down her body briefly before meeting Azzi’s again. “Yeah… too good, honestly.”

Azzi bit back a smile, her hands sliding up Paige’s arms. “Maybe you should let me borrow your clothes more often.”

Instead of responding Paige just leaned in, pulling her into a kiss that was deeper than usual, her lips lingering longer as she gently pressed Azzi against the wall again.

Azzi melted into it for a moment before murmuring against Paige’s lips, “Thought you were going to shower.”

Paige smirked, lips brushing over hers again. “Five more seconds won’t kill me.”

Azzi grinned. “You gonna be thinking about this the whole time you’re in there aren’t you?”

Paige’s thumb dragged lazily across her side. “Absolutely.” With that Paige smiled at Azzi and gave her one more quick kiss before she went upstairs to shower.

Azzi’s stomach was still warm from Paige’s kiss as she wandered into the living room, her fingers absentmindedly playing with the hem of the shirt. She sank into the couch, exhaling softly into the quiet. Lukas was still off in his corner, mumbling to himself as he attempted a spin move, and for a moment, Azzi let herself get lost in everything—how comfortable this all felt, how unexpected it was, how easy it had become to want this.

She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, she didn’t notice Lukas approaching until he was standing in front of her, holding out a picture book with his hands. “Can you read this to me please?”

Azzi smiled as she took the book from him. “Of course I can.”

He didn’t say anything as he climbed up beside her, settling close. Azzi waited for him to get comfortable, letting him wiggle around until he was satisfied with his spot. Then she opened the book across both their laps and began to read, her voice smooth as she brought the story to life.

Every so often, she’d pause to point something out—“What do you think that is?” or “Look at that face, silly, huh?”—and Lukas would grin, nod, or offer a quiet answer. His responses were soft, but they came quicker with each page, his comfort growing right alongside his curiosity.

By the fifth or sixth page, Lukas was fully leaned into her, his head gently resting against her chest. Azzi didn’t say anything about it. She just shifted the book slightly, adjusting to his weight as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

When Paige came back downstairs in her usual shorts and a sports bra, she froze just before she entered the room. Her eyes locked onto the couch—and for a second, she genuinely felt like she couldn’t move.

Lukas was curled into Azzi’s chest, his small body tucked against her like he belonged there. Azzi’s arm was wrapped loosely around him, the book still open in her hand as she read in a quiet voice. Lukas’s blue eyes fluttered, heavy with sleep, but still trying to hold on to her words.

Paige felt her throat tighten, breath catching as something sharp and soft cracked open in her chest. The sight hit her so hard she had to press her lips together to keep them from trembling. Her eyes stung, but she blinked quickly, swallowing the emotion down before it could rise too far.

She took a steady breath and stepped into view, her voice softer than usual as she asked, “What’s going on in here?”

Lukas didn’t even look up, just waved her off with a sleepy hand. “Sssh, ma… she’s reading to me.”

Azzi bit the inside of her cheek to hold back a laugh, while Paige chuckled under her breath. She crossed the room and sank onto the couch next to Azzi, her arm naturally stretching along the back behind her shoulders.

Azzi glanced sideways at Paige for a second, and they shared a look. Once again a blink longer than it needed to be.

Then Lukas shifted and looked up at Azzi expectantly. “You stopped.”

Azzi smiled, eyes still lingering on Paige before turning back to the book. “Right. Where were we?”

Lukas says easily, “The elephant.”

“Right the elephant, thank you.”

Azzi finished the story and Paige sat quietly beside her the whole time—fingers tracing absentminded patterns along the back of Azzi’s neck. It started out casual, innocent even, but as the pages turned and Lukas leaned heavier into Azzi’s side, Paige's touch grew more purposeful, more tender.

When she noticed that Lukas had fully fallen asleep, his little breaths even, Paige leaned in closer. She pressed an open-mouthed kiss just beneath Azzi’s jaw, then another along the curve of her neck, her voice barely a whisper as she murmured, “You’re really something, you know that?”

Azzi exhaled softly, her eyes fluttering closed for a second. Paige smiled against her skin and whispered again, lower this time, “You keep doing shit that makes me wanna give you whatever you ask for..”

Azzi turned her head just slightly, enough for their noses to brush. “You’re not making it easy to stay still right now.”

“Good,” Paige whispered, her lips grazing Azzi’s. “Wasn’t trying to.”

Paige pulled Azzi into a soft kiss, her hand slipping gently along Azzi’s jaw as their mouths moved together slowly. Their tongues met and lingered, tracing one another’s with a quiet kind of desperation. When Paige finally pulled back, her smile was laced with something fuller—adoration, maybe.

“You’re amazing,” she whispered against Azzi’s lips, still close enough to feel her breath.

Azzi blinked, eyes searching Paige’s for a moment before replying just as softly, “You’re amazing.”

Paige exhaled, a content sigh leaving her as she rested her forehead briefly against Azzi’s, not wanting to move. She finally pulled back, eyes flicking to Lukas. “Alright,” she murmured, “Imma take him to bed.”

Azzi nodded. “I’ll meet you in your room.”

Paige stood up and scooped Lukas into her arms, the little boy still sound asleep, head resting against her shoulder. She carried him upstairs, her steps quiet and practiced. Once she reached his room, she gently laid him down, tucking his blanket around him before turning on his night light by the bed, and the one in the bathroom connected to his room—just like always. She stood there for a moment, watching him, brushing a hand through his blonde hair before quietly stepping out and closing the door behind her.

Paige walked into her room and found Azzi sitting on the bed, eyes focused on her phone. The moment Azzi looked up and saw Paige, she set it aside without hesitation. After shutting and locking the door Paige moved toward the bed, standing between Azzi’s legs, looking down at her with a soft smile.

"Thank you for reading to him," Paige said, her voice sincere. "You didn't have to do that."

"You don't need to thank me for being a decent human," Assi teased.

Paige smiled at her, her heart softening. Before she could say anything else, Azzi reached for Paige's hand, tugging her gently onto the bed so she was hovering over her. Paige smirked down at her. “Wassup?”

Azzi’s gaze remained steady as she looked up at Paige, a hint of curiosity in her eyes. “Did you sleep with anyone while you were gone?”

Paige looked a little shocked at the question causing a slight pause before she answered. “Um..no…?”

“Why not?”

Paige shifted slightly, her eyes searching Azzi’s face to figure out where her mind was. Eventually Paige let out a small sigh saying, “Look I like you Azzi. A lot. And I realized that pretty early on. So I guess I just didn’t wanna disrespect you, your time, or the energy you’ve given me. It didn’t feel right.”

There was a quiet weight to her words, and Azzi felt a warmth stir inside her as she processed what Paige had said. The honesty between them always seemed to draw them closer.

Azzi answered back, “It sounds childish to say, but...I like you a lot too,” she admitted, a small but genuine smile forming on her lips. “And I’m probably going to regret saying this, but I can’t get you out of my head most days.”

Paige smirked, just as Azzi knew she would, but Azzi wasn’t done yet. “I just—I really can’t get hurt again, Paige,” she said, the vulnerability in her voice cutting through the small space between them.

Paige’s expression softened, her blue eyes warm as she gazed down at Azzi. “I wouldn’t hurt you, Azzi.”

Azzi’s eyes searched hers. “You don’t know that,” she replied quietly, her heart still a little heavy with the weight of past experiences.

Paige’s smile was gentle as she leaned in closer. “I do,” she said with quiet conviction. “Azzi, I have a son. This is about to be my 7th year in the league. I’m ready to slow down, have consistency in my life... in Lukas’ life.” Paige paused for a second before adding, “And I’m not about to lie to you, maybe four months ago I couldn’t say all this, but this past week away from you kinda showed me where I’m at mentally. So I'm telling you, you don’t need to worry about allat. I got you.”

Paige's words washed over Azzi, and for the first time in a while, she let herself feel hopeful that maybe, just maybe, this was something different. Something real. With a small smile Azzi connected their lips gently.

It deepened as Azzi pulled Paige closer, her hands wrapping around Paige's shoulders, urging her down, wanting to feel her weight on top of her. Paige hovered over her, their chests pressing together, the heat of their closeness growing as they kissed with a quiet urgency. It was slow, but every kiss seemed to carry the weight of the last few days they'd spent apart, the longing finally being given room to breathe.

For a few moments, they lost themselves in each other, their kisses messy yet perfect. Their lips moved against each other in a rhythm that somehow felt new and familiar at the same time. Occasionally, one of them would sigh softly, a breathless sound that only seemed to deepen the connection between them. Each touch, each shift of their bodies, felt like a reaffirmation of something they haven’t said yet.

Paige’s hands had drifted to Azzi’s neck, gently pulling her in closer, feeling the warmth of her skin beneath her fingertips. Every so often, one of them would pull back slightly, just enough to catch their breath, their foreheads resting together, eyes fluttering open to gaze at one another.

Paige’s breath hitched when she heard Azzi slightly moan into the kiss causing her to slowly move her lips to Azzi’s neck, pressing a soft kiss there before returning to her mouth. “I missed this,” Paige whispered between kisses.

Azzi smiled against Paige’s lips, her hands tracing the outline of Paige’s jaw before pulling her back in for another kiss. “Me too,” she murmured, her lips capturing Paige’s with a different intensity.

As the kiss grew heavier, Paige slowly broke from Azzi’s lips, her mouth trailing down the curve of her jaw, pressing wet open mouth kisses until she found that spot on her neck that she knew Azzi liked. She attached her lips there, sucking gently before soothing it with her tongue, her breath hot against Azzi’s skin.

Azzi let out a quiet, involuntary sound—half sigh, half moan—as her fingers curled into Paige’s shoulders. “That feels good,” she mumbled, her head falling back to give Paige more access.

Paige smiled against her neck, lips brushing over the spot she’d just kissed. “Yeah?” she whispered, her voice low, full of quiet satisfaction at Azzi’s comment. “Swear I been thinking about this—about you all week.”

She nipped gently again, her hands smoothing up and down Azzi’s side. “Missed you so much,” she murmured into the warm skin of her neck, letting the words linger as she started to suck gently on Azzi’s neck again..

Azzi’s breath hitched, and she whispered, “Paige…”

Paige immediately paused, pulling back as her eyes searched Azzi’s. “You okay?” she asked softly, already easing off her, assuming they needed to slow down.

But Azzi shook her head and reached for her, fingers curling around the back of Paige’s neck as she tugged her back down, closer. “No, don’t…I didn’t mean stop,” she said, her voice breathless. “I just—God, I just wanted to say your name. It felt good.”

Paige smirked, her lips brushing against Azzi’s jaw as she leaned in again. “Mmm ok,” she murmured before kissing down her neck again, slower this time. Her hands slipped beneath Azzi’s shirt fingertips dragging along her warm stomach, tracing the lines of her sides.

Azzi’s fingers tightened slightly around Paige’s shoulders as she whispered, “Take it off.”

Paige once again paused, pulling back just enough to see her face, her hands still resting on Azzi’s ribs. Her voice was gentle, steady. “You sure?” she asked, blue eyes locked on Azzi’s brown ones, no pressure in her tone—just a quiet promise to Azzi that they could wait if she needed.

“Yes,” Azzi said, barely above a whisper. “I want this.”

Paige nodded and slowly lifted herself off of Azzi, her hands gliding down her sides as she moved. Azzi shifted fully onto the bed, her back resting against the pillows. She peeled off the UConn shirt—the one that smelled like Paige, the one she secretly didn’t want to give back.

Paige's gaze swept over Azzi’s bare chest, quiet and steady. Her blue eyes had dilated so they appeared darker, but the look she gave Azzi was soft, almost reverent. Like she was seeing something sacred.

Climbing back over her, Paige leaned down and whispered, “You’re so beautiful, Azzi.”

Azzi smiled up at her, a little breathless already. “Thank you.”

Paige shook her head, her voice even softer now. “I’m for real… I’ve never seen anyone like you.”

Azzi didn’t say anything this time. She just smiled and pulled Paige into another kiss, her fingers threading into the back of her hair. The kiss was slower now, full of everything that had been simmering between them for months. Azzi pulled back slightly, her lips brushing against Paige’s as she murmured, “Did you lock the door?”

Paige smiled. “Course I did.”

Paige lifted herself slightly, her eyes never leaving Azzi’s as she reached for her sports bra and tugged it over her head, tossing it aside. Warm light from the bedside lamp caught the lines of her body, casting soft shadows across her toned muscles. Azzi’s breath hitched, her eyes flickering over Paige—seeing her for the first time.

Paige dipped back down, her lips brushing over Azzi’s jaw before trailing lower—pressing slow, open-mouthed kisses down her neck, across her collarbone, and then to the top of her chest. Her hands stayed on Azzi’s sides, thumbs moving in gentle, slow circles as she explored the new territory.

Azzi exhaled sharply, her fingers flexing against Paige’s back as her body arched into the touch. “Paige please…” she whispered, breathless and quiet, her voice catching on the edge of a moan.

Paige smiled softly against her skin, not saying anything—just letting her lips speak for her as she sucked along the curve of Azzi’s chest, her skin warm and flush against hers now. Every shift of Paige’s body, every lingering kiss, the way her tongue swirled around her chest, made Azzi whisper her name again and again, like she was afraid the moment would disappear if she didn’t hold onto the fact that it was Paige.

Paige’s mouth moved with purpose now, nipping and sucking gently at Azzi’s skin, leaving behind little pink-ish purple trails like a map of where she’d been. Her hands slid down Azzi’s sides, fingers curling and squeezing every so often—grounding them both in the moment. Each time she dipped lower, she let her tongue soothe where her teeth had marked.

Azzi’s breath caught again when Paige’s tongue traced her nipple, her back arching into the feeling.

“You sound so beautiful,” Paige whispered, her voice horse. She kissed the words into her just below her ribs, trailing them with her lips.

Azzi’s fingers found Paige’s hair, gently tugging as her eyes fluttered closed. Her heart was racing in her chest—not just from the way Paige was touching her—it was the way she was seeing her.

Paige looked up at her, her lips stilling for a moment as she whispered, “You okay?”

Azzi nodded, lips parted, her fingers tightening just slightly in Paige’s hair. Paige held her gaze for a moment longer, then slowly trailed down a little lower. Her mouth moved with care—pressing open-mouthed kisses, leaving behind soft marks that only Azzi would be able to see.

When Paige glanced back up, Azzi was already looking down at her—her brown eyes vulnerable, but filled with admiration. Paige paused, brushing her lips against her skin one more time before quietly asking, “Is this okay?”

Azzi nodded again, but Paige didn’t move. “I need you to say it’s okay for me baby.”

Azzi let out a quiet sigh, swallowing down the emotion that bubbled up. “Yes… yes, it’s okay,” she whispered, her fingers still in Paige’s hair. “It’s good. You’re good.”

Paige kissed her way slowly back up Azzi’s body, taking her time—savoring every inch, every sigh she pulled from her. When their lips met again, it was slow as Paige coaxed Azzi into relaxing, her hand sliding into the boxers she slipped on.

Her hand found Azzi’s clit, fingers brushing lightly as she began to trace slow circles against her wet center. The touch was soft, but the effect was immediate—Azzi’s breath catching, her body tensing slightly beneath Paige’s.

It had been a while so her senses felt heightened, her body already teetering between wanting more and struggling to keep up.

Paige felt it too—the way Azzi arched into her touch, the way her tongue pushed further into her mouth but her lips faltered at the edges. She pulled back slightly, just enough to rest her forehead against Azzi’s, her fingers still moving in gentle circles.

“Too much?” Paige whispered.

Azzi shook her head, her eyes half-lidded. “No,” she whispered. “It’s just…it’s been a long time.”

Paige nodded as she continued her movements. She watched Azzi closely—the way her chest rose and fell, the way her lips parted with each quiet breath. Paige leaned in and pressed a kiss to the edge of Azzi’s jaw, her voice warm.

“You look so beautiful right now,” she whispered. “So, so pretty.”

Azzi’s fingers curled in the sheets for a moment, her body shifting beneath Paige’s as she exhaled a shaky breath before saying, “You always say that.”

“Because it’s always true,” Paige said with a faint smile, nipping lightly at Azzi’s neck before soothing it with her lips. “And you sound even prettier. You don’t even know what you’re doing to me right now.”

Azzi let out a soft laugh at that, but it faded into a soft moan when Paige’s fingers dipped down towards her entrance slightly before moving back up. “You’re making it really hard to think straight,” Azzi whispered.

Paige grinned against her skin. “Good. Lemme just make you feel good then.”

Azzi looked at her, eyes warm—she reached for Paige’s face, her fingers brushing her cheek. “I missed you while you were gone”.

Paige smiled and leaned into her touch, kissing her palm softly before whispering, “I missed you too. So much.”

With that, Paige dipped her head again, her lips starting to trail lower.

She continued to move slowly against Azzi’s clit, her fingers tracing delicate circles, as she felt the way Azzi’s body began to shift beneath her. Azzi’s breaths grew shorter, her soft noises turning into quiet whimpers that were harder to hold back.

Her hips shifted, chasing the warmth of Paige’s touch, and Paige felt it. Paige glanced up through her lashes, a small smile on her face. “That feel good, baby?”

Azzi nodded, her brows knit together as she exhaled shakily. “Yeah… yeah,” she whispered, almost breathless. “Fuck—Paige, I…” Her voice trailed off into another soft sound as Paige’s fingers dipped just a bit lower—not quite sliding in yet, but close.

Paige’s lips curled into a soft smile, brushing another kiss along Azzi’s stomach as she whispered, “You’re so responsive…I love how your body’s talkin to me.” She slid her fingers near her entrance again, grounding Azzi with her palm against her side.

Azzi’s fingers found Paige’s hair again, tugging gently as her back arched into her. “You’re driving me crazy,” she whispered.

“I haven’t even started,” Paige chuckled. “I been thinking about this—about you—every night.”

Azzi let out a breath that was almost a moan, her head tilting back against the pillow. “Please stop teasing me,” she whispered.

Paige smiled curling her fingers in the boxers Azzi had on, her eyes meeting hers in a silent question. Azzi answered by lifting her hips slightly, giving her the go-ahead. Paige peeled the fabric down Azzi’s legs, tossing it aside before her gaze dropped—and lingered.

All Paige could muster was a quiet, “Damn,” her eyes taking Azzi in completely—the way she was already dripping for her.

Azzi blushed under the attention, a small smirk tugging at her lips, but she didn’t look away. Paige pulled back just long enough to tug her shorts and boxers off, letting them fall beside Azzi’s so she wouldn’t be the only one bare.

Then she leaned down towards Azzi’s center, her eyes soft as they scanned Azzi’s face. “This okay?” she asked, her voice quieter now, more serious.

Azzi nodded without hesitation. “It’s more than okay,” she said, her voice reflecting her excitement slightly.

Paige nodded giving Azzi one last lingering look before she dipped her head down and pressed a soft open mouthed kiss to Azzi’s center. The warmth of her mouth made Azzi’s breath hitch and her stomach flutter. Her fingers tightened around the sheets.

Paige felt it—heard it—and looked up at her again, her expression gentle but searching. “You good?” she asked softly.

Azzi nodded again, this time slower, her hand brushing against Paige’s shoulder. “I’m good,” she whispered. “Amazing.”

Paige nodded gently, her hand’s brushing along Azzi’s thighs as she leaned back down, mouth returning to Azzi’s center. She kissed there slowly—once, then again—each movement tender and slow, letting Azzi melt into the rhythm.

Then Paige shifted her position slightly, hooking Azzi’s legs with her arms. She dragged her tongue up and down slowly a few times causing Azzi’s breath to hitch, her fingers tightening in Paige’s hair. It wasn’t desperate, she just needed to hold onto something to stop herself from making unnecessary noises.

Paige smiled into Azzi softly. “You’re doing so good,” she whispered. “Taste so good baby.”

Azzi let out a soft sound at that, her cheeks flushed, eyes fluttering open to look down at Paige. There was so much emotion in Azzi’s chest, it felt like it would spill over.

After hearing Azzi’s reaction, Paige started to lick at her with a little less reservation now, circling her tongue at any part of Azzi she could reach. “Been wanting to take care of you like this for a long time.”

Azzi’s hand slid into Paige’s hair again, pushing her closer. Whispering “Mmm–then don’t stop. Keep going just like that.”

Paige dipped back down, her lips and tongue moving in tandem, like she was committing every inch of Azzi to memory. Paige would’ve thought she was the one losing herself in it, completely undone, if it weren’t for the continuous sounds slipping off of Azzi’s lips.

Tiny gasps when Paige would dip her tongue into her entrance. Whispered sighs. Her name falling out in a broken moan, now and then, said so softly it made Paige’s heart ache in the best way.

The warmth in Paige’s stomach bloomed, rising into her chest and pressing against her ribs. She hadn’t expected to feel this full—like she could float away from how much she felt in this moment. She glanced up at Azzi, her wet lips still brushing softly against Azzi as she whispered, “You sound so beautiful, baby…”

Azzi’s eyes were hooded now—couldn’t open them further if she wanted to. “Oh fuck baby—feels so good,” Azzi whimpered, voice barely there. “You feel so good Paige…”

Paige’s lips curved into the softest smile. “You don’t even know what you doing to me right now,” she murmured. “Never wanted to take my time like this. Could stay in here forever.”

Paige kept moving, her tongue and lips still working in perfect rhythm, like she knew exactly what Azzi needed—like her mind had already memorized every little response, every sigh and plea that Azzi gave her. She stayed patient, even as Azzi’s body started to arch, her hips shifting restlessly, trying to push Paige closer.

Azzi’s fingers tightened in Paige’s hair, her breathing ragged as her body started to tremble beneath her. Paige looked up, her mouth still attached to Azzi as their eyes met.

For a moment, they just held the gaze—Paige’s blue eyes dark, full of awe, and Azzi’s low and hazy with everything she was feeling. Azzi’s lips parted, as if she was about to say something but a soft sound slipped out that wasn’t quite a word, but Paige understood it anyway.

Azzi’s voice cracked as she whimpered out, “I’m so close…”

Paige didn’t speak—she just gave a soft nod, never breaking eye contact as she dipped her tongue fully into Azzi’s entrance, letting out her own sigh at the contact.

Azzi’s breathing caught again, her lashes fluttering, but she didn’t look away. Even as her body moved desperately into Paige’s mouth, she kept her gaze on blue eyes, like Paige’s eyes alone was the only thing steadying her.

Paige moved her thumb gently across Azzi’s ribcage, a silent kind of comfort as she worked her tongue into her.

Even though barely a word had been said, everything about the way Azzi reacted for Paige, the way she breathed her name like it was sacred, told Paige more than words ever could.

Azzi’s lips parted on a shaky breath, her fingers gripping at the sheets now, trying to hold herself together. The feeling was overwhelming—Paige’s mouth, her hands, her presence. Her body was humming, too warm, too full, and instinctively, her head tilted back slightly, eyes fluttering shut to escape how much she felt.

But Paige’s hand slid gently up her side, squeezing gently.

Azzi opened her eyes to see Paige shaking her head no, barely a motion.

Don’t look away.

Azzi let out a soft, broken noise, her gaze locking back onto Paige’s. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, her throat bobbing as she swallowed hard, her expression completely undone.

Paige never broke her rhythm, her own heart thundering at the way Azzi was starting to fall apart beneath her. But she didn’t rush—didn’t chase the end. She moved like she had all the time in the world, like every second mattered. Like Azzi deserved to be worshiped, not just fucked.

And Azzi—God, Azzi—she was unraveling. Her breath got stuck every few seconds, broken gasps and whimpers slipping out as Paige continued her path, eyes never leaving hers for long. Her hands had found their way to Paige’s now, interlacing them as she squeezed periodically.

Another lick. Another gentle stroke of her tongue. And still, Paige watched her without looking away.

Azzi’s eyes were glassy, lips parted, completely breathless until she was a trembling puddle beneath Paige, her body taut with feeling, unraveling as she cried out quietly. The pleas slipped from her as Paige helped her ride out her orgasm, the soft sounds of Azzi's lips echoing through the room and settling in Paige’s chest like a heartbeat.

Azzi’s hands gripped Paige’s shoulders now, her voice cracking with the way she whispered her name—over and over, like she didn’t know what else to cling to. And Paige, eyes still watching Azzi come undone, felt something bloom and break inside her all at once.

She’d never seen someone so beautiful. Never heard anything that made her feel like this.

Azzi was flushed and breathless, her eyes glassy and full of something that went beyond pleasure.

Paige kissed up Azzi’s body slowly, whispering quiet praises until she reached just beneath Azzi’s ear. “God, you’re so perfect.”

Azzi let out a small, broken sound in response, her hands sliding down to cup Paige’s face—pulling her into a kiss.

Their mouths moved in sync, like neither of them wanted to let go of the moment—like they were trying to memorize each other completely with just their lips. Azzi’s hands stayed on Paige’s face, thumbs softly stroking her cheeks and Paige melted into it, one hand pressed to Azzi’s side, the other tangled in her hair that was no longer pulled into the bun.

Between kisses, they whispered—barely-there words, soft sighs of names and praises that faded into the warmth between them. Nothing loud. Just the kind of quiet that held weight, the kind that wrapped around them.

As their foreheads touched, breaths mixing, chests still rising and falling in uneven rhythm, something settled in both of them.

This was different. This was home.

They didn’t say it out loud. Not wanting to put too much pressure on the other, but they both felt it. In the way Paige looked at Azzi—like she was the only thing that existed—and in the way Azzi held onto Paige—like she never wanted to let her go.

The two of them stayed like that for a few hours that night, wrapped in the quiet comfort of one another. As the night stretched on, they took their time to learn the rhythm of one another, the way their hearts beat when they were close, the little sounds and touches that made them both want more. The world outside seemed distant, like it didn’t matter anymore.

Every kiss, every whisper, every laugh when Paige said something that rolled off her tongue a little too easily felt like a tiny piece of something beautiful being woven into the fabric of their connection.

…

When Azzi woke up the next morning in Paige’s large bed to the sound of her alarm, the first thing she did was smile. Her brown eyes glowed with contentment, her gaze light as she was met the pillows beneath her. The sun streamed gently into Paige’s room, casting warm light across the space. She could slightly hear Paige and Lukas downstairs, though their voices were muffled, not able to travel far enough in the large house.

Azzi reached for her phone, checking her schedule for the day. After taking a moment to stretch, she pulled herself from the comfort of the bed, her body still warm from the night before.

She made her way to Paige’s closet, grabbing some clothes she had left here the last time she stayed over. When she walked into the bathroom she smiled to herself, thinking back to when she had playfully joked about how tangled her hair always was whenever she left Paige’s place. To her surprise, the next time she came over, Paige had bought her the exact hair products Azzi had in her own bathroom, a thoughtful gesture that had made Azzi laugh and tease Paige for a few days despite the blonde refusing to believe she was a “simp.” The memory brought a lightness to her chest, and she shook her head, feeling a warmth in her heart that she didn’t quite know how to put into words.

Azzi was looking at herself in the mirror when she heard what sounded like Lukas letting out a screech of laughter and she felt a strange sense of peace settle over her. It was a good morning. And, despite the busy day ahead, for once, Azzi didn’t mind. Everything felt a little lighter today.

Once Azzi had gotten ready for her day, she grabbed her heels from Paige’s closet and carried them downstairs with her. As she stepped into the living room, she expected to see Paige, but instead, she only saw Lukas. He was lying on the floor on his stomach, his head propped up with his hands as he stared at the TV screen. His blue eyes were wide, not blinking as he watched Bluey.

Azzi couldn't help but laugh softly, the concentration on his face was too much. She stood there for a moment, attempting to see if the little boy would finally blink, before quietly walking toward the kitchen.

She found Paige in there, humming softly to herself as she made coffee, the early morning light catching the edges of her blonde hair. Paige’s back was to her, so Azzi leaned against the doorframe for a moment just watching her.

There was something about these moments, something about the simplicity of it all, that made her feel at home.

“Good morning,” Azzi said softly.

Paige turned around, a smile instantly forming on her face. “Good morning,” she replied, the sun making her squint a little. Paige motioned with her head for Azzi to sit at the island.

Azzi smiled as she walked over and sat down. Paige was quick to follow, placing a plate in front of her with turkey bacon, avocado toast, and eggs.

Paige leaned down, pressing a gentle kiss to her lips. “Eat.”

Azzi laughed, her fingers brushing against Paige’s as she took the coffee, the warmth of the drink and Paige’s attention filling her with a sense of contentment. Paige grabbed her own plate before sitting down next to Azzi.

Azzi couldn’t help but notice how similar their portions were. With a small grin, she picked up one of her pieces of avocado toast and a few strips of turkey bacon, transferring them onto Paige’s plate.

Paige raised an eyebrow at her. “You need to eat, Azzi,” her voice was teasing and gentle as she said it.

Azzi smiled as she crossed her arms on the counter. “I am eating, but you need to eat more,” she replied with a playful grin knowing how much it annoyed Paige.

Paige rolled her eyes but she still had a smile on her face as she picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite. “You’re annoying.”

Azzi just laughed, watching Paige for a moment before grabbing a bite of her own food. “I know.”

Once they were finished eating, Paige cleared their plates and set them in the sink. “You need me to take you to the office?”

Azzi grinned as she stood from the counter, moving toward Paige and pulling her into a kiss without answering the question. Their bodies pressed against the cool granite of the countertop as the kiss deepened for a brief moment before Azzi gently pulled away. “It’s okay, Ben’s outside,” she whispered.

Paige nodded. She reached for Azzi’s hand, helping her balance as she carefully stepped into her heels. Paige’s eyes lingered on Azzi, her heart fluttering a little as she took in the sight of her. “You look too good,” she mumbled, shaking her head in disbelief.

Azzi couldn’t do anything but laugh at this. “You say that every time you see me before work…anytime you see me period actually.”

Paige licked her lips and smirked at Azzi. “Cause what you tryna look good for if I’m not there?”

Azzi just rolled her eyes playfully, adding, “Whatever.”

The two of them made their way toward the front door. Paige opened it, revealing Azzi’s driver waiting in the grey natural stone driveway. Azzi was about to lean in for a kiss goodbye when suddenly, the sound of little feet pattering against the floor rushed toward them.

Lukas came running up, his small arms wrapping around Azzi’s waist in a quick hug. “Bye, Azzi!” he said with a big grin.

Azzi was surprised but grinned at him. She gently squeezed his face with one hand, causing him to make a face. “Bye, Lukas,” her voice filled with affection.

Lukas released her and bolted back toward the living room, calling out as he ran, “Back to Bluey!”

Azzi laughed as she watched him disappear back around the corner. When she turned her gaze to Paige, she caught the soft, awestruck look on her face. Azzi didn’t point it out. She just let Paige have the moment.

Instead, she stepped closer, wrapping her arms loosely around Paige’s shoulders, brushing their noses together as she leaned in. Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I have to go gorgeous.”

Paige’s smile spread slowly, her hands slipping around Azzi’s waist. “I got practice in a lil bit, but I’ll text you after, okay?”

Azzi nodded, resting her forehead against Paige’s for just a second longer before they shared a quick kiss.

Then Azzi pulled away, walking toward the car with a small smile still on her face as Paige stood in the doorway, watching her go.

#pazzi #paige x azzi #pazzi fics

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kurikive · 10 months ago

Text

sticky | kim minji

things between you and minji are... sticky this summer.

— childhood friends to lovers, summer trip, soccer player!reader, slowish burn, lowkey bromance, futchish READER 💜

contains : cursing, kinda slight makeoutism, a lot of bro and dude, just a little bit of angst but i promise its literally nothing, NOT proofread at all i am tireeeddd

wc: 13.7k words

inspired by : Sticky — KISS OF LIFE

You're not really sure how you got here.

You’re watching the sunset at the beach with Kim Minji, your hand in between hers and the sand below you, your face two inches from her own, your lips two seconds away from colliding.

Actually, let's rewind.

It’s summer! It's been 3 long years of being away in Seoul. A soccer scholarship was always great, and you were having a fantastic time with your teammates and classmates, but you were completely burnt out after these exhausting last 6 months.

Korea University Anam Tigers proudly win 3rd place in the U-League for the first half of the season. 5 wins, 2 draws, 3 losses. Not too bad. You did better last year, but you're sure you'll recover and bounce back during the second half. Or maybe it was the alcohol and smell of grilled beef that was making you emotional.

After you finalize your amazing speech with a broken voice and a tear threatening to leave your eye, you realize you're actually quite drunk. The applause of your teammates startles you, and they may be mocking your sentimental state with their laughs and ‘aww’s and teasing pushes, but they cheer you on anyway.

“Han Y/N!” One of your teammates, Hsu Nientsu, also pretty tipsy, nudges your left arm as you sit back down, “Don't get so sensitive with us now!”

“Our Y/Nie gets emotional when drunk, huh?” Central striker Ahn Yujin, leader of the team, pinches one of your red cheeks from across the table, action to which you groan at.

“I just…” You sigh, drowsy and teary eyes block your vision yet you can still tell all your teammates are looking at you. “I really love our team and want us to do our best…” You make a mental note to never get drunk with your team again when they coo at you for a second time.

“Well then,” Oh Haewon starts pouring you another shot (she usually would make you pour it yourself, but your flimsy arms and hung head bring out the instinct to take care of you instead), “Let's climb up the leaderboard for Leftie!” She declares as she leaves the small glass of soju on your side of the table.

You hate the nickname. Nientsu came up with it the first year of your scholarship because when you were supposed to be in central midfield you spent most of your time on the left side of the field, for some reason. Her broken Korean and teasing nature muttered the name in an attempt to mock you and everyone started repeating after. You can't complain much about it. It stuck too well.

You take the shot and grimace at the bitter taste of alcohol. You're still not used to it even after countless team dinners.

Won Haneul, your roommate, best friend and goalkeeper, laughs at your expression. The other girls have already picked up their own conversation, yet she seems very entertained at your drunken state, “Unnie, are you sure you don't want to go?” You've told her multiple times to drop the formalities, it's a one year difference; she keeps refusing.

You look to your right and you (hardly) see her looking at you worried, but still smiling. It takes a couple seconds for you to process her words. “I… I think I should go.” You slur, you're sure you'll die if you take another shot.

Haneul nods, understanding as always. “Guys, I think me and Y/N unnie are gonna head back now!” You hear your teammates complain and whine but you can't make out anything they're saying.

“I'm too drunk!” You try your best to scold them, “And I have my last class tomorrow…”

A soccer scholarship didn't mean you were just in Seoul to play soccer and get drunk with your friends. You also had to study and attend classes, like everyone else. Maybe you would've had it easier if you had chosen Physical Education as your major. But no, you had chosen Media and Communication for some reason.

At least it was the last class before break.

“Go then! Quick! Get away!” You hear Jung Sunhye drunkenly shoo you two away. It makes you giggle. You wave goodbye to your teammates with your frail arms, it makes you look like a car rental inflatable. You hear a chorus of ‘sleep well’s and ‘Bye Y/N’s.

Haneul holds you as you walk out of the BBQ place, and then a cold wave of air hits you right when you realize you have to go up the hill to get to your dorm. You don't know if the chill you get in your spine is from the cool late night air or the dread of borderline hiking while drunk.

“Haneul, I'm sorry.” You don't even want to look at her in fear of getting dizzy. You're only a few steps up the hill but you're already breathing a little heavy. However, your apologetic expression is enough for her to understand your feelings.

“It's okay, unnie!” She's such a joy to have around not only as a teammate but as a friend. You hope her kindness never leads her to getting taken advantage of. You and the other girls would ruin the life of whoever could even dare.

“I'm really grateful for you, y’know?” You probably shouldn't talk while you're rapidly growing out of breath, but you're already sentimental.

“I'm flattered.” She says with a light laugh while pushing you from behind, making it easier for you to walk upwards.

“Are you going back to Suwon this summer?” You ask after a while of more heavy steps. Haneul had also gotten a scholarship and moved from Suwon to Seoul, therefore getting to be roommates with you.

“Mhm! Gonna go see my parents.” Her voice turns a little softer and you notice even when you're mostly out of your conscious mind. “What about you, unnie? Are you gonna stay here?”

It's been three years since you left your hometown and replaced the ocean with the river. Three years since you left your friends behind. Three years since leaving your mom and dad.

Of course you missed them. How could you not? It's not like you were avoiding them, the last summers were just filled to the brim with practice and studying and everything got tangled and you didn't even leave time for yourself.

That's over, though. You can already see yourself on the shore.

And then you're at the bus terminal. Hands shaky and heavy steps, just like the ones you took walking up the hill of your dorm building. You carry your backpack at your front and hold your gym bag on your left hand. You wait in line to step inside your bus and you think you're ready to fall asleep for the whole ride.

But once you're settled in your seat, your thoughts leave you restless.

There's a fear in the back of your mind that your friends will treat you differently when you arrive.

You've been gone for 3 years, and you talk slightly less now. But the group chat is still active, and you talk with them when you're allowed the time to. It's not like you've gone completely radio silent and disappeared from their lives.

It's just scary to be back.

But the scariest thing by far is the fear of being proven wrong. The fear of still liking her.

See, ever since you were a kid running around with a ball between your feet, you've had a crush on Kim Minji.

Neighborhood pretty girl. Class president in elementary, middle and high school. Best grades in your year. The most crushable girl ever.

You remember the first day you met her. You actually think about it a lot.

You were 7, playing soccer with your friend Gyuvin on the beach at sunset hours. There was no real goal to kick the ball towards, you were just trying to steal the ball from each other and keep it as long as possible. But then Gyuvin gets a little too close to taking the ball, and in panic you pass it to your right.

But there's no one to your right. And you realize you've just kicked it towards three girls about your same age building a sandcastle.

You see the ball roll away further and further away from you and Gyuvin, and closer and closer to the castle, and the girls don't seem to notice.

You don't know why you're frozen. You could've stopped the ball by now if you had run after it. Gyuvin notices your lack of movement and becomes the one who shouts instead, “BALL!”

It seems to wake both the girls and you up from your daze, and suddenly you're running as fast as you can to catch the ball before it collides with the sand clump. And you manage to catch it.

You had thrown yourself into the sand, and the ball gets stopped by your arms. But your head crashes into the sandcastle instead. It doesn't collapse completely, and it didn't hurt that much, but it suddenly knocked you out for a few seconds.

You hear Gyuvin’s voice behind you when your mind is back in its place. “We're really sorry! We'll help you patch it back up!” You shake of the sand from your head when you sit back up, and you can finally take a good look at the three girls.

They looked pissed.

The smallest of the girls speaks, “I guess you can help. You're lucky it didn't fall on your head.” She points at you and you feel guilt engulf your cheeks with its warmth.

“Great!” Your friend helps you shake off some of the remaining sand off of your head, “Let's get to work, Y/N!”

You're confused at his enthusiasm, you were just playing soccer with him a few seconds ago and now he wants to build a sandcastle with some girls you just met? “But… we were-”

Gyuvin cuts you off, “It's the least we can do. We almost destroyed it.” It makes sense, but you're still a little reluctant. You grab a shovel anyways.

Your friend is already introducing himself when you start digging a hole into the sand, “I'm Kim Gyuvin! What are your names?”

The short girl with short hair that spoke to you before is the first one to answer, “I'm Hanni Pham! I'm from Australia but we moved here a year ago.”

“Your parents like fish, huh?” The boy's joke makes Hanni's mouth open wide and her eyes dilate a good amount.

“How did you know?!”

“I'm Seol Yoona.” Says a girl with a voice so quiet you have to ask Gyuvin what her name was right after she said it, “What did she say?”

“Seol Yoona.” He repeats, and you get back to digging with a nod, not before you give an apologetic smile to the girl.

The last girl introduces herself, “I'm Kim Minji.” You notice three things about her. Her voice is deeper than the other two girls, her eyebrows are really pretty, and she's wearing a blue clip on her hair.

All three of the girls are pretty, but if Gyuvin asks you later who you thought was the prettiest you are sure you'll say Minji.

Said girl notices you've been doing nothing but dig since you started introducing yourselves. “What's the hole for?” She says.

“I'm gonna put water in it to make wet sand. It's going to make it easier to build and harder to collapse.” And right after you say that you stand up, bucket in hand, ready to go and fetch water from the shining ocean behind you.

But just as you're about to go, the girl with the pretty eyebrows calls out again, “What's your name? You never told us.” Right.

“Han Y/N.” You tell her with a smile.

“Han Y/N.” She repeats your name back to you, like you're not supposed to know it already. It sounds pretty coming from her.

The sunset glow crashes in the sea and bounces back into the eyes of the girl. You see them glisten as she looks into yours. Your heart starts beating as fast as it was when you were running around earlier.

“Don’t ever play soccer near my sandcastles.”

You look like an idiot, laughing by yourself in your seat. It's already night when you feel the bus stop in its tracks. You realize it's slightly warmer than when you departed, even at these hours of the night.

You're here. And you're not laughing anymore.

Everything you dread is getting closer by the second, and you don't want to face it.

It's been three years since the last time you saw your friends, since you saw Minji. Three years of only speaking to her in the group chat. Three years of believing you've gotten over her when in reality you were just getting distracted.

Because if you had truly moved on you wouldn't be worrying about moving on.

You step out of your bus and smell the scent of the ocean. Your worries fade away for the rest of the night. You'll worry about that tomorrow.

You're home.

It’s around 10:30 P.M. Knowing your parents they wouldn’t be asleep right now. They’re probably watching replays of soccer matches or some strange animal documentary. Even after three years you can tread lightly towards your home. Not much has changed.

The street lights are dim, and the wooden floor boards of the port are not much louder than the last time they squeaked beneath your feet. You take a picture of the moon watching over the dancing waves, then keep walking.

You wish you don’t run into any of your friends on the way to your house. It’s not like you don’t want to see them, but it’s late, and you couldn’t catch even a wink of sleep the whole ride. You just want to see your parents and sleep in between the warmth of their bodies like you did when you were just a kid. You chuckle at the memory.

You step into your neighborhood. Most of the lights are turned off, but you can hear a couple of things as you walk deeper into the block. Crickets, waves, and a couple different TV stations.

You get closer to the neighboring house from yours. Gyuvin’s house. The lights in the first floor are off, but there’s a dim light coming from the window of the bedroom facing the street. It (probably still) belonged to Gyuvin himself. You don’t really know what he’s doing at this hour of the night, but you won’t bother him right now, even when you get the urge to text him something like ‘look out ur window’.

You hear the voice of a commentator from outside the door of your house. They were watching replays. Knew it. You think about what to do next. It’ll be too loud if you ring the doorbell, Gyuvin might notice you’re here and come around to investigate, And then you get a sudden, bright idea.

You set your gym bag on the ground and start typing your mom’s number to call her, clicking on her contact when it shows up. You take a big breath and wait for her to answer, it doesn’t take her long.

“Hello, baby! What’s going on?” There’s a twinge of worry in her voice but she always answers so happily when you call her. You chuckle deviously, mischief is about to begin.

“Hi mama! I sent you guys a surprise, I’m calling to make sure if the package arrived safely. Sorry about the time, by the way.” You try to mask the smile appearing on your lips as you talk.

“A package?” She seems confused, “I.. We didn’t get anything.” She sounds a little more concerned.

“Really? Can you check the door? Maybe it came late.”

“I don’t think it’d come this late, darling.”

“Just check, ma. Please.” You hang up. You feel a little sorry for leaving your mother bothered and confused, but you try to telepathically tell her it’ll be worth it.

Your heartbeat starts picking up its pace when you hear the door unlock. You put your phone in your pocket and pick your bag up again.

When the door opens, the first thing you notice is your mom’s disheveled hair, probably from laying on the couch and watching TV. The second thing you notice is that her eyes immediately fall on the doorstep, and she frowns when she finds nothing. The third thing you notice is that, even before she realizes you’re there, she’s already taking out her phone to call you again, but she sees a pair of shoes in front of her before she gets around to doing that.

Her eyes travel from your old sneakers to the top of your head, and then they fall back at your face. Her jaw drops and her eyes look like they hold the moonlight in them when she realizes it’s actually you.

“Y/Nie…” She’s a little breathless when she says your name, and you laugh at the sound of rustling behind her. Your dad probably heard her.

“Hello!” You simply greet. Your father appears shortly behind your mother and you send a wave at him when you see he’s making the exact same expression as her. “Am I going to be outside all night? That’s how you greet your daughter?”

Your mother throws herself at you with a hearty laugh, it makes you happy too. “When did you get here?!” She asks, a little too loud for your liking, but you won’t complain. You pull away to greet your dad, who was frozen on the doorframe.

“Just now, actually.” Your father is in shock, but he does his best to hug you back, and the hug gets tighter when he finally understands it’s really his daughter. You giggle a little at his lack of words, then tap his back a little rougher when you start struggling to breathe, “Hey! Not so tight!”

He lets go and you hear him laugh more calmly now. “Let’s go in. Gyuvin doesn’t know I’m here yet and I want to surprise him tomorrow.” Your mom closes the door behind you, and then hits you on the back, quite roughly for your taste.

“How dare you not tell us you were coming?!” She rubs the same spot where she hit you when she hears you hiss at the pain, “It was a surprise!” You argue.

“Did you have dinner?” Your dad asks already in the kitchen, and your stomach growls even before you can respond. You giggle shyly at the noise, “I’ll take that as a no.” He says, “Go sit with your mom and watch TV with her. I’ll heat up something.”

“Oh, we’re not watching anything. You’re gonna tell me everything you’ve been doing.” Your mother taps the seat beside her on the couch, which you gladly take. “How was the season?”

You’re so happy to be back.

You wake up with the sunrise.

You fully expected to open your eyes and be hugging your mom while your dad was already up in the kitchen. And that did happen, except you wake up with your back sore from falling asleep on the couch. Your dad is in the kitchen, making breakfast for you three.

You rub your eyes and yawn. It wasn’t that late, you woke up pretty early actually. 8:27 A.M. Maybe it’s because your body is used to waking up early. Your dad looks back at you and laughs at your messy hair, smiles brighter when he sees one of your mom’s arms sticking out of the couch. “Rise and shine!” He says brightly.

“Morning…” The sound of your croaky voice seems to wake up your mom, as she’s already rubbing her face.

“Smells good.” She says in the same tone as you. “Is it almost done?”

“I just finished. Come take a seat.” Your dad turns off the gas from the stove. The scent of kimchi jjigae fills your home, and it makes you feel a lot more energized even before having a taste of it.

You run your hand through your hair to try and make it more presentable. Your mother goes up to your dad to ask for a taste, he waits for her approval. You start setting the cutlery and it makes you think of the mornings before school, but rather than getting sentimental, you enjoy the moment with a smile.

“Y/Nie, do you want apple juice?” Your mom asks with the fridge open, you just nod as you sit down.

When the three of you sit down to finally eat, you start to realize how much you actually missed this. You spent your mornings in Seoul either eating a quick and not-really-filling meal, or eating an energy bar and a vending machine kimbap with your teammates before practice. You don’t remember the last time you had a hearty breakfast.

The sound of laughter and birds chirping combined with the smell of a home cooked meal and the warmth of a seaside morning couldn’t compare to any of the emotions that crossed your heart whenever you won a match.

Your mom and dad gossip to you about your neighbors and everything you missed while you were away.

You don’t find it hard to believe when they tell you that the weird old man that used to drink his nights away at the port got arrested. One of your neighbors' sons dropped out of college to be a model, Kim Sunoo apparently. Good for him, you always thought he had a pretty face.

Supposedly, Minji keeps her title as the number 1 student even in college. You’re not surprised, but you do feel full all of a sudden. There’s just a little bit of stew left when you groan, “Ah… I’m full…”

Your mom raises an eyebrow, “Already?” She looks at your bowl and laughs, “Nevermind, you finished pretty fast.”

“Do you eat well in Seoul?” Your dad asks. You feel a little flustered at the question and stutter when you answer, “I mean… not in the morning, but I eat pretty healthily the rest of the day. Me and Haneul prepare meals when we have afternoon practice. I’d say we’re pretty good cooks.”

Your parents laugh, “I guess we’ll put you to the test one day.” Your mom nudges you, “And it’s ‘Haneul and I’, by the way.”

The correction makes your eyes roll as you stand up to wash your dishes, “Yeah, yeah, grammar queen. I’m gonna go take a shower and go to Gyuvin’s to surprise him, ‘kay?”

“Aye aye, captain!” Either your parents planned to do the same move and say the same thing at the same time beforehand, or they’re literal soulmates.

You get out of the shower and choose a simple outfit- some baggy, ripped jeans and a graphic tee that you found in your closet (you asked your mom if it was clean enough for you to wear, considering the closet looked a little dusty; she said it was fine). The shirt felt a little tight around the arms and it was quite smaller than you expected, but it wasn’t uncomfortable at all. If anything it made the outfit more interesting.

So you stand outside your friend's house, with nothing in your hands but a smile on your face. You’re not really sure if it’ll be him or his mom answering the door, but you hope either of them will be happy to see you.

You ring the doorbell, and immediately hear footsteps get closer from inside. You don’t know if your heart is going to race everytime this happens, but you just hope you get used to the feeling. The door opens and you're met with a familiar face, Ms. Kim, Gyuvin’s mom, dressed up and ready to go to work. It’s summer, though?

“Y/Nie?” She looks delighted to see you, and yet quite surprised. “You came back!”

You give her a bright smile after you bow in respect, “Good morning, Ms. Kim! How have you been?”

She steps back in a manner to invite you inside, “Oh, I’ve been well, dear. Gyuvin told me you weren’t able to visit these past years. We all missed you very much.” Her words surprise you, and you feel a little guilt squeezing your heart for two seconds.

“I’m glad to hear that, Ms.” She walks around the kitchen, packing what seems to be a lunchbox into her bag, yet still giving you her full attention. “Are you heading to work?” You ask curiously.

“Oh, yeah.” She looks a little agitated, “They don’t give me breaks, baby. I work for the news now!”

“Oh! How has that been going?”

She stops in her tracks, “Honestly, quite great.” She says, and you both laugh together. “Does Gyuvin know you’re here? I imagine he’s who you came to see.”

“He doesn’t.” The woman looks quite surprised. “I wanted to surprise him. I arrived just yesterday.”

“Oh honey, you’re gonna give him a heart attack.” She laughs and you chuckle, “I hope not!” You say,

“He’s in his room. He’s probably still asleep, but he’ll wake up if you knock hard enough. Make sure he doesn’t think you’re me, then he won’t get up.” The woman unlocks the door, coat hanging from her arm and bag over her shoulder, when she sees you nod. “I heard you won third place this half, right?”

“That’s right, ma’am.” You proudly say.

“Go Tigers!” Is the last thing she says before she walks out of the door. What a charming woman. You smile at yourself before walking up the stairs to your friend’s room.

Knock knock. No answer.

Knock knock knock. A groan.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. A louder groan.

“Kim Gyuvin, I will bust your door down.” You yell, “You think my legs haven’t gotten stronger?”

Fast stomps and the sound of a clutter of objects falling on the ground startle you slightly. The door opens so roughly you wonder if Gyuvin himself has also gotten stronger.

“Y/N?!”

“What fell on the ground?” You chuckle. He hugs you, possibly tighter than your dad. You didn’t quite expect it, but you welcome it anyway.

He pulls away like he’s checking if you’re not a hologram. You laugh the hardest when he pokes your cheek. He looks relieved, then mad. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?! When did you get here?!”

“I got here yesterday. You were still awake, I think. But I wanted to greet you properly, and I was really tired last night.” You explain with a little bit of remorse.

“Dude!” He hugs you once again, “Bro, I can’t believe you're back!” You hug him just as tightly. “I’m really happy I’m here.”

He pushes you lightly with a smirk, “Don’t get sappy on me.” He teases, “Congrats on third place, tiger.” You cringe at the nickname and push him back.

“Eww!” You both laugh, and you notice the bundle of things he has on the floor of his room, “You dropped all that?”

Gyuvin looks back, and pushes you out of his room, closing the door in shame. Unbelievable.

You hear him pick up the things and put them back in place, until he finally opens the door again. You’re right where he left you. “Get dressed. Your mom made you breakfast.”

“Wait, help me pick an outfit!” You’ve been here for less than a day and he’s already being annoying. Like always.

“Bro, I’m wearing a shirt that’s too small for me, I am not the one to ask for fashion help.”

“That’s your fault for getting swole!” You hear him yell while you go down the stairs. Maybe nothing's really changed.

You’re back at the kitchen. You look at the lonely plate at the table, it doesn’t look very appetizing. It’s not like it’s a bad meal, it’s an omelet and toast, but when you touch it it’s abnormally cold. Fuck you Gyuvin. He was probably supposed to wake up a while ago.

You take the plate and place it in the microwave, one minute should be fine. You open the fridge and snoop around to see if they still- yup, they still have a box of the triangle juice boxes you and Gyuvin always shared at school. Apple was your favorite. You’re sure he or his mom won’t mind you taking one while you wait for the food to heat up.

You take the little plastic straw attached to the juice box and stab it into the designated hole. Just as you close the fridge, you hear the shutter sound effect from a phone. You turn around and see Gyuvin already dressed up and smiling at his phone.

“Did you take a picture of me?” You ask. The microwave beeps, “That’s your food.”

“Check the group chat.” He says as he walks past you to the microwave. You take out your phone and rest your elbows on the counter when you open up the group chat. Gyuvin named it “Beach boys”, even when he himself was the only male.

You’re immediately met with a picture of you from your side, stabbing a hole into your apple juice box. You looked at yourself in the mirror this morning, but you only realize how tight the sleeves of your shirt look when you stare at the photo. “Damn…” You mutter

“Ow! Ow! Hot!” Gyuvin yelps as he walks beside you, plate in his hands. He sits down at the table while you scroll back up to check the other messages.

gyuv | 9:44 A.M.

guys Y/N got so swole its actually insane

sully | 9:44 A.M.

Well yeah shes an athlete what were u expecting

henny | 9:44 A.M.

did she post something on ig?

where is this coming from

minj | 9:44 A.M.

Good morning first of all

gyuv | 9:45 A.M.

yeah but ud expect her legs to get bigger or her thighs idk

tell me why this absolute gremlin has bigger biceps than me

i feel threatened

this feels like a bro code violation

henny | 9:45 A.M.

this feels more like you just being insecure

i checked her ig and theres nothing?

sully | 9:45 A.M.

Vin are you hallucinating be honest

minj | 9:45 A.M.

Why gremlin

If anything the gremlin is hanni

henny | 9:45 A.M.

literally so out of pocket

what compelled you to say that

gyuv | 9:46 A.M.

[1 attachment]

henny | 9:46 A.M.

Gyuvin is that ur fuckign house

is that han Y/N in your fucking house.

minj | 9:46 A.M.

What the hell

You | 9:46 A.M.

hi guys!

henny | 9:47 A.M.

Han Y/N are you in gyuvins fucking house

You | 9:47 A.M.

possibly

gyuv | 9:47 A.M.

[1 attachment]

guys im shaking theres a uleague third place winner in my kitchen

im so honored

sully | 9:47 A.M.

Omg she did get swole

Hiii Y/N

gyuv | 9:47 A.M.

RIGHT

IM SAYING LIKE

U DONT EVEM USE UR ARMS IN SOCCER

henny | 9:47 A.M.

Y/N when the FUCK did u get here

im gonna start vrying omg

You | 9:48 A.M.

i got here yesterday at night

i wanted to surprise u guys but ig gyuvin got too excited

pham hanni DO NOT CRY

hi sullyyy !!

henny | 9:48 A.M.

ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS

You | 9:48 A.M.

stop cursing so much omg

minj | 9:48 A.M.

This is actually crazy

How could you say nothing to us

I feel lowkey betrayed Han Y/N

You | 9:48 A.M.

IM SORRY???

so surprises are the worst thing in the world now huh

gyuvs mom was so much happier to see me than you guys fr

going back to seoul

it seems im not welcome

henny | 9:48 A.M.

Y/N actually stop playing rn

where do we meet

You | 9:49 A.M

me and gyuv will pick u guys up

were going to the soccer field

but i got money from the scholarship so we can buy stuff on the way

gyuv | 9:49 A.M.

guys just to be clear i had literally no idea she was here

she showed up at my house 20 mins ago

sully | 9:49 A.M.

Omg we can go to that antique shop thats close to our high school

henny | 9:50

literally how r u so calm abt this

minj | 9:50 A.M.

Maybe ur just abnormal

You cackle loudly at Minji's last text.

When you arrive at Yoona's house, she's already waiting for you two on her porch. She looks a little taller than when you last saw her. Her eyes light up when she sees you arrive.

“Y/N!” She runs up to you and hugs you so tightly your breath falls a little short. What's with everyone and suffocating you lately? “I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too, Sully!” You smile at her when you pull back, and the first thing she does is poke your arm. Her jaw drops in awe at the toughness of the muscle and it makes you laugh.

Gyuvin comes up behind you both with his arms open and a silly smirk, “Where my hug at?” It's quite awful. Yoona gags and sends him a distasteful look, which quickly shuts him down

You missed this. And it’s like this - full of banter and laughs - the whole way to Hanni’s house, the three of you take turns at making fun of each other, with the brief recurring tease at your job as an athlete.

Your friends like to brag about you being a college athlete, and a good one at that, but they certainly enjoyed sitting you up on a pedestal as a joke. They talked about you like you were the main star of the national team when in reality most people had little to no idea who you were even on campus, with the exception of the Yujin fans who tried using you to get close to her.

“Y/N, I promise you, when you make it on the national team, there’s gonna be a ton of fan accounts for you.” You’re in the middle of pushing Gyuvin away and blushing at his comment, about to contradict him when you hear a voice calling you.

“Han Y/N!” You don’t even realize you were already at Hanni’s house when you look towards the sound and two girls are waiting for you at the steps of a big house.

The first thing you notice is Hanni’s hair. She cut it, a fuckass (affectionately) bob that looked exactly like the one she wore the first time you ever met her.

The second thing you notice is that Minji is right beside her, already smiling at you. She stands up from the steps she and Hanni were sitting on and shakes off the dust from her pants. She wears a simple white graphic shirt and oversized blue jeans, beige puffer jacket hanging off her arms, and she looks so much taller than how she did when she was 16.

(That’s weird, shouldn’t she have stopped growing by then?)

The third thing you notice is your heartbeat suddenly racing when her eyes and yours meet for the first time in three years.

It beats at the same pace it did when the afternoon sun hit her face when you were 7. It beats at the same pace it did when you stared at her sitting by the window in middle school. It beats at the same pace it did when she sat beside you on the bus and fell asleep with her head on your shoulder.

Nothing has changed. Nothing at all.

It hits you like a bullet through your chest, but you try your best to ignore it as Hanni runs towards you.

“You asshole!” She yells with a smile on her face, and it contaminates your lips when she hugs you. She doesn’t hug you as tightly, but it’s longer than you expected. When she finally pulls away from you you touch the short strands of hair that cover her ears.

“What happened here?” You ask, watching in awe at the striking change.

“I kind of had an existential crisis last night.” She responds shyly while caressing her trimmed locks. “Minji helped me make it look better. It did not look good when I did it. They didn’t know either!” She points at the two behind you, both of them with their jaws hanging when you look back.

“Dude, you literally look seven again.” You say. You don’t mean it in a teasing way, she genuinely looks younger, but you reconsider telling her that when she hits you in the arm. Hanni widens her eyes at the unexpected roughness, “What the hell… you did get swole.”

“Can we stop talking about that?” The topic of your arms is starting to tire you, but it’s mostly embarrassing, so you groan at the mention.

You hear Minji laugh when Hanni goes up to the other two and they immediately start touching her new hair. It makes you laugh too, but you gasp a little when you feel a hand touch your shoulder.

“Hey.” She says, her god-damned pretty eyes look at you so sweetly, and her voice is so soft, and-

“Hey!” You say before thoughts about her take up your brain and you awkwardly freeze.

She smiles right before she hugs you, and it’s surprisingly warm, but you’re sure most of it comes from your own blood rushing everywhere inside you.

Everything about her is gentle, her eyes, her voice, her embrace. It’s a complete one-eighty in contrast to the tightness of everyone else who’s put their arms around you for the past two days.

“I missed you.” She says so delicately, almost quiet, even if she says it right next to your ear. And you’re about to melt, and she has no idea, so you hug her back, a little less soft than how she does, and say “I missed you too.”

It comes out a lot more calmly than you expect it, and you internally praise yourself for not making a fool out of yourself. It’s not like you want to pull away, but you might start sweating if you don’t.

You take your arms off her back and her warmth suddenly fades away. When she looks at your face again, there’s a small grin painting her lips, “Congrats on the win.” She pokes at your shoulder and you laugh at the gesture.

“It’s only third place. I want first.”

“Oh wow!” Her amused smile makes you dizzy, “Didn’t know you were so ambitious.”

“People change, I guess.” You giggle with her. But you haven’t really changed at all.

“Well, you better get first place, tiger.” She teases and you groan even louder at the nickname as you get away from her to join your friends. Maybe getting over Minji won’t be so hard.

Getting over Minji is going to be fucking impossible. Matter of fact, you're sure it’s never gonna happen. You’re going to be 45 and still think about her, and it’s going to slowly kill you.

You stare as she holds a little cow plush in her hands, inspecting it carefully. Her round eyes shine just like the glossy buttons of the doll. You think of a believable excuse before you take your phone out of your pocket and open the camera app.

You zoom in and despise how your fingers tremble before you snap a photo of the girl, unbeknownst to her.

Gyuvin comes up behind you, his voice is quiet yet it still startles you, “What’s the pic for?”

You look at him with widened eyes and bring your hand to your chest. “Just… memories.” Truth lies within your (not quite) excuse. “I want to look back on things like this when I go back to Seoul.”

The boy narrows his eyes at you and smirks, “So sappy.” He teases, so you zoom out the camera to 0.5 and take a bad close up of his face, “Hey!” He laughs.

You get away and put your phone back in your pocket to look at more of the items in the store. Many things catch your eye, small, shiny, weird, big, you could buy it all if you had the money to.

You walk around the shop, your eyes examine all the items on the old wooden tables and your fingers lightly brush on some of the more eye-catching trinkets. You stare at the little ceramic figurines of dogs and cats and other animals and mentally consider buying the little calico cat on the far left.

There are some cute keychains with little black and white designs as you pass by. You add them to your roster too. Hanni’s voice catches your attention from a few steps away.

“Y/N! What do you think of this cardigan?” She’s in the clothing section of the store, sporting a vintage cream colored wool cardigan with little brown stripes on the sides of the sleeves. It’s a little big on her, but oversized is trendy so it’s fine.

“It’s cute!” Your eyes glance towards some of the clothes behind her, “I like that one better though.” You point at the blue-gray checkered sweater behind her and she frowns in confusion when she looks at it, “Y/N, that’s so ugly.” Guess you don’t have an eye for fashion.

“Oh well…” You sigh and keep looking for more artifacts.

As you walk around, you accidentally bump the top of your head on some of the ornaments that hang on the ceiling, the sound of multiple wind chimes emerge a little before your quiet “Ow!”, which grabs the attention of Yoona and Gyuvin.

“You okay?” The girl asks in concern, but you can hear her hold back a laugh between her teeth. Gyuvin isn’t so subtle, his laughs resonating on the walls of the shop.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You assure Yoona as you rub your forehead with your eyes closed, turned away in embarrassment. When your eyes open again, they land on an item that makes you freeze a little.

A small, pale blue hair clip. It looked oddly similar, if not exactly the same as the one Minji wore on the first day you met. The clip she lost on that same day while the five of you swam in the ocean together.

You remember her being so upset when she realized it wasn’t there anymore, so much she cried silently on the way back to your respective houses. She was over the sadness of losing it in less than a week, but it stuck with you after Hanni told you in a whisper that it was the first time she ever saw Minji cry.

You immediately take the clip in your hands, the first item you’re certain you will buy. Actually, you buy it in that same instant. Thankfully, none of your friends seem to notice your quiet purchase, too engrossed in their own item search.

The five of you spend around 40 minutes in total in that damn shop, and you could kind of tell the owner was getting sick of Gyuvin’s constant questions on how he acquired the items. “They’re mostly donations or things I find on trips. I don’t know anything else.” He says.

In the end, you bought a few more things apart from the hair clip. You did end up buying the little calico cat figurine, a silver necklace with a spiral pendant, a pack of stamps with really cool designs, and a love letter.

There was a cardboard box sitting on a chair in one corner of the shop with a sign that said “Old Love Letters, ₩300 Each”, and not only is it something you’ve never seen anyone sell before, but it’s also cheap. How could you not buy a chance to snoop around in unknown people’s love lives?

You put your stuff in the little tote bag Yoona had bought for you. She said the design made her think of you (it had three monochrome fish painted over it).

Now you’re making your way towards the nearest soccer field. You used to play there all the time with Gyuvin, sometimes the other girls joined, or some of the other kids in the neighborhood.

The five of you walked with you right in the middle, like you were the center of a K-pop group. It definitely made you stand out to the locals of the neighborhoods you passed through, and some of them even recognized you and went as far as to congratulate you.

Did your parents tell the entire town about your rank in the league?

“It’s like I’m walking with a celebrity.” Hanni voices just as you get back from shaking hands with one of the old men of the neighborhood. As much as you enjoy the praise and congratulations, it’s a little embarrassing to acknowledge you’re gaining a lot more fame within this town. You imagine this is how famous soccer players feel everytime they go out in public.

“Microcelebrity.” You clarify, “Aren’t you an influencer?” You recall Hanni spamming the group chat one time in the first year of high school because one of her Instagram posts had gone viral. After a while of her videos getting more and more views, she started gaining a small following and could be considered a daily-life influencer.

“Yeah, but most of my followers aren’t from here so I don’t get recognized everytime I go out.”

“To be fair, this is the first time this has happened to me. My parents probably told the whole town about this.”

“Oh, they sure did. Even my mom found out.” Minji states, to your surprise. Minji’s mother was well known for not liking any sports at all, and it’s not that she hated them, she just wasn’t interested. She didn’t even know who Messi or Ronaldo were.

“Wow… I knew they liked to gossip, but that’s… crazy.” You scratch your nape shyly. Your parents are known for finding out everything, but you didn’t know they also told everything they knew.

“She didn’t really know what anything meant but she was very happy for you.” She says with a smile.

Oh! There’s a strange giddy feeling that shows up as a smile on your face you can’t hold back. You’re not really sure what to say, but you don’t even have to worry about it, because before you realize you’re already at the field, and when the boys that are playing there take notice of your presence, all you can hear is screams.

Sounds of “Y/N Noona!”, “No way it’s Y/N!”, “You’re back?!” get closer as the match pauses and they start running towards you. Most of them are your high school classmates, some are your younger neighbors or underclassmen you played with during recess.

You get closer and they bombard you with hugs and questions, with countless reminders of how much they missed you. One of them complains about you not answering his texts, and another boy defends you by excusing your forgetfulness on being busy.

“Okay, okay. I’ll make it up to you with a match, okay?”

You end up playing for two hours straight, the first half with your friends as a team, but after a while it seemed like the only one with energy left was you. Not even Gyuvin could keep up your pace.

“No wonder she’s an athlete.” Hanni says, fanning herself under the shadow of a tree that trespassed the field enclosure. Your friends were all sitting down on the ground, watching attentively at the match you played against the boys while chatting.

It was 5v1 and you were winning 4-2.

Minji watched carefully at the way you carried yourself on the field, so graceful and yet not passive at all, a different perspective compared to how you usually are.

There's a little bit of sweat that glistens on your forehead, and after playing for such a long time you only now start to look slightly tired. “I pray everyday she makes it to the national team and gets rich.” Gyuvin says.

“Same.” Hanni answers, laying down on a blanket over the warm grass and resting her head on her bag and it makes Yoona laugh when she grumbles at the discomfort of feeling all the crystals she bought on the back of her head.

The boys score another goal at you, so you decide to get serious and start playing like you would at a normal university match. Minji stares when you run faster and slide through the opponents so easily. She kind of wonders if she could calculate your speed mentally.

Field length = 55 meters, Penalty area length = 9 meters

You were around 9.2 meters from the halfway line and traveled around 18 meters in a straight line, Minji counts 4 seconds.

18/4 = 5 m/s, 1 m/s = 3.6 km/h, 5 * 3.6 = 18 km/h

Han Y/N’s speed in that one moment was 18 km/h.

The average maximum sprint speed of La Liga athletes was 30 km/h, according to an NLM article (don’t ask Minji how she knows that; she isn’t even studying medicine).

Suddenly Minji feels the need to see you play an actual serious match.

“I don’t think you need to pray.” She says with a smirk, standing up from the ground and wiping away the bristles of grass stuck to her jeans. “She has it in the bag.”

The others notice her taking out her wallet from her pocket, “Can you buy me a Fanta?” Gyuvin makes puppy eyes at Minji, even while knowing they never work on her, or anyone for that matter.

She gives him nothing but a wave and walks away, “She’s not getting you shit, dude.” Hanni kicks Gyuvin in the back with the tip of her foot and Yoona laughs at the scene.

The grocery store is not far away at all, only a block from the field, and Minji treads lightly with her mind made up on what to buy. A bag of chips and two glasses of apple juice, and maybe a strawberry lollipop for Hanni, NOT cherry, she notes.

The owner is an older lady who used to babysit Minji’s mom. She’s seen her countless times in her life so it’s easy for her to greet her brightly. “It’s been so long, Minji!” The woman greets her, her aged features morphing into a kind smile.

It’s true, it has been a long time. She doesn’t really come here that often anymore unless she’s taking a walk out of boredom or walking the neighbors dog when she’s out of town. She used to come here all the time when you all went to play soccer, but the matches got less and less frequent after you left, mostly because the only one who actually wanted to play was Gyuvin.

Minji makes her way to the drink section of the store and lights up when she sees the chilled glasses of apple juice right where she remembers them being. She was honestly surprised you hadn’t brought a water bottle with you when you left, and maybe just water would be healthier and hydrate you better, but she’d rather make you happier with your favorite drink.

(You would’ve been happy enough even if she just brought you water.)

The glass is cold when it reaches her hand, a nice contrast from the heat of the afternoon sun. She was starting to get a little hungry so maybe instead of chips she’d get a sandwich. Maybe she’ll get two.

She excuses herself in her mind, she’s not excluding her other friends! It’s just… this day is about you, of course her focus would be you. And maybe tomorrow. And maybe the whole time you’re here. She laughs at herself while walking up to the counter. She meant it when she told you she missed you.

“That would be ₩4,200 but I’ll give to you for ₩4,000 because I missed you.” The woman beams her a warm smile and Minji can’t help but return it. She hands her 4,200 won anyways and is out the door before the woman can complain. “Bye, Mrs. Do!”

Minji walks back with a smile on her face, the wind hits and blows her hair back. Some leaves and dust get blown her way too but she doesn’t have to squint her eyes because they already do that when she smiles.

The sun isn’t as bright and the rays don’t burn her skin anymore. She hears louds screams just as she’s getting closer to the field, and when she looks through the gaps of the metal enclosure she sees Gyuvin running up to hug you while the boys you were playing with fall to the ground in defeat.

She missed your win. Minji puckers up her bottom lip and sighs, shoulders shrugging helplessly.

You hadn’t even realized she had left until you see her enter the field again, so you send her a light smile she almost doesn’t catch. She looks back to the other girls and when her eyes meet Hanni laying on the grass she realizes she forgot her strawberry lollipop. Oh well.

She sits down next to Yoona and takes her sandwich out of her bag.

“What’d you buy?”

“Just stuff. Nothing for Gyuvin.”

Yoona laughs at the comment. “The apple juice is for Y/N, right?” Minji nods as she looks at you tap the boys on the back to cheer them up, “You can have the other one if you want.”

Minji was just about to open the packaging of her sandwich when she sees you and Gyuvin walk towards her. She quickly stops her actions and takes the other cold glass from the plastic bag, struggles a little to open the lid, and just as you take your last step she holds the cold apple juice to your face, or the closest to it her arm could reach.

You’re a little taken aback, but luckily you don’t blush at her act. Instead you just smile at her, mirroring Minji’s own kind smile and take the glass from her hand. “Thanks.” You say before you take a sip.

Both of your hearts feel full, yours at the flavor of apple that fills your tastebuds and calms the thirst of running for hours, and hers at the fact she made you even just a little happy with such a small action.

You gulp down probably half the glass down and end it with a “Ah~” that makes your friends laugh. “You still do that?” Hanni sits up and rests her hands behind her on the grass.

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve done that since you were a kid.” Minji says and your eyebrows raise,”Really?” All your friends nod.

“I never noticed.”

Minji goes back to her sandwich as you and Gyuvin sit down in front of the other three. You’re tired now, but you don’t wanna lay on the grass because you say it makes you itch, so you try resting your body weight on Gyuvin, to which he adamantly pushes you away, “You’re heavy, Y/N!”

“What the hell, bro. I’m literally not?” You pout at him to try and get him to surrender but he just pushes you away harder every time you try to lay your back against him.

“Go lay on Minji or something, not me.” He says as he pushes you for the last time, you hear Hanni laugh.

You look at Minji and she’s already putting away the plastic bag she had on her lap. Oh, okay, yeah, no biggie. No problem at all.

You do a great impression of acting normal and move to sit next to her. “The shadow is better on this side anyways.” You fake whine at the boy as Minji grabs your shoulder and guides you to rest your back on top of her legs.

You turn your body so that you face her and hope she can’t tell your heart starts beating faster when you notice she’s already looking down at you. It’s a beautiful scene.

Minji’s face, the green leaves of the trees behind her and the sun peeking through the gaps, the wind blowing her hair a little to the side, the way her eyes smile at the same time she does. “Hey.”

“Hey.” You answer.

Everything about this is normal! You have to close your eyes so you believe it, and you start to after a few seconds. Everything about this is normal. It feels so normal and you love it.

It’s soothing. The wind caresses your face and you lose focus on the conversation your friends were having beside you.

And then Minji starts running her fingers through your hair and you lose focus on anything that’s not her.

Your heartbeat picks up for a few seconds and then it doesn’t. And then it’s all calm again. Your eyes are closed but your mind pictures Minji so vividly, smiling at you sweetly while her eyes. Her loving eyes.

God, you hope you’re not blushing, because you can already feel yourself getting warm all over. Thankfully, the gentle breeze is there to save you when you need it.

And then there’s a moment where everything, the breeze, Minji’s hands caressing you, and the sound of playful conversation, all merge at the perfect moment and you experience a calm that feels heavenly. Almost divine, and it sends you into instant slumber.

You don’t really remember every detail of what you dream of, you just remember it being about Minji, Seoul and snow. Either way, you know it had something to do with her confessing her feelings to you after you win nationals. You remember that you froze after she kissed you, then called your name after she saw you not move.

“Y/N! Y/N!” You hear your name being called out, then your body being shaked roughly. “Y/N!” You hear loudly before you wake yourself up.

“Sorry!” You don’t know what you’re apologizing for until your body jerks away and your forehead almost hits Minji’s. “Oh, sorry.”

“You fell asleep.” She states the obvious with a giggle.

“No shit, queen.” You hear Hanni laugh loudly at your response. “How long was I out for?”

“It’s 5:25.” Yoona says behind you, only then you realize they were already packing up and it was time to go. Where? You have no idea.

“Shit. Sorry guys.” You sit back up and stretch your muscles before you can stand properly.

“My legs fell asleep, you know?” Minji announces, and when you look back at her she has a teasing smirk on her face.

“Yeah, well, maybe blame Gyuv for that.” You answer sassily, but you can’t help but feel a little guilty.

Said male goes to grab the tote bag Yoona got you and the half finished apple juice you left behind and holds the bag it to your face while you’re still stretching, “Hurry up, girl. We gotta go to the beach before sunset.” He throws the bag at you and you catch it just in time.

“Careful! I have a cat in there!”

You arrive at the beach at exactly 6:00 P.M. and as soon as you get to the sand Gyuvin is already taking his shoes and shirt off. You look at everyone, confused on the plan you never actually listened to.

“We were going to swim?”

“Do you not want to?” Hanni asks.

“I don’t know…” You look at your friends with a sorry expression. You were already worn out from the whole match, and even after you slept a whole two hours on Minji’s lap, you still felt a little tired. “I’m kinda drained guys.”

“Bro… How could you?” Minji looks at you like she’s so betrayed and you laugh at her annoying little face that’s also so pretty and cute and annoying

“Bro… I’m sorry.” You play along. Calling the love of your life “bro” is crazy.

Okay, “love of your life” is an exaggeration (it’s literally not, in every sense of the word literally).

“I’ll watch your bags and take pics!” You tried bargaining, and they look at you like you’re crazy. “Guys, please, we can come swim tomorrow. The beach is not going anywhere considering we literally live beside it.”

Then Yoona gets real close to you and whispers, “You’ll pay for this.” then takes off her shoes.

“What the hell, man.”

Gyuvin and Yoona are already running at the sea and splashing each other, they don’t actually care about you not joining. Hanni hands you her bag with a strange force and you don’t know where it came from, “Take care of my babies.” She says.

“Your… babies?”

“My crystals.”

“Oh, right. I will.”

Minji walks up to you when Hanni walks away and hands you her jacket and another bag, this time plastic, “There’s one sandwich left in there. I told Gyubin not to eat it and I didn’t think he was going to listen but he did, surprisingly.” She tells you with a smile.

“Thanks. Very thoughtful of you man.” Alright, pack it up.

Minji sends you one last smile before she leaves and your heart beats when her eyes squint too. You watch her disappear into the waves and smile. You take out your phone and take a picture of your friends all swimming and playing in the water, their silhouettes clashing with the sun that was just about to set. It’s so pretty you make it your lock screen immediately.

You take out a blanket from Hanni’s bag, the same one she was laying on in the soccer field, and spread it on the ground to sit down. You take off your sneakers before they get filled with sand and take comfort in the warmth of the sand beneath you.

You stare at your friends for a bit, a beautiful picture presented just for you. You’re so happy to be back. Your stomach lets out a loud grumble before you even get to tear up. What a way to ruin the mood.

You take the bag Minji gave you and take out the sandwich. Ham, bacon, cheese, lettuce- oh, who cares. You take a bite out of it and it tastes like home. She definitely bought it from Mrs. Do.

It eases your hunger quite well. You hear the waves crash and Minji’s laugh from far away and, what a beautiful sound. What a beautiful person. You think of Minji and think of beautiful, not just from her appearance but her soul. What a beautiful soul.

You take your last bite and your stomach feels full, but you feel a little empty and can’t pinpoint what it is. You feel like you’re forgetting something. You reach for your new bag and search for whatever it seems you're forgetting.

Oh, right, the letter. Suddenly you feel excited.

The sun starts just in time. What a way to set the mood. You take out the white envelope and notice it still has some scent remaining. It kinda smells like something Minji used to wear, jasmine and liquorice. You didn’t smell it on her today, though.

You notice the envelope doesn’t have a sender or recipient name anywhere on it, nowhere at all. Maybe they didn’t plan to send it, or they changed the envelope at the shop. Eager to know more, you rip the envelope, careful not to damage the letter itself.

You take it out and take a deep breath to prepare yourself. You’re probably a little more excited than you should be, but whatever. You’re excited to intrude on a stranger's possibly failed love confession.

Except when you unfold the page, it’s not from a stranger.

You panic and fold the letter closed just as fast as you had opened it. You must have misread, right?

You open it again and the top says “Kim Minji, 23rd of June, 2021” like it’s a diary.

It must be another Kim Minji. There are hundreds of thousands in South Korea. It could be anyone. Anyone at all. So you keep reading in hopes it’s someone who’s not the girl swimming in the sea just a few meters away from you.

Dear Y/N,

It’s not a stranger. It’s Kim Minji. Your Kim Minji. You’re reading an old love letter from Kim Minji. You bought a love letter from Kim Minji for 300 won.

Wait, why is it addressed to you?

Now, you’re more confused than shocked. Now, you have to find out. You were going to put it down and not read it to not intrude and break your own heart, but now you have to find out why on Earth the first two words are Dear Y/N written in Kim Minji’s handwriting. So you keep reading.

Dear Y/N, I hope this finds you well. If you’re reading this, I gave this to you on the 24th or maybe even earlier on a strike of confidence. I hope you’re not keeping yourself up to read this at midnight. I wanted to tell you something I’ve been keeping for a long time before you leave for Seoul. Maybe it’s a selfish thing to do, and it won’t keep you from departing, but I think it would be worse to tell you this through text and I can’t bring myself to say it to your face.

I have feelings for you. Real romantic feelings. I like you a lot.

I like possibly everything about you and it’s killing me that I’m so scared and unable to tell you. I don’t even know what I’m so afraid of, really. Probably rejection, but even if you did like me back I still have to live without you for four years. My wish of you coming to visit me will probably depend on how harsh your rejection is, but I’d still like to see you back regardless.

When you first told us you got that scholarship for Korea University, I was so happy and proud of you. In a perfect world I would have kissed you and told you how happy I was for you and maybe even gone with you. But it’s not a perfect world and I just told you “Congratulations!” and you’re leaving tomorrow, without me.

I’m not one to take pictures, if anything that’s you, but right now I wish I had an album full of photos of you, of us, because I don’t know how I’ll make it without seeing you everyday. I think I won’t, actually. I hope you consider letting me borrow the photo album full of the countless pictures you take, even if they’re not of you they might fill the void you leave in my heart.

Anything from you will suffice, I think, but just your memory is not enough.

I kinda wish you could stay, but I also know you’re going to do your best over there and I hope you fulfill your dream of being a professional player. When you said you were going to choose to study mass communication I thought “that must mean she’s going to communicate with us a lot!” I hope it does. I hope you don’t miss us too much, but I do hope you miss me a little bit more.

I’ve never written a love letter before, if you could even call this that, so excuse me if this is not a good one, I’m sorry. I should probably state what I like most about you, but I don’t even know where to begin.

I love the way you’re driven to do your best even at the smallest of things. When we first met, you built us the best sand castle I had ever seen in my short life of seven years. The sandcastle was still standing when we went to visit it the next day.

You do your best at school, even when it gets hard for you, and I love that you’re not afraid to ask for help when you really need it. I kind of envy that if I’m honest. I hope you become the best student in your major.

I remember the time we babysat Ms.Yoon’s daughter and you were the only one who knew how to change her diapers and at what time to feed her. I also love how good you are with kids and sometimes it makes me think of very inappropriate thoughts of building a family together, but I won’t get into that because I don’t want to be weirder than I’m already being right now.

I love the way you always try your best to make me smile when I’m upset or stressed and even just the thought of you going out of your way to care is enough for my heart to melt. When I got sick in middle school while my mom was out of town you came to my house every day and made me chicken soup. I think that was the day I started thinking of you as more than just a friend.

I love the way you look when you put your hair up in a ponytail. I used to stare at you the entire time we watched you play during recess in middle school.

I love the way you’re clumsy and you’re never embarrassed about it. You always get up when you fall and you don’t pretend it doesn’t hurt when you scrape your knees. And I love the way you still try to smile when I’m patching up your wounds.

I love the way you always want the best for us and encourage us to be ambitious. I wouldn’t be on top of my class if it weren’t for you.

I love the way you like cats and they like you back. They always hiss at me unless you’re around. Maybe it’s a sign that we should be together all the time.

I love the way you say Ah~ when you finish drinking water after playing soccer.

I love (you) the way you love apple juice. I hope you feel the same. – Kim Minji

P.s. if you don’t i also understand and you’re free to do whatever you want with this letter.

You have no idea at what point you started to tear up, but you only realize when a tear falls from your eye into the paper and blurs the ink in the last “Minji”.

You don’t even process anything around you at that point. All you can think about is that Minji liked you 3 years ago and never told you and now you don’t even know if she still likes you.

No matter how much you think about it, you would’ve absolutely given her your photo album, if only the letter had actually gotten to you when it was supposed to.

“I saw you open the letter from over there, I came here to be nosy.” You can’t tell anything she says because you’re so entranced but you can tell it’s Minji’s voice. You freeze when she sits beside you.

“Is it any good?” She asks before realizing you’re completely paralyzed. “Hey, are you crying?” She touches your shoulder in concern, and it wakes you up a little bit, but the only thing you can do is hand her the letter.

She stares at you for a few seconds before she finally takes the page and mutters, “Oh.”

You don’t really want to look at her, and you don’t know what comes over you that makes you turn your head anyways. The red sun rays hit her face in a way that makes her tan skin glow. Her hair is damp and her shirt is stuck to her body but you don’t dare to look.

She’s clearly just as shocked as you are to see the object in her hands. And she still looks so beautiful. “Y/N, I-” You wipe your tears and sniff before she turns and see them in your eyes.

“Was this the one you bought?” You nod, and she looks back at it with her mouth hung low. “I… was wondering where this went. I thought I lost it.”

“You didn’t send it? At all?” Minji shakes her head. Wow, this is so great. “Why didn’t you?”

“I was supposed to give it to you before you left. I was hoping it would make you stay, but then I thought I was being too selfish and… just didn’t.” There’s clearly some regret still left in her face and the wind starts to blow. You hand her the jacket you put down next to your friends’ bags. “Thanks.” She says as she puts it on. You turn away to look at the sunset and gather your thoughts.

There’s no expression on your face for Minji to read, and for some reason she starts getting worried. “Y/N… I- It’s been three years, you don’t have to worry about-”

“Do you still?” You ask while looking away at the sea.

Minji stays quiet.

“Do you?”

She still keeps quiet. You turn to face her.

“Please tell me the truth, Minji.”

There’s something about how the sun makes your eyes glow and how you say her name that sabotages Minji at not giving in.

“Yes.” She speaks out with a sigh, “I do. I still do.”

You don’t know if your heart is beating faster or slower, but you feel it beat stronger. You turn away to get your bag, Minji just watches, her eyebrows slightly furrowed in distress and curiosity. The only thing she wants right now is to know how you feel.

You reach inside your bag for something, and Minji can’t really tell what it is when you take it out.

Finally, you extend the pale blue hair clip in your hand, “I have liked you since we were seven, Minji.” The girl looks at the clip then at you, her round eyes widened in disbelief.

“Are you serious?”

You hold your hand closer to her, urging her to take the gift before you sniff once again, “I saw this and thought of you. It looks like the one you had when we first met, that’s the day I started liking you. I haven’t stopped since.”

Minji takes the clip from your hands and feels herself tear up, says nothing, stares at it, then stares at you.

“We’ve known each other for thirteen years and I’ve loved you for thirteen of them.”

“I had no idea.”

“We had no idea.”

“We knew nothing about everything.” It’s now Minji’s turn to sniffle but still smiles as she wipes away the tears that threaten to fall from her eyes.

“How could you never say anything? Thirteen years, Y/N.” Minji complains while caressing the blue clip in her hands like it’s a precious stone. “Thirteen.”

“I got distracted with soccer.” Minji laughs with you and pushes you away by the shoulder. “Every goal I’ve ever made has been for you, though,”

“That’s so cheesy.” Minji giggles to herself as she pops the clip open and places it on her hair, it snaps shut with a ‘click’. “What do you think?” She says, turning to you. She tries to ignore your eyes and how sweetly they look at her.

“I think I love you more than I love apple juice.”

That’s the last thing you say before Minji smiles and gets shy, she looks away but her hand searches for yours and you help her by placing yours over hers. She fights back by taking it back and placing hers on top of yours. It makes you laugh.

The sound of your laugh takes her attention and now she stares directly at you, a smile on her own face. Her cheeks now take a reddish color, and her eyes shine like the reflection of the sunlight on the water. It feels like a deja vu.

You think you could stare at Minji’s face all day and not complain. You think maybe she thinks so too with how intensely she’s looking at you.

You raise your eyebrow when her eyes trail down from your eyes to your lips, and she seems to notice when your lips form a smirk. “What?” She giggles at herself, her already red cheeks turn an even darker shade.

“I saw that.”

“Weren’t we about to?”

“So straightforward, You should’ve been like that when sending that letter.”

“Oh my god, shut up.”

Is the last thing she says before she leans forward, she hesitates a little bit and her eyes go from your lips to your eyes, a shine of expectancy as if asking for permission, even when she already has it.

She’s about to close the gap when the both of you hear a chorus of gasps from the sea. It takes your attention. Hanni, Gyuvin and Yoona are all pushing each other giggling and gasping, hands on their mouths. You hear a faint “It’s finally happening.”, You can’t tell who it’s from though.

Minji is visibly annoyed, yells “Look away!” and it bounces in the waves. It’s actually insane how dumb she looks, red cheeks, furrowed eyebrows, pouty, perfect lips. It takes you everything to control yourself and even then you still can’t help grabbing her face gently and turning it towards you to finally, once and for all, kiss her.

You don’t really care if your friends actually turned away or not, because you can’t really tell with how glorious it feels to kiss Minji. It almost feels holy. You feel like you died and went to heaven in five minutes.

It’s a new feeling, a new experience, and it feels so familiar at the same time. Like flowing with the waves, like dancing with the wind, like drowning in apple juice, drowning in love.

Your lips dance like that for a while. At one point Minji’s hand goes up to your face and it’s such a warm feeling it makes you smile into the kiss. You start running out of breath and you don’t even notice. You could die happily if it meant dying with Minji’s lips on yours.

But then your stupid survival instincts kick in and it’s such a shame you have to pull away.

Both of your breaths are heavy and you burst out in laughter at the same time when your eyes meet. When your laughs die down your eyes fall on the pale blue clip that adorned Minji’s head. “You look so cute.”

“Says you.”

And then you hear cheering from the beach again. “Finally!” Hanni yells. You watch in astonishment, “Did she know?” You ask Minji while the both of you watch the three of your friends jump up and down in the water.

“I have no idea. I didn’t tell her. She might’ve noticed.” The cogs start to turn in your brains.

“They all did.” You and Minji say at the same time, then laugh at the same time. What a friendship of thirteen years does to you. And when you see Gyuvin and Hanni get up from the water and get closer to you, you realize you’re about to be ambushed.

“Oh, hell no.” You mumble right before you stand up and grab your bag. Minji just looks at you confused, “Come on, get up. They’re wet.” But Minji doesn’t seem to cooperate.

“Dude!” You grab her hand and pull her up as you run away as far as possible from your friends. You don’t even realize where you’re going, but laughing with Minji while running on the sand at sunset feels heavenly.

You look back and Minji struggles to keep up. Gyuvin and Hanni don’t look anywhere close and they probably decided to just let the both of you go, so you stop running.”

“We…” Minji rests her hands on her knees as she catches her breath, “We didn’t have to run that much. I’m not the soccer player here.”

You send her an apologetic smile, “Sorry…”

Minji now can stand up and breathe stably. She looks back and there’s no one behind. “So, where do we go now?”

“Home. You need to get changed or else you’re gonna get sick.” You walk towards her to touch her shirt, “It’s still damp.”

“Isn’t your house nearby?” She asks, “I live further away, and it’ll be night by the time we get to my house.”

You squint your eyes at her, “My clothes won’t fit on you, they barely fit on me.” You flex your bicep and the sleeve gets so tight it’s going to cut your blood flow if you keep it like that. “And I haven’t seen your mom yet.”

“And I want to have dinner with your parents.” She confesses. “My first official meeting with them as your girlfriend.” You never actually established that but it’s not like you’re going to refuse the offer.

“You’re actually so annoying, bro.”

“Says you, bro.”

“I’m your girlfriend, bro.”

“No shit, bro.” Minji holds her hand out for you to take it, and you gladly do. You start walking in silence for a little bit.

“Also, my mom won’t let us make out at my house.”

“Okay, that’s enough, bro.” You take your hand back and walk faster to get away from Minji. She immediately sprints to catch up and stick to you.

“I was kidding!” She tries to grab your hand but you refuse it and take it back. “Hey! Hold my hand!”

You look at her and wouldn’t you know, she’s making puppy eyes at you. It makes you give in, it never fails. “You’re so sticky.”

“You wanna know something?” She says as you start walking together again.

“What?”

“When you kissed me it tasted like apple juice.”

end.

🗒️ probably one of my favorite things i've written i giggled a lot and had fun writing this.. there's probably lots of mistakes here and there but i beg u pls ignore it bc im dizzy i can't look at words anymore. Minecraft coming soon! love u guys 🫂

#newjeans x reader #minji x reader #kim minji x reader #newjeans fic

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