Archive of Our Own ^beta

“Bro, are you, like, good?” Jiwoo pokes her head out of her door to stare concernedly at Sooyoung, who’s splayed hopelessly on their living room floor, cut pieces of paper scattered around her and the collage she’d started two hours ago worryingly incomplete.

“I sneezed on it…” Sooyoung mumbles, devastated. “I was gonna go get my glue and I sneezed on it. Didn’t even take a picture. I’m not gonna remember what it was supposed to look like.” She rolls over, crumpling a cut out of a dog underneath her face.

“Do you, uh, need help?” Jiwoo starts stepping out of her room, but Sooyoung waves her off.

“My doing, my doom. Get your own.”

Jinsol stalks out of her room to grab water, looking at Sooyoung, then at Jiwoo questioningly. Jiwoo shrugs.

“So!” Haseul claps her hands excitedly, nearly toppling her ‘bottled Starbucks sugary nightmare,’ as Heejin (their resident coffee snob) had dubbed it, “New idea for my color theory final!”

“Yeah?” Vivi tries her best to sound interested, but she’s also absolutely mesmerized by the trio crossing the freshman quad to get to their school’s cheapest dining hall.

Haseul follows her gaze to the three students, studying them before looking back at Vivi. “You know them?”

Vivi flushes. Oops! Caught! “No,” She says cautiously. “They just looked cool. I like their style.”

“Yeah, yeah. The dark haired one is Sooyoung. Also she was wearing sweats and a dye-stained tee shirt. Unless you like a wrinkly loungewear look-” Haseul trails off, teasing grin crawling onto her face as Vivi opens her mouth to deny…whatever it is Haseul is accusing her of.

“Wait, hold on-”

“No, no listen. The shorter girl is Jiwoo, and I thought for like a year that she and Sooyoung were dating, but they’re just super affectionate all over campus.” Haseul pauses to take a swig of her drink. “And the lanky one is Jinsol.”

Vivi narrows her eyes. “Okay?” Obviously, she wants to know more, but at the expense of her dignity..?

Haseul chugs on, thankfully. “They’re all design gods. Like, Sooyoung does typeface design. Who does that for Hangul? She’s crazy. Jinsol was asked to do the wireframes for the school’s website. She got them done in a week during the semester. And Jiwoo has an insane internship at Pentagram lined up for after graduation—”

“Wait a minute.” Vivi narrows her eyes at Haseul. “Why do you know so much about them?”

Haseul’s eyes go wide. Caught in HD. 4K. She snaps her mouth shut and shakes her head, fidgeting with her lanyard laden with furry art keychains.

Vivi narrows her eyes.

Jiwoo and Jinsol return from one of their shared classes to Sooyoung sleeping soundly on the carpet, her finished collage right next to her face.

Jinsol nudges the piece out of harm’s way with her foot before prodding Sooyoung awake. “You have an afternoon crit for that, right?”

Sooyoung cracks an eye open. “Uhhhh…mgrphmhh…huh?” She sits up and looks around, eyes shooting open when she gets her bearings. “Oh fuck! What time is it!?” She pulls out her phone, relaxing when she sees her class starts in an hour. “Oh my god, I thought I was dead. This is the professor I was telling you about. A third of your grade for projects is showing up to the final crit on time.”

Jinsol winces.

Jiwoo crouches down next to the piece. “It’s cool! I’m glad someone made use of my magazine stash. I had no idea what I was going to do with ten pounds of stolen magazines from hotel lobbies.”

Sooyoung grins, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. “Yeah, thanks by the way. You really saved my ass. I thought my printing budget was out the window when I got the assignment.” She stands up, dusting off her sweater. “I have an hour to be in the classroom, art on the wall.”

Jinsol whistles low. “Professor hardass. Glad I don’t have any classes with her.”

Vivi prods at her dining hall sandwich suspiciously. She’s sure she had asked for steak and onion, but she’s not sure if either of those are ingredients in it. The “meat” flops over sadly, looking more like wet cardboard than anything even mildly appetizing.

Loud laughter startles her from her lament over her meal. There, in line for the pizza (a far better, and safer, choice in hindsight), is Jiwoo and Sooyoung. Haseul is right. They’re so affectionate that Vivi would have thought they were dating. Especially when Jiwoo tugs Sooyoung down to whisper in her ear.

Then Sooyoung looks over Jiwoo’s shoulder right at her and Vivi flushes, looking back down at her sad sandwich.

She only looks back up when Sooyoung is serving herself her food. Vivi takes the time to admire her. She’s dressed up today, which means she’s dropped the sweats for some light slacks and a button down with a couple ink stains on the pushed-up sleeves. It suits her—a sort of controlled dishevelment.

She watches Sooyoung balance her plate and two apples as she joins Jiwoo at a table, sliding gracefully into her seat.

Jinsol blinks down at Sooyoung, who’s curled up on the ground just in front of the couch. “Do you…want to be on the couch instead?”

Sooyoung shakes her head. “If I sleep somewhere comfortable I won’t wake up in time. This is a 15 minute power nap. I drink the coffee,” she gestures to the empty coffee cup on the ground next to her, “and then I sleep and the caffeine hits my system just in time for me to wake up. It’s scientific.”

Jinsol looks like she wants to say something, and Sooyoung isn’t really in an emotional state to be judged, so she just…opts out. She closes her eyes and rolls onto her side.

“Shhh. I need to sleep not before the caffeine hits.”

“Jiwoo told me you’ve got a 12-hour day today. Why’d you do that?” Sooyoung feels Jinsol sit down on the couch above her.

Sooyoung groans, giving up on her nap. “Wanted Fridays off.”

“And two three-hour academics and a six-hour studio was the answer?” Sooyoung can feel Jinsol’s eyes on her. She just wants to sleep.

“It was the only way.” Sooyoung rolls onto her back to look up at Jinsol. “The motion graphics class I wanted was full, so I got into the only other one available.”

Jinsol doesn’t respond, slipping into her room quietly, and Sooyoung begins to nod off, slipping into the blissful dream realm when Jinsol speaks, voice coming from right above her. “Uh, Sooyoung? It’s a quarter past three.

Sooyoung sits up blearily and checks her phone. Sure enough, it is, in fact, fifteen minutes into her studio. “Wh-how did I do that?” She feels the beginning of tears but it’s such silly thing to have a breakdown over, so she presses the heels of her hands to her eyes and takes a deep breath.

“You want me to walk you over?” Jinsol is looking at her all concerned again and maybe it’s for good reason.

Sooyoung sighs. “Yeah, actually.”

“And then you’re switching into History of Illustration. It’s such an easy A and no one’s taking it this semester since it’s at the same time as Junior Illustration 1.”

Sooyoung looks up at her. “And that’s…when?” Then she furrows her eyebrows. “Hold on, have you been shopping for classes for me?”

Jinsol shakes her head, then pauses and nods. “Jiwoo and I had our dream schedules set first week, and what was Jiwoo gonna do but meddle in your business? She recruited me. Also, like, it’s our third week. The fact that you’re like this already is very concerning.”

Vivi refreshes the free and for sale facebook group as she waits for the professor to arrive, looking up at the rest of the students shuffling in from time to time. She’d missed some freshman practically giving away 10 yards of fabric yesterday, and she wasn’t about to make that mistake again.

She glances up at the door to spot Sooyoung ambling in, dark circles under her eyes, looking concerningly haggard for week three of the semester. Vivi watches her slump into the chair in front of her just as the professor comes in and boots up her computer.

Sooyoung tilts her head and her neck makes an honestly quite concerning pop. Vivi winces as Sooyoung opens her own laptop and starts a notes doc.

The first real fact Vivi observes about Sooyoung other than, “oh, a pretty girl,” is that she has to be blind as a bat. Her notes are in 72 point font and some of the names of the artists span entire lines. It also means Vivi can read her notes easily.

Vivi stifles a laugh, knowing she’d seem like a weirdo if she did. Instead, she looks down at her own notes, dragging a picture of A Rake’s Progress into her own notes doc. She copies the text from the slide and then looks back at Sooyoung’s screen.

Vivi grins. Pretty and funny.

Sooyoung’s day starts like this: smashing into a freshman on a skateboard and dumping her iced coffee all over herself. The freshman kicks up their board and stammers a startled apology, but Sooyoung doesn’t really have time to register it because she’s got three minutes left before the lecture starts.

She passes the professor on the way to the lecture hall and slides into the only empty seat just before the professor walks in. “I’m sorry I’m late and a mess and smell like coffee,” she says to the girl next to her.

“I like the smell of coffee,” The girl responds. And then, a moment later, “Sorry, that was weird.”

Sooyoung is about to respond when the professor begins attendance.

Sooyoung sneaks glances at the girl throughout her lecture, and she swears she sees her glancing away a few times, although that could be on account of the coffee smell.

“Vivi, by the way.” The girl say after the professor has shut down her computer and is packing it away.

Sooyoung shakes her offered hand. “Sooyoung. Thanks for not being bothered by the smell, even if you like it. Three hours of it could be a lot.”

Vivi shakes her head. “You’re fine. Plus, I think you have bigger problems than the coffee scent.”

Sooyoung looks down at her shirt, coffee stain now dry, but no less dark. “Yeah, damn. I really liked this shirt.”

Vivi nearly runs into Jiwoo in the hallway of her apartment. She steps out of the way as Jiwoo barrels down the hallway, mumbling something about being late to a workshop. Vivi watches her swing herself around the corner with the stairwell railing, footsteps traveling down the hallway.

Vivi narrows her eyes. There weren’t many units on their floor, and Vivi knows who lives in all of them. She steps inside, kicking off her shoes and shuffling down the hallway to peek into Haseul’s room. The sheets are rumpled and Haseul is lounging just a bit too casually. 

“Totally weird coincidence,” Vivi starts, studying Haseul’s face. “Just saw Jiwoo.”

Haseul fixes her shirt, collar sliding up to hide what Vivi thinks might be a mark, but it’s gone too soon for her to get a good look. “Yeah, so weird.”

Sooyoung sits next to Vivi the next week, too. She flashes a little smile at her in greeting as she pulls out her laptop.

“You get the coffee out?” Vivi asks.

“Yeah, actually. It’s amazing what white vinegar and earnest desperation can do for stain removal.” Sooyoung tries not to stress the desperation too much, but she’d been up almost all night that night just soaking and rinsing it.

“That’s good, it was a cool shirt.” Vivi replies, and it looks like she wants to say more, but the professor brings up the powerpoint, so they both turn to the front.

Being a famous illustrator, as Sooyoung had begun to discover, has two potential outcomes. One: ludicrous wealth. Enough to buy an island. Two: pain, misery, heartache, and destitution. This week has to be miserable illustrators week, because Sooyoung has to copy and paste the phrase “died bitter and alone” under each bio. She adds another comment, “conclusion drawn: do not go into illustration,” at the bottom of the page, just to drive it home.

When the lecture ends, Vivi turns to her. “So, not planning on going into illustration?”

“Huh?” Sooyoung furrows her eyebrows.

“Your notes.” Vivi gestures to Sooyoung’s laptop, still open to her notes on the little armrest desk.

Yves gives her a sort-of half smile, eyebrows scrunched. “You look at my notes a lot?”

Vivi blushes. “To be fair, they’re in, like, 72-point font.”

“I’ve got terrible eyesight,” Sooyoung shrugs, “and if I’m gonna strain my eyes looking at a screen in every other class, I need to relax them in my academics.”

“Fair enough.”

“And are you an illustrator?” Sooyoung asks, slinging her bag onto her shoulder.

Vivi shakes her head. “No way. I could never draw that much. I need to move way more than that.”

“Sculptor?”

“Fibers.”

Sooyoung nods. “Makes sense. You’re always dressed so nicely.” She gestures at Vivi’s outfit.

Sooyoung watches Vivi’s face register mild surprise, but, like, of course Sooyoung had noticed Vivi’s outfits. She was one of those students who treated every class like an event. Sooyoung doesn’t know how people like Vivi do it—get up in time to put on something clean and coordinated. Sooyoung’s not proud of it, but she’s still in her smell-test era.

Vivi checks her watch.

“I have to get to studio before all the sergers are taken, sorry.” She pauses, smile on her face. “Nice meeting you officially though.”

“You’re looking chipper for having just come out of a 3 hour lecture.”

“Pretty girl in my class.”

“Figures that’s the only thing that could get you like this other than noodle night at the dining hall.”

“It’s even better.” Sooyoung says dreamily, “No risk of food poisoning.”

Jinsol pauses at that. “Wait, you’re into into this girl.”

Sooyoung nods. “Yeah, actually. She’s fun. She likes me for my notes.”

“Your…” Jinsol pauses, like she’s wondering if she’s heard correctly. “Notes?”

“Yeah. She thinks I’m hilarious—”

“—with a fat weiiiiner,” Jiwoo finishes, waltzing into the room and plopping herself on the couch next to Sooyoung. “Sorry, we’re talking about a girl? Do we know her?”

Sooyoung realizes she’s trapped herself by even acknowledging that this is a girl thing, but she’s honestly a little giddy about it. “Her name is Vivi.”

“Vivi as in roommates with Haseul, Vivi?” Jiwoo asks, eyes wide.

“Wait,” Jinsol narrows her eyes. “Who’s Haseul?”

“No one important,” Jiwoo is quick to answer.

“Jiwoo,” Jinsol starts, but Sooyoung interrupts her.

“I’m gonna ask Vivi out. There’s an art show coming up and students get in free. Is that too cheap?”

Jiwoo shakes her head, “No way. We’re literally in college. Free dates are the bomb.”

“If you really feel weird, grab bubble tea or a quick bite beforehand,” Jinsol adds.

“I have a date,” Vivi announces as she drops her bag next to the couch and plucks a chicken nugget off Haseul’s plate.

“Hey!” She half-heartedly makes a grab for her nugget before processing Vivi’s announcement. “Wait, a date? Where to? Who with?”

“Sooyoung from my art history class. New gallery show from an alumn.” 

“Wait—Sooyoung as in roommate of Jiwoo?”

“Sure, but without Jiwoo.”

“Yeah, of course. She’s going to be—” Haseul cuts herself off.

“Hm?”

“Nothing.” Haseul changes the subject. It is obvious, but Vivi doesn’t push. “Hey, have you looked up the artist?”

“Not yet. Is that customary before art shows?” Vivi asks. She frowns. “Am I out of practice going on dates?”

Haseul waves her off. “No way. I’m just suggesting in case you want to look smart in front of your hot date.”

Vivi joins her on the couch and takes out her laptop, opening the campus events page and clicking on the show’s details. They sit there in stunned silence for a second.

“Jesus. That’s—slung over his shoulder?”

“Yeah.”

“Look, it’s even titled Wolf With Huge Schlong.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s what it says on the tin.”

“Yeah.” Vivi can’t tear her eyes away. “Hey, you’d know this. Does Sooyoung give off furry vibes?”

“Uh, no. I’ve never gotten that from her. But she’s also in Design, so I feel like it could manifest differently, you know?”

“Okay, cool.” Vivi is at a bit of a loss.

“You’re not about to be bigoted against furries, right?” Haseul narrows her eyes. “Like, there’s one right in front of you.”

“Nope.” Vivi shakes her head, unable to look away from the wolf’s…huge schlong. “I’m still going on the date. I just have to desensitize myself to,” she pauses, “well-endowed wolves, apparently.”

Sooyoung stares in horror at the…inflated bear and the naked lemur perched atop him.

“I’m so sorry,” she murmurs to Vivi. “It didn’t occur to me to look up the artist before coming here.”

Vivi hums, looking much less horrified at the truly explicit sculpture. “I did. I thought it might be some sort of furry litmus test, to be honest.”

“No! No way! I’m not—” Sooyoung pauses, lowering her voice, “a furry. I can’t believe—do I give off furry vibes?”

“Hmmm, not really, but my roommate makes fursuit heads and you’d never guess it from her vibe, so.” Vivi shrugs. “I don’t judge. Did I pass the test?”

Sooyoung stares at her. “Uh, I’m really not a furry. Congrats to your friend though. I hear furry artists make bank.”

Vivi nods, moving onto the next piece. “She gets our groceries. I tell her it’s too much, but she’s making a killing off commissions these days, so I can’t really fight too hard.”

Sooyoung tries not to flush at the series of tiny fox sculptures. They’re so graphic they may as well be instructional. Although for what…Sooyoung isn’t quite sure.

Vivi must notice her struggle, because she turns to her. “Wanna get out of here?” 

Sooyoung nods gratefully.

They stop in front of Vivi’s apartment building. Vivi can tell Sooyoung is trying to figure out if she should go in for the kiss, so she takes mercy on her, looping an arm around the back of her neck and pulling her in partway. “I had a lot of fun, even if we both learned things about imaginary anatomy that we didn’t anticipate.”

Sooyoung blushes. “I really am sorry—”

“No, I’m serious. It was a good time. I wanna do this again sometime.” She tilts her head, considering. God, Sooyoung really is very pretty in the light of her building’s entrance. “Maybe not exactly this, but let’s do a second date.”

Sooyoung nods, dipping a little closer to Vivi, eyes dropping to her lips. “For sure.”

Vivi gets tired of waiting, so she pulls Sooyoung the rest of the way in, kissing her gently until Sooyoung pushes back a little harder, pulling Vivi closer.

They break apart and Vivi feels breathless.

“Do you want to come up and watch something?”

Sooyoung’s eyes widen and she nods a little jerkily. Vivi knows they’re on the same page by Sooyoung’s reaction.

She scans her fob and pulls Sooyoung in after her, lacing their fingers together. Sooyoung’s hands are a little sweaty, but it’s just charming to Vivi. She feels giddy as Sooyoung follows her up the stairs, pressing her against the front door of the apartment with a kiss. Vivi pulls back just long enough to get the key into the lock and they stumble in only to be met with a thump as Haseul tumbles off the couch and onto the floor, bright red.

Vivi’s eyes land on the fursuit head on the coffee table, then on Jiwoo as she stares at them from the couch with wide eyes.

“Jiwoo?” Sooyoung asks. And, oh yeah, Vivi had pretty much known something was going on, but Sooyoung hadn’t.

“Hey, Sooyoung, Vivi.” Jiwoo waves to them sheepishly. Vivi doesn’t miss the way she’s holding her shirt closed.

Vivi takes everything in once more. “Okay, we aren’t going to ask and you’re going to pretend you don’t hear anything over the music okay?”

Haseul, still looking very stunned from her spot on the floor, just gives them a thumbs up.

“Oh my god,” Vivi giggles into Sooyoung’s back as she pushes Sooyoung into her room. She shuts the door, face red and scrunched up as she tries not to burst out laughing. It’s so cute that Sooyoung wants to kiss her again.

Still, there’s a question in need of being answered. Sooyoung’s eyes flit between Vivi and the door. “Is my roommate banging your roommate?”

“That’s your only question about what’s happening out there?”

“Yeah, kinda. You already said your roommate is a furry, so I just,” she flounders, “It wasn’t the most shocking furry…accoutrement I’ve seen tonight.”

“I-okay.” Vivi opens and closes her mouth a few times. “Sure. Uh, yeah, I think they’re banging in that case.”

“Okay, cool.” Sooyoung pats the bed next to her, and then immediately feels silly because it’s Vivi’s bed. Sooyoung doesn’t have to invite her to sit on it. And because she already feels silly about pretty much the whole night, what’s one more thing? So she asks, “Wanna bang too?”

Vivi wakes up to Sooyoung snuggling closer, curled into her chest in a way that makes her seem tiny. “You’re a cuddler.”

Sooyoung hums into her chest. “Mmmhmm. World is cold and hard. Your boobs are. Incredible.” She hugs Vivi closer before letting go and sitting up to stretch. “What time is it?”

Vivi checks her phone. “11-ish. I reserved a loom for a half an hour from now. You can join me in the studio if you want, but I do have to get going.”

Sooyoung nods, stifling a yawn. “Sounds fun.”

Vivi crawls over Sooyoung to get out of bed. She can feel Sooyoung’s eyes on her as she puts on the shirt slung over the back of her chair and tugs on the pair of pants she’d discarded at the foot of the bed the night before.

Sooyoung joins her and gathers her own clothes from the side of the bed, getting dressed in comfortable silence. When she’s dressed, she dusts off her pants and lingers at the door. “Fibers building is…” She trails off.

“Next to printmaking.” Vivi supplies, and Sooyoung nods.

“I’ll be there in, like, forty.” She hesitates, then crosses the room to Vivi to give her a peck on the cheek. It’s awkward, but Vivi can’t help but be charmed. Then she disappears down the hall, and Vivi can hear a muffled, “You’re telling me about this later,” from Sooyoung, followed by a squawk that must be from Jiwoo.

Vivi shakes her head, knowing she’d be doing the same to Haseul as soon as she got back. She gathers her materials and throws them in her bag.

Vivi’s finished setting up when Sooyoung shuffles in, offering Vivi an egg sandwich. “Breakfast?”

Vivi accepts it gratefully. “I never remember food before coming.”

Sooyoung hoists her bag. “I have more snacks in here if you want. Help yourself. I need food to work.” She sets her bag down between them and pulls her laptop out. Vivi watches her boot up Illustrator, and Sooyoung must sense it, because she turns, gesturing at her computer. “Due Monday.”

Vivi nods, waving her own skein of yarn.

Sooyoung grins and nods before turning to her work and popping an earbud in, nodding along to her music. Vivi watches her for a second before getting started on her own work.