Chapter Text
“You really are upset about my short hair, aren’t you?” Jeongguk asked when they were on the bus, and Yoonji wouldn’t stop running her fingers through his hair. He was trying to order them some fried chicken for dinner, but kept getting distracted by her fingernails scratching his scalp.
“Why did you cut it off anyway?” she asked with a pout, moving her hand to the back of his neck instead.
Jeongguk grabbed her hand and intertwined their fingers - for the sake of his sanity. “It was starting to annoy me, and I don’t like having to tie my hair up under the helmet.” He showed the order to her on his phone. “You wanna add anything else?”
Yoonji shook her head and leaned it on Jeongguk’s shoulder. “No, that’s enough. I’m not that hungry these days.” He regarded her for a second, wondering if he should ask more questions, but decided she probably wouldn’t appreciate that very much. The next stop was theirs anyway, so he quickly finished their order, put his phone away, and grabbed the flower bouquet he had been holding with his knees.
By the time they had walked out of the rink earlier, their friends had already left, and Hope messaged Yoonji that she was staying the night at Jimin and Taehee’s - the winking emojis she added made it clear she thought Yoonji should invite Jeongguk over. When she did, Jeongguk grinned and said: “You just want me back in your bed.” (“And what if? Would you rather go home alone?”)
It felt delightfully domestic to place his shoes on Yoonji’s shoe rack and hang his jacket on the hooks on the wall. This was strange because he’d done it a dozen times before, but this time, it made his heart skip a beat when their shoes touched. Wow, he truly was a goner.
“I think we accidentally skipped a couple of important conversations,” Jeongguk said as they set the kitchen table in preparation for their dinner that hadn’t arrived yet. “Relationship-wise, I mean.”
“What kind of conversations?”
“Like… I would say we know each other pretty well, but there are just some conversations people have on the first, second, and third dates to make sure they’re on the same page.” He looked over at Yoonji, who was pouring some water into cups for them. “Like conversations about marriage, and kids, and all that.” When Yoonji didn’t respond immediately, Jeongguk started fidgeting with the chopsticks on the table. “I mean, I don’t think- I love you, noona, so I’m happy to compromise. In case our views don’t line up. I’m sure they will.”
Yoonji nodded, placed their cups on the table and sat down. “Sure, ask away.” Jeongguk silently stared at her with wide eyes. He didn’t know where to start; he actually hadn’t expected her to jump right into those conversations. What if they did realise there were things they just couldn’t agree on? “Don’t be shy now. You brought the topic up.”
“Okay, umm, marriage,” Jeongguk said and sat down next to Yoonji. “Thoughts?”
For a moment, Yoonji looked at him with a blank expression before a small smile grew on her face. She really loved to see Jeongguk squirm, didn’t she? “I don’t think I have to get married. There are more important factors when it comes to having a long-term relationship.” She shrugged. “But I also can’t say that being legally bound to each other is necessarily a bad thing, and I do have a Pinterest board for inspiration in case a wedding does occur. My mother and I used to…” Jeongguk got to watch in real-time as realisation washed over Yoonji, and her smile turned into a frown. He reached out and offered his hand, which she took and squeezed tightly. “Sorry, I-” She shook her head as if she was trying to shake the grief away.
“Don’t be sorry,” Jeongguk said quietly. “I don’t want this relationship to take away the room you need to grieve. You can be happy with me, and still miss your mother terribly. I don’t think either cancels the other out. And you don’t have to be happy around me anyway if you need time-”
“What I need is not to actively talk about the fact that my mother is dead, and that she’ll never attend my wedding,” Yoonji interrupted him, voice sounding quite snappy before she took a deep breath. “Sorry, it’s just not something I can talk about right now. What about you? Do you want to get married?”
Jeongguk thought about telling her to stop apologising again, but he didn’t want her to get more upset. “I always thought that I’d probably get married someday, but I generally didn’t think about whether I really wanted to.” He looked to where their hands were still interlocked, imagining what it would look like if they both sported wedding rings. “But I think I would really like marrying you and being married to you. As a concept.” He noticed Yoonji going still, but before either of them could say something, their food arrived. Saved by the bell.
“I got this,” Yoonji mumbled and swatted Jeongguk’s hands away as she unpacked the food. The crinkling of the bag brought Yoonji’s cat out of the woodwork.
Before Eris could flee, Jeongguk picked her up and cradled her long body against his chest. “What about kids? Do you want those?”
“Well, I certainly don’t want to be pregnant,” Yoonji replied, eyes still on the fried chicken. “But I like children, and I’m good with them, I think.” When she looked up and saw Jeongguk rocking Eris in his arms, she scrunched her nose a little and smiled. “With the right person, and a good environment, I can see myself having kids, yeah.”
“Me too,” Jeongguk said enthusiastically, and laughed when Eris mewled in protest and tried pushing his face away with her paws. “I’d really like to foster kids, and give them the home and support they deserve.”
Yoonji nodded slowly before gesturing at the food. “Please let go of my child before we end up with fur all over dinner.” Jeongguk made a show of pressing a noisy kiss to Eris’ head before he put her down on the floor and walked back to the table. “Anything else you wanted to ask?”
Jeongguk had a thousand questions spinning around in his head, but realistically, he had all the time in the world to work through that list. “Well, where do you see yourself in five years?”
“What, is this a job interview?” Yoonji teased as she grabbed a piece of fried chicken. “I’m gonna be honest. I don’t really have a plan or a vision. I guess I wanna have a different job soon, but I’ve been procrastinating. I keep thinking, what if I leave the archives, and then you need to do more research, and I don’t get the chance to spend that time with you?”
Jutting out his lower lip, Jeongguk looked at her. “Don’t let me hold you back from changing jobs, noona. I’ve loved our archive dates, but believe me, you’ll still see lots of my research, and I’ll happily listen to you tell me about myths on any given day.”
Yoonji hummed noncommittally. “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
“Well,” Jeongguk mumbled around a piece of chicken. How truthful should he be? How cheesy? “In five years, I’ll have a full-time job, and I’ll finally have my master’s thesis long behind me. Maybe I’ll have a dog. Maybe I’ll live with my partner, and we can have dinner every night. Maybe we take turns washing the dishes and doing laundry. Maybe we go on weekend trips to museums and talk about art. Maybe we stick glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling of our bedroom so we can stargaze in our bed. Maybe…” He half-shrugged sheepishly and grabbed his cup of water.
Cocking her head, Yoonji looked at him with a small smile on her face. “Sounds lovely.”
“I like the way you look at me,” he whispered, not daring to say it any louder. He didn’t know why he still felt so shy around her. “Makes my body all jittery.”
Yoonji looked at him some more before ducking her head. “How unromantic would it be if I asked you to be my boyfriend over fried chicken?”
“I think fried chicken is the most romantic thing in the world,” Jeongguk replied with a grin, leaning closer to Yoonji.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He kissed the corner of her lips. “I’m yours already anyway.”
『✦』
That weekend Jimin and Taehee invited everyone over for dinner to ‘celebrate Yoonji and Jeongguk finally getting their shit together’, and Jeongguk didn’t even have it in him to be offended at their nagging. And why would he ever turn down a dinner invitation?
“You might get the shovel talk,” he told Yoonji as they made their way up to Jimin and Taehee’s apartment. “Just as a heads up.”
Yoonji laughed and bumped their shoulders together. “They really are your parents, aren't they?”
“In all forms except biological,” Jeongguk grumbled. Since he knew the keycode to the apartment, they just let themselves in, and by the cheers the others let out, he could tell their friends were already a few glasses of wine ahead of them.
“You’re late!” Jimin yelled and handed Namjoon his wine glass before rushing over to them. “You’re late, you’re late, and I know why.” Jimin wrapped an arm around Jeongguk, and poked the hickeys on Jeongguk’s neck until he flinched out of the way.
“We’re not that late,” Jeongguk whined, though it got drowned out by the sound of Seokjin groaning loudly about something Jeongguk didn’t quite catch.
Yoonji, on the other hand, was quickly walking away from Jimin and Jeongguk. “Where’s the wine?” Jeongguk could hear her mutter.
Seokjin, Yoonji and Jimin were quickly put in charge of getting the food ready, and since Taehee convinced Hope that they needed to go fix their makeup (aka find a quiet place to trade kisses), that left only Jeongguk and Namjoon standing around in the living room.
“Jeongguk-ah,” Namjoon said after a small moment of silence, and leaned an arm on Jeongguk’s shoulder. “I’m sure you know that Yoonji is not only an amazing woman but she’s also a very special person in my life.”
“Yes,” Jeongguk replied, trying hard to hold back his laughter. He couldn’t believe that he was the one getting a shovel talk tonight. He definitely hadn’t expected Namjoon to be the one to do it.
Namjoon didn’t seem to be able to take himself very seriously either, judging by the way his lips kept twitching. “We know you think very highly of her as well, but she’s going through a tough time right now, and we just wanna make sure-”
“I think the world of her, hyung,” Jeongguk interrupted him gently. “I can’t promise that I’ll never hurt her, but what’s important to me right now is that we go at her pace. I would never want to force her in any direction whatsoever. I do appreciate you being worried though, it's nice to know that Yoonji has you in her corner.”
Smiling, Namjoon shook his head. “We both know Seokjin hyung put me up to this. I think you’re a really good guy, and I can’t wait to spend even more time with you in the future.”
“You’re too nice.” Jeongguk waved him off awkwardly. It felt a little weird to be treated differently now that he was officially Yoonji’s boyfriend. He hoped that would fade soon enough. It was probably just the change in their dynamics.
“Do you want some wine, too?” Yoonji asked later as they settled down for dinner, feeling very much like they were in their own little bubble as the others bickered amongst each other. “Wanna try a sip?”
Humming, Jeongguk took the glass she was offering him and tried the wine, his face twisting into a grimace immediately. “No, thank you,” he said, voice pitched a little higher than usual. “I’ll stay with my beer.”
“- Yoonji unnie?” Taehee’s voice ripped the two of them out of their bubble. When she noticed that they hadn’t paid attention, she smiled. “I asked if you’re going to come to Jeongguk’s next match in two weeks.”
Before Yoonji could open her mouth to reply, Jeongguk leaned into her. “You don’t have to.”
“It’s the last of the season,” Jimin added, handing around the side dishes. “We’re going to take him to celebrate after.”
“Of course, I’ll be there.” Yoonji reached out to quickly pinch Jeongguk’s cheek before grabbing the bowl of kimchi. “Gotta see my baby play.”
Jeongguk could feel his heart flutter in his chest. There was a blush making its way up his neck. “I’ll make sure to get you a ticket then,” he mumbled.
Conversations quickly moved on to different topics, and after a while, Yoonji and Jeongguk realised that they weren’t the ones distancing themselves from the rest but that sometimes the other five got so caught up with each other that there wasn’t even room for the couple to enter the bickering.
“Is this dinner really for us, or did we get stuck on another polyamorous date?” Yoonji asked. Jeongguk knew she had meant for only him to hear, but thanks to unfortunate timing and a lull in the conversation, everyone else turned to look at her. Barely able to hold back his laughter, Jeongguk hid his mouth behind his hand.
He thought they were going to laugh it off, but Hope tsked, swirling the wine in her glass. “Don’t get your hopes up. Seokjin and Namjoon ignored my advances, so I’m sure not even Jimin and Taehee could change their minds.”
And that’s when the atmosphere went from awkward to downright uncomfortable. Jeongguk watched as Seokjin and Namjoon sat ramrod straight as Hope drank almost half of her wine glass in one sip. Yoonji next to him was frozen in place as well. Jeongguk glanced over at her, but his girlfriend was staring at Hope with wide eyes. So maybe this had been news to her as well.
“Hob-ah,” Seokjin said softly after a short moment of dead silence. “You know it’s not that- It takes a lot of courage to-”
“Doesn’t matter,” Hope spat out, putting her glass down. Jeongguk had never heard her sound this bitter or this upset in general. “You missed your chance.”
Jimin frowned. “Noona, maybe you should still talk about it. Bottling up your feelings won’t do you any good.” So, Jimin and probably Taehee did at least know what was happening. That was a bit of a relief. Jeongguk turned to look at Yoonji, who only raised her eyebrows.
Hope huffed. “Fine.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “My partners told me that you’ve all been meeting up again because you’re trying to figure out how to make polyamory work for you, and it really fucking hurt because you never cared enough about me to- doesn’t matter, it just hurts.”
Quietly, Yoonji leaned closer to Jeongguk so she could whisper in his ear. “What the fuck is going on?” He shrugged in response. Hope was her roommate; if she didn’t know, how could he?
“But we’re doing it because of you,” Namjoon said, eyebrows pulled together. “We’re doing it for you. We didn’t know if you were still interested, but we wanted to-”
“I think we should leave,” Yoonji whispered, her voice barely audible. Jeongguk pouted at her, not wanting to miss out on this drama. “This isn’t for our ears.”
“But… food.” They both looked at their full plates. He sighed. Yoonji was right, as always. “Grab the food. I’ll meet you in the guest room.” As quietly as they could, they gathered up their food and drinks and slinked away to the back of the apartment.
If their friends noticed them leaving, no one stopped them.
“Quite the celebratory dinner, huh?” he said as they got comfortable on the floor, spreading out their dinner.
Yoonji hummed, stretching out her legs, absentmindedly rolling her ankles. “I don’t mind. I’m just glad they’re finally talking about this.” She handed him a pair of chopsticks. “And I don’t feel like celebrating the fact that it took me this long to get my head out of the gutter.”
“At least it didn’t take us as long as Seokjin, Namjoon and Hope,” Jeongguk said, only receiving a raised eyebrow in reply. “Too early?”
“I can’t believe I love you,” Yoonji mumbled. “Let’s finish eating before they start any funny business.”
『✦』
“You know, I expected to walk in on you two, but not like this.” Hope raised an eyebrow at Yoonji and Jeongguk. They were taking up the whole couch, sitting close to each other with their laptops on either side.
Originally, they had met up to get things done. Yoonji needed to send out job applications now that she had received a few recommendation letters from her old professors at the university (Professor Yang excluded; she would’ve probably written anything but a recommendation). She still wasn’t a hundred percent sure what she wanted to do, but there were a few places she was interested in. Jeongguk needed to send out job applications as well, since he was looking to gain experience through internships while he finished up his studies, and then he also had to apply for a new apartment. Yoonji was a bit jealous that his family had enough money to help him out with rent until he earned enough himself. It just wasn’t a dynamic she was used to.
Both of them had been procrastinating, so they’d decided to sit down and send out applications together. And they had done that for a bit until they got distracted.
Now, Jeongguk was wiggling his freshly painted fingernails at Hope, showing off the light blue nail polish. “Doesn’t it look good, noona?” He blinked his lashes at her. “Does it make my eyes pop?”
“Your eyes are brown,” Hope replied with a sigh. “That’s not how it works.”
With an exaggerated pout, Jeongguk turned back to Yoonji. “She’s so mean to me these days.”
Hope slipped into her room for a second before she came back to rustle Jeongguk’s hair. “That’s cause I keep finding your very stinky socks everywhere.”
If Yoonji hadn’t had her legs thrown over his lap, Jeongguk probably would’ve jumped off the sofa in his defence. “Objection! My only moderately stinky socks never leave Yoonji’s bedroom. I wouldn’t dare to leave them anywhere else.” He squinted at Yoonji’s roommate. “Any chance those socks belong to one of your many, many partners?”
When Hope stayed silent, Yoonji laughed quietly. “Jeonggukkie’s been wearing the toe socks I got him recently, so I fear he’s not the culprit.”
“Let me see the socks!” Jeongguk demanded, and Yoonji wondered how much longer this dirty sock trial would last. She still needed to add a top coat to his nails. “If they’re small, they’re Jimin’s. If not, we’re down to two suspects because Taehee doesn’t even wear socks.”
Hope huffed. “I’m not showing you my boyfriends’ dirty socks.”
“Aha! So you admit it!” Jeongguk pointed his finger at Hope. With another huff, Hope walked away, but Yoonji couldn’t blame her.
She reached out to gently pull on Jeongguk’s ear. “Leave her be.” She positioned his hands back in her lap. “Also, you do know I had to fish your socks from under the couch yesterday, right?”
Jeongguk ducked his head as a blush painted his cheeks pink. “Yeah, but that’s just ‘cause- I mean, usually-” He didn’t finish the sentence, and instead leaned his head on Yoonji’s shoulder. After a moment, he sighed. “Is it weird that all our friends are dating each other now?”
“Not all of them,” Yoonji replied quietly and pressed a kiss to his temple.
“All of our closest ones.”
Yoonji hummed. “I think it’s just a different dynamic. We’re different, too.” Jeongguk pulled his eyebrows together. “You don’t think we act differently?”
“A little maybe…”
Giggling, Yoonji cupped his face, her thumbs running over his cheekbones. “Baby, I feel like a completely different person since we started dating. Not in a bad way. You just… You bring sides out in me that I haven’t seen in a while.”
Jeongguk studied her for a moment. “You’re happy,” he said quietly. “I make you happy, yeah?”
“Fishing for compliments, are we?” Jeongguk laughed as well before pressing their lips together. Of course, Yoonji was happy. She hadn’t realised how much she had yearned for a love like this. Things weren’t perfect, and they had things to work out, but when Jeongguk looked at her, she felt nothing but love. Almost every day, she pulled out the letter Jeongguk had written her and reread it.
“Aren’t you guys supposed to be productive?” Hope asked louder than she needed to.
Yoonji pulled away from the kiss and stared over at her roommate. “This feels very productive.”
Raising her eyebrows, Hope leaned over the back of the couch until her face was close to theirs. “I don’t think kissing your boyfriend will land you a job, Jiji unnie,” she whisper-shouted.
Groaning, Yoonji pushed her face away. “Okay, okay.” She sat up a little straighter, and pulled her laptop back into her lap. “Alright, love, let’s get shit done.”
“Aye, aye.”