and, fyi, the dsm-5 can only take you so far ⭑.ᐟ yn ln is a sophomore in university , a crappy drummer , and a minimum wage boba shop employee . expecting the worst once again for her third semester , yn's pessimistic world view is shattered after serving her cutest customer to date ─ meret manon bannerman , a member of katseye , the darling influencer friend group rocking social media .
05. my fortune cookie says we have to kiss lol
── rule governed behavior - when an individual does not engage in a certain behavior because of verbal rules explaining possible consequences
written word count : like 1.0k again im done 😭😭
when you first open your mouth, no sounds come out. then moka shoves you a bit, reactivating what’s left of your brain and kicking your social skills back into gear.
“hey,” you exhale. oh my God.
tearing your eyes away from your shoes, you notice how she meets you with that same smile from last weekend. your heart flutters.
“hey yourself,” she giggles, then turning to yunjin, “jen, i had no idea you knew yn!”
and she remembers my name.
yunjin matches her grin, “campus' too small. how do you two know each other?”
she knows of course, all of you do. it’s all any of your friends had been hearing about since your initial interaction. but everyone had mutually agreed to be completely oblivious. a blank slate. you find yourself suddenly worrying about the quality of your friends' poker faces.
you present the bag in your hands to manon, who graciously accepts it. you hear the thump of another pair of footsteps accompanied by an eager ‘ooh, is that the food?’ followed by an excited ‘finally!’
to manon’s right, you catch a glimpse of who you assume are two other members of katseye: a girl with dark brown curls yanks the bag from manon’s hands while another with straight hair streaked with pink tails her. a few other girls surround the kitchen island, chattering amongst themselves as they unpack each container. manon looks back at them, then to the rest of you and steps aside.
“she works at the boba store we like,” manon answers, shutting the door behind niki who enters last, “it was actually my first time going in cause usually megan or yoonchae goes to pick stuff up for us.”
yunjin nods, then pats you on the back, “i’m assuming she left a good first impression? i can’t have my reputation tarnished by hanging around the wrong crowd, you know.”
before you have the chance to retaliate, manon jumps in, “oh no, she was just awful. had me repeat myself three times, made the wrong order, and didn’t give me any straws.”
your stomach flips. she can’t be serious, right? no, she’s literally smiling. she’s definitely joking. wait, is she actually? did you somehow gloss over some very major details of the interaction in your love-riddled haze?
“you really need better friends, yunjin. maybe i could just take this one off your hands for you?” she adds, casually.
yunjin raises an eyebrow, “tempting but no deal, we’re buy one get one unfortunately.”
“not even a free trial? i’m offended.” manon’s focus turns to you. it looks like she’s waiting for a reaction. you’d much rather not know what you look like right now.
would it kill me to actually come up with a response for once? not that it even matters anymore, since she and yunjin have both gone over to help plate food. you can also feel a smirk boring into the back of your skull that feels like much more of a pressing matter.
“aren’t musicians supposed to be really good at flirting?” shinyu asks, his eyes following the pair as they stroll into the kitchen.
“why don’t you ask minji,” you grumble.
“where even is she?” niki flips his hat off and twirls it around one hand.
“her and moka ran off somewhere, they’re probably socializing.”
he gives you a pointed look, “you’d better start too before yunjin steals your girl.”
you get up to new moon before half the group starts complaining to put something else on. much to manon’s dismay, daniela starts flipping through the horror category on whatever streaming service as her voice is drowned out by a slew of unhelpful suggestions.
“wait, wait,” lara calls out, face tinted blue from her phone, “try bodies, bodies, bodies. it’s less scary more black comedy but i think we’d all like it.”
megan and yoonchae return with snack refills, flinging bags of candy and chips at the couch until one smacks sophia in the forehead. everyone resettles and you snag a stray pouch of sour gummies from the coffee table. turning back around, you’re just now noticing how yunjin has taken your original seat beside moka and left hers–next to manon– conspicuously open. the two of them grin at the look on your face, with moka giving you a thumbs up, before returning to their conversation. a beat passes as you hesitate, contemplating excusing yourself entirely until manon pats the empty spot beside her, tugging her blanket away and scooting slightly to make more room. your mouth twists when your lips fold inward, trying your hardest to smother the busted smile fighting its way out. the bag in your hand crinkles under your grip while you carefully drop into the seat beside her.
“sorry about the twilight thing.” an attempt at making conversation.
“huh? oh, don’t be,” manon laughs softly, “i make them rewatch all 5 movies with me all the time they’re probably sick of it.” your chest does that thing again at the sound.
“it’s also probably time i let someone else choose.” she’s turning her body toward you a little now.
“that’s, uh, nice of you.” you busy yourself with ripping open the plastic in your hands while you overthink the way each word came out of your mouth. you want to say something again but manon’s turned back the other way, cackling at something lara’s just said as she presses play on the movie. you inhale, allowing yourself a moment to sink back into the cushions just a bit and popping a gummy worm into your mouth.
time passes in blinks with unwanted commentary, obnoxious screaming, and daniela accidentally kneeing shinyu in the head when pete davidson’s character died. mixed in that timeline was the process of getting more comfortable with manon. cracking a joke at the right moment and getting her to laugh, offering her one of your snacks and her gracious acceptance, or even just catching moments of her looking at you instead of the screen. it’s also around this time that you realize you’ve been drifting ever closer to each other. so much so, in fact, that your leg brushes against hers for a brief moment. you still immediately. but she doesn’t move. not away, at least. if anything, you could swear she shifts that much closer.
meanwhile in the background, unbeknownst to you, yunjin and moka celebrate their success with a fist bump.
a/n 05/07/25 : wowww, hey people😅😅 im so sorry please i hate work and i hate school. happy halfway through summer and happy 1 week to beautiful chaos!!! also my irl said credit her w the ugly ass reaction image in the last tweet...AGAIN IM SORRY FOR THE WAIT I LOVE YOU GUYS FOR BEING PATIENTTT <3333
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