thunder only happens when it's r a i n i n g / players only love you when they're playing / women they will c o m e and they will go / when the rain washes you clean you'll know / you will know.
She was never good at this. Talking about her real feelings, letting her guard down, and letting people in. She did that for only a few people, thinking maybe she’ll get to keep them in her life in exchange for a part of her soul. Baring herself to them and while there are only a few people that had seen who Seungah really is, they will take a huge chunk out of her being when they leave. That’s what happened with Wooyoung and now, Hoetaek. Seungah thought hard and long, just how much she’d tell Daisy.
“I don’t know.”
A whisper was all she could muster because if she said anything any louder she might just hear her own voice crack over her already broken heart. “He said he’d always put me first. Maybe I asked for too much. I got greedy, kept him all to myself, forgetting how he’s also his own person instead of mine. I don’t think I’ll stop being scared, Daisy. I trust people and I break at the end.” Throwing a shoulder over her eyes. As much as she enjoyed the change of view from her opulent dorm room, where you can find clothes almost anywhere, to Daisy’s cozy and almost jungle apartment, Seungah preferred the darkness.
daisy waits, patiently, for seungah to decide what to say. she’s not expecting anything, would understand if seungah decided not to say anything and change the topic entirely. but she’s also ready to listen if the other girl does decide to talk, and she hopes seungah knows that this is a safe space. that nothing she says will leave this walls. that daisy is not going to judge her for being vulnerable, for feeling emotions, for working through those emotions any way they need to be. daisy is here for seungah, whatever she needs, and even though she wishes she could erase all of seungah’s problems for her, being a good friend is the least she can do.
she looks up when she hears seungah’s whisper, watches her friend’s face carefully as she speaks. there’s a frown on daisy’s face, concern in her eyes, and she hates the way seungah seems to be blaming herself. she hates that she’s been hurt so much she’ll always be scared. when she hides her face, daisy moves closer, wraps her arms around the girl and pulls her into a hug. she hopes that the physical contact will be a comfort of some sort, or at least a reminder that she’s not alone. “it’s not your fault, seungah,” she says softly, gently petting the girl’s hair. “you can’t blame yourself.”
“you trusted him, and he broke that trust, that’s on him,” she tells her, maybe a little more firmly than she intended. “he did what he did, he knew that you’d been hurt in the past and still made the choices he made. wondering what you did wrong is not going to help anything, because you didn’t do anything wrong.” she sighs quietly, her arms still around seungah so she gives her a gentle squeeze. “whatever his reasons, I don’t think they were because of anything you did.” hoetaek worshiped the ground seungah walked on, anyone could see that just from looking at the two of them together. whatever changed in him, whatever reason he had behind his actions, daisy cannot imagine it had to do with seungah holding him too close.
daisy drops her arms, but she stays close, offering her hands for seungah to take if she wants. “all these questions, these hypotheticals about what you did, about whether or not what ‘they say’ is right… I need you to try and throw them away, okay?” daisy knows exactly what they say, that seungah is self-centred, that she shouldn’t have been so quick to cast hoetaek aside. they’re idiots. “it does not matter what they say, they’re assholes who like to run their mouths, jealous cause they’ll never be as fabulous as you are. I know it’s easier said than done, but you can’t let them get to you. you can’t start blaming yourself because of their assumptions. they don’t know you, they don’t know the situation, they don’t know what you’ve been through. they don’t matter. the mistake was his, not yours.”
she doesn’t miss the way seungah suddenly switches to brushing it off with a joke, or the obviously forced smile that appears on her face. if she’s honest, it worries her, a little, how quickly she’s able to do that. though at the same time, knowing seungah, it doesn’t surprise her. “you don’t have to do that around me, you know,” she says, pointing at seungah smile. “if you want to, if it helps to put on the brave face, then I won’t stop you, but don’t do it for my sake.” she offers seungah a smile, soft and compassionate and understanding. “it’s okay to not be okay. and you’re going to deal with it the way you’re going to deal with it.”
“it’s also okay to think about yourself sometimes too.” daisy raises her eyebrows at the way seungah seems so determined to put hoetaek’s happiness before her own. even after what he did to her. “you can do what you think is going to be right by him, and that’s admirable, but just make sure you don’t destroy yourself in the process.”
seeing that daisy is actually paying attention to her she continues with her mini lesson of some sorts. ❝ corals are interesting because i thought they were pretty looking things, okay and technically they’re not plants but they look like one.❞ she dismisses the topic with a small wave of her hand. ❝ but they’re territorial little fuckers. did you know they have stringers like jellyfish? and they sting other corals if it gets too close to their space? the sea has some wild plants and animals. ❞ she ends her speech a long huff of air, shaking her head as she thinks about the crazy things that you can find in the deep ocean. ❝ thank you for listening to me geek out, and being so kind to let me be an honorary member. i promise i’ll make you proud regardless of my official membership or not. ❞ she laughs once more, holding her pinky up like she’s making a promise.
daisy smiles, wide and uncontrolled, as yooa says she trusts her, and then at the way she says dr. kim. daisy feels warm and she’s sure her cheeks are flushing and she’d probably be scared about giving herself away if she wasn’t just so endeared by the person next to her. “well in a couple of years when I’m graduated and fully qualified and you’ve long forgotten about this conversation, I’ll be there to prove you were right to put your trust in me,” daisy promises. and she means it too. she can absolutely imagine herself showing up on yooa’s door with a box of business cards hot off the press, just to give her the first one.
daisy sits up as yooa prepares herself, her face brightening with excitement as the other girl begins to talk. the actual content of what she’s saying is super interesting. daisy’s probably the opposite of yooa in that she knows a lot about land-plants but not so much about the water ones. so she really tries to pay attention and learn from what yooa’s telling her. but she’s also enraptured but the passion behind her words. this is obviously something yooa’s more than a little interested in, and it’s so endearing to listen to her talk. daisy could sit here and listen to yooa talk about the ocean and what lies beneath it forever.
“corals have stingers?” daisy replies, genuinely amazed. “that’s kind of bad ass and I think I like coral more for that?” she laughs. “seriously though, that’s fascinating, I can see why you’re so interested in marine life. and you don’t need to thank me for listening, honestly I should be thanking you for that knowledge bomb you just dropped on me.” she smiles at her friend, though she has to drop her gaze after a moment in fear that looking at yooa’s face too long would make her cheeks turn far too red. “if you ever want to geek out again, I’m all ears,” she continues. “and I don’t doubt you’ll be the best honorary member I could ask for,“ she chuckles, linking her pinky with yooa’s.
( a quick ooc update: basically I just wanted to apologise for slow replies, I recently went back to work so I’ve been busier than usual and it’s sucking a lot of my energy (I also finally jumped on the animal crossing train about three weeks ago so there’s that too). but! I promise I’m getting to everything! I really do love all the threads I’ve got going and the ones still plotting so I’m trying to make an effort to get to what I can when I have the energy/muse, please be patient with me!
also a quick character thing, both hoetaek and daisy’s birthdays passed at the start of this month, so taek is now 24 and daisy is 26, not that it makes a big difference to anything but yeah.
also, also, if you ever wanna talk plots or character or anything at all but you don’t wanna use tumblr’s im, you can hit me up on discord caiteeje#4781 )
when she curses at him and issues him an order he has no intention of following, his immediate reaction is just to blink in surprise at her and then start laughing. seungwoo is the worst, seungwoo is a scourge upon the world, a stain, a mistake; seungwoo not only has no backbone, no bite, nothing to threaten jongin with after all this time together, but now he’s resorting to dragging other, even less intimidating people into his line of fire. “what happened?” jongin asks, still chucking and grinning. “did dating wooseok turn seungwoo into even more of a spineless little bitch than before? what are you, his beard?”
it’s interesting, the way jongin braces himself as if he might expect her to hit him. not that he looks scared by that prospect, or that daisy would expect him to be, but still. she caught him off guard, at least. she’s not going to hit him. not if she can help it, anyway. as much as she might like to, she’s not about to give him something he can use against her like that. this is going to be difficult enough as it is, and daisy is smart enough to know that physical violence would only make things worse. she puts her hands in her pockets and stares him down, eyes hard, as she watches him register what she said and why she’s here.
she doesn’t flinch when he starts to laugh, barely reacts at all to his derogatory reaction expect to roll her eyes. nothing about his reaction is surprising to her. “seungwoo doesn’t know I’m here, and he’s not going to know cause you’re never going to talk to him again,” she tells him, voice even, like it’s the easiest thing in the world. which it could be, if jongin was capable of making the choice to not be an asshole. “I’m doing this because I care about him. not that I imagine you know too much about what it’s like to care about someone enough to want to protect them from bullshit they don’t deserve.”
she sighs. “what is your problem with him anyway?” she asks, eyebrows raised questioningly. “seriously, help me understand what he could possibly have done to deserve the horrible way you’ve treated him. cause right now, all I’m seeing, is someone with some stupid grudge, who likes to cause people pain cause he’s an asshole.” no one deserves the bullshit jongin has put seungwoo through, and in daisy’s eyes, least of all seungwoo. “and what about wooseok? is his only crime dating someone you dislike? targeting him to get to seungwoo is some next level bullshit.”
so admittedly, things haven’t been going as well as she imagined them to be, but she figures she might as well make the best out of it and not let her spirits be brought down, since she’s already here. that, and she doesn’t exactly have a choice right now, because her line has been growing at a rapid rate all of a sudden…
it is only when a guy tells her he had been sent to her line by the “pretty girl over there” that she realises what is going on. turning to daisy, danbi sends her a knowing smile, as if to say “i see what you’re doing”. but danbi doesn’t mind the growing line as of yet. what could go wrong with at least 20 guys lined up before you, waiting for a kiss, right?
daisy admires danbi’s unbreakably positive spirit. people call her a ray of sunshine, but she’s nothing compared to danbi. in a lot of ways, daisy wishes she had danbi’s resilience for seeing the positives in every situation. maybe it’s the years she has on the younger girl that makes it harder for daisy to keep up that kind of energy, or certain life experiences that weigh on her. whatever the reason, daisy hopes danbi never loses her spirit. the world needs more of that sprit. but it’s also the reason daisy has no qualms about adding to her line in order to shorten her own.
with less people for her to kiss, she can keep tabs on how danbi is doing, so she catches her friend’s gaze when she clicks on to what’s happening. daisy simply grins back, replying with a shrug. “I’m just making sure you get the award for most money raised at the kissing booth.” she has no idea if such an award actually exists, but if anyone deserves it, it’s definitely danbi. “and also that all these lovely people get to kiss...” she raises her voice for the next part, loud enough for the guys in front of them to hear. “...the prettiest and best kisser in all of seongnam, jo danbi!” she gives a little flourish, waving jazz hands in danbi’s direction, and it actually makes a guy who was about to join daisy’s line, join danbi’s instead. “I wonder if I should be offended at how easy this is,” she jokes, much quieter now, chuckling to herself.
she hasn’t managed to palm everyone off on danbi (unfortunately), but she keeps up her, still surprisingly successful, attempts to get guys to switch lines. which leaves her with a lot more free time between kisses. “I will stop sending them all over if you want me to,” daisy tells danbi between the other girl’s kisses. “but it’s honestly way more fun for me to be your hype man and talk about how awesome you are.”
junhyung turns to daisy with his face scrunched up in disgust, whispering under his breath as he picks up a bottle of water, “ugh, someone had onions for lunch.” he gags, gargling a mouthful of water and spitting it out onto the grass beneath him. “I hate onions.” he shoots her a pained expression. “trust me, I wouldn’t be here if I had a choice.” he groans, glancing over at the crowd approaching the booth for the next session. “we still have another forty minutes of this torture.” he complains, “can’t we just make a run for it?”
normally, daisy might berate junhyung for complaining about a girl he’s kissed because she had onion breath. in fact, many times in the past she’s rolled her eyes and told him to stop being mean when he’s complained about trivial features of the girls he’s kissed. but in those situations, he’d actually had control over who he’d been kissing. here, not so much. besides, daisy’s too distracted by her own annoyance to lecture him right now, instead simply sighing. when he reminds her how much longer they have left, she groans, running a hand through her hair. she follows his gaze, watching as more people approach. there’s a guy headed straight for the front of her line, recognises him from a recent night out, remembers the way he’d leered at her from across the bar. “normally I’d be against abandoning your responsibilities,” she tells junhyung. “but honestly? let’s get the fuck out of here.”
there’s a chance they’ll get in trouble for abandoning their posts, but that doesn’t really bother daisy. she’s pretty sure she’s well liked enough to get out of any major consequences, besides, she’d argue that being uncomfortable is a legitimate reason to not want to keep doing this. and she’ll happily cover for junhyung—she feels better about leaving cause she’s not on her own. they’re no way they’re sneaking out of this, but is anyone really going to stop them if they just turn and walk away? “just walk like it’s what you’re supposed to be doing,” she says, not that she expects that to be a problem for junhyung. she turns on her heel and walks with purpose in the opposite direction of the booth, not needing to look back to check that junhyung is following her.
she feels better almost immediately, when they’re far enough away that anyone who might have tried to stop them would have done so already, and she pauses, looking around to get her bearings on where they are on campus. “wanna go to the petting zoo?” she asks, looking back at junhyung. it’s not really a question, since daisy’s not really considering any other option. she’s been wanting to go to the petting zoo since she knew there’d be one, but with being caught up in decorating and then the kissing booth, she hadn’t had a chance to yet. “it’ll be fun,” she promises, already heading in that direction. “plus, if anyone does decide to come yell at us for not being back at the booth, I can’t imagine it would be easy to be too mad at us if we’re holding cute animals.”
daisy is a workaholic. she wouldn’t say that if you asked her, but her friends would. the thing is, she likes working, prefers keeping busy. even when she has a rare day off, can’t just sit and do nothing, it makes her itchy just thinking about it. she’s always been this way, as soon as she could walk she ran, from one end of the apartment to the other, until she’d tired herself out. therein lies the problem, however. sometimes daisy gets so caught up in the moving and the doing and the working, she forgets to pause long enough to take care of herself.
this week is one of those weeks. the last few if she’s being honest. she’s been sleeping late, waking up early, running on coffee and forgetting to eat half the time. she doesn’t even notice, so used to just pushing through, telling herself she’s fine so much she tricks herself into believing it. so it doesn’t register that she’s running on empty until it’s too late.
the day starts just like any other. daisy wakes up after barely four hours of sleep, and gets out of bed like it’s nothing. well, almost nothing. her head spins a little when she stands up, but she brushes it off, figuring she just stood up too fast. she has tea for breakfast, and a giant cold brew during her classes. and she means to stop and eat lunch, really truly, but she gets distracted when someone from gardening club catches her with a question, and the next thing she knows they’ve been talking for an hour and she needs to get to work.
work is busy. she makes coffee and deals with customers and laughs with her co-workers. she ignores the ache in her back and the lightness in her head. she ignores the slight shake in her hand when she picks up her bag at the end of her shift. she ignores the weak feeling in her legs as she starts the walk back to her dorm. she just has to make it home. just has to... and then everything goes black and daisy faints, right into someone’s arms. ( starter for @sgnjoonki )
walking into the coffee shop was always an adventure in and of itself. people were often much too into their caffeine addictions, and he had yet to cross that threshold without witnessing some sort of altercation due to mixed up orders or impatience. laughable, if you asked him. though he’d immediately made a beeline towards daisy’s usual station, bright smile in light of seeing the array of flowers she dabbled in. “what? admit it, i’m your favourite customer,” perhaps the fondest thing he’d come to say in a while, through teasing and the like. and that was the beauty of this. it wasn’t awkward. she didn’t look down on him for not fully understanding what he was asking for, nor did she berate him for his tendency to look with his hands. pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, he’d unscrewed it in an attempt to decipher exactly what he’d written down the previous day, “i wanted something that was primarily tiger lilies? if that’s okay?”
and he was well aware of what they meant, for once. a bouquet of tiger lilies meant nothing more than ‘i dare you to love me’.
"hmm, if I admit you are my favourite you have to promise not to tell anyone, don’t want all my other regulars getting jealous,” she responds with a laugh, though it’s not entirely untrue. not that daisy has many other regulars, but wooyoung’s definitely been one the longest, and a friendship has built over time that’s felt easy. not to mention he always comes to her with interesting requests that let her be creative, let her give her bouquets actual meaning beyond just looking pretty. it wouldn’t necessarily be a lie to say he’s her favourite customer. she leans against the counter, grateful that she never feels like she has to act professional or put on her customer service smile when he’s there, and waits for him to explain what he wants today.
“tiger lilies? I dare you to love me, bold choice I like it,” daisy replies, a smile forming on her face as ideas start to spin in her mind. it’s an interesting message to send, daisy can admit she’s curious about who’s going to be receiving it, but she doesn’t ask. prying’s not in her nature, and besides, she knows wooyoung’s not there to talk about the who. he’s there for her to construct the what. “well, we could add in some orange roses, giving orange roses generally indicates passion and desire, would definitely work with the kind of bold theme we’re going with. some blue orchids could be fun, get that contrasting colour to the orange. orchids tend to be associated with love, blue ones represent power, beauty and peace, so I guess if the person getting these is powerful and beautiful they’d be fitting. I’d probably add some small white flowers too, just to balance all the bright colours a bit.”
she moves around the displays as she talks, picking up a few of each of the flowers she’s mentioning and creating a kind of mini, draft version of a bouquet. it’s in it’s early stages, but daisy still arranges each of the flowers carefully in her hand before showing wooyoung. “what do you think?”
there are upsides to working at fleur cafe, and there are downsides. having < @sgnxjisoo > as a co-worker is definitely an upside. jisoo is newer, but daisy clicked with him almost immediately. it probably helps that she gets along with most people, but she likes the kid, thinks he’s sweet, and—as is generally what happens—she basically adopted him as her work sibling on the spot. shifts with jisoo are always more fun. they have a good vibe going, manage to keep things chill even when there’s a line of customers, and they’re always finding ways to make each other smile. and, when annoying customers decide to come bother them, they have each other’s backs.
that’s the biggest downside to working at fleur, the karens. it’s a side affect of any customer service job, but that doesn’t make dealing with them any more fun. at the cafe, karens come in all shapes, sizes, and genders, but they’re all equally annoying. daisy was praying for a karen-free shift today. it’s been a long week and she just wants to hang with jisoo and make coffee and get through the day as painlessly as possible. of course, her prayers don’t work. they’re about half way through the shift when a tall, beefy guy marches up to the counter. he has a pissed off expression on his face and daisy sighs, sending a glance jisoo’s way before going up to him.
“I ordered soy milk but you gave me oat!” the guy yells before daisy even has the chance to greet him, slamming his half-drunk iced latte down on the counter so hard the lid pops off. daisy lets out another sigh through her nose, her customer service smile plastered on her face. she knows for a fact this guy ordered oat milk, he’d only been there fifteen minutes ago, and as a non-dairy drinker herself, daisy has a good memory for people choosing alternative milk options. “I’m so sorry sir, would you like us to remake your drink?” she replies, her customer service voice sickly sweet. “what kind of bullshit business are you running here anyway? where’s your manager? I should have you fired!” great, so he’s going to be difficult.
of course, she’d returned to her things, promptly picking up the bottled water she had stashed in her bag, almost choking herself with the speed at which she consumed its contents. only to hear footsteps behind her. upon quick inspection, it became clear her day was going to become lighter in an almost twisted way. daisy was approaching. her achilles heel. the very person that made her suffer more than anyone else in this world. abandoning her things where they were perched, she instead decided to close the distance between the two, pulling her drenched shirt up to wipe the hem over her face, in an act to remove the sweat from her upper lip. in actuality, it was done to show off a little too much skin to be considered innocent, “did you come to throw me off my game? you’re a little late for that, unfortunately. i would’ve loved to see you ogling me while i ran.”
daisy has always preferred the heat. likes to bask in the sunlight, feel it’s warmth on her face. she’s dressed for it today, in a lacy bralette and a long skirt with a slit all the way up her thigh. she’s aware she’s getting stares. there’s a guy in her class sitting a few seats away who won’t stop staring at her boobs. she ignores him, used to this by now. besides the lecture is literally on objectification and sexualisation, and if this guy is really going to be that obtuse then he’s clearly not worth her time. the class ends and daisy gets out of there before the guy has a chance to try and turn his staring into a conversation, and she smiles when the warm air of outside hits her face. she’s done for the day, a rare empty afternoon ahead of her, and she decides she’s enjoying the way the sun’s seeping into her shoulders too much to go home just yet.
she goes for a walk, purple tinted glasses perched on her nose and her face turned towards the sun, reminiscent of her favourite flowers. she ends up by the track field, a sly smile lifting her lips as she catches sight of a familiar figure laying on the ground. so maybe this location hadn’t been an accident. maybe she’d had a certain someone on her mind. really, if anyone is going to objectify her, she’d like it to be minah. a weakness, perhaps, that keeps drawing daisy back to her, but can she really be blamed? minah is gorgeous, and daisy’s attraction pulls her the rest of the way across the field.
she smirks when minah closes the final distance between them, eyes dropping to the girl’s exposed torso when she lifts her shirt. which is exactly what minah intended, daisy suspects, but she looks nonetheless. her eyes drag over bare skin, not missing the way it glistens with sweat. she wets her lips with her tongue. “is practice over already?” she asks, her gaze finally returning to minah’s face. “that’s a shame. I’ll have to come earlier next time, I’m sure seeing me in the bleachers would be a fun distraction,” she replies, her smirk still playing on her lips. there is still space between them, but if they weren’t in public right now there wouldn’t be. it’s taking all of daisy’s willpower not to reach out and touch. “so what’s your plan now? gonna hit the showers?”
daisy can’t explain what drives her here. what it is that has her walking up the stairs from her dorm on gangjeon’s second floor to < @sgnjinhyuk >’s on the fourth, late at night, not there just for a friendly chat. truthfully she tries not to think about it too hard. she’s not supposed to be wanting to sleep with a guy and yet... here she is, and not for the first time. she chalks it up to loneliness, that empty feeling that sits in her stomach when she’s left alone in her dorm room, just her and her plants. and jinhyuk is there, objectively attractive. more importantly, he doesn’t judge her (at least not out loud), doesn’t ask questions she doesn’t want to answer, doesn’t even talk at all if he doesn’t have to. it’s easy, as long as daisy doesn’t think about it too hard.
she’s got the hood of her jacket up as she stands in front of jinhyuk’s door. she has to be careful, seungwoo is only a few doors down and she doesn’t want him to catch her. not because she particularly enjoys keeping secrets from her best friend, or that she think he wouldn’t be understanding, but because she hasn’t figured out how to tell him yet. if he sees her, he’ll ask what she’s doing, and she wouldn’t even know where to start. so she hides, digging her left hand deep into her pocket and taking a deep breath as she raises her right one to knock on his door.
“hey,” she greets him softly when he opens the door, catching her bottom lip between her teeth as she steps in closer to him. “got time for me tonight?”
“Come with me.” Linking arms with her and basically dragging her away. One step at a time. Every time Daisy tried to say something, Seungah holds her finger up to the other. Clearly having no plans listening to any of her excuses as to why she’s been overworking herself again and it’s barely noon.
“I swear you’re burning the soles of your shoes already and you haven’t even considered taking a sip of water, I’m sure.” Having dragged Daisy away from the bustling crowd, preparing for the festival, Seungah looks around. Finally, with some peace and quiet, she manages to find a bench where she basically sits Daisy down.
“You’re resting and you’re eating. No buts, Daisy!”
daisy hadn’t meant to forget about breakfast. she’d just had a to-do list of things she had to do before breakfast, that just kept getting things added to it so that, before she knew it, the time she had promised to meet seungah had flown by. the gardening club had ended up primarily being involved in decorations for the spring festival, a task that daisy had taken a lot of onto herself. which has meant that she’s been running around all over campus all morning, making sure everything was perfect. it’s tiring, but she barely even notices she’s so caught up in what she’s doing. she likes this kind of work, enjoys it (much more than she’s sure she’ll enjoy her shift at the kissing booth later, but she’ll deal with that later), and the thought of taking a break doesn’t even cross her mind.
so she’s surprised, for a moment, when she hears seungah call her name, sees her hurry over to her with clear purpose. at first daisy thinks it’s about breakfast, suddenly remembering that she missed it, and there are apologies on her lips, but she doesn’t get them out. seungah’s commands for her to stop has her freezing in her tracks, and now she’s worried that she’s angered her. she racks her brain trying to think of what she might have done to make seungah mad at her cause it seems like something worse than just forgetting a breakfast date.
but then seungah’s linking their arms and dragging her away, and now daisy gets it. she’s trying to make her take a break. daisy tries to protest, but every time she opens her mouth, seungah shushes her with her finger, and eventually she gives up, letting the other girl take charge. daisy should know by now that seungah is stubborn. today she’s decided to make daisy sit down, and that’s probably what she’s going to get, no matter what daisy tries to say.
“I had water!” she manages to say, though even then she’s not sure if that’s true. she feels like she probably would’ve been making sure to stay hydrated, but she also doesn’t remember if she actually had or not. she sits when seungah sits her down, and it takes so much will power not to say but. her mind is already on all the things she still has to do, and she really doesn’t know how long she’s going to be able to stay still for. “okay, fine, but I can’t sit too long there’s still some stuff I need to do.”
junhyung sucks in his breath before exhaling despondently, glancing back up at her — he knows that she knows and the only way to make it any better was to come clean. “ok, fine,” he begins, “you’re gonna think it’s stupid though,” he hesitates, playing with the strings of his hoodie before resigning to fate and continuing again, “Ididn’tknowthisgirlhadaboyfriendandIhookedupwithher—” he scrunches his face to brace himself for the incoming lecture, “…and he came to beat me up.” he finishes with a sheepish smile. “also, key word: I didn’t know she had a boyfriend. you know I wouldn’t do that if I did!” he explains, pulling his hood back now that the cat was out of the bag and he didn’t need to hide it any longer.
the wind lightly blows at his now exposed hair as he picks up a metal spoon to examine at his wound, “not to worry though, I’ll give this a week to heal, two weeks tops.” he adds, hoping it would soften the blow. “and just so you know, I returned him a punch!” he shares proudly, reenacting the scene by punching the air. “felt like I dislodged his nose but just between you and I,” he leans in towards her, “he was long overdue for that nose job.”
daisy’s elbow rests on the table, her chin on her hand as she watches him, her expression remains stoic, uncrackable, as she waits through every one of his ‘ha’s. he can look around, all he wants, procrastinate, try to distract her, but he’s not getting out of this and he knows it. she doesn’t bother answering his question, simply raises her eyebrows in response. he knows exactly what she means. and then he actually starts looking through the menu, and daisy snorts, shaking her head. “wow, it must really be bad if you’re trying to use the menu to escape, or are you going to try and convince me you want to try something new tonight?” a smile tugs at the corners of daisy’s lips, mostly because she finds it amusing that junhyung actually thought going for the menu was going to be a good idea, but she manages to keep it mostly off her face. she doesn’t want him to take that amusement and run with it. “just tell me, junhyung, you know I’m going to get it out of you eventually.”
finally he’s coming clean, and daisy can’t help but roll her eyes at his story. of course it had to do with a hook up coming back to bite him. she’s not even surprised at this point. just disappointed. and, admittedly, concerned. she can’t help worrying that one day this kid is going to end up in a fight he’s not going to be able to walk away from. “you know if you actually stopped to get to know these girls you hook up before you hooked up with them then you might avoid getting with someone who’s boyfriend is going to come punch you in the face,” she tells him, letting out a sigh so big it blows the hair off her face. “one of these days one of your little escapades is going to get you into some deep trouble you might not be able to get out of on your own, and I’m not gonna be there to bail you out.” that last part’s a lie, and she’s pretty sure he knows it. as much as she hates to admit it, she cares, he knows she does, and if he ever needed her help she’d be there. that’s not going to stop her from telling him off though.
“am I supposed to be proud of you for punching someone in the face?” she asks, rolling her eyes yet again. “don’t get into fights in the first place, junhyung! doesn’t matter if the other guy needs a nose job or not!” but she’s smiling, just a little, as laughter threatens to escape her lips. it’s a little disarming, the way she can go from disapproving to chuckling just because of the way he’s showing off, telling jokes, and he presses her mouth into her hand to try and cover her smile. “you say not to worry but how can I not when you show up to dinner looking like that?” she gestures to his bruise. “you’re going to be the death of me junhyung, I swear.” she turns away from him then to wave down a waiter, reciting their usual order without once glancing at the menu.
just when she thinks she’s gotten a hold of herself, able to accept her cup and move off to the side, daisy casually drops another compliment — that she’s easy to remember, and sejeong flushes again. this time, she opens her mouth, and her words come out with a little bit of a whine. “ahh, unnie,” the honorific slips from her lips without her realizing it, and usually she wouldn’t even dream of calling someone she just met so familiarly. but it had just come out in her embarrassment, and without her even realizing it. “you’re turning me into a tomato…”
daisy feels like her heart is melting at how freaking cute sejeong is. her little o-oh, the way her smile brightens, how gosh darn happy she seems at receiving these compliments from daisy. it’s like she’s this precious ray of sunshine who’s blessing daisy by brightening her day. it speaks to the very core of daisy’s protective instincts. sejeong makes daisy want to follow her around like a body guard, a big old baseball bat in her hand ready to whack away anything that might threaten to darken sejeong’s world. this isn’t a new feeling for daisy—the number of younger students daisy’s practically adopted is, well, many—but she doesn’t think she’s ever felt it as fast and as strongly as she has for sejeong. she has to make an effort to contain it, she doesn’t want to scare the poor girl.
she takes the card to finish the transaction, handing it back before moving on to start making her coffee. focusing on her work is helping her keep from yelling about how cute sejeong is, or coming out from behind the counter to squish her cheeks. but when the younger girl calls her unnie it absolutely floors her. now it’s daisy’s turn to blush and smile widely, pleased to hear sejeong call her that, even if it was on accident. she takes it as a good sign, that even though she’s clearly embarrassed by all the compliments, sejeong might be getting more comfortable with her. that this really is the start of a wholesome friendship.
“well you’re a very cute tomato!” daisy insists, finishing off her coffee and placing it on the counter for her. “and really it’s all just the truth. I mean, I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t,” she continues, leaning forward on the counter and giving a sincere nod. “surely you have people telling you you’re cute and that your smile is beautiful all the time.”
[ trigger warnings: depression, mention of suicidal ideation ]
she waits. distracting herself by keeping busy in the kitchen. she tidies up and wipes down the counter tops. there’s not much to do really, which is probably more an indication that seungwoo hasn’t spent a lot of time in here, then a reflection on his cleanliness. but she tries not to dwell on that, focuses instead on the fact that she’s going to make sure he eats something before she leaves. even if it’s only a few bites, she’s not letting her best friend fade away into nothing (even if that’s what he’d rather do).
five minutes pass and she has no indication that he’s even moved at all, but she decides to give him more time. she’s rooting for him, wants him to be able to do this on his own. to get up. to walk to the kitchen. to sit down and eat. things anyone else would take for granted as being easy, that are monumental tasks for seungwoo. she wishes they weren’t. she would give anything to be able to take the massive weight she knows he carries around and make it disappear. but, it doesn’t work like that. there’s no easy solution. then again, daisy hadn’t expected this to be easy. and besides, no matter how hard it gets, she’s not going anywhere. she’s here for seungwoo, no matter what, there’s no universe where that statement isn’t true.
the food might be getting cold, so she decides to heat it up again, mostly just for something to do with her hands. she’s getting worried now, it’s definitely been more than ten minutes, and she lets out a silent sigh as she places the re-heated bowls back on the counter. she doesn’t think she can wait any longer. he needs her help, even if he won’t admit it, and she takes a moment to smooth out the worry that she knows is creasing her brows. she leaves the kitchen, rounding the corner towards his room, planning to start by just checking on him. he’s standing, which is good to see, and honestly she’s proud of him for getting this far. but he also looks completely unsure on his feet, as if he might topple over at any second, and daisy can’t make herself stay where she is.
“I’ve got you,” she whispers as she wraps an arm around his waist, lifting his arm to rest it over his shoulders, steadying herself so she can support his waist. “I’ve got you,” she whispers again, for lack of anything else to say, as she leads him slowly, gently, towards the kitchen.
