"I never understood the Pokemon games," Vivi observes the younger girl from the chair that the latter had put beside the desk, her hands under her thighs as she peers forward in confusion. "What happens to the Pokemon after you capture them in that small ball? Do they starve if you don't take them out after a while?"

"Hm... I haven't taken out my Pidgey since I captured it, so I hope not." Hyejoo absently slides her mouse over her mouse pad that exhibits several female characters with the letters 'KDA' displayed across them. On her large computer screen is the display of the game that the girl has been recently grown obsessed with: the first version of the Pokemon game. After completing the most recent one in two weeks time and playing it over and over again (Vivi had seen her glued to her computer screen all month) the nostalgia had led to Hyejoo returning to the original. And she seems to be sharing it with her fanbase on stream. "'GetDisBread39' thank you for subscribing."

Vivi raises her eyebrows at the name, looking at the side of the screen where Hyejoo has her chat open. There are comments coming in at a respectable pace, considering that the younger girl only started streaming three months ago in the middle of her rebellion against Hyunjin and Yeojin. The two had had no faith in their roommate in terms of being able to have a successful job. (In all fairness, Hyejoo always manages to get herself fired after a week.)

Looks like Hyejoo's solution had been to freeload off her addiction to gaming.

A comment catches Vivi's eyes and she finds herself leaning forward to read it better. "'Exactly, where does a Pokemon as big as Wailord go?'" She reads it slowly so her pronunciation is clear and she manages to get the sentence out fluently. "Yeah! I'm not really familiar with all the names and things, but I know for sure it would be pretty claustrophobic if I was stuck in that little nightmare ball."

Hyejoo side-eyes her a little. "Unnie, you're a little weird for thinking about this so hard."

Resting her elbows on her knees, Vivi looks up to meet Hyejoo's judgemental squint of the eyes with her own scrunch of the nose. "Just like you have been thinking about our Princess?" She knows it's a low blow -- especially considering that they're on stream with two thousand of the girl's followers listening into their conversation -- but the opportunity to tease is too good to let up. All the girls know that beneath Vivi's perceptive and quiet personality, there's that playfulness that can keep up with Yeojin and Yerim on sugar. "I'd be careful with the names that you call me, Hye-ssi, you seem to forget the power I hold over you."

Betrayed, Hyejoo panickedly looks at the camera perched atop her computer monitor. "Suddenly I regret everything." She's talking to her subscribers, but Vivi sidles up next to her and makes an exaggerated pout at the camera, winking for good measure. "Which one of you losers was it that said to let the devil into my room? Someone ban them for me."

"Oh please, chat loves me." Vivi cups her own face and leans across Hyejoo's arms to rest her elbows on the desk, making eyes at what she knows is thousands of eyes watching from the safety of their own home.

Hyejoo easily nudges her aside with her shoulder, pushing her back into her chair as she establishes her position once more. "No they don't, they hate you and they want you to leave."

If it were anyone else, perhaps they would have taken the girl's snide comment seriously. But Vivi has been living in the dorm for three years now, and has known the younger girl for almost two of those three. So she is very much aware that despite it not showing so visibly, Hyejoo is spiritually blushing like a madman right now. And the knowledge has Vivi preening in her seat even as Hyejoo tries her best to push her away from her set up with her foot.

Laughing freely, Vivi grabs at her seat and shuffles closer than where Hyejoo had allowed her originally. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She rests her cheek against Hyejoo's shoulder in a casual display of affection that she knows the younger girl is secretly leaning into. "No blackmail from now on, I swear."

Grumbling to herself, Hyejoo makes a show of trying to get the older girl off but eventually returns her concentration to her game. Which leaves Vivi quietly cuddling up to her side for thousands to see that the 'tough girl' persona that Hyejoo likes to play is a scam.

In the mean time, she can read some of the comments that have been flooding in at an alarming rate. Most of them being indistinguishable emotes that Vivi certainly does not know how to decipher. She is fully aware that the streaming community partakes in a foreign language she will never comprehend, mostly because she'd had some friends back in Hong Kong that had been familiar with the concept. But by picking out some that are actually written in hangul, she can see that the reason why chat is going crazy is because they think that she and Hyejoo make a cute pairing. That and there are several that are questioning what she meant by 'Princess', but she decides to let her tease disappear into the history of the Internet.

"Hyejoo-ya, chat thinks we're cute~" Vivi turns her head and puckers her lips at the younger girl, pretending to lean in for a kiss. She laughs when Hyejoo makes a stank face and angles her face as far away as her neck will allow her. "Why~ we could be the cutest couple on this site?" In a fortunately timed coincidence, Hyejoo accidentally clicks on a clip that one of her followers had linked in their donation message, taking her to a clip of some other streamers. It's a guy kissing his girlfriend's cheek repeatedly as the girl squeals outloud. "This could be us, but you playin'."

"Unnie, what the ?"

Gasping through her laughter, Vivi straightens to deadpan Hyejoo. "Mind your language, young lady, there might be little ones watching your stream right now."

"Please get out of my room." Hyejoo groans, sliding down her gaming chair. "This is literally worse than the time Jinsoul-unnie made a fool of herself on stream."

At the reminder, Vivi starts giggling again.

They had all heard about the incident of Jinsoul walking into Room Three while Hyejoo was streaming in her first couple of weeks. Everyone within the vicinity was very much aware of Jinsoul's embarrassing pajamas displayed for the nine hundred people that were watching at the time, as well as the ridiculous face mask she was wearing. Initially, Hyejoo had been absolutely livid at the older girl for coming into the room without knocking or giving warning, but after just a week of memes being sent in, Hyejoo had laughed hard at Jinsoul whenever she saw her. So much that Jinsoul now stays as far away as she can from Room Three even when she knows that Hyejoo isn't streaming. (Some of Hyejoo's loyal followers had found Jinsoul's Instagram and had proceeded to clown her on there, too, which was not cool from Vivi's perspective. Fortunately Hyejoo had the decency to tell them off in the comment's section as well as in her next stream.)

"Nothing can be worse than Jinsollie." Vivi says, watching several comments dictating ' 'little ones' uwuuuuuu ' fly upwards in chat. "Plus, if they don't meet your other roommates then they'll start thinking you live with crazy people."

Hyejoo scoffs loudly, for the first time fully diverting her attention from her game. "I do live with crazy people." Her gaze is dead serious, though Vivi still grins in the face of it.

"Yeah, you're right." Leaning back in her chair, Vivi stares as a wild Pokemon appears on Hyejoo's screen. "The Room Three girls are ing lunatics."

"What did you say about 'language' earlier?" Hyejoo glowers, elbowing at Vivi's knees violently.

"Aish!" Vivi jumps away from the girl while holding onto her knees for dear life. "You have really sharp elbows!"

"Better to stab you with." Hyejoo gives her a dark smile, which Vivi has to admit almost intimidates her with the way the eyeliner sharpens her eyes, if only it weren't for the baby that Vivi sees instead.

Pouting, Vivi rubs at what is probably going to become a bruise. "Who are you? The Big Bad Wolf?"

Hyejoo brings her hands up in a claw-like manner and pretends to growl at her. Going along with it, Vivi lets out an exaggerated squeal and brings her arms up to shield her face from the other girl. When she hears the giggle that she gets in response, she absolutely melts against the back of her seat and peeks through the gaps in her arms to where Hyejoo is laughing to herself. The way that the usually stoic girl's eyes become beaming crescents makes Vivi's heart warm like molten lava spreading across her chest. Her nose is scrunched so adorably that Vivi has to refrain from reaching over and pinching it. Vivi doesn't think that they've ever shared a moment this soft before.

Before they have the chance to read the comments telling them how cute they are, commotion from outside the refuge of Room Three manages to flow through the closed door.

Faintly, they can hear a girl shouting something along the lines of "you shouldn't be invading my privacy like this", followed by the hollow sound of a deeper, male voice returning an incorrigible retort. Vivi worriedly observes the door, inclined to leave her seat and go and see if Haseul is alright. But she reminds herself that this is something that the girl asked to have privacy for so instead she looks to Hyejoo as they exchange glances.

Vivi changes the subject. "You should use your pigeon, since you've had him trapped in that small ball since you kidnapped him." She tries to make her voice loud so that the incoherent screams in the background are muted by her voice while Hyejoo goes to turn up the music playing in the background.

"It's a 'Pidgey', Unnie, not a pigeon." Hyejoo sticks her tongue out at Vivi, who rolls her eyes and grooves to Hyejoo's surprisingly soft playlist. "But okay, I'll use him." Once more distracted by the battle at hand, Hyejoo begins to sing along to the song in a soft whisper that is audible to anyone in the room. Almost smitten, Vivi restrains herself from cooing at the younger girl who has apparently decided that she's going to make her spill all her 'uwus' today. (Yeojin had shown her way too many memes lately.) "Oh, it's a 'her'."

Intrigued, Vivi checks the screen to read the old Pokemon's name.

It's almost embarrassing just how loud she laughs when she registers it, but it's nothing she can help when it makes perfect sense. "You named it 'Heejin'?"

Hyejoo is smirking to herself as she decides what she's going to do first to defeat the wild Pokemon. "Duh, I think I did it after she tripped over nothing and fell into the river."

It had been a wild day. Some of the girls had decided to go out and get some fresh air after their exams (they had dragged Hyejoo, who had been clinging to her bed and screaming bloody murder like they were trying to actually kill her). They had been pleasantly walking through the park, making usual conversation about their days, when they crossed a flock of birds. Now, Vivi is very much aware about the fear that Heejin and Haseul harbored for the poor animals, but she had never seen either of them react to them in real life before. So when Heejin began to panic and back away, then stumbling over her own two clumsy feet and rolling into the small river, Vivi's first reaction had been to laugh. (She then helped the poor girl out of the water, trying to see if she was okay since she was sobbing so hard.)

"You're so mean," Vivi says, watching as Heejin the Pidgey barely makes a scratch on the wild Pokemon.

"I think Unnie deserves it after stealing my charger and proceeding to lose it." Chat is asking who Heejin is, but Hyejoo ignores them in favor of cursing at the Pidgey almost dying from one attack. "It's even weak like her! Oh my god, this is why we never let Heejin-unnie do anything around the house!"

Laughing to herself, Vivi watches for a couple more moments. She feels her chair shake as the sound of a door slamming is distantly heard through the music.

She begins to rise to her feet, busying herself with straightening out her hoodie. "Alright, thank you for letting me hide in here for a bit." She uses her finger to tickle the bottom of Hyejoo's chin, but the girl whines loudly and bats her hand away. Not allowing the younger girl to disgrace her like this in front of such a large audience, she reaches down and plants a firm kiss on the top of her head. She then scowls deeply, grabbing the girl fiercely by the jaw and shaking her face lightly. "Ugh, I'm going to have to get Chuu to wash your hair real nice later."

Hyejoo doesn't respond to her, but she does throw the nearby plushie at her back as she retreats out of the room.

The reason why she had been hiding in there in the first place was because Haseul's boyfriend suddenly showed up at their dorm. And judging by Haseul's reaction to his appearance at the door after hearing their rusty doorbell, she had certainly not asked him to show up.

There was a running rule stating that any boyfriends (or possible one-night-stands) were off-limits from the Moon Dorm. This was a rule that had already been established when Vivi had moved in, and apparently when Heejin and Hyunjin had moved in too. None of the girls seemed to have a problem with it, which had at first surprised Vivi since most of her friends back in Hong Kong had been so boy crazy. (In fact, now that she thought about it, it was weird that more of the girls aren't in relationships.) But the only one who seemed a little bothered had been Haseul, who's relationship with her boyfriend had been at a fresh six months.

Several years have passed, and from what she can hear over the phone calls that Haseul has and that one time Vivi had had to pick up the girl from a bar near the city center because she had been drunk and scared, she isn't so sure if they are still going as strong as they were back then. It isn't only because of the dorm rule that Vivi thinks this, because there have been plenty of times when her and Haseul have been out on their biweekly coffee date and have crossed Haseul's boyfriend on the street. Every time, Haseul always looks for an excuse for Vivi not to take them both up and have a nice conversation. And when Vivi actually manages to get her way, Haseul looks like it's the last place she wants to be. Which was strange at first, but when Vivi asks her about it and learns that it's because she wants to keep her dorm life separate from her life outside, she decides to give it up.

Having the boyfriend show up at the dorm unannounced (admittedly with a romantic bouquet of flowers) obviously sent Haseul into a spiral. 

When Vivi had met Haseul's gaze as he had charged on through and into their messy living room (much to Jungeun's chagrin that very morning) she knew that she was not wanted anywhere near what was about to become a catastrophe. So she had disappeared into Hyejoo's room, as she was the only other girl who was still at home at that time of the day.

"Trouble in paradise?" Vivi tries to break the tense silence.

Haseul stands in front of the door, her shoulders coiled and tense. Vivi is at arms length when she finally turns around, tears lining her angry eyes and the most tense expression ever. "He's such a douche!"

The faint smile on Vivi's face vanishes as she carefully steps closer with her arms outstretched. Vivi watches tentatively as Haseul tries to regain her footing after the small misstep, knowing that if the girl wants to then she'll be the one to come to her first. She bide's her time for Haseul to shuffle her cute slippers on the floorboards and into her embrace to actually hug her. She gathers her up -- wrapping her loose limbs up from where they were hanging limply at her sides -- and makes sure that every part of their bodies are pressed comfortably. With Haseul's hands resting against her chest, where her calm heartbeat provides a guide for the other, Vivi begins to shift her weight on each leg.

"What did he do this time?" She says it with as much neutrality as she can, though it's difficult to keep the contempt from her voice when this has become a recurring theme in their friendship.

She can't say that she's tired of being Haseul's emotional support throughout everything, because that's what they've both been to each other for so long, but seeing her be hurt over and over isn't something that Vivi derives happiness from. The girls don't really get to know much about Haseul's relationship other than sometimes their roommate will be gone on a date and come back at a reasonable time. Though Yeojin evidently doesn't really agree with her sister's relationship.

(Neither does Vivi, but she's not in a position to say anything about that.)

"He showed up!" Haseul shouts, but she doesn't pull away from the hug. Instead she just frustratedly hops in place and wraps her fingers around the front of Vivi's shirt. "He always wants to come back to the dorm and do whatever, but I've told him so many times that it's against the rules -- I even sent him a picture of the rules on his phone! But he's always insisting and trying to push me to do things that I don't want to do and it just makes me feel like all the time." She's quiet for a while, breathing heavy puffs of anger against Vivi's ear while the latter tries to physically squeeze out all of the negativity she's feeling. It seems to be working when Haseul wriggles in her tight hold and snakes her arms around her waist, clasping them together in a tight hold.

It's times like these where Vivi finds herself drifting to a place she isn't familiar with.

She's content to stay there and keep hugging Haseul until one of the other girls comes home and asks them what they're doing. (It's a Tuesday, so the first girl to come home is usually Yerim, who returns from her morning philosophy classes at the university.) And it's not like Vivi doesn't usually show physical affection, because she does -- the girls all know just how much she loves to coddle them when she gets the chance -- but it's just... different.

It feels good.

"He left his ing flowers, too!"

At Haseul's outburst, Vivi lets out a small sigh and loosens their hug.

She turns in the small girl's arms and looks to where the incriminating flowers are discarded. Irritation is bubbling inside of Vivi, but she hides it with a dark smile when she pulls back to look at her best friend in the face. A curiously evil thought crosses her mind, and before she can stop herself she's saying: "Let's burn them?"

At the suggestion, a scandalized look crosses Haseul's face. "B-burn..." She's then stepping out of Vivi's grip and shaking her head. "We can't just- can we just burn them? It'll set off the fire alarm! We can't have the dorm almost burn down again!"

Vivi rolls her eyes, but she's already moving her way towards the coffee table where her study notes and laptop had been piled up. She's snatching the bouquet of roses up from the top of her laptop (she's a little annoyed to see that some water droplets have slid off the petals and onto the device, but she'll deal with that later) and she's walking over to Room Three. She ignores the little yaps of Haseul's protests (as cute as they are) and pushes her head through the door.

Hyejoo spins around with her nerf gun armed and ready in her hand, about to aim directly at her face. She looks like she's ready to kill her for interrupting her conversation with her stream.

Ignoring the threat, Vivi nudges further into the room.

"Yo, Hyejoo, wanna go burn stuff?" Vivi is smiling, but it feels tight on her face. Usually the thought of burning something will make her feel a little excited, but with the stems of the flowers digging into the palm of her hand and the thought of Haseul's boyfriend, she finds it a little difficult to find that same excitement. "It'll be fun, I promise."

Hyejoo ponders for several moments, her fingers playing with the plastic toy in her hands.

Her eyes wander the empty room, missing of its usually chaotic inhabitants.

Then she's disarming her nerf gun and placing it on the desk with a loud clatter. Turning to her camera, she announces, "this is today's stream for today. I hope you losers rot in hell, while I go commit arson in the back alley with my Unnies." She's pushing back from her chair and trying to disconnect the stream as she rushes. Spinning on her heel, Hyejoo snatches her hoodie from the back of her chair and storms over to her. "Let's go this up."

-

Vivi grabs the handles of the bike as firmly as she can while Yeojin hops around in front of her. "Be careful, I've never done this before," she says as the small girl meets her gaze with an intimidating amount of exuberance.

"Just keep the bike up, Unnie." Yeojin's reassurance isn't very... reassuring, but Vivi plants her feet heavily on the concrete of the little patio outside of their dorm and levels the handles in front of her with a determined gaze. She can't promise much, but she'll do her best not to drop the girl.

Beside them, a loud shriek resembling that of a pterodactyl cuts through the empty streets followed by the stressed shouting of their resident cat-lady. "! Do you really have to scream right in my ear?!" Hyunjin is doing her best to stabilize Jungeun's bike from where she sits, face mask shielding prying eyes from her likely panicked expression. The two are screaming insults at one another, as is often heard whenever the two are in conversation, though Yeojin and Vivi barely bat an eye at the exchanges. At the handles sits Jungeun, who tries to lean back to rest against Hyunjin's front in the intended position, but is gripping onto the back of the younger girl's hands too hard. "Get your ugly claws off of me! You're going to make me bleed!"

Yeojin cackles as Jungeun shouts obscenities back at her, distractedly moving to where Vivi is still waiting. "Come on, we can do that too." She says, spinning around and holding onto the middle of the handle bars with her small hands.

Vivi's heart attempts to fly out of when she almost drops the whole bike as Yeojin leaps to sit on the handle bars. The last thing she wants to do is accidentally kill their youngest resident (as annoying as she can be with her loud voice and need to play bad TikToks when she's trying to sleep because she lost her headphones).

She's pretty sure that Haseul, as much as she scolds and reprimands, would positively murder her for sending her little sister to the hospital. Last time that had happened was when Yeojin, Hyejoo, Hyunjin and Yerim had been trying to master the skills of 'parkour' and had attempted to jump out of the window and into the street. The three older girls had successfully pulled it off, but Yeojin unceremoniously splattering against the concrete (admittedly screaming "FOR SPARTA!") had been an image that Vivi hadn't been able to get out of her brain. Even to this day, everyone in the dorm does their best to keep Yeojin away from any open windows. When Haseul had arrived at the hospital (strands of hair wildly sticking out of place and foaming at the mouth) she brought down her wrath on the three girls for their irresponsibility, including Vivi just because she had been present and guilty by association. Yerim had been reduced to tears and even Hyejoo had the mind to look guilty.

"We're doing it!" Yeojin cries, arms shooting into the air in victory as Vivi manages to balance the both of them with what little coordination her body allows her. "Onward, my steed! We have a dragon to catch by midnight!"

Not even grimacing at the volume, Vivi accommodates the younger girl against her chest comfortably. "Hold on, I don't want you falling on our way there."

It's easier for her to kick off and start cycling, because Yeojin is both tiny and light. It's almost like cycling with her bag in the front basket that they had taken off before trying this whole thing. She would not have noticed she was holding a child if it weren't for the head resting comfortably against hers and the stream of words endlessly falling from an excited mouth. Something about always doing this with her friends to get back to the dorm...

Behind them, however, Hyunjin struggles to not swerve the bike every-which-way with a tense Jungeun as her cargo. "Unnie, I thought you said that the person being carried had to loosen up!"

"How can I do that when the person carrying me is a goddamned psycho?" Jungeun's face is red from anxiety.

It's common knowledge among the girls in the Moon Dorm that in spite of her icy demeanor and nonchalant, 'don't give a ' aura, Jungeun is incredibly easily to make blush. Initially, Vivi had thought that perhaps the girl was just continuously feeling sick or unwell so she always went out of her way to prepare some herbal tea or try to give her medicine to make her feel better. But after observing her quietly after numerous rejections, she realized that it was just something that Jungeun's face did. Even if it was as simple as someone sincerely saying 'thank you' to her, or her getting annoyed at them for not picking up their dirty laundry from the floor, the girl's face would always tinge some shade of red.

From where Yeojin comfortably rests against her, she starts to sing Red Velvet's Psycho. Her voice emanates from her chest as she laughs in between the lyrics, but she sounds buoyant and more lively than she has been these past couple of weeks. So instead of shying away from the loud volume ringing in her ear, she nuzzles her face against the side of the smaller girl's and playfully kisses the hair behind her ear. It sends Yeojin jolting and pretending like she doesn't aboely adore the sign of affection, but Vivi doesn't mind.

They're on grocery duty, which Yeojin seems to be really excited to be doing for once. Usually, whenever the girls will tell her to do something around the dorm, she'll get prickly and annoyed. It's a change of pace to have her willingly dash out of Room One to join Vivi on her trip.

The two bickering girls behind them begin to quiet down, Hyunjin having found a steady pace that doesn't threaten Junguen's entire existence and Jungeun taking her long, manicured nails out from where they had been digging into Hyunjin's skin. Instead Hyunjin joins in with Yeojin's singing, pedaling faster in order to catch up to them and try to harmonize with the younger girl.

That's another thing that manages to soften Vivi up: Hyunjin has been awfully cooperative these past several days, especially since she's been letting Yeojin cling to her side in a way that would have normally made her snap. It's not that Hyunjin dislikes Yeojin -- at least that's what she had said when her, Vivi, Chaewon and Jiwoo had been talking -- but more of a contrast in personalities that makes it difficult to get along. And Vivi can see exactly what she's talking about, because even if she's one of the more detached residents of the dorm, she can say that her other competitor is easily Hyunjin. (Aside from Sooyoung, but she's a special case.) Hyunjin often tends to enjoy her own presence over a group's and likes to scurry into whichever nook and cranny shields her away from the rest of the world. In contrast, Yeojin loves to interact with people and will not shy away from making conversation with whoever is nearest and willing to listen (she'll talk even if they're unwilling).

So seeing them together these days is a breath of fresh air. Especially when Vivi and Haseul had found the two cuddled up in Yeojin's bed in Room Two.

For some strange reason, she feels accomplished watching Hyunjin coming out of her personal bubble. Like pride, or something.

Vivi basks in the soft winds pushing her bangs back to reveal her forehead, enjoying the fresh air after being cooped up for so long in Room One trying to study for the exam she has tomorrow.

Normally, she'll take whatever chance she has to go outside and do some exercise, having signed up for a membership in their local gym just to keep her body in shape. None of the other girls seem to have the same motivation that she has to work out, and the ones that do have different schedules to her (Hyunjin and Jungeun always share dance lessons in the afternoons with classes in the mornings, and Sooyoung was always disappearing and appearing from their dorm at will) but it doesn't stop Vivi from going about her routine at her pace. In fact, she enjoys the moments of solitude after being in an enclosed space with so many girls.

"So how come you and Hyun have bikes now?" Vivi asks Jungeun, who has visibly relaxed against Hyunjin's larger frame. (She looks like a small, angry baby with that absentminded frown on her face.) "I thought you guys took the bus to get to dance?"

She'd heard more times than not how Jungeun would scream at Hyunjin from elsewhere in the dorm that they were going to miss their bus.

Before Jungeun can even answer, Hyunjin cuts her (impressively stable) singing and shoots Vivi a knowing glance. "Because Mark-oppa cycles a lot and told Jungeun-unnie that it's better for the environment if we cycle everywhere." There's familiar mischief on Hyunjin's face that calls for trouble. "So obviously Jungeun-unnie had us buy bikes."

Said girl aggressively bumps their heads together, the blush on her face unclear whether it's from annoyance or 'other reasons'. "Why do you always try to suggest that I like him?" Jungeun huffs and brushes hair from her face from where the wind has blown it across her face. "All of our dance team has bikes now, it's not just us."

"But you guys are broke -- how'd you get 'em?" Yeojin chuckles. Vivi can hear the smirk in her voice, dripping with roguishness as she shines a light on the girls' financial situation.

As if sharing the same thought, Jungeun reflexively moves to cover Hyunjin's mouth with her free hand while Hyunjin tries to move her head away from the offending limb. They're speaking over one another in messy words that Vivi suddenly can't hear over the sound of moving traffic from the oncoming road ahead of them, but she sees how Hyunjin dangerously swerves off balance before regaining herself. Jungeun shrieks loudly again and brings her hands down to the handle bar to steady herself. Her eyes are bulging out of their sockets in her panic and her head is pressing insistingly against Hyunjin's so that the latter has to push back or they'll both fall sideways. In spite of everything, Vivi laughs at the action, joining in on Yeojin's raucous mockery while the two dance partners fight over who has control over their bike.

It's easy for Vivi to angle her and Yeojin so that they turn the corner, but Hyunjin seems to have more trouble with it with a restless Jungeun still doing her best to silence her.

Once they've safely completed the obstacle of turning the corner and Hyunjin catches up to them again, she shouts, "Jinsoul-unnie got her the bike as a present for her!" Jungeun's protests saying otherwise, but none of it can be heard as a large delivery truck rushes past them at full speed. "She said that it was a 'late birthday present' but we all know that she got her those pair of earrings for her birthday."

"Shut up, Hyunjin!"

Vivi raises her eyebrows and sends a glance to the two girls.

Sure enough, Jungeun's ears are nicely decorated with the same earrings that Jinsoul had gifted to her for her birthday a while ago. It had easily outranked all other attempts at a gift that the rest of the girls had brought, what with their battered wallets and Jungeun insisting that she really didn't need anything expensive. Aside from Jiwoo's gift, which had been tickets to their favorite artist's concert. The girl had looked ready to pass out when Jinsoul was presenting her gift, scared out of her mind that it would perhaps beat hers since "Jungeun is my best friend and I should have the best present!" Especially after what had happened the year prior to that, when Jinsoul had spoiled the birthday-girl rotten and had left all the other girls nervously holding their gifts in their laps. After that had happened, there was an unspoken rule that Jinsoul would always go last whenever gift-giving and Jungeun were involved.

Because suspiciously, Jinsoul only spends large sums of money whenever it's Jungeun receiving the gift. (Not to say that Vivi didn't enjoy the much-needed gift card to the spa and the beautifully written letters for her own birthday, but it wasn't anything compared to a whole bike, or the hottest phone on the market, or that laptop that Jinsoul had bought two years ago.)

They arrive at the store by the time the sky has darkened considerably, artificial light flooding from the glass doors.

Yeojin hops off the handle bars with ease, and skips a couple of steps further in her excitement. Her hands are extended outward at her hips like she's a little penguin waddling her way forward, and Vivi watches her with precaution as she does so. "We're here, peasants!"

Dismounting Hyunjin's bike, Vivi playfully scowls at the small girl. "What is up with you and talking like you're in the Joseon era all of a sudden?"

"She's been watching a historical drama, lately." Hyunjin provides an answer as she approaches the bike racks with Jungeun's bike. She's pulling a black security chain from the bag hanging casually from her shoulders with practiced ease, and Vivi admires her a little for the fluid movements that she executes as she does so. "It's pretty damn annoying to listen to when I'm trying to sleep," she says in the direction where Yeojin is bouncing over to the store entrance, not paying mind to the conversation.

Vivi laughs softly to herself as she lets Hyunjin take the bike from her. "Have you been having trouble sleeping?" She watches as Hyunjin concentrates on wrapping the second security chain (this time red) around the bike. "I can hear you tossing and turning above my bed all the time. And you usually knock out easily."

There's something that washes over Hyunjin's expression as she mulls over her words. She's already finished locking the bikes up, but she's tugging at it to see if it's safe. Maybe she's tugged at it too many times for it to be normal, but Vivi isn't about to start questioning why she looks like she wants to tear the chain apart. "It's not my fault that the mattresses at the dorm ..." With one last, firm tug, Hyunjin straightens in her place and pushes her loose hair back. Yerim had done a messy plait down her back that morning (she had done so to all of the girls that had gathered in Room Two for that specific event, but Vivi's had fallen out throughout the day) and the hairs that had escaped the hairband were framing her face. "I just can't sleep in general, but don't worry about it though."

Vivi squints her eyes a little but decides not to say anything about it.

She knows for a fact that one thing she cannot do is try to approach one of Hyunjin's problems head-on. She's tried it in the past when they'd had a disagreement about sleeping arrangements and Vivi had just wanted to get the confrontation over and done with. Obviously she hadn't known that Hyunjin would scatter away from her every time they crossed paths like a scared cat and avoid her for almost two weeks. So no, she isn't about to bombard her with questions about what's wrong.

Instead, she sidles up beside her and hooks their arms together.

Hyunjin, despite her closed off personality, is open to physical affection, which Vivi will take advantage of whenever they manage to cross paths at the dorm. So she welcomes the touch by tugging her closer against her side as they stride into the grocery store, looking for Yeojin's chaotic direction of travel and Jungeun's lethargic stumbling.

"I haven't been getting much sleep either," Vivi says, glancing around the vegetables that welcome customers when they first walk in. She'll be needing some of these for when she wants to cook her lunch tomorrow. "I've been having weird dreams lately, about some weird aliens coming to take me back to their planet to conduct experiments on me."

"Oh, you should probably get that checked out." Hyunjin is serious as she replies, taking the batch of spring onions she has pulled from the pile and replacing them with what the girl probably thinks is a better one. "I used to have dreams about aliens and that caused me to lose my hair."

Sparing a glance to see if she's actually serious, Vivi observes the stoic expression on the younger's face. "You went bald?"

"Hmm... nah, my scalp is amazing." They walk towards where Yeojin is crouching in front of a fridge, her hands cradling her phone as she stares intently at the contents.

"Well what about you? Any alien dreams for yourself?" Vivi walks past Yeojin and drops the spring onions in the basket beside her, though Hyunjin purposefully bumps her with her leg as they stride through and tips the small girl off-balance. Her face scrunches up in delight when she hears a string of curses behind her, though her eyebags are becoming more prominent the more that Vivi looks at her. "Do you think we need more milk?"

They stop in front of the dairy section as Vivi scans the prices for the milk that she usually buys and sees that the price has gone up slightly. Hyunjin hugs her arms with both of her hands and cuddles up to her in the cold. "Yeah, I think Chaewon finished it when she made that monstrosity yesterday." She says, shivering either from the low temperatures of the refrigerated section or from the memory of the Princess' poor attempt at baking. "And no, I haven't really been dreaming lately. At least I don't think I have."

There's a small frown that forms on Hyunjin's face, her brow furrowing pensively while Vivi leans forward and pulls a carton of milk out. "Really? No extraterrestrial beings that try to steal your bread all the time?" She asks playfully, though she can tell that she's getting Hyunjin to warm up to the thought of opening up.

"Your Korean is really good, Unnie." Hyunjin says off-handedly as she squeezes her bicep. Together they weave through the grocery store in search for more ingredients. "And no, it's more of some of the guys appearing in my dreams and having weird conversations with me."

"The girls appear in your dreams?" Curiously, Vivi looks up at Hyunjin as they let an old couple past in the tight space of the store. Hyunjin looks uncomfortable in her skin, like she is unsureabout whether she can talk about this or not. "As if we don't get enough of them with having to live with them, now they're chasing you in your dreams, huh?" She laughs, trying to distract the younger girl from thoughts that could get her to close herself off again.

"Yeah..."

That's not very convincing.

"Unnie! We need meat right? We totally need meat." Jungeun drags her feet over to them with a basket full of nothing but pork and chicken. Her oversized hoodie is engulfing her almost entirely and her messy hair makes her look like she's just rolled out of bed. If Vivi hadn't lived with her for so long, she would have thought that she was one of those bad influences that she should stay away from. It reminds her of the first impression that she'd had of the girl when they met all those years ago. "It's been so long since we got to eat homemade meat, so I think we should have a large dinner to celebrate our friendships. What do you think? It's great? Great, thanks for your input, Unnie."

As if a storm has just rolled by, Vivi and Hyunjin watch as Jungeun disappears down the snack isle.

"Ya, you better be pulling out Jinsoullie's credit card because I'm not paying for that!" Vivi calls after her, and even though they can't see her they can hear something tumbling off one of the rows and onto the floor in response. Laughing to herself, Vivi pulls a distracted Hyunjin further into the store. "So you were saying about your dreams?"

In the mean time, Vivi tries to recount just how much money she has left on her card to now just how much she's buying for tomorrow as well as how much Jungeun had given her in cash to buy for all of the girls. (Jungeun was the only one in the dorm who was taking economics as a course, so it made sense that all of the financial matters pass through her first. Plus, none of the other girls trusted Jinsoul with their money despite her own financial stability, nor Haseul who always seemed to be losing things around the dorm. Sooyoung wasn't even an option, considering how busy she always seemed.) They would have enough to last them throughout the week, it seemed, which was just enough until it was Jiwoo and Hyejoo's turn to go grocery shopping.

She hasn't really noticed that Hyunjin hasn't said anything until she's finished collecting everything she needs from that isle and sees that Hyunjin looks strangely pensive.

Impulsively, Vivi gently pries herself away from her and angles her body towards her. "Are they bothering you a lot?" She tries to keep her voice nonchalant, though they can both hear the worry seeping through. "Do you want me to make you some chamomile tea?"

"I don't know..." Hyunjin avoids her eyes by taking some of the products from her arms casually and turning to head back the way that they came from. "It's just trouble sleeping, I'm sure I'll be fine."

Worriedly, Vivi follows after the girl. "I mean, what do you normally do when you have trouble sleeping? Doesn't Heejin let you sleep in her bed?"

Now that she thinks about it, it's been a while since she's seen Hyunjin occupying almost the entire expanse of Heejin's bed. For a while she had thought that it was Hyunjin's bed just from how much she resided in it, and from the way she seemed to mark her territory with stray pieces of clothing strewn lazily on the surface or the odd cat plushies here and there. In fact, there had been a long period of time where Hyunjin hadn't even touched her bed from how often she fell asleep cuddled up next to Heejin (who despite how much she likes to complain, actually loves the attention from the other girl) and Vivi had forgotten that she even had a bunk mate. Except now, that doesn't seem to be happening much.

And this is something that Hyunjin seems to be aware of because her shoulders tense under the loose black shirt she's wearing, and suddenly she's turning a sharp corner down the seaweed isle.

Taking the hint, Vivi lets her jaw drop a little before regaigning her compusure. "Hyunjin, did you two have a fight?"

At the mention of the word 'fight', Hyunjin's panicked pace begins to slow down until she's standing amidst the different varieties of seaweed pleading to be picked up from the shelves. "It's her fault," she says as she turns slightly, her expression hidden slightly by her face mask. "She doesn't care about me or our friendship so I'm just respecting her decision."

Vivi frowns and tries approaching Hyunjin, who just ambles backwards a little to maintain a safe personal bubble around herself. She remembers how the younger girl doesn't enjoy to be physically comforted whenever she's feeling down and stays rooted in place instead, hugging the products in her arms instead. "Did she really say that? Heejin doesn't seem like the kind of person to say something like that -- especially not to you, Hyunjin. You two are like best friends -- you've been there for each other for so long."

If Hyunjin weren't wearing her mask, Vivi thinks she'd be pouting right now. In fact, she has the vague idea that that's exactly what the younger girl is doing.

"Yeah well, she obviously doesn't seem to think so." The way she speaks is as if it's decided, and before Vivi can even think to try and open her mind up to an alternative Yeojin is sprinting down the isle like the devil is at her heels with her basket swinging precariously in her hands.

"Wah! Help Unnie!" She's so loud and chaotic that Vivi winces more at the thought of getting kicked out of the store rather than at the volume. Behind her is Jungeun, who's cheeks are tinted that familiar pink and is tearing down the isle with fury coating her features. Vivi doesn't even want to begin to think about why exactly the two girls think it's a good idea to start a game of tag in the middle of their local grocery store, because she's sure that if she gives it too much thought then a headache will start to form and she's ran out of her clove tea to even try and soothe the migraine.

Besides, Hyunjin already looks like she's decided that she doesn't want to have this conversation with her and has instead taken to restraining Yeojin in her attempt at an escape.

Sighing heavily to herself, Vivi decides to drop the topic and instead tries to pry Jungeun from her poking attack on their youngest roommate before they get banned forever.

-

The girls will be as chaotic as they can be, but Vivi will still not swap her residence at the Moon Dorm for anything in the world.

Even when it's almost fifteen minutes past midnight and Jinsoul is completing her engineering model at their dining table, plastic goggles on to shield her drowsy eyes from any flying splinters, and Hyejoo is sat in front of the TV screen with a blanket shrouding her entire body as she intently stares at the horror game plaing out, and Chaewon is...

Vivi doesn't know why Chaewon has decided that doing sit ups in the middle of the night in their living room is a good idea, but it's not like she's her mother and can tell her to go to sleep when there are other girls who are also staying up late.

"Hyejoo..." The blonde is grimacing as she tries to get said girl's attention. "...are you counting me..." There's slight desperation in her voice, most likely due to her stomach beginning to cramp right around her sixtieth sit up. (After the first couple, Hyejoo had obviously given up on her assigned task in favor of concentrating on her game so Vivi had been silently counting for her instead.) "...Hyejoo-yaaaa~" Chaewon whines when Hyejoo barely spares her a glance, beads of sweat building up on her forehead. "C-count out loud..."

Exasperation tinging her voice, Hyejoo lolls her head in the blonde's direction. "One-hundred and eighty-two, one-hundred and eighty-three-"

"You!" Chaewon immediately stops on 'sixty-four' and launches herself at Hyejoo with what remaining strength she has left, swatting at her torso with her arms and pushing her to the floor in her fit of frustration. "I thought you said you would count for me! You lied!"

It's amusing to watch as Hyejoo let's herself be beaten by the smaller girl for a little while, everyone present in the room fully knowing that Hyejoo could take any two of the girls on at once and still win over them. (Except Vivi is pretty sure Jinsoul is a little delirious right now as she tries to put two screwdrivers together, so she doesn't count.) It's even more amusing for Vivi, who is aware of the small fondness that Hyejoo harbors for Chaewon, to see the exact moment Hyejoo decides to strike back and bind the girl's wrists together with one of her hands as the other is preoccupied with the console remote. Even with her advantageous strength, Hyejoo is mindful of Chaewon's physical capabilities and doesn't completely demolish her while she still has the chance. Instead, she seems to wrap her arm around her and tugs her against her body, swallowing her into the fortress of blankets and pillows against the couch.

A concoction of emotions swarm inside Vivi as she watches the exchange from her place in the armchair.

She feels warmth and fondness for the two girls who had originally struggled to find a place in their dorm. Being some of the last girls to join them, it had taken longer for them to fit into their strange and intricate dynamics, often feeling as if they were strangers to them all. But after some encouraging from the more extroverted girls of the dorm (a.k.a Jiwoo, Yerim and Yeojin), they had begun to open themselves up a bit more. And even though Vivi enjoyed watching from a relatively safe distance, she can certainly say that she's proud to see some of the shyest girls be so comfortable in their home.

Yet at the same time, watching the interaction between the two close girls makes something stir up inside of Vivi's chest.

Her papers and laptop are forgotten on her lap as she watches Chaewon discretely melt into Hyejoo's frame, as if not wanting to make it obvious that that had been both of their intentions from the very beginning. There's an open and content expression that doesn't show itself with anyone else on the blonde's face, and Vivi watches quietly as Hyejoo returns the attention almost minimally. Her hand that had been restraining Chaewon's wrists is draped over the latter's shoulders and the other comes up to meet it so that she can hold the controller with both hands instead of one. She accomodates the extra presence as if it were second nature, and it shines a flashlight into something that Vivi hadn't really been aware of about herself.

There's a hint of loneliness sitting in her chest.

Which doesn't make sense to Vivi, because she's in an overcrowded dorm with eleven other over-exciteable girls and god does she struggle to find a moment of peace.

But it's there, and it sends shivers down to her very fingertips and toes.

It almost brings tears to her eyes the more she focusses on it.

She laughs at herself quietly at her unexpected reaction, hands curling around her sweater paws to rub at her wet eyes tiredly. It must be her time of the month soon, because she seems to be getting emotional over nothing when there's no reason for her to. That or she's sleep deprived and she's reacting like a toddler who missed their bed time. (Or Jungeun if they keep her up past ten.)

Vivi feels the presence before she hears or sees it, but she's not really surprised when warm arms snake around her neck from the side and a head is burying itself into the side of her head.

The familiar scent of sweet smelling shampoo and whatever hair mask that Haseul had decided to use fills her nostrils, and she finds that her heartbeat (when had it even decided to speed up?) begins to slow down at the stimulus. Just having the pressure resting comfortably on her shoulders and a familiar weight settling itself into her side makes her feel all the better. It's as if whatever emotional downpour had decided to come down on her has been washed away and cleansed by this particular presence at once, despite how unexpected it was.

Reticent, Vivi wraps her arm around the thin waist to tug Haseul closer so they can share in each other's warmth. It's familiar when she nuzzles her face into the short hair, just as she always does with the other girls whenever they cuddle.

Except there's a swooping feeling in her gut.

"When are you coming to bed?" is mumbled somewhere into the side of her skull, the faint feeling of lips moving registering against her scalp.

Something warm fills Vivi up from her toes and right up to her fingertips, and then she's pushing her papers and laptop onto the small table beside the armchair so that she can pull Haseul into her lap fully. "I need to finish my report," she feels Haseul tightening her grip around her shoulders and immediatley ammends, "but I can do it tomorrow."

Haseul has always looked out for her, ever since day one, and Vivi will forever be grateful to her. She had been everything ranging from her impromptu Korean teacher to her home-away mom, reminding her to eat dinner whenver she'd be too engrossed in her studies or to drink some water if she'd been stuck at her desk for too long. Even if Haseul has to split her time between school, Yeojin, and her boyfriend, the girl always makes sure that she makes time for Vivi in her busy schedule. She's forgetful, but she never really forgets to include her in her day.

"Hey, I love you." Vivi says when she feels Haseul sink further into her.

"Hmm..." Haseul takes a while to move from the safety in Vivi's hair, but when she leans back and meets her eyes with her almost shut eyelids, there's a soft smile on her face. "Mmai love you too."

It's mumbled, so Vivi knows Haseul is tired out of her mind, but it still makes her heart tickle all happily at the response. "Come on, let's go to bed now."

They move together, Vivi making sure that all of her things are safely perched on the small table so that they can't fall off. Haseul waits patiently for her, hands stretching out the shirt that she's wearing as a yawn takes over her. Vivi says goodnight to the two girls playing videogames, touching the tops of their heads affectionately before turning to the dining table to do the same to Jinsoul. She finds that the engineering student is passed out against her hand, which holds her miniature screwdriver, and is almost drooling as her cheek stretches out abnormally.

Chuckling slightly to herself, Vivi makes sure to nudge Jinsoul awake and tell her to head to bed before moving to her own room.

Haseul is already collapsing into Vivi's bed when Vivi closes the door quietly behind her.

In the dark, she can make out two bodies curled together in Heejin's bed. She knows that from the restless tossing and turning in the bunk above her own bed that it's probably one of the other girls who decided to cuddle with Heejin for the night (the likely culprit is Jiwoo, who seems to crave physical affection, but she wouldn't be too surprised if she wakes up to Yerim's face too).

When Vivi lets herself collapse beside Haseul, she feels her tense body try to morph itself with the mattress. She's so exhausted that her eyes immediately close and she's already teertering into unconsciousness without even doing anything. In fact, she barely feels the covers being pulled over her body and a warm body gravitating towards hers. She hadn't known that she was this tired until she actually laid down, though this seems to be a reoccurring theme throughout her time at university.

She feels soft lips being pressed to the side of her jaw, followed by the softest sigh against her skin.

It's safe to say that she sleeps well that night.