Summary: Jooyeon is really attracted to Yoojin. Lots of stuff happens while drunk. Lizzy (Sooyoung for those who don't know) is a great matchmaker. Jooyeon/Lizzy friendship is my friendship-otp.

Warning: Well there’s no really explicit and I wouldn’t mind reading this with my parents so I guess it doesn’t need an M rating (IMO)???

Minor inspiration (a teeny more than the title) taken from The Cab - Temporary Bliss (durr)

Temporary Bliss

The first time Lee Jooyeon uses the word beautiful to describe something outside of her mirror is when she sees Kim Yoojin. They were in their practice room when their manager lead the girl inside and introduced her. He didn’t get to the obligatory “please be nice to her” before Bekah engulfed the girl in a bear hug. The other girls greet her politely as she smiles embarrassedly, trying to do the same with Bekah the koala latched on, half suffocating her. Jooyeon just nods.

She takes the opportunity to appreciate the girl in front of her. She studies her round eyes (they meet for a moment and Jooyeon looks away immediately), her chubby cheeks, her pink lips down to her curvy hips. No, her eyes definitely did not linger on Yoojin’s chest; she was just interested in the picture on her t-shirt, certainly not the faint outline of her bra (pink, she notes) peeking through the white fabric.

Jooyeon doesn’t look into mirrors for a week.

-

Their friendship starts off awkwardly. Yoojin is reserved and shy around Jooyeon, but touchy and relaxed around Bekah. From their reflection in the mirror, Jooyeon watches the two play some nonsense game Bekah undoubtedly made up on the day – she sees Yoojin laugh unabashedly, mouth open wide and eyes crinkled. Jooyeon silently marvels at how the Hawaiian girl manages to befriend every single person she meets. Their eyes meet and her heart sinks when she sees Yoojin’s smile falter – Jooyeon averts her eyes.

-

The other members are sleeping after having had a little too much to drink.

(“It’s my birthday and everyone is getting faced!”, Bekah exclaims as she pours more vodka into Jungah’s glass who looks to Kahi pleadingly. Kahi just smiles and closes her eyes.)

“Do you hate me?”

Yoojin’s eyes widen at the question. She looks up at the older girl and their eyes meet again, but this time neither back away.

“No.”, she replies, barely a whisper.

Yoojin hears Jooyeon sigh and they both chuckle.

She finds herself dozing off with Jooyeon’s arm wrapped protectively around her and Jooyeon’s rhythmic breaths lulling her to sleep. It’s the first time they’ve actually touched for longer than a few seconds.

She remembers vaguely a “you have nice thighs” comment. Yoojin didn’t have enough alcohol – or perhaps she had too much – to say “do you want to touch them?”.

They grow much closer after that night but neither of them ever mentions it.

-

Their next single is both a blessing and a curse. When Jooyeon watches Yoojin and Kahi pillow fighting from behind the door frame, she doesn’t have to pretend or fake her jealousy (she scoffs at the director’s “well done Jooyeon!”). The situation feels too real for her - Yoojin abandoning her for someone else leaving Jooyeon with a broken heart and an open wound. But when Yoojin grabs her arm and swings it playfully, her rare moments of aegyo on display only for Jooyeon, she reassures herself that it will never happen.

-

The first time they is entirely unintentional. They were at Yoojin’s apartment and Jooyeon was staying over because their schedule was early in the morning and she convinced their manager it would be easier for everyone this way – he had less places to go to pick the girls up (okay, Jooyeon admits this part was deliberate – but she had only hoped to hold Yoojin as she fell asleep).

It started when Jooyeon’s hands roamed a bit too adventurously as she dried Yoojin off after their bath together (“Mmm, nice body”, she murmurs teasingly into Yoojin’s ear) . She isn’t sure what really happened – she wonders if it’s possible to hallucinate the entire night – but she remembers her surprise when Yoojin kisses her, tongue forcing its way into . She remembers the way Yoojin’s hands palmed her s roughly, biting and nipping at the sensitive area, and how her lips curled into a smile against her chest as Jooyeon swallowed back a moan. She remembers the ache between her legs as Yoojin’s fingers danced along her thighs, and her shame as she desperately grinded against her knee in a futile attempt to relieve the tension. She regains some of her pride when she sees the scratch marks on her back.

They more often after that night but they never talk about it.

(Jooyeon wishes they make love instead.)

-

It’s Valentine’s Day and Jooyeon wants to pretend she’s with Yoojin sitting on a park bench somewhere, sharing scarves and feeding each other some disgustingly sweet chocolate, but instead she’s in her apartment pouring Sooyoung another glass of soju and listening to her relationship troubles (though staring blankly into space while the girl rambles on is a more apt description). Jooyeon cannot believe she’s spending the night with Sooyoung. It’s marginally better than being completely alone, she muses.

 Sooyoung’s blabbering on about something, something related to Jinah obviously, as Jooyeon gives up counting how many times the tall blonde’s name occurs in her speech.

“Honestly you two need to work your out.”, Jooyeon says before she gulps down another mouthful of the vile liquid. She winces at how much it burns .

“How? I don’t know if she likes me – well I think she does, I mean I’ve caught her staring at me in the changing room before – but does she like me in that way? I don’t want to make a ing fool of myself and I think she looks at me differently but then I see her sometimes looking at you that way too…Oh my god has she said anything to you? Does she like you? But it’s Valentine’s Day if she liked you she would be here with you and not me here with you but then doesn’t that mean she doesn’t like me? What if she likes neither of us and – ”

Jooyeon rolls her eyes at the younger girl. She stopped trying to make sense of Sooyoung after she managed to go from eyelashes to aliens in one sentence.

“Why don’t you two just and get it over with? Preferably not on stage because I’ve seen Jinah eye you and I don’t really want to see anymore than that.”

“ isn’t the answer unnie!”, Sooyoung exclaimed.

“It is most of the time. You two just have unresolved and you need to resolve it. Like adults.”

“Well it’s obviously not working for you and Yoojin-unnie.”

Jooyeon chokes on her drink.

Being alone is much better, she grumbles as she wipes at .

“So who tops?”, Sooyoung asks a while later out of curiosity.

“Your mum.”

Sooyoung flips her middle finger at Jooyeon and they both laugh hysterically. They laugh, until they’re gasping for air, until they’re wheezing and crying, tears streaming down their cheeks.

She blames the soju.

-

Jooyeon wakes up on a hard cold surface to a piercing pain in her right eye, a churning stomach and a slight temptation to puke her guts out. She palms her right eye and keeps it there, feeling the headache get more bearable when she puts a little pressure on it. Jooyeon squints open her other eye and sees a Park Sooyoung on her phone but she’s more surprised by the girl’s lack of clothing (a lacy bra and did not constitute as decent coverage). She mentally swats away her thoughts that Sooyoung really did have a nice body. Jooyeon grabs at herself hurriedly and breathes a sigh of relief when she feels her clothes still on.

“ing hell put some clothes on…”

Sooyoung swivels around and flashes Jooyeon a smile (a really annoying one at that – Jooyeon wants to punch her in the face). “Ah she’s awake now, see you soon!”, Sooyoung says to the person on the phone and hangs up.

She turns back to Jooyeon. “I’ll get you a glass of water.”

Jooyeon groans and closes her functioning eye. She blindly shifts herself so that she’s resting on something, the base of a sofa she guesses, and tries to go back to sleep. She mouths a thank you to Sooyoung when she feels the cool glass press against her lips. Jooyeon takes several big gulps of the water – the cold sensation makes her headache subside for a while.

Jooyeon hears a knock on the door and Sooyoung shuffling to open it. Jooyeon assumes its Jinah and groans again – she hopes Sooyoung didn’t take her advice last night literally. She was not prepared to watch the two younger girls act on their attraction to each other.

A few moments later Jooyeon feels someone tugging her arm upwards.

“Ergh Sooyoung get lost…”

“Considering you’re in her home I don’t think that’s very nice to say…”, the girl pulling her up says in a voice that is distinctly not Sooyoung.

Jooyeon opens her eyes. It’s Yoojin. It’s Yoojin who has her arm around Jooyeon’s waist, letting Jooyeon lean on her for support and virtually carrying Jooyeon out of Sooyoung’s apartment.

“Sorry I thought – ”, Jooyeon scrambles to apologise.

“It’s fine.”, Yoojin cuts her off.

She’s now sitting in the passenger seat of Yoojin’s car watching Yoojin do up her own seatbelt first, then Jooyeon’s seatbelt. Jooyeon gulps because this feels too surreal, too domestic, for her to comprehend.

“Where – ”

“Why – ”

“Sorry, you go first.”, Jooyeon grins sheepishly.

Yoojin looks down at her lap. “Why was Sooyoung half ?”

Jooyeon notices that Yoojin’s grip on the steering wheel tightened as she asked the question.

“Um. You know how she is.”

She follows that up with “we didn’t do anything” and sees Yoojin’s grip on the wheel relax.

“Good.”, Yoojin mutters as she turns out of the driveway.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

Neither opens their mouth for a while and the silence hangs above them. Jooyeon just sits contentedly and watches Yoojin’s concentrated driving face, eyebrows furrowed and all.

 Yoojin makes use of a traffic jam to break the silence.

“We…need to talk.”, Yoojin says, as she looks Jooyeon in the eye.

“Yeah.”

Silence embraces them again, but this time it’s comfortable, and Jooyeon dozes off to Yoojin humming of a nonsense song.

Jooyeon’s never been a believer or an optimist but today she feels it in her bones. They’ll work it out.

Author notes:

1. Jooee is a tough couple for me because I see Uee as COMPLETELY straight (unlike Naliz) while Jooyeon has been looking gayer and gayer since first love (srsly those cornrows and leather pants which girl would say no to that) so it’s an otp but a sad-otp irl yaknow

2. has anyone in after school addressed the because of you mv because that mv is so gay I don’t even know what other storyline you could get from the video apart from Jooyeon loves Uee who gets stolen by Kahi. No one washes their friends hair while she is in a bath and you are outside fully clothed that’s just WEIRD.

3. I could not end this fic it just spiralled out of control the only thing I had in mind when I started was Joo and Lizzy drinking. Why does everyone get drunk in my fics I need to rethink my hobbies. It was originally going to be sad queer Jooyeon but I  thought this I want a happy ending so now theres a remotely happy ending