Been lovin' you for quite some time | Winrina

8

"Podgy is not a word!"

"It is ," Winter insists, digging in her pocket to pull out her phone. She makes it halfway through her passcode before Karina's hand grabs for the device, missing by inches and drawing her attention away.

"Hey, stop! You can't cheat Winter!" Karina is satisfyingly flushed with exhilaration and the warmth of the room and Winter can't help but admire the pink shine on her cheeks, stealing glances at her even as she twists out of Karina's reach to mess with her phone.

"Looking up a word I've already thought of isn't cheating!" She protests loudly, laughing when Karina leaps from her seat to round the table and grab her phone. "Hey!" She pushes her scrabble tiles away, swatting Karina on the chest and arms. "Don't look at my letters!"

"I don't care about your letters, I'm not the cheat." Karina leans over her, pressing Winter's head forwards and almost squashing her in her attempt to snatch the phone away.

Only Rosé's placating hand darting out to grab the phone is enough to shut them both up, turning to look at them like guilty school children, still draped over one another.

"What the hell are you guys arguing about?" Her sceptical gaze flickers from Karina to Winter and then back to Karina again, cocking a hip and staring at them expectantly as Karina self consciously peels herself away from Winter.

"Winter is definitely cheating," Karina slides back into her own seat, but her voice is more muted in the face of Rosé's interrogation and she goes back to studying her tiles innocently as Winter gasps in outrage.

"I am not , Karina is just being a sore loser as always ." She sticks her tongue out across the table and Karina wrinkles her nose, mimicking her silently until Rosé waves a hand between them.

"Okay, time out kids. How do you guys know each other again?"

"Oh..." Winter can feel the flush heating her cheeks and she is careful not to look at Karina as she says, as casually as she can, "we've played a couple of games of beer pong together."

" Right ," Rosé is still watching them suspiciously but after a moment just shakes her head, "well I'm not your mother, so sort yourselves out; unless you want me to get your mom Winter because I'm pretty sure she's trying to stop Jennie from burning down the kitchen right now."

"Nope, we're good." Winter turns away from the girl, steadfastly studying her tiles until she sees Rosé cuddle up beside Jisoo at the other end of the living room. She looks up at last and when she meets Karina's eyes there is a twinkle of amusement in the soft orbs staring back at her.

"Anyway. Podgy: not a word."

"It is !"

They're oblivious to Rosé's stares and Jisoo's bemused smile.

-

When Winter finds her leaning over the kitchen counter later that afternoon, a cup of steaming tea next to her and a book pressed open with one hand, she lets out a quiet laugh that draws Karina's eyes upwards. Stood in the doorway, the soft light haloing her slowly drying hair, Winter looks almost ethereal and she is momentarily stunned, left speechless until the girl approaches her and bumps their hips together, leaning against the counter beside Karina to peer at her book.

"You comfortable here?"

"Yes, actually." Slowly, she returns to her spot, wordlessly sliding the tea over for Winter to cup between her hands and sip.

"Really?" Winter arches an eyebrow over the rim of the mug and she feels herself flush, turning back to her book.

"The bed is way too tempting to nap on and this is as good a place as any."

"Tempting to nap?" Winter gapes at her, grinning conspiratorially, "are you telling me the infamous Karina Yu is actually human ? And here was me thinking you were a robot."

"Part robot," Karina corrects her, closing her book with a thumb between the pages. "And yes, somebody keeps tiring me out."

"Who would do such a thing?" Winter is all innocence and Karina steals the mug back, bringing it to her mouth in order to hide the dusting of pink across her cheeks. "Oh, by the way," Winter fills the silence between them, eyes flickering down to look at Karina's book. "I can show you somewhere to study, somewhere without a bed but with a chair and a desk, how does that sound?"

"Like a dream," Karina admits at last and when Winter gestures she falls into step behind her, scooping her book under her arm.

Molly perks up from her place beside the stairs and clambers up from her spot, trotting after them and the dog seems to know where she's going when Winter pushes open a door Karina hadn't noticed hiding at the bottom of the entrance way. Molly trots straight past them and flops onto the rug placed by the unlit fireplace, but Karina is stalled in the doorway, eyes wide with wonder.

"Winter," she breathes the word, "this is..."

Words escape her as she steps into the small, warm room. Every inch of wall is covered in towering mahogany bookcases, glass cased and filled with times of varying volume and hue, from crumbling spines protected by woven material to flashy children's book on lower shelves. A desk is sat by the window, clear but for a few old books and pieces of paper, stacked in a neat pile in the far left corner, and a heavy old lamp stretching its neck out. A tall window stretches over the wall in front of the desk, an old, cracked leather chair beside it and another deep armchair with a small stool beside the dark fireplace, where Molly is now watching them with interest.

"It was my dad's old office," Winter is still stood in the doorway, her brows creased with conflict. She smiles faintly when she catches Karina watching her. "My mom used to work in here with him, but she had her desk moved out and into another room upstairs." Her arms wrap around her waist almost subconsciously and Karina longs to reach out and touch her, "needed somewhere lighter, she said." She steps hesitantly over the threshold, her smile returning a little when she indicates the fireplace. "I used to sit on that stool and listen to him while he read."

Karina can't help the hand that brushes a touch against Winter's arm. She's noticed the absence of the girl's father, she isn't completely oblivious but it isn't in her nature to pry and so she'd pushed the thought out of her mind. Now though, she says, "would he mind me being in here?"

"He'd appreciate its use." Winter's confession is only slightly tearful, but Karina does her the service of pretending not to notice.

"And your mom?"

Winter's expression darkens a little and she shakes her head, "let me deal with her."

"Okay." She looks back to the chair by the desk, momentarily unsure what to say. Finally, with a careful hand on her elbow, she draws Winter gently into her arms and is gratified when, after a second's hesitation, she feels two hands slide up her back and come to rest on her shoulders, squeezing so tightly that it almost hurts.

Tears soak the collar of her shirt, but she keeps her mouth shut, pulls Winter in more tightly and breathes in the soothing scent of her shampoo.