The Way You'd Loved Her | winrina

Chapter 8

She doesn't see Winter until next weekend. It's midterms, and Karina really needs to up her studying game if she wants to pass at least one course this semester. She's already dropped two. She can't afford to drop any more.

Giselle would argue that, as Winter Kim' girlfriend, she now could afford to do whatever she wanted, but Karina doesn't have the audacity to ask Winter for anything that's not about her father. It would make things more personal than they already are.

And, when Winter comes to pick her up on a Saturday for a surprise date and her fingertips tingle with pleasant anticipation, there's no doubt in her mind that things are even more unnecessarily complicated than she's thought.

(She hasn't picked up any of Jeno's calls. By the end of the week, he's stopped calling.)

"So," she whispers into Winter's lips when they finally part after a long, slow kiss. It's the 'I haven't seen you all week and I missed you like crazy' kiss, and Karina is still stunned at who she's sharing that with. "Where are we going?"

Winter needs a second before she can open her eyes and rasp out her reply, and Karina's not going to lie. It's still as empowering as it was when she realized she had the power to render Winter this weak.

(It's a dangerous power, and she let it get to her head for a while. But not anymore.)

"I hope you like popcorn."

"I don't," Karina smirks. "But I do like movies," she adds laughingly when Winter's expression becomes one of lost, almost childlike confusion.

Winter only rolls her eyes and presses on gas. She's driving them herself - it's something she does more and more often when there are only two of them. Karina guesses that now that she's more open to intimacy, she doesn't want anyone to intrude. Especially not Agustus, since Karina has a feeling he doesn't like her very much. But, maybe, Agustus doesn't like anyone.

Like Ningning.

Karina cringes and chases the thought away, instead focusing on the warmth of Winter's hand in her own.

*

"Did you like the movie?" Karina is way too smug for someone who just got fucked in a movie theater. Or maybe she's just the right amount of smug. She wouldn't know. It's kind of her first time. For all of his obnoxious smirks and innuendos, Jeno's a pretty tame guy when it comes to sex. And all of her casual relationships before him were mostly restricted to her college room.

Winter is a lot of firsts.

Winter's also rolling her eyes at her, fondly. "It was mildly entertaining," she says quietly, raising Karina's knuckles to her mouth and gently pressing her kiss-bruised lips to them. "I must admit I was rather preoccupied with... things."

"Things," Karina echoes. She's pretty sure her smile looks stupid. Smitten. Her panties are uncomfortably wet and her legs can't quite function properly yet, but she's strangely okay with it. "Is that what I am to you?"

"Of course not," Winter immediately says, leading them to the exit. Karina can't even remember the name of the movie they were supposed to watch before she took Winter's hand in hers and guided it under the jacket she strategically laid out on her lap and her lips were pressed to the side of Winter's neck and their breaths mingled in the dark as she gasped into her mouth over and over and over-

She bites her lip, clinging to Winter's elbow harder. "Good to hear," she says. "I got another question, though. Is, um, this why you took me to the movies?" She arches her eyebrow at Winter, smirking as she slowly trails her fingers down her arm until she reaches Winter's slender ones, still a little sticky with her essence. Turns out having a girlfriend isn't that different to having a boyfriend in certain aspects.