Forbidden Feelings (Purinz / Chaewon x Yunjin)

Watermelon Chapstick

THEN.

The years go by.

Yunjin solidifies herself as Chaewon's best friend, the fourth addition to their little trio, her favorite person in the world.

The world isn't always the kindest to Chaewon — or at least, it certainly feels that way sometimes, like when there's too many people and it's too loud and she just wants everything to stop, or when her parents fight with her sister about her grades, or when she gets the flu for a solid two weeks and then two days later she breaks her arm falling off her bike — but with Yunjin by her side, it's easier.

Things are good.

Until they're not.

Until Chaewon realizes she might have a small problem.

Well. It's not a problem quite yet, but she has a creeping suspicion that it will become one soon. Sometime in the next few years.

They're having lunch, the three of them sitting outside on one of the picnic benches in the school courtyard enjoying the late September heat, and Wonyoung and Kazuha are having an intense discussion on the important topic of who the cutest boy in their year is. Which is apparently the only thing the majority of Chaewon's peers seem interested in talking about lately. Chaewon preferred it when Pokémon was the current fad, not crushes.

Wonyoung is adamant that it's Hwang Hyunjin because of his (apparently) adorable smile and the fact he's actually nice to most of the girls unlike some of the boys, whereas Kazuha is trying to convince Wonyoung that it's Park Sunghoon because of his (allegedly) cute Busan accent and the way his soft-looking brown hair falls just perfectly into his eyes.

Chaewon isn't paying the slightest bit of attention, more focused on going over some of the math problems she's been struggling with recently and wondering where the occupant of the fourth seat at their table is. Except then Wonyoung pokes her in the side, and Chaewon kind of has to pay attention to their squabbling.

"What?"

"Who do you think is cuter, Hyunjin or Sunghoon?"

Chaewon thinks about the two boys. She certainly doesn't dislike either of them; Sunghoon lives on her street so she's known him longer, but Hyunjin sits next to her in math and he's always been nice to her. But that's all they really are. Nice. Cute isn't really a word that comes to mind when she thinks about either of them.

Chaewon shrugs. "Neither."

Wonyoung and Kazuha level her with identical pouts. "You have to pick one."

"Hyunjin, I guess," Chaewon says, hoping that'll be enough for the pair of them.

"What do you mean you guess?" Wonyoung says, looking appalled that Chaewon hasn't spent hours thinking about this like they both apparently have. "Who would you say then? Who do you have a crush on?"

"No one?" Chaewon says, and Kazuha and Wonyoung both stare at her like she's said something blasphemous.

"Like, no one just now, or no one ever?"

"I don't— I don't know," Chaewon says, feeling a little self-conscious now. "What's— how would I even know? What does it feel like?"

"Crushes are fun," Kazuha says. "Like, seeing them makes you feel nervous, but getting to see them is also the best part of your day, and if you know you're going to see them later you spend the whole time looking forward to it."

"Thinking about them makes you feel happy, you get butterflies when you get to talk to them, when they're around you just want them to pay attention to you," Wonyoung continues, listing them off like they're symptoms on a checklist.