Meet Me in the Afterglow (Purinz/Chaewon x Yunjin)

Ticking Time Bomb

THEN.

In the middle of the summer of senior year, a few days after Yunjin's birthday, the University of Tokyo emails Yunjin congratulating her on a full unconditional acceptance to their biochemistry graduate program. The same day, Yunjin emails them back confirming her acceptance. The day after that, her parents take her, Chaewon and Yeonjun out for a celebratory dinner, and after that, Sakura and Minjeong throw her a little party, all of their collective friends piling into their apartment to both congratulate Yunjin and call her some variation of a huge nerd in the same breath.

It's not until hours later — after Yunjin has been hugged and had multiple drinks shoved into her hands and had her hair ruffled approximately five million times, after everyone has slowly left or been kicked out, after Chaewon backs her into the kitchen counter with a familiar look in her eye, after Yunjin finds herself on her back in her bed with Chaewon's fingers taking her apart torturously slowly, after she catches her breath and flips them over to return the favor, after they curl up together in a familiar arrangement of limbs, Chaewon's head on Yunjin's chest and Yunjin's fingers tracing idle patterns down Chaewon's spine — that it really starts to sink in.

In six months, she'll have graduated. In six months, she'll be in another country, miles away from her friends and her family and her girlfriend. She's lived in Seoul her whole life. Twenty-two years, and she's just signed away the next two to another city in another country.

No more double dates with Sakura and Kazuha or Minjeong and her flavor-of-the-month. No more monthly brunches with her parents and Yeonjun. No more Minjeong waking her up in the mornings by singing loudly in the shower and no more Sakura waking her up in the middle of the night when she decides the best time to try and make ramen from scratch, handmade noodles included, is 3AM. No more days filled with Chaewon, Chaewon, Chaewon.

It's a daunting enough thought as it is, and thoughts like that always seem so much louder in the dark of the night.

"Do you think I made the right choice?" Yunjin says, without really thinking about it.

"Hm?" Chaewon mumbles, half-asleep as she snuggles further into Yunjin's side.

"Accepting the Tokyo offer. I mean, the furthest I've been from Seoul is Incheon, and my Japanese is average at best. Sakura just keeps teaching me swear words and pick-up lines. And I got accepted into universities in Busan and Daegu too, and they're so much closer, I could've—"

"Unnie," Chaewon interrupts, and promptly stifles a yawn.

Yunjin can't help but smile. Somehow the thought of the unknown future doesn't seem as scary anymore with her sleepy girlfriend to chase it away. "Sorry, is my sudden existential crisis keeping you awake?"

"Makes a change from your snoring," Chaewon says, and promptly dissolves into giggles when Yunjin digs her fingers into the ticklish part of her ribs in retaliation.

Her body is still a bit too shaky in the way that sex always leaves her to engage in an actual tickle war, so she lets up after a few seconds and chuckles at Chaewon's grumbling even as she tucks herself back under Yunjin's arm.

"Do you remember when we first met?" Chaewon says quietly, her fingers drawing idle shapes on Yunjin's stomach. "At Sakura-unnie's birthday?"

Yunjin hums, wondering where Chaewon is going with this.

"And do remember how the five of us walked back here and we spent the entire time talking, but because we were still strangers we were sticking to safe boring topics like school? You told me that you wanted to go abroad for grad school because you've been in Seoul your whole life, and when I asked where you wanted to study you said Japan almost immediately, and you looked so happy thinking about it too. So yes, I think you made the right choice."