Exposure

Classical Conditioning

^ Park Chaeyoung

She wasn't sure how long she had been pretending to be asleep, but it was Saturday morning and she was going to stay wrapped up in her comforter for as long as possible. Which seemed to be ending sooner than Jisoo was willing to accept.

She heard the door click shut quietly and a slight tug on the blankets wrapped tightly around her.

Jisoo buried her face into her pillow with a sigh, "Chaeyoung we've talked about this. You can't clean my sheets when I'm still in them."

Then she felt the mattress dip and an arm wrap around her. Jisoo rolled over completely surprised by the action- Chaeyoung would definitely not be trying to snuggle with her.

"Is that something Chaeyoung has tried to do before?" Soojoo whispered as she snuggled closer to Jisoo.

Jisoo let out a sleepy chuckle and turned to face Soojoo, "Morning."

"Morning to you too." Soojoo replied with a smile.

Jisoo relaxed a bit and let Soojoo pull her in closer. They hadn't really talked since Jisoo got mad at her in the library on Thursday. Having had time to cool down, Jisoo realized Soojoo was just being Soojoo. Wanting to take care of her. She couldn't really be mad about that, could she?

Soojoo's smile faltered slightly as she let out a breathe, "Is everything ok? With us I mean?"

Jisoo felt herself stiffen. How was she supposed to answer honestly when she wasn't sure herself? She forced herself to take a deep breath and relax, tilting her head to look up at Soojoo's worried face. "I'm sorry I've been kinda... off lately." She sighed, "I guess this semester is just stressing me out more than I thought."

Soojoo just nodded and wrapped her arms tighter around Jisoo.

Jisoo sighed and tried to let herself get comfortable in Soojoo's arms. But something felt different. Jisoo knew what they had was great. She knew Soojoo was great. That hadn't changed. And even though she couldn't quite figure out what it was- something had changed.

"Well should we get up and greet the day?" Soojoo asked, rubbing her palm up and down Jisoo's back gently.

Jisoo let out a sigh and closed her eyes, "Can we just stay here another minute?"

"Sure." Soojoo pressed a kiss to the top of Jisoo's head and relaxed into the mattress.

Jisoo tried to figure out what was different this morning but couldn't quite place it. Soojoo still felt safe, comfortable, like she always had. Maybe it wasn't Soojoo that was different, maybe it was Jisoo. Maybe safe wasn't what she wanted anymore. At least not in the way it felt in that moment.

——

"Oh my god." Chaeyoung muttered quietly, "oh my god."

Jennie let out a sigh, "you've been saying that for half an hour."

"I'm sorry." Chaeyoung squeaked, "I just- this is just really difficult."

"Come on, its only Monday. Its not healthy to be this stressed out already." Jennie's eyes squinted as she focused her attention on the sketch pad in from of her, trying to get the lines just right.

"Oh no, this is my usual level of anxiety on any given day." Chaeyoung peeked around the side of her sketch pad quickly before hiding behind it again, working on the shape of her drawing.

Jennie chuckled and looked back to the center of the room, "Hey beefcake, quit moving!"

"Oh, sorry!" Matthew gave her a goofy grin before once again standing like a statue, his face serious as he concentrated way too hard at the simple task of standing still.