Signs of a Hideout in the Making
A few days later came the school's founding anniversary.
Yeoncheong tidied up her apartment and waited for the friends she'd invited over. Sitting on the edge of her bed, a sigh escaped her lips before she even knew it was coming.
Ha... I should've just said let's meet at a café...
After Yeoncheong had bolted, it was Suyeon who'd grabbed her bag and followed her to the club room, and Hasol who'd come along to pin down the exact time for their promise. Desperate to escape the moment as quickly as possible, Yeoncheong had nodded along without hearing a word of it — and that was how today's situation had come to be.
What am I going to have to do for them this time...
She was in the middle of the usual deliberation over what to cook for lunch when—
Thud thud.
A knock at the door, as if to say stop your grumbling already.
"Yeoncheong! We're here!"
Hasol's voice floated in from outside. Yeoncheong hopped up from the bed and headed for the door.
"Yeah, you're... huh?"
The moment she opened it, she froze at the crowd milling about in the hallway.
The people she'd invited were Hasol, who had practically begged and pleaded to be included, and Suyeon, who'd been right there with her. That was the entire guest list.
"Hey. We're allowed to come too, right?"
"Excuse the intrusion."
But standing in front of her now were Nayun and Seoha as well.
While she stood there stammering, her friends pushed right past the homeowner and streamed inside.
"Wow. Your place is spotless no matter when we come."
"Right? Maybe it's because you barely own anything."
Bag piled in a corner, Nayun casually hauled a desk out of the half-storage room. "You got anything bigger than this? Four's the max if we're spreading out books to study."
The friends strolled around like it was their own home. Yeoncheong, snapped back to reality by a sharp slap to her own cheek, could barely make her lips move.
"I-I'm pretty sure I only invited Hasol and Suyeon?"
Suyeon, already pulling out her books and getting ready to study, spoke up matter-of-factly. "Oh, right. I didn't invite them."
"...Huh?"
Suyeon smirked at the flustered homeowner, one hand resting on her hip as if to say no thanks required. "Siyeon told me everything."
"What... Ah. Ahhh!"
If it was assistance, then it was assistance. Having watched Yeoncheong's wishy-washy hand-wringing, Siyeon had judged that she would never manage to give actual advice — so she'd told her roommate Suyeon everything and told them to sort it out themselves. And Siyeon's judgment had been dead-on: Yeoncheong really hadn't invited Seoha and Nayun. Her only flaw was failing to give so much as a heads-up.
Once again Yeoncheong tried to choose flight, but in a small apartment with four friends in it, there was nowhere to run.
Hasol wrapped her up in a hug from behind. Before the startled Yeoncheong could even resist, they tumbled onto the bed together, and the others closed in around her.
Hasol, holding her tight from behind, whispered a sheepish sorry for being so smothering.
Seoha poked her in the ribs, jab jab.
"Yeoncheong, did you miss us fooling around with you that much?"
"For real. Say something, why don't you. Is it because you're a Daengcheongi? I bet you just need people's hands on you."
Nayun rubbed her head vigorously — petting it, or wrecking it, no one could say.
Suyeon laid Yeoncheong's leg across her knee and drummed on it like a bongo. "You always grumble like you hate this, but your body's honest."
"You're insane! Don't say it like that!"
Yeoncheong's indignant flailing had zero effect against the crushing disadvantage of being outnumbered four to one.
Tick tock. Scratch scratch.
Space was tight, so Yeoncheong had claimed the desk with the computer, while the other four huddled together around the table they used as a dining surface, deep in their studies.
Nayun rubbed her throbbing forehead, eyes rolling in their yellow sockets. "Ugh... man, that hurts like hell."
"You picked it yourselves. Think of it as the entrance fee."
Yeoncheong answered without so much as glancing over.
Seoha and Suyeon, thrilled to be treating her exactly as usual again; Nayun and Hasol, who'd been swept up in the mood without quite meaning to be. Everything had probably gone one prank too far.
The homeowner had given them a choice: leave right now, or take a forehead flick. In the end, since they couldn't exactly turn around and go home the moment they'd arrived, each of them now bore a neat red road across the forehead.
"Yeoncheong's secretly strong, you know. Her arms are all soft and squishy, though."
"Right? I wonder if there's something different about her."
Nayun and Suyeon whispered just loudly enough to be overheard.
Yeoncheong, who had been seriously entertaining the idea of actually kicking them out, glanced over at her friends studying beside her.
They'd been practically dying to prank her because her reactions were so delicious, and for all the tussling that ate up every spare moment, her body was tired while her heart felt like it was resting on a soft cloud.
Even if their relationship had only started in March, once you counted the hours they spent at school together, calling it a year of friendship wouldn't have been a stretch. And these were friends who, after learning her secret, had kept her close anyway.
She realized anew just how deeply these four had seeped into her life. Yeoncheong found it hard now to imagine herself without them.
Nayun, for whom any other moment would have earned an earful of criticism, stared at the unresponsive Yeoncheong. "Hey. Why are you smiling?"
"Hm?"
Yeoncheong touched her own mouth — and discovered the corners were turned up.
Nayun grinned and gestured at her body, specifically the area around her chest. "You weren't having weird thoughts about us just now, were you?"
"......You're getting nothing to eat."
Yeoncheong's voice was ice cold, her brow furrowed deep enough that she meant every word. Nayun went deathly pale and latched onto her leg. "Ah — I'm sorry! I'll stop for today! I came here to eat, and you're denying me food? That's just cruel!"
"Was that your real reason for coming?"
"N-no, it's studying plus a good meal. It's a One Plus One deal."
Nayun shot a sly glance around at the others for backup, but...
"So we split Nayun's portion three ways?"
"Sounds good."
"Fine by me."
The friends were far too busy dividing up the portion that had dropped from the heavens to care.
Betrayal showed on her stunned face in every direction she looked.
They'd actually let her starve. Panicked, Nayun cried out.
"How's someone with a chest that big so narrow-minded! Think of small-hearted little me and forgive me just this once with that big heart of yours, okay?"
Any other day, that would've earned her a smack for sexual harassment. Yeoncheong faltered at the self-destructive confession. If Nayun — who bristled every time the subject of her chest came up — was willing to say that, she must truly be desperate. Yeoncheong nodded with an expression absolutely dripping with pity.
"S-so you'll give me food?"
"Yes, I'll feed you. Don't worry."
Just as Nayun recovered the single greatest reason she'd come to study at Yeoncheong's place—
"Ah..."
from the back of the room came Suyeon's sigh of disappointment.
Lunch was once again a success — a resounding one.
Watching her satisfied friends, Yeoncheong rose to wash the dishes she'd left soaking in the sink.
"The cook gets to rest."
"Yeah. It's our turn today."
But Hasol and Suyeon forced her down onto the bed.
"You're the host. Just sit there. We've got it."
It wasn't as if there were enough dishes to justify begging this hard to help. The Yeoncheong who'd been about to stand found herself merging back into the mattress under the combined weight of two friends pressing down on her shoulders and head.
"Too much consideration is its own burden, remember? Same goes for us."
"...Fine."
Hit with her own exact logic, Yeoncheong had no choice but to nod.
During the brief rest period, Nayun, who'd been sprawled on the floor, pushed herself up. "It's a little hot in here."
"That's the heating. Want me to turn it down?"
She'd set the temperature higher than usual in case anyone got cold.
"I'm fine. You'd freeze, so leave it."
Yeoncheong had ordered pajamas for everyone, but they hadn't arrived yet, so she was still in her dolphin pants. Nayun waved a hand — fine, fine — grabbed her bag, and slipped into the small room. A moment later she emerged in comfortable clothes and settled naturally onto the spot next to Yeoncheong.
"What's that supposed to be?"
"This? Clothes for wearing at home."
"No, I can see that much with my own eyes. I'm asking why you brought it, and why you're wearing it."
Nayun shrugged as if the answer were obvious. "To be comfortable."
Pulling a black plastic bag from her backpack, she headed for the entryway. She opened the shoe cabinet and, without a hint of self-consciousness, placed a pair of slippers inside.
The corners of Yeoncheong's mouth twitched upward as she took in the fact that she'd even brought her own slippers. Oh, is that how it is?
Exactly the scenario she'd been dreading was unfolding before her eyes.
Close to school, home of a friend living on her own — prime real estate for a hideout.
"Aw, come on~ it's not like that. These are for you to use too."
"If you know what I'm about to say, you'll stop right now."
Yeoncheong got up from the bed and snatched Nayun's bag away. "Yeesh... how much did you bring, exactly? Did you actually come here to study?"
"Hey! Who goes rummaging through someone else's bag? That's an invasion of privacy."
While the two of them tussled—
Suyeon poked her head out of the bathroom. "Yeoncheong, is there anywhere to put our toothbrushes?"
"There's space on top of the towel rack, so—huh?"
Mid-answer, delivered on complete autopilot, Yeoncheong turned toward the voices.
Two friends, heads pressed together, stowing their toiletries. She could only gape.
"What are you two up to now?"
"Well, we figured we'd be coming over a lot, and lugging a toothbrush here every time is a pain."
"Then bring one every time! Why do you keep trying to leave stuff here?!"
Whenever Yeoncheong went to the bathroom to talk Suyeon and Hasol down, Nayun would casually fish one or two of her belongings out of her bag — and then, somehow, Suyeon and Hasol would reappear in comfy clothes as well.
And so a fierce battle raged on, between the friends determined to turn her home into a hideout and the homeowner desperate to defend it.
Meanwhile—
Toothbrush, slippers... maybe even some makeup would be good.
Seoha, for whom all of this still felt novel, was mentally compiling a list of things to bring next time.
Yeoncheong, who had spent the better part of the day trailing after her friends, picking up their belongings—
"Haa... it's hopeless. This."
finally realized resistance was futile and slid quietly down to the floor.
The next day.
Uncharacteristically, Siyeon kept sneaking glances at the friend studying beside her.
Siyeon was the one who'd advised her to study together in the first place.
Suyeon had come back from Yeoncheong's place grinning like a cat and saying nothing at all, so of course Siyeon was burning with curiosity about what had happened.
"Ahem. Khm... Um, Yeoncheong?"
Perhaps she'd been deep in concentration — Yeoncheong looked up a beat late. "Yeah?"
"Sorry. You were focused, huh."
"No, it's fine. What's up?"
Taking the chance to give her neck a light roll and stretch out, Yeoncheong waited to hear why she'd been called.
Siyeon let a few seconds hang in the air, then finally parted her lips. "So... yesterday. Did you get much studying done?"
"No, not a bit."
The answer was so serenely flat that Siyeon nearly let the moment pass without a hitch.
"You didn't study? At all?"
"Nope. They showed up trying to turn my place into their hideout or whatever, hauling in piles of stuff, and I wore myself out trying to stop them."
Siyeon's eyes darted this way and that. She'd figured things would be fine with Hasol around as the lone voice of sanity — and now she was regretting ever telling Suyeon anything. But Yeoncheong's next words took her by surprise.
"Still, it wasn't bad."
She'd barely studied, sure, but a lot of what had been weighing on her mind had been cleared away. Plus it made for a nice change of pace — hardly a day wasted.
"Oh. Oh, good...?"
The color came flooding back into Siyeon's face, and Yeoncheong nodded. "Yeah. Thanks."
"No, I still feel bad..."
"Don't. Just take the thank-you."
Without her, the day would have fizzled out unresolved. At first she'd resented it, but now all she felt was gratitude.
Perhaps because her mind had settled, her smile was brighter than usual — so bright that Siyeon flinched without even knowing why.
And Yeoncheong was already turning her thoughts to what to do about the mountain of Suyeon's belongings accumulating in her apartment. "Oh, right. Suyeon left a ton of stuff here — could you take it home with you later?"
"Hm? Oh, sure, no problem. Whenever's convenient."