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ohmygirlexchange2016-12-24 11:02 pm
[arin/yooa] a toast, to us (for Hanna)
Characters/Pairings: gen yooa+arin, ot8
Rating: G
Warnings: n/a
Word-Count: 3378
Summary: One girl and an ambitious plan.
Author Notes: Many apologies that this isn't really established relationship fluff as much as it is just eventual relationship fluff but I hope you'll enjoy it even a little bit!
A toast, to us
One girl and an ambitious plan. (Arin, Yooa, ot8)
*
On a Wednesday morning, Yewon wakes up with an idea. After nearly breaking her leg stumbling down the rung, brushing her teeth and slipping into her slippers, she makes to get her tablet from Shiah, where-
Where Shiah has fallen asleep on it.
"Unnie," she pokes Shiah's side once, and then twice, and then a third time, all of which are ineffectual. Shiah's face stays plastered to the screen. She'll just have to wait it out.
When Yewon heads outside, Mihyun is sitting in the kitchen making breakfast out of two pieces of toast and some honey.
"Hey," Mihyun says, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand. "You're up early."
"Isn't that a bit heavy for breakfast?" Yewon says, carefully. They've been surviving on small plates of fruits for the most part, but everyone has let go a little after promotions ended even if they still have a couple of festivals here and there. Mihyun laughs, sinking her teeth into the sandwich and bringing a finger to her mouth as she chews. "Don't tell Seunghee," she mumbles, through a mouth of bread.
"Won't," Yewon smiles, heading for the couch. The weather outside has turned chilly and freezes up bits of their window -- Yewon can see it through the half-drawn curtains.
"Unnie," Yewon calls, again, and Mihyun makes a small sound of assent, making a beeline from walking back to the room to settle beside her on the sofa. "What kind of cake do you like?"
"If you're my secret santa, this isn't the best way to go about it, Yewon-ah." Mihyun takes a sip of water and crosses her legs so her knees bump against Yewon's, leaning in conspiratorially. Yewon folds her hands into the sleeves of her sweater and pushes Mihyun away.
"You're not, unnie, stop thinking everything is about you!"
"Well," Mihyun drawls, "hypothetically, if you were to give a cake to me, I would want it to be-" Mihyun pauses for an uncomfortably long moment, so Yewon probes: "be what, unnie?"
"Made with love," Mihyun says, laughing as she slaps Yewon's thigh lightly, clinging to her sweater as Yewon tries to shake her off.
"Not funny," Yewon complains, thinking about the tablet wedged under Shiah's head. Surely the people of the internet would be more helpful than this.
"Yewon," Mihyun says, tone a little less light, bangs falling into her eyes as she takes Yewon's hands gently. "Don't overthink it, it's just secret santa."
"I saw you scrolling to page 50 of Naver yesterday looking for a gift."
The corners of Mihyun's lips twitch as she tightens her grip on Yewon's hands.
"Regardless," she continues, "I was looking for it with love. And I think that's all you need to do as well."
Mihyun's breath smells faintly like honey. Yewon thinks she makes sense in a vague kind of way, and maybe that's enough to make her a little more helpful than anyone on the internet.
*
On Friday, Yewon accompanies Seunghee to the grocery shop. It's six in the morning and she's still a little groggy, almost trips over her own feet as Seunghee laughs, but she has an ingredients list in her pocket and a plan to carry out. Seunghee is surprisingly non-questioning about it, which is curious in itself, but Yewon doesn't have the energy to ask.
It's only back at the dorm where they're peeling off layers of clothes and unloading their spoils into the fridge that Seunghee takes the sugar, flour, and colouring, and asks Yewon if she'd like to hide them behind the abnormally large watermelon they'd picked up for a discount. She should've known that nothing slips past Seunghee.
"Also, this sauce is completely opaque!"
"Um," Yewon says.
"I can say I bought it if you want," Seunghee offers, folding the plastic bags into neat triangles while she steals occasional glances at Yewon's face.
"Unnie..." Yewon's brain is working on overdrive at the responsibility her proposition could entail, but it's something she wants to do. "Could I plan the Christmas meal this year?"
Seunghee's eyes are bright behind the round lenses of her glasses, and she's cocking her head a little, assessing. "You could, but - Yewon-ah, you haven't even cooked a meal before."
Yewon feels her cheeks heat up in a mix of embarrassment, but she meets Seunghee's gaze head-on anyway, grips the edge of the table with a determination she doesn't quite feel.
"Just let me try," Yewon says, finally, and concedes a little: "and you can come up with a back-up plan if you want."
Seunghee laughs, throws her head back a little as she sweeps the last of the plastic bags into the drawer. "I'll anticipate," she says, slinging an arm around Yewon's shoulder as they head back out to the living room.
And that's that.
*
Yewon finds Shiah sprawled on the living room floor, watching the latest episode of Goblin, her feet propped up against a stack of pillows. It's getting to an exciting part and Yewon doesn't want to interrupt, so she settles herself on the rug and waits for the episode to end.
Shiah turns to her, chin resting on the palm of her hand as she gives Yewon a lazy smile. Shiah presses up on her palms from where she's lying and curls up beside Yewon, leaning her head on her shoulder. She's been busier than Yewon has ever been, and her eyebags are worryingly big under her eyes.
"Gong Yoo is really handsome," Shiah says, absently. Her jaw feels sharp through the fabric against Yewon's skin, heavy and weighed down with the expectations of the company and people who don't know anything about her.
Yewon makes a small noise of assent, straightening so Shiah doesn't have to bend awkwardly.
"Unnie," Yewon says, as on-screen Gong Yoo holds an umbrella over the girl. Shiah's almost fallen asleep at this point, her eyes fluttering closed slowly as the side of her head stutters into the bone of Yewon's shoulders.
"Mm," Shiah replies, as the music swells from the television set.
"Do you want to bake a cake with me?"
"The two of us?" Shiah's eyes snap open and she barks with laughter, before it stutters to a halt when her gaze lands on Yewon's face. She pulls herself up so they're at eye level, her back against the cushion of the couch. "You're serious."
"Yes," Yewon tries, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth.
"Oh," Shiah says, head tipping back onto the couch. There's a long moment where Yewon racks her brains for a plan B before Shiah laughs into Yewon's shoulder and says: "okay, let's do it."
Yewon sighs in relief and a little bit of suspicion.
"No what cake? What if I wanted to bake a wedding cake?"
Shiah looks askance at Yewon before the corners of her lips pull up into a smile. "That would depend -- when's the wedding?"
*
Jiho walks in on Yewon trying to turn off the stove with her foot.
"This has to be a dream."
"I'm just learning," Yewon says.
"Learning what, how to burn down a kitchen?"
"Can you just turn that - off - first -" Yewon manages, slamming her knife down in a clean slice through the onion perched on the chopping board as her foot wiggles pathetically in the direction of the knob.
Jiho's giggling a little when Yewon gathers the newly chopped onion into a bowl, breaks out into a full-bodied, bending-over laugh when she sees the tears that've gathered in Yewon's eyes.
"Stop laughing," Yewon says, bumping against Jiho so she chaffs her arm against the table.
"I'm helping," Jiho points out, and she is -- she's running the knife under water and sorting the good vegetables from those that have holes in them.
"Fine," Yewon says, focusing on the carrots.
"Whatcha making?"
"Food."
"Just because you're older now doesn't mean you can get sassy with me, Choi Yewon," Jiho says, and Yewon finds herself laughing before she can stop it.
"Just vegetable soup," Yewon says. "It's Hyejin-unnie's favourite."
Jiho pauses at this, the sound of water running over her hands and into the metal sides of the basin filling the empty space.
"I'm learning how to make it so I can do it better in the future," Yewon continues. "And this website I found said it was the easiest, so if I wanted to learn cooking I could start here."
When Yewon looks back at Jiho, she's furrowing her brows, sorting the vegetables carefully and picking at dirt that isn't there, lifting her hands to wipe at her eyes once in a while.
*
The Big Cake Baking starts at 9:30 in the morning (originally planned for 9 am, but Shiah had refused to get out of bed and slept even after Yoobin dragged her onto the floor). The other five are watching from the living room -- Yewon knows this because she can see them craning to look in and whipping back onto the couch to pretend to watch Twilight whenever she or Shiah so much as pass by the open door.
"Two cups of water... Shiah unnie, did you sieve the flour?"
"The - um."
"I think the sieve's in the bottom left drawer."
"Right," Shiah says, laughing a little in defeat as she retrieves it. It's nice doing this together; Shiah's not rushing or really concerned at all about whether the final product is going to be edible, so Yewon feels a little less pressure even though Hyojung will probably force the cake down even if it tastes horrible.
Shiah's turned on some classical music because she claims she "read that it helps with cooking", whatever that means. It just makes Yewon a little sleepy.
"Are you guys doing okay?" Seunghee's head pops out from behind the doorframe and Yewon can only imagine how long she'd been holding it in.
"It's all good," Yewon says, quickly, standing in front of the pile of flour she'd emptied by accident onto the countertop.
Seunghee stands there for a moment, gaping as if she means to say something before pursing her lips together. "Well, if you need me, I'll be here," she says, gesturing vaguely at the living room space.
"Thanks," Shiah and Yewon chorus, and Seunghee slips away quietly, worry resonating from her steps.
They get into a rhythm after a while. Shiah follows the instructions Yewon's pulled up on the tablet to more or less plus or minus ten miligrams, stirs for 5 minutes more than she needs to each time and mixes up the stirring and tasting spoons. But what matters, Yewon thinks, is that she's concentrating.
The peace, as always, lasts only for a moment after they slide the tray into the oven when Shiah throws a handful of flour into Yewon's face.
"Unnie," Yewon sputters, and hates that she's laughing. "You're wasting it!"
"You wasted it when you poured it onto the floor," Shiah points out.
Yewon grabs a handful of flour from the bowl and hurls it back at Shiah, and they're laughing and holding on to each other's flour-stained shirts when Hyojung comes to a halt in the open kitchen door.
Shiah lets go of her shirt and clears her throat.
"We have to do the cream now."
"Yes," Yewon echoes, and she can see Hyojung's smile out of the corner of her eye, bright and exasperated.
*
"This," Yoobin decides, laying her fork down neatly on the table, "is edible."
Shiah collapses into a whine from where she's seated, legs hooked across Yewon's lap. "We worked so hard on it! I sacrificed sleep!"
"It's very good for a first attempt," Hyojung says, brightly, gathering the red frosting with her fork. "You guys did a great job."
Yewon thinks that it's brilliant considering that she'd set the temperature 50 degrees too high before realizing after 5 minutes and Shiah had almost tried to empty the egg into the bowl without removing the egg shells.
"Anyway," Yewon announces, bringing her hands together so hard that the napkin falls off her lap, "this is the first of many cakes Shiah unnie and I are going to be making, so please look forward to it!"
Shiah startles, pulling her legs off Yewon's lap.
"We never agreed to this," she protests, as Jiho starts choking on her cake.
*
Over the next few days they sneak in bits and pieces of time in between gayo practices and festivals -- whatever they bake ranges from horrible to below average, but Yewon's sensing an improvement in Shiah's spirit, if nothing else.
There's nothing to do but talk as they wait for the dough to rise, and in that time Yewon finds out a lot of things about Shiah, like where she used to work as a part-time job (waitressing at a beef restaurant for a 3-week stint before she had to move), how she used to be allergic to lemon, why she used to have that horrific haircut.
Yewon, in return, tells her about Busan: the mountain she climbed when she was really young, the flower fields that she used to ruin, the warmth of her parents' smiles, the gentleness of their rough speech. Shiah snuggles into the fabric of her turtleneck, throws barbs at the sound of Yewon's laugh, her legs stretched out far enough across the kitchen floor that her toes reach the cabinet.
*
Yewon's been studying lists for Christmas menus online carefully -- she's not worried about the cooking, Seunghee will have that covered -- but she wants to make as much of it with their own hands as possible, and for everyone's favourite dish to be covered.
It requires surprisingly more work than she'd expected, but she's not worried.
(Yet.)
*
A week before their first gayo, Shiah slips into bed beside Yewon, announcing her arrival with the creak of the bunk ladder. Yewon scoots over to leave a square of mattress for Shiah to lay down in, but Shiah just wraps her arms around Yewon and crushes her against the wall.
"Thanks, unnie," Yewon's voice comes out muffled against the sleeve of Shiah's jacket.
"I think I'm getting old," Shiah mumbles back. "Because you're getting old, planning our dinner and everything. Next thing you know I'll be attending your uni graduation."
Yewon can't help the laugh that escapes her. "And just last week you were teasing me for not being able to drink."
"Yah, haven't you heard? I'm a chronic liar," Shiah says, half-jokingly, and Yewon turns around on her sheets so she can face her. Shiah's lips are drawn in a tight line, trembling downwards if Yewon were to look closely.
"Unnie-"
"It's okay," Shiah says, and her smile is small as she takes Yewon's hands. "It's a mistake I've made."
Yewon thinks a while before she speaks, until her lips are dry and her voice cracks a little when it slips out. "You're one of the most talented people I've ever met, and you're the best at sleeping, and..." Yewon pauses when Shiah starts crying, small sobs that shake her bed by the slightest of measures.
"Oh, look at me," Shiah bemoans, running her knuckles down her cheeks.
Yewon reaches out to wipe the tears that've gathered across Shiah's cheeks carefully away with the pads of her thumbs, and Shiah lets out an exhale that sounds like it could be a laugh if it weren't so shaky.
Yewon says: "I am looking," and Shiah smacks her lightly on the arm.
"Yah, brat," Shiah complains, and it feels like relief flooding out of her and into Yewon's fingertips. It spreads like warmth, more than the blankets thrown over her legs could ever provide.
*
The feast turns out okay. It turns out more than okay: Jiho can handle a knife and isn't running around the kitchen and shoving onions into Yoobin's eyes, Hyojung's not adding way too much salt into the soup, Mihyun isn't eating the cookies that they've laid out onto the plate, and Seunghee's not hovering over Shiah's batter like a hawk.
Yewon's setting up the Skype call when Shiah drags her over to watch the cupcakes rise in the oven. They're turning a nice golden brown in their holders.
"Yewon...look what we've made."
Yewon rolls her eyes. "You used pre-mix, unnie."
"I had to cut the carrots too!"
"Miracles do exist," Mihyun says, popping up from behind them. Shiah laughs, pushing at her so she stumbles backwards.
"Watch it, unnie," Yoobin yelps, the bowl of soup cradled in her hands nearly spilling over.
"Yeah, watch it, Shiah," Mihyun says, and falls sideway this time when Shiah pushes her again.
Yewon thinks things are falling, however clunkily, into place.
*
Yewon runs her fingers along the edge of her envelope in anticipation. It's small and unassuming but ambiguity isn't always a bad thing, unlike the absolute nothing that Jiho has in her hands.
Seunghee gets up, finally, putting down her glass of grape juice and bringing her hands together.
"It's time."
*
The reveals:
Hyojung's gotten Yewon a ticket to IU's concert, and if Yewon's hands are shaking really hard as she takes them, Hyojung doesn't comment on it.
Hyejin's bought a hair care kit for Yoobin, complete with rollers and a pillow for wet hair ("Because you always fall sleep before drying your hair"). Mihyun presents Seunghee with a box of handheld fans in different shapes and colours (and a rap that Seunghee can request when she's feeling down). Shiah's made Hyojung some coupons that say "bake some bread for me", and Hyojung stutters a little in thanks before Shiah laughs, pulling out her real gift from behind the couch: a neck massager, and some real bread vouchers, for good measure. Seunghee's bought Yewon a small popsicle maker and a box of tonics ("for the school year").
Jiho's sent Hyejin a Christmas jumper, so Hyejin laughs a little as she sinks down into her seat in the screen, clad in a new red and green sweater with sleeves that ride over her hands. ("Sorry for the early reveal")
"Thanks," Hyejin mouths, and Jiho sends her a flying kiss that makes Yoobin cringe in her seat.
Yoobin's bought a calendar for Jiho for the new year ("with important dates already included!") and vouchers for the fruit store down the street ("I didn't know they sold these" "They didn't until I asked").
Finally, Yewon hands Shiah the envelope wordlessly.
"Come on," Jiho protests loudly, "everyone else showed us what they gave!"
Yewon only smiles, sinking onto Jiho and aiming for her sides.
*
Shiah Shiah unnie
Ah, it's kind of awkward to write this letter but I hope my pretty handwriting will make up for it ^^
I know you've been wondering why I asked you to bake with me, and that's because it is my gift to you. There are two gifts: the first is that you can make cakes now! Hehe and you can tell Yoo appa and omma that their daughter can start a patisserie soon.
The second is: time. Unnie, we've been a bit awkward this year right? And you've always been so busy, so I wanted to spend time with you. Ah, I guess it's more of a gift to myself than to you, isn't it? Even then, I'm happy that we spent that time together. I'm thankful that you told me about your worries and I'm thankful for your tears. I'm thankful that we laughed together and that I know you a little bit better now.
The last thing I wanted to say is that I love you. When you wake up in the morning tomorrow there'll be cookies on the table, and I want you to know (ah, it's so embarrassing to say) that they were made with love.
Choi. Ye. Won.
*
Shiah drags herself out of bed the next morning to the sound of a mechanical whisk and Yewon standing, feet planted resolutely apart, a pink apron tied around her waist.
Yewon looks back at the disturbance, fearful at first, before her face crumples into what looks very much like disbelief.
"Unnie, it's 4am."
Shiah takes the bowl from Yewon lazily, bumping her aside with a swing of her hips.
"And you have horrible handwriting."
Yewon scoffs behind her, bragging haughtily about her teacher's compliments. Shiah angles her body away to hide the smile that's blooming across her face.
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(Anonymous) 2016-12-26 02:08 am (UTC)(link)no subject
(Anonymous) 2016-12-27 02:35 am (UTC)(link)i really love the whole development of it, how yewon takes the initiative and gets shiah to open up to her and how they grow closer ;;!
the skype call with jine was so sweet and the way the girls were all involved was wonderful too. thank you so much again ^^ i really enjoyed it
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(Anonymous) 2016-12-28 10:47 pm (UTC)(link)(and i really have to comment on wonderfully your sentences flow into the other)
i really appreciate seeing such a sympathetic portrayal of yooa, in light of the past year. arin’s thoughtfulness and caring towards yooa was a great gift for not just a gift for yooa but also…. for my heart………..