â on air, could i be floatin’?
with all these wild emotions
still holding onto every heartbeat âž
‒ jihyo, ‘ killin’ me good ‘
karina pov
When Karina had seen Winter, right there, by the car, she had nearly rammed into the car in front of her.
She was amazed, to say the least.
Winter looked… really good.
Like really good.
Red hair, brown sweater, jeans. She looked very cute, but also very attractive at the same time, and it was a mix Karina’s heart was barely handling.
Sure, she’d broken up with Heeseung a week ago, but she could at least appreciate a pretty girl, right?
(Winter was so beyond pretty Karina wasn’t sure why she was still deluding herself.)
One thing was clear, though; Karina had completely and utterly fallen head over heels for Winter Kim, aka Mindungie. Winter’s blushing and soft-spoken tendencies during the runtime of their little date only served to further Karina’s already intense attraction to the girl, and although Karina knew it was a little strange, at least she wasn’t being catfished.
Actually, she was in a sense. She thought Min was a normal girl, but she turned out to be the cutest and also hottest girl she’d ever seen in her entire life.
How didn’t she notice Winter before? Maybe because the girl always kept her head down, and Karina had always been too focused on herself.
Karina didn’t even worry about Winter not understanding her like Min did; the two had already proved to be one and the same, until Winter asked about Karina’s Korean name.
The two girls stared into each other’s eyes as Karina watched the puzzle pieces clicking in Winter’s beautiful eyes.
“You’re… Yooji?”
“Yeah,” Karina smiled awkwardly, nodding. “Sorry you had to find out like this.”
Winter blushed again, but this time more intensely, the red spreading down her neck and onto her cheeks too. “Uh- you’re- not what I expected-“
Karina tried not to feel disappointment, but it was gone at what Winter said next.
“-but I’m definitely not complaining.”
Karina watched the girl adorably assume an expression that was basically akin to a facepalm, like why did I say that? It was okay, since Karina felt the exact same.
“You’re not, huh?”
Winter blushed even worse at the tease. “I- um. I guess what I meant was I always thought you were, you know, the popular cheerleader girl who never spared a thought on someone like me.”
Karina smiled softly. “I was before, but I guess talking to you gave me an outlet, someone to talk to when everyone around me got girlfriends and boyfriends and moved on with their lives.”
“An eye of the hurricane,” Winter added quietly. “You were like that for me too.”
“Hurricane?” Karina inquired. Then she quickly realized her misstep. “Oh, I’m sorry, you don’t have to-“
“No, it’s okay,” Winter interrupted, fiddling with her hands, smiling nervously. “I- It’s just one of my friends. She’s been having a hard time lately, and although I’m giving her time, it’s a little hard, and you’ve really helped.”
“I’m glad,” Karina replied. And she was. She felt happy on the inside to have made Winter Kim feel that way, like Karina was her calm in a storm she had to weather alone.
“How’s your friend?”
“Doing better,” Winter said, but from her expression it was clear she wasn’t.
“Heartbreak is hard to get over,” Karina said, but then her eyes widened once she realized what she’d let on.
“How’d you-“
“You and Ningning actually helped me figure out who you were,” Karina laughed. “I figured it out the day you told me.”
“What! So a few days ago,” Winter grinned incredulously. “That’s… wow. I only figured out a few minutes ago.”
“I know,” Karina responded, also grinning. “It was cute.”
Winter’s smile instantly turned into a blushing one, full of embarrassment and shyness. “Um… thank you.”
Karina blushed also, turning her face away briefly to hide it. “No problem.”
The atmosphere grew pleasantly awkward until the food arrived, and both girls dug in, the silence comfortable and punctuated by the occasional clink of utensils. It tasted amazing, just like Karina remembered, and she couldn’t help commenting on it.
“I see why you come here a lot,” both girls said at the same time, then after a surprised glance both burst into giggles.
“You more so than me,” Karina commented dryly afterwards, which sent Winter into more laughter, which Karina thought was beautiful.
Winter’s eyes nearly became crescents when she laughed, but Karina could still spot the chocolate brown in them. The corners of her mouth pointed upwards, her cheeks flushing lightly, dimples just next to her smiling lips. Karina noticed she always raised her right hand to cover her mouth, her sleeve just covering her wrist, her palm hiding her laughing face.
It was simultaneously the cutest and most alluring thing Karina had ever laid eyes on.
“Sorry,” Winter coughed out when she was done laughing, but Karina just gave her another bright smile, which caused her to blush again.
“It’s okay,” Karina affirmed. “You look nice when you laugh.”
Nice? Understatement of the goddamn decade, genius.
“Thanks,” Winter stammered in response, tugging on her sleeve. Then she changed the subject just as fast. “So, back to Ning, right.”
“Oh, yeah,” Karina agreed, picking up and finishing off some more of her food. Then: “Aeri Uchinaga, right?”
“Yeah,” Winter admitted.
“I can see that, I think. Aeri’s interesting. I haven’t spoken with her much, but from what I know, she doesn’t like talking, and someone who can get close to her is lucky but also at the same time one of her most valued people in the world.”
Winter blinked. “Wow. You really do deserve to be in AP Lit. Maybe AP Psych too.”
Karina laughed, then grew serious. “What do you think? Somi seems pretty good at getting close to people.”
“Yeah, I’d have to agree,” Winter commented. “But… Ning can do that too. When we first met…” Winter’s eyes grew reminiscent, as if she was recalling a sweet memory. “I was at my house, and some of my parents’ friends were about to come over, and I’d just thrown a tantrum. I was two, I think. According to my mother, they’d tried everything, but the friends showed up anyway, bringing their daughter.”
“Ningning?” Karina asked, and then feared she’d snap Winter’s reverie; but the redhead continued, smiling and nodding.
“Yeah. When the friends arrived, I was sulking in a corner, but Ning walked over to me and plopped down,” Winter recollected, staring off into some distant space. “She hugged me and said something in baby gibberish. Apparently I didn’t reply. But she hung on and kept on smiling until I did. And that’s Ning. She’s so open and sweet to people that she wears her heart on her sleeve, and when someone breaks it, she doesn’t know what to do because she sees the best in everyone. When that best is broken, she can’t cope. And that’s why I hate Uchinaga Aeri now- because she hurt Ning Yizhuo, who would apologize to a pole if she bumped into it.”
Winter finished speaking, a passionate look in her eyes and her hands still, as she stared at Karina determinedly.
A funny feeling was blossoming in the pit of Karina’s stomach, and she recognized it immediately.
She admired Winter. A ton.
Sticking up for your friend like that, especially when you were introverted, was amazing. Karina had friends, and she liked to believe she’d stand up for them like that, but she knew she probably wouldn’t- at least not to the extreme that Winter did. Winter was a good person- a good person, not someone who was fair-weather good or generally kind; someone who was good. Really good.
Karina didn’t realize she was thinking out loud until Winter blushed and said, “That means a lot. Thanks, Karina.”
What Winter didn’t realize was how badly her smile was making Karina fall for her.
Right.
Fall in love.
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