//Part II
Seohyun shook visibly as Yoona's warm breath caressed her ear, and the room began to spin as she tried to think of something, ANYTHING to say to appease Yoona's hungry gaze. But Seohyun’s poor brain was too stunned to come up with anything to offer the looming predator. Nervously, the maknae licked her drying lips as she tried to avoid locking gazes with Yoona.
Although Seohyun succeeded in avoiding eye contact with her tormentor, her attempt to wet her lips did not go unnoticed. An unreadable expression fell over Yoona's countenance as her doe-like eyes began to zoom in on the soft, pink pillows that the maknae's tongue had glided over just moments ago. Yoona hadn't noticed until now, but Seohyun had lips with the exact same color as watermelon. And it occurred to Yoona that she was desperately thirsty for something just as cool and sweet as watermelon. Unconsciously, Yoona began to let her lips drift towards Seohyun's as she moved to quench her parched throat.
Yoona felt as if she was falling headfirst down the rabbit hole, and Seohyun's lips were down while everything else in the universe was up.
Seohyun, sensing the impending danger approaching, quickly jerked her head upwards to see Yoona's emotionless face coming ever closer to her own. Surprisingly, the sensitive maknae didn't close her eyes in fear. Rather, she looked directly into Yoona's eyes in one last appeal to her unnie's heart; not to take this one thing away from the perpetually selfless and faithful maknae, not in this way.
Tears began to gather in Seohyun's wide, imploring eyes when she saw that Yoona's eyes were merely dark, smoldering coals, devoid of any empathy whatsoever. As Yoona drew close enough for Seohyun to feel the air from her unnie's heavy breathing, Seohyun resigned herself to her fate. The maknae finally closed her eyes as tears began to run down her cheeks.
Yoona stopped. Try as she might, she couldn't bridge the final centimeters between herself and the lips of the most frustratingly tantalizing creature she had ever laid eyes upon. Not while Seohyun had tears running down her face. Not while her eyelids were scrunched tight with pain.
Once again, Yoona felt as if she was falling headfirst down the rabbit hole. But this time, Seohyun was up, and down was simply a lonely, empty darkness where Yoona would only have her painful guilt to keep her company.
For agonizing seconds Yoona could only stare, transfixed, at Seohyun's painfully kissable lips. The conflicted teenager held completely still, neither advancing nor retreating from her position right at the doorstep of her darkest desire. Internally, however, Yoona had already given up on taking anything against Seohyun's will. Her aching heart and sinking stomach reminded her that no matter how much she could physically dominate Seohyun, emotionally she was at the mercy of the baby of the group. And with this realization, the devilish energy that had powered Yoona earlier seemed to vanish almost instantly, leaving only a tired, lonely young girl in its wake. But Yoona's pride forbade her from displaying any of this conflict or resignation to her dongsaeng-- no, her object of affection.
Seohyun, feeling the sofa cushions shift and realizing that Yoona had stopped her advances, tentatively opened her eyes to see what was going on. Yoona had reclined back to a more distant position on the sofa. The previously aggressive unnie seemed to be deliberately looking away from Seohyun, and an almost... melancholy air seemed to shroud her now. An awkward silence began to mount, as neither knew what to do.
Frustrated, Yoona leapt up from the sofa, her shoulders hunched and her body tense. She whirled to her side to face Seohyun directly and looked the maknae directly in her eyes. Yoona's expression was stony and visibly upset, but in a way which was directed inwardly rather than towards anyone else.
"Seohyun... Forget what happened here. I'm s....... I'm sorry."
Although Yoona's voice had started off harshly, as she finished speaking her voice hitched and broke as her ability to keep her emotions in check was pushed past its limit. Not wanting to cry in front of Seohyun, Yoona violently spun around and muttered.
"... you know what, screw it. I'm going to bed."
But the tears had already begun to fall, and Yoona decided that she had to at least minimize her shame in front of Seohyun by retreating as quickly as possible. Yoona was just about to take her first step when a hand lightly grabbed her by the wrist to stop her. Yoona turned around immediately, surprise clearly written all over her tear-streaked face. Seohyun had never physically restrained her before. Ever. But Yoona quickly recovered from her shock, and bitterly spat out with a sneer on her face.
"Pathetic isn't it?! I'm supposed to be the one in control... I'm supposed to be the one making you cry! But today must be Backwards Day because Mistress Yoona is crying and her servant is laying hands on her. Funny isn't it? Go ahead and laugh Seohyun! I know you want to! It's so funny that I'm laughing even though the joke's on me... See?"
Yoona managed to paste a half-hearted grin on her face but was unable to force a laugh past the lump in her throat. Through tears were blurring her vision, Yoona could still clearly see the genuine concern on Seohyun's face. Not only that, Yoona could feel a gentle warmth and tenderness radiating from the maknae's devoted gaze. And she hated it. Yoona squirmed, wildly trying to whip her arm away from the maknae's grip. But Seohyun kept holding on to Yoona's wrist, refusing to let Yoona retreat into isolation.
"Don't look at me! Don't look at me like that! You're a slave whose only purpose is to entertain me... I haven't given you permission to, so stop looking at me like...like..."
-like you love me. Yoona's sobs cut off the remainder of her sentence. Seohyun, who had never particularly been good at speaking like Sooyoung, wordlessly pulled her crying unnie into a tight hug.
For an indeterminate amount of time, Yoona continued sobbing into Seohyun's flannel pajama top as the maknae tried to soothe the crying girl by gently stroking her back. Finally, after Yoona's tears had run dry, she hiccuped slightly as she lifted her face from the warm shoulder it had been nested in. With a level of vulnerability and sincerity Seohyun had never seen before, Yoona apologized.
"Seohyunnie... I'm so sorry. I-"
Seohyun shushed her unnie in gentle tones, while smiling warmly.
"Yoona-unnie, what are you talking about? You have nothing to be sorry about."
It occurred to Yoona then that Seohyun's expression was glowing at that moment with a radiance like the moon. Unlike the hot, blinding sun, Seohyun shone gently and quietly in her small portion of the horizon. And like the moon, Seohyun was at her most luminous during the deepest, darkest, still of the night.
Still wanting to assuage her guilt, Yoona continued.
"You know... for all that just happened."
Seohyun shook her head lightly, dismissing Yoona's words. Without even the slightest hesitation or artifice, Seohyun responded.
"For what? For having a bad day?"
Yoona couldn't help but feel teary once again at the endlessly forgiving, pure-hearted nature of her dongsaeng.
God, I don't deserve to touch even an inch of her, let alone her lips. How can she still be so devoted to me despite everything that I've done...
Smiling wistfully at this thought, the emotionally drained actress decided to just go along with Seohyun's words.
"...Yeah. I guess so. God this sounds so silly... I'm sorry for having a bad day and taking it out on you."
Seohyun giggled a bit while Yoona apologized for the final time, relieved that her unnie seemed to be slowly recovering from her emotional outburst.
"Well if it's silly, don't apologize then unnie! You can be so goofy sometimes..."
Seohyun paused a bit while looking into Yoona's eyes, still trying to comfort Yoona with her actions as well as her words. After a few moments, a decidedly naughty look came over the maknae's features as she continued in an odd tone of voice.
"You know... *cough* Ahem! *cough* Uhhh.... This all started because you were stressed about having your first k-k... kiss with Ho Se right?"
Suspicion started to mount in Yoona's mind as she tried to reconcile the maknae's strained voice and new line of thought. Nevertheless, she chalked up her mounting tension to the emotional nature of the night so far, and decided to keep playing along.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. Why?"
It might've been a trick of the light, but Yoona could have sworn that the maknae had just licked her lips.
"Well.... Uhhh.. *cough* Maybe-you-should-practice-with-someone-you-know-before..."
Seohyun rattled off her words so quickly that Yoona could barely understand them. But Yoona had understood what Seohyun said; she just couldn't believe the direction that the maknae seemed to be headed towards. It also struck Yoona that she was still in Seohyun's embrace, which made the actress feel increasingly self-conscious.
"WHAT?!"
"Unnie! Calm down! You're going to wake up all the other unnies and embarass us both!"
Realizing that it would be incredibly awkward if the other girls woke up (and incredibly scary if Sica was woken), Yoona took a moment to restrain herself. Oblivious to the blushing expression on Seohyun's face and the gleam in her eyes, Yoona let out a whispered rant.
"Okay, what are you trying to do here? First you don't want to let me apologize for nearly molesting you and then flipping out about it and now you want to-- mmph"
Before Yoona could continue further, Seohyun firmly held Yoona by the waist and swooped in to meld Yoona's wild lips to her own.
At first Yoona felt as if her body had completely frozen. Although her eyes were wide open, they were totally out of focus and the entire world seemed like a blur to the shocked girl. Her mind was simultaneously chaotic and blank, like snow on a TV screen without a signal.
But slowly, realization began to dawn on Yoona that the distance between the maknae's beautiful face and hers had finally reached zero centimeters. The dreams that had provided her so much sweet torment over the years were finally coming true. And the splendor of it all was so bright that she couldn't help but close her eyes as the kiss deepened.
Initially, Yoona could only feel the warmth and plush softness of Seohyun's moist pink lips. The sensation kindled a small blaze of emotions in Yoona's core, and a warmth began to spread from her tummy to the very tips of her fingers and toes. Wanting to further feed the fire, Yoona shyly dabbed her tongue at the entrance of Seohyun's chaste lips. As the younger girl parted her lips in response to let her unnie in deeper, Yoona became distinctly aware of the taste of the cherry lip gloss that she always borrowed from the maknae. Yoona tasted and explored Seohyun's warm, wet, and inviting mouth. It thrilled her to be kissing somebody this deeply during her very first time, and it downright sent shivers down her spine to know that here she was claiming Seohyun's virgin lips for her own. No matter what happened in the future, the first taste that Seohyun ever had of passion was her. And if all the girl-talk Yoona overheard at school was true, girls never forget their first.
In the midst of all this oral action, the girls didn't forget to keep their hands busy. Yoona ran her hands over and over through Seohyun's dark, lustrous hair and Seohyun used her deft pianist's fingers to caress up and down Yoona's delicate curves. As they hungrily explored each other, high-pitched, almost musical moaning drifted from Seohyun's busy lips and Yoona sweetly replied in slightly lower, more mellow tones. And between those beautiful sounds, the heavy breathing and panting of both girls punctuated the frantic rhythm of their movements.
But all good things have to come to an end, and the girls jumped apart from each other when a loud tumbling noise came from the kitchen. Hearts still pounding and breathing hard, both girls looked at each other in panic and then turned towards the kitchen to investigate the source of the noise. Yoona turned to Seohyun, confused, when she realized that there was nobody in sight. The kitchen, hallways, and living room were empty save for the couple that had been interrupted. All of a sudden, the refrigerator hummed once more, and Yoona let out a sigh of relief as she realized the refrigerator had made the noise earlier.
"Ugh. That darn icemaker! We really need to get our manager-oppa to fix it so it doesn't make that noise every night..."
Turning to look at Seohyun, Yoona blushed as her mind immediately replayed the steamy make-out session that the two girls had shared earlier. As for the maknae, she had her face angled towards the floor, with a hot blush bright enough to be seen in the dark. But despite Seohyun's attempts to tilt her face to the ground, Yoona could still the edges of a small smile tugging at her lips.
All of a sudden, it struck Yoona how late it was.
"Oh, shoot! The clock on the microwave says it's 4 in the morning. They expect me to be filming in a few hours and I still need to rehearse. And Seohyun you have a test today! You need to get some sleep."
Seohyun looked up at her unnie with clear disappointment on her face. Pouting cutely, she begged with her best aegyo voice.
"Unnie~~~, I don't want to go to bed. I'd rather stay up and help you practice some more for your drama."
Upon hearing the word "practice", Yoona's blush returned full force. And despite the bittersweet ache in her stomach that urged her to stoke her fires once more, Yoona firmly decided that as a responsible unnie she couldn't let Seohyun jeopardize her studies.
"Seohyun. Yoona-unnie is ordering you to go to bed. And since you're the maknae you need to do whatever your unnies tell you."
Seohyun's shoulders drooped as she heard the conviction in Yoona's voice, and with a hanging head she slowly started walking to her bedroom. Yoona watched the cute maknae carry out her command, and although she was disappointed herself that they had to put an end to their play, it was really for the best.
However, Seohyun stopped right at the doorway of the room. She turned around slowly and she called out to Yoona in tiny voice.
"Unnie... I might be everybody's maknae in So Nyuh Shi Dae... But I'm only Yoona-unnie's baby."
With this confession, Seohyun scampered into her bedroom and shut the door before Yoona could even respond.
With the blood rushing to her ears and her heart soaring, Yoona stood as still as a statue, staring at the closed door the maknae had entered a moment earlier.
"My baby huh... Well... I love you, baby. Sleep tight."
After whispering this to herself, Yoona smiled and returned to the kitchen table to prepare for another long day of acting. Although today would be another long day of filming, Yoona couldn't help but feel that being an actress was no longer as difficult as she felt it was just hours ago. She had her baby to practice with at night, after all.