after she gets out of prison, soo-jin comes and lives with sun and kwon-ho. at first, it's slow, quiet. sun is busy getting her company back in order and rebuilding old (and new) relationships with other companies
kwon-ho is still on desk duty, but training so he can be back in the field soon. soo-jin spends her days painting and taking jindo for a walk. her days are unstructured, limitless. she tries to get settled in, spends a lot of time in the sun, but she can't shake the fear.
one day, she asks sun to train her. they're on the roof, sun demonstrating the correct way to make a fist to protect your hand and where to place your hands for maximum damage if an attacker approaches you. she asks if its ok if kwon-ho joins them to be the example
soo-jin hesitates, but eventually nods. sun takes her at her word. that's important- people taking soo-jin at her word. just as important as it is for soo-jin to learn to say what she really wants or needs. if she's uncomfortable with this, she needs to learn to say it.
kwon-ho comes out smiling, making not-so-scary attacking noises, although jindo is fooled, making a small rumbling noise in the back of her throat. that makes them all laugh. it becomes their routine in the mornings before they all go their separate ways for the day.
it's making a difference for soo-jin, they can all tell. she's getting back into hobbies she had as a girl. when she plays the cello, all of them stop and listen. riley, of course, paying special attention, but wolfgang too, surprisingly, closing his eyes and swaying with it
one day sun comes home from a hard day at work and soo-jin and kwon-ho are sitting on the couch watching a movie, sharing a blanket, bowl of popcorn between them. kwon-ho pulls her down on his lap, and she lets herself be pulled, not caring if the bowl of popcorn goes everywhere
she deadpans. 'let me up, i need to go get changed' 'no, stay' she hears behind her, soo-jin looking down at the bowl of popcorn she'd pulled into her lap. and how can she disobey the quietly-voiced desire of her first real friend?
she slides between them on the couch and adjusts the blanket around herself, grabbing a handful of popcorn. when she wakes up, hours later, tv casting silent colors over her face, her head is in soo-jin's lap and her feet are in kwon-ho's.
soo-jin's hand is still resting on sun's head, where she'd been running it softly through sun's hair. she watches as soo-jin's head slips further back onto the couch, snoring softly in this awkward position.
she feels the desire. capheus, nomi, will, wolfgang's desires, but also her own. she recalls pretty girls with unbruised hands and skirts that wouldn't get in their way and how she hadn't known if she wanted to be them or be with them.
she feels riley's appreciation of soo-jin's music, and lito's appreciation of her art, and kala's appreciation of her quiet steadiness and kindness. and all those things were her own, too.
she'll have to talk about this with kwon-ho. he knows how it is with them. jealousy doesn't make sense, /can't/ make sense, and he gets it. he gets that sun loves dozens of people in myriad ways, and she's choosing to love him, too.
but still, this is different. sun's not sure how to handle it. and then kala is there, telling her 'i get it, i know. its communication and honesty' sun nods and kala is gone with a smile. soo-jin stirs above her. 'hey, should we go up to our beds?' sun whispers
