In her current situation, there was nothing Hwan could do but worry. And worry she did, especially when she heard the sound of footsteps coming toward the bedroom. As soon as that sound came to her ears, she made one final, desperate effort to move a muscle, but to do what? Try to hide? Call for help? She didn't know how to react even if she could.
Hwan was surprised, and tremendously relieved, to see that the person who poked her head in the door was none other than her old friend Amber. Hwan and Amber had been best friends back in elementary school, but had... grown apart recently. Okay, maybe it was more of a "falling out". Amber was a shy, nerdy, bookish kind of girl - everything Hwan used to be and was trying to get away from. The last straw was when Hwan went and got herself inflated, which had Amber more than a little freaked out. Then they had an argument, where Hwan said something to the effect of "I don't need friends like you anymore", and, well, that was the last time the two of them has spoken. Which raised the question that Hwan was physically unable to, but badly wanted to ask: what on earth was she doing here, at a party like this, where being an unaltered human made you stick out like a sore thumb?
She didn't have much time to ruminate on that, though, because Amber immediately realized what she was seeing and sprang into action where Hwan couldn't. "Oh my god! Hwan!" Amber cried out. "Are you okay?" Hwan didn't need to be able to respond to that question - while Amber may not have known much about how any of this transforming stuff worked, she immediately understood that this was not good. And it didn't take a detective to figure out how Hwan could have ended up lying on top of Brad's bed, empty of air, with a splash of semen slowly congealing on her flattened chest.
Thankfully, Amber didn't need to wait for any instructions, either. Realizing that Hwan wasn't going to respond, and that there was only one way to fix that problem, she wasted no time scooping up her (former) friend's flaccid skin and carrying the girl in her arms. Hwan wasn't sure at first where she was being taken or why, and it was disorienting to watch the world going by as her head dangled limply upside-down from Amber's grasp. But by the time she saw bathroom tiles on the wall around her, Hwan understood what she was trying to do.
Amber ran the sink carefully, trying to wash away the white stains without touching them with her bare hands. Cleaning out the interior of the nozzle, which was where most of the mess sat, was tricky, especially since she was pretty sure she needed to prevent any water from getting trapped inside Hwan's body. And she had to be thorough cleaning it out, especially knowing what was going to come next.
When Amber was done, she hesitated for a moment, then turned the water off. "Here goes nothing," she said to herself, putting her lips around the open hole of the nozzle and beginning to blow. Instantly, Hwan could feel it - her senses had been dulled, almost numb, ever since the air had escaped her body, which made the sensation so much stronger when hot breath started to flood back in. Compared to the panic-inducing, suffocating feeling of losing all her air, this was good. Really good. Hwan could see now why some of the other floaties were interested in getting voluntarily deflated, if this was what awaited them on the other end.
Hwan struggled, bit by bit, back to life, the feeling returning first to her chest underneath the nozzle, then radiating outwards in all directions to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her involuntary twitches, as each breath entered her in a rhythmic fashion, soon turned into deliberate motions, and her freedom of movement grew a little bit more with every puff. But Hwan was in no hurry to get up and get out of that bathroom. She didn't want Amber to stop, or even slow down, until she was full.
Amber, on the other hand, could only guess at when that was supposed to be. She assumed there was some risk of overinflating to watch out for - she couldn't just keep blowing until there was no more room for air. But Amber had fallen into a rhythm of huffing and puffing which was only interrupted when she noticed that the body underneath her was moving of its own accord now. Instantly, the process turned awkward - it no longer felt like putting air in an inanimate object, but more like doing something very intimate with an ex-friend. Besides, her lungs were starting to get seriously exhausted.
Amber finished the job and promptly closed the nozzle tight. Hwan sat up, not needing to worry about damaging the sink by putting all her weight on it. The two of them sat in silence for a long moment, neither one wanting to say anything or make eye contact. Hwan couldn't help but steal a few quick glances at Amber. Maybe it was the way she saved Hwan's life from god-knows-what would have happened to her otherwise, or maybe it was the fact that Hwan was currently filled head to toe with her warm breath, but she was looking at her former friend in a completely different light now. And she didn't want to stop looking.
The silence was only broken when Hwan remembered the question she had wanted to ask earlier, but had been unable to. "So... what are you doing here?" That sounded rude, she thought, and immediately tried to correct herself. "I mean, why did you come to a party like this? I thought you were totally freaked out by all this Fruit stuff." She didn't push her luck any further by adding the next obvious question: "were you invited?"
Amber kept staring at the floor tiles, not wanting to answer that. But she blurted out a response anyway. "Because... because I was worried about you, okay?! It feels like you've become a completely different person lately. And not just on the outside. I heard you were going to be here, and I wanted to just... keep an eye on you. Make sure you wouldn't do something you'd regret. And, well..." She didn't need to belabor that point any further.
Hwan saw Amber struggling a bit to get those words out and thought to herself, She looks so cute when she gets flustered like that. Then she grew confused. That definitely wasn't a thought that had ever crossed her mind before, in all the years that the two of them had known each other. But right now it seemed so obvious to her, as she kept sneaking looks that were probably not as subtle as she wanted them to be, that Amber was the most attractive person she'd ever seen. Without thinking, the words just fell out of Hwan's painted-on mouth. "Can I kiss you?"
"What?"
"I mean, um, like, you know, to thank you for helping me out like that, and because you've always been such a good friend to me-"
Amber cut her off there. "Hold on a minute. I know that look. I'm pretty sure I've looked at you just like that a few times. Were you attracted to me all this time? You should have said something! I mean, you know I'm bi..."
"No, no, I'm not into girls," Hwan said, not convinced by her own words. "I mean, I've never been into girls before, but right now I just feel like..." And then she felt Amber's lips pressing against her smooth plastic face. It was everything she could have asked for, and more. But it lasted for only a moment before Amber pulled away.
"Does that answer your question?", Amber said with a smirk. "Are you into girls now?"
Hwan nodded vigorously, her arms squeaking against her sides as she did so. "At least one girl."
Kissing someone with no lips is a little weird, Amber thought to herself, but she could get used to it. She was definitely starting to see the appeal of magic that could unexpectedly change people.