“Unnie!” Bomi ran to their room and found Chorong shaking on a corner, her arms hugging tightly the broomstick and her eyes wide. “Unnie, what’s wrong?”

Chorong turned around swiftly and the broom she was holding hit Bomi right on the face. The younger girl groaned in pain, and she covered her forehead where the broomstick had hit her. Chorong looked at her apologetically, hesitating about whether to approach Bomi and apologize for hitting her or staying safe in the corner, pointing at the supposed danger.

Bomi looked around and finally saw what Chorong was pointing at with a shaky hand. It was a frog. Bomi started laughing at her girlfriend’s fear. She had heard it before, how Chorong hated the sticky feeling of the amphibian. But she couldn’t help but laughing at how scared her unnie seemed to be because of such a little thing.

“D-don’t laugh! Why are you laughing?”  Chorong couldn’t even talk properly.

“Shhh!” Bomi put a finger against her lips in a motion for silence. “Don’t scare it.”

Bomi walked towards the frog, slow steps so she wouldn’t scare the animal. She walked in a circle, being careful not to step on any of the bedsheets that were hanging down from the bed. When she situated herself behind the frog, she changed her expression to a more focused one and, with a swift move, grabbed it with both of her hands.

Chorong exclaimed in surprise and Bomi looked at it and grabbed one of its feet with her right thumb and pointing finger. She then began to take slow steps towards Chorong, the moving frog hanging from her fingers. “Don’t you see it? It’s just a frog.”

Chorong suddenly realized what Bomi intended on doing, and she started taking short steps back, holding onto the broomstick more tightly.

“No. No!” Her eyes widened. “Yoon Bomi, don’t you dare get this closer to me! No!”

Bomi had her cornered against the wall in a matter of seconds. She then began to smile mischievously while arching her eyebrow.

“Say the magic words.” She got the frog closer to Chorong, the older girl tilting her head so she would avoid touching the squishy animal.

“Wha-what words?” She sounded both scared and disgusted.

“You know what I mean,” Bomi answered.

“Please?” Chorong tried, but Bomi just scoffed and shook the frog.

“Oh, please. Try again.”

Chorong moved her gaze back to Bomi. The younger girl was smiling, but there was a hint of seriousness in her eyes. To Chorong, that meant that the younger girl was looking for something specifically, something that meant a lot to her.

Chorong knew what she had to say. And she blurted it out. “I love you.”

After saying those words, she felt her stomach flutter. She flushed and avoided Bomi’s eyes, but the younger girl smiled and kissed Chorong softly before turning around and leaving with the frog in her hands.

∼

There was an uncomfortable silence when Chorong stopped talking to take a deep breathe. Naeun, her eyes open wide, couldn’t stop her eyebrows from ascending into her hair, skeptical.

“Is this for real?” The younger girl couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “You told her because of a frog? You blurted the words because she forced them out?”

Chorong laughed at the memory, but shook her head. She left her right hand on Naeun’s shoulder, both comforting her and demanding her attention.

“Naeun-ah... Wait. That’s not the end of the story.”

The younger girl sighed in relief. “Oh my, I almost thought that was it and I was wondering why you’d tell me this as a lesson…”

Chorong smiled at her dongsaeng and continued.

∼

Bomi was sitting on the couch a while later, her eyes back to the screen, when Chorong entered the room.

“Bomi-ah...,” she said. “Are you alright? I’ve brought some ice so it doesn’t swell...2

Bomi smiled when Chorong showed her the ice she was carrying. The older girl applied it on the other girl’s forehead, just where she had hit her with the broom. They looked at each other for a while, both smiling slightly. But Chorong’s smile fainted as she parted her lips, as if she wanted to say something.

Bomi frowned when she saw her girlfriend hesitate that much, and looked at her attentively.

“What are you thinking about?” She finally asked.

Chorong opened even more to reply, but then shook her head, changing her mind.

“Never mind.” She gave her girlfriend the ice and left to continue with her chores, leaving a slightly confused Bomi behind.

It wasn’t until past dinner time that Bomi finally found out what Chorong had wanted to say. The girls were all getting ready to go to bed, taking turns to use the bathroom and wash up before changing their clothes and going to bed. The two of them shared a room, so they were really comfortable with each other. But even now that they were dating, things hadn’t really changed between them, not in their private space in their room, at least. Until then.

The two girls were lying on their beds, lights off and each of them breathing softly. It was dark, so they couldn’t see each other, but they were both lying with their stomachs up, their eyes open while thinking. They enjoyed the silence, only slightly interrupted by their loud heartbeats and their faint breathing.

“Bomi-ah...,” Chorong whispered. When Bomi made an interrogative sound as an answer, she continued. “Can I sleep on your bed tonight?”

Bomi stayed silent for a few moments, and Chorong felt her cheeks redden in the darkness, heat taking control. The younger girl was quite surprised at Chorong’s petition, but that was the only thing holding her back.

“Come here, unnie.”

The sentence lingered in the darkness, and finally the sound of bed sheets moving broke the silence and Bomi felt Chorong’s warm body lying next to her. The two girls stayed like that, lying one next to the other, facing each other but without actually seeing anything. So many thoughts went through their minds...

“Bomi-ah...” It seemed like Chorong had decided to pronounce herself after all those hours. “About the thing I said before... You know what I mean... I... I know I only said it because of the frog, because you made me say it, but...”

Chorong sounded afraid of continuing. She clearly wanted to, but she was scared. It wasn’t easy for her, and Bomi just remained quiet until she was done hesitating.

“But...,” Chorong continued. “I want you to know that I really mean it. I do love you.”

Bomi stayed quiet for a while, a smile growing on her face, and then she grabbed Chorong’s hand from under the covers, caressing its back slowly but firmly. She then got closer to Chorong and kissed the older girl on the lips. It was only a chaste kiss, but it meant the world to Chorong right then and there.

“I know, unnie,” Bomi muttered. “I know.”