“We’re meeting with Chorong-unnie and Bomi-ah somewhere around here,” Eunji pointed at their surroundings.

They were in the middle of the summer fair, rides and food stands all around here. Since it wasn’t that hot at that time of the day, around four in the afternoon, people had slowly began to crawl out of their homes like snails after rain. The streets were getting packed with people, and the fair was full of children with their parents and young girls who were obviously there with their friends.

“I feel like a teenager once again, said Naeun with a broad smile. She grabbed Eunji’s hand and ran towards the entrance of the fair with excitement.

“We are almost teenagers, you know,” Eunji replied. “Hayoung still is.”

“No, I am not!” The maknae complained.

The girls laughed at that. The younger you are, the older you want to be, and the other way around. Hayoung was almost in her twenties, and she didn’t consider herself a teenager anymore, but she would always be a kid in the eyes of the members. She was the maknae, after all.

“I want to ride that!” Namjoo pointed at the carrousel standing right in front of them, further down the street. Hayoung joined her in her excitement, and that caused Naeun and Eunji to burst out in laughter.

“Okay, okay,” Eunji said. “Let’s go there and I’ll tell Chorong-unnie where we are.”

She sent a text message to Chorong and the four girls made their way towards the golden carrousel, where children of every age rode white horses with silver manes while crying out in joy. Hayoung and Namjoo, being the kids they still were at heart, walked towards the line so they could ride it too. 

∼

How are you? Let’s meet at the carrousel. –Eunji

Chorong looked at the text and smiled. She showed it to Bomi and the younger girl nodded. They had been walking around the nicest streets of Seoul for a while, sharing a cone of ice cream that Chorong had bought a while ago in a small and cozy shop they had always known about.

“We should go meet them,” said Chorong.

“But I like being with you… With only you…” Bomi pouted, but Chorong kissed her on her nose and laughed at her girlfriend.

“You are so cute sometimes,” she said, and the two girls started walking towards the fair and their members.

They just had to follow the huge amount of people walking towards it. Families, young kids with friends… all sorts of people were heading there. They did have the fear of being recognized, but they also knew there were too many people for them to notice two more girls just walking around together. But they couldn’t risk unnecessary attention, so they chose not to hold hands for the time being, no matter how much they longed for the other’s touch.

When they arrived at the fair, they started looking for the carrousel, but too many things caught their attention. Games that Bomi wanted to play, all sorts of rides, food stands featuring ice cream and candy floss and all sorts of sweets… Every child’s dream.

“Unnie, buy me candy floss.” Bomi pouted like a child and Chorong couldn’t help but buy her what she wanted. When she kissed her later, her girlfriend tasted of sugar and, more importantly, of happiness.

“I love you, Bomi-ah,” she told the younger girl with a smile.

“I love you too.” Bomi smiled, her lips full of sticky, pink candy floss.

They were looking at each other attentively, so in love, when a voice called them from afar.

“Eunji-ah!” Bomi greeted her friend when the older girl waved towards them.

Chorong and Bomi walked towards their members, smiles plastered on their faces.

“Oh, unnie, you both look so cute,” Naeun told Chorong with a shy smile.

Chorong smiled in reply, and then looked at where Eunji was pointing. Hayoung and Namjoo, both girls riding the carrousel in front of them. Bomi burst out laughing when she saw the maknaes, and Chorong just shook her head with a smile. She needed moments like those. Somehow the two maknaes were always able to lift the mood.

∼

They had been so lucky back in Jeju Island, having found a house for the six of them right in front of the beach. They could’ve enjoyed that beach way more during their stay in the island, but since it was in the west and surrounded by trees and the house it was in the shadow until mid-afternoon, the best thing to do there was to watch the amazing sunset, brush- of blue and purple and pink in every shade imaginable.

That particular evening Apink had chosen to sit on the white beach and just watch the sun setting in the horizon, all together, themselves and the sea. The infinity of the sea in front of them made them think of future hopes and the vastness of dreams.

“This is so beautiful,” Chorong said, resting her head against Bomi’s shoulder. The younger girl linked their hands and looked at her sideways, admiring her quiet beauty.

“You are so beautiful,” Bomi replied, her voice so serious that Chorong didn’t even complain because of the compliment.

The other members were quiet, each of them immersed in their own thoughts. Bomi looked around and saw a huge smile on Hayoung’s face, next to a serious Naeun.

“I am so happy to be here with all of you,” Naeun spoke quietly, and the girls nodded at her comment. Eunji smiled at the girl and enclosed her with her right arm, causing Naeun to blush as pink as the changing sky.

Eunji moved her closer and laughed slightly, that sound the only thing separating them from utter silence.

“We are glad to be here with you too,” Eunji told Naeun, and the girl blushed even more. “I am so glad to have you all.”

Eunji looked left and right, looking for all of her members’ gazes. Once she did, she moved back and lowered her arm, leaving Naeun’s back. The younger girl shivered at the change, but said nothing else.

Silence dominated the situation once more while the girls looked at the sun, which was burying itself in the horizon. The silence was broken once again when the sun completely disappeared, leaving a trace of oranges, reds, and pinks behind.

“That was amazing,” Bomi commented, and Namjoo next to her chuckled slightly.

Bomi was smiling, but it was a sad smile. She smiled against Chorong’s hair, against the leader’s forehead, and the older girl smiled back when she felt it.

“Sometimes I just wish we could be together forever,” Bomi mumbled. “Just like this.”

Chorong raised her head, locking her eyes with her girlfriend’s.

“Me too, Bomi-ah,” she quietly answered. “Me too.”

They remained silent for a couple of instants until someone broke the silence.

“Stop with this depressive talk!” Hayoung stood up.

She walked towards Bomi and grabbed her hands, pulling her up so she was also standing. But then no one was expecting what she did next. With a look at Namjoo, Hayoung grabbed one of Bomi’s hands while the other girl grabbed the other and they started pulling their unnie while running towards the water.

“No! Don’t you dare!” Bomi finally realized what was happening. “Hayoung-ah! Namjoo-ah! Leave me! Don’t you have any ounce of respect for your unnie?!”

The two girls started laughing, and soon Bomi felt another pair of arms pushing her back towards the open sea.

“Of course we respect you, unnie.” Bomi felt Eunji’s voice close, right in her ear. The younger girl was obviously mocking her by calling her “unnie”, something she had never done, and Bomi could see herself in the water in less than a minute.

She groaned in complain and began another strategy.

“Unnie!” She shouted for Chorong, but the leader was cracking up in laughter on the sand next to Naeun. “Naeun-ah? Unnie! Someone help me!”

It took barely thirty more seconds before Bomi was thrown into the water. It wasn’t that cold, but the sun had set and she was fully clothed and complaining in every way she could.

“How could you!?” She got up, completely soaked, and an evil grin appeared in her face. “You’ll see what I can do.”

She started throwing kicks at the clear water so the girls around her ended up wet pretty soon. Groans of complain became laughter in a matter of seconds, and they all started joking around with the water. But Bomi wasn’t done yet.

Bomi walked out of the water towards Chorong, and the leader opened her eyes in shock when she realized what was about to happen.

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” She crawled back, trying to escape from Bomi’s reach. “Bomi-ah! Don’t!”

But Bomi wouldn’t listen.

“Park Chorong, you didn’t help me when I asked you to!” She looked like a child who’d been denied some sort of candy.

Bomi let herself fall on Chorong, the older girl’s body full of water and sand in seconds. From then on, it was a war. Hayoung started throwing water at Naeun, and the girl tried to run away, her escape being blocked by Eunji. Then they all started throwing water and sand at each other, forgetting the clothes and the depressing mood they had barely minutes ago.

It was only them. And they were happy. Themselves and the sea.