“Unnie. Unnie, wake up.” Bomi shook Chorong’s shoulders gently. “The plane has landed already.”

A sleepy Chorong and her girlfriend made their way into the airport and walked towards the luggage carrier. Holding hands, the two girls smiled at each other, their eyes tired but shining with excitement. It was around nine in the evening, past their usual dinner time, and Bomi’s stomach called for attention, making a noise that made both of the girls laugh.

While waiting for their suitcases to arrive, Bomi left to go to the bathroom, leaving Chorong on her own for a couple of minutes. The older girl turned her phone on to check whether she had any text messages and she texted Eunji to tell her they had arrived safely. After pressing “send”, she felt warm arms embracing her waist; Bomi giving her a back hug. That was Bomi’s thing, back hugs, and Chorong loved the warmth of the other girl’s body against hers, Bomi’s chin fitting right into the spot between Chorong’s collarbone and her shoulder blade, her arms around the older girl’s waist, her hands linked together.

Chorong turned around slowly, remaining between Bomi’s arms, but now face to face with the younger girl. She lowered her face to reduce the less-than-an-inch difference of height between them and kissed Bomi slowly. She smiled when Bomi lifted her arms to put them beneath Chorong’s neck, and the younger girl felt it during the kiss. After a while, they separated, both with shiny eyes that denoted the happiness they felt. Even though, there was a dark shadow in Bomi’s, but it was something Chorong couldn’t put her finger on just yet, and she didn’t want to ruin the moment by trying to make her girlfriend think of something she obviously didn’t want to talk about right then and there.

After getting their suitcases, both girls walked hand in hand outside of the airport towards the parking lot. They had a rented SUV that they had looked for online before leaving for Jeju, and they had to go pick it up. Chorong, being the leader, was the first member to learn how to drive, so she was in charge of driving around during their vacation. When Bomi and Chorong loaded the car with their luggage, she sat in the driver’s seat, ready to go. It wasn’t their first time in the island, so she had a general idea of the place.

“Do you know where we’re going, unnie?” Bomi asked. It was late, and they were both tired, but they had to check in at the small house they had rented next to the seaside before having something for dinner and going to sleep.

“I think so,” Chorong answered with a smile while driving the car out of the parking lot. She slid her hand down and laid it on Bomi’s thigh, causing the younger girl’s cheeks to redden. Bomi joined hands with her girlfriend, caressing the back of her hand with her thumb, making Chorong smile.

After a while of driving silently, Chorong turned her head to look at Bomi, who rested her head against the window and seemed asleep. Chorong smiled to herself and caressed her girlfriend’s hand before moving her gaze back towards the dark road. What she couldn’t see was Bomi’s opened eyes, staring at the darkness outside of the car, and the lonely tear that slid down the girl’s right cheek silently.

∼

“Are you going anywhere?”

Naeun almost tripped from the shock. She wasn’t expecting anyone to see her sneaking out, and even less Eunji, who always slept so deeply. She had sneaked out of her room an hour after everyone had supposedly gone to bed, and she hadn’t expected anyone to be awake by then, not when they were leaving for Jeju the next morning.

“Unnie,” Naeun hesitated, “I was just...”

Eunji saw her friend didn’t know what to say, and she didn’t want to make it hard on her, but she had to know what Naeun was doing so well-dressed at that time of night. It wasn’t the first time the younger girl had tried to go out at night, but with their tight schedules Eunji had almost forgotten about that habit of Naeun’s and she had assumed that the younger girl knew better than to do something that the president had forbidden from the very first day. No idol was allowed to risk their well-being and scandals like that; it was dangerous for them and the company, and they didn’t have the time, anyways.

“Are you going out? Clubbing?” Naeun surrendered very quickly under Eunji’s gaze and nodded. She her lips out of nervousness, removing part of the red lipstick she was wearing. She was looking at the ground, but her guilty attitude was obvious.

Eunji shook her head in disapproval, and Naeun seemed to want Earth to swallow her. There was nothing she hated more than disappointing her unnie.

“I’m sorry, unnie,” she said, “I just... I should’ve told you I was planning on meeting some friends. I just thought you wouldn’t have given me permission in case I caused a scandal or something.”

“You are right,” Eunji said a bit too harshly. “I thought you knew better than to do it again. It isn’t the first time, Naeun-ah.”

Naeun couldn’t find her voice to answer. It hadn’t looked like such a bad idea when she had thought about it that afternoon, but now that Eunji had caught her, she just wanted to disappear right then and there. Hayoung was supposed to cover for her, but that had been in case that someone like Namjoo, who had a real sense of responsibility and light sleep, found out that Naeun had left again. But Eunji... for the older girl to be the one to catch her sneaking out was the worst for Naeun.

Eunji lifted an eyebrow when Naeun didn’t answer. She disapproved, but she was mostly hurt because she thought the younger girl trusted her more than that. And who was she meeting, anyway? Why hadn’t she asked the other members to go out with her? After all, they were all on vacation at the moment, so they could’ve asked the manager about the prohibitions.

“Who are you meeting?” Eunji asked. If she hadn’t known better, Naeun would’ve thought that the older girl looked jealous.

“You know... the usual people.” She didn’t have to say the names for Eunji to understand.

Eunji shook her head in disapproval, and that got Naeun to apologize again and mumble something about going back to her room. After all, she had to feel well for their trip, and they couldn’t start by being worried or disappointed on each other that soon.

“Goodnight, unnie,” she said before leaving, pulling her hair up in a ponytail, already getting ready for bed. She was about to turn around and leave when Eunji grabbed her hand, forcing her to stop.

“I’m sorry, Naeun-ah,” Eunji started. “But you just know how hard it is, for all of us. I’ll get you permission to go clubbing soon, just trust me, but don’t ever sneak out again. What if something happened to you?”

“Don’t worry, unnie,” Naeun answered, a tiny smile growing on her lips. “I won’t.”

Eunji was still holding Naeun’s wrist, and the younger girl blushed when she noticed. That’s when Eunji felt something inside her that pushed her to lift her hand and caress the younger girl’s cheek, making the blush increase even more. The two girls stared into each other’s eyes, none of them making a sound. There was a tension and an intimacy that could be felt in the atmosphere, and none of the girls looked willing to break the moment. Nothing else existed right then, nothing but each other.

Naeun was the first one to make up her mind. She carefully grabbed Eunji’s wrist and pushed her down, leaving her cheek. She then felt a huge emptiness there that extended to her heart and made her shiver, but she knew she had to go. So she said goodnight again and left a confused Eunji standing in the corridor, sighing.

∼

The room they shared at the house they had rented was decorated in a soft peach color, matching with the bed linen they were putting on the bed.

“I am so excited for the trip, unnie,” Bomi said. “It’s just so great that they trust us enough to let us go on our own...”

Chorong just looked at the younger girl, her mind miles away. She got back to reality when she was suddenly hit by a pillow. The older girl turned immediately to look at Bomi.

“Oh no, Bomi-ah,” Chorong said. “You do not want to start a pillow fight.”

When all she got from Bomi was a huge grin as an answer, Chorong grabbed her pillow and threw it towards her girlfriend, but Bomi was able to dodge it. Soon the two girls were immersed in a full pillow fight, showing how their age didn’t make them justice. They were still kids at heart, and they loved to show it when possible.

“I’m winning this time,” Bomi dared, throwing a heart-shaped pillow to Chorong, who just couldn’t stop laughing in disbelief.

“You wish,” the older girl said before grabbing the last pillow and getting closer to Bomi in order to hit her with it. But the maneuver didn’t work, since Bomi was ready to defend herself with another pillow. Chorong got hit with the heart-shaped one again, and she couldn’t dodge it this time. She fell back on the bed, back against the sheets which had become a mess by then. She closed her eyes, defeated by that last blow from Bomi, and simply let herself lie there for a few seconds.

When she opened her eyes again, Bomi was right there, centimeters away from her face. How hadn’t she notice the weight of the younger girl on her bed? Chorong could feel her girlfriend’s breathing on her nose, her lips, and her heart started to beat faster. It was like time had stopped, and the only thing in movement was her racing heart.

Bomi looked into Chorong’s dark eyes for a while, immersed in that darkness that made her feel warm all over, before closing the distance between them. The kiss started slow and soft, but when Chorong moved her arms so they would be around the younger girl’s neck, it became needy and passionate.

They weren’t used to the freedom of being completely alone, since they usually had to be aware of Eunji right behind their wall, and none of them felt comfortable with the possible outcome if she heard them. But nevertheless, they had made love before. They had been dating for what felt like forever, after all, even if it was only less than a year.

So the moan that came out from Bomi’s mouth wasn’t held back this time. It was a promise of pleasure, of love, of many more nights like that to come in their immediate future.