“What if I told you, I’ve joined this club because of you, unnie?” Chaeyoung gulps.

Was it on impulse or was it on purpose? Her heart speaks only the truth that longs to be told.

She felt her cold sweat trickling down her neck. Her mind runs places, her heart panics.

Dahyun’s pupils dilate. Her heart starts throbbing.

“You…what?” She muttered nervously – as if she asked so she could get a reaffirmation of her words; she didn’t want to assume anything. “I didn’t quite catch that.”

Assuming was always painful. Love was generally painful. And assuming love only made it harder.

Just what if-

No.

No. No.

And No.

As if there was another voice in her head, she washes away the thoughts immediately. Dahyun shakes her head noticeably but Chaeyoung doesn’t notice it.

The younger girl was too, busy in her own thoughts and concluded. She knows. She knows it’s still way too early, way too risky; it wasn’t too late to turn back now. She could still run away from fix this.

She shuts down that unpredictable impulse that almost costed her a precious relationship. She musters her words.

“I was saying that a part of me joined this club because of you.” Chaeyoung smiles, she hopes that this works. “It seemed like the club has a good manager.” It pains her mustering those words.

Ironic, she thought. It wasn’t long ago that she gave relationship advices to her best friend. She feels a slight tinge of embarrassment poking at her. She thought was good at this – giving advices and relationships in general but now that she was in this situation, all she feels like doing now was finding an empty hole and jumping in to hide. Somewhere to cover her face and her embarrassment.

In her 18 years of life so far, she always thought she was straightforward and decisive but in front of her Dahyun, she shrinks into a spineless and cautious freak. Somehow, Kim Dahyun crumbles her walls and easily at that.

Early. How was this exactly “early”? If she keeps prolonging this, there wouldn’t be a definition of “early” anymore. Every time she’s sure of her feelings, she knows she would back of, claiming that it’s way too “early”. She knows one day her feelings might grow too strong and using the “early” excuse wouldn’t work anymore. A person feeling grows if more time is invested. There’s only so much a person can hide if he or she keeps running away.

She hates herself for doing this. She runs; on the pretext of saying “next time”. Yet, she knows she’s going to run away again when it comes again.

She hopes her smile is enough to cover up the façade she puts on.

Dahyun pauses. As if stuck between disappointment and relief at the same time, her facial expression froze. Disappointed yet felt relief from the response. Disappointed at the fact that it wasn’t a “confession”. She had hoped Chaeyoung’s words meant something else, but it wasn’t.

I like you.

I love you.

I fell for you.

All different words that had the same meaning she had hoped to escape from Chaeyoung’s lips but didn’t. But wait, was she anticipating too much? Does Chaeyoung even like her? What does she think about her? A sudden rush of frustration filled her. Why was she even thinking like that in the first place? Why is there even an anticipation built up in the first place?

That in a sense, was relief because Chaeyoung’s words came out differently. Ironic, but still.

“Thanks.” She thought it was only right to smile back. “And I’m grateful you came to our club.” Her hand reaches out to her face, slowly caressing the right side of her face as she scrutinized her facial features. She rubs the nook of her dimples with her finger softly.

Dahyun’s mind wandered places while staring at her lovingly. With a little bitterness left, she thinks she’s adorable and just wants to keep her in pocket forever. But regrettably, the relationship between them was ambiguous.

Chaeyoung felt her hair stand, as if there was static at her contact. Her face expression hardens and tries her best to maintain smile. She can’t say she isn’t happy right then.

Just when?

Both of their hearts resonated.

“WHAT THE HELL MOMO?” The blonde screamed.

“Relax. Come on, don’t make the matter as big as you think.” The culprit ransacked the kitchen’s cupboard. As if she’s been here before, she walks around before opening a cupboard which has little stickers stuck onto it. Bingo. She grins as she found the treasure. She opens the packet of crackers and used her elbow to push back the cupboard’s door.

“It’s just Nayeon unnie coming, just act as per normal. She takes a handful of the thin pieces of crisp and stuffed it into . “Unless you’re nervous about it, which I don’t see why- ah. I remember now.”

“You like her.” She teased. Jeongyeon’s face lights up and turns beet red.

“Shut up… You didn’t even tell me she was coming!” She frowns.

“It’s what you call