Not everyone was granted with a capability to understand Jung Wheein. One among the luckiest was Ahn Hyejin, her best friend for life. Another, who had been trying so hard to, was Moon Byulyi.

It was December when Byulyi realized it was effortless.

If not for a chemistry class, Byulyi and Wheein would never cross paths. Chemistry was the only class Wheein had without Hyejin, hence she would always sit at the very back, near the window, by herself.

That, until one day

“Is this seat taken?” Byulyi asked.

Wheein was stunned. It took her a couple of seconds before eventually shaking her head. Byulyi only raised her eyebrows while taking a seat, slumping her backpack down onto the floor.

Rumor had it, that there was a girl who was just the true epitome of strange. ‘A total freak,’ some mean girls would say. It was no secret that they referred to Wheein, in which Hyejin would always confront anyone who dared to voice it out loud. But Wheein would always pull her best friend back and shook her head, flashing her a dimpled smile.

Byulyi was about to test the truth of the rumor when the teacher decided for a chemistry project that would require the students to work with their seatmates.

“So…” Byulyi started. It was the second time she sat beside Wheein and she hadn’t uttered a single word. Only showing her dimples when she greeted Byulyi with a smile.

Byulyi secretly thought it was cute but the project couldn’t be done by a silent smile.

“About the project. We probably should discuss after class.” She continued. Wheein paid full attention to her, still with the stunned expression she always seemed to have whenever Byulyi talked.

“Do you have any class after this?”

Wheein nodded.

“My last class ends at 3.”

Byulyi let out a relieved sigh.

So she was not mute afterall.

“Cool. We can go to a cafe or my place, or your place. Whichever suits your boat?”

Wheein nodded.

Byulyi was so close to facepalm at that.

“Uh… So? The cafe? Your place? Mine?” Byulyi asked once again.

“My place. I haven’t fed my cat.”

The trip to Wheein's place was a lot less awkward than Byulyi thought. It was apparently Wheein’s first experience in riding a motorbike and she squealed when Byulyi went faster, fingers gripping tight at Byulyi’s leather jacket. Byulyi was about to slow down but Wheein let out a laughter and Byulyi sped up.

“Alright…” Byulyi started. They had just fed Wheein’s kitten soon after they arrived ㅡ in which Byulyi was head over heels the first time she saw his folded ears ㅡ and now she was staring at the blank template of the project report they were supposed to fill with the outline and description of their project. They had decided earlier on doing an experiment about acid and base.

Byulyi took out a pen from her backpack and started filling the paper with her and Wheein’s name.

“Moon Byulyi and Jung Wheein.

Acid and Base Experiment.

Day and date…. Uh, what day is it again?” Byulyi reached for her phone to look at her calendar.

“Turquoise.” Wheein blurted out.

Byulyi thought she heard it wrong, so she snapped her attention to the latter and blinked.

“Huh?”

“Today is turquoise.” Wheein smiled.

Since then, Byulyi had never thought about Thursday the same.

Byulyi woke up with a sharp pain throbbing against her skull. ‘Shouldn’t have drunk that much,’ she thought to herself. But like everything else in her life, she would still do the thing she knew she shouldn’t to regret it later.

Gingerly making her way toward her favorite coffee machine, Byulyi reached for her phone and slided through the screen to assure that she had nothing on her schedule that day.

Instead, her attention was nailed to the red note due to the next 4 days. It was a reminder that she would have a meeting with a producer on Thursday.

Thursday is turquoise.

Byulyi let a chuckle slip out when the sudden thought popped in as she placed her phone down and poured water inside the coffee maker.

Years ago, when she was still in high school, she knew a girl who would mark the days with colors.

Thursday was turquoise and Monday was magenta. She would say her favorite day was turquoise and when Byulyi asked why, she said because Byulyi, herself, was turquoise.

“On some days you are cyan. Days when you scored perfect on Math or you leveled up a game,” Wheein explained before stuffing more chips to .

“There are days when you’re teal, too. But mostly you’re turquoise.”

Byulyi would ask what color was Hyejin, or their homeroom teacher, or the security guard of their school.

There were orange, red, purple, and some more red.

When Byulyi asked what color Wheein was, she laughed.

Byulyi stared blankly at the dark liquid that now filled her mug. That was 8 years ago, during her high school time, when she knew a girl who saw colors in days and in people. Hyejin said it was called synesthesia. Wheein preferred calling it magic. Byulyi agreed.

Her train of memories was cut off by the sudden ring of her phone. Byulyi glanced at the caller ID before eventually picking it up.

“What’s up?”

The caller was Yongsun, a singer-songwriter who happened to be a co-worker as well. A lot of times, Yongsun would work on the melody and Byulyi could always find the best lyrics and together, they produced a lot of hit songs.

“Byul! Are you busy today?”

Byulyi took a sip of her dark roast coffee, cringed at the bitterness before replying, “no, I’m free but the hangover is killing me so I prefer not to go anywhere in the moment.”

The caffeine helped soothing the throb in her head, but Byulyi would still prefer lazing around and being a potato couch for the day.

“Tsk, you shouldn’t drink that much last night.” Byulyi mumbled an ‘I know’ before Yongsun continued, “There’s this art gallery in town. My friends said I should visit. Can you come with me?”

Which part of “prefer not to go anywhere” that Yongsun didn’t get? Byulyi sighed in defeat. She didn’t feel like dealing with a series of Yongsun whining if she didn’t comply to her request.

“Alright, I’ll pick you up in 2 hours.”

Byulyi ended up picking Yongsun up in less than 2 hours because the latter kept spamming Byulyi’s phone with text messages only after an hour, complaining that she couldn’t wait that long.

The gallery turned out to be nearer than expected, only 15 minutes ride from Yongsun’s apartment. Byulyi noticed she had come to the place twice beforehand, both to accompany Yongsun and her fondness