A/N: This chapter is told exclusively from SinB's point of view. You'll get to see some moments you saw previously from Yerin's point of view, moments only mentioned in past chapters, and moments you didn't know existed. I hope you enjoy this extra long chapter!

 

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SinB aimlessly wandered around the neighborhood. She wasn’t exactly happy about moving in the middle of the school year, but she didn’t have much of a choice. In an effort to find something positive about the move, SinB was trying to find something interesting to do near her house. Maybe a park or a place to eat…

 

She spotted a cafe that exuded a warm and casual vibe. Instantly drawn toward it, SinB walked over. She glanced through the window to see what it was like inside. There were a few booths and tables with some bookshelves against one wall and a counter for coffee and ordering on the other. What caught her eye was the girl at the counter. Well, technically there were two, but she was much more interested in the brunette than the redhead. The brunette was hunched over a textbook, bangs falling into her eyes a bit, round cheeks puffed out as she concentrated. She was beautiful.

 

Without even really thinking about it, SinB entered the cafe. She walked up to the counter, but the girl didn’t really seem to notice her. “Can I get a small cappuccino?” SinB asked, trying to get the girl’s attention.

 

“3,000 won please.”

 

The girl didn’t even look up from her textbook. SinB tried not to sigh at the lack of reaction, taking out the requested money. She held it out and waited for the girl to take it, which she didn’t for a while. Great, SinB thought, first she doesn’t notice me and then she doesn’t notice me again. When the girl finally looked up, SinB was amused to see her double take at the sight of her. While she tried not to be vain, SinB knew she looked good, and having this girl finally take note of her really did her ego wonders.

 

The girl suddenly slammed her textbook shut, startling SinB. The girl just laughed though, unleashing an unfairly adorable eye smile. “Sorry, I was just studying for my physics test.”

 

“Don’t worry about it. Physics can be a pain,” SinB said, which was dumb of her because she wouldn’t have to take physics for another two years.

 

“Oh, are you taking physics too?” The girl lit up at the possibility of SinB taking physics, and it was hard to pinpoint why. Was she looking for a tutor? Was she just making small talk?

 

Regardless of her motive, SinB told the truth. “My brother is a few years older than me, and I just remember him complaining all the time when he was taking physics.”

 

“Ah no chance you could help me then?” The girl sounded disappointed but also kind of flirty. Was this girl straight or not?

 

Taking her chances, SinB said, “I learned a thing or two from my brother. I’ll be at a table if you find time to come by.” She grabbed her change that the girl had forgotten and walked to the other end of the counter where the redhead had started her drink. As she walked, she felt the girl’s eyes on her, so when she got to the end of the counter, she spun around quickly enough to see the girl staring. Aha, caught you! The girl looked away as fast as she could, cheeks reddening. SinB couldn’t help but laugh, and judging by the way she kept her head down, the girl heard her.

 

SinB drank her cappuccino so slowly that she was sure she’d still have some left to drink in the next century. The cafe was hit with a sudden rush of people, so the girl was stuck taking orders for the next hour or so. Trying to pass the time like she wasn’t just waiting for her, SinB grabbed the book from her bag and started reading. Except she wasn’t really reading. The book was more of a cover to hide the fact that she was watching the girl, but her ploy wasn’t very good if the redheaded worker’s smirks were anything to go by.

 

Eventually, the girl shyly walked up to SinB. She really was so cute. She was wearing a pastel pink dress with a denim jacket, so much different from her own boyish appearance. After some joking around, SinB helped the girl with physics.

 

SinB was no genius when it came to physics, but after helping her brother study for his own test a few years ago, the material was ingrained in her mind. While she had resented him directly after, now she couldn’t help but be a glad her brother had forced her to help him. The girl was a quick study but evidently not too interested in the subject, getting lazy and throwing out random answers. SinB tried to curb the behavior with positive reinforcement. Whenever the girl actually did her work, SinB would reward her with a break consisting of talking about themselves. SinB would also allow herself to flirt with the girl as her own reward. She didn’t do anything too crazy, respecting the girl and her need to study, but if she happened to lean over just enough to let her breath tickle her ear and explain things with a flirtatious undertone, well no one needed to know.

 

“See, you aren’t as much of a lost cause as you thought,” SinB told the girl. She smiled as she leaned in to tease, “You didn’t make that up to talk to me, did you?” She tried not to be too flirtatious with her words, but the girl’s face turned bright red anyways.

 

Then they were interrupted by the girl’s friend, and SinB checked her phone to see two missed calls from her parents. She was gonna be in so much trouble. She said bye to the girl, only for her to try to get her to stay. Oh, how she wanted to stay, but she knew if she stayed out any later, they’d be sending a corpse to school the next day. Instead, she merely exchanged names with this girl, Yerin.

 

-

 

SinB tried not to laugh. What were the odds that Yerin was a part of Umji’s friend group? She hid her glee at Yerin sitting next to her, but her tall friend, Sowon, merely smirked at her as if reading SinB’s thoughts. Ah, so the giraffe recognized her.

 

“How do you like our school so far, SinB-ssi?” Yuju asked.

 

SinB couldn’t tell if Yerin wasn’t saying anything because she was still in shock, but she hoped it was a good shock rather than bad. Shrugging it off, SinB decided to talk to Umji’s other friends. They seemed nice enough. “I like it, and I’m glad I met Umji-ssi. She’s my first real friend here.” Excluding Yerin, who seemed more interested in staring holes into her lunch instead of eating it. “I’m also glad, since it means I get to meet all of you. I’m not very good at making friends, to be honest.”

 

“I’m sure you’re not that bad,” Sowon said innocently, but SinB just knew she was hinting at her talking to Yerin yesterday. “We welcome you anyways. If you’re free after school, we can hang out then too.”

 

“That sounds good,” SinB nodded. The other girls agreed, except a now more noticeably silent Yerin. SinB placed her hand her on her knee, calling softly, “Yerin-unnie.” SinB smirked when Yerin jumped, cheeks pinking up.

 

The rest of lunch was spent testing SinB’s boundaries with Yerin. She still talked to Yerin, enjoying their conversations, especially with how cute Yerin was. However, she also leaned in close sometimes, changed her voice a little in a way she knew made girls swoon. Each time she was gratified to see Yerin blush. Maybe Yerin wasn’t straight after all. It was hard to tell though. Yerin seemed to just be flustered by the attention, not necessarily liking it. As a parting shot at the end of lunch, SinB bit her lip and winked at Yerin. She couldn’t help but laugh when Yerin stumbled into Eunha.

 

-

 

“Sounds complicated,” SinB sighed, watching Sowon and Eunha act like a married couple.

 

“Most things are.”

 

The response surprised her. “Are they?” SinB questioned. She covered Yerin’s hand with her own, turning to stare at Yerin. God, she was so beautiful. Why couldn’t she figure out if she was actually interested? SinB stared at her for who knows how long, until she realized she might be creeping her out. Trying to lighten the mood, SinB used the aegyo she hated so much to say, “Yerin-unnie is so pretty. She’ll find someone.”

 

Of course, SinB hadn’t been expecting Yerin to reply with her own aegyo, twenty times cuter and deadlier than her own. “What about my TinB?” My SinB. SinB’s cheeks reddened no matter how hard she tried not to let the blush develop. She liked the sound of that.

 

Feeling like this was all too much to be doing with a girl who might not even like her that way, SinB laughed awkwardly and pulled away from Yerin. “Unnie, your aegyo is too good. You’ll find someone who’ll catch the stars for you when you use it.,” she said, unable to say what she really wanted, to tell Yerin that she would catch the stars for her.

 

-

 

“You seem more nervous than normal,” Chungha commented curiously as the two of them got ready for the showcase.

 

“It’s nothing,” SinB lied. If there was another benefit to moving besides meeting Yerin and her new friends, it’d be Source Dance Studio. It was a nicer studio than her previous one, with better dancers and a more serious attitude about dancing. Not to mention, really awesome people like Chungha. On the other hand, SinB thought, as Chungha gave her a look that said she knew she was lying, maybe it wasn’t so awesome. “Just a little nervous to have my friends come.”

 

“Are you sure it’s your friends that’re making you nervous and not this Yerin girl you’ve been mooning over since you started?” Chungha teased.

 

“Yah!” SinB cried, tossing her empty water bottle at Chungha. It harmlessly bounced off the older girl, much to her amusement. “It’s not like that.” Chungha gave her another look. “Well, it may be like that for me, but I don’t think it is for her.”

 

“I understand that,” Chungha sighed.

 

SinB narrowed her eyes. “Sejeong-unnie definitely likes you, unnie.”

 

“So you say.”

 

“A girl doesn’t come to walk you home just for fun,” SinB retorted. She knew from experience. Did she always enjoy having to stay until closing just to walk Yerin home? Not always, since she got really bored sometimes, but having time alone with Yerin usually made up for that. SinB dug around in her locker and tossed Chungha a crop top. “Wear that, and Sejeong-unnie will lose her mind.”

 

Chungha rolled her eyes but put on the shirt nonetheless.

 

-

 

SinB wasn’t sure how much longer she could handle Yerin’s flirting, which made her going over to Yerin’s a really dumb idea. In her defense, Yerin insisted.

 

Yerin definitely didn’t seem straight anymore with her constant touching and teasing. Did someone just flick a switch on her or something? It made SinB’s head hurt. She really hadn't seemed all that interested at first, but now it seemed like she was going to jump her bones at any given time.This girl was going to be the end of her.

 

-

 

SinB hadn’t known Umji all that long, but in the time they’ve been friends, she has never seen Umji look anything other than calm. The sight of Umji pacing her bedroom, looking like she was about to tear her hair out, was unnerving. SinB wasn’t sure what was going on, so she just sat there following Umji with her eyes back and forth like she was at a tennis match.

 

After ten minutes of silence, SinB figured she should try and find out what was going on. “Umji-yah, I love you and all, but if you wanted someone to just watch you walk around all night, you could’ve just asked Yuju-unnie.” Umji tripped over her own feet and landed on the floor when SinB said Yuju’s name, and SinB could only stare in shock.

 

Umji groaned and rolled onto her back to stare up at the ceiling. “I think I’m in love with Yuju-unnie,” Umji said in a rush of words that it took SinB a second to understand what she’d said. Once it processed, SinB could only gape at her. “Stop looking at me like that!” Umji wailed.

 

“Not to state the obvious, but why don’t you just confess?” SinB asked.

 

Umji gave her a look that clearly said SinB was an idiot for suggesting such a thing. “I can’t just confess,” she said seriously. “What if Yuju-unnie rejects me?” SinB grimaced. She could empathize with that. “Why’d you make that face?”

 

“I like Yerin-unnie,” SinB admitted sheepishly, looking down to play with the frayed part of her jeans. When Umji didn’t say anything, SinB looked back up to see her smiling. “What?” SinB demanded, feeling vulnerable after her confession.

 

“Why don’t you just confess?” Umji sassed, and SinB threw a pillow at her. “Not so easy when it’s you, huh?”

 

SinB only glared at her before flopping down beside Umji. “We’re gonna need ice cream if we’re gonna be talking about this.”

 

“I have green tea ice cream in the fridge.”

 

“Get it.”

 

-

 

SinB watched as Sowon blocked spike after spike, tilting her head in admiration at the older girl’s grit and dedication to her sport. She was an obvious asset to the team beyond her giraffe-like height. See, this she could do. She could watch volleyball for hours. Sitting around listening to the choir sing? Watching people run laps? What a snoozefest. She was glad Sowon did something interesting.

 

The whistle rang out, and SinB gave a small wave to Sowon after the team was dismissed. The older girl looked surprised to see her but stopped by to tell her to wait for her to change. A few minutes later, Sowon reappeared in clean clothes with her bag tossed over her shoulder.

 

“I didn’t think brats liked to stay after school when they don’t have to,” Sowon teased.

 

“Keep that up and I won’t buy you a snack,” SinB threatened. Sowon laughed and raised her hands in surrender. She didn’t question SinB’s sudden urge to wait for her after school and take her out for snacks, which SinB was infinitely thankful for. She was having a hard enough time trying to figure out what to say.

 

It was after they had gotten their snacks and were walking around a nearby park that Sowon finally questioned her. “So, what’s up?”

 

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” SinB told her, cheeks already heating up.

 

“You’re blushing,” Sowon laughed incredulously.

 

“Tell anyone and I’ll tell Eunha that you were the one that stained her favorite sweater!” SinB almost shouted, utterly flustered and desperate to get Sowon to shut up.

 

The threat worked though because Sowon stopped and promised not to tell anyone. They walked in silence while SinB gathered her courage. It was so embarrassing to tell Sowon this. Umji wasn’t so bad because she was her age and never really the type to make a big deal of things. With Sowon, their relationship thrived on annoying each other. Telling her this would be akin to loading a cannon and hoping it wouldn’t fire at her.

 

Eventually, SinB squeezed her eyes shut and said, “I like Yerin-unnie.”

 

“And?”

 

SinB opened her eyes in surprise to see Sowon coolly regarding her. She looked away and pouted childishly. “And I don’t know if she likes me back. I don’t even know if she likes girls.” When she looked back, Sowon looked like she was about to laugh. “It’s not funny!” SinB scolded.

 

“It’s not funny,” Sowon repeated with a nod, though she still wore a wide grin. “Why don’t you ask her if she likes girls?”

 

SinB glared at her. “You’re supposed to tell me something other than the obvious, or you aren’t worth the snack I bought you.”

 

“You’re such a brat,” Sowon sighed. “Alright, let me tell you about this boy I dated a few years ago...”

 

-

 

“Just talk to her.”

 

“No.”

 

“You’re an idiot.”

 

“I know.”

 

This became a very common conversation between SinB and Eunseo in the weeks following SinB and Yerin’s fight.

 

SinB didn’t know why she was so upset. Yerin was right. They’d only known each other a few months, and they definitely weren’t dating. Except, that was exactly why SinB was upset. She did want to be Yerin’s girlfriend.

 

“I can’t believe you’ve memorized her schedule to the point you only come here on days she doesn’t work,” Eunseo scoffed. “On top of that, you drag me here half the time, even though it’s a half an hour bus ride for me.”

 

“I offered to pay for your bus tickets,” SinB pointed out.

 

Eunseo rolled her eyes. “That’s so not the point.”

 

“I’ll get to it, alright?”

 

Eunseo took a lengthy sip of her coffee and rolled her eyes. “Whatever you say.”

 

-

 

SinB was putting away her books after school when a pair of hands covered her eyes. Chuckling, she reached behind her and wiggled her fingers, effectively tickling Yerin and producing a squeak from her.

 

“Eunbi-yah!” Yerin whined.

 

SinB grinned as she turned around, trying to look innocent. “Yes?” SinB asked sweetly as she wrapped her arms around Yerin’s waist. The halls were empty now, since students either left immediately or were already at their other activities. SinB kissed Yerin sweetly, and she did a little dance in her mind when Yerin practically melted in her arms.

 

“You’re too good at this,” Yerin pouted, putting her arms on SinB’s shoulders and letting her fingers toy with her hair. SinB quirked an eyebrow, and Yerin elaborated. “This whole dating thing. You’re too sweet and cute and perfect.”

 

SinB laughed at the ridiculousness of her statement. “I’m definitely not perfect.” She kissed Yerin again to make her smile. “But you certainly are.”

 

“Ah, see!” Yerin exclaimed, much to SinB’s amusement. “You can’t say you aren’t perfect then say things like that. You’re such a sweet talker and you’ve brought me dinner at the cafe everyday I’ve worked this week and you always walk me home and buy me snacks and hold my hand…”

 

“And you make me happy,” SinB cut her off. She smiled softly at her girlfriend, hugging her closer. She rested her forehead against hers and hummed in contentment. “You don’t need to do anything special for me, Yerin-ah. I’m happy with the way things are. I like you for you, remember?”

 

“Inability to handle rotational motion and scary movies and all,” Yerin finished for her. “I think I’m falling for you, Eunbi-yah,” she whispered.

 

SinB was too shy to admit she was falling for Yerin too. Instead, she leaned in and kissed Yerin, hoping to convey her feelings through her actions.

 

-

 

SinB was going to hell. Her eyes glanced over another lingerie display. She gulped. If there was some place worse than hell, she was going there too. She didn’t know what Yerin had been thinking, dragging her into a place like this. Except she knew exactly what Yerin had been thinking when she dragged her here. Pure torture.

 

Trying to distract herself from dirty thoughts, SinB toyed with the yellow gem on her necklace that Yerin had insisted she take instead of the red one. Honestly, while the sentiment was entirely too cheesy for her outward liking, SinB smiled every time she caught a glimpse of the yellow around her neck, immediately thinking of Yerin.

 

But now was not the time to be thinking of Yerin, especially when she was… Were those lace thongs?

 

Abort, mission! SinB looked up at the ceiling, praying that some divine being would save her from this wonderful hell. No one was listening though, since SinB had to continue to follow Yerin around the store like some lost puppy for the next ten minutes.

 

As soon as they left the store, SinB let out a huge sigh of relief. She was going to have to take a really cold shower when she got home. This was also why she was so excited for ice cream, to help cool her nerves. Except it didn’t work out as expected because seeing Yerin’s tongue her ice cream was hotter than it should’ve been. It also didn’t help that SinB couldn’t stop herself from the ice cream from Yerin’s lip, resulting in a quick make-out that made the cold shower for SinB even more inevitable.

 

SinB couldn’t believe she’d thought Yerin was straight.

 

-

 

A slow song finally played at the gala, and SinB wasted no time in pulling Yerin back onto the dance floor. She hugged her arms around Yerin’s waist, close enough that they were pressed close together with Yerin’s head on her shoulder.

 

SinB could stay like this forever. It was her favorite thing to do with Yerin, just hug. Sure, she loved kissing as much as the next hormonal teenager, but there was something about the intimacy of hugging that she couldn’t live without.

 

“Can you believe I’ll be graduating in just a few months?” Yerin asked, voice low and relaxed.

 

SinB’s arms tightened around Yerin’s waist at the mention of her graduating. SinB had known this was going to happen from the beginning when Yerin had mentioned physics, a senior course. Still, suddenly faced with the possibility of losing her scared SinB.

 

“We’ll have a big party for you and Sowon-unnie,” SinB told her, trying not to show how shaky her voice was.

 

“You’ll have to help me move into my dorm,” Yerin told her.

 

SinB swallowed thickly. “Of course.”

 

“And call every day, even if we hang out earlier,” Yerin said softly, and SinB felt a wetness touch her shoulder. Yerin was crying. SinB was suddenly hit with the realization that Yerin was also afraid what starting university would do to their relationship. It was both a relief and a burden to realize she wasn’t alone in her fears.

 

“We’re stronger than some distance,” SinB said with more confidence than she felt. She buried her nose into Yerin’s neck before pressing a kiss there. “I’m falling for you too, Yerin-ah,” she whispered. She said nothing else as she held Yerin as tight as she could, feeling the tremors coming from the older girl as she cried.