The sun shone brightly through her white curtains every morning, basking her room in a heavenly glow as rays glistened along her porcelain painted walls and danced along her glossy hardwood floors.

She wondered if her the girl next door's mornings looked like this, too.

Sojung rose today at an earlier hour than what was normal for her, blinking away remnants of sleep with her arms stretched high above her head, a hum of relaxation slipping past her lips. She patted around on the mattress in search of her book, the one she had fallen asleep reading last night. The novel was open face down on her extra pillow, pages pressed and crinkled against the soft fabric. With a small grin Sojung scooped the book into her hands and dog-eared the current page to hold her place.

Sounds of feet pattering around the floors downstairs broadened her grin; her mother must be awake already, slaving over breakfast like she would almost every morning, making a meal fit for an army when it was only her and Sojung there. But each day, Sojung would expect her heaping plateful of warm breakfast foods and scarf it down like she had been deprived of sustenance for days. Anything to see her mother smile, she would think as she guzzled down her ritual glass of orange juice.

From her mattress, she could easily peer out her window and into the neighbor girl's bedroom. They had never spoken before, but Sojung would watch her (in a totally not creepy stalkerish way, she had deemed) dance around in her bedroom, music blasting as she held a brush towards her lips pretending as if it were a microphone, belting out lyrics to songs Sojung had never heard before. She smiled each time, knowing she was glimpsing into a part of this girl's life that no one had seen before (and each time the girl's mother stormed into the room, yelling for the girl to turn her music down, Sojung would chuckle at the girl's flustered face and muffled stammering as she rushed to turn her speaker system off).

This time, however, Sojung caught the girl waking up. Her short, brown hair was tousled messily, fly-aways sticking out from the top of her head. The girl didn't bother to stifle her yawn, white teeth presenting themselves from behind the shield of her lips, tongue curling backwards. The arms she had stretched over her head dropped gracelessly to her sides, but she brought her one hand up to rub tiredly at her eyes.

The image made Sojung's heart swell, and she bit back a grin as the girl just so happen to turn towards the window and meet her gaze. A look of surprise took over her features, due to the fact that she hadn't realized she was in the presence of hidden company. A rosy tinge spread across her cheeks as she smiled shyly in Sojung's direction; Sojung smiled back and gave the girl a small wave.

An idea sparked suddenly in Sojung's mind. She held up a finger at the girl, who was still looking at her, almost missing the confused pout she tossed Sojung's way. Sojung scrambled up from her mattress and shuffled across the room to her dresser, picking up her half-empty notepad and marker before trotting back towards the window. Kneeling in front of the glass, Sojung scribbled something down on the paper before holding it up against the window pane.

'Good morning', the sheet read. As the girl's eyes skimmed over it, her pout morphed into a grin and she held up a finger of her own, gesturing for Sojung to wait as she stood from her bed and moved out of sight. When she returned, she jotted a message down of her own held it up against the glass.

'Good morning to you, too,' it said, along with an accompanying ':)'.

The action made Sojung grin, and she bit down on her bottom lip before writing back.

'Did you sleep well?' Sojung's message read. The girl looked towards the paper in her hands, brow furrowing as she wrote down her answer.

'I did. I fell asleep reading though. My book ended up resting on my face.'

Sojung laughed, the sound echoing throughout her empty bedroom. It was her turn to write back: 'I have to get ready for work now :(‘, it read, and Sojung added a small pout of her own for emphasis. She saw the girl chuckle before she scribbled something down.

'That . I hope you have a good day, at least.'

A phantom pressure squeezed Sojung's heart inside her chest. She jotted down a quick 'Thank you!' and held it up to the window before turning the page and writing once more. 'Have a nice time doing whatever it is that you do as well.'

The girl laughed, and instead of writing back, she mouth Sojung a "thank you".

They stared openly at each other for a few more moments until Sojung deemed that she was spending an inappropriate amount of time gaping at the girl. She stood from the floor and cast the girl another small wave before grabbing the towel she had hanging off the back of her door, heading towards the bathroom.

As Sojung stood under the shower head, scalding water cascading down her shoulder blades, she felt a heavy longing to run back to her window, just to check and see if the girl was still sitting there, gazing in to Sojung's empty room as Sojung had done so to the girl's own room in her absence.
 
*

That night, Sojung had arrived home after one of the most stressful days of work she had had so far this week, an angry scowl marring her features and she pushed past the front door. Her mother, seated at the kitchen table, looked up at the forceful intrusion. She tried calling out to Sojung, tried to ask her daughter about her day, but she ignored, trudging up the stairs and into her room, slamming her door shut.

Stupid people and their stupid ing, Sojung thought back to one of her customers in particular as she dropped unceremoniously onto her bed.

A soft strumming dowsed Sojung's fuming mind, musical notes drifting through the air. The song sounded familiar - and close, very close. It wasn't something her mother would listen too, she knew that for a fact; this song was of her generation, and Sojung's mother preferred listening to her old vinyls (she didn't much care for the type of music Sojung blasted through her ear buds).

Lifting her upper body off the mattress, Sojung's eyes immediately drifted to her window, left cracked open, where the strumming was billowing through the empty space. Curiosity getting the best of her, Sojung peered through the window, seeing the girl from next door seated on the roof just outside her own window, guitar in her hands and she sang quietly to herself.

Sojung felt herself smile for the first time after her previous eight hour personal hell.

The girl's music seemed to ebb away Sojung's urge to smash a vase (or something) in frustration.

Sighing, Sojung stood and moved towards her window, lifting the glass and the screen high enough for her to step out onto her roof. The girl hadn't noticed her emergence, so instead of making her presence known, Sojung sat herself down on top of the worn, brown shingles, her back resting against the faded white siding of her house.

She could see the girl so much better from the short distance; their roofs were almost connected, after all, possibly an inch or two of separation between them. The thought of standing up and walking over to the girl's side was impossibly pleasant, but the idea of disturbing her while she was obviously so content with the instrument in her hands made Sojung want to frown.

The girl's singing had grown louder, and Sojung let her eyelids flutter shut, resting her head back against the siding of her house, perfectly happy with allowing the girl's music lull her into a blissful trance.

"Oh!"

Sojung's eyes snapped open and she stared at the girl, who was staring back at her in a surprised embarrassment, a sheepish smile pulling at her lips.

"I'm sorry," Sojung offered, watching the girl's brow furrow. "I didn't want to disturb you."

"You- you can, um," the girl's face flushed bright red; Sojung saw the tips of her ears burning as the girl tucked strands of hair behind them. "I-I can go practice inside. If you to want to be alone."

"No," Sojung protested, arm shooting out to reach for the girl - which was a stupid gesture to begin with, she realized, and she dropped her arm back down to her side, missing the girl's eyes trailing after it. "You don't have to go. I was just listening to you play."

The girl didn't respond. Instead, Sojung watched with an inkling of curiosity as the girl's eyes roamed over her face; she seemed to catch herself, though, and her eyes shot down to her hands, which were fiddling with a loose piece of wood at the neck of her guitar. Sojung felt herself smile.

"You have a beautiful voice," Sojung's smile widened. "I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up buying your music someday."

The girl let out a nervous laugh and Sojung's heart squeezed.

"I'm not that good," the girl shrugged.

Sojung frowned. "You're not serious, are you?" When the girl only stared blankly back at her, she continued. "I haven't heard anyone sing like that before. You didn't even have to be loud, and you're voice was already melodic and enchanting."

Across the way, the girl's blush darkened more to a considerable shade of scarlet. "Um, I-I don't, uh..." she swallowed. "Thank you?"

Sojung's face held an easy smile. "You're welcome."

A few moments of awkward, but nice, Sojung thought, silence spread between them, Sojung gazing at the girl while she tried looking anywhere Sojung wasn't. A thought bubbled in Sojung's mind.

"I'm sorry, am I making you uncomfortable?" She frowned slightly. "It was unthoughtfully rude of me to just intrude on your practicing time like this."

"N-No!" The girl's head shot towards Sojung. "It's okay, really. I don't mind." She gave Sojung a shy smile. "I'm glad you enjoyed listening to me."

"It was very relaxing," she smirked.

Realizing she still had no idea what this girl's name was, Sojung pushed herself towards the edge of her roof, legs crossed and hand outstretched towards the girl. "I'm Kim Sojung."

The girl only looked at Sojung open palm for a few seconds before a slow smile spread across her lips. She set her guitar down gently and scooted across the roof, grasping Sojung's hand as she bit down on her lip.

"Jung Eunbi."

*
 
Three loud knocks against her window roused Sojung from slumber, and she groaned irritably at the pestering sound.

She tiredly swatted the noise away; it was futile, of course, because the rapping only intensified in volume.

"Jesus Christ," she mumbled groggily into her pillow.

"Unnie!" Eunbi called from outside, the cheeriness in her voice managing to rub away a bit of Sojung's annoyance. "Open up!"

With a frown, Sojung rolled over on her mattress to her window, coming face-to-face with Eunbi's wide grin. It made her want to smile, how awake and happy the younger girl seemed to be at this hour of the morning. In lieu of a greeting, Sojung scowled, opening up her window and screen to allow the girl entrance. She rolled back over onto her bed and pulled the covers over her head. She felt Eunbi plop down gracelessly beside her.

"You're not a morning person, are you?" Eunbi questioned, poking the exposed part of Sojung's shoulder.

"Not when annoying little bunnies are scratching at my window, I'm not."

"Are you comparing me to a leporidae?"

Abandoning hope on falling back asleep, Sojung threw the blankets off her head and glared at Eunbi, who continued to smile at her despite Sojung's moodiness.

"Do you know what time it is?" Sojung grumbled.

"Yep!" Eunbi responded airily. "It's, like, eight fifteen!"

"Exactly," Sojung sighed. "And I could have slept in because I don't have to work today."

"And I don't have school on this wonderful Sunday morning, which is why I thought we could hang out."

"Couldn't it have waited a few more hours?"

"Aw," Eunbi cooed teasingly, jabbing Sojung in the side with her fingers. "Is someone cranky?"

"Eunbi, stop." Sojung squirmed under the pressure of Eunbi's fingers, trying to mask the amusement in her voice.

"Are you ticklish?" Sojung could hear the smirk in Eunbi's voice.

"No!" she answered too quickly. A menacing smile tugged at the corners of Eunbi's mouth, her fingers wiggling, hovering over Sojung's torso. "Don't even think about it," she warned, but Eunbi's fingers inched closer. "Stop!"

"Wake up!" Eunbi shouted, and Sojung thought of how loud the younger girl is, she laughed pouncing on top of Sojung's body, her fingers digging into every available crevice of her body. Sojung screamed, at first, then dissolved into a fit of giggles as Eunbi tickled her relentlessly. "C'mon, unnie! The sun is awake, so you should be awake, too!"

"Eunbi-ah!" Sojung laughed, twitching underneath Eunbi. The girl tickled her for what seemed like forever until she was laughing herself and had to let go of Sojung to clutch at her stomach.

Eunbi continued to giggle while sitting on top of her; Sojung was content on allowing the girl to remain in her current position for as long as she pleased, her heart beating manically in her chest.

"Are you awake now?" Eunbi asked, wiggling her eyebrows at Sojung, to which the older girl rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Eunbi, I'm awake. Get off!" She playfully shoved Eunbi off to the side, the younger girl rolling into the mattress beside Sojung.

They sat in silence for a while, Eunbi content at mak