Wednesday, 6:46pm

“So what did she do to make you realize you’re in love with her?” Chaeyoung asked, leaning over the table.

“Okay, I need you to understand something,” I cleared my throat, “I don’t even know if Sana-unnie really is a love interest. I’ve treated you to food because I’m confused.”

“That wasn’t the deal,” Chaeyoung said, raising an eyebrow.

“The deal was to treat you to food if I found that she ‘may be a romantic interest,’ not if I’m certain she is.”

“I guess you’re right."

“Here’s my situation in detail,” I said as I leaned forward over the table, “Lately, I’ve been looking at Sana-unnie in a weird light. Like last night, I looked at her with temptation. Today, I looked at her with something more genuine than temptation—I’m not quite sure what it was—but I know that it was still something less than love. In the end, I’ve come to realize that maybe I don’t view Sana-unnie as only a friend anymore. But does that automatically make her a love interest? Despite how I feel like I’m not truly in love with her? That’s why we’re here. Because I recognize that there is the possibility that she is a love interest, only that I am not sure if she truly is.”

I looked down at the pizza between us before taking another slice. Chaeyoung also took another piece, leaving two more left, one for each of us.

“So then, what changed how you viewed her?” Chaeyoung asked before taking a large bite from the slice.

“I don’t know.”

“How about this question then... What made you realize that she may be more than a friend and so a possible love interest?”

“I-I don’t know... The-uh... The look in her eyes...?” Even I was unsure about my response.

“You’re the kind to fall for eyes?” Chaeyoung asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, there was something about that look in her eyes in that one moment,” I said, reflecting on the moment that I spoke of.

“How’d she look at you?” Chaeyoung then leaned forward and rested her chin on her palm. Her smirk turned into a kind smile and her eyebrows raised as the gaze in her eyes softened. “Like this?”

I scoffed.

“Or no, like this?” Then she placed her hand over my hand, which rested on the table.

“Okay, stop. You’re gross,” I said as I abruptly pulled my hand away, “And no, it wasn’t like that.”

“Like what then?” Chaeyoung asked as she wiped that look on her face and then leaned back in her chair.

“I can’t explain it,” I said.

Chaeyoung nodded, “Okay, I understand what you mean. Eyes are powerful.”

“Speaking from experience?” I asked.

She hesitated before responding, “Actually, yes. And I’m admitting this because I know you know.”

“What about her eyes did you fall for?”

“Her eyes are so dark that it’s mysterious and alluring. At the same time, the darkness of her eyes can reflect any light that shone in her eyes. But they aren’t black. They‘re a dark shade of brown. So despite how dark her eyes are, there’s still so much color in them. ...And the shape of her eyes. When she’s just sitting there, straight-faced, her eyes rest lazily. But the gaze in her eyes could still pierce through me. And when she’s smiling, and it’s genuine, then I forget that her eyes can be so captivating. They become so soft as she smiles.” Her voice began to trail off as she slowly brought herself back from the illusion that was Mina’s eyes. The she smiled shyly, “Sorry. I didn’t mean to go off like that.”

I watched as she turned her attention to the pizza in her hand. She finished the slice and then took another slice and proceeded to eat it.

“Anyway, I feel like you’re unable to figure out how you truly feel because you’re lying to yourself,” Chaeyoung asked through the food in .

“How am I lying to myself?”

“It’s almost like whatever you felt today you refuse to see as love. What other feeling is stronger than temptation but weaker than love?”

“I don’t know, but that’s how I feel!” I exclaimed.

Chaeyoung shook her head, “Dahyun-unnie, I don’t know why you keep denying it, but you’re in love. You think that you’re not truly in love because you won’t allow yourself to accept that maybe you actually are in love with her. Do you see what I mean?”

I shook my head.

Chaeyoung sighed, “Here. Let me put it in simpler terms. Friendship is level 1, love is level 2. You think that they way you view Sana is somewhere at like a level 1.5. I think that’s wrong. I think you’re in love. I think you’re already at level 2. The reason why you can’t see that that’s where you lie is because you’re holding yourself back. It’s like in a video game where you need to physically click to level up when you get to that point. Like you have all the XP to level up, but the game won’t automatically raise you to the next level; to actually level up, you have to manually do it. If not, you’re stuck at level 1 for forever although you have the XP to move on. Dahyun-unnie, you have all the XP it takes to level up. Why aren’t you allowing yourself to level up? Why don’t you just accept that maybe, you are in love?”

Despite the overflow of Chaeyoung’s wisdom, I felt quick to reject it. “You’re wrong. I’m not in love,” I said, my face stern.

“Yaaa, you’re so stubborn!” Chaeyoung said as she leaned over the table to pull at my cheeks.

“Chaeyoung-ah! Your hands are greasy from pizza!!!” I said as I stood and then retaliated by rubbing my hands on her face.

“Ya!! Dahyun-ah!!!” Chaeyoung cried.

“That’s Dahyun-unnie to you!”

So we continued fighting like that. Needless to say, we may have gotten kicked out of the restaurant that night.

Thursday, 8:58am

“Dahyun-unnie! Hurry up, or we’ll be late!” Chaeyoung exclaimed as she pedaled ahead of me.

I quickened the pace of my pedaling to catch up to her. “At this rate, we’re gonna be late anyway.”

“DOESN’T MEAN THAT YOU CAN SLOW DOWN,” Chaeyoung shouted as she pedaled even faster.

I sighed before attempting to catch up to Chaeyoung yet again. Two minutes later, we arrived on campus. Need I point out that two minutes later was when class had started for the both of us? We still needed to sprint to class. Chaeyoung quickly locked up her bike and sprinted away from me without so much as a goodbye. I sighed to myself before locking up my own bike and running towards the direction of where (I believed) my class was.

I arrived at the building a few minutes later, only to find that the elevators were under maintenance. My class was on the fifth floor. I groaned loudly to myself before exclaiming, “What the hell?!” I took a deep breath before I turned towards the stairs and began running up, skipping steps as I climbed the stairwell. As I turned, only a few steps more before the fifth floor, a body collided with me. We were both running, so their body weight really knocked the wind out of me. With my bandaged hand, I held onto their back as we both fell. My other hand I used to break my fall as I collapsed onto my back.

“Agh!!!” I exclaimed as I tried to push whoever was on me and sit up straight, “Hey, watch where you’re–“

I was interrupted when I saw that it was Sana. She looked at me with nearly tear-filled eyes.

There she was. The girl Chaeyoung claimed that I was in love with, sitting there in front of me, with tears in her eyes. My heart seemed to suffocate at the sight of her tears. This was what I wanted to prevent by protecting her cheeky smile.

“Sorry, Dahyun-ah,” she apologized timidly as she lowered her head.

“N-No, that’s fine! You’re okay! I didn’t mean to snap!” I said as I leaned forward to softly pat her shoulder, “I’m just late for a class that started like more than five minutes ago.”

“Yeah, me too,” she said.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“Psychology.”

“With Dr. Park?”

She nodded.

“Oh, that’s where I’m going, too,” I said, “I think that it’s on the fifth floor.”

“I thought it was on the sixth floor, and then it wasn’t. And then I thought it was on the fourth floor and was about to go there when I ran into you,” she tried to explain, her voice trembling.

“Hey, hey, are you okay?” I asked as I sat down beside her and draped my arm across her shoulders.

Sana submitted to the embrace. “I’m just having trouble adapting to this whole college life. I never had to worry about college while I worked at JYPE. But now I have to keep living and I just don’t know what I’m doing,” she said as she covered her face with her hands.

“Wait, hey! Don’t cry!” I said as I tightened my embrace around her. I found it hard to comfort her as 1) I really had never seen her cry so this was new and 2) I just really at comforting people. I felt bad for her. Based on what she had told me, it really seemed like she had life planned out before she was fired. Now, here she was, taking up a job that was less than satisfactory in comparison to her previous one and starting college when she had been deprived of the school education and atmosphere for about two years now. I wasn’t sure what to say to comfort her. Instead, I kept my arms around her in what I hoped to be comforting enough.

“I’ll wait until you’ve gathered yourself and we can walk there together, okay?” I said.

Sana slowly nodded as she wiped her tears. “I’m sorry for troubling you, Dahyun-ah.”

“That’s okay. You’re never a bother,” I found myself say.

Sana chuckled a bit, which I found surprising in the moment. “You never would have said that a week ago.”

“Because things were different a week ago.”

Sana slowly nodded. Her lips curved into a small smile. “You’re absolutely right,” she said.

We sat in silence for a short while before I asked, “Are you okay, now? Are you ready to go?”

She shook her head slightly. “Gimme a few more minutes,” she said as she nuzzled her head into my shoulder.

And so we sat there for a few more minutes. I sat there, with my