When she woke up the next morning, SinB found herself cuddled up into Yerin. Their limbs all tangled together. She’d forgotten that she’d invited the older girl to stay the night. The familiarity of the situation made SinB grin. She unwrapped her leg from across the other girl’s, and traced patterns along the older girl’s arm whilst letting her mind wander. Wander off to their conversation the previous night, to the worry she felt for the girl she clung to, to her worry about her music project, and finally to her girlfriend. Yuju. She’d finally kissed her. The thought sent butterflies to her stomach, warmth to her cheeks and a big grin to her face.

She hugged Yerin just a little bit tighter. The older girl began to stir in her sleep so SinB loosened her grip. Yerin rolled over and SinB was surprised to find that she was still asleep. She glimpsed at the clock – 8:47. It wasn’t unlike Yerin to sleep in on a Sunday morning so SinB took some time to stare at the older girl while she slept. They’d been so close for so many years, Yerin never kept secrets from her. Her mind kept wandering back to ‘what’s bothering you unnie? Why did you cry? And why can’t you tell me?’ It was puzzling, but SinB knew the older girl would tell her when she was ready. Gently, so as not to wake the sleeping girl, she crawled out of the bed and went to start her usual morning routine.

When she returned to the room some time later, she found Yerin still in bed, facing away from the door. SinB, presuming she was still asleep crept over, climbed back into bed and put an arm around the girl in order to start waking her up. “Come on sleepyhead, it’s time to get up” she whispered into Yerin’s neck. The older girl rolled over and wrapped an arm around SinB’s waist.

“I’m already awake, I was waiting for you to come back” she planted a gentle kiss on SinB’s forehead, making the younger blush a pale pink. “This colour looks good on you” she said teasingly, poking at SinB’s cheeks, which worsened.

“Aish, unnie” she whined “you know I blush too easily” she buried her head into Yerin’s chest a little to hide her face. Yerin took this as a challenge to see how far she could tease the younger girl.

“What was that? I couldn’t hear it over the sound of your embarrassment clattering into the room” she began to trace her hand down SinB’s side, and wound up resting it on her hip. The girl wriggled in her embrace

“Unnie. Stop!” she whined again. Yerin began poking her in the ribs, knowing exactly where she was ticklish. As the younger girl writhed in the bed, Yerin proceeded to pin her on her back as she tickled her more fervently. The younger girl was screaming with laughter, tears streaming down her face. “Unnie! Please!” their play session didn’t last much longer, Yerin not wanting to make SinB suffer too much.

“What do you say we write that email now?” she says climbing off the bed and heading to SinB’s desk where her laptop sat open. SinB lay where she was for a few moments, panting after being tickled almost to death.

“Yeah, sure. Just… gimme a sec to… catch my breath” Yerin giggled. Once SinB got up and walked over to the desk where Yerin was now seated. She logged in and together they composed what SinB thought was a reasonable and professional email to Miss Tiffany.

After breakfast Yerin decided she should probably head home; her parents were probably wondering why she hadn’t come back the previous night. SinB thanked the older girl for everything, feeling much better than she had the night before. Yerin smiled warmly, her embrace even warmer. She insisted on walking her home, because she’d made all that effort to come all the way to her place just to make sure she was okay, so it was the least she could do in return, and explain to the older girl’s parents why she hadn’t come home last night.

***********************************

Upon returning home, she went upstairs to work on some stuff for school. She had her laptop open and she was making notes from a powerpoint presentation that she’d asked one of her literature teachers to email her so she could prepare for their next lesson. Suddenly, a notification popped up on screen, followed by the little ringing chime that comes through when she gets an email. She decided to close it down without even reading the subject, telling herself she’d read it after she’d finished – she only had another five slides, and then a little bit of critical independent analysis to do, it wouldn’t take too long.

An hour or so later, when she’d finally finished, she opened up the email application to check her inbox. There was only one that caught her eye (the most recent, the one from Miss Tiffany) and as soon as she read the subject, ‘I’m really sorry, SinB’ she picked up her phone, hands shaky to call Yuju. Her girlfriend picked up after two rings. “Morning, gorgeous. How you doing?” chimed a cheery voice down the line.

“Hey, Yuju. First things first I want to apologise for hanging up on you last night - Yerin showed up at my door totally out of the blue and I thought it best to end the call. There’s something I wanna get your opinion on, actually, but for the meantime, how are you?” The older girl laughed airily

“I asked you first, silly. But seriously, babe, don’t worry about it. I figured something had come up when you didn’t text goodnight, but I knew you’d be in touch at some point”

“I’m sorry, I must’ve forgotten. Yerin stayed the night and we were kinda talking til we both fell asleep”

“It’s fine don’t worry, you were busy, I understand. What did you want my opinion on anyway?” her tone was care-free, SinB could tell she was smiling – the cute smile where her teeth are on full display, and the thought brought an easy smile to SinB’s lips too.

“Oh umm… Yerin was acting really weird last night. She burst into tears mid-conversation and wouldn’t tell me why. And then… when I asked her why, she said she couldn’t tell me because she’s my best friend and she doesn’t want to lie to me. I love her to pieces and I want to help, but I don’t know how to help without knowing what the problem is” Yuju hummed in response

“That’s strange. Was there anything about the conversation that you thought might have triggered it? Is there something going on in her personal life that’s bothering her? Was there anything in particular happening that might have led to it? It’s hard for me to know with very little context. You know her better than I do, if she won’t tell you I’m sure it’s for what she deems to be a good reason” her tone was thoughtful now, and it felt as if her smile had faded, SinB’s eyebrows furrowed at the thought.

“Hmm… I’ve replayed it over and over in my head but I can’t seem to find any answers. Maybe Yewon knows more than I do, I’ll ask her if Yerin has said anything that might have led to it”

“That sounds like a good idea. I can talk to Yerin too if you want? If she feels like you two are too close for her to tell you, maybe she won’t have told Yewon either. Maybe she’ll tell me because we aren’t as close”

“Oooh! I like that logic. But maybe I should ask Yewon first, Yerin gets embarrassed easily about other people knowing she’s a softie” That was a fact: Yerin didn’t like people knowing that she was a slave to her emotions, so she tried to keep up a hard front where possible. Alongside that, SinB couldn’t shake the fact that they’d been talking about Yuna when the older girl had broken down in tears – she was too cynical to believe in coincidence, and felt maybe her girlfriend asking was not the best idea.

The older girl made a clicking noise with her tongue once SinB had finished speaking. “Ah, that makes sense. Let me know if you want me to ask her though”

“Yeah, will do. Thanks”

After a while of mindless chat on the phone, SinB brought up the reason she’d called. “So… ummm…. I sent an email this morning…. To Tiffany, the DJ….”

Yuna audibly in her next breath. “I thought it was supposed to be the other way round? Isn’t she supposed to be the one contacting you?”

SinB sighed and ran a hand through her hair “Yeah, but after a month of white noise I wanted to show some initiative and take matters into my own hands. So, I sent her an email asking what the problem was, why there was such a delay, and asked if she had reconsidered her offer”

“Honey, I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long. You never said anything, but I could tell you’ve been anxious about her reply, or lack thereof. She’d better come back grovelling”

“You knew?”

“Of course I knew, you’ve been more distant, and display a lot of symptoms of stress. I figured nothing else had happened to trigger you exhibiting these signs, so I figured it had to be this”

“Oh…. I’m sorry for worrying you. But… umm… yeah… she’s replied….”

There was a complete U-turn of emotion in her next outburst – from soft and caring one second, to outraged - “Really?! It’s only taken her a month! I hope she had the audacity to improve her offer, after making you wait so long. She’d better have a damn good excuse”

“Ummm… I haven’t read it yet. I read the subject title and panicked, so I called you”
“Panicked? That b*tch has a lot to answer to. What did she put that made you panic?”

“She umm… the email… the subject is ‘I’m really sorry, SinB’…”

“Just wait til I see her. I’ll give her something to be sorry about. Messing you about, getting your hopes up, only to leave you in the dark for a month, and then pull the right out from under your feet with an ‘I’m really sorry, SinB’. She doesn’t know sorry just yet”

“Yuna… Yuju… while I appreciate you standing up for me… you aren’t helping. Can we tone the anger down to a 4/10? Because it’s making me even more nervous”

The softness in Yuju’s tone returned as quickly as it left “SinB, honey, I’m so sorry. I just don’t deal very well with rudeness and I hate the thought of you hurting because of her”

“I know your heart is in the right place, thanks”

“Do you want to read it to me and I’ll take a second to think before I react?”

“Yeah, I don’t think I can face reading it on my own” she inhaled deeply “here goes…” she closed her eyes as she double clicked on the message.

It was much shorter than she was expecting, but she read it to Yuna with an even tone, covering all emotion with the steadiness of her voice. Yuna’s reaction was huge, she hadn’t held back for even a heartbeat before she let it out, and they’d stayed on the phone for another while planning what would happen next now that SinB had her answer. She had questions, she felt that Tiffany hadn’t given her enough explanation – opening up with an ‘I’ve been away on business for the last three weeks’ seemed like a valid reason for her not to reply but didn’t justify putting SinB through hell with anxiety for the last month. But at least now she knew what was going on…

Author's note: Hi everyone. I'm so sorry that I've been silent for nearly a year, but I'm back and bringing more content with me.

This chapter has been a long time in the making. I really struggled with direction so wrote it, read it, re-read the entire story, decided it didn't fit, and scrapped it. It took a lot of motivation for me to come back to it after that, because I didn't want to publish something that wasn't as good as it could be and I felt like I had no ideas. Tonight I said to myself that I wouldn't sleep until I published something (that something not just being a really long apology note for making you wait so long). So here I am, in the middle of the night, writing something I never thought I would. 

Thank you to all of you who have waited so patiently for me, thank you to those who have subscribed and commented (you guys REALLY helped me with motivation) and to any future readers, thank you for getting this far. I hope you're all healthy and well, enjoying life and everything it brings. I hope you all continue to take care of yourselves and lead your life to the best of your ability. 
Thanks again to every single person who is still reading this long- note, I'm undeserving of your time and attention. Love and hugs, La xoxo