The eight friends arrived in Kyoto with time to spare before lunch. Before heading to Momo’s home, they stopped by The Shuonan Ikkyuji Temple, a tourist spot popular in the city of Kyotanabe.

The temple had a different atmosphere in the winter. Momo had never been at the place late in the year. Although the sun was shining brightly, the breeze was cool against their skin. They took photos at the torii and the famous bronze statue of Ikkyu-san, a well known Zen figure in the history of Kyoto.

As they walked around the temple, Dahyun couldn’t help but think of her girlfriend. They had just parted a few hours ago and her mind was already wandering on what the Japanese was doing, if she was at home or walking about outside. And Momo couldn’t help but notice her spacing out.

The Japanese stood next to her as they walked. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Dahyun turned to her, “Hm? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“You keep looking at the ground, you’re going to burn holes into it.”

“Sorry. I was just thinking.” Dahyun glanced at her phone and, finding no message, she shoved it back in her pocket and forced a smile. “Want to take picture?”

Momo slowly nodded. Then, Dahyun grabbed her by the hand and led her to the posts that hung wooden letters. Posing next to her, they took one selfie after another. Dahyun decided to forget about her worries for a moment and just enjoy the vacation with her friends.

“Hey, let’s get fortunes,” Mina suggested. The eight of them lined up at the souvenir stand and the lady handed them a rolled up strip of paper one by one.

They each opened their fortunes. Tzuyu held up hers and gave Mina a questioning look. “What does half luck mean?”

“I guess it means that your luck is…half?”

Dahyun looked down at her paper with furrowed eyebrows. Momo went up to her, “What did you get?” She looked down at the younger one’s fortune and read ‘slight bad luck.’

Momo cleared . “I-it’s ok. You can tie the bad fortunes on the branch to make the bad luck go away.”

Dubu gave a slight nod and did so. She heaved a deep sigh and checked her phone one more time. The message she sent Sana asking her how she was doing still lingered unread. She wasn’t usually the type to stress over such things, however Sana wasn’t the type to leave her waiting that long.

The group suggested they head to Momo’s home for lunch. Dahyun shoved her phone back into her pocket and dismissed her wandering thoughts.

~

Early morning, Sana left the hostel with her suitcase and made her way home. Eunha was already waiting by her front gate with her feet unable to stand still as she waited.

“You’re here early,” Sana said as she opened the gate.

Eunha followed her from behind. “I couldn’t sit still.”

The older one opened her front door and went inside, with Eunha following right behind. Sana didn’t have to tell her to come in. Eunha had always been that way, even before they became close. The younger one would brazenly knock on her window, bugging her to let her in. Often times, Sana would come downstairs in the morning only to find Eunha in her kitchen, prepping some sort of meal without her asking to. It was that sort of personality that broke through Sana’s little bubble.

Upon entry, Sana’s mother dropped what she was doing in the kitchen and ran to the entrance with her apron on. She gave her daughter a lengthy hug. ”Breakfast is almost done. Why don’t you put your suitcase in your room and come down to eat?”

Mrs. Minatozaki looked behind her and noticed Eunha. “Oh, Eunha! It’s been so long!” She went over to her and gave her a hug as well. “You haven’t stopped by in so long, I thought you and Sana were no longer friends. It’s good to see that isn’t the case.”

“You two catch up. I’ll drop this off in my room,” Sana interrupted and went upstairs.

The Japanese dropped herself on her bed and sighed. She was uncertain whether it was a good idea to let Eunha back into her life again. Sana still had some lingering doubts about it, and she couldn’t help but feel it was the wrong decision.

Sana laid there, looking at the ceiling. The glow-in-the-dark stars Eunha placed a long time ago were still there. She had been meaning to take them down but couldn’t bring herself to.

Looking at the pieces of plastic stars plastered on her ceiling reminded her of Dahyun, and she smiled. Sana thought of messaging her, but as she rummaged in her pockets and bag, her phone was nowhere to be found. She searched all over her suitcase but still, she wasn’t able to find it.

Maybe I left it at the hostel, she thought. Then, her mother’s call snapped her out of her thoughts and she went downstairs to see the table filled with breakfast food.

“Mom, I think you may have overdone it a bit...”

“What are you talking about? Who knows when you’re going to get a taste of my cooking again,” her mother said with enthusiasm. “You have to eat as much as you can, while you still can. Besides, Eunha-chan helped cook some of them. I know how much you liked her cooking.”

Sana looked at Eunha who seemed just as excited as her mother. It reminded her of the weekends the two would cook together, Eunha trying to learn as much as she could from her mother and her mother being excited to teach her. Sana would often be their test subject, tasting the food they made and giving her input on it.

At that moment, she wished Dahyun could’ve been there with her, to spend time with her mother like that. How Sana wished she could’ve brought her girlfriend over, if not as a lover, then as a friend.

“Come on, let’s eat,” Mrs. Minatozaki gestured for her to sit as the others start getting comfortable themselves.

Eunha looked at her as she patted the seat next to her with a smile. Sana went and sat next to her mother instead, and across Eunha.

They started eating and Sana’s mother started all the small talk. “So, how’s Korea? Are you adjusting just fine? You mentioned your friends, where are they right now?”

“Korea’s just fine. I’m starting to get used to the environment and my friends are in Kyoto right now, visiting Momo’s family.”

“Momo’s a nice one, isn’t she?”

“They all are,” Sana smiled. “Nayeon and Jeongyeon’s the oldest, but sometimes they act like they’re children. Momo’s funny because she always gets confused over the smallest things. Jihyo’s like our leader. She takes care of us and is the levelheaded one we can always count on. Mina’s quiet most of the time, along with Tzuyu, but they can get just as crazy too. Chaeyoung usually tells jokes nobody else but Jeongyeon finds funny. But the way she laughs about it makes it fun.”

The Japanese smiled brightly with the thought of her friends as she sliced the piece of her egg and shoved it in .

Eunha counted with her fingers and looked at Sana. “What about the other one? I thought there were eight of them, but you only mentioned seven.”

“A-ah, the seventh one is Dahyun. She’s...” Sana paused on her eating and thought about her words. “She’s my favorite. I get along with her really well, and it seems like we understand each other even without saying anything.”

Sana had this look about her when she spoke about Dahyun, and Eunha was able to sense that the girl she spoke of was different than her other friends. Eunha thought of her first impression of Dahyun the day they had that breakfast. Her thoughts were clouded, therefore she didn’t particularly get a good observation of her. She remembered thinking how the girl would look at Sana with great focus whenever she spoke, as if she was about to say something very important. Eunha didn’t think much of it then, but now that she did, she could sense as well how Dahyun’s look would change when she spoke with Sana.

The younger one shook her thoughts away, dismissing it and concluded that she was probably thinking too much of it. Eunha continued to eat, while Mrs. Minatozaki conversed with her daughter.

“Do you have a boyfriend?” the mother asked.

Eunha and Sana simultaneously coughed with food in their mouths. They looked at each other with a hint of confusion to the other’s reaction.

Sana cleared and turned to her mother, “I-I don’t.”

Mrs. Minatozaki narrowed her eyes with suspicion. “You live on your own now. I find it hard to believe you don’t have a love life. Is it because I’m your mother that you won’t tell me? You’re young, I know it’s something I can’t avoid. Someday, you’re going to get married and I wouldn’t even know how that came to be. It would be nice if you confided in your mother once in a while.”

“Mom!” Sana whined. “How can you talk about marriage already? I’m still in college. Can we please talk about something else?” She looked down on her plate to finish the rest of her meal.

Her mother huffed and turned to Eunha. “How about you, Eunha-chan? Do you have a boyfriend?”

Eunha shyly shook her head without looking up at her.

“Really? Do you have someone you like?”

The younger one glanced up at Sana for a moment, then looked down at her plate again. “Yes. But… I don’t think that person likes me back.”

The mother sighed. “What’s wrong with the guys in this world? They can’t even see beauty when it’s right in front of them. How can he not like you?” She shook her head.

Once they finished their breakfast, Eunha offered to do the dishes, but the mother refused. “You two go and catch up with each other. You haven’t seen each other in so long,” she said.

Sana and Eunha walked out without a destination in mind. The older one walked briskly, therefore the short Eunha had to lightly jog every once in a while to catch up to her.

Not a word was said for about 15 minutes. They merely walked together, and somehow ended up at a park they frequented in. It was as if their feet brought them there without much thought. It wasn’t until they got there that Sana first spoke.

“Do you remember when we used to stop by here after school?” she said. Taking a look around then, Sana thought how amazing that park was to her back then. But now, even as that same park remained unchanged, its elegance somewhat faded away. To her, the slide was just a normal slide, the swings as normal swings, and the grass looked withered and lonely.

Eunha looked at her surroundings and nodded. “Yeah. I come here every now and then. It hasn’t changed since you left, has it?”

“Not at all.”

“Remember how you always tripped whenever we came here?” Eunha chuckled. “In the same spot too.”

“What do you mean? I don’t trip everytime.”

“Yes, you do. Then you would whine about it for 5 minutes and start laughing again.”

“That’s nonsense,” she mumbled. Sana walked towards the swings, then as if on cue, she tripped on her own foot and fell.

Eunha ran towards her and helped her up. “Are you okay?”

Sana nodded. “Argh, this rock.” She kicked the ground.

The younger one looked down, “There’s no rock there.”

“T-that’s because I kicked it already.”

She snickered, “You still haven’t changed.”

“Whatever,” the Japanese sat down on one of the swings. Eunha sat on the one next to it.

“I’m sorry,” Sana sighed.

“W-what? Why are you apologizing? I should be the one doing so. I caused you trouble all this time.”

“Because… I can’t reciprocate your feelings.”

Eunha turned to look at her, but Sana remained her gaze on the horizon in front of her.

“I just can’t like you the way I did before,” Sana continued. “I can’t lie to myself and say I didn’t doubt it. I thought about your confession for a long time, but I just don’t feel the same way. I already have somebody I love very much.”

“Is it Dahyun?”

The Japanese looked at her, surprised. “How did you know?”

“It’s obvious. I’ve known you for so long, I’d be disappointed if I couldn’t tell from the way you talked about her.” Eunha heaved a deep sigh and swung her legs back and forth. “I’m happy for you. She’s a lucky person to have you. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous. It makes me sad to think that I may have been too late. That if I accepted you back then, we’d be happy together. Like how we were back then.”

“We can still be like that. But as friends.”

“Can we really?”

Sana got up and stood in front of her. She crouched down at her eye-level and smiled with sincerity. “Why not?”

“Don’t you hate me?”

“I don’t hate you, Eunha. I can never hate you, and believe me,