“I want to die.”

Yongsun looks at her sternly. “Don’t say that Byulyi.”

“Sorry, I meant I want to sleep for a long long time and shirk all my responsibilities.” Byulyi puts her head down on the cafeteria table and revels for a moment at the fact that it’s not sticky.

“Well, don’t. You said you were going to graduate with me, and I don’t want to be held back another year.”

Byulyi groans, forehead still stuck to the table. “I need to stop promising you things.”

Yongsun shrugs. “You won’t.” She finishes clicking on her laptop and moves it to the side to finally give Byulyi her attention.

“Is it that project you’ve been groaning about for weeks?”

Byulyi’s head flies upward. There’s a big red splotch on her forehead where she was leaning on it and Yongsun congratulates herself for holding back her laughter.

“Yes! I have critique next Monday and I, I looked at my photos and I don’t even know if I like any of them.” Byulyi slouches in defeat. “The concept seems so weak…”

“I thought it was pretty good though?” Yongsun pouts. “’Bursts of Emotion’ sounds exciting!”

Byulyi rests her head back on the table. “Maybe I just at following through.”

Yongsun rolls her eyes. “Ugh don’t be like this Byul, my budgeting assignment is already depressing enough.”

Byulyi rolls her head to the side to look up at her. “For your tourism class right? Budget for what?”

“A group trip to Switzerland.”

“Switzerland! Unnie that sounds fun.”

Yongsun beams. “I know right? I picked it because you said you wanted to go there you know.”

Byulyi feels a smile warming her face. Yongsun always remembered the little things.

“I’ll know all about it by the time I’m done. Let’s go there right after we graduate.”

Byulyi curls her pinky around Yongsun’s and shakes. “It’s a promise.”

--

“Moon Byulyi what in the world are you doing at 3AM!” A disheveled girl pounds on the door of the tenant living directly above her.

The previous thudding and scraping comes to sudden halt. Silence.

“Byul, open this door or I’ll—" She’s cut off by crashing noises emanating from the door in front of her. It swings open to a girl standing, staggered with her hair in a messy ponytail and sweat on her brow. Yongsun is stupefied by her appearance, not because it’s kind of y or anything (it totally is), but because there’s a mountain of, well, everything behind her.

“Uh, hey.” Byulyi greets her lamely.

Yongsun crosses her arms. “What are you doing in the middle of the night? It looks like that time you invited everyone over for charades in here.”

True to word, the couch is pushed to the corner of the living room, and all the (dead) house plants are trapped behind it. The table is leaning against the wall with legs sticking up just begging to be tripped over. Byulyi’s numerous dense photography books are piled on the ground and the bookshelf is empty. There’s a trail of random items leading back to Byulyi’s room and with a passing glance, Yongsun can see that her mattress is leaning against the closet door.

Byulyi feels like a misbehaving child while Yongsun scans her living space. “I was just reorganizing, sorry if I woke you up. Though, if I was loud enough to wake you I feel really bad for the neighbors—Ow!”

Yongsun punches her hard in the arm, enough for Byulyi to realize that she’s in real trouble. “This is more than a little bit of reorganizing, Byulyi.” She runs a hand through her hair. “Don’t you have an exam tomorrow? You should be a getting sleep.”

“It’s just a gen-ed, I don’t have to care about it too much.” Byulyi shrugs.

“You should care about all your classes.” Yongsun gives her a look. She sighs and takes Byulyi’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“Uh, what? Go where?” She asks, but she’s already unconsciously interlacing their fingers.

“You’re staying with me tonight, I see your mattress is…unavailable. You need to sleep so you don’t forget that brain of yours tomorrow.” Yongsun flicks her forehead. “I’ll help you clean this up later.”

Byulyi considers the mess around her for a moment before a yawn takes over and she concedes.

They stumble downstairs, and Byulyi has to nudge Yongsun a couple of times because she’s sleeping on her feet, but they don’t let go of each other’s hands the whole time.

*

Wheeinie (6.37AM):

        Unnie

Wheeinie (6:37AM):

        Wtf did you do to the apratment???????

*

“So, I’m changing my motif.”

Wheein’s stops molesting her drink straw with her tongue and stares at Byulyi, jaw hanging open. The two were currently sitting at the café near the middle of campus. Byulyi had promised her junior lunch for upheaving all their furniture.

“Unnie what? Your crit is in two days, what the hell do you mean you’re changing your motif?”

Byulyi rubs her eyes and has to seriously contemplate whether or not she wants to go through with telling her best friend. Second best friend. It’s hugely embarrassing, but maybe worse is that she knows Wheein will be incredibly smug. “My theme is still the same I just…Okay some happened last night.”

Wheein makes a ‘go on’ gesture.

“I flipped out and turned the apartment upside-down,” Wheein interjects with an annoyed ‘yeah I know’ that Byulyi decides to ignore. “Then Yongsun caught me and she remembered I had a final today—”

“How’d that go?”

“I probably passed. Anyway she got all cute and responsible on me and made me sleep with her because my mattress was upright. Is still upright.”

“Okay, so you’re gay for each other. What does that have to do with you trying to burn all the work you’ve done for this project so far?”

When Byulyi doesn’t give her usual, totally convincing, ‘I’m not gay for her’ retort and just bites her lip, Wheein actually slams her drink down on the table. “Are you…wait, wait. What is going on with you?” She looks incredulous but the corner of is twitching, so Byulyi knows she’s just trying not to grin.

Byulyi presses her palm against her forehead. “Okay let me just, I didn’t sleep last night. But look at this first. I just need to make sure of something.”

She turns over her phone and opens her photo albums. She flips through one and slides it over to Wheein, who still isn’t sure if she’s allowed to smile now, but this is the juicy development she had been waiting for for three years now. She swipes through the photos.

“These are all the pictures you spent a semester taking for your final right? They’re pretty good.”

“Thanks!” Byulyi preens at the compliment, before remembering what her point was. “Wait, no. How do they make you feel ?” Byulyi holds her hands open.

Wheein traces back through the photos one at a time. “Uhh, this one is happy, this one is also pretty happy, this one looks kind of somber, this one is happy too, this one is—”

“Alright you can stop.” Byulyi takes her phone back and flips through her gallery. “You’re not feeling things, you’re saying whatever emotion is probably in the photo. Surface level. My theme is supposed to be ‘bursting’ right? Almost none of these pictures evoke anything other that “this is what’s going on in this picture” thought.” Byulyi dramatically throws her head back. “I need it to be more.”

“Not really? Not at this point. It should be deep but it doesn’t have to be that deep.” Wheein leans back and crosses her arms. “Just how are you going to conjure up a semester’s worth of work in literally a day? Don’t be insane. And stop being such a drama queen.” Wheein eyes the defeated slump in front of her.

“I’m not being insane.”

So you are being dramatic, Wheein thinks.

Byulyi retrieves her phone and opens another album before sliding it over again. “I have another series of photos that spans over a semester long, years worth of photos,” Byulyi makes a grand arc with her hands, “and I was too stupid to realize this is the exact ‘bursting’ of emotions that I wanted.”

Wheein sees the picture thumbnails and the album title. “Are you serious? You have a dedicated album for Yongsun-unnie? Holy there’s over 5000.” Wheein looks up with suspicion. “You’re still trying to tell me you’re not in love with her?”

“Just look through the photos.”

Wheein eyes her senior but does as she’s told and flicks through a couple of the album photos before she stops. “I don’t really want to look through this.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know? Yongsun-unnie is so cute though,” she swipes to a photo. “Reminds me of how warm she is…” She stares for a moment before swiping to another “Some of them…” Wheein stops at a picture of Yongsun half-awake, sheets torn off by what she assumes is Byulyi’s hand. Despite the obvious rude awakening, Yongsun’s eyes are crescents and Wheein can almost hear the laughter bubbling from . “Ick, I feel like a voyeur.”

Byulyi’s eyes are bright when Wheein looks up again. She heaves a resigned sigh and smiles. “…I think I get what you mean though.”

Byulyi nods vigorously and takes her phone back. She starts flipping through a couple of the pictures. “It’s weird right? I have all these pictures of her and they’re pulling these reactions from people and I’ve never even noticed. I think it’s just because I didn’t want to share this...”

She’s staring at her phone screen now, a photo she took last night when she though her heart was going to beat out of her chest. When she felt arms tighten around her and felt something explode within her and it made her so happy and warm that she felt fireworks blooming from her chest. Only her will to capture the moment was strong enough to tear her from the moment, let her gently slip out of that warm embrace, and fumble in the darkness for the extra camera she usually kept at Yongsun’s place. Thank god, Yongsun was a heavy sleeper.

“How are you gonna display it?” Wheein interrupts her thoughts.

“I’ll probably drop 70,000won and die at the print studio today.” Wheein nods in understanding. She herself had spent all of last night cooped up in the painting studio. “I have something else I need to talk to you about though.”

Wheein tilts her head, curiosity glinting in her eyes. Byulyi slides her phone over one last time.

It’s the picture she had been staring at, the one of Yongsun from last night. Her expression is peaceful and her hair frames her face in beautiful brown waves. The background is blurry, but every detail of the sleeping girl is present and the longer Wheein looks at the photo, the more uncomfortable she becomes. She feels a curling at the bottom of her stomach and mumbles, “This is like—”

“Like the feeling of being in love.” Byulyi admits, finally.

*

Ddun Ddun (5:53PM):

        Where are you?

Moonfart (6:01PM0:

        Uhhhh nowhere

Ddun Ddun (6:01PM):

        :/

        Well, be somewhere and come get dinner with me

Moonfart (6:02PM):

        Omg yong<3 <3

        No can do though, i’m working on my project

Ddun ddun (6:05PM):

        Oh

        I can bring you some food? Where are you, really

Moonfart (6:07):

        Don’t worry about it, i’ll eat eventually

        Wheein’s with me so skipping a meal would be impossible lol

        Enjoy your dinner! <3

*

Hyejin snaps her fingers in the face of the woman across from her.

“Oi, unnie. Anyone in there?”

Yongsun blinks out of her thoughts and pouts. “Don’t snap at me.”

“Don’t pretend like I’m not here then.” Hyejin rolls her eyes. She and Yongsun having dinner together wasn’t anything new, they were roommates after all. Yongsun asking her out to dinner however…that only meant one thing.

“Awww, did I make Hyegi feel lonely?” Yongsun cooed and reached to squeeze her face but Hyejin batted her off.

“Agh! Stop that! Please unnie, as if I’m the one that’s lonely here. Did you and Byulie-unnie fight again?”

Yongsun sputters for a moment. “No!”

Hyejin stares.

“Really, we didn’t!” Yongsun huffs. “She’s busy today, that’s all.”

Hyejin gives her another look and Yongsun throws up her hands.

“She’s just fulfilling her starving artist image I guess. Cooped up in whatever studio and she wouldn’t tell me which one. I even offered to buy her dinner but she just, refused! Me! Usually around now she’d be begging me to keep her company through those horrid all-nighters she puts herself through. But she hasn’t called, or texted, and I,” Yongsun pauses her rant to take a deep breath. “Am I crazy?”

“Um, kind of.” Hyejin answers, a bit bewildered by such a torrent of words. “Don’t you usually think it’s kind of nice when she isn’t super clingly? I don’t get what the big deal is this time.”

Yongsun bites her lip. She loathes to admit it, and it’s a petty thought, but she can’t help it needling in her mind. “She’s with Wheein.”

Wheein, her own friend, and Byulyi’s precious little junior. She loves her, and Byulyi loves her. They love Wheein, adorable, sassy, gorgeous Wheein. Yongsun had asked once if Byulyi had ever considered it, back when they were still in their second year, but Byulyi merely laughed and said Wheein was like a sister to her.

Yongsun once thought of Byulyi like a sister.

But it wasn’t even right of Yongsun to feel jealous of that. Byulyi was only her best friend, her number one in the whole world, but she wasn’t her girlfriend. So what if Byulyi didn’t ask for her company for a day, she wasn’t so easily replaced.

Except she was. By Wheein.

“I’m so petty right now.” Yongsun dropped her head in her hands.

Hyejin popped a spoon out of . “I think you using that big brain of yours for the wrong things again. Also, doesn’t Wheein have a crush on me or something?”

Yongsun’s head snapped up. Duh, Wheein had a crush on her roommate. Yongsun and Byulyi had been goading the younger woman into make a move the entire semester. Byulyi wouldn’t be so encouraging if she was harboring secret feelings, she was too bad of an actor. Yongsun could read her like a book. She laughed in relief. Why was she being such a worrywart? Wheein and Byulyi are friends, and are both in the art department. Of course they would be working on finals together. And Wheein liked Hyejin, not-

“Wait. Who told you Wheein had a crush on you?”

Hyejin raises a single brow. “You did?”

Yongsun claps a hand over . “I did not…” She whispers in disbelief.

“Uh, yeah, you did. We were drinking,” Hyejin pauses and scrunches her brow, trying to remember. “Or, I was drinking. You only took a sip.”

Yongsun squeezes her eyes shut. Alcohol, her ultimate undoing.

“And you kept going on about how weird it was that I was single. And then you were all ‘Byulie told me she’s got a cute roommate who’s tooootally in love with you’ and you know,” Hyejin gestures vaguely, “Byulyi-unnie only has one roommate.”

“Oh my god.” Yongsun lets her head fall on the table.

*

Ddun Ddun (8:23PM):

        Byul, I spilled the beans ;-;

Moonfart (8:34PM):

        What?

        What beans?

Ddun Ddun (8:39PM):

        All of them ;o;

Moonfart (8:40PM):

        Did you drop your jjajangmyeon or something?

Ddun Ddun (8:40PM)

        Apparently Hyejin knows Wheein likes her and apparently I TOLD HER

Moonfart (8:42PM):

        Holy

        That’s all the beans

Ddun Ddun (8:43PM):

        Please don’t tell her I told

        Byul please

Moonfart (8:47PM):

        Oops :(

*

Comanie (8:50PM):

        >:((((

        Unnie you suc i h8 u >:’(((((

Decal (8:51PM):

        I’m sorry ToT

        Please forgive me

        Please forgibe me bc Hyejin said I should tell you to ask her out sometime

        Wheein?

Comanie (9:17PM):

        WTF unnie

        I love u

*

“Missed me?” Byulyi singsongs as she strides into the apartment.

Yongsun jumps from where she’s potato-ing on the couch. “Byul! Don’t just barge in!” She gasps, holding her heart.

“Oh? I can leave.” Byulyi teases, knowing Yongsun would never kick her out. Especially since she’d been MIA for the past two days. Yongsun may try to act unaffected, but Byulyi could see she missed her just as much.

“Don’t be a , Byul-ah.” Yongsun beckons her over to the couch and effectively spoons her from the side. The contact makes Byulyi’s heartrate spike in anticipation. She shifts and slides an arm around Yongsun’s shoulders and all too suddenly their faces are centimeters apart.

They bask in the silence of merely being together again. Yongsun briefly wonders if this is it, if this is the moment it all finally changes, when Byulyi cracks a grin and taps her chin.

“I have something to show you.” She leans them forward.

After a bit of resistance, Yongsun relents and follows the girl up, out towards the door, but not without a handful of complaints. She had wanted to cuddle more.

As they ascend, Yongsun asks, “How was your critique?”

Byulyi’s ecstatic expression brushes the residual laziness off of Yongsun’s bones. “It was great! The best I’ve ever gotten.” She briefly nuzzles into the crook of Yongsun’s neck and the older girl feels her hairs stand up on end. “It’s all thanks to you.”

“Me? I didn’t do anything.” Yongsun pouts in confusion. “You didn’t even tell me what you were doing.”

They come to a stop at the front of Byulyi’s door but she doesn’t make a move to go in. Yongsun runs a hand along her arm. “Byul?”

Byulyi turns to arrest Yongsun’s gaze and she says her next words very carefully, and softly, so Yongsun has to lean closer to hear.

“It’s just because it’s always you, Yong. In the end, everything from me is to you.” Byulyi confesses, and takes the hand on her arm with one hand while the other pushes her door open.

All the furniture that they had spent the weekend putting back into place is no where to be seen, and Yongsun almost wheels around in frustration, but then she sees all the frames covering the walls.

“It’ll be installed in the gallery down the street next week, but I wanted to give you a private showing beforehand. Actually, now that I think about it I didn’t even ask if this was okay with you. I hope you don’t mind it. I had all these picture and they were just-“

“Bursting with emotion.” Yongsun finished. All around the room, hung on white walls, were pictures of herself. At different points of time they were captured, but in her reflections in the photos, Yongsun could vividly remember what she was feeling as they were being taken.

“Yeah. Yes.” Byulyi affirmed. She keeps talking as Yongsun looks around the room in awe. “Yongsun, I know we kind of dance around this a lot but, we’re graduating this week. And I know we’ve talked about doing things together afterwards, but I.” Byulyi tightens her grip on her hand. “I want us to be together. Always.”

“I can’t believe you showed everyone all these pictures of me.” Yongsun starts, and Byulyi has an apology on her lips but Yongsun continues. “Now they all know.” She mumbles, her hand squeezing back.

“Know…?” Byulyi prods, unsure.

“They all know how much I love you.”

Byulyi’s face flushes a few shades darker. “Oh.” She responds weakly and trembles back into a grin.

“Byul-ah.” Yongsun tugs her and brings her closer. “Bursting from emotion indeed. Do you know what I can do to relieve some of this emotion?” She smiles conspiratorially.

Byulyi expression shifts to the same. She slides her arms around Yongsun’s waist as the shorter girl tiptoes to throw her arms over her shoulders.

“I can think of a couple of ways.”

--

“So where are all your things anyway?” Yongsun asks while they’re snuggling back in Yongsun’s clean, furnished living room.

“Most of it’s in my room. The couch is in Wheein’s.”

“Wheein’s tiny broom closet? How’d you get her to agree with that?”

“Well, since you exposed her, I figured there was no point in being shady anymore, so I set them up for today.”

“Wow…” Yongsun stares off blankly. “I wish someone did that for us.”

Byulyi pats her on the head gently. “Wheein tried, Yong. Wheein tried.”

--

“So,” Hyejin starts, staring at the small girl sitting across from her.

Wheein can only respond with a nervous giggle. She knew Hyejin was nowhere near as intimidating as her looks, but she could feel the sharpness of her gaze cutting in to her and wow, was it hot in here?

“You’re kind of shy aren’t you?” Hyejin asks, noticing Wheein’s discomfort.

“Ah, sorry, yeah. You, you’re really beautiful.” So beautiful I could die , Wheein doesn’t say out loud.

Hyejin smiles sweetly and Wheein feels like she could melt.

“I’m really glad you think that, Wheein-sshi. To be honest…” She runs a finger down her glass of ice water. Wheein, watches the condensation collect on her finger, enraptured.

“To be honest, Wheein,” Hyejin says again, dropping all honorifics and Wheein’s eyes snap back to her face. “You’re just my type.” She dabs her finger on her napkin before lightly placing her hand on Wheein’s, clasped in front of her.

“Let’s be girlfriends.” She says confidently.

Byulie-unnie. Wheein prays, as she feels acrylic nails press on her skin and another nervous laugh slide pass her lips, I owe you my life.