Mina and Jeongyeon

 

 „Hey, I should go home…“, Mina said, clenching her hands around the hem of her shirt. Jeongyeon was sitting on the couch and blankly staring at the TV screen. Too tired to even respond. To drained out to even just look at Mina. Instead, she just nodded and switched the channel.

 Mina knew she wasn’t really paying attention to what happened on the screen. She was somewhere else. In her own world. As always.

 Mina also knew she used to be part of that world. Used to be. Nowadays, she just received reminder after reminder that she wasn’t anymore. She wasn’t the Mina she used to be when Jeongyeon and her had started dating. She wasn’t the Mina Jeongyeon fell in love with but all this time she’d quietly hoped that she could become that person again. 

 She let out a huge burdened sigh, knowing Jeongyeon could hear it and knowing that Jeongyeon was aware of its root. 

But she didn’t say anything. Once again. She didn’t ask „what’s wrong, babe?“, because she knew the answer already. She didn’t try to have an open conversation with Mina about what had changed and what they could change to become the happy couple they used to be when the semester started. 

 Mina opened the door, and when the lock clicked shut, she felt as if she had- once more- locked Jeongyeon out from her heart. 

 As soon as Jeongyeon heard Mina’s footsteps fading out she turned off the TV and got up from the couch.

 She felt horrible and empty. The relationship that had given her energy and life had now taken everything and more away from her again.

She wanted nothing more than to break up with Mina. A nice and clean break up. But she couldn’t. And she knew that what she was doing in this very moment, not talking to Mina and trying to dodge the topic as soon as she could bring it up, was worse than breaking up over text.

Maybe, it was a tiny little bit of her heart that still held onto Mina and the relationship that had worked so well for the last couple of months. Or maybe it was just Jeongyeon being afraid that Mina couldn’t handle the breakup because she knew how soft and sensitive she was.

 But Jeongyeon couldn’t bring herself to say the five words she so desperately wanted to pronounce. 

She walked over to the window and pushed the ugly lilac curtain’s her mom chose after she kicked her dad out aside and watched Mina walking away from the house. The drizzling weather made the scenery look even sadder and Jeongyeon quickly drew the curtains. 

 The apartment seemed too empty all of a sudden and she regretted letting Mina go. Whenever Mina was with Jeongyeon, Jeongyeon craved being alone because the silence she couldn’t interrupt was suffocating her. But when Mina left the silence would turn even more deafening and Jeongyeon was on her own dealing with it. 

 She gritted her teeth and grabbed her phone from the coffee table.

 Three unread messages from Nayeon🐰

 

Her heart sank and a wave of guilt hit her like a train. 

 She closed her eyes and hoped that when she’d open them the messages would just disappear.

But she knew they wouldn’t.

 

 

 

Chaeyoung and Tzuyu

 

Tzuyu was barely paying attention to Dahyun’s and Chaeyoung’s conversation. They were probably just fooling around, telling each other stupid puns and jokes only they could laugh about. 

 Sometimes, Tzuyu felt like a third-wheel around her two best friends. Her gaze wandered from Dahyun to Chaeyoung, who was taking a huge sip from her milkshake and didn’t even realize she had gotten whipped cream over her entire face. 

 In moments like this, she forgot that Chaeyoung was actually older than her. Technically just by a few months but it was something Chaeyoung never got tired of saying as if it made her really proud and Tzuyu couldn’t help but to think how cute Chaeyoung looked, whenever she smiled or laughed or basically just breathed.

 She shook her head quickly and tried to remember that she shouldn’t feel all warm inside her stomach thinking about her best friend. 

Because that’s all Tzuyu was for Chaeyoung. A best friend.

 „Hey, Tzuyu“, Chaeyoung interrupted her monologue. „What are you thinking about?“

She quickly fixed her posture and sat up a little bit.

 „Just homework.“, she lied. Dahyun raised an eyebrow at her but she chose to ignore it and hurried to add: „You know, I haven’t even started writing the essay Ms. Bae chose to torture us with.“

 Well, at least it wasn’t 100% a lie. She really had to get that essay done.

 „Oh my ing god“, Chaeyoung groaned. „I haven’t even thought of that yet… what was the topic again?“

 „Some romance stuff…“, Tzuyu mumbled under her breath before Dahyun chimed in.

 „Romance - Between dream and reality“ 

 „Right…“, Chaeyoung looked a little bitter. „I hate that topic. As if all that romance they write about in novels and fanfictions is just somewhat close to reality.“

 Dahyun chuckled.

 „I don’t think they're meant to be realistic. They’re rather an escape from reality.“

Chaeyoung nodded. 

 „In reality, no one gets a happy ending. No one tells how the stories continue after the happy ending.“

 She spat the last two words out like venom. 

 „The truth is: most relationships don’t work out and most of the time if you have a crush the feeling isn’t mutual, right Tzuyu?“

Tzuyu had woken up from her trance and nodded.

 Chaeyoung shook her head.

 „What a stupid topic… Imma go to the bathroom and afterwards we should go to the arcade and play some games to lighten the mood a little.“

 She quickly rose from their table and rushed over to the bathroom.

Tzuyu could literally feel Dahyun’s intense stare. She sighed and faced her.

 „What do you want?“

Dahyun smiled at her and placed a warm hand on Tzuyu’s shoulder.

 „You know that one day you have to tell her that you have a crush on her. You’re slowly destroying yourself if you try to keep it in.“

Tzuyu chuckled bitterly.

 „You know she’d never like me back. And besides, you heard what she said. There is no happy ending. Not for us.“