The last box of her stuff was placed in the trunk of her minivan, the door closing with a harsh shut. This was it.

Yongsun stood against the doorframe of what used to be their home together and averted Moonbyul’s gaze. “Here are the keys. I…” There were no words that could be spoken, no right ones, anyway. “I wish you a happy life,” Moonbyul finally said with a sigh. From behind Yongsun, a pair of warm, adoring eyes were tearing up.

“Mummy, why do you have to go?” Their daughter’s small, soft voice, broke her heart. She crouched down to her height and gave her a weak smile. Her hand reached out for Eun-ae, and held it tight. “You can still come to see me, my love. In fact, you’ll be staying with me every Friday and Saturday.” The nine-year-old sniffled, as though she knew what the answer to her question was. 

Love was, as all things, difficult. It was hard to tell the series of changes, the shift in the emotions and feelings, like it was in the case of college best friends to lovers, Kim Yongsun and Moon Byulyi. It had been fun when they were children, eighteen or so years ago. It had been fun when they were children, but with Eun-ae growing, they couldn’t afford to act like that anymore. She couldn’t act like that anymore. At least, not according to Yongsun, it seemed. 

So, even in the middle of the rage of a storm, she had to go. She had to go, as far away as she possibly could from Yongsun, just like she wanted. It had pained Moonbyul to think that she wouldn’t be at arm’s length when Eun-ae would be hurt, when she would cry, or when Yongsun would crave the company she always did. It would just be her, alone. The dinners would be horrible if she cooked, or cold, if she had them delivered. She would have no one.

“Just call me when you get there. And on weekends.” Yongsun’s words held no love, held no care. She had none left for Moonbyul, who could never, who refused to mature even under her dominance. 

Clear to her that her former lover did not want to talk any longer, she stuffed her hands into her pockets and nodded. “I love you, my darling.” Whether it was for Eun-ae or Yongsun, she left to their discretion. 

The clouds up ahead formed like the clouds of her thought; the rain blurred the car windows as her tears blurred her vision. She couldn’t be crying; she had to face the music. She had thirteen years; nine, Eun-ae’s age, to grow up, yet she didn’t. Moonbyul blinked, and then there was a flash. She stepped on the brakes abruptly, catching her breath. 

Had it always been so sunny? Where had the rain gone? Strange, she thought. Maybe it was an unpredicted change in the weather. A hand brushed through her shortly-chopped blonde hair and she continued to drive to her new apartment. 

Drive… She was driving, but whose car was this? Why was it so small? With caution, Moonbyul took a quick look on the backseat of her vehicle. None of the boxes were there. It was only a small luggage bag.

“What the ?” Upon looking forward, she was right where she had been sixteen years ago; the first day of senior year, at the gates of Seoul National University. A familiar face appeared on her side, knocking on the glass window. Yongsun.

Yongsun.

Only they were in college--she was in college. How?

She glanced at Yongsun with furrowed eyebrows; her hair was arranged in a row of differently colored butterfly clips and she was wearing a turtleneck and a plaid skirt. With that in mind, Moonbyul looked at what she was wearing and saw that what she had on had some obnoxious pattern on it. It was disgusting to think she used to dress so tackily before.

“I like your hair. You should’ve rang to tell me you got it cut,” spoke Yongsun once she rolled down the window. Moonbyul stared at her with her lips parted, and her then best friend laughed. “Are you going to let me in or am I going to have to walk all the way back to campus?” 

There it was; the glimmer in her eye that was long gone the last time she saw her. But that was just a few minutes ago, how could… how could she be here?

“Hey… Y-Yongsun. Yongsun. What’s the date?” Her knuckles turned white as she clenched the steering wheel with force. Yongsun gave her an eyeroll. “It’s a Monday.”

“Yeah smartass, it’s the first day of school.” Moonbyul snorted, resulting in a flick of her forehead from the senior. She moaned in pain, holding her head.

“September 14, 1987.” She held her breath. Did she just go through time? “Now, will you let me in, you little ? I swear I will strangle you once I get in.” The attitude, Moonbyul started to wonder how she fell in love with the woman Yongsun was in college. She realized, though, quickly that this was the woman Yongsun would still be in 2003. 

“Then I don’t see why I should.” She teased, but Yongsun’s arm reached for her through the window. “Oh my god, I forgot how ferocious you used to be, just get in already!” Pleased with herself, her best friend walked around the car to the passenger seat and cozied into it. 

From the corner of her eye, Moonbyul watched as Yongsun fixed her lip gloss on the overhead mirror. It was easy to forget the two of them were easily some of the most popular students at the time, especially when nineteen years had passed since they were college freshmen. 

"Summer was hell, I swear. I wanted to grab so many cold drinks because of how hot it would get but—" Subconsciously, a habit that Yongsun would grow to have even by 2003, she rubbed gently. 

"Your voice." That was the bit that Moonbyul fell in love with the most, she came to know in the future. Yongsun studied Vocal Music in college, she Psychology. It was hard to believe that she would be the very downfall of their years-long relationship when she had spent four years of her life studying human behavior. 

"Can you make me honey lemon tea at the dorm?" Moonbyul gave her a side-eye, she knew it was better to not resist Yongsun, that she would still end up having her way. But she was in college again. She was young—sixteen years younger. "Please, Byul-ah?" Her hand clung onto her free arm as they drove further into campus, into the dorms. 

With a sigh, she gave in. "Fine." Yongsun loved her fair share of lemon tea, of citrus tea, in fact. Moonbyul pinched the bridge of her nose at the thought that she wasn't able to make them anymore for her because it would've been morning by the times she came home. 

She and Yongsun weren't technically roommmates in college, but their rooms were across each other's in the hall. Moonbyul remembers being roomed with Ahn Hyejin, who was another vocal music student; Yongsun roomed with Jung Wheein, a social studies student. But more often than not, they stayed at the other room—Moonbyul and Yongsun together, Wheein and Hyejin. 

After fulfilling the promise of making Yongsun tea, Moonbyul returned to her lonesome dorm room with Hyejin gone. 

She immediately pulled out a notepad and tapped a pencil against her cheek. What had happened in 1987?

They were best friends from sophomore year and it was senior year now. Their first date, first kiss; she had to go through the trouble of doing it all over again. On the flipside, she was quite literally living through her memories. While there was no Eun-ae yet, there was them; Yongsun and Moonbyul against the world. That had to do for now. 

But how did she end up getting Yongsun? How did she manage to have the most attractive woman in SNU as her girlfriend? She wasn't easily swayed; Moonbyul knew as much, remembering all the flowers and chocolates that would remain untouched in her dorm room those years in college. 

She leaned against her wooden chair and sighed, scanning her brain for a memory. 

"Oh no!" She grumbled to herself, and grabbed her hair. What a dumb college kid she was. But if it worked on Yongsun the first time around, it had to work now. 

She tried to push away the thoughts of her plans while she sat in on the classes she already passed. Days stretched out into weeks, and she couldn't prolong it anymore, or she would lose this chance entirely.

Bundled up in a few autumn clothes, Moonbyul picked up her boombox and a cassette tape of her song choice. She was going to do it. She was doing the same thing she had done sixteen years ago. 

Moonbyul's cheeks burned with embarrassment; she couldn't possibly be doing this for a second time in her life. She tried to keep a straight face, her lips pursed as she stood still in front of the Vocal Music building of SNU, holding a boombox over her head that played Madonna's Crazy for You. 

The students flooding out of the building stared at her in fascination, in anticipation of who the Moon Byulyi could possibly be doing this for. If anyone was watching close enough for the past few years, they would've known. They would've known Moon Byulyi would only ever be attracted to Kim Yongsun. 

There she stood with her arms crossed, Yongsun watched. The music stopped after a minute of her eyes on Moonbyul.

"Kim Yongsun!" She shouted, trying to avoid eye contact. Her best friend sported a puzzled look on her face and pointed to herself. 

"Kim Yongsun,