It was a warm summer day and Moonbyul can feel beads of sweat trickle down the line of her back. Her shirt stuck to her front as she lifted the heavy box closer to herself, trying her best not to drop it.

 

“Unnieeee,” she whined. “Why is this so heavy?”

 

Before she even had time to react, she felt the weight taken off her arms and a certain chubby-cheeked girl took over the mission of moving the box from the bedroom to the living room of the fairly sized apartment.

 

“It’s all of my photo albums and personal stuff,” she said as she made it look so easy carrying the box, showing no sign of her previous back injury.

 

Moonbyul followed the other woman to the living room when she noticed ‘Yong’ and ‘Ddun’ written all over the said box. “Of course,” she mumbled and smiled at the other person’s antics.

 

As soon as the box was put down, Moonbyul hurriedly sat on the floor and began digging through the contents like a child trying to find their favourite toy.

 

“Yah!!!” The shorter girl protested. “I just packed that up. What are you doing?!” she said, sounding rather exasperated by what she was witnessing.

 

Moonbyul just gave a cheeky smile and said, “I just want to look at your photo albums. I’ll put them all back neatly and in time for the moving truck.” She looked up to get an affirmation only to receive a disapproving look instead.

 

“Please?” she added with a pout.

 

Yongsun sighed, shook her head, and walked away. The younger one took that as a yes and felt like Christmas came early. She just had to make sure that she packs it all up before the truck arrives so as not to stress her Yongsun-unnie any further since she knows how the move to her new apartment had not been quite a smooth ride for the other woman.

 

Moonbyul was happily going through a baby photo album, ensuring that she has snapped a photo of every single picture for research purposes, when a pink album with a sunflower cover caught her eye. I wonder what that is? She thought to herself as she reached out to grab it.

 

The first few photos were pictures of the two of them from pre-debut days, always attached at the hip. It made Moonbyul’s heart skip a beat. Her eyes brightened with the memories of both fun and the hard work. A sense of nostalgia has taken over her being and she breathed shallow breaths as she fought back tears.

 

She flicked through the other pages and began to realise that there seemed to be a recurring theme. Yongsun and Moonbyul. Yongkong and Byulkong. Moon and Sunrise. An album full of photos of just the two of them. Her Ddun even went out of her way to print some of the pictures they took with her phone camera. Her Ddun. She scoffed. I wish. She said to herself as she started packing everything up again.

 

The moving truck arrived and picked up the remaining items in Yongsun’s old apartment to move them to her new one.

 

Moonbyul headed home and had a restless night as she spent most of it wondering if Yongsun had two other separate photo albums with just her and the maknaes. She had the slightest bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, Yongsun liked her back.

--

She hates doing anything in the summer because she sweats really easily but Moonbyul will even try to turn the world upside-down for Yongsun. She was there to help pack stuff and she will not miss the opportunity to also help unpack the remainder of the older woman’s belongings as she settles in the new apartment.

 

As she was putting things away as told, she noticed the ring that she previously had given the Mamamoo members. Yongsun’s was just sitting in the drawer next to her bed. She pinched her lips together as she tried not to mind the constricting feeling in her chest and convinced herself that there must be a good reason why she had not seen Yongsun wear it.

 

“Byul?” Yongsun called as she poked her head in, looking for the younger woman. Her face seemed to have dropped upon seeing Moonbyul and started to walk towards her, only stopping a few inches away from the other girl.

 

“Our Byul,” Yongsun said and started wiping the sweat off of Moonbyul’s forehead. “You really worked hard today, huh?”

 

Moonbyul swears she was just about to pass out right there and then. The scent of Yongsun’s perfume had her head swimming with the desire to lean into the shorter girl’s touch. She was losing control of how much affection she had for the woman and her breathing stopped momentarily when their gazes landed on each other.

 

Yongsun stopped her movements and cupped Moonbyul’s face with one hand. “Thank you,” she said.

 

For a couple of seconds, Moonbyul contemplated leaving her comfort zone and risking it all. She wanted to kiss Yongsun so much it physically pained her not to do so.

 

But then Yongsun cleared and took a step back. “Dinner time!” she exclaimed, flashing her famous Squirtle smile before walking out of the room.

 

Moonbyul sighed and followed the leader, still hyper-aware of the sensation that the earlier skinship had left.

 

Throughout dinner, Yongsun had just been complaining about how it was taking forever to get their internet connection sorted whilst Moonbyul just nodded and reacted absent-mindedly, failing to get rid of the mental fuzziness caused by an affectionate Kim Yongsun.

 

How am I supposed to survive sleeping over tonight?

 

She barely did. Yongsun ended up hugging her from behind as soon as she turned the opposite way.

--

“Unnie! What’s the wifi password?! Did you change it?!” Moonbyul called out when she found out she can’t connect her phone to Yongsun’s newly installed internet.

 

Call her a masochist but despite the fact that she sometimes feels like she is in a one-sided love affair, Moonbyul still chooses to hang around the other woman.

 

They had been spending a lot more time together now that the popular K-pop girl group is on a break and Moonbyul had been seizing every opportunity to spend time with the love of her life. Hopeless.

 

Moonbyul was sitting on the couch and she felt the space next to her dip as she heard Yongsun say, “Give me your phone, I’ll enter it.”

 

Moonbyul just gave her a puzzled look but gave her phone anyway. She will just ask over dinner why the password was changed. For now, she needs to go online with her mates to play.

 

After a while, when Yongsun was busy making their food, curiosity got the best of Moonbyul as she took out her other phone and tried to connect it to the wifi, guessing what the password was on her own.

 

After an insurmountable amount of failed tries, she thought of the most ludicrous idea and typed ‘Moonbyul’.

 

Connected. Moonbyul could not believe her eyes. went dry and she almost could hear her heart beating in her ears. She had to see something for herself. She had to think, and she had to think fast.

 

“Yong! Can I please borrow your laptop?!” she called out to the other woman in the kitchen.

 

“Yeah! It’s in the filming room!”

--

Yongsun called her early the next day complaining how none of her devices seemed to connect to the internet so Moonbyul rushed to aid like the knight in shining armour that she had always been. Or at least always tried to be.

 

“I don’t know what’s going on! I have a Youtube live later and I need internet. How come you can connect your phones?!” Yongsun said as she frantically kept typing the password over and over on her laptop while Moonbyul was standing beside her.

 

“What about your old password?”

 

“I already tried that too.”

 

“And the new one?” Moonbyul asked as she crouched next to Yongsun who was now almost slumping in her chair.

 

“I have been trying that and it’s not working,” she said as she faced Moonbyul, clearly stressed and eyes b with tears.

 

The younger of the two couldn’t help but reach out and tuck the older one’s hair behind her ear. “Hey, it’s okay. It will work.”

 

For a short moment, there was silence. Moonbyul wondered if there is a way to turn back time and undo what she did but she knew this was an opportunity that was certainly too good to miss.

 

“I love you," Moonbyul blurted out.

 

Different emotions flashed in Yongsun’s eyes, so fast that Moonbyul failed to interpret each one of them. I must just be overthinking everything, goddammit. She scolded herself.

 

She cleared and tried to swallow the tears that were threatening to spill. “I love you. Try it. For the password,” she blurted awkwardly like a child speaking their first full sentence.

 

Yongsun didn’t utter a word and just did as told. It worked.

 

She turned to look at Moonbyul again. “You- How-?”

 

Moonbyul fought back the urge to raise an eyebrow. She was glad she wasn’t the only one who forgot how to talk like an adult.

 

Yongsun tried to continue, “You changed the password? So you figured out what the new pa-“ Her eyes grew as realisation kicked in.

 

“Yeah.”

 

When Moonbyul figured their conversation had ended, she stood up. Although still confused by the mixed signals that the older woman had been sending her way, she was ready to take her broken heart home. “I think you’re all set for later. I’m going to go ahead now. Goodluck.”

 

She was making her way out of the door when she heard rushed footsteps behind her.

 

“Byul.”

 

Moonbyul turned around to find Yongsun on her feet looking the most vulnerable she’d ever been.

 

“I love you too.”

 

Connected. Moonbyul figured out the password and now she’s connected to Yongsun in ways she once upon a time only every imagined.