Even if I fall asleep deeply

The unfamiliar atmosphere surrounding me wakes me up

At the next station

We'll finally get to see each other

We'll get to meet

- “Like Water” by Wendy -

…

“If you’re going to stick with me through this life and the next, then be a song.” 

…

Unnie.

Hmm?

Unnie. 

Joohyun feels gentle fingers on her cheek, and she wants to keep them there. She places her wrinkled palm over them, nuzzling in their warmth - though not as warm as the chuckle that follows. She loves that voice. That voice that sounds like the sun and stars. Something cosmic and inexplicable. 

“Unnie.”

“Hmm?”

“Don’t you want to get up now?”

Joohyun whines. It’s hard to get up nowadays. But she does it anyway, eyes opening slowly.

She wants to see her. 

She wants to see her so much. 

“Good morning, unnie.” 

Seungwan.

Her Seungwan.

She tightens her hold on Seungwan’s palm, still on her cheek. 

“Is this… a dream?” Joohyun asks. 

Seungwan only smiles, brushing away Joohyun’s greying strands from her face, before cradling her other cheek. 

Sunlight pours through her open window and falls on Seungwan in the most marvellous way, and she looks absolutely ethereal. Her eyes have formed into crescents, and her hands feel so, so warm. 

“Are you… a dream?” Joohyun croaks, eyes beginning to sting and redden.  

With her face in between Seungwan’s palms, she feels so much like a child again. 

She missed this.

She missed her so, so much. 

“Unnie,” Seungwan says tenderly, wiping away her tears, “you don’t have to cry anymore.”

“Wan-ah,” Joohyun says, sobbing and clutching at her fingers. “Wan-ah.”

Don’t cry anymore, unnie. 

…

When Joohyun wakes up, there are dried tear tracks on her face. Fresh tears spill, and she hastily wipes them away.

She asked me not to cry anymore. 

She breathes in, and breathes out. And starts her morning.

It goes like this: 

A light stretch. 

A shower.

A change of clothes. Something light and easy.

And then, a song. 

Her song. 

Her.

But it isn’t there. 

Joohyun’s eyes widen as she searches around the Crosley player, beginning to look behind the table when she hears humming. 

It’s soft at first. 

So soft, one might have thought they imagined it. 

But Joohyun picks up on those notes. She knows them by heart - that same heart beating wildly in her chest as she walks towards that voice, like a sailor drawn in by a siren. 

She’s always been drawn to her. 

The increasingly clear humming is accompanied by the smell of tea and coffee, wafting from the kitchen. 

She wouldn’t change a thing. 

Joohyun stops by the entrance, and the first thing she sees is her back. 

She’s moving around pouring tea into a mug, her melodic voice finishing the last bits of the song. 

“Wan-ah,” Joohyun says, stepping into the kitchen. 

“Unnie.” 

She turns, and she is absolutely breathtaking. It almost makes Joohyun want to stop, to keep her feet planted on the ground. Just so she can stare, and stare. But she doesn’t. She doesn’t want that. 

She breaks out into a run, as much as that small space allows, and crashes into willing arms. 

“You’re home,” Joohyun says breathily.

“I’m home,” Seungwan returns. 

I’m home.