Minjeong woke up with a huge headache, a result from drinking so much the night before. She stared up at the ceiling, before realising something.

She wasn't at home, or at Yizhuo's house.

She then realised something else.

She slept with Jimin last night.

Jimin, her crush since pretty much the beginning of her life.

Minjeong would've screamed if she was alone, but she could hear noises from outside the bedroom.

So she slowly got up and put her clothes on from the day before and left the bedroom to find Jimin in the kitchen with Aeri, the girl from the club, sitting in the living room.

"Good morning!" Aeri said with a smile. "How do you feel?"

"My head hurts." Minjeong said with a frown. "Have you seen my bag anywhere? I need my phone..."

"It's by the door." Jimin said from the kitchen. "Please stay for breakfast, Minjeong. Then we're going to take you home. There aren't any trains back home today."

"Are you sure? I don't mind getting the bus later." Minjeong said as she picked her bag up.

"You know how long the bus takes." Jimin said.

"Just stay for breakfast! Jimin makes the best pancakes. Come sit!" Aeri called, getting up to pull Minjeong to sit next to her on the couch.

Minjeong flopped down in the seat next to Aeri and got her phone from her bag, wincing at how many texts and missed calls there were from Yizhuo.

"I'm guessing from the look on your face someone was looking for you." Aeri said, leaning closer before nodding. "Yep, that's a LOT of texts."

"I should probably text her so she doesn't think I'm dead..." Minjeong said with a sigh.

"Who? Yizhuo?" Jimin asked as she entered with a big plate of pancakes for the three to share. "I texted her already, she knows you're here. She just thinks that we found you outside the club alone and brought you here to sleep it off."

"But I know what happened reeeeaaaaallyyyyyy!" Aeri laughed, then whined as she saw the two get a little shy. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone! Let's eat."

The three began eating their pancakes in silence whilst Aeri put the TV on to watch a show and they all focused their attention on that. After they finished eating, Aeri announced she needed to go to the store to get some drinks for the journey and left the two alone in the apartment.

There was an awkward silence for a while before Jimin spoke up.

"About last night... I'm sorry if you didn't like it." Jimin said. 

"I did like it." Minjeong said. "But..."

"Maybe let's not talk about it right now." Jimin said with a sigh. "As far as the rest of the world is concerned, I'm just your friend's older sister."

Minjeong felt a pain in her chest but she just nodded.

"Right, I'm Yizhuo's friend and you're her older sister." Minjeong mumbled.

Aeri came back from the store shortly after with some drinks and snacks and then the three got into Aeri's car and started the long journey to take Minjeong back home.

When Minjeong got home that day, she went straight up to her room and cried.

A few days later, Minjeong was at Yizhuo's house. She purposely hadn't gone there whilst Jimin was there because she couldn't face seeing the older girl. She was already in her thoughts constantly, seeing her in person would just make her feel worse. Jimin just saw her as Yizhuo's friend. But Minjeong saw Jimin as much more than Yizhuo's older sister.

Jimin was her long time crush. The person she had looked up to for her childhood. She always thought Jimin was so mature and grown up and she always wanted to be as well and put together as Jimin was.

But was Minjeong, sitting on Yizhuo's couch as they watched the ending to a movie.

"Let's go in the pool after this!" Yizhuo suddenly announced.

"Sure, it's a nice day for it." Minjeong said with a nod.

Twenty minutes later, the movie had ended and they were walking out to the pool when Yizhuo's eyes stopped on Minjeong's collarbone, a horrified expression on her face.

"Minjeong, what is THAT?!" Yizhuo yelled. "And it's... It's all over you!"

Minjeong looked down and her heart instantly sank. She'd forgotten about the amount of hickies Jimin had left all over her, some of them already starting to fade.

"It's... It's... A rash." Minjeong mumbled.

"A rash?! Oh my god, we should call a doctor..." Yizhuo mumbled, starting to panic.

"No! I'm taking medication for it, it'll go away soon." Minjeong said.

She could never let Yizhuo knew her and Jimin slept together. So she would have to keep this lie going.

"Hm.. Alright... It's not contagious, is it?" Yizhuo asked.

Minjeong shook her head. "No, you're fine. Let's swim."

After that, Yizhuo didn't ask any more questions.

Minjeong and Yizhuo were twenty one now. Minjeong had almost managed to avoid Jimin the whole time apart from occasionally seeing her when she came back from the city to visit. She just pretended she was busy when Yizhuo asked her to hang out on those days. She didn't want to see Jimin.

But one day there was no escape, because Yizhuo's parents were throwing a party and Minjeong's parents and herself happened to be invited, and she knew full well Jimin would be there too.

So Minjeong put on a brave face and entered the house.

At first, it was fine. She barely saw Jimin, instead choosing to stay with Yizhuo in her room before they were called down to eat. That's when she saw Jimin properly.

Jimin hadn't changed much, she'd matured obviously, she was twenty eight now, but she still had the same beautiful features, the same radiant smile, the same long hair that Minjeong just wanted to sit and for hours because it looked so soft. Her heart ached as she looked at the older woman from across the room, and it felt like everything froze before Jimin caught her gaze, flashed her a small polite smile, before continuing to help dish out the food in the kitchen.

Minjeong ended up sitting next to Yizhuo, thankfully, with Jimin on the other side of Yizhuo. Occasionally Minjeong could smell the perfume Jimin used, especially when the older woman moved around. It had always been the same one. Most of the time, it made Minjeong feel safe. But now it just made her feel somewhat melancholy.

Dinner went by fast and Yizhuo went upstairs to use the bathroom, so Minjeong excused herself to the garden.

For some reason, being out there brought back a lot of memories of her life, her childhood there, times with Yizhuo and Jimin. Innocent times, better days.

Before she even knew it, Minjeong realised she was crying.

And then she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Minjeong, what's wrong?" Jimin's soft voice asked from behind her.

"Nothing." Minjeong mumbled, shaking her head.

"But you're crying." Jimin said, walking around Minjeong to look at the younger woman. "Did something happen? Did you and Yizhuo fight?"

"I said it's nothing, just leave it." Minjeong snapped, before looking up to see Jimin with a slightly hurt expression. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you."

"It's okay... Let's sit down, Minjeong. I don't want you to be upset, so let's calm down out here before going back inside." Jimin said before gently guiding Minjeong to sit down by the tree in the big garden.

For a while, they just sat in silence, before Jimin broke it.

"Minjeong, I haven't seen you around much for a while." Jimin said. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, why?" Minjeong asked, frowning. "I didn't know you noticed."

There was another pause.

"Have you been avoiding me?" Jimin asked.

Minjeong took a moment, wondering if it was even worth it to lie, before she looked at Jimin, and she knew Jimin knew.

"Yes, I have." Minjeong said.

"Is it because of what we did?" Jimin asked. "Because if it is, I'm sorry..."

"You said it was basically a mistake." Minjeong said, starting to tear up more.

"I never said that." Jimin started. "You were so young then, I didn't want to ruin anything for you."

"So did you mean it?" Minjeong asked, tears starting to run down her cheeks. "Did you mean it when you said that I was just Yizhuo's friend to you?"

"No, of course not." Jimin said, reaching to hold onto Minjeong's hands as the other girl became visibly more upset. "You're so much more than that, Minjeong. Please, stop crying, you're breaking my heart right now."

"Like you broke mine?" Minjeong sobbed out. "Because you don't know how much I like you, Jimin. This whole time, all these years, ever since I was young. And you never noticed, you never cared, you never---" Minjeong couldn't continue as she just kept crying more and more.

"Minjeong..." Jimin trailed off, starting to cry too as she pulled the younger girl into a hug. "I always cared about you, I noticed, I still care and I still notice."

"Then why did you never say anything?!" Minjeong cried louder.

"Because... I felt like I took advantage of you... And I didn't think you would still like me after all this time. But I always noticed. You'd always get so shy around me. You could never look at me for more than five seconds without blushing. I know because I counted. You would always have sleepovers with Yizhuo whenever I came home to visit, just so you could invite me to watch movies with you. You used to tell me that you wanted to be a soldier too, and when I told you that you'd be the best, you'd have the biggest smile. You love rollercoasters because of how they make your tummy feel, and you always make sure Yizhuo isn't alone on them because she gets scared sometimes. I could say so much more, like your favourite colour, your favourite foods, because I remembered. I noticed, Minjeong." Jimin said, crying even more as she spoke with every word. "I care, Minjeong. I notice. I love you."

There was a silence after that, Minjeong just stared at Jimin, taking in every word she said, before she mumbled out a few words.

"You're such a dummy."

Minjeong then closed the gap between them and they kissed for what felt like hours, only breaking apart when they heard a loud gasp behind them.

"Finally!" It was Yizhuo.

"We weren't doing anything! I mean--" Jimin stopped, looking at Minjeong as if to ask for help.

"Uh... I... I..." Minjeong mumbled awkwardly.

"Get a room next time! You two have been so obvious this whole time!" Yizhuo said, laughing at the two's shocked expressions. "I'll just say you both went on a walk or something, mom was just wondering where you both went to." And with that, Yizhuo went back into the house.

"So does this mean..." Jimin trailed off.

"I want to call you mine." Minjeong said.

Jimin nodded with a smile. "I want that too."

So after years of thinking she'd never stand a chance with Jimin, thinking Jimin would never like her, she found out that Jimin had always known how she felt, Jimin cared, Jimin liked her... And somehow, through all those years, Yizhuo knew too.