Hello, here the new chapter

sorry if there a mistake in my writing

have fun reading

July 2021

Joohyun has had enough of Seulgi's lack of effort to comprehend her, even after she made her point very obvious to the monolid woman.

She doesn’t want to be bothered; she needed her own space, yet here Kang Seulgi is seated on the couch in her publishing company lobby.

Seulgi has been continuously dropping and picking her up from work since that day.

It was suffocating for Joohyun. She felt like she was trapped in this Kang Seulgi world all over again.

Don’t get her wrong; Seulgi is not a controlling type, but... She's coming strong at Joohyun, and being vocal about getting back after she left a huge trauma at Joohyun is just...

It’s such a turn-off for Joohyun.

She used to look at Seulgi like the monolid woman was the most charming person she had ever met yet. now...

Joohyun feels like Seulgi is the most unattractive person in her eyes.

The sight of the woman is such an eyesore to her.

‘I found this new restaurant; they just –

‘No Seulgi, I want to go home’ Joohyun cut her off.

She is okay with Seulgi picking her up since, no matter how many times she said no, Seulgi still appeared the next day, like yesterday's fight didn’t happen at all.

‘How’s work?’ Seulgi initiated another talk.

Joohyun remained silent, arms crossed over her chest and eyes staring at the city scene through the car window.

‘Are you still looking for an artist for your illustration book?’ Seulgi asked another question.

The monolid woman doesn’t know when to give up.

….

This weekend, Joohyun ignored all the text coming from Seulgi, who invited her out. She couldn’t take it anymore with Seulgi ignorant.

Joohyun decided to stay with Seungwan this weekend so she wouldn’t come across Seulgi in the apartment lobby.

Here, she can relax… she doesn’t have to be in deep thought like when she was with Seulgi.

Seungwan makes her feel at ease. A feeling Seulgi used to provide for her in the past.

‘Shall we go out for a movie though? There is nothing to do at my place’ Seungwan suggested. ‘Unless you want to play with plushie?’ she joked, pointing at her belly.

Joohyun burst out laughing, hitting the woman with a couch pillow. ‘Yah! You're losing your mind, aren’t you?’

‘From what I remember, you loved it that night’ Seungwan wriggled her eyebrows.

Joohyun blushed. Averting her eyes away from Seungwan when memories of that night resurfaced in her mind.

They fell asleep on the couch; she is on top of her best friend with her hand under Seungwan's shirt.

It was purely unintentional; she was unaware since she's asleep.

It must be because of her muscle memories—a memory where that was her favourite position when she slept with Seulgi, which was always cuddling and finger-tracing Seulgi's abs. Sometimes her finger liked to play with Seulgi's underwear band.

Her eyes widen, and she gulps.

She didn’t do that with Seungwan, right?

Joohyun questions herself, forcing her brain to recall the hazy state of her that night.

At the same time, she scolds herself for falling asleep. Seungwan is her guest, yet she let her best friend sleep on the couch.

‘Joohyun ah,’ Seungwan nudged her elbow. ‘Don’t worry, I didn’t mind it.’

Joohyun chuckled awkwardly, ‘Still, what if you find it uncomfortable…’

‘Like I said, I don’t mind.’ Seungwan shrugged, ‘now, shall we go out?’

….

They ended up lining up to buy movie tickets; it was an impromptu decision from Seungwan. Quoted that it would be a waste to stay indoors on Saturday night.

'Wah, the last time we went for a movie together was two months before CSAT.’ Seungwan reminisced.

Joohyun nodded. She cannot deny the fact that it makes her feel giddy on the inside. It’s been a while since she goes out enjoying the outside world with someone, or with a friend.

She shut down her world completely after she broke up with Seulgi.

Joohyun was able to get Seulgi out of her mind for just a moment until Seungwan bought popcorn.

Popcorn reminded her of Seulgi…

The first time she and Seulgi went out on a movie date. They couldn’t afford popcorn; Seulgi only has money for the tickets.

Joohyun, remember she offered to buy since they were dating, there's no reason Seulgi should always foot the bill.

But Seulgi argued that Joohyun needed that money for studying, and Seulgi felt bad for using it.

They didn’t buy popcorn that night, and Joohyun is delighted enough just to watch a movie with Seulgi.

She was all smiling and giggling that night.

Joohyun wonders: is that where everything started to go downhill for their relationship? Is it because she is overly excited for a movie date?

Did she unknowingly put Seulgi under pressure to take her out on a date like that afterwards?

Something pressing against her lips brought Joohyun back to the present.

Seungwan, with popcorn between her forefinger and thumb, says, ‘Open up. You haven’t eaten any of it’ she whispered while feeding Joohyun the popcorn.

The action caught Joohyun off guard, but she can’t really refuse what her best friend offers.

This one too reminded Joohyun of Seulgi… that monolid woman loves to feed her; they share food all the time.

There is this one time when they both run out of money because its at the end of the month, Joohyun hasn’t received her allowance from her parents for the next month yet, and she is craving some shaved ice during the summer.

Seulgi scrapped her piggy bank, and they managed to buy one and share it.

Joohyun remembers it the most delicious shaved ice she ever ate.

Not because of the person who made it, but because of the person she sat with and had it together.

Seulgi really adored and cherished her at that time… the monolid woman did everything to make her happy.

Joohyun knew her day could never go wrong as long as she had Seulgi by her side.

One of the reasons why Joohyun couldn’t let them go even after years of breaking up.

‘It’s good, right?’ Seungwan whispered, asking her about the popcorn.

Her best friend was able to pull her out of her trance once again.

In the dark, her eyes found a soft gaze. The way Seungwan stares makes her heart feel calm, and it pushes away her lost feelings because of Seulgi.

Joohyun found her smile because of her best friend; she leans her body closer to Seungwan. Feeling like she wanted to stick with her best friend. Closer.

Things she found it comfortable to do it with Seulgi; now she is doing it with Seungwan, who is her best friend.

A part of her is relieved to have rediscovered her love for skinship. She refrained herself after dating Seulgi since Seulgi is a jealous type.

It's not like she linked arms with a man; it was just her female’s friend in college, but Seulgi hated it.

Seulgi was not like that before, during their high school... but the monolid woman gets easily jealous over nothing once they hit twenty-one.

This is the first time Joohyun has learned she is truly free from Seulgi after years of separation.

….

Seulgi walked into the elevator while checking on the kakao text she just sent to Joohyun.

The woman read her message five hours ago, but the recent one remains unseen.

She sighed, shoving her phone back into her jeans pocket.

The elevator reached the ground floor. She's about to walk out, but standing outside waiting for the elevator are Seungwan and Joohyun.

Her eyes studied how Joohyun was basically glued to Seungwan, but she shifted her eyes somewhere else fast.

‘Seulgi?’ Seungwan guesses calling her since she wore a cap a bit lower.

Lifting up her face and forcing out a smile, Seulgi felt like she was slowly stabbing a sharp knife into her skin when their eyes met.

‘Seungwan’ she bowed her head lightly and turned to Joohyun, ‘Joohyun.’ Then she walked out, passing them who had walked into the elevator.

Joohyun regrets coming back to her place; she just arrived and already ran into Seulgi.

‘You guys look awkward now’ Seungwan pointed out as soon as the elevator door shut.

‘We lost contact for years, after Hana wedding… it just gets awkward for both of us.’ Joohyun explained, she hides a lot of things behind her plain sentences.

Seungwan nodded, completely believing Joohyun's words.

‘Yeah, it’s not like she got a phone back then to stay in touch with anyone. She makes it awkward for everyone at the table.’

Seungwan didn’t say it in a mocking tone; her best friend simply stated the facts about Seulgi's past life.

That monolid woman indeed didn’t have a phone until she turned twenty.

Joohyun found it difficult to contact Seulgi when they were dating; most of the time, Seulgi went looking for her.

Sometimes after her church visit, sometimes a random night on weekend she received a phone call. Seulgi used a public phone to contact her.

Sometimes Joohyun just finds Seulgi standing at the entrance of the orphanage where she did volunteer work.

That’s how they date in the past.