“Unnie, what’s wrong?” Suzy looked over to Fei, who was currently sitting on the farthest bench from her three fellow members, pouting and grumbling to herself.

            “It’s nothing,” she shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

            Jia got up from her spot on the park table next to the others to walk over and sit down next to Fei. She put her arm around her and pulled her close, ruffling her hair playfully as she did.

            “Cheer up! We’re all here together at the park on a beautiful day!  We haven’t been all together in a long time, plus wasn’t it your idea to go out to the park today?” Jia questioned as she patted Fei’s head. “Come on, sit with us please?”

            Fei sighed and stood up, walking over to take her place next to Min, who was smiling apologetically at her as she joined the other girls. She knew she couldn’t say no to Jia, but when she asked Jia if she wanted to go to the park she just meant the two of them. Yes, it was nice that they had a chance to all be together again after a long time apart working on other things, but she wanted a chance to be alone with Jia badly, and she was beginning to think that wouldn’t happened. Fei wanted to finally be able to tell her friend how she really felt. She wanted to tell her about how the time they spent apart while she was training for Dancing with the Stars Jia was the one running through her mind.

            Both girls had always been close, they had always told each other everything, always talked about past crushes with each other and shared secrets, but as time went on Fei began to realize she loved Jia as way more than a friend. The time she took away from the group made her see clearly that she was in love with this girl. Fei didn’t know what it meant, she knew love was love and it didn’t matter if Jia was a girl or not, she just didn’t know if it mattered to Jia or how the other woman felt.

            Min heard a frustrated groan slip from Fei’s lips and looked over to see a conflicted look written across her group mate’s face. She followed Fei’s gaze and realized they were locked on Jia’s face, who was unknowingly chatting away with Suzy. Min understood exactly what this was about, she was pretty sure even Suzy knew about Fei’s feelings for Jia. It was hard not to notice when Fei was always blatantly staring at Jia daily. She felt bad for Fei, she knew how much one-sided love hurt sometimes and she knew that Fei was the type of person was too shy to speak up about her feelings.

            “Fei, let’s go for a walk!” Min said suddenly, standing up from the park bench and pulling Fei up with her.

            “But I’m too tired to walk,” Fei whined as she allowed Min to pull her to the sidewalk.

            “It’ll be good for you,” Min said as she continued to walk, making sure she was way out of ear shot from the other two girls.

            Fei just kept following silently, letting Min drag her wherever she wanted to go as her mind still raced with thoughts of Jia and how she should deal with the situation. After a few minutes, Min stopped suddenly at a bench on the side of the pavement, far away from where they were previously sitting, and patted the seat. Fei sighed and sat down as Min did the same, and gave her a questioning look.

            “Now talk,” Min ordered as she looked at her expectantly.

            “About…?”

            “About Jia of course.”

            “What is there to say about Jia?” Fei looked over at Min with confusion written on her face as Min just shook her head and placed a gentle hand on the older girl’s shoulder.

            “Look, we can all see the way you look at her. Just because Jia is oblivious, doesn’t mean we all are.”

            “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Min,” Fei replied as she crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. “I don’t look at her any differently than I look at you or Suzy.”

            Min gave Fei a skeptical look and just shook her head. She let out a sigh and stayed silent for a minute, trying to find the right words to say without scaring Fei away.       

            “Fei, it’s okay to feel the way you do,” Min started out, talking slowly and hesitantly. “And I can see how much you’re struggling with this and how scary it must be to have feelings for your friend, but you need to be honest with yourself and with her.”

            “I don’t have feelings for Jia!”

            “It’s okay to admit it, I’m not judging you,” Min said, giving Jia a sympathetic look. “I’m just telling you that I think it would be better for you and Jia if you were honest with your feelings and honest with her.”

            Fei buried her head in her hands and groaned. She didn’t realize she was this obvious about her feelings for Jia. She had hoped that she was just obvious enough for Jia to notice and not the others, but it seemed her actions had caused the opposite to happen. 

            “I… I do have feelings for Jia,” Fei mumbled as she looked back up at Min with desperation in her eyes. “But I don’t know how to tell her! I planned to try to talk to her about it today, that’s why I asked if we could go to the park. I ask her on a date without actually saying ‘Let’s go on a date’, I thought I was being pretty obvious, but I guess it wasn’t enough…”

            “You know Jia. It just takes her a little while to realize things, you just have to try again, and this time you should be absolutely clear.”

            “But I don’t even know what to say! Where should I even start?” Fei sighed in frustration as Min sat silently next to her, contemplating how to respond.

            “Hmm… Well, why don’t you practice with me? Pretend I’m Jia and tell me what you would say to her as if I was really her. That way I can tell you if you need to be clearer or not, and hopefully it’ll help.”

            “Min, come on, I’m not doing that.”

            “Min? I’m not Min, I’m Jia!” Min replied with a smirk as she took Fei’s hands in her own and cleared , trying to mimic Jia the best she could. “Now Fei, what is it you wanted to tell me?”

            Fei sighed and gave in, looking up at Min who was now wearing a serious expression on her face. She tried to picture Jia sitting across from her and squeezed Min’s hands tightly in hers as she took a deep breath and began to pour her feelings out to her friend.

            “This isn’t really easy for me to say, Jia, and I hope that what I’m about to tell you won’t damage our friendship…”

            “Don’t worry, Fei unnie, it could never harm our friendship!” Min replied with a smile as she continued to mimic Jia. “Just say it, okay?”

            “Okay…” Fei nodded and closed her eyes, taking in yet another deep breath. “I… I love you, but not as a friend… I’m in love with you!”

            Fei sighed in relief and opened her eyes again, still picturing Jia in her mind she brought Min closer to her, hugging her tightly as she buried her head in her shoulder.      

            “I want to be with you,” Fei mumbled into Min’s shoulder, tears escaping her cheeks. “I want to go on dates with you, hold hands, kiss, I want you to love me the way I love you and-“

            From behind Fei heard someone clear their throat and she quickly pushed Min away so both girls could look over to see who the noise came from. Both girls were shocked to find Jia standing behind them, arms crossed, trying, but failing, to hide a pained look as she took in the sight of her two friends embracing.

            “I wondered what where you two went and what was taking you so long,” Jia started, her voice cracking as she spoke. “I thought you walked off because you were upset over something I did, but I can see now you just wanted to be alone with Min. Sorry for interrupting…”

            Jia turned and swiftly started walking the opposite direction of which she came, heading towards the entrance of the park. Both girls had noticed the look on her face and Fei finally realized that Jia was not the only one who was oblivious about her feelings.

            “Follow her,” Min said as she pushed Fei in Jia’s direction. “I’ll go wait with Suzy.”

            Fei gave Min a quick hug before she ran in the direction Jia had hurried off to. Following the side walk, she soon spotted Jia on another park bench right next to the park entrance. Looking up, Jia noticed Fei running her way and she quickly stood, about ready to run off but Fei was too fast and caught her by the wrist.

            “Let go Fei!” Jia yelled as she tried to jerk her hand free from Fei’s tight grip.

            “Let me explain!” Fei pleaded as she struggled to pull Jia towards the park bench. Jia stopped struggling, allowing herself to be guided down onto the seat next to Fei. She wiped tears angrily off her cheeks as Fei placed a hand on top of her own.

            “You don’t need to explain anything,” Jia cried. “I heard it all, you have feelings for Min, and I was stupid to actually think it was me you loved.”

            Fei just shook her head, reaching over to wipe a tear from Jia’s cheek as she took the other girl’s hand in her own and intertwined their fingers. Jia looked up, giving Fei a confused look as she Fei looked back at her with a soft smile.

            “You misheard, Jia,” Fei began as she ran a hand through the other girl’s hair. “I’m in love with you.”

            “But then why were you holding Min…?”

            “Min had a stupid idea,” Fei shook her head and chucled. “She thought it would help if I practiced what I would say to you by pretending she was you. I don’t have feelings for Min, what you saw was me trying to figure out how I was going to tell you that I love you.”

            “Why didn’t you just tell me in the first place?” Jia looked up, the tears finally letting up as she met Fei’s serious gaze with her own questioning one.

            “I was going to tell you today, but you invited everyone else to the park too.”

            “I’m sorry,” Jia whispered as she hesitantly reached over and brushed a strand of hair from Fei’s face. “I was nervous of what I might do if I were alone with you, so I decided to invite the others…”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean, when I’m with you all I want to do is kiss you,” Jia looked away, a blush rushing to her face as she finally admitted how she felt.

            “Oh…”

            “Oh?” Jia looked back at Fei, trying to read her expression. “Is that a good oh or-“

            Suddenly, Fei leaned forward, interrupting Jia by pressing her lips gently to the younger girl’s. It took Jia a moment to fully realize what was happening, but when her mind finally kicked in she wrapped her arms around the other girl and leaned in closer, kissing her back. After what seemed like ages, they finally broke the kiss and Fei gave Jia a soft smile before pulling her into her arms for a tight hug.

            “If you wanted to kiss me, why didn’t you just do it?” Fei chuckled as she kissed Jia’s cheek.

            “Well, from now on, I promise that I will.” Jia smiled.

            “I love you,” Fei whispered.

            “I love you too Fei,” Jia replied as they held each other tighter.