Bona debates for a minute – okay possibly more like ten – about making the call. Xuanyi is probably busy. Bona had tried to make it during her free time, but she knows Xuanyi’s schedule is quite irregular. She tells herself that there’s a good chance Xuanyi won’t answer and that’s okay, that’s totally fine.

Xuanyi picks up on the second ring. “Zhiyan!” she says with that smile of hers, and Bona is helpless against returning it. Nobody calls her that, not even Meiqi or Cheng Xiao, and it’s—nice to hear it again.

Bona’s eyes wander over Xuanyi, taking in her extensions. “These are new,” she says, gesturing to her own hair.

“Oh, yeah.” Xuanyi does a hair flip. “Do you like them?”

“Yes,” Bona says. “You look good,” she adds, not meaning her hair or styling. Xuanyi looks—radiant, like the lustre under her skin has evolved into a full on glow, like she’ll light up the whole show, the whole country.

“You look good too.” Xuanyi frowns a little. “You look thinner though. Have you lost weight?”

“Maybe a little? Nothing to worry about.”

“You should eat more meat.”

Bona’s mouth quirks up at the corner. “And seaweed too?”

“No, the seaweed is mine.” Xuanyi crinkles her nose in the way she does when she wants something, whether it’s a snack or a hug, and Bona wants to give her all of that, wants to give her the world.

“I’ll buy you some more when”—Bona swallows—“when you come back.”

Xuanyi’s eyes soften. “It won’t be long,” she tells Bona, who musters a smile.

“Right.”

“Have you missed me?” Xuanyi says in a teasing voice.

“Yes.”

Xuanyi blinks, looking taken off guard. Bona’s standard reply would probably be something along the lines of “you wish” or “not as much as you miss me.” A soft, sweet smile spreads over Xuanyi’s face. Bona’s cheeks feel warm but her chest feels warmer. She’s missed that smile more than she’s realized; sure she’s seen Xuanyi smile in pictures and videos but never quite this smile.

“I’ve missed you too,” Xuanyi says, always more carefree with her affection.

“Have you?” Bona murmurs. She doesn’t mean to say it out loud, but it escapes her.

Xuanyi frowns. “What do you mean? Of course I have.”

“You seem to be in good company.”

“Well yeah, the girls are great and I like them a lot but they’re not you.”

Bona’s face feels warm again.

Xuanyi grins. “You’re jealous.”

“I’m not,” Bona protests, and Xuanyi gives her a look. “Okay, maybe a little. It’s just that you’re so—you, you know.”

“No, I don’t know. What’s me?”

“You’re hard not to like.” Bona gives a crooked smile. “I would know.”

It’s Xuanyi’s turn to redden. She lowers her head for a moment, but her pleased expression is unmistakable.

“You’re having fun, right?” Bona asks.

“I am,” Xuanyi says, raising her head.

Bona nods. “Good. And Meiqi too?”

“Oh, she’s doing great. I’m so glad she’s finally getting the recognition she deserves.”

“I’m glad you are too,” Bona says, eyes fixed on Xuanyi’s.

“Hopefully we’ll get more Chinese Ujungs because of the show.”

“Yes, that’ll be good, but that’s not what I meant.”

Xuanyi is quiet for a moment. “I miss you,” she says, voice smaller.

Bona’s chest aches, but she keeps her voice light. “You have Meiqi. Isn’t she your oppa and you her princess?”

Xuanyi laughs. “Careful, you sound jealous again.”

“I’m not,” Bona says seriously. “I’m glad you and Meiqi have each other there. I wouldn’t want you – either of you – to be alone.”

Xuanyi pouts. “It’s still not the same though, without a certain someone else.”

“Well,” Bona starts, wondering how to comfort Xuanyi.

“But she came to visit, so that was good.”

“What?”

“Cheng Xiao,” Xuanyi says innocently. “I was talking about her. Who did you think I was talking about?

Bona narrows her eyes. “You’re not funny, you know.”

Xuanyi sticks out her tongue and then laughs, her eyes curving into crescents in that mesmerizing way of hers. Cheng Xiao had told Bona that everyone is in love with Xuanyi’s smile, and honestly, Bona thinks, how could they not be?

“I wish you could come visit the way Cheng Xiao did.”

“So you can make fun of me in person?” Bona says wryly, but she wishes that too.

“Among other things.” Xuanyi winks, and Bona feels a flush come over her face again. “I’d show you around the dorm and introduce you to everyone. You can show off all the Chinese you’ve learned.”

“I don’t think anyone is going to find it impressive.”

“I do!”

“That’s because you’re smitten with me,” Bona teases.

“I am, but that’s not why. Your Chinese is really good considering how little you’ve studied it.” Xuanyi looks at her earnestly, and Bona just. Misses her. Wants her. Loves her.

It must show on her face, because Xuanyi’s goes all soft, her eyes liquid.

“Let me teach you a Chinese phrase, okay?”

Bona narrows her eyes. “Is this one of those things where I say it to someone and get slapped?”

“Trust me,” Xuanyi says insistently, and Bona nods.

Xuanyi says a long phrase that Bona understands maybe one word from.

“Just follow me,” Xuanyi says.

I would anywhere, Bona thinks, but she just says, “Okay.”

Xuanyi breaks down the phrase into two parts and repeats each word slowly, making sure Bona can say them before continuing to the next. It’s far from the first time Xuanyi’s taught her Chinese, but there’s something different, something special about this time.

“Do you think you have it?”

“I think so,” Bona says, frowning in concentration.

“Okay, then say it to me.”

Bona very carefully repeats the phrase. She’s pretty sure she fumbles at least a few tones, but Xuanyi looks at her with shining eyes, like Bona had just given an award-winning speech.

“Are you going to tell me what it means?”

“I think you know the gist,” Xuanyi says, with a stare so intense that Bona wants to look away just for some breathing room. She doesn’t.

There’s a knock on the door and a voice saying something Bona can’t catch. Xuanyi calls something back and Bona makes out “I” and “soon.”

“I have to go,” Xuanyi says apologetically. “There’s a spontaneous interview.”

Bona had been expecting something of the sort, something that’ll take Xuanyi away from her, but she still feels disappointed. “Okay.”

“I’ll talk to you soon,” Xuanyi says. “Eat some seaweed in my honour, okay?”

“Okay,” Bona says, smiling a little. “Xuanyi?”

“Yeah?”

“Wo ai ni.”

Xuanyi stares at her, silent and solemn. Bona doesn’t say it very often, not as much as Xuanyi does. She’s not as carefree with her affection, not verbally at least, guards it carefully and only expresses it sparingly. She’s not worried that Xuanyi would mistake that for a lack of it; Xuanyi knows her, understands her.

As if reading her mind, Xuanyi breaks into a smile. That smile. “Wo ye ai ni.” She leans in so close that Bona can count her eyelashes before pressing her lips against the camera. She makes contact; Bona can see a lipstick stain left behind and she pretends that it was against her cheek. She adds something in Chinese that Bona doesn’t understand and looks at her in a way she does, a language beyond words. “It really won’t be long. Until I’m back.”

“Okay,” Bona says. “I’m holding you to that.”

Xuanyi makes the pinky crossing motion from their Pick Me choreography, and Bona smiles. She raises a hand as if to Xuanyi’s hair or pull her closer, but quickly changes it into a wave. If Xuanyi notices, she doesn’t let it show.

Bona had been careful to memorize the phrase Xuanyi taught her even well after the call, and as soon as she can she asks Cheng Xiao what it means.

Cheng Xiao looks like she’s fighting back a smile. “Xuanyi unnie told you that?”

Bona nods. “Yeah. What does it mean?”

Cheng Xiao tilts her head to the side. “What do you think it means?”

Bona makes a face. “Just tell me.”

“Well, it’s from an old poem, one of those classic love poems. It means—” Cheng Xiao has that expression of utmost concentration she makes when she’s trying to express something complicated in Korean. “It means that if two people always love each other, then why does it matter if they’re not with each other all the time.”

“Huh,” Bona says softly. “That’s what it means?”

“Yeah,” Cheng Xiao says, giving her a rather sad look. “You miss her a lot, don’t you unnie?”

Bona turns away, not because she doesn’t want to answer the question but because she thinks it doesn’t require an answer. “She promised it won’t be long until we see each other again.”

“It won’t be,” Cheng Xiao says brightly. “If she can’t come to Korea, we’ll just go to China to see her. I’ll be your tour guide.”

Bona gives a soft laugh. “Okay.”

“It’ll be okay, unnie,” Cheng Xiao tells her.

“Right,” Bona says, and mostly manages to believe it.

“Zhiyan!” Xuanyi flings her arms around Bona, who folds her own around Xuanyi and holds her tight. The buttons of Xuanyi’s blazer dig uncomfortably against Bona’s stomach, but she doesn’t care.

Bona pulls back slightly, not letting go of Xuanyi. “Nihao,” she says.

Xuanyi laughs. “Nihao.”

“You’re not wearing your extensions anymore.”

“Do you miss them?” Xuanyi runs a hand through her hair. “I can put them on later for you.”

“I’d rather you take things off than put them on.”

Xuanyi makes a face and slaps her shoulder. “You see me for the first time in months and that’s what you have to say?”

Bona takes her hand and holds onto it. “I found out what that phrase you taught me meant.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah, I asked Cheng Xiao and she explained it to me.”

“Do you agree with it?” Xuanyi asks, almost offhandedly, but the tension in her expression betrays her.

Bona leans in and kisses the furrow in her brow until it fades. It feels so good to be able to do it. “Yes,” she says. “I do.”

And Xuanyi smiles at her like Bona had made all her dreams come true.

A/N: The exact phrase Xuanyi said is “两情若是久长时，又岂在朝朝暮暮” from a poem called 鹊桥仙 (literally “Fairy of the Magpie Bridge”) written in the 11th century. You can read an English translation here. The poem is about the legendary Chinese folk tale The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl, about a mortal cowherd who fell in love with a fairy, and the mother of the sky separated them with a galaxy but their love touched the magpies, who formed a bridge for them so they can see each other once a year. This day is July 7th (in the lunar calendar), and that's the origin of Qixi / Chilseok. I learned all this from googling "how to say I love you romantically in Chinese" hahaha who said fanfiction isn't educational?