Joohyun slams the door to the locker rooms open, startling a couple of girls who were standing nearby. They scamper off when they see the livid look in her face.

A few try to greet her, but fail, as Joohyun ignores them all, storming through rows and rows of lockers and benches, determined in her mission to find someone. Seulgi.

She nears her destination, and nearly bumps into a few girls—who hastily bow when they see who she is—when she rounds a corner. They have the damp look of someone fresh out of the showers, and Joohyun knows practice must have ended. Her eyes shift past them, and then she sees her. Chatting amiably with a girl by her open locker.

Her hair is damp, and she is drying it off with a towel, leaving it a fuzzy mess. Seulgi nods in a rapture of deep conversation at whatever news is being shared between them. Somehow, this irritates Joohyun. (She’s been feeling more and more of that recently. And she fears she’ll never truly get over her feelings for Seulgi.)

She’s been itching, no—dying to get out and talk to Seulgi ever since Bogum told her. He had pulled her aside the moment she came in the classroom, and led her to the practically deserted rooftop.

Her eyes had widened when he brought out the missing necklace from within his pocket, and she studied his face—which was set in a strangely unreadable expression. Cold, yet his actions were warm, reflecting the person he is. Initially she felt irritated with his anger upon losing the necklace, but then guilt replaced it when she thought of his kindness; and she had decided to overlook his brief burst of pettiness.

Yet he hadn’t the heart to accept her apologies. There was that.

“It wasn’t me.” Bogum explained, when he saw her expression, and the question of asking where he found it died in her lips. Bogum moved forward, and gently took her hand, pressing the warm necklace onto her palm. Her brows had furrowed in confusion.

“Seulgi found it.”

Her heart skipped a beat when he mentioned her name. And Joohyun gulped.

“Yah! Seulgi.”

Seulgi perks up upon hearing her name being called, and she turns slightly, eyes wandering to see who it was. It halts the conversation. Her eyes widen when she sees Joohyun, but it is quickly complimented by a wide smile. Joohyun’s stomach clenches and warms when she remembers her expression when she gave her the art set days ago.

Seulgi had laughed, and jumped, and even kissed her cheek. (Thank you, thank you, Baechu!) And all she could do was pretend and act like she didn’t enjoy it too much, whilst trying to hide her flaming red face. (Stupid. Did you think I’d forget your birthday?)

“Joohyun!” She gives off a little wave. “What are you doing here?”

Joohyun makes her way towards her, and without sparing a glance at the girl she was speaking to, leans in and half-whispers to Seulgi’s ear, “We need to talk.”

Seulgi gives her a confused look, before turning to the girl she was engaged in conversation with. Fortunately, the other cuts in. “It’s okay! It’s been a pleasure to meet you sunbaenim!” She says brightly, in an odd accent, bowing first to Seulgi, and then hesitantly, to Joohyun. She bids them goodbye, and trots off somewhere carrying her things. They’re the only two left in the aisle.

“That was Hirai Momo-ssi, one of the students of the exchange program.” Seulgi tells her, eager to introduce her newfound friend, to which Joohyun could care less about. “She’s really good in dancing, and she says her sister owns a dance studio back in Japan.” She opens , about to say more but Joohyun cuts her off with a raised palm.

“Enough.” And when Seulgi gives her another look full of bafflement, she continues. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“You—“ her voice starts to rise, but she stops. Sighing, she retreats and stuffs a hand into her pocket, all the while Seulgi watches. After a bit of shuffling around, she finally brings it out. Letting the chain fall, and catch slightly, hanging to and fro on her fingers, the silver pendant hangs in the air.

“Bogum told me.”

And when she sees Seulgi’s eyes widen, she remembers his words—Bogum’s words that Joohyun knows does no justice as to how amazing and selfless this person is. She imagines the effort she went through just for her, that Seulgi tries to live down and pass of as nothing as she says, “Ah. That. That was nothing.”

Seulgi turns, and for a moment, Joohyun swears she could see her flustered expression. She folds her towel and drapes it over her shoulder. Rummaging through her locker, she does not say anything else. Joohyun moves, and leans on the locker beside Seulgi’s, feeling the cold metal on her exposed skin, all the while casually looping the chain around her wrist.

“Nothing?” She asks, as she watches Seulgi brush her hair. Seulgi smiles, still not looking her in the eye. “How did you know?”

“Know what?”

Joohyun groans. Seulgi is obviously playing dumb with her, as if she is skirting around a topic she wants to avoid. She resists the urge to smack her silly.

 “Where did you find it? How did you know I lost it?” She bombards. Seulgi doesn’t answer right away, finishing her task first, and then tying her hair in a loose ponytail. Joohyun tries to be patient, but it isn’t easy. It isn’t until Seulgi starts folding her clothes and placing them in her duffel bag, that she chooses to respond.

“It wasn’t anything really.” Seulgi insists. “I just happened to notice you weren’t wearing it. Knowing you, I knew you probably lost it.”

Joohyun doesn’t know what to say at that, completely touched at her selflessness (and ignoring the teasing implication). She never told Seulgi about the necklace, and the girl never asked. Her relations with Bogum were something the two never really talked about, strangely, but it works just fine for them—or as fine as it appears to be.

She must have stayed silent for too long because Seulgi says—repeats, “It’s nothing. I just happened to find it out on the field.”

The half-truth surprises her, and she must have looked unconvinced because Seulgi then goes on to a lengthy explanation of trying to add on some extra practice, about not to believe whatever Bogum must have told her because he didn’t know squat (at that Joohyun knows she is lying because Bogum’s words ring in her head: She told me she was looking for something shiny.), and the ever repetitive it was nothing.

Nothing.

Somehow, that very word irks Joohyun, and she knows that if she can’t do anything about it, it’ll bother her to no end. Nothing exactly describes her relationship with her. Nothing is happening, and nothing ever will, and oddly, it sends a wave of pure frustration through her. (She’s not supposed to feel this way. This isn’t supposed to be happening. But Seulgi’s being too Seulgi. And Joohyun should now by know that she is practically in love with her.)

A series of movements occur and Joohyun blinks when she realizes she’s pinning Seulgi against the wall (or locker, whatever. Joohyun can’t think straight right now. What’s right, what’s wrong, and what should and shouldn’t be done.)

Seulgi stares back in surprise, eyes owlishly wide, and mouth slightly open.

She cracks a grin when she beholds Joohyun before her, cheeks flushed and puffed out, showing her annoyance. Her hands are surprisingly firm against her shoulders, and Seulgi starts to raise one hand—perhaps to pat Joohyun’s head, or cheek, to tease and calm her down, in the way only she could.

“Wha—is this how you thank people now? By pushing them—“ The last words of her joke do not get the chance to leave .

By then, Joohyun shoves all senses of rationality out the window.

With a surge of courage, anger, and pent-up frustration, she leans in and presses her lips to Seulgi’s.

Soft and barely there, Joohyun closes her eyes, words of victory ringing bells all over her head. Nothing? Is this nothing, now? She wants to say, and rub in Seulgi’s face. But all that invades her mind at the moment is how soft Seulgi is, how right it feels, how she has waited for such a long time for this, and how if she moves just slightly, she thinks she’ll feel heaven dancing on the tip of her tongue.

It all lasts in barely a second or two, and then Joohyun is jarred out of it with a harsh shove.

She stumbles, and nearly falls over a wooden bench. The silver heart, pressed tightly on her palm. Joohyun is tempted to laugh, but when she looks up and sees Seulgi, her stomach drops.

She has the back of her hand pressed to —to where Joohyun’s lips were—and her eyes are in an unsettling shade of brown. Joohyun can’t read it, but she knows what she must be thinking, and closes up. It starts to hurt, when Seulgi’s brows furrow, the way it does when she is particularly upset.

They stand there unmoving. A moment passes, and before Joohyun can stop her, Seulgi’s getting her things, closing her locker—all while forging a wide berth around Joohyun.

Joohyun opens to say something. It was a mistake. A joke. Seulgi.

Seulgi, I was joking.

Anything to save their friendship.

Seulgi’s gone before she can salvage whatever is left, and it feels like piles of hard stones are building in her stomach, getting closer and nearer to her windpipe. Noises of laughter far away, the slam of lockers, the buzz of gossip, are all that Joohyun can hear. Yet, the resounding footsteps of Seulgi leaving echo in her mind.

In a daze, she barely recalls leaving the locker room, and going in her classroom. The knot behind her eyes pressing too hard, as she gets her bag and walks out in the school halls.

It presses harder, and harder.

And then the dam breaks, and Joohyun barely has the sense to swivel around, speed-walking to the nearest bathroom.

She pushes the door open, the other hand barely covering to her ugly sobbing, and a haze of smoke hits her. Delinquents, girls who were chatting, and drifting about lazily by the sink, cigarettes dangling on their fingertips, or halfway to their lips, stop and stare in frozen rapture as Joohyun raises a shaky finger and lets out a garbled Get out!

They do in haste. And Joohyun is alone.

Park Sooyoung passes her on her way out enshrouded in the stench, and she hesitates. But as if to think better of it, she moves on. Joohyun does not care.

Let them gossip.

What have I got to lose?

She sets her bag on the sink top, and she lets the water run. Joohyun can’t bear to look at her reflection in the mirror, so she turns around and lets the porcelain press against her back, leaning against, the cold a comfort to her.

She presses shaky hands to her face, hard enough to hurt, and cries. All the while smoke drifts in and out, engulfing her in its embrace.

Joohyun thinks that this might be a nice way to die—asphyxiation after rejection.

(She gathers enough sense to crack a window open, when the smell becomes too much.)

--

Joohyun cries herself sick.

She barely wakes up when her alarm rings, threatening to fall back into the welcoming arms of sleep. Her eyes feel heavy, hurts, and it feels like a weight is settling over her whole body. She falls back asleep in hopes of wishing it away.

It doesn’t.

She wakes up again to her mother brushing a gentle hand over her forehead, softly telling her that she has a fever. If this were any other day, she’d put up a fight, not wanting to miss any of the lessons of the day, but all she can do right now is nod feebly, and try to forget.

She dozes intermittently throughout the day. Occasionally, picking up her phone to message back a reply, or to play a game. Though when Seulgi tries to call her (a tremor shoots up within Joohyun, and she realizes that she has no tears to shed) sometime in the middle of the day, she turns it off.

She occupies her time watching mindless videos on her laptop. Joohyun tries not to think of anything, school or whatever, as she lays tangled up in her bed sheets.

There should be a meeting going on right now, Joohyun thinks as the Friday afternoon passes by, and she rolls around to glance at the window. Twilight is here to turn the sky from sunset orange, to cool blue. She closes her eyes a bit, to rest from the glare of her laptop.

Her mother’s characteristic footsteps sound, and the padding grows to a halt when she leans over the open door, to peek inside Joohyun’s room. She knocks once, and the girl lifts her head up.

“Hyun-ah, there’s someone from school for you.”

She gives a smile, as if shadowing a secret, and Joohyun knows her prompt who is it? won’t be answered.

Her mind races and she dearly hopes it isn’t Park Bogum, or anyone from her class. Yongsun she can tolerate, and it is probably her, given that she’s been to her house once for a project. Joohyun groans, and reaches for a pillow to cover her face with.

“But I’ve been lounging here for the whole day! Don’t let that person in!” she complains at her apparent attire of sleepwear. Her mother gives a plaintive shrug and a reason—one Joohyun couldn’t say no to—that perhaps the visit involved homework and schoolwork she had missed throughout the day.

Joohyun stops, the beginnings of a frown on her brow, when she remembers the last person who did that.

Her mother vanishes before she can make any more objections. And Joohyun sighs. She removes the pillow from her face, and places it on her chest, hugging it tightly.

She turns on her side, and reaches for her phone, patiently waiting a while for it turn on. She checks the messages—ignoring Seulgi’s (why the hell was she even calling after yesterday. Is she crazy?)—to see if anyone texted her that they were coming beforehand.

Joohyun is checking her calls, when she hears the soft footsteps again, and without looking up she says, “Eomma, who was it? I don’t think anyone called me.”

“Hi.”

The phone nearly falls on her face, and Joohyun’s head turns at the unexpected—and grudgingly familiar voice.

Kang Seulgi, renowned heartbreaker (Joohyun likes to think, because she’s never felt pain quite like yesterday’s before) and in all her schoolgirl glory stands by the entrance to her room, shuffling uneasily from foot to foot. Joohyun doesn’t know what to say, mouth slightly agape, and then all of a sudden, it feels like someone is rubbing salt on an open wound.

The silence must have been too much for Seulgi, when Joohyun debates demanding why she is here or kicking her out without further question, because she stammers, “Y-you’re mother sent me in. She says I could.” And when Joohyun just stares back, Seulgi gulps.

“Why are you here?” Joohyun finally questions rather icily, and feeling proud at her feigned indifference. She sets her phone aside, trying her best to maintain her façade.

At that, Seulgi seems to relax. Shrugging off her bag, she stands on one leg, bending a knee to rummage through her belongings. If Joohyun tilts her head slightly, she thinks as she watches, she could see up her skirt—but she decides it wasn’t good to have these kind of thoughts now.

“I have your homework, and some notes…,” Seulgi says, as she brings out paper and a workbook, shrugging her bag back on and slowly approaching the bed (Joohyun curls her legs instinctively), “and I also… wanted to see if you—if you were okay.”

Surprisingly, her words do not ire Joohyun as she thought it would, and most of what she can feel now is hollowness, as though she were emptied out of everything.

She stops by her nightstand, and places the papers carefully on the desk. Seulgi pauses, when she sees the dishes on top—an unfinished bowl of soup, and a half-eaten rice cake. “Did you eat your lunch?” she asks frowning.

Joohyun’s eyes follow hers, the atmosphere feeling almost normal, as though she didn’t just kiss Seulgi the other day, and she didn’t just blow years of friendship and stability for one moment of insanity.

Joohyun nods, unsurely. “But there was chicken. Eomma wasn’t able to cook anything else.” She tries for a wan smile.

Seulgi shakes her head. “You’ve never liked chicken.”

Joohyun curls up beneath the covers. “I know what’s good for me, and what isn’t.”

“Remember that time your mom packed chicken for lunch?” Seulgi reminisces, out of the blue.

“And I fainted in the middle of class later on because I didn’t eat it?” Joohyun snorts. Seulgi laughs as well, and suddenly she remembers waking up in the cramped clinic of their old middle school, a sweaty hand holding hers, and Seulgi nearly crying with relief when Joohyun started stirring.

If she had a dollar for everything Seulgi did that made her fall for her, she’d be rich by now.

“That time,” Joohyun giggles softly,” when your mom made me bring you your lunch because you forgot it and—“

“­You ended up forgetting to give it to me. Yah! That wasn’t funny! I seriously felt like I was dying for the whole afternoon!” Seulgi finishes. Her hand clutches her stomach, as if reliving that day from memory.

 “But I bought you ramyun after school, and cake, and dumplings—“ Joohyun’s brows crease as she tries to recall what else she did to appease the younger, who apparently went through a considerable amount of torture at her fault. Lost is she in thought, that she doesn’t notice Seulgi moving to kneel on the wooden floor, by her bedside.

A tentative hand reaches out to touch her skin, and Joohyun involuntarily jerks back in surprise. Seulgi hesitates at that, and then continues her trek across her forehead, brushing back strands of hair.

It feels like the breath is stolen out of her, and self-consciously, Joohyun realizes that she spent the whole day in her bed—save for going to the toilet, or getting her charger.

“You’re warm.” Seulgi murmurs,” Did you take your medicine?”

Her voice fails her, so Joohyun just nods speechlessly. Seulgi isn’t looking her in the eye, and momentarily she panics at where Seulgi’s sharp gaze lands on—is it her nose? her lips? the pimple on her cheek (she swears it’s disappearing, but she hasn’t looked at the mirror today)? or did she look ungainly? unclean?

Soft fingertips trail downwards, and ever so gently, trace the skin beneath her eyes—as if wiping away the tears that once flowed there.

“Did I do this?” she asks, voice lowering to almost a whisper, and Joohyun knows she must have seen the puffy skin—that she passed off as allergies to her mother. Seulgi’s eyes dart to Joohyun’s.

Joohyun doesn’t answer, and Seulgi takes that as affirmation.

“I—Sooyoung told me,” Seulgi murmurs softly, repeatedly her comfortably, and Joohyun is tempted to close her eyes and ignore the look of pity, and the tone of near condescension that her voice is drawing dangerously close to. Seulgi is warm, and familiar, and she flashes back to a memory (a dream it has become of recent) of them sharing a bed once in a sleepover—when innocence still reigned in their hearts.

“She said you barged in the bathroom; crying and all. She told me at lunch.”

It’s too much, and then Joohyun thinks she can cry again, when she feels tears welling up behind her eyes. She is a pitiful creature, and she wants to weep at herself, and at her situation. Just when I thought I had no tears to shed.

“Damn it. Park Sooyoung.” Joohyun says trying for an idiotic grin that would placate Seulgi and failing. She closes her eyes, letting the tears fall slowly. Damn her. Damn Seulgi. Damn stupid, idiotic Bae Joohyun. Damn Bogum. Damn them. Damn it all. She lets Seulgi gently wipe it away, and she furiously rubs at her nose—leaving it a wet, red mess.

To think this all started with a necklace she now keeps in her dresser; hidden behind piles of clothes, as Joohyun can’t bear to remember anything on that day.

 She’s still sniffing when Seulgi finally speaks up. “For how long?”

Joohyun doesn’t know too, not entirely sure, so she lets the silence speak for itself, too spent to reply, and Seulgi continues on, quietly. “Joohyun. Do you remember that day, when—“ she pauses, “—when I told you I liked someone?”

It seems like a thousand days have passed, a year, but Joohyun still remembers it as clear as day. The pain, hurt, and shock seems to multiply a tenfold and her self-pity washes away as sudden as night; leaving her a broken shell of rage.

Joohyun stares at Seulgi; at her audacity to ask that question. And she knows it is the root of it all.

In this long arduous process of trying to forget her feelings, she ends up doing the opposite. Those days with Bogum, days trying to wean herself off Seulgi were all for naught as she sees the girl of her affections bringing the very root of this problem to light. How dare she? How ing dare she?

With a surge of strength, Joohyun pushes Seulgi, leaving the girl to land abruptly on her rear. Seulgi blinks in surprise, but composes herself in seeing Joohyun’s rage.

The elder has her hands curled into fists, visibly shaking. “Get out,” she seethes. Did Seulgi come here to mock her? To pity her on what she is—on her lovelorn troubles?

“Unnie, listen—“

“I said, get out.” Joohyun raises a shaky finger, pointing to the still open door, voice going dangerously low. Seulgi follows her gaze, and then actually gets up from her position on the floor—only to close the door firmly.

She turns and repeats the words of yesterday afternoon, a dread feeling of déjà vu engulfing Joohyun.

“We need to talk.”

She walks with surprising speed back to the bed, and seats herself at the edge of it, lest Joohyun decides to push her off. Bewildered, and angry, Joohyun sits up, and crosses her arms, not about to show weakness as she did just a moment ago.

“I don’t want to talk you!” Joohyun stretches and kicks Seulgi off the bed—the other obviously not expecting it, as she tumbles off but rises again just as fast.

“Are you here to embarrass me? Because I feel humiliated enough already! Isn’t it enough to know that you—“ her voice cracks, but she goes on”—that you’ve hurt me? Do you get off on pain? Are you some kind of sadist—“

Joohyun is cut off from her tirade.

She gasps as Seulgi pins her down against the pillows. The younger is bent at an awkward angle, half-standing and half-bending on the side, and Joohyun is shocked to see tears—actual crystalline ones, glimmering on Seulgi’s eyes; threatening to drip down the tips of her lashes.

“Shut up.” Seulgi whispers, voice laden with hurt. Joohyun complies.

“You—you don’t have the right to tell me that… not when you go around with Bogum-sunbaenim all the time. Do you—Do you even know how much it …” Seulgi in a breath, and Joohyun stares speechless up at her, as she removes one hand to wipe at her cheeks carelessly.

“Unnie,” Seulgi asks, “are you playing some kind of game with me? If you are, it isn’t funny.”

Joohyun’s eyes are wide, and Seulgi moves closer, noses barely grazing hers.

“But then you ran off crying yesterday, and now—I don’t know what to do…” Seulgi lets out a breathy chuckle”…no, I don’t know what to feel anymore.”

Seulgi’s smile drops.

“Seulgi, I don’t under—“

“You.”

A tear drops on Joohyun’s cheek, as she tries to understand the one-worded reply. Seulgi gives off a wet smile, hands relaxing their grip.

“Remember, unnie? When you asked me who I like?” Joohyun nods, still not comprehending. Seulgi’s hands slide up, to cradle her jaw, touch light as a feather—yet enough to make Joohyun swoon, coupled with the next words.

“It’s you. I like you. A lot.”

And at that, Seulgi grins as though she just told a clever, yet rueful joke.

“I’ve liked you for so long and you’re my best friend and a girl and I know it sounds wrong but… I can’t help it.” Seulgi breathes, hot against her lips. Another smile, one full of self-pity and longing is on her face, when Seulgi continues.

 “I never could hide anything from you, and this is—was one secret I hoped would be the exception.”

Joohyun dearly hopes this isn’t just a fever-induced dream. One she’d wake up to clawing and gasping for the sweet reality that never was. She tries to say something, anything, but words fail her and all she can do is mutely gape back.

Seulgi does not seem to be bothered by the silence, taking it with a grain of salt. She gives off a sad sigh, as if she expected it.

“It’s okay, unnie. I thought as much. You don’t have to worry about me, I—I’ll get over you. I mean—“ she leans backward “—we won’t be seeing each other much after this, so it’ll probably be easier for me, for both of us—“

Seulgi stops her rambling when she sees Joohyun, trying to desperately not to sob, and failing. Her lips twitching downwards, and trying her absolute hardest not to wail.

She feels Seulgi’s thumbs gently moving across her cheeks, comforting her despite the hurt Joohyun had given her, and with that thought, a sob bubbles out.

Seulgi is perfect, and Joohyun is stupid to think anyone can replace her.

Real. This. Seulgi. All this is real.

With shaky hands, she mimics Seulgi’s hold on her, stopping the tears enough for her to open her eyes to the girl above. She grasps a chubby cheek on each palm, and Joohyun musters up enough strength to simultaneously pull Seulgi down, and to lean up from her pillows to meet her with soft lips halfway.

It’s a soft peck, very much like yesterday’s, and Joohyun ends it this time when she pulls away softly.

“Dummy. I like you. Or do I need to say it out loud, too?” Joohyun asks. Seulgi shakes her head sorrowfully.

“But we can’t—“

Her words are cut off when Joohyun pulls her down again, for another kiss. Their noses bump, but Joohyun doesn’t give Seulgi time to draw back, when she tilts her head slightly, lips moving slowly but surely. She traces Seulgi’s lips with hers, and she wonders if this is what falling in love feels like—as though butterflies, and balloons were bubbling in her stomach; and Joohyun thinks she can just float away from joy.

“Joohyun—“ Seulgi gasps, breathlessly when they pull away.

Any other negativity flies away, and all she can think of is of the here and now, and of Joohyun. Always Joohyun.

“Shut up.” Joohyun murmurs, already reaching out to silence her.

Shaky hands move from her face to the pillows beneath Joohyun, as Seulgi tries to steady herself. It is harder than she thinks, and she is tempted to let go and just fall on top of Joohyun.

Seulgi does, later on. When she loses count of the kisses they’ve shared, and her head feels too light to register her surroundings.

Joohyun doesn’t mind, and her hands snake around the younger’s waist, firmly securing her there. Somehow, their legs entangle, pajama-clad ones with bare smooth skin—skirt riding up. Seulgi can’t bring herself to care, not when she has Joohyun, pressing kisses and murmuring assurances against her.

Finally, they part with much difficulty. With Seulgi leaning her forehead against Joohyun’s, and her breathing heavily—not even bothering to hide her heated gaze directed to Seulgi’s lips. Seulgi smiles, and then giggles, and finally, Joohyun looks up to meet her eyes—laughing along with her too.

“You’re good.” Seulgi tells, and she leans down to steal a quick peck on Joohyun’s cheek lest she have any other ideas. “Is this your first?”

“No. My first was yesterday.” Joohyun’s eyes crinkle with the prompt answer. And Seulgi tries not to preen smugly at that.

“Really? How was it?” She feigns shock and concern.

“Horrible. I got pushed afterwards.” Joohyun jokes, and before Seulgi can sputter out excuses and apologies, she leans up to capture her in another heart-rendering kiss.

They kiss until their lips tingle and ache.

“It’s okay,” Joohyun says, when Seulgi practically smothers her with her lips in renewed vigor—as if to apologize. Her eyes threaten to flutter shut when Seulgi nips lightly, and then darts a tongue out; as though vying for a taste, and then pulling away—much like testing new waters.

“You can make it up to me.”

And the tears are long forgotten, as Joohyun grins mischievously up at her—and as Seulgi blushes hard; but hurriedly gives another of the hundreds of kisses that are to come, on Joohyun’s waiting—no, demanding lips.

All the time in the world is theirs.

And Joohyun thinks, as she combs her fingers through Seulgi’s hair and down her back, that she would not have it any other way.

Dreams come and go. They flutter and float away from you grasp, only to remain a sweet memory.

Bae Joohyun ultimately decides that Kang Seulgi is one dream that she can never spare letting go of.

---

Author's note(10): "Good things come to those who wait."

I was so excited to write this chapter, because well, Seulrene and kisses. Pent up feelings have finally come to light. On another hand, I've heard that people who do not speak of the good deeds they've done, will be rewarded greatly. So, I guess Seulgi got her reward in the end, huh?

On a side note, it turns out that Irene's not the only one who lost her damned journal. I SWEAR, after I wrote "A Brief Intermission of the Past" I found out, only a week later, that I couldn't find my own purple journal. Ah well, fate and its games. There is nothing of importance there though, but I did slander a considerable amount of people. I hope this won't turn out into some kind of Bedtime Stories thing.