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“This isn’t real. This is a dream. This can’t be happening.”

Bona recites the mantra over and over, as if saying it more might finally convince herself to believe. She’s been restless since she woke up, walking around, chewing her lower lip, digging nails in her soft palms.

“Can you please stop pacing, you’re making me dizzy. I keep on dying.” Luda says after keeping quiet for the longest time.

Bona considers the thought for a second, pausing to look at Luda who’s sitting on her folded legs on the counter-top with her eyes glued to her phone, before she resumes pacing back-and-forth again. This time she bites her nails.

“…Must be something that I ate last night. Yeah, it should be-”

“Kim Jiyeon, I swear if my character dies again, you’ll be the next.”

“Will you make it quick,” Bona asks absentmindedly, almost on the verge of tears.

She didn’t receive a warning, or a memo of some sort; Bona always thought this part of love stories were made up and exaggerated.

Nobody told her one day she could actually wake up feeling like this.

There’s a dull ache in her chest and sawdust in .  At every slight movement her guts coil themselves in a sickeningly way, filling her stomach with knots. Even the air doesn’t smell right. It’s as if her body’s telling her to do something, anything, because clearly, something’s wrong.

Coupled with the fact that everything else becomes an irritating blur in the background except the idea of Xuan Yi, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s happening.

“Calm down, Jiyeon. Think,” Bona runs her fingers through her dark hair, massaging her scalp. Her thoughts betray her with the image of Xuan Yi, her bright irresistible smile, and how warm and happy Bona feels whenever Xuan Yi embraces her. “This is crazy. I can’t be in love with her.”

“Who?”

“You know who.” Bona rolls her eyes.

“Xuan Yi? Why not?” Luda asks. She’s slumped by the corner, a growing frown on her lips and her phone nowhere to be found, which can only mean she gave up on her game altogether.

“Because, because - I just can’t. She’s a close friend.”

“Lovers start from being friends. Look at Eunseo and Xiao. Besides, friends fall in love with each other all the time.”

“So you’re encouraging me now, huh.” Bona sits around the dining table, buries her head in her folded arms gracelessly, and closes her eyes. Maybe if she falls back asleep, everything would turn back to normal. “Have you ever felt like this before?”

Luda’s voice is faint in the background, “Something like what, exactly?”

“Something like what I felt this morning. Waking up and knowing you’re in love with someone.”

Bona hears Luda clearing uncharacteristically loud but it was too late. When she looks up, massive shivers roll down her spine. Her back straightens like a ramrod because Xuan Yi and Sojung are standing across the the table, carrying grocery bags, frozen in place. Eunseo stands close behind, her long limbs filled with grocery bags as well.

“You’re in love with someone?” Xuan Yi speaks first, but her eyes are wide and her lips are pursed, as if unsure whether to smile or frown. “Why am I hearing this just now?”

The thought that all of them overheard, Xuan Yi especially, and are each having their own assumptions made Bona’s knees weak. This can’t be real.

Eunseo and Cheng Xiao have always been a thing, they’ve been together since the group started. Seola and Soobin started dating roughly eight months ago, even after that fiasco where Sojung’s unrequited love came to light during a drinking session. Until now Bona can sense the tension whenever the three of them are in a room together.

The other pairings are too fickle to be mentioned, though Bona and Xuan Yi have been spending a lot of time together. As best friends. They’ve always been labeled as such and no one seems to know any better.

Until this morning.

When what was supposed to be a good night’s sleep turned to a wake up call that she might have fallen head over heels for Wu Xuan Yi, who looks radiant early in the morning in an over-sized shirt and shorts, the soft curls of her hair framing her delicate features, her denim shorts wrapping her long legs.

“Oh, you’re here? We didn’t hear you coming.” Luda’s blatantly trying to diffuse the growing tension and Bona makes a mental note to thank her later.

Everyone starts unpacking the grocery bags as if on cue, though Xuan Yi moves much later.

“Unnie, you don’t look well.” Eunseo says, but she doesn’t look Bona directly in the eyes. “Did you sleep well last night?”

Bona’s eyes unconsciously find Xuan Yi’s and she swears she could feel the heat crawling from her neck to her cheeks. This is not the time to lose composure and embarrass yourself, Kim Jiyeon. Focus.

But all she manages is to stammer a feeble, “No. I didn’t.”

Sojung’s forehead scrunches as if in thought, her eyes darting from Bona to Xuan Yi and back before she forces a yawn out of her lips, “Isn’t it too early to be talking about these kinds of stuff?”

Luda waves the topic away by scurrying into the grocery bags in search for the ice cream she requested. Sojung fishes something out from her bag and hands an entire gallon over to her.

While Bona remains slumped on the dining table, stealing glances from Xuan Yi who’s digging in the grocery for her precious dried seaweed, the rest of the members start to wake up one by one at Eunseo’s call.

Dayoung, who looks half-asleep, wordlessly scoops ingredients for what might be today’s breakfast. Y