Earth…
Tonight your petals may be fragile,
But they still bloom with the sweet scent of hope.
-Susan Gale

Seungwan sits in her seat, frozen, as she waits for Joohyun to return from the washroom. Her half-full plate of pasta grows cold opposite Joohyun's cleaned one, and although she knows it wouldn't​ be right not to finish the meal, she just doesn't have the stomach for it anymore. Her hands twitch, looking for something, anything, to calm her whirlpool of thoughts, so she picks up her fork and aimlessly twirls linguine around​ in its creamy sauce.

Joohyun… has MCS? The gears in Seungwan’s brain grind against each other as she tries her best to avoid jumping to any conclusions. Taking in deep breaths to calm herself down, she attempts to convince herself that even though the condition may not be common,  it was certainly not very rare to find, either. So Joohyun might not be-

“Seungwan? Are you okay?”

Joohyun’s wide, doe-like eyes are mere centimetres away from Seungwan’s, and the proximity makes Seungwan jump slightly in her seat. “Ah, yes, I’m okay,” she replies as she brushes her hair back. “Do you want to order anything else?” she asks out of politeness’ sake.

Shaking her head, Joohyun remains standing next to Seungwan. “Not really, no. But your pasta…” Seungwan shrugs and pushes her plate away; her lack of appetite is slowly making her nauseous at the sight of uneaten cream pasta. 

I need a distraction, she thinks. 

Getting to her feet, she tugs on her coat and naturally reaches for Joohyun’s hand.

“Let’s go somewhere.”

*

“You know,” Joohyun muses, “I knew there was a reason why I had a teeny-tiny feeling you were definitely someone who would bring their partner to a motel on their first date.”

Seungwan gasps in mock surprise, placing a hand over her heart. “Wow, do I really give off that impression? Wow, unbelievable.” She pretends to look around for any observers before leaning in close. “You saw right through me,” she whispers teasingly, giving Joohyun a cheeky wink.

Joohyun’s cheeks turn the colour of ripe beetroot, and she cups her face in her hands to hide the heat that blazes on her face. “But seriously though,” she wonders, “why are we here?”

“Because I want to show you something really cool.” Seungwan’s words are as earnest as the expression on her face.

Joohyun follows Seungwan into the building where they breeze past the receptionist and head straight for the lifts. They stand inside the one of the lifts for a good two seconds before Seungwan steps out again, much to Joohyun’s confusion. “Do you mind if I took the stairs instead?” Seungwan asks, sheepish. “I, um, ate too much. I should probably get some exercise. Race you to the top!” she exclaims as she presses the button to the topmost floor before fleeing, leaving Joohyun alone in the dimly lit elevator.

What was that about? Joohyun thinks to herself as she ascends to the top of the building. It doesn’t make any sense to her that Seungwan could ever be full, not with her dinner barely touched. She sighs, the quiet sound louder than ever in the small space, and closes her eyes as she leans back on one of the surrounding metal walls.

When she finally reaches the top, Seungwan is standing there, her hair wind-tossed and face flushed from sprinting up five floors. She grabs Joohyun’s hand as soon as the doors open and drags her up the final flight of stairs leading to the rooftop. They burst through the roof door and stumble onto the flat rooftop. Fresh, cold air enter Joohyun’s lungs as an autumn breeze tickles her slender frame.

She turns her head, looks at her companion for the night. Locks of deep blue hair whip around Seungwan’s face and neck, sometimes hiding and sometimes revealing fair skin and an especially pretty neckline. Fading light from surrounding buildings angle shadows onto her face; her lips are slightly parted as exhalations leave in faint clouds of fog. Their hands are still loosely held together.

“Look,” Seungwan says as she gazes up at the night sky. Joohyun follows her lead and utters a soft gasp at the sight of a full moon bathing them in its soft light and a few stars that shyly wink at them. 

“I come up here often when I need to clear my head, since it makes me feel like I’m home,” Seungwan explains in a hushed whisper. “Whether it’s Canada or Korea, the moon will still shine with the same brightness. Even if everything else is different, we still share the same sky, the same moon, the same stars. Isn’t it beautiful?”

Joohyun glances over at Seungwan, smiling softly at the usually assertive woman’s contemplative expression. “Yeah, it is.”

*

Of the four walls that make up Kang Seulgi’s bedroom, the wall closest to her bed is the only unpainted one. Instead, imprinted onto it is a magnetic wallpaper that also imitates a whiteboard, allowing it to be covered in tons of stylistic drawings and messy handwriting. Tonight, she is busy working on a recent idea of hers, sketching in the contours of her latest ball gown on a rough piece of art paper. Her eyes dart around her workspace, absorbing inspiration from the magazine cutouts that litter the surface of her desk.

When Seulgi is completely absorbed in her work, she tends to ignore any text messages, calls, or emails from her phone, which is why she gets an even greater shock when she suddenly hears the equivalent sound of a stam