“Here is yours, miss, a hot chocolate. Thank you and please come again.”

“Thank you.” Kyungwon flashes a light smile and takes her leave.

The café was cozy and warm, that’s what she hadn’t noticed before. Now that she’s outside, meters away from the café, she’s contemplating to turn around and go back in again. Maybe I could order another hot chocolate too, she thinks as she sees the cup she’s holding is almost empty.

But the weather is too chilly, the wind won’t stop tickling her, and her watch shows that it’s already past six in the evening. The sun is about to set. She doesn’t really want to prolong her supposedly fifteen-minute of walk back to the apartment. Not when she is without her thick coat.

She just needs to fasten her pace so that she’ll sooner be in the comfort of her warm bed. She finishes her last drop of drink and crumples the empty cup with both of her hands (a habit she’d picked up from too much of watching Minkyung doing it) before throwing it into the nearest trash bin. Feeling the sudden emptiness with nothing to hold, she tucks her frigid hands into the depths of her pockets and continues her walk.

 

Two minutes of walking, Kyungwon finally reaches the street a couple of blocks away from her apartment. She doesn’t take this way very often, only once in a while. It has quite a lot of stores opened, making the street kind of crowded with all the people going in and out of the stores.

Kyungwon pauses and wonders, but it’s never been this crowded before…

Shrugging off, she proceeds to stroll down the street. It’s when she passes by a store and hears a music being played from inside that she finally realizes, it’ll be Christmas soon. That explains the unusual crowd.

She mentally scolds herself for forgetting it. She’ll have to start finding for Christmas presents tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow. Yeah.

She counts in her head how many gifts she should buy while she passes the stores one by one.

“Mom, Dad, Kongie, Eunwoo, Yewon, Illa—” She trails off when something catches her eyes; a lone figure–tall, slender, and too familiar–standing not far from her spot. “And her.” She completes her list and unknowingly smiles.

 

Kyungwon slowly approaches the girl who is still so focused on whatever that thing she’s eyeing. The girl is too preoccupied to even notice that she’s now right beside her. Kyungwon quirks her eyebrows and turns to look at the window display.

“A necklace? I didn’t know you’re interested in something like necklace, Minkyung.” Kyungwon voices out, causing the said girl to sharply turn her head to look at her, eyes wide.

“K-Kyungwon? What are you-What are you doing here?” Kyungwon doesn’t understand why Minkyung is this shocked to find her here. Did she forget that they live in the same area? In the same apartment? In the same room?

“I’m on my way to our home,” Kyungwon stares at her bemusedly.

“O-Oh..” Minkyung grabs her arm and pulls her to walk beside her. “Let’s go home.”

“What? Are you not buying it?” She points backward with her thumb over her shoulder, points it to the necklace Minkyung’d stared at moments ago.

“I will go back there tomorrow.” Kyungwon could hear the vaguely dubious tone in her voice, like she’s hesitating.

“I see,” She briefly looks at Minkyung, “Are you buying it for-­”

“N-Nayoung!” Minkyung hurriedly exclaims, her sudden raise of voice startles her; it looks like Minkyung herself is surprised too, and embarrassed.

“Oh?” She just wanted to ask if the necklace was for her mother. She didn't expect Minkyung'd react so strongly.

“Y-Yeah..”

Nayoung? Kyungwon openly observes her. Minkyung’s fidgeting a lot, like she’s nervous. Minkyung’s nervous.

She diverts her gaze back to the front, feeling a surge of uncomfortable emotion building up inside her but promptly swallows it back down.

 

They’re walking side by side, shoulders bumping every once in a while; occasionally throwing out comments here and there about the people passing by, the newly opened restaurant, cats, anything.

“I’m cold, you know. Why don’t you lend me your coat?” Kyungwon starts joking, but her smile quickly fades as she sees Minkyung slides her left arm out of her coat.

“Here.” Minkyung shoves it to her.

Minkyung’s never let her borrow her coat before, not caring how many times she’d whine because of the cold. “I was just joking, though,” She wears it nevertheless. She’s really in need of warmth at the moment.

She takes a quick glance at Minkyung’s side profile and Minkyung is just so, so ethereal, so beautiful with those slightly parted lips and pink nose, so beautiful that she’s afraid she’ll never be able to stop staring if she doesn’t immediately turn her gaze away from her.

“Aren’t you cold too?” Kyungwon meekly asks.

She hears the girl draw out a deep breath and feels a hand slip into her own. “Not anymore.” Minkyung grins.

Kyungwon shakes her head.

“Stupid.” She interlaces their fingers firmly.

 

It’s warm.

 

––

 

They’re on the floor of the living room, backs against the couch. Two boxes of pizza laid open on the coffee table. They’d argued about what to get for dinner, before both settling to order separately. But seconds after, Minkyung decided to change her mind and gave in to Kyungwon.

Kyungwon’s stopped eating halfway through her third slice; meanwhile, Minkyung seems like she’s not going to stop anytime soon. Truly amazing.

Sometimes she wonders how Minkyung’s body works. But it’s Minkyung. She shouldn’t be surprised anymore when she’s been living with her for nearly two years.

They’re engaged in a casual talk, chatting away about how the day went. It’s getting harder for them to actually sit and have a real talk these past few days with the amount of assignments they were given. Moreover, finals are just around the corner.

Kyungwon couldn’t deny it, she missed Minkyung a bit, even though they literally live under the same roof. They don’t share the same classes, have their own groups of friends, barely see each other around the campus. And Minkyung’s been coming home much later than normal. Group projects, that’s what she said over a text.

 

She sips on her Pepsi as she watches Minkyung talk animatedly about something funny. Apparently, it’s about the story of how Sungyeon, Minkyung’s friend, made a fool out of herself because she couldn’t handle her own mouth when she’s faced with her crush. Kyungwon soon finds out that it’s Yewon whom Sungyeon has a crush on. That’s so cute.

“Ah, right!” Minkyung exclaims, the pizza crumbs off her fingers, “I won’t be coming home tomorrow,” she takes a sip from her own cup of Pepsi as she continues, “I need to stay over at Nayoung’s place.”

Have they always been this close? “Okay.”

Minkyung knits her eyebrows in confusion.

“Okay? You’re not gonna ask why?”

Kyungwon stands up, stretching to loosen her sore muscles from sitting too long. “Nah. Gonna sleep now. I have a morning class tomorrow.”

Minkyung’s eyes follow Kyungwon's every movement as she walks to her room. Right before she’s completely inside, Kyungwon turns around to point her finger at Minkyung. “Clean the table and go wash the dishes. Don’t stay up too late.” And Minkyung watches the door gently closed.

 

“Nayoung asked me to watch over her hamsters…” Minkyung mutters quietly, feeling a bit upset that she’s left alone to eat.

Whatever. Gotta listen to Kyungwon.

Minkyung starts cleaning up the table and washes the dishes. Her thoughts are a jumbled mess. She reminds herself to go back to the store tomorrow before going to Nayoung’s place.

She sighs.

She should’ve bought the necklace right away. What if it’s already sold out when she gets back there?

Again, she blames herself for being so weak for Kyungwon.

But it’s inevitable, she didn’t know Kyungwon would just show up suddenly beside her and make her unable to think clearly.

Minkyung sighs once again, drying her hands with a cloth. She leaves the kitchen and heads to her own room.

She pauses to look at Kyungwon's door, silently hoping that her surprise wouldn't get spoiled.

With a last dejected look, she drags herself inside her room.