Kyungwon’s had enough.

There are plenty of ways one could use to wake her up, but she will never tolerate tickling. She hates being tickled. Everyone who knows that Kyungwon once had a strawberry-blonde hair some time in the past would also know that she hates being tickled. It was even a well-known fact on campus – thanks to Eunwoo for being a good friend and attacking her in public, numerous times. She unconsciously created quite a scene every single time Eunwoo did it.

Kyungwon hates being tickled but it seems like Minkyung never gives a damn about it as well.

“I’d rather you push me off this bed, seriously.” Kyungwon swats the intruding hands away. She half-opens one of her eyes then immediately shuts it off when the first ray of the artificial light hits her eye.

“You need to get up now, Kyungwon!”

The said girl grumbles a what and searches the bed sheets for her phone. After finding it beside her pillow, she presses the power button to light up the display screen, the time showing quarter to five. She closes her eyes tight, attempting to fall back to sleep.

“You can’t go back to sleep! Kyungwon!” Minkyung shakes the sleepy girl’s body, rocking it repeatedly.

“It’s not even five yet!”

“But you promised to accompany me!”

“But it’s freaking four forty-five in the morning! You didn’t tell me we’d be going out at dawn.” Kyungwon pulls the covers over her head, hoping Minkyung will stop being so adamant about getting her up at this kind of hour. This is just simply crazy.

Amazingly, Minkyung does stop. Kyungwon feels no moves and hears no sounds for a moment.

“Alright. Never mind… You can go back to sleep.”

Kyungwon doesn’t need to see to know the other girl’s current expression. Although Minkyung’s tried to conceal it, the disappointment in her tone could still be perceived clearly.

“I’ll be back later. Around nine, probably.” Minkyung states, glancing at the big lump on the bed for the last time before moving to stand up.

Minkyung’s done washing up, she only needs to finish her two slices of toast and a cup of coffee before going out.

Before she fully steps outside though, she hears a muffled voice.

She bites back a grin.

“Did you say something?”

Kyungwon throws the covers away.

“I said I am going with you.”

 

––

 

They leave the house in a rush. Minkyung keeps pestering Kyungwon to move faster while saying something about them not making it if she doesn’t quit being sluggish.

Kyungwon regrets a wee bit for agreeing to this. Every time she exhales there’ll be a big form of fog visible – as if to remind her that it is insanely cold, that the only perfect place she should be in right now is Minkyung’s warm bed.

The temperature outside in wintertime is just something she can’t handle well.

“Are we still far?” Kyungwon’s eyes scan around the area – the sun has yet to rise but there are already people moving here and there running their businesses. The harsh cold doesn’t seem to bother them the slightest bit.

“Almost there.”

They walk past a massive Christmas tree and loads of markets. They walk past a park. They walk past a small grove of snow-covered trees.

After what seems like an eternity, Minkyung finally slows down and reaches her hand out to hold Kyungwon. They stop walking and start gawking at the sight.

They’re at the sidewalk, far to the side nearing the river. Kyungwon grips the railing, eyes not blinking. The sight of the sunrise upon her eyes is just…is just, out of words – out of this world.

They arrive just in time as the sun shows a tiny bit of itself – the few strings of light pierce through the clouds, hitting at all the right places. The sky in hues of yellows, oranges, and blues. One to two minutes later, the sun appears bolder, marking its entrance for a fresh new day to all of creatures.

Both of them just stand in silence, relishing in the serenity.

Kyungwon breathes out a shaky sigh. She almost forgot how in love she is with sunrises, or with skies in general. And Minkyung is here to make her appreciate it again, to remind her to not forget what she loves.

Minkyung stretches her arms to the front and to the side, releasing satisfied grunts. “Majestic, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I love this.” This, with you.

“See? Told you, you wouldn’t regret this,” Minkyung boasts, she raises her arm to take a look at her watch. "Time to get going. I need to go to a place fast.”

“How far?”

“Not far.”

“Okay. Wherever.” Kyungwon lets herself being dragged by Minkyung.

 

––

 

Kyungwon sees a long line of queue and soon finds herself and Minkyung being a part of it.

“Why are we here? What are we queuing for?” Kyungwon hops, trying to grasp the situation.

Minkyung grins, showing her teeth. “Limited edition of One Piece figurines. I’ve been waiting for this for months.”

Kyungwon’s ears perk up upon hearing it.

“Which one are you getting?”

“Chopper! I want Chopper!” Minkyung gleefully exclaims, eyes round and wide looking like a total child.

Kyungwon finds it cute, but she has a more crucial matter at hand to be worried about. Her eyes dart around, drops of sweat gliding down her temple, her mind working at a high speed.

Of course, Minkyung notices the sudden panic in Kyungwon’s eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Minkyung asks after gently pulling Kyungwon to move along to the line.

Kyungwon shows a pained expression, one eye squinting shut.

“Kyungwon, are you hurt somewhere?” Minkyung alarmingly asks.

The other girl grabs her own stomach, whimpers come out short.

The thought of lining for the limited figurine she’s always wanted immediately flies out of her head as she wraps her arm around Kyungwon’s shoulder, guiding her out of the queue.

“We’re going to a hospital nearby,” Minkyung informs, one hand holding Kyungwon firmly while the other one sticking out to hail a cab.

“No! Let’s just head back home.” Kyungwon clasps the hand on her shoulder.

“But you are in pain!” Minkyung desperately says, shoving the thought of Kyungwon just calling her home ‘home’ far to the back of her mind.

“I’m okay. Please…” It’s the pleading tone.

“…Fine.” Minkyung opens the car door then lets Kyungwon in first before getting in as well.

“Stop looking at me like that. I’m not dying.” Kyungwon quietly giggles.

Minkyung looks away with an evident frown.

Now Kyungwon feels kinda bad for making Minkyung worry like this.

“Hey hey, I’m sorry..about the Chopper.”

“It’s alright. It’s not that important anyways.”

Kyungwon knows Minkyung’s spouting lies because out of all the people she has met, she knows for certain that Minkyung is the biggest fan of collecting One Piece figurines.

Kyungwon hides her smile, swallows the laughter deep down, Minkyung is just too cute.

 

––

 

Minkyung makes sure Kyungwon has a good rest as soon as they reach home.

“Change into something warmer!” Minkyung nags, both hands on each side of her hips.

She watches Kyungwon gets on the room’s only bed, looking so drowsy and ready to fall into deep slumber.

Minkyung walks to Kyungwon’s side, looming over her. “At least wear a sweater, will you?”

“No need to.” Kyungwon suddenly speaks and yanks her down, arms finding their way to embrace her body, legs toppling over each other, nose nuzzling against black tresses.

Minkyung focuses on her own breathing, trying to count imaginary sheep jumping over the fence in her head – trying to not think of warm skin and warm breath.

One day. One day she’ll die from heart-malfunction if she doesn’t soon find a way to stop it from throbbing like this.

Moments later, Yerim opens the door to her sister’s room, intending to call them to have a breakfast together. She’s ready to shout when she spots two figures practically mold into each other on the bed. Yerim’s gaze softens. She tiptoes to get to the sleeping figures, hands taking the hems of the covers to pull it higher, to properly cover the two sleeping girls. She nods to herself and turns around to soundlessly step out of the room. They are just too cute.

 

––

 

They sleep well, sleep through the breakfast and sleep through the lunch. They sleep through an impromptu welcome party for a new comer in the house.

The melody of afternoon birds chirping on the window sill stirs the shoulder-length-haired girl up. She wakes up feeling at ease. Her previous naps would never be up to par with the one she just took – this is legitimately the epitome of warm winter.

She lightly shakes the other girl’s shoulder, whispering short wake-up calls into her ears. The girl rises after the third shake, eyelids fluttering open to a view of lazy smile.

No words come up, only gazes are exchanged.

Both girls come up to a silent agreement to end the staring contest and go out to check what’s happening outside the room. Minkyung leads their way to where the commotion and bickering come from.

They enter the living room, and it all happens so fast. Kyungwon hears Minkyung gasp, witnesses her dash across the room to jump into someone's arms. 

Kyungwon sees the happiest side of Minkyung today. That automatically makes her the happiest too, seeing Minkyung wearing her signature blitheful smile.

After all, it’s been awhile since the two siblings last met.

The two eldest siblings break out from their reunion hug with big smiles still. The older male leans in close to Minkyung’s ear, delivering secret lines that draw Minkyung’s skin into deep shade of red. Kyungwon’s curiosity piques. It’s rare for her to see this side of Minkyung – ultimately shy and unable to retaliate.

Yerim, on the other side, seems to understand and catch on what her older brother’s telling her sister. “Look, Jongin! Her reaction is just precisely like how I described!”

Minkyung sends a deathly glare to her younger sister, thumb and index finger threatening to pinch her .

The only male in the living room turns his attention to Kyungwon, bringing his hand up to request for a high-five. Kyungwon breaks into a huge grin and opens her palm to casually hit Jongin’s awaiting one.

“Nice to finally meet you, Kyungwon.”

“Likewise.”

Yerim ushers all of them to sit on the couch. They watch the youngest walk to the PS4 consoles scattered on the floor to pick them up, she tosses one to Minkyung and one to Jongin.

The two eldest siblings start putting on a challenging smirk on their respective faces.

Yerim settles down on the carpeted floor, right beside Kyungwon’s legs. She taps Kyungwon’s thigh. “Just wait and see, Kyungwon-unnie. It won’t be long until they start kicking each other.”

Kyungwon bemusedly laughs. The Kim siblings are nothing else but a trio of playful kids.

 

––

 

The four of them play and fight hard, until the oldest woman in the household comes over to announce that the dinner is ready.

It’s the best so far. The atmosphere brightens up a few degrees with the addition of Jongin. The dinner throughout is never once not boisterous. The mother of three keeps placing all sorts of dishes on each of their plates, including Kyungwon’s. It’s amazing. Kyungwon really feels at home; the Kim family treats her like she’s part of them.

Kyungwon for once, envies Minkyung, for she has chaotic siblings who are always there to lift the mood up.

She loves her parents (who are now travelling like a couple on their first honeymoon, perhaps). They are fun and loving, but she couldn’t help the loneliness she felt every time she got home after a long and tiring day of school life. No constant presence of her parents, no other companions. Dull and boring. (The disadvantages of having businessman and businesswoman as parents, and no brother nor a sister.) 

At least there was Kongie.

“Kyungwon. Try this too.”

Kyungwon gives a thumbs up to Minkyung’s mom as a sign of gratitude.

She takes a spoonful of soup, then hears Minkyung whisper: “Let’s go to my room after this.” Brief and hush.

Kyungwon suddenly remembers the hidden Christmas gift that she put inside her small luggage.

Looks like it’ll finally get to see the light soon.

 

––

 

Minkyung goes to her room first after the dinner ends. Kyungwon had offered to help wash the dishes again, along with Yerim. That’s actually good, for she has time to prepare herself. She opens the bottom of her drawers, hands rummaging through its contents to find a shape of key which she soon finds under a pile of magazines.

She doesn’t understand why the nervousness in her decides to kick in now as she sees her right hand shaking, finding it difficult to insert the key into the keyhole of the top drawer.

Minkyung curses under her breath. Snap out if it! 

She cheers for herself, finally succeeds inserting the key, she twists it and slides the drawer out. Her sight falls upon a small brown box. She doesn’t notice the way her heart speeds up and the way her hands tremble worse. Minkyung’s been hiding this little thing for weeks, away from a certain girl with gummy smile and lively eyes. Just imagining her finally gets to present it to the girl in her mind is enough to fluster her even more. What if Kyungwon doesn’t like this? What if she doesn’t wear necklaces? Minkyung never really sees her wearing any accessories before… Or what if she thinks it’s weird of her to get her a necklace?

Minkyung means it to be her second step – making Kyungwon know that she’s special. She can’t expect Kyungwon to fall for her all of a sudden without her showing any efforts, right? So, she sticks to her plan. Baby steps. Building the emotions first, receiving signals from Kyungwon second, confessing her ever-growing love last. Maybe it’ll be nice too if she gets a kiss, or two kisses, or many kisses later after she con—

“Are we going to exchange gifts?”

Minkyung’s lovesick smile fades off quick, thunders strike her heart hard. She wasn’t joking about dying because of Kyungwon.

“You prepared a gift for me?” Minkyung asks instead.

“You’ll love it!” Her eyes follow Kyungwon moving to her luggage, pulling a zipper and taking out a wrapped box.

“What is that?”

Kyungwon doesn’t respond. She sits on the bed and pats the space across her signaling Minkyung to get on the bed as well.

“Open it yourself.”

Minkyung flops down on the bed, left hand placing the gift she’s going to give on the space behind her back.

She takes a hold of the wrapped box and weighs it – not too light and not too heavy. She starts peeling the wrapping off, wondering what’s in inside. Maybe twenty pairs of weird-looking socks? (Kyungwon got her ten pairs of socks and a training pants last year.)

When she opens the lid of the box, her hands instantly fly to cover . Antlers. Iconic blue hat.

Inside the box, there lie two Choppers – the limited edition Choppers – with different poses. 

She hurriedly pries the box open, takes out one of the two reindeer/human hybrids and holds it like a treasure.

“Did you pre-order these? Directly from Japan?”

Kyungwon nods. “I had to fake a sick to stop you this morning. Sorry about that,” admits Kyungwon timidly.

“Stupid…” Minkyung murmurs, “You even got me two…These must cost a lot.”

“No worries. I could manage.” Kyungwon doesn’t tear her gaze from Minkyung’s face the entire time, a sense of satisfaction rings through all her body as she sees how Minkyung cradles now two Choppers in her hands with a lot of care.

“Thank you, Kyungwon. Thank you, really…”

“You’re welcome. Now where’s that thing you took from that drawer?” Kyungwon deliberately shoves Minkyung a little bit to spot the gift behind Minkyung. She grabs it herself and is about to open it but feels long slender fingers wrap around her wrist, stopping her from opening the small brown box.

“What? Is this not for me?”

“…It is,” comes Minkyung’s unsure answer. Kyungwon waits in confusion.

Minkyung hangs her head low, a second later she lifts her head up with eyes full of determination. Minkyung nods her head in approval.

Kyungwon takes that as a cue to open the box.

Everything seems to slow down in motion. One blink, two blinks. Kyungwon still doesn’t say anything.

Now now is the time for Minkyung to silently blame herself for being so lame.

“Did you mix your gifts? You’re supposed to give this to Nayoung, right?” Kyungwon picks the necklace up to show it to Minkyung.

Ah.

“It is for you. I- I lied about giving it to Nayoung. I don’t know. You just had to appear beside me out of nowhere when I was going to purchase it! I was so shocked.” Minkyung rambles, spits out the words.

Minkyung braces herself for the worst, expecting Kyungwon to say something like I hate necklaces or This is so ugly but Kyungwon still stares at the item in silence. Minkyung wonders if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. “I thought it'd look perfect on you.”

Soon after, she sees Kyungwon raise her other hand to cover her face – her hand pinkish, and the skin of her face that’s not covered by her hand looks kinda pinkish too. Minkyung feels her heart throb again, stomach tingle. Holy – Kyungwon is blushing. Kyungwon blushes because of her for the first time! Minkyung thinks that this is definitely a good sign.

She gains back her confidence and speaks up, “here, let me help you wear it.” She pulls Kyungwon’s hand away from her face. Lovely thing like Kyungwon’s flushed face needs to be appreciated without any barriers.

Minkyung beams, staring into Kyungwon’s eyes.

She takes the necklace from Kyungwon’s grasp and puts it around the quiet girl’s neck, easily clasps the hook. She turns her around to check, and catches herself smiling triumphantly. She was not wrong when she thought that the necklace would fit Kyungwon the best.

Kyungwon looks down at the accessory, fingers holding it gingerly. Three droplets of water form as the pendant.

“You're unbelievable sometimes. Thanks, Minkyung.”

At this rate, Minkyung’s going to sleep with a permanent smile on. “Wear it every day. You can’t remove it. Never.”

“I won’t.”

Yup, permanent smile.