It’s the same routine.

They embrace each other, but they don’t hold each other. They fall asleep together, but they don’t wake up together. Yerin’s here for last night, but she’s not here for the morning after. She never is.

It’s the same routine, so Sojung doesn’t know why it still makes her ache to be left in an empty bed.

She could, of course, ask Yerin to stay. Yerin always leaves with a kiss to her forehead that Sojung doesn’t know to find affectionate or dutiful. Sojung always makes sure to keep her eyes closed and her breathing even, to feign sleep and hope that Yerin can’t hear her heart pounding.

Some might say that it’s cowardly for Yerin to leave when Sojung is (supposedly) asleep, but then again it’s not like it’s very brave of Sojung to pretend to be asleep. She tells herself that it’s just to make things easier, but nothing is easy about goodbyes or about Yerin.