“I’m in love with you.”
   The hand trailing lazy patterns along her waist stilled, before resting on the curve of her hip. Sheets rustled around them as the body molded against her own pushed itself up, bringing a whine to Sana’s lips at the loss of heat. The darkness of the room was chased away by the lamp Jihyo reached over to turn on, before facing Sana with a bewildered expression.
   “Babe why, it’s so brig-“
   “You love me.”
   She shouldn’t have been flustered over this. She hadn’t meant for it to slip out, and she was hoping that Jihyo was too sleepy to take any real notice of the whisper that escaped her treacherous mouth but-
   “Yeah.”
   Half-lidded eyes puffy with sleep widened at the admission, before narrowing at the girl in front of her.
   “Of all the times to admit it, you choose during the finale of Stranger Things?”
   Sana grinned.
   “Stranger things have happened I suppose.” She winked, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend fully intending to drag her back to her rightful position as official space-heater. She should have expected Jihyo to wriggle in resistance and slap her arms away.
   “First of all,” Jihyo said between slaps, “that joke was awful.”

   “You mean great.” Another slap. Jihyo’s eyes narrowed further.
  “Secondly,” She continued, ignoring the hurtful eyes and pout aimed at her, “You love me?”
   Sana didn’t like the stark vulnerability on her girlfriend’s face, as if she was fully expecting to be told this was a joke or for Sana to make light of the situation. She looked at the girl in front of her, drowning in an oversized sweater (that she definitely didn’t ‘borrow’ from Sana or anything) with her hair tied up in a loose ponytail that affected Sana more than she was willing to admit. The sight made her heart flip flop pathetically. She sat up properly, crossing her legs to sit directly in front of Jihyo.
   “Do you remember the night we all went to Sweeps’ bar?”
   Jihyo snorted.
   “How could I not, we almost lost Momo because Jeongyeon decided to wager her in a bet with some guys.”
   Sana hummed.
   “You also decked a guy square in the jaw because Jeongyeon decided to wager Momo in a bet with some guys and they didn’t grasp that no meant no.”
   Even under the dim light, Sana saw the flush rise on Jihyo’s face.
   “And I’d do it again, even if I had to learn how to write with my left hand for a while.”
   Sana chuckled, reaching forward to capture both of Jihyo’s hands with her own. Fingers parted automatically to make space for her own, knitting together loosely in their laps.
   “I think I fell in love with you that night.”
   Jihyo’s eyes widened in surprise.
   “Sana that was two years ago. We weren’t even toget-“
   “I know.” She cut her off. “I know, but when we were sat in the emergency room at the hospital, and you were cradling your hand to your chest and using your good hand to call Momo and reassure her that ‘no it wasn’t her fault’ and simultaneously threaten to kick Jeongyeon’s - all with the most relaxed and content smile I had ever seen - I just, you just…” She trailed off.
   “I’d never seen something so beautiful in my whole life.” Jihyo’s grip on her fingers tightened, it was only then she realised how much she was shaking. And Sana had seen every side of Jihyo. She had seen Jihyo in the morning, freshly woken with mussed up post- hair and a lazy, satisfied grin, stretching like a sun-soaked cat against her bed sheets. She had seen Jihyo thirteen pages deep into an essay due at 9am the next morning, clock persistently displaying 03:24, surrounded by empty cans of red bull and leg bouncing away maniacally as frantic fingers moved furiously against the keys. She had seen Jihyo curled up in her bedsheets, sobbing into the unresponsive receiver after another gruelling phone call with her overbearing mother.
   And she was beautiful, in every conceivable way.
   “I don’t think I knew it myself. I’ve never...fallen, in love before - I think?” Sana finally looks up, trying not to cry when she sees the unshed tears b in her girlfriend’s eyes. “But you, you’re love. You’re my love. And I’m in love with you.”
   It was quite possibly the least eloquent way she could have put it, and Sana had planned for this to have happened in much greater detail, maybe at a nice restaurant or she’d take Jihyo to the beach perhaps. The girl in front of her deserved nothing less than the world, but even Sana’s simple, sloppy confession that tumbled out of recklessly at 1am on her cramped single bed made Jihyo’s eyes shine in a way that made her think she had done something right.
   Jihyo surged forward to kiss her, and Sana knew that there couldn’t be anything more right in her life than right now. She felt Jihyo trying to whisper her confession against her lips, and she grinned involuntarily, pulling away from her girlfriend with a breathy ‘I know’ before resuming the kiss with laughter bubbling in and a similar grin mirrored against her own.