Trees silently whipped past the window in greenish blurs. Wendy let her eyes go lazy and unfocused as she stared out at the ever moving background.

They were on the train travelling to the latter’s hometown for the holidays.

Wendy had called dibs on the window seat, explaining to Joohyun that watching the world whizz by at a million miles an hour would help to calm her.

Joohyun had asked her what was wrong. What was going on that meant she wasn’t calm?

Wendy had laughed a little at that. She was going to stay at the house of people she doesn’t know, who also happened to be the parents of her girlfriend, who, as Joohyun had described, weren’t the most relaxed people on the planet when it came to Joohyun and her life.

Truth be told, Wendy was terrified.

“I get travel sick on trains is all,” is what Wendy replied to Joohyun instead. She didn’t want to add to Joohyun’s anxiety about having her girlfriend meet her parents, the ones she was so scared of disappointing.

She desperately didn’t want to be that source of disappointment.

Wendy knew that Joohyun’s parents weren’t the most open with their daughter and, because of that, Joohyun always worried about how they felt about most of the choices she made.

They sat next to each other on the train, Wendy by the window with Joohyun next to her. Both sat in a comfortable silence on their laptops, Wendy working on one of her new compositions while Joohyun sat with her own headphones in, working on a lit paper. The only sounds between them was the quiet tapping of their keyboards.

Truth be told though Wendy had stopped working a while ago, the thought and panic of meeting Joohyun’s parents played at the forefront of her mind too much for her to concentrate on anything else.

What if they don’t approve of me? What if I’m not allowed to stay with Joohyun? What if something happens with Joohyun because of this?

The last thought had run through Wendy’s mind a few times now. She didn’t overly mind if Joohyun’s parents didn’t like her, she could handle that. But if anything reflected badly on Joohyun? After knowing the struggles the girl has gone through over the years, Joohyun didn’t deserve any of that and she certainly doesn’t deserve any more.

Wendy is pulled out of her thoughts by feeling something slowly hit her shoulder. She turns to look at Joohyun but finds the girl softly leaning against her shoulder, lightly snoozing.

Wendy sighs at the sight, giving Joohyun a loving look, giving the sleeping figure next to her  a small smile. She wishes she could immortalise this moment. Joohyun curled into her, resting on her shoulder. Wendy picks up her phone and takes a photo of the two of them, she’ll show it to Joohyun later, she decides.

Shortly after, Wendy notices Joohyun’s glasses sliding down the front of her face, becoming more dislodged as the train travels across the countryside. Wendy slowly tugs the glasses off her girlfriend’s face, carefully so as not to wake the sleeping beauty.

After setting the specs back in their case and leaving it next to Joohyun’s laptop, she saves Joohyun’s work, just in case, and closes the computers monitor. She looks back over at the sleeping girl and studies her face a bit more.

She notices the tired eyes, the dark circles that sit under them. She sees Joohyun’s face creased with worry, even while she’s sleeping. Wendy suddenly realises this might be the first time Joohyun has slept properly in a while, and it’s on a train in the middle of the day, hardly a comfortable scenario.

She looks exhausted.

Wendy brushes a stray part of Joohyun’s bangs back behind her ear, letting her fingers softly trace its edges. On top of her degree and working the coffee shop, the stress of Wendy seeing her family might’ve been getting to her more than she thought, despite Joohyun insisting she was fine, excited even, about the prospect.

Wendy snakes her arm around the small brunette, letting herself loosely hold her. She closes her own laptop and instead plugs her headphones into her phone and plays some soft music. There was no way she was going to be getting anymore work done on this trip. She then leans her own head on top of Joohyun’s and feels her sigh at the security Wendy offers her in the embrace. Feeling the girl relax in her arms, puts Wendy slightly more at ease and she decides that whatever it is that they’ll face once they arrive in Joohyun’s hometown, they’ll face it together.

As the journey goes on, Joohyun grows heavier on Wendy’s shoulder but she doesn’t move her, she just lets her sleep. The only time Wendy will risk disturbing the girl is when the train bumps or takes a particularly sharp turn, threatening to dislodge the sleeping girl from her shoulder, Wendy gently uses her other arm to try and keep Joohyun from falling off of her side and waking up.

Joohyun finally stirs as the train jolts her awake as it stops once it’s pulled into the station. Her head slips off Wendy’s shoulder and the girl looks up, confused by her surroundings. Realisation flashes across her features and she sits upright, trying to flatten any hair that has been slightly mussed up by sleep.

“Oh… I’m sorry,” she says, eyes slightly heavy and voice still thick with sleep, “I didn’t realise, I must’ve fallen asleep,” she rubs her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up more, “how long ago was that?”

“I dunno,” Wendy muses, “maybe an hour and a bit ago? I can’t quite remember, but it was a while. You seem to have slept well.” Wendy gives Joohyun her best smile, but the girl looks back with wide eyes.

“Over an hour? Wan? That must’ve been so uncomfortable, why didn’t you wake me?” Joohyun looks down at her hands in her lap, slightly embarrassed about sleeping on her girlfriend for most of the journey.

“‘Cause why would I?” Wendy just shrugs, “you were sleeping, I didn’t want to disturb you.” Wendy shoots the girl another reassuring smile before grabbing her hand, “Come on you, we’re the next stop, right? We should get ready to get off.”

They pack up their work and laptops just as the train pulled into the next stop, their stop. Joohyun’s hometown.

Joohyun grabbed their bags and led Wendy