If there was one thing that Sana adored in this world, it was Dahyun’s smile. That wide, eye-crinkling smile that covered her entire face, her fluffy cheeks bunching up, her thin little lips parting to reveal a set of perfect, glowing white teeth. It was a smile that reflected mirth and familiarity, a calming representation of good memories and complete serenity. Sana couldn’t get enough of it.

    And that’s why, during the school days of her junior year of high school, when the two girls were only able to see each other at lunch, Sana cherished every second of it. She would depart from her Calculus class as rapidly as possible (trailed close behind by two of her friends, Nayeon and Jihyo, who would call out to her in fruitless attempts to slow her down), making a  beeline to the cafeteria, which was all the way on the other side of the large high school. She would burst through the heavy, steel double-doors, her eyes already sweeping the lunchroom in search of her prize. It never took long for Sana to locate her girlfriend. She was usually situated in a smaller, two-person table, beside one of the windows, staring out at the cars passing by, the sunlight playing on her pale skin, giving it an almost sparkle-like glow that seemed to radiate around her in all directions as she aimlessly picked at the food in front of her.

Due to Dahyun’s condition, she was allowed to leave her previous class for lunch five minutes early, under the pretense that she would use the time to buy food before the abysmally long lunch lines were formed. However, as Sana knew all too well, Dahyun couldn’t stand cafeteria food, and much preferred the lunches her father (or, if he was too busy, Dahyun’s dutiful significant other) packed for her.

At that point, Nayeon and Jihyo would have already caught up to Sana. They would then half-heartedly try to get Sana to bring her girlfriend to sit with them at their friends, but they already knew the answer; Sana preferred to spend her lunches alone with Dahyun. She was aware that Dahyun didn’t particularly like crowds of strangers, and such a situation would make her more than a little uncomfortable.

    Dahyun would notice her by then, and that big, squishy smile would appear as Sana rushed over to smother it with a kiss. Sana could practically feel the disapproving cringes of the other students around her; this sort of thing happened every day, an almost romance novel-esque scene that implied the two girls hadn’t seen each other in years. Sana didn’t care in the slightest. Even when Dahyun would pull away, her face alight with a pink blush as she embarrassingly reprimanded her over-enthusiastic girlfriend for her shameless actions.

    “Sana!” she would say, looking around, the little bun at the top of her head bobbing back and forth as she turned her head, “Do you wanna get yelled at by the teachers again?”

    “I don’t care,” Sana always responded as she took her seat, “As long as I get to kiss you, anything’s worth it.”

    Dahyun’s reactions to Sana’s affectionate declarations were always adorable, involving a softening of her gaze and a slight tremble of her lower lip, almost as if she were about to cry.

    “Do you mean that?”

    “Of course, Dubu,” Sana would whisper back, smiling tenderly as she pulled the paper bag containing her lunch out of her bag, “So, how was your day?”

The smooth, effortless transition from sensual to casual consistently caught Dahyun off guard, and she’d need a moment to collect herself in preparation for a proper response. Sana was used to this reaction and would take this time to begin eating her sandwich.

“It was good,” Dahyun would finally begin, following with a lengthy, often detailed explanation as to why it wasn’t a good day. Sometimes it was because she didn’t understand the algebra topic that her class had been discussing, or because she had a headache during English, or because Sooyoung and Yerim had gotten into one of their arguments and weren’t talking to each other, which led to Dahyun sitting awkwardly between them during art class, trying her best to ignore the icy silence between the other girls.

Sana’s rebuttal depended heavily on whatever affliction was ailing her poor girlfriend that day. For the headaches, it would be an Advil and a temple massage. For the algebra, it would be a promise of tutoring after school. For Yerim and Sooyoung’s little lover’s quarrels, it would be a few light-hearted jokes to get Dahyun’s spirits back up. Regardless, come the end of whatever therapeutic measure Sana decided to employ, the younger girl always felt and looked immensely better than before. Dahyun would then launch into a string of apologies for her constant complaining, to which Sana assured her that there was no issue, and that fixing Dahyun’s problems was the reason that she was around in the first place. After gushing over her girlfriend’s wittily romantic answer, Dahyun would ask how Sana’s day went, and it was always the same:

“Boring, because you aren’t there. But otherwise, it’s going well.”

And, almost all of the time, Sana would simply move on from there, and focus on topics that Dahyun enjoyed, such as music, poetry, or video games. She knew that, as an upperclassman athlete who was seen as one of the more “popular” people in school, she had a much easier time than freshman, handicapped, near-friendless Dahyun. There was no need to tell her girlfriend about how amazing of a grade she got on her history exam, or about the silly gossip that her friends loved to constantly parrot, or about the plethora of parties she’d been invited to that weekend (parties that she wouldn’t be attending, as she’d much rather spend her Saturday nights watching horror movies with a certain special someone). It didn’t help that Sana was repeatedly barraged with questioning looks from other students who seemed unable to grasp the concept that she was actually, seriously, really, no joke, dating Dahyun. Sana wasn’t stupid. She knew that people would question such a relationship, that their low opinions of her girlfriend would cause them to judge both of the girls harshly. But Sana couldn’t care less. She loved Dahyun, and Dahyun loved her back; that was all that mattered in the end.

Regardless of what they discussed, the lunch period would pass by all too quickly as they shared both food and laughs, giggling to one another in their own little private corner of the lunchroom, as if they were completely removed from the other students. The bell would ring, and Sana would push Dahyun to her next class, disregarding the fact that doing so made her habitually late for her own next class. They would bid each other farewell, stealing tender kisses when no one was looking, before Sana melded back into the crowd of students, hurrying to get to gym on time. For awhile, the older girl would be a bit sad that she had to say goodbye to her girlfriend. But she usually got over it swiftly, as she knew that she’d be seeing Dahyun first thing after school let out.

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A short little thing I wrote up as a bonus chapter. Hope you like it!

Thanks for reading<3