“Babe, now Hyejoo’s got a butterfly attached to her!”

Heejin momentarily dropped her novel to stare blankly at her girlfriend who had barged into their humble abode. She was so miffed at the intrusion that it took a while of scrutinizing Hyunjin’s wide-eyed, ‘um, aren’t you gonna acknowledge what I just said?!’ look before she finally registered her words.

“What?!”

“I know!”

She jostled with her reading glasses, fumbling to pull it over and through slightly tousled hair as Hyunjin rocked impatiently on her toes.

(Yes, pull it over and through, since she had the antiquated reading glasses with a golden chain connecting to the arms. It was a gift from her grandmother and she’d kept it ever since.)

((Even if her friends relentlessly.))

She eventually got it off and flattened her hair as she ran over, just barely clasping her hand in Hyunjin’s before the raven-head was bolting outside with her in close tow.

“Hyejoo! I brought Heejin, she wants to see.”

Their friend (who was looking suspiciously nervous) twiddled her thumbs as a beautiful sapphire butterfly flitted perfectly in place beside her. They stopped a respectable distance away, and Heejin swore that she saw its wings shimmer as a...greeting?

The first thought that swam through her head was, ‘where the hell is Chaewon’, but the spectacularity of the situation eclipsed the question rather quickly. Or rather, the familiarity of the situation.

“Girls, really, it’s not that big a deal,” Hyejoo said a bit breathlessly, splaying her hands out in front of her as the butterfly flapped around.

Hyunjin breathed an incredulous scoff, doe eyes following the bug. “Dude, a freaking insect is following you around. You can make money with this!”

The younger girl sighed. “I don’t...really want to.”

“This is so strange!” Heejin said finally, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

It was strange. A common phenomenon that occurred in their friend group was that one of them—out of nowhere, mind you—would get visited by an animal for varying periods of time. It would only happen once to each person (at least, that she knew of) and something about the way they’d act would really freak her out.

It started normally, for the most part; Sooyoung came to their Friday hang-out with a small transparent bag containing a bright blue fish. 

“It’s a blue betta. It’s my pet. Oh, and Jinsoul can’t come today.” 

(Okay, that’s not exactly what she said, but she’s paraphrasing here, the glint in her eye whenever she’d look at the fish still rubbed her the wrong way.)

The couple was strangely absent throughout the week except when Heejin saw Jinsoul (sans Sooyoung, which was uncommon on its own) traipsing along the harbour, a ing swan right on her heel. She told Hyunjin, but she didn’t believe her, and Jinsoul completely denied her claims. By the following Friday, both women were present, looking relieved, almost. When Yerim asked about the blue betta, Sooyoung (and Heejin remembers this distinctly) sent a wayward glance in her girlfriend’s direction before shrugging her off with, “oh, it died.”

The next occurrence happened when Kahei met up with her and Hyunjin at Jiwoo and Jungeun’s cafe, a white dove perched casually on her shoulder. Hyunjin nearly choked on her drink, and Jungeun almost dropped her tray that was full of used cutlery and expensive platters. 

“Why do you have a dove, unnie?!” Jiwoo demanded shrilly.

The woman hummed out, ‘I dunno’ and proceeded to pet the thing, making it coo into her touch. Needless to say, all four of them were on edge that day as the pinkette nonchalantly fed it crackers. Haseul wasn’t with her, either, which made Heejin flashback to the Sooyoung-Jinsoul incident. 

“Maybe they’re all animal connoisseurs!” Yeojin proposed, and Heejin felt her stomach swirl with doubt.

A few days later, Haseul met up with her and Sooyoung so that they could go shopping. And in the midst of walking through the park, a ( you not) goddamned deer rutted Haseul in the . Heejin flipped her lid, but Haseul and Sooyoung just aspersed the thing with hushed whispers like they...like they knew it.

The expression the girls wore when Heejin asked about Kahei made the skepticism deep inside her gut fester.

The next month, Jungeun made Heejin’s jaw drop to the floor when she put a penguin on display. It was cartoonishly small, and had peachy eyes that were uncannily reminiscent of Jiwoo. The same sinking feeling returned when Hyunjin moved to pet it and Jungeun practically ‘cirque-du-soleil-ed’ her way over the counter to push her back.

“D-don’t touch!” She howled, and in that split second, Heejin saw the penguin bristle, flap its wings and blink rapidly. Very much like Jiwoo. But she was sick that day.

When it happened with Yerim and Yeojin, Heejin was well on the cusp of going ballistic.

She saw the bat that hung upside-down in the kid’s room, saw the frog that was very poorly sequestered in Yerim’s pocket.

Again, she talked to Hyunjin, but got brushed off. Again, she interrogated the two, but got parried.

What the hell was going on?

She remembered staying up late, desperately trying to solve this mystery while Hyunjin groggily beckoned her to bed. All of her investigations came up blank, and she’d since dropped it. 

That was until today, of course, as Hyejoo stood in front of them with a pretty little butterfly resting on her head.

“What do you mean, ‘this is so strange’?” Hyunjin probed. “Of course it is, which is why they should milk it. The other girls wouldn’t listen, but Hyejoo will, right?”

“No, I really—“

“Okay, that’s it, you guys know something!” Heejin exclaimed, puffing out her cheeks and balling her fists.

The black-locked girls stared at her curiously. 

“Not you, Hyunjin, these two.” She said, gesturing to Hyejoo and the insect. “And Jinsoul-unnie, Sooyoung-unnie, Kahei-unnie, and Haseul-unnie know something too! Even Yerim and Yeojin are in on it, don’t think I haven’t noticed!!”

“That’s a lot of ‘unnie’ and not a lot of explaining,” Hyunjin deadpanned.

Hyejoo shared the same sentiment, raising a brow at her, and she swore, swore it on her grave that the butterfly twiddled its antennae at her.

“Gah!” She yelled in exasperation. “That’s it, both of you—or all three of you, come with me!”

They just obeyed as Heejin tapped a few things into her phone and stomped ahead.

•

“Do you know why I’ve gathered you here?”

“No,” Sooyoung said, crossing her arms and leaning into Jinsoul.

“I have work in a few minutes, hon,” Haseul spoke up.

“Yeah, the boss will be needing us soon,” Jungeun chimed in.

“This is why we meet up on Fridays!” Yerim said cheerily.

She made a sweeping motion to silence everyone and they acquiesced, giving her their listening ears. It wasn’t common to see Heejin so worked up.

“Explain,” she commanded severely. “Now.”

Jinsoul arched a brow and sputtered out a laugh. “Dude, you’re the one who needs to explain.”

“No, actually, I’m not,” she said haggardly, pinching the bridge of her nose in frustration. “You all know what or who this butterfly is—“ she pointed an accusatory finger at the fluttery bug beside Hyejoo, “—and why Chaewon is missing!”

She narrowed her eyes when they all stiffened. Well, all except Hyunjin, who seemed unfittingly amused by everything that was happening.

“Should...we?” Yeojin began, and Kahei immediately clamped a hand over .

“Aha!” She hollered, jumping up and down. “See, right there, proof! You guys know something we don’t. All of you do!” 

They let their heads hang.

“Okay, Heejin, we do know something,” Haseul started to say, and they all sat up in a panic. “I won’t say it, I won’t say it! I’m just—the poor girl’s going insane. I don’t even understand how we managed to get caught by her every time.”

Heejin felt as though she was floating in an endless abyss of the unknown. Nothing, absolutely nothing made her more irked than being left out of the loop. 

(Except maybe seeing someone hit on Hyunjin.)

Her girlfriend seemed just as aggravated by their ambiguity as her smile was wiped off her face and replaced with her placid, stony expression. None of them fancied that look.

“Your anniversary is in a few days, right?” Kahei asked.

Heejin blinked. “Um, yeah...why?”

“It’s the day you’ll know,” Jiwoo said, too serious for comfort. “And when it happens—don’t worry you’ll be able to tell—call us if you need assistance.”

Hyunjin snorted. “Alright, thanks, penguin.”

Heejin quirked a brow as they all gasped, hands covering gaping mouths. 

Her girlfriend simply rolled her eyes. “You guys are lucky Heejin’s a bit of a ding-bat. Pun intended, Yerim.”

She wasn’t following. Based on their pale, aghast expressions she assumed Hyunjin hit the mark. 

Ugh, that’s so annoying!

“You solved it too? C’mon, tell me!” She whined, slapping at her girlfriend’s arm.

“How did you...” Sooyoung’s question puttered away when Jinsoul squeezed her thigh. 

Hyunjin puffed out a breath. “Just be thankful I put up a front long enough. Let’s go, baby,” she grabbed Heejin’s hand and started to drag them to the entrance of Haseul and Kahei’s apartment. They all watched them, saucer-eyed. “Oh, and Hyejoo...”

“Y-yes?”

“Don’t crush Chaewon.”

Nervous laughter erupted around the living room and Heejin ended up more in the dark than before.