As much as Sakura would like to tease the pair the moment she lays her eyes on them in the lounge where Yujin had ask her to come to, she couldn’t.

Not with the heavy atmosphere surrounding the two girls in the room and Minjoo’s less-than-merry state, so what on earth happened to them all the while Sakura was away?

Sakura swears that it hasn’t been long since she left Minjoo alone and the two younger girls somehow made their way to each other.

If it weren’t for the fact that Yujin’s father came to Sakura to look for his daughter, Sakura wouldn’t even know that they had long disappeared from the ballroom.

So she ends up texting Yujin on their whereabouts – Yujin’s specifically, simply because Sakura’s well aware of the fact that Yujin would probably be in hot water if she were to disappear for the rest of the night.

Sakura didn’t expect to be greeted with the sight of Yujin hugging Minjoo on the sofa and letting the latter rest in her arms, with Yujin bringing Minjoo’s head close to the crook of Yujin’s neck, when she receives the reply from Yujin to ask her to search the lounge room at the end of the hallway for her.

“Your father’s looking for you,” Sakura hesitantly approaches them. “I think you should go now.”

Yujin’s expression turns frigid at this but regardless, she still listens well to Sakura.

She knows where Sakura’s concern is coming from.

Her disappearing from the event before it finishes would beat the purpose of her prepping for it for weeks so Yujin eventually needs to return to the ballroom and join her father for the rest of the night before the old man gets irritated.

As reluctant as it was for Yujin to let go of Minjoo, Minjoo was the one who pulled away from her first and mouthed for her to go before thanking her with a smile, though faint it might be.

“Unnie,” Yujin says as she turns to look at Sakura. “Take care of her, please?”

For Yujin to actually call Sakura with what she usually doesn’t and ask her for a favor must’ve meant that it was an important one – to Yujin, at least. A heave of sigh leaves Sakura’s chest as she nods her head.

“I will.”

“Thank you,” Yujin stands up from the sofa, not with one last look at Minjoo and her bending down to pick up Minjoo’s ridiculously tall black stilettos that were momentarily forgotten on the floor, to properly store them away somewhere in the room, out from the sight.

Yujin briefly ignores Sakura’s existence and eyes that were glued onto her movements in the room – instead retrieving her own pair of red sneakers that she previously wore before changing into her outfit for the event, to place them in front of Minjoo. 

They might’ve been a size bigger than Minjoo’s feet but at least it beats her going home in the uncomfortable pair of shoes.

“I’ll return your shoes when I see you. You can wear mine home,” Yujin says as she turns around to leave the room before Minjoo even gets a say in anything or thank her again.

The room was left in silence again as Minjoo stares at the pair of red Converse in front of her without a word, until Sakura’s voice breaks her from her line of thoughts.

“Yujin’s a good kid, isn’t she?”

Minjoo’s attention switches to the hoodie that is still draped around her, tugging the piece of clothing closer to herself.

Something starts to bubble up inside her when she catches a whiff of Yujin’s scent.

Lavender.

It was unexpected, really. Minjoo doesn’t really take her as someone who would be fond of Lavender of all flowers but oddly, it suits Yujin a lot. It hadn’t occur to her before on how Yujin smells like.  

It was such a vibrant flower and yet, something about it speaks more than that.

Minjoo likes it though.

Yujin’s scent feels therapeutic in some way.

“She is,” Minjoo says as her fingers curls against the hoodie, slowly nodding her head.  

Another sigh leaves Sakura’s lips. The night was not progressing in a way that she wishes it to be. It probably wasn’t Minjoo’s fault in the first place for falling into her current state – whatever reason that may be.  “…Well now, should I send you back home? I don’t think you’re in any state to return to the event.”

Minjoo almost laughs at the reflection staring back at her in the mirror of her bathroom.

To think that seeing Kriesha in flesh would still affect her this much.

The expression on her own face looks drained despite of how red her lips were from her makeup.

A part of her appreciates the fact that neither Sakura nor Yujin questions her for the sudden turn of events that night.

Because how was she supposed to explain to them that she had just seen the woman who broke her heart – suddenly popping out of nowhere after a couple of years, chatting amongst the crowd of people in the ballroom?

To other people, it might’ve simply looked like a bad breakup.

But to Kim Minjoo, Kriesha Chu was everything to her.

To the point where she gave all her firsts to her.

It only took one split second for everything to crumble apart in front of Minjoo, for the fact that she worth less than the wealth that Kriesha is promised to, in the events that Kriesha leaves her.

And for ’s sake, Kriesha wasn’t even leaving her for another person but solely for money?

Just how thrashy can the world of the riches can get?

The ride back home was a quiet one and Sakura – though the worry was barely evident in her face, still looks at her with a hint of concern and actually offers to Minjoo to the door of her apartment, which Minjoo declines immediately.

And now that she’s all alone in the bathroom after spending a considerable amount of time recollecting herself, Minjoo finds all of these to be ridiculous anyway.

Kriesha was probably unaware of Minjoo’s presence in the ballroom and yet, Minjoo was the one who had to walk away as if she was the one to be blamed.

Why does she need to be the one who leaves if she hadn’t done anything wrong?

Minjoo wipes the makeup off her face and continues to stare at the mirror vacantly.

Another flash of memory strikes back to her.

Her hair sprawled all over Kriesha’s pillowcase.

Her warmth pressing against hers.

Kriesha laughing against her bare skin.

“I love you.”

Everything were coming back to her in alarming speed, causing her stomach to turn.

And before Minjoo even knows it, she was already finding herself retching over the sink.

“Screw this.”  

ayj

hey, i hope that you’re feeling better now.

Yujin continues to fiddle with her phone, anxiously waiting for a reply from the older girl. For once, she is actually seated at the back of her father’s Maserati, with her mother sitting in the passenger’s seat and her father taking the wheel.

Yujin couldn’t recall when was the last time that she was in the same car as both her parents, without the presence of any of their personal drivers.

Tonight was a rare occasion, as per say but she was nevertheless surprised to hear from her own father that he would be driving them home and that there’s no need for Yujin’s designated driver ahjussi to wait for the event to be over – when she reaches the hotel that evening, dismissing him almost instantly.

Yujin qui