She was still worried, but Bomi was making her trust more in this together.

The two walked hand in hand down the street, rounding the curve to the back entrance of the flower shop apartment. Dressed for winter right down to their boots, their eyes shone with the brightness of the low sun and the warmth it gave to their cheeks.

And as they say how being in love makes you glow, that could explain how there were more of Bomi's admirers fawning over her, at work, and even on their casual dates. It was just more they were unprepared for.

Their latest date ended like that when they fled a busy day at the ice rink.

"Are you still jealous, unnie?" Bomi's bottom lip jutted out ever so slightly. They had reached their place. Bomi picked up Chorong's hands and rubbed them between hers where they stood in the yard. "Please don't be. I'm yours, remember?"

Chorong smiled, cold lips making a curl inward. It still felt like she couldn't control the sweetness bubbling up to her face around Bomi; unable to choose between a genuine smile and an embarrassed blush a lot of the time. "Mm, I'm fine now, Bbom-ah. Thank you for today…I'm all warmed up."

Her hands didn't move away though. Chorong blushed lightly as Bomi crept her to a corner by the doorstep and helped fix her hair back in her beanie. Bomi simply grinned. "You look gorgeous, unnie."

Chorong could see the way her breath swirled in the air with her twinkling eyes.

And Bomi was flirting. Chorong felt an urge to chew her lip; Bomi's compliments always made her heart beat fast. "So do you. You always do."

Bomi teetered her balance on the soles of her feet, eyes hopeful, in a way it showed through how innocently honest this was. The sincerity from her every time could just make it even better.

Bomi's fingers closed over her gripping hand. She hadn't noticed the way she had been holding Bomi's jacket already. "It's okay."

"O-Out here?"

Bomi nodded. "No one's watching, and it's just one while we're outside… You can kiss me. Sometimes, doesn't it feel like we can?"

It was a wish that Chorong felt melt inside her as she took a moment to admire the winter around them.

It was stupid. She couldn't really kiss her when they were outside, not under the potential eyes of others. Not even when she had the feeling of wanting to. She's refused it, but Bomi's been tempting her to be comfortable with the idea. Other people here didn't matter to Bomi.

"This is silly. We're standing here for just a kiss?"

"Yup. That's what we're doing."

"You're crazy," Chorong mumbled, but it tasted like hope.

Counting one second, two seconds. Hand reaching up slowly, Chorong brushed the bit of frost off the younger's jacket on the way up. It guided her to lean in, pressing a short kiss on Bomi's lips that would leave both breathless and always careful for more.

Like the invisible flowers and peaches in her hair, Bomi could shower her with such a sweet scent so close. Chorong's eyelids fluttered; their smiles melding in gentle tugs when Bomi's fingers flew lightly over her cheeks, holding her face and keeping them close. She had been wanting this. It was warm, but Chorong was realising how much warmer the temperature was in , as the soft moan flew from within and she began to graze with Bomi's tongue with every second of contact.

It was the kind of kiss that could warm and kill her sweetly in the snow. It has before.

'You're moving?'

'Goodbye, Chorong.'

'PARK CHORONG.'

The kiss broke abruptly and Chorong hid behind her palms. "Gosh-"

And Bomi's voice came back. "Rong unnie." Chorong felt the warmth in her hands holding her face as she blinked, and blinked. "Unnie, come back to me."

Her eyes veered past Bomi to find no one there. The movement was so obvious that Bomi physically turned to follow her line of sight.

But she couldn't see. She couldn't see anything but that, like she was forced into a trance. Chorong breathed, looking down and in the shiver of cold memories, took the feeling of Bomi's hands away from her face.

"Was that okay?" Bomi asked again.

"Huh? Oh... Yeah. Yeah." Chorong hesitated, something glazed in her eyes that she shook away. "S-Sorry."

She shifted over to open the door.

"I just, um, remembered something. I'm going to head inside," Chorong muttered, but it felt outside of her body. She was touching the brick, the windowsill, the netting of the fly screen to the wood of the door, scraping over surfaces that only came back cold and numb to her senses.

When she finally got to the door handle, the metal connected to her skin like ice. Chorong stumbled into the house. Her heart rate had shot up in a way that closed up and Chorong shakily raised her hand there as if squeezing the imaginary space would clear the airways.

The situation was belatedly received by Bomi who steadied behind her, her voice a warm echo behind her ear. "Unnie, are you okay? What is going on?" Chorong tore herself away from it.

'I can't do this with you anymore, please… I can't.'

'Give me a chance. Please! I love you-'

What?

It took a jolt of memory for Chorong's eyes to snap open with her dizzying steps. That nightmare again. Oh, no. Oh, no no no…

~ ★ ~

Bomi looked so lost after she left her on that doorstep. But Chorong didn't have the mind to explain to her. The insulation of her jacket was suddenly the thing that was suffocating her. She immediately ripped the material from her body and ignored the cool air causing shivers through the sweaty patches of her clothes.

It felt like the world around was pressing down on her and she was close to passing out.

She's never hallucinated but that felt as close as she's ever been to one. The menace in his voice protruded as if through a dream, out of place and out of time.

'Get out.'

She knew; it wasn't even directed to her first love at the time. He had said it to her and her only.

A plastic bag of mandarin oranges dropped in the snow. A hardened expression etched onto a stern father's face.

'Get out. Get OUT! You don't live in my house! YOU HEAR ME?'

C