It was snowing. One of those days when you would wake up to tiny flakes floating gently from the big empty sky. People loved the snowy view when they step outside into the freezing cold, the crunch underneath their feet with each step they took. The thrill for couples to walk outside holding each other’s hands, a very likely possibility that one or maybe even both would fall over. It was the perfect season for lovers to snuggle up and become closer with one another. When everyone had an excuse to fall in love.

A girl with short bobbed, messy hair stepped outside from her little one-person house. She tightened the fluffy red scarf around her neck for extra warmth as she walked down the slippery streets. She dug her hands deeper into her coat, hoping that they’ll warm up soon enough. She blankly stared at couples who took walks in the morning, hands intertwined as they spoke in hushed voices about how much they loved each other.

The girl fought the urge to gag and continued her route until she reached the bus station where she sat on the biting cold bench. She instantly regretted it, but she stays put because she was too embarrassed to get up after letting out a small squeal. She considered herself lucky today, only three other people riding.

Her hair was in absolute disarray, she got up this morning hastily because she had forgotten to set alarm for her lecture. She barely had anything to eat, just a dainty bit of toast and cold coffee she had set aside in the fridge for emergencies. She felt ill in this weather. She would much rather prefer laying on the ground while it was scorching hot outside. She hated the stuffy noses she couldn’t get rid of, the constant sneezing and most of all, the stupid cold.

She bravely took out her phone with one bare hand and checked the time, thankfully she had made it with five minutes to spare. Not that she would’ve ran if she was later, running on ice was a 100% death trap, especially for someone who walked like they had two left legs.

Sakura was a university student, barely hanging on with finances and she didn’t even know why the hell she was taking an art course. Originally the 20-year-old had wanted to take something like theatre or even business or law. Something she was good at but for some reason she took an unpredictable leap, stunning her family and friends when she revealed that she would be changing to an art career.

She was imaginative, that much she knew but she was unsure how well she could portray her quirkiness on canvas. People often took a lot a time just getting through her millions of barriers she had set up around herself. She didn’t want to deal with people who couldn’t understand or accept her for who she was. She had dated in the past, but she didn’t really count those as proper relationships. More like friends with benefits. She was a homebody, she enjoyed the comfort and warmth her own home gave her. She felt uncomfortable if she leaves the house for too long. Her past lovers hated that side of her, unable to keep up with her constant seclusion and need for loneliness.

Sakura was one hell of a person to deal with. And she knew that herself.

On time as always, the bus comes to a screeching halt in front of the stop. Sakura was the last in line, it gave her enough time to fumble about for the right amount of change as she handed it to the very bored looking driver. She looked up nervously, she hated this part of riding buses, finding the right seat to sit on. She didn’t like sitting too near the front, it was too cold. She didn’t like sitting at the back, too bumpy and smelly. The perfect seat was always in the middle on the left and next to the window. But someone else had sat there today. A girl she didn’t recognise. The girl was facing the window, a curtain of silky black hair blocked Sakura’s view of the face.

Sakura sighed and made her way to sit next to the girl, seeing how the other side already had occupants. She took off her massive pink backpack and placed it in between her legs but because of how big it was, it caused her own leg to knock against the girl’s beside her.

The girl who seemed to be daydreaming, was startled and even jumped a bit off the colourful bus seat. She turned around to see who had scared her, but she paused as she saw how terrified the culprit was.

‘Shes cute.’ She thought. She looked at how big the girl’s eyes were, her fringe that sat above her eyes and how one of her ears poked out adorably. ‘Shes really cute…’

‘’I’m so sorry, m-my bag is t-too big, I should get a new one….’’ Sakura apologised and struggled to keep eye contact when she saw how beautiful the girl was. She noticed that she wore a school uniform, pristine and free from any lint.

The raven-haired girl smiled gently and shook her head as if to say its okay. ‘’No, its fine, I was just out of it.’’ She chuckled and Sakura thought she heard bells ringing. ‘’Are you going on a trip?’’ She asked.

Sakura gulped as she caught on to what was happening, the beauty next to her was trying to make a nice conversation but she had no idea what to say. ‘’Uh, n-no… Its just art supplies, I’m a university student.’’ She answered truthfully. She thought her heart had jumped out from her chest when she saw the beauty eye smile again. So, she tried calming down by looking past the girl and at the blurred scenery outside, the streets were bustling with small food carts that sold heart-warming food to those who needed the extra warmth in their belly.

‘’Oh, you’re not a high school student? Sorry, you look really young… Oh, my name is Kim Minju, yours?’’ She trailed off, hoping to at least get the name of the gorgeous but twitchy older girl next to her.

‘’Miy-Miyawaki Sakura.’’ The older girl stuttered. She felt like a fool stuttering in front of someone who was just a highschool student. A highschool student who happened to look like she was a Goddess. ‘’What year are you in?’’ She asked. Sakura felt like she needed to justify. She was praying inside so hard that the girl was a senior so it wouldn’t be weird for her to think how gorgeous the younger girl was to her.

‘’I’m in my fourth year, I’m a senior.’’ Minju replied, she saw now much relaxed Sakura was at that answer and she had the hunch of why. So, she decided it would be fun to keep going. ‘’Are you into younger women?’’ She inquired out of nowhere, causing the poor university student to choke on her own spit.

Sakura pounded her chest with her fist to snap herself out of the outright panic she was obviously in. People around her started to give her weird looks as Minju giggled behind her own hand.

‘’Wh-what? No-no of course not!’’ She hissed, not wanting the others to hear her. ‘’I’m not a creep!’’

Minju laughed harder when she saw how flustered the uni student became, ‘’I’m joking, its fine if you are though.’’

Sakura rolled her eyes and buried the half her face into her big scarf to hide the obvious blush that was creeping all over her skin. She didn’t know why she felt this jittery around this girl, she was a casual highschool student who happened to look like the most ethereal being on this planet. ‘’I’m not.’’ She insisted. In fact, all the people she had previously seen had been older than her. She had never found younger people to be appealing to her in any way, so it was a mystery to her why she found this student to be giving her butterflies. They sat in silence again when the bus stopped to let more people on. It was a work day, a busy day. People had to stand up in the aisle in order to fit in and Sakura was pushed closer to the girl she was desperately trying not to ogle. Their sides were flush against each other, no concept of personal space. It was definitely uncomfortable but somehow comforting at the same time, it was confusing to both of them.

In order not to get a face full of , Sakura had to angle her own head towards Minju, something Minju wasn’t expecting because Sakura had just pressed her lips very close to her own lips. Sakura snapped back like she had touched something hot and apologised over and over, unable to bow correctly because of how cramped it was.

‘’I’m so sorry, I-I’’

‘’Its okay!’’ Minju quickly reassured her and slyly smiled. ‘’If you had wanted to kiss me, all you had to do is ask.’’ She winked and teased the flustered young woman.

Sakura refused to say anything back in case she said something that might end whatever dignity she had left inside her. She opted to stare at her clasped hands on her lap, the bus ride was bumpy. They didn’t live in the city centre, so each morning was a long journey. Surprisingly the trip was fairly quiet, the white noise made Sakura sleepy. It didn’t help that the girl next to her smelt like berries, something Sakura loved the scent of. Before she knew it, she fell asleep like a baby. Her head bobbed about until it fell at an awkward and painful angle. Minju saw this happen and chuckled at how adorable Sakura had looked then. The senior shuffled down so she could lean Sakura’s head on her shoulder without waking her up.

Minju sighed and carried on daydreaming with a stranger’s head on her shoulder.

They were arriving to the final stop, Minju had already missed her stop because she didn’t want to wake up Sakura. She enjoyed the warmth the older girl gave her, she felt like it was natural to be intimate with her. Meanwhile, with her own friends, it took her a while to even crawl out of her own shell.

Sakura was special. That much she knew.

However, the next stop was for the University. Even though Minju would like for Sakura to stay a bit longer, she felt like it was a bit selfish of her to do so. Afterall, Minju was a highschool student who barely even knew what she had wanted to do in the future, it would be damaging if she was the cause of Sakura’s failing.

She gently shook her own shoulder, causing the girl on top of it to jolt awake.

‘’Wh-wha-Where are we?’’ Sakura rubbed her eyes clean from the sleep and stretched small, until she realised that most of the passengers had gotten off already. ‘’Oh! I slept on your shoulder! Ah, theres…’’ She blushed at her dribble that had gotten onto Minju’s uniform. She quickly dug through her bag for a tissue and wiped it off as best as she could. ‘’You should’ve shoved me off, it must’ve been so uncomfortable for you…’’

Minju kept silent and snatched the tissue away, folding again and used another hand to tilt Sakura’s chin up. The older student blushed like a tomato, waiting to see what the high schooler was up to. Minju smiled and went to wipe the drool off Sakura’s mouth and chin.

‘’You missed a spot.’’

They stared at each other, their eyes both swirling with confusion and curiosity. They both wondered why someone who they’ve never met could make their barriers fall like they were made from jelly. They were both generally aloof people. Keeping to themselves and keeping their friendship group small. In Sakura’s case, she had no friends at all because of how sheltered she was. Minju’s hand was still in the air from wiping Sakura’s mouth. Sakura wrapped her own fingers around the small wrist and was about to do something. Something she shouldn’t have done but she did anyways.

She quickly leaned in a pecked Minju on the cheek, pulling back just as the bus stopped and without a glance back, she grabbed her stuff and rushed off the bus.  

Minju slapped her hand over the spot where she got kissed and turned her attention back to the girl who stood outside the bus as it drove off. She stared at Sakura, who held her gaze until the distance got too much and the girl with the bobbed hair became a little dot.

‘’What just happened….’’ She asked herself.

Back at the bus stop, Sakura slapped herself repeatedly for being a weirdo. People gave her dirty looks as they walked passed.

‘’What kind of person just randomly kisses people like that?!’’ She yelled and groaned, fearing that if she ever came across Minju again, she would kill herself from the eternal embarrassment. The big clock tower rang its bells, signalling the time. Sakura snapped herself out of her tantrum and hurried to the workshop. She still had a lot to finish before submission was due. She couldn’t afford to obsess over Minju no matter how much she had wanted to.

…………….

Sakura glared at the painting before her, she was supposed to paint a landscape with kitties in the sunset as clouds. But she ended up with a girl. A girl who resembles the girl she met on the bus this morning. Strangely enough, she painted her in a different style than usual. It was almost realistic, and it caused her classmates to crowd around her in awe.

‘’Wow, Sakura, that looks amazing!’’

‘’Who is that?!’’

‘’Shes so beautiful!’’

‘’Do you know her? Can you introduce her to me?’’

The last one irked her to no ends, she barely even knew the girl in the painting, but jealousy soon spread across her whole body like an itch and she roughly shoved aside the dude who said that.

‘’Whatever!’’ Maybe this was why she couldn’t make friends, she was so hostile to most of them, people even started rumours about her nasty attitude. But that wasn’t the case, not at all. She was shy and didn’t know how to convey her feelings properly. She often needed people to speak to her first, for her to reply.

‘I could use someone who could listen right about now’ She thought, the people around her disappeared, going back to their own paintings and complimenting each other and ignoring Sakura’s outburst.

She packed up her things, pausing to look at her work again. She wondered if Minju would like this painting of her, it didn’t fit in with what she had already briefed their tutor and it would be a waste just to throw it away. So, she took it with her once she was ready to go.

Sakura’s legs shook as she waited for the bus that took her home. She knew that Minju had obviously missed her stop because of her earlier and she felt guilty. She didn’t want to be the reason for the younger girl to skip school and fail classes.

‘’Maybe I should buy her something.’’ She whispered into her scarf, sieving through ideas in her head on what to get Minju. All she knew was her name, how pretty and kind she was. She had no clue what Minju would like or wouldn’t like. If she chose food, what food would suit best for an occasion like this or maybe the food she had in mind, Minju was coincidently allergic to it or hated it to its very core. This constant rambling made Sakura’s brain fry up. Steam coming from her ears.

‘’You could just give her cookies and call it a day.’’ Someone said. Sakura looked to her side to see someone leaning up against the bus stop shelter, a bag of cookies in her arm and the other holding a half-eaten one. She had a cat-like aura and expressionless. Sakura wasn’t even sure she was the one who spoke.

Sakura adjusted the massive painting under her arms and shyly addressed the person next to her, ‘’And you are?’’

‘’Does it matter?’’ The girl answered bluntly, startling Sakura a bit since she was usually the one who was cold to others. ‘’I’m Hyewon, if you’re really that interested. Anyways, just give the girl some cookies and the painting. Girls love cookies.’’ She shoved the rest of her own cookie into , her hamster-like cheeks bulged, and she walked off just like that.

The art student stood there, wide-eyed because she just met a strange person but mainly because she managed to get some helpful information out of her. Sakura deemed herself a decent cook, she has survived on more than just ramen this whole time. As long as she had a solid recipe, she could whip up anything. She planned that as soon as she got home, she would try make some cookies for her… acquaintance from this morning.

…………………

Minju had gotten to school during lunch time because she had missed her stop. Luckily her teachers bought her lame excuse of falling asleep on the bus and having to take two other buses to get back to school. It helped that Minju never fell behind on grades and was usually always there on time. She was a trust worthy student. Apparently, she wasn’t trust worthy enough to her friends.

‘’Kim Minj