Winter sunlight shone through the windows, filling Seungwan’s living room with peaceful morning light. Fresh snow coated the outdoors and it still continued to come down in flurries outside of the warmth of the living room. Seungwan woke with a start as she felt something move against her, opening her blearly, sleep filled eyes. Joohyun was no longer resting her in her lap, and she said to Seungwan softly, “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Seungwan smiled, looking at Joohyun fondly through eyes half clouded with sleep.

    “Yeah but that’s okay. I’d rather be awake when you’re around.” Seungwan answered, knowing her answer sounded flirtatious but deciding to ignore the constant anxiety of how everything sounds for one morning.

    “You’re a sweetheart.” Joohyun commented, rising from the couch and stretching. Seungwan loved it when she said things like that, calling her a sweetheart or an angel. It made her feel important to Joohyun.

“How are you?” Seungwan asked, following Joohyun off the couch.

    “Better.” Joohyun answered simply. She shivered slightly, and Seungwan noticed she was only wearing a t-shirt.

    “Are you cold?” Seungwan stepped closer to her as she asked.

    “A bit.” Joohyun laughed softly.

    “Hold on.” Seungwan rushed off to her bedroom and pulled out an older hoodie of hers, one from when she was a senior in high school and ran track. It still fit her so she figured it would fit Joohyun as well. She ran back out to the living room and passed the hoodie to Joohyun.

    She glanced over the fabric and then said, “Are you trying to hint at something?”

    “Huh?” Seungwan asked, confused. Joohyun pointed to the back, which had Seungwan’s last name printed on it.

    “At least when I was in high school if you wore someone’s hoodie that had their surname on it, it meant you were dating.” She slipped the hoodie on. “But maybe that’s old fashioned and I’m just old now.”

    “Please,” Seungwan scoffed. Joohyun giggled softly, making Seungwan laugh too. “You’re can’t be that much older than me.” Seungwan said, to which Joohyun only shrugged. “How old are you, anyways?”

    “I’ll be thirty in March.” Joohyun answered.

    “Well hey, I’ll be twenty eight in February, so we’re not too far apart.” Seungwan commented.

    “Funny, Seulgi is also turning twenty eight in February.” Joohyun said with a smile, amused by the revelation.

    “What’s her birthday?” Seungwan asked, curious.

    “The tenth.” Joohyun answered. “Yours?”

    “The twenty first. She has me beat by eleven days.” Seungwan said, jokingly upset. “And what day of March is your birthday?”

    “Don’t worry about it.” Joohyun gave a smile that Seungwan could not call anything other than a smirk. “Anyways, Yerim is turning twenty two on the fifth March.”

    “No, no, you don’t get out of this that easily.” Seungwan said with a teasing lilt to her voice. “ Come on, I want to know so I can buy you a present!”

    “Seungwan.” Joohyun said in an exasperated tone.

    “Joohyun.” Seungwan mocked her tone, earning her a look of annoyance, though the smile playing on Joohyun’s lips made it hard to take her seriously. “Please?”

    Joohyun sighed, “It’s the twenty ninth.” Seungwan smiled, happy to know. “I hope you know this means I’ll be getting you a present for your birthday as well.”

    “Dammit.” Seungwan said, earning a light tap on her shoulder from Joohyun.

    “Hey, language.” She scolded teasingly.

    “We’re not in the office, I can say whatever I want.” Seungwan laughed. She felt so genuinely happy whenever she was with Joohyun it shocked her. Before her job at the office, she was sad much more than she was happy, and she rarely felt any real joy from another person’s company. But Joohyun made her feel so light and so free, free to be herself and to enjoy her life, free to talk and free to listen. She studied the woman opposite her, taking in everything about this moment. The way the light of the cold, winter’s day made Joohyun look as though she was glowing, made her look ethereal. The way she laughed, when she was genuinely laughing, and how much more exuberant it was than her normal volume of speech. How entirely small she looked wrapped up in Seungwan’s old hoodie, how despite being an inch taller than Seungwan she seemed so much more delicate and petite.

    “Thank you so much for last night.” Joohyun murmured, her voice more serious. “You were so kind, and I can never repay you.”

    “You don’t have to repay me for anything. I’ll always be here for you, that’s what friends are for.” The word friends seemed to stick on Seungwan’s tongue, and it didn’t feel quite right. You don’t think about how beautiful your friends are, how much you want to kiss them. And you certainly don’t think those things about your boss. I’m ed. Seungwan couldn’t stop her inner dialogue from racing through her mind.

    Joohyun tentatively approached Seungwan, opening her arms to indicate a hug. Seungwan took the initiative to step forward and close the distance between them, wrapping Joohyun up in her arms. She wanted to hold on to this feeling forever; Joohyun so close to her, her face nestled perfectly in the crook of Seungwan’s neck, exhaling a soft sigh and relaxing against her. If she could freeze time, she would stay just as she was, cradling Joohyun in her arms so delicately, falling over and over again each time she looked down and caught Joohyun staring back up at her.

~

    The rest of January passed uneventfully, and February dawned bright and full of much more snow than December and January combined. It was a struggle to get to work, the streets being so snow covered, but they all managed as they moved into February with celerity. Seungwan’s time was entirely occupied by Joohyun, who she had begun texting regularly on the days they did not see each other. The work week was nice, but weekends were wonderful; she and Joohyun would spend most of Saturday together, doing their grocery shopping for the following week alongside one another and then going to lunch or dinner, depending on the time. Sundays Seungwan reserved for Yeri, who she loved very dearly and thought of as like a younger sister. She would help Yeri study for tests or proofread her papers, or they would play video games at Yeri’s house. Everyone in the Kim house loved Seungwan, especially Yeri’s little sisters. Finally, Seungwan felt as though she was stable in life. Her job felt more and more permanent everyday, she had built these friendships that filled her days with laughter and joy, and she was beginning to apartment hunt for somewhere out of north city as she began saving part of her paycheck away every week.

    Seungwan’s birthday was the first day in all the month that did not bring a torrent of snow. In fact, it got warm enough some of the slush on the streets began to melt a little and water droplets dripped from the tree branches as a tiny sliver of the upcoming spring began to peek through. Seungwan assumed her day at the office would be uneventful, as the only one there she had told her birthday was Joohyun, but when she arrived she was greeted with a chorus of “Happy birthday!” from her colleagues.

    “It’s so funny our birthdays are so close.” Seulgi said, coming over to Seungwan and giving her a hug. She gave her a card and continued, “From Sooyoung and I.”

    “Thank you so much.” Seungwan smiled, her voice grateful.

Sooyoung came over next and hugged her as well, a grin on her face. “Happy birthday, Seungwan.”

“Thank you.” Seungwan said, a little overwhelmed by all the attention being paid to her but still grateful nonetheless. Yeri came skipping over to her, hugging her and picking her up a little, laughing as she did so.

“Happy birthday Seungwan unnie!” She called out as she passed Seungwan a card.

“Thanks Yeri.” Seungwan said in reply, a warm smile on her lips.

The office calmed after that, everyone returning to their respective areas. Joohyun and Seungwan walked over to Seungwan’s desk together. Joohyun grinned at Seungwan, saying, “Happy birthday, Seungwan-ah.”

“Thank you.” Seungwan felt as if her heart was full. “Did you tell everyone it was my birthday?”

“I might have mentioned it.” Joohyun replied with a smile. “Come into my office for a moment, I have to give you your present.” Seungwan complied easily, following her into the office. Over the months being Joohyun’s secretary, Seungwan had grown more comfortable being in the office and enjoyed being in there, liking to notice what little things had been moved around; Joohyun was constantly rearranging things in her office, as though she wasn’t ever completely satisfied with how it looked. Joohyun went and opened a drawer in her desk, retrieving a small package wrapped in glossy white paper, tied with a blue bow and a card attached to it. “Go ahead and open the card.”

Seungwan did, being delicate with the thick cream colored envelope, sliding the card out and letting it fall open. It was filled with writing on both pages and read:

Seungwan,

Today you turn twenty-eight, and I wish you the happiest of birthdays. I hope this upcoming year is fulfilling for you, and that you find your goals and aspirations are within arms reach. Even though it has only been four months since we first met it feels as though we’ve known each other much, much longer than that. I am thankful I have gotten to know you in the way I have, and I am also thankful that you have allowed yourself to get to know me. You are truly one of the most wonderful individuals I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I hope that you enjoy your time working in the office, as I have no plans of letting you go. You have brought such a bright presence to our small workplace; you fill every room you step into with light. Thank you for being a lovely friend, as well as a conscientious worker. I would be absolutely lost without you. I do hope you’ll enjoy your birthday gift, I wasn’t totally sure if it was something you would like but I took a chance! I feel it represents you well.

Her signature was placed carefully at the bottom, and Seungwan ran her fingers over it briefly. She almost felt as if she could cry at Joohyun’s eloquent words, at the way they depicted how much their friendship had become. She would have been content with nothing more than Joohyun’s kind words as a gift, but she still had the small package to open up, and she did so with as much care as she had the card. Beneath the glossy paper was a black velvet box that Seungwan was nearly positive contained jewelry of some kind. She took the lid off, her eyes being met with a shimmering silver necklace, a small sun pendant on a thin chain. “Joohyun…” She looked up to the woman, who was watching her intently. “This is too nice.” Tears were threatening to make an appearance and Seungwan took a deep breath, steeling herself.

“Nonsense.” Joohyun waved away the protest. She came over to stand at Seungwan’s side, resting a hand on her lower back. “I got you the sun pendant because I think it fits you well.” She looked at Seungwan, her gaze soft and full of warmth. Seungwan met her eyes, feeling shy in an odd kind of way. “You’re like sunshine.”

Seungwan wanted to kiss her so desperately it took every ounce of self control to hold herself back. It was such a tender moment, their eyes still locked, saying all the things their mouths would not. It felt too real and too dreamlike all at once, and Seungwan wished that she had more courage and would just kiss her, that she had more strength and could hold back. She was stuck between two things, what she wanted and what she should want. The longer things went on as they did, she found herself caring less and less what it meant that she had fallen for her boss. The fact of the matter was that she fallen head over god forsaken heels in love with her, and there was nothing she could do to change that now.