Sojung didn’t want to admit it, but she was a little worried. Maybe Eunbi was truly angry at her and she had misjudged the student’s demeanor the other day. Considering that Eunbi hadn’t answered any of her texts yet, Sojung listed, alongside with her work schedule, several reasons that would rationally explain the girl’s silence.

            Sojung didn’t like any of them.

            It was Saturday and although Yerin had tried convincing her to rest, it was obviously not going to work. Now that her friend was heading to Manila, there were a bunch of other things to take care of and her email box was filled with emails from the Philippine company.

            Sojung had indulged Yerin a little, however. Instead of at the company’s office, they were with their laptops on their laps at one of the hotel’s lounging rooms. Yerin suggested they’d go to the indoor pool, but Sojung wasn’t in the mood for that. Besides, she hadn’t brought any swimsuits and the prospection of buying adequate clothes didn’t please her a lot.

            They had been sitting on opposite couches, some folders splayed across the glass center table, typing in their respective laptops for about two hours. Yerin took a few calls, but mostly she had been checking sheets and documents, while Sojung worked on multiple things. But, even if she had a lot to occupied herself with, her eyes constantly fell to the phone lying beside her.

            Sojung sent a couple of texts to Eunbi on the previous day. A quick good night, then questions like “have you had dinner?” and “are you feeling better?” and that was it. Sojung thought that they weren’t very awkward, but as she lied awake until two in the morning—working, obviously—and heard nothing from Eunbi, she grew restless. When Sojung woke up, she had to hold herself back from texting the girl. Eunbi hadn’t answered her yet so it made no sense to send a “good morning” after a bunch of… pending questions.

            That didn’t stop her from spending a considerable amount of time dwelling on the things that could have happened, though. The most probable entry on her list was that Eunbi was still angry and Sojung tried to stick with that one. After all, she can’t be sick again, she dryly swallowed, right?

            “It was funny watching you for the first hour, eonni, but it’s getting a little annoying now.”

            Sojung snapped her head up to look at Yerin who had chosen to wear black social pants and a pink shirt and yet, somehow, she looked ready to attend a royal ball. It was a talent, surely.

            Betraying her princess-like posture, there was a teasing and bored look on her eyes.

            Yerin adjusted her laptop after crossing her legs and tilted her head to the side. “I think that if I see you stealing glances at that phone one more time I’ll implode or something.”

            Sojung rolled her eyes. “Dramatic much?”

            “Not like I’m wrong, though,” Yerin squinted her eyes at her and Sojung found herself shamefully looking away. “What is it? The bunny is giving you a cold shoulder?”

            She focused on her laptop’s screen. “It’s not a cold shoulder. She’s probably just busy.”

            “Or angry at you.”

            “I don’t really care.”

            “Never said you did.”

            Furrowing her brows, Sojung looked to Yerin. “Stop that.”

            “Stop what?” Yerin innocently asked, the corners of starting to quirk up. “Trying to get you to admit you want to talk to her?”

            “You aren’t doing that, Yerin, you’re just getting off messing with me,” Sojung grumbled and leaned her back on the couch. “It’s not a secret that I want to talk to Eunbi, I’m not hiding that from anyone. Don’t put words in my mouth.”

            “Alright,” her secretary dragged the word and closed her laptop. “Now that sounded like you need to talk.”

            Sojung scoffed and darted her eyes from Yerin to her laptop. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            For a few seconds, Yerin just stared at her. She didn’t peel her eyes off the keyboard, though, making sure to type anything just to pretend she wasn’t paying attention to Yerin.

            The secretary heaved out a sigh.

            “This sure isn’t like you. Not that it’s bad,” faking a tired tone, Yerin started, “but it’s different. I think I like it, though. It’s nice to see you so flustered. Ah… they grow up so fast.”

            Sojung looked up in time to watch Yerin pretend to dry her eyes. She rolled her eyes once more, ignoring the slight blush on her cheeks. “You’re so damn dramatic.”

            Yerin flashed a grin to her. “You love it! But…” she folded her arms over her laptop, and Sojung quirked an eyebrow at Yerin’s sudden change of tone. She looked straight into Sojung’s eyes. “You look worried. Call her for once, seriously. It won’t hurt.”

            Sojung’s lips parted as she meant to retort that, but nothing came out. Sojung realized that she was a little more than hesitant to do it. Of course, she wanted to check up on Eunbi, make sure she hadn’t fallen ill again or, or even apologize once more. But her heart uncomfortably sped up inside her chest and she felt like maybe she didn’t have the courage to do it.

            At the sight of Sojung’s quiet figure, Yerin hummed. Sojung couldn’t exactly decipher what it meant, but it looked like her friend had reached a conclusion.

            They were quiet for a few seconds. Sojung didn’t dare ask Yerin what she was thinking and just struggled with concentrating on her business-related emails. A heavy feeling weighted on her heart as she forced herself to not look to her phone, but Yerin’s voice pulled her out of it before she could think much about it.

            “Today’s Saturday, right? I think Eunbi doesn’t have anything to do today.”

            Hesitantly, Sojung said, “I guess… I think she said she works at the bar tonight, but I don’t think she has any part-time jobs today.”

            Yerin hummed again, but she didn’t let the silence last. “Why don’t you ask her out today? I’m sure she knows a bunch about the city.”

            “How—how is that any better?” Sojung’s incredulous tone drew a bright laugh out of Yerin.

            “Just casually ask her to be your guide, eonni, you don’t need to make a big deal out of it,” her secretary had a soft smile on her face. “I’m sure she could use some free time seeing touristic attractions, and you too. Come on, you’ve dealt with a lot of big scary people in your life, you can ask the bunny out.”

            “Stop patronizing me,” Sojung mumbled, but looked at her phone. “And stop calling her ‘bunny’, what’s wrong with you?” Huffing, she looked back at her laptop’s screen.

            It wasn’t a bad idea, was it? If Eunbi was still angry with her, she could use that opportunity to say sorry again and… Yerin was right, she was sure it’d be good for the both of them to have a break. Sojung sighed. But what if Eunbi was really angry and calling her would only make things worse?

            Before her mind could work on all the reasons she shouldn’t call Eunbi, her phone beeped, all but making her jump. Dutifully ignoring Yerin’s snort, she got her phone in hands and checked the notifications. It was Eunbi.

            “So, has she answered you?” Yerin asked, resting her back at the couch and opening her laptop again. Sojung nodded. “And?”

            “She said she’d fallen asleep before seeing my messages,” she distractedly answered, “and said sorry.”

            Sojung could hear the grin in Yerin’s voice. “See? Everything’s fine. Now call her.”

            “I could just text her, though.”

            “Yeah, you could. But what’s the fun in that? Call her.”

            Sojung frowned. She didn’t have to obey Yerin. Actually, calling Eunbi would just make her friend smug for the rest of the day. It was better to just text. Still, Sojung found herself pressing the call icon before she could think of it.

            It rang for a couple of seconds, which she spent with her eyes glued on her laptop. She couldn’t and didn’t want to see Yerin’s expression. Soon enough, Eunbi’s soft voice was leaking into her ears. Sojung nearly sighed.

            “Eonni? Is everything ok?”

            Sojung smiled. “Yes, everything’s ok. What about you, Eunbi-yah? Are you feeling better?”

            “Yes, I am… I slept quite a lot. I think I’m all rested now,” the girl’s voice had a cheery tone to it, but Sojung sincerely doubted that just one night of sleep would be enough for her to be completely rested. She didn’t press on it though.

            “Say, Eunbi, um…” cleaning , Sojung continued, “are you free today?”

            “Well… I think so? I’ll just go to the bar at 6, but that’s about it. I was planning on catching up with my studies today, really.”

            At that, Sojung visibly deflated. “Oh, is that so?”

            “Um, yeah? Why, eonni?”

            Sojung’s eyes drifted up and found a very invested Yerin. Her secretary was making motions with her hands that clearly said that she should ask Eunbi out. But Sojung hesitated a little more. “Oh, it wasn’t… it wasn’t anything important. I was just wondering if you could show me the city a bit today. I haven’t seen anything besides MICA and all… but don’t worry about it. Concentrate on your studies.”

            “Ah, really?” Eunbi sounded so genuinely surprised that it was cute. “I… I think we can go, though. It’s morning still, right? I… I don’t think I have that many things to catch up with.” That was blatantly a lie, but Sojung decided to not call her out on it. “Where… where would you like to go?”

            “I was thinking of letting you decide on it. I could pick you up and we just put the addresses on the GPS. We could have lunch too,” Sojung added and immediately winced. Was she being too much? She was, wasn’t she? But Yerin had a -eating grin on her face, so it wasn’t that bad, right? Oh, no, it probably was.

            Blissfully unaware of her hectic thoughts, Eunbi just hummed at the other end. “Sounds good, eonni. I don’t know much of the city, but I’ll do some research!”

            To listen to the girl’s increasingly excited tone was what made her muscles slowly relax. Sojung hadn’t even realized how stiff she was. An easy smile came to her face. “Great, I’ll be there in an hour or so, would that be good?”

            “Yeah, eonni,” Eunbi was smiling too, “I’ll see you soon then.”

            “See you soon.”

            The call ended and Sojung kept the cell phone pressed to her ear for a few more seconds, letting what had just happened sink in.

            Yerin loud snort pulled her out of it. “Who knew you could be so adorable?”

            “Stop,” Sojung’s voice had no bite, though. “I’ll, uh, go to my room. I need to get ready.”

            “Of course, you do,” Yerin smirked and just laughed as Sojung rolled her eyes. Her secretary all but smugly waved her good-bye. “Have fun, eonni!”

            The first thing Eunbi did when the call ended was whip out an old Maryland map and lay it open on her bed. She didn’t have a laptop, so the research about touristic spots would have to be done through her phone. But, in the end, the little red points she did were places she had already heard her classmates talk about. Surely, when Eunbi first got to Maryland, she had visited some places, but they were mostly around her college.

            Inner Harbor was one of the spots she never got to see even after months and months living in Maryland, so it was the first dot on her map. Eunbi wanted to think of things that Sojung would like to see too. I don’t know much of her taste, though, she thought, kneeling on the ground, next to the bed, holding her red sharpie between her fingers, and I need to think about the time, I can’t be late for work.

            Musing over her options, she marked down the National Aquarium and the American Visionary Arts Museum. They were close to the Inner Harbor and maybe they could walk around the area. For lunch, she remembered hearing about Fell’s Point. Eunbi had only heard compliments about the stores and restaurants there and she promptly marked it on the map.

            Eunbi looked at the time and freaked out a little. Sojung would be there in less than forty minutes and she hadn’t chosen an outfit yet. Not like she had many things to choose from, but still.

            The student got up from the floor and walked to her wardrobe. Opening it, she tried to not sigh too much while thinking that it was good it was cold; she didn’t have many pretty tops. Eunbi took out a blue sweater, a dark denim overall and a fluffy white fleece jacket. That seemed to be the best she could do with her current set of clothes. Quickly putting them on, she quietly thanked herself for taking a shower before talking to Sojung; she didn’t have time for that now.

            Eunbi combed her short hair and went back to the map on her bed. She took one good look at it and remembered of Charles Village, a neighborhood quite close to MICA that she had visited before. The houses there were called “painted ladies” and were simply beautiful. Sojung would probably like to take a walk there, but it was kind of far from Inner Harbor.

            Concerned about the time, she stood there for a couple of seconds. Eunbi also wanted to mark the Washington Monument, Peabody’s Library and The Walters Art Museum, but… it seemed like so much for just one day. She heaved a sigh and sat down by the open map.

            “What am I doing,” Eunbi mumbled, looking at her bare hands, making a mental note to put on gloves before leaving, “why am I feeling so…”

            Excited? Nervous? Anxious?

            None of the words seemed to fit into what she was searching for. The feeling inside her chest, twirling and warming her was weird. Eunbi felt as if she could jump and sing and, at the same time, she felt like she needed to repress it all. Yes, definitely weird.

            Her eyes fell on her phone and she unlocked the screen. Sojung would be there in a few more minutes. Eunbi allowed herself to slump on the mattress. Maybe she could suggest all of the places to Sojung, maybe they could decide together on a touristic route, maybe Sojung would like to see them all, too. But it was, and she knew that, impossible to see them all in one day. They needed at least a few days to appreciate it all.

            A shiver ran down Eunbi’s spine at the thought of spending more days with the woman.

            Sojung made her confused. She made Eunbi feel so many weird stuff, overthink things that she never imagined would be on her mind. It made her feel giddy and apprehensive all at the same time and the episode at the hospital only deepened those feelings.

            “I have thought about that too much already,” she grumbled to herself.

            Indeed, she had thought about it all—all of their encounters, countless times before she fell asleep. Eunbi replayed every single interaction with the woman from the night at the bar to the night at the hospital and their banter at the car. Sojung’s actions made no sense to her and it made least sense her reactions to them.

            Eunbi closed her eyes for a second and sat down. Her doubts didn’t matter now, she had a—not a date, not that—she had to meet up with Sojung in a few minutes. The student rose from the bed and made red dots on the other places she wanted to go to. If they couldn’t make it, then well, that was food for future thoughts.

            “Let’s get this ready, Eunbi,” she told herself. “Sojung-eonni will be here soon.”

            Eunbi gathered the map and stuffed it inside her backpack. She almost wished she had a purse at that moment, but it wasn’t that important. She was sure Sojung wouldn’t mind her walking around with it. Besides the map, she put her documents and her—very empty—wallet inside.

            Eunbi went to the bathroom, combed her hair again and put the last of her perfume on. She had been saving those few drops for something… something special. Taking a quick look at the small bottle, she tried to not think about how she was considering that a special occasion.

            Eunbi was staring at her reflection when her cell phone beeped with a message from Sojung. The woman was waiting for her. She went to her room to retrieve her backpack, put on her sneakers and took a deep breath at the door.

            Outside, her eyes immediately found Sojung’s. The woman was dressed in black pants, a white button-up and a dark blue overcoat. She had her long hair draping over her shoulders and light lipstick on her lips. Sojung looked absolutely gorgeous.

            Eunbi couldn’t help the tiny smile on her face as she approached the older.

            She felt shy and stood right in front of Sojung who was wearing high heels, increasing the height difference between them. Noticing that, Eunbi pouted out a, “that’s not fair.”

            It was a mumble and nearly a whisper, but if Sojung’s chuckle was anything to go by, she knew what Eunbi was talking about.

            “Good morning, Eunbi-yah.”

            Eunbi looked away from Sojung’s shoes and to her face. She smiled. “Morning, eonni.”

            Sojung had a soft smile on her face. It was cool and soothing and maybe Eunbi shouldn’t be staring at it so much.

            “Did you select places for us to go?”

            “Ah, yes!” Eunbi grabbed her backpack and opened it to show the map. “I marked them all, but—but maybe it’s too much. We’ll have to choose from them.”

            “That’s alright,” Sojung nodded and walked to the passenger’s side, opening the door to Eunbi. “Let’s get out of this cold and see it in the car, what do you think?”

            A faint, inexplicable blush painted her cheeks pink. “Ok, eonni.”

            Sojung smiled.

            Eunbi returned it. I think this will be a good day.