[A few days before the trip]

“Yah Ahn Yujin! Stop treating my place like it’s yours,” Yena threw the nearest pillow she could find at the younger girl. She just came home after sending Yuri back to her place. The moment she entered her house, she found Yujin sprawled lazily on her couch, watching cartoons.

    Yujin turned her head to the older briefly to stuck her tongue out, “Your parents told me I’m free to do whatever I want, idiot,” she playfully insulted, getting an offended look by the duck.

    Yena scoffed in disbelief but she frankly expected her uninvited presence. Her parents did treat Yujin like their own child since they were close to the younger girl’s parents as well. Their parents grew up together in the same neighbourhood so obviously, she and Yujin would become close at the same time.

    The older one grunted as she moved towards the couch, currently occupied fully by Yujin. With all the strength she could muster, she pushed the younger girl off, earning a loud whine when she hit the ground.

    “WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!”

    Yena plopped onto the couch with a victory smile, “I wanted to sit,”

    Yujin got up and rubbed her bottom with a pout, “There’s literally other places for you to sit, stupid unnie,”

    “Such as?”

    “You can sit in the bathtub with your squeaky rubber ducklings and talk about your day with them,” Yujin teasingly chirped as she took a seat on the other couch.

    “YOU EAVESDROPPED ME!” Yena exclaimed out loud. A look of disbelief on her face.

    “AREN’T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE EMBARASSED INSTEAD OF CALLING ME OUT FOR EAVESDROPPING YOU?”

    “WHAT’S WRONG WITH TALKING WITH THEM??? THEY’RE MY FRIENDS TOO!”

    “YOU’RE WEIRD! I’M TELLING MINJOO UNNIE!”

    “WHAT- NO!”

........

    After a series of repeatedly screaming at each other for the last ten minutes, they finally quietened down once Yena’s mother barged into the living room and scolded them for the commotion they were making.

    Right now, Yujin laid down on the carpet with an arm draped on her face and the other on her stomach, eyes closed while Yena remained on the couch, throwing a few glances at the seemingly deep in thought puppy.

    “Speaking of Minjoo, are you okay?” Yena started questioning, eyeing the lying figure on the carpeted floor.

    “Hmm?” Yujin barely answered, without lifting the arm draped on her face. Her tiredness finally kicked in again after bickering with the older girl earlier.

    “Are you just going to give up? That’s not like you to give up so easily, Yujin,”

    Yujin sighed, tiredly, “There’s nothing else to do but give up, unnie. You should realise that too by now,”

    “But still…,”

    “I’ve tried my best to make her see me as more than a best friend. Ever since we were kids. But how’s that going? It’s going nowhere,” Her voice sounded emotionless as ever, as if she had gotten to the point where she should just accept whatever was happening by now.

    “I’ve tried for almost ten years and then, Chaewon unnie comes in and stole her heart in an instant,”

    “Yujin…,” Yena, honestly felt bad for the younger girl. It’s not like she never tried to get Minjoo to look at Yujin in a different way. Heck, she did try to avert her eyes from Chaewon but to no avail.

    Minjoo clearly, had no intentions to date anyone else.

    Only Kim Chaewon.

    And both Yena and Yujin knew that.

    Sensing how quiet the older girl suddenly became, Yujin could tell she was feeling bad again like she usually does. Without removing her arm at all, she reassured gently,

    “It’s fine. I’m already in the process of moving on. I should be happy for her. If Chaewon unnie can make her happy, I have no problem backing down then,”

    Hesitantly, Yena asked, “You’re not even going to cry about it?”

    Yujin finally moved her arm away from covering her face, revealing her unbothered look. She reminisces the time where she would cry to Yena about how painful it was to have her feelings stayed one-sided all those years.

    But the last time she did cry about it was around two years ago.

    “Honestly, I’m so used to this. It kinda doesn’t faze me that much anymore. I already saw where this was going a year or two ago. I already stopped shedding tears for her,”

    “Like I said, I’m moving on,”

    “….” Yena took a good look on the latter’s face. Yujin continued to stare at the empty space above her. And yet, there were barely any look of regret or sadness etched.

    It was a look of acceptance.

    Yujin had accepted that this was the way things would turn out to be.

    ‘I’m glad you’re moving on, Yujin.. You’ve definitely grown up now,’ Yena thought as she smiled to herself.

    “Let’s not talk about Minjoo anymore. How about Wonyoung? I haven’t seen you two together lately,” Yena didn’t want to dwell in the matter any further and decided to bring up Yujin’s favourite topic.

    Her best friend, Wonyoung, of course.

    And just like she thought, at the mere mention of her best friend’s name, Yujin sprang up from her position.

    “AH THAT BRAT! HOW COULD SHE DITCH ME FOR CHAEWON UNNIE,” She frowned and started to complain, crossing her arms at the thought.

    Yena’s lips curled upwards in amusement at how fast Yujin reacted when it involved her precious best friend.

    The older one shrugged, “She is close to her,”

    “And maybe if you paid more attention to her,” Yena emphasized the last sentence, mentioning slightly about the lack of attention Yujin had been giving her for the past month, which resulted in the mess their group were having.

    Yujin quickly defended, feeling wronged, “Hey! I’ve been busy with competitions these few weeks, plus the fact I have to comfort Minjoo unnie half of the time,”

    “No wonder she’s ditching you for Chaewon,”