[Unnieeee!! If you're still on the bus home, wait for me at the bus stop and let's have dinner together~ Summer's arriving and the restaurant nearby is having one-for-one samgyetang]

Yuna chuckles to herself upon seeing the message. Realising that the next stop is her destination, she hurriedly rings the bell and prepares to get off. It is only then when she sees that it is raining. 

Yuna alights the bus with a slight frown, before checking if she has brought an umbrella. As usual, she is holding onto one, but she guesses that Eunbi will not have one. It amuses her to think of that as something so characteristic of that girl. She hopes her umbrella is big enough for the two of them. 

Yuna stands looking around, listening to the pitter-patter of raindrops on the roads and the roof of the bus stop- a harbinger of the summer. She turns and her eyes land on a tall figure beside her, whose head is also turned towards her. Their eyes meet for an indiscernible duration of time before a realisation.

“Choi Yuna?” she first hears his voice before hers.

“Lee Seokmin?” the name finds its way through her lips.

The two take a few steps to close the distance between them. Yuna’s eyes sparkle in nostalgia at the sight of an important someone from her past.

“Has it been ten years?” he is first to speak.

“Let’s see,” Yuna releases a sigh tinted with both nostalgia and excitement, “we’re twenty-nine, so, almost,” Yuna brings a hand to her widely-open mouth as she chuckles. 

Seokmin breaks into a smile Yuna knows at that instant she has missed, though longing has never crossed her mind. His eyes in crescents, the same way as they did to make eighteen-year-old Yuna’s heart flutter, he asks, “How have you been?” 

Yuna does not take her glittering eyes off him. “Great, what about you? What brings you here?”

“I'm good too, and I live in the apartment complex behind those shops,” Seokmin points in the direction of the tall buildings in the distance. 

Yuna gasps. “Me too!”

Seokmin gapes, chuckling after overcoming the surprise. “Well then,” he says amidst the laughter still as soft as bells to Yuna's ears as they were in their youth, “do you want to walk back? Do you need an umbrella?”

“Oh, I do have an umbrella! I'm waiting for my housemate,” Yuna waves her hands in a polite rejection, “thanks for the offer anyway,” she smiles. 

“I see,” Seokmin tries to maintain his smile, and Yuna wonders if the disappointment she sees in his eyes is just a part of her imagination. The sound of the arrival of a bus fills in the silence between the two. 

It's been ten years, they both tell themselves. 

“Unnie!” Yuna hears the call that she did not know she has been impatient for. 

“Eunbi!” Yuna returns the call with an equally enthusiastic one- something Eunbi finds odd- and a bright smile of relief. 

Seokmin, feeling out of place, awkwardly adjusts the strap of his bag on his shoulder. 

“Unnie, who's that?” Eunbi whispers, her eyes questioning more than her voice. 

“Ah,” Yuna flinches a little, her smile disappearing in an instant, “a friend from high school,” she answers curtly.

The awkwardness in Yuna's face makes Eunbi want to laugh. Stifling her chuckles, Eunbi turns to the tall man before them and politely bows. 

Seokmin bows after a slight fluster. “Well, I'll get going first, see you around,” he says and almost goes off before he remembers something. “Wait, do you want to exchange numbers?”

When they finally part ways, the questions in Eunbi's head lie at the edge of her lips. With their arms in contact under the tight space of Yuna's umbrella, Eunbi feels encouraged. “Was he your boyfriend?” she teasingly asks, though a small part of her wishes for a negative answer. 

“Yahh! Is this fun?” Yuna leans away from the younger and some droplets of rain fall from the edge of the umbrella to her head. Annoyance and embarrassment cause a slight flush in her cheeks and ears. 

“Unnie, don't get wet!” Eunbi breaks into hearty laughter receiving the exact response that she has been hoping for. She brings a hand over to Yuna's head and ensures again that they are both well protected under the umbrella. 

“No one has time to date whilst juggling senior high, auditions and diploma exams all at once,” Yuna plainly answers.

“You took your diploma during those years?” Eunbi does not mind the change directed in their conversation.

“Yeah, both piano and cello, but I decided on majoring in cello instead because-” 

Eunbi's expression falls when she sees Yuna's face hardening. 

Yuna says after a deep breath, “My piano had to be sold in my first year of senior high. I mean, we were living off every week by paying for the weekly lessons right with every of my umma's paycheck. We even had to reduce the lessons to just once every two weeks after a while. And still after all that we sold my grandparents’ house and moved to live with my aunt and uncle.”

Eunbi is at first at a loss of words. “I'm sorry to hear that,” she mutters with a frown when upon finding her voice again. 

Yuna shakes her head in rejection of the needless apology. 

She guesses with a question to the older one, “Were you perhaps working while studying?”

“During my time at the conservatory, yes,” Yuna nods her head as she answers, “but I did manage to get bursaries here and there. Plus, teaching pays well compared to part-time jobs at food joints or the likes.”

“You’ve worked hard,” Eunbi notices the lump in when she speaks again. She is only aware of the tears in her eyes when she blinks. 

“It’s just life,” Yuna shrugs her shoulders. “But that’s okay, I’m happy now,” Yuna adds with a smile, the same warm smile Eunbi loves seeing. “Seoul is presenting me with new opportunities.”

“I’m glad you are,” Eunbi chirps a reply, holding back her tears. 

“Are you crying?” Yuna’s tone is almost mocking.

“Am not!” Eunbi protests.

When Yuna chuckles, she finds tears in her own eyes too, tears that bespeak the gratitude Yuna holds for the other. 

It is Friday evening and by routine, the girls are together in the living room doing their laundry. 

“Unnie,” Eunbi calls the elder after she is done with a small pile of socks, “do you have a dream plan?” 

“Dream plan?” Yuna’s arms are outstretched, a blouse clipped between her fingers. She tilts her head and looks at the ceiling above as she ponders, dropping her arms. “Earn money, get my fellowship in cello, maybe buy a house for my umma and halmeoni when I have enough,” she lists the certain goals she has had in her mind.

Eunbi nods in understanding as she listens. 

“Don't you want to get married?” Eunbi curiously asks, perceiving it as something someone like Yuna would wish for. Someone as motherly and responsible as Yuna, Eunbi thinks, could do so well as a wife and mother. 

Yuna slightly frowns as she tilts her head to think, “I don't think so. The thought does cross my mind from time to time, but getting married is too expensive. Life is expensive,” Yuna chuckles. “Maybe one day, one day when I've earned enough,” she says with the idea of a faraway future which she thinks may not happen. 

“What about you? You wanna get married?” Yuna turns to Eunbi as she returns the question with heightened curiosity, having received it from Eunbi.

“Me?” Eunbi wrinkles her nose. Yuna chuckles, finding Eunbi adorable at times like this. Well, Yuna thinks, Eunbi is cute, from first of all being shorter than herself. She chortles even harder with the thought. 

“Well, then maybe I'll just stay here with you forever,” Yuna suggests, lightly poking Eunbi on her nose. 

Eunbi backs away and whines from the poke. 

“Why?” 

“Because I like you,” Yuna laughs an answer, “I'm happy here.”

Eunbi swears she feels her heart stop. “What?”

“You're good,” Yuna smiles, completing a pile of shirts. 

Eunbi overcomes the shock, and as Yuna's message is sent across and registered in Eunbi's system, Eunbi begins to feel a bubbling within her, her spirits lifted high. Eunbi realises how lovely, warm-hearted and gracious Yuna is and how considerate and caring Yuna has been as they lived together. A surge of gratitude and blissfulness for Yuna and merely having met her fills her up from within. 

“That sounds good,” Eunbi replies while her lips spread into a gleam. 

“Heol, does that mean I have to look after this troublesome kid for the rest of my life?” Yuna breaks her initial seriousness with a joke. 

“Unnie!” Eunbi whines, “I'm troublesome?” she raises her voice even higher. 

“And noisy,” Yuna adds. 

“I said it'll be noisy,” Eunbi argues without denying. 

“Not the clarinet, it's ten times better than you,” Yuna does not give in. 

“Unnieee!” Eunbi shrieks, dragging her last vowel. 

Yuna chuckles, “Look at you!”

Eunbi frowns and makes a wailing sound as Yuna continues laughing heartily. 

“You're cute,” Yuna says lastly, her laughter dying down. 

“Unnie,” Eunbi calls out. She wonders if she's just been complimented, but there are other things she wishes to address. “Thank you, for living with me and being so good all the time.”

“It's nothing,” Yuna smiles, “As I said, I'm happy here. Thank you for giving me a home.”

As Eunbi's gaze meets Yuna's, she hears the sound of a sweet, soft bell gently ringing at the back of her head.

Eunbi frowns, hearing Yuna on the phone again. They must've been very close, she thinks. They’ve never dated, but did they feel anything more for each other than friends?

There has been something she has been wanting to tell Yuna for a few days now, but the words have always been caught in whenever she finds Yuna chatting or in a call with that high school friend of hers. 

Eunbi is about to turn away when she hears Yuna ending the call. Her face lights up again and she decides to say it now. She places her fingers on the doorknob and twists it in exhilaration. 

a/n: i woke up an hour ago to buy tickets for gfriend (and did not get good tickets but that's besides the point) and that was my most stressful ordeal in a while. but since i'm up early i decided to update this now! and not in the wee hours when everyone is asleep LOL i hope this chapter was fine? i was a little too wordy before and it got very long but after cutting it down it feels kinda low quality idk :( but aside from the drama going on sinju has a few cute scenes here eek and i was so happy writing them HAHAHA ahhhhh shippp<33333 i also ship seokju a fair bit so it was nice writing seokju again. i'm sorry this week i was busy with so many errands and i fell sick last weekend too, and on top of that it's Holy Week so i had more church services heh but anyway i managed to churn out this chapter so here it is :) well i hope you guys like how the story is going so far, thank you so much for always leaving such encouraging comments/upvotes! much love xoxox