Sowon hugged Eunha tightly, her cheek pressed against Eunha's forehead, her eyes closed in bliss. They hadn't moved from their position, comfortable to finally hold each other this close. In their time together, the most Sowon had the courage to do was hold Eunha's hand or arm when they went out together to do shopping, by far this was the most satisfying.

Eunha could hear Sowon's heartbeat, her face practically buried in the taller's bosom at their height difference, but she didn't mind. Sowon was soft and warm, she began to feel a little sleepy in the comfort. Perhaps sleepy wasn't the right way to describe it, but the sense of safety that made sleeping easier was better. Safety? Eunha nuzzled against Sowon a little, smiling as Sowon gave a small chuckle and smoothed Eunha's hair.

"This does mean that you like me in the same way right?"

The slight hesitation in her voice made Sowon appear small, despite her tall frame. It made all of Eunha's hesitation seem less silly and more validated that she wasn't the only one floundering around this way. But then the largest issue for Eunha about this resurfaced and she stepped back from Sowon, making the both of them feel so much colder.

"I..."

There was no way she was going to tell Sowon about her debt now, Sowon was the kind of person who would absolutely push her to let her pay for it, even if she couldn't.

"Trust me."

Sowon took Eunha's hands again, making Eunha waver all over again.

"But-"

"I already know that it's somewhat related to money."

Sowon blurted out what she knew in a hurry, wanting nothing more than for Eunha to understand that she really wanted to help. Eunha, stunned that Sowon had already figured most of it out, started to stutter.

"Th-that's um! you..."

Seeing that Eunha didn't know how to respond, Sowon wanted to hold Eunha again, she knew that Eunha wasn't a bad person, there wasn't anything that Eunha could've done to need to have to earn large amounts of money. Which would mean that someone had dumped something onto a defenseless girl who hadn't figured out what she was going to do with her life yet.

"It's not your fault."

It wasn't Eunha's fault. The sense of relief that passed through her body caused Eunha to stumbled a little. Tears were beginning to well up, but she quickly thought of other things to keep herself composed, but it didn't work. Especially because Sowon had hugged her again, her reassuring hands rubbing her back.

"I know you're a hardworking girl."

This was really the craziest emotional ride of Eunha's life, she chuckled a little in her tears, going from extremely happy that they liked each other, to sudden hate for herself and her baggage, to a relief of a lifetime that her baggage wasn't hers to begin with. Even though it was true, Eunha had been thinking that it was her fault the entire time, having been yelled at by the collectors for so long.

Eunha had lost her parents at a young age and was left in the care of an orphanage when her aunts and uncles could only afford to care for her older siblings. She was then adopted for her cute face and her step parents were nice to her. It wasn't so hard to keep going on in life once she got used to it, but it had turned worse when her step parents had started to get addicted to something that Eunha had never understood, looking back, it might have been alcoholism and gambling. Slowly their living conditions had gone down and eventually, Eunha hated going home.

Her siblings did their best to stay in touch, supporting Eunha with their allowances until she had disappeared one time and never went to their gatherings anymore. The result was that their allowances would end up going to her step parents and she didn't want that anymore. Eventually they had gone too far and swiped their credit cards long past their dues, they turned to loans and Eunha barely graduated as she took on part time jobs.

Then came the one faithful day that the debt collectors had come and pushed her family around. Because she was there and clear minded, they turned to her and yelled at her over and over again to bring the money. Somehow her step parents must have told them that she would be the one to earn back that money that they owed and Eunha decided to run away.

She had chose to stay with her siblings for a little bit, to let them know that she was fine, but didn't have a single clue how she was going to meet the monthly installment she had to pay with just part time jobs. Going to a bar with her last bit of savings, she had the thought to enjoy the last of her life when Yerin came up to her with a beer and started talking.

Sowon finally made a noise when Eunha went silent from the end of her story. The amount of frustration in that huff of breath shocked Eunha, for Sowon didn't seem like the person to get extremely angry over anything but her useless coworkers when they begged to extend deadlines.

"How much is it?"

Eunha looked blankly at Sowon but flinched and pulled out her phone to show the messages she ahd been receiving. After checking the screen, Sowon went to check the banking account, which to no one's surprise, the debt was still increasing.

"Eunha yah, you don't have to pay it."

"But-"

"No buts, they might have housed you before, they might have cared for you before, but when people change, you have to change too."

Apparently this was an easy to solve problem, Eunha would just have to report this to the police, well, the special kind that she had never known of which was why she had thought she couldn't be helped. If she wanted off the family register, there would be another process.

"Does that clear up all of your inhibitions?"

Eunha looked up after staring blankly at Sowon's laptop screen. Holding Eunha's cheeks and watching as she slowly turned pink in the cheeks, Sowon smiled.

"I love you. Do you want to be my girlfriend?"

"I...yes."

Sowon grinned and kissed Eunha's forehead, hugging her close. Still a little stunned, Eunha blankly hugged back, when she finally understood what happened, she smiled.

==============

almost over