a/n: hi hello first i'd like to say sorry this update took longer than usual, this past month has been..a lot to me and only now i got the chance to work on this chapter. but yeah, as u see, it's the last one so hopefully it's a good end to the story and everyone reading it likes it! thank you so much if you got this far, i hope you've had fun. i sure did whille writing this ^_^

that's all i've got to say, enjoy~

---

 

Nothing changes. 

The way that everything stays the same is the the worst part. Sooyoung is gone and no one seems to notice it; maybe it’s because she was never truly there. Never really a part of Jungeun’s world. 

Sooyoung leaves Jungeun’s life the same way she entered it. Sudden, quick, so incredibly quiet that it’s easy to miss. You only notice it once it’s already happened.

It pierces Jungeun’s soul, but has little to no effect in everything else around her. Life goes on. Time moves as always- not slower, not faster, it just keeps moving. Days come and go, and everything else is the same. There’s nothing Jungeun can do about it. All she's left with is a feeling of absence, longing. It’s such a stupidly prepotent feeling. Constantly at the back of Jungeun’s head but always in the front. She wonders if it’ll ever leave.

There's uncertainty, too. Uncertainty of whether there’ll ever be a next time or not. Of if they already said their final goodbyes without even realizing it. Should she wait for Sooyoung? 

Jungeun can’t help but wonder about Sooyoung’s feelings as well. Is she waiting? Is this affecting her as much as it is affecting Jungeun? 

Does she miss her, too? 

Hope is the worst part of it all. Jungeun can’t help but hope that this isn’t their end. It can’t be, right? It can’t be something so...anticlimactic, so dull. Their story deserves more, she thinks. An end should be clear, with no room for a next chapter. It needs to be decisive and definitive, she needs it to be that way. She needs it to be that way so she can stop ending each day feeling unachieved because Sooyoung isn’t there. She needs it to move on, cause right now, that option feels like a betrayal. A betrayal on them. On Sooyoung. Jungeun hates everything about that thought, she hates it so much that she avoids it as much as possible. She decides to take it one day at a time and not worry about how future Jungeun will have to deal with moving on. But even then, things don’t get easier. If anything, it gets harder as more time passes. She misses Sooyoung more, and more. It’s suffocating.

“Do you think I’ll ever forget her?” Asks Jungeun one day to Haseul, seemingly out of nowhere.  They’re just laying on a couch in the middle of Haseul’s living room, both fooling around on their respective phones. 

Haseul seems to immediately know what Jungeun is talking about. She always knows everything.

She offers Jungeun a compassionate smile, “It’s only been a month. Just give it some time, Jungie.”

“No, I mean, like- literally. Do you think I’ll ever forget she once existed in my life?”

“Oh,” Haseul says quietly, silence settles as she doesn’t know what to reply.

“I don’t want to forget her,” Jungeun mumbles.

“Then you won’t.”

Jungeun doesn’t know what it is about Haseul, but she’s comforting. The tone of her voice, the way she means what she says. There’s comfort in her eyes. Even if she doesn’t say much, she always listens, and says just enough. It’s easy to believe her.

“I just wished we’d gotten some type of closure, you know,” Jungeun sounds vulnerable, like she’s telling someone a deep, well-kept secret.

As much as losing Yeojin for a second time also for the rest of the group- especially Yerim and Hyunjin, at least they had the security that Yeojin was alright. That she’s safe with Jinsoul, that she and her future will be fine without them. Jungeun envies them. I mean, yeah, it ; and they’re missing someone as much as Jugeun is, but there’s not those thousands of what if’s circling their minds the entire day.

What if we could have become something else? Maybe we could’ve had something special. Could  things have gone different? What if we had a future?

Jungeun stops those thoughts before she starts feeling worse, if that’s even possible. She hears Haseul hum thoughtfully.

“What never started can never really end.”

Jungeun has to lift her head awkwardly to get a good look at her friend. She frowns, “What do you mean?”

Haseul shrugs, “I’m just saying it has yet to begin, no?”

Jungeun huffs, “I’m not so sure, Seul.”

Haseul mumbles a reply that Jungeun doesn’t bother listening to. She made herself feel like for bringing Sooyoung up and would rather stop talking about it now. 

She’d rather make everything about this stop, actually. As much as she hates the idea of forgetting Sooyoung, she can’t help but think that maybe it would be for the best.

*

Sooyoung’s summer comes with Jungeun and leaves without her. It’s easy to fall back into a routine once a new semester starts. If she’s not busy with college, it’s with tutoring and on top of that, she got a new job in some cafe so life is pretty hectic at the moment. Hectic enough to leave no time to think about Jungeun.

Or at least that’s what Sooyoung had hoped for...because even when life is being overwhelmingly busy and everything seems to be moving on the fast lane, she still manages to make time for Jungeun.

If it’s not by seeing her in her dreams, it is by the image of Jungeun being the first thing in her mind when she wakes up. Every morning she checks to see if there’s a text, or a missed call from her. Every morning she’s left with a disappointment that accompanies her for the rest of the day. 

Maybe if the girl was still here things would feel easier. Days would be swifter to get through cause at the end of them, she’d get to talk with someone that puts her at ease. Someone that she knows is rooting for her. 

It’s a bittersweet thought. Sweet cause it’s Jungeun. Bitter because that’s all it’ll ever be, a thought.

Sooyoung almost feels like her life is in autopilot mode. She does most things out of habit, her every day becomes nothing but a procedure that seems to be unavoidable. It’s just hard to know so much about the universe and yet be unable to do anything with that information, you know?

Being filled with all that knowledge makes her feel empty.

There’s so many possibilities out there, so many worlds, universes, people… Jungeun. And yet, here she is, stuck in a mundane life, which feels all sort of incomplete. It’s like an important part has been forgotten, left out. All she can do is ignore it, and continue living.

She’d try to fill that space by spending time with her friends, but obligations never slow down and she barely sees them, maybe once every couple of weeks. Has life always felt this hollow?

Autumn comes and goes in the blink of an eye. Sooyoung finds comfort in the falling leaves but it’s never quite enough. 

Jiwoo stops asking her about Junguen, but Sooyoung knows she’s thinking about it. Jinsoul stops giving her pep talks about how the universe works in mysterious ways and that there’s always a reason for it, “The galaxies are smarter than what you think!” She’d say, and Sooyoung would just force a smile. She appreciated the sentiment, she did; but Jinsoul’s comforting words never really worked on her, at least not now .

Winter arrives and Sooyoung can never find enough warmth.

She feels the cold enter her bones one day in which Yeojin says she misses ‘them’. 

“Miss who?” Sooyoung had asked.

“Everyone stuck on the other side.”

Sooyoung had tried her best to seem unphased and nod, “Me too,” she replied, so low that Yeojin probably hadn’t even catch it.

“Me too..”

*

 Jungeun is currently sitting on a table, surrounded by Haseul, Vivi, Hyunjin, Heejin and Yerim, as usual. The group they made had managed to become a thing through time, and now they did pretty much everything together.

When she got an invitation earlier that day to have dinner out she never thought that it’d take this route. She was just expecting some well deserved resting time in the midst of studying for her finals to relax and ease her mind for a couple of hours, but now, she’d honestly prefer being hunched over some text-book than dealing with whatever mess this is about to be.

“Intervention, really?” Jungeun stares at the group dumbfoundedly, “This is so unnecessary...”

She crosses her arms defensively, as Yerim winces at the response.

“Not intervention, per se,” Haseul shakes her head, “That sounds too dramatic.”

“Yeah!” Hyunjin interferes, “We just think you need some quality time with people that care for you, cause these days you seem…um...”

“Down,” Heejin completes the sentence for her.

Everyone nods along and Jungeun feels a lump in starting to form. She never thought it’d be that noticeable...Heck, she never thought this feeling would last for so long.

She’s forgotten what it was like before, to not feel as if something is constantly dragging her down.

“You can talk to us, you know,” Vivi’s voice is soft and sincere. For some reason those words trigger something in Jungeun that gives a glossy look to her eyes.

Jungeun doesn’t do that much- talk about feelings. More than often she keeps them to herself. She sure as hell has being doing so for the last few months. She’d mention some things here and there, but usually ends up dealing with things on her own. She doesn’t do it on purpose, it’s not like she tries to avoid talking about it- at least not actively. It just happens that way. Clearly, that approach hasn’t been working this time. She’s exhausted of feeling this way, but really, what else can she do? 

“You don’t have to, if you don’t want to,” Clears out Haseul, “We’re not here to force you do anything, really. But talking about things can be helpful, you know?”

Yerim hums in agreement, “Even if we can’t- um, fix it, it could be an outlet for you to just...talk things out.”

Junguen looks down, not being able to hold anyone’s stare at the moment, but she smiles. The rush that this conversation had initially given her turns into warmth, and she takes a deep breath before speaking.

“I don’t know what to do…” She mumbles, “I really, really , don’t know what to do.”

She feels a warm hand over hers, it’s Yerim’s. It surprises her how comforting it is.

“I can’t let go. And I- I don’t know if that’s me being- I don’t know, pathetic or hopeful. I still think that one of these days she’ll just show up again and we’ll just resume where we left on. It’s like I have this gut feeling that this isn’t over yet. It can’t be, we- we still have time together, I know it”

Jungeun lets out a dry laugh, “That sounds so dumb out loud, maybe I really am just being pathetic.”

“Hey! No!” Heejin frowns, “Don’t say that. That’s not pathetic at all, none of it is.”

“There’s no rush, Jungeun,” Says Vivi, “If you want to wait for her, then wait for her. But, don’t let that consume you.”

Jungeun finally looks up, and meets Vivi’s eyes, “How?”

Vivi hesitates.

“Just be open to that but don’t close yourself off to everything else?”

Jungeun frowns, that makes sense...in theory. But things like that are always much harder in practice.

“Just take it with patience,” Vivi finishes off.

“I hate that there’s literally nothing to do about it,” Jungeun mumbles.

“You can always look after yourself, “ Says Hyunjin, “And that’s what you need to do now.” 

Jungeun sighs. 

Yeah. That’s all there is to do now.

*

It’s Jinsoul’s birthday.

Sooyoung is feeling anything but festive.

Jinsoul makes a small get together, with most of their closest friends. It takes a lot for Sooyoung to be there, and it takes everything in her not to bring the mood down and just smile her way through the entire celebration.

It shocks her, how much energy it takes, how drained she feels after. She’s never been this kind of person; not that there’s anything wrong with it, really, but she’s always beenthat person that thrives off social interactions and attention. She feeds off from being the life of a party. But now? She can’t stop thinking about how she’d rather be home alone, having some very much needed and deserved me time. She desperately needs to recharge her batteries for at least a couple of weeks. She just feels completely worned out, both physically and mentally. Emotionally, too, god- emotionally more than anything.

The night drags along. Through most of it she manages to get distracted and genuinely enjoys herself, though she still needs to take unnecessarily long bathroom breaks here and there just to get a breather from time to time. 

Even when a part of her still hates being here and longs for the quietness of her bedroom, there is another, more prominent one, that is glad for this.  She’s been needing it. Still...Sooyoung is sure that after the night ends, she’ll need to not see another human for at least a week, she’ll have to do some serious recharge of her social battery after all this. 

The get together ends pretty late- late enough for Sooyoung to sleep over at Jinsoul’s. Jiwoo joins them, too. They all end up piled up on Jinsoul’s bed, becoming a mesh of long legs and arms. No one really notices when exactly it is that Yeojin joins them, but suddenly she’s part of their unprompted cuddle group.

No one really talks, not for a while, at least. They all lay in comfortable silence, enjoying each other's company. Sooyoung finds solace in the sound of her friends’ breathing. She does that a lot these days, constantly appreciates the little moments such as this one, where nothing’s really happening. It’s at  times like this where she gets to think about the people that she cares about the most. About Jinsoul, Yeojin, and Jiwoo. About her friends. Of how they are here with her, really here. They are hers to have and always will be. They won’t disappear tomorrow or the day after that. She likes that.

She doesn’t like that Jungeun can’t be part of that thought.

Sooyoung growns at the thought and nuzzles herself deeper into Jinsoul’s side. As she does this, her eyes fall to a frame on Jinsoul’s bedside table. It holds pictures of the blonde girl with Yeojin- they’re photobooth pictures. On  them, each girl holds a small sign, one reads ‘family’ and the other one ‘best friends’. Sooyoung smiles at it. 

“Do you want to go back, Jinnie?”

It’s random, and Sooyoung speaks quietly, suddenly feeling self-aware of interrupting the settled silence.

“Hm?” 

“To the other side. Would you want to go back?”

“Oh,” Yeojin seems deep in thought for a while.

“...”

“...”

“I...don’t know?” Comes Yeojin’s voice again.

Sooyoung frowns at the response, just cause of how guilty Yeojin looks while saying it.

“I mean,” Yeojin says slowly, “I wouldn’t want to leave this place behind. This is my place now, not there- ah, is that wrong to say? I just-” She looks at Jinsoul as she often does when she needs some type of validation, “I don’t know.”

Jinsoul grimaces at her sister, “Hey, it’s fine. It’s only natural you’d feel that way. You still don’t remember anything about your life in there, no?”

Yeojin looks almost worried, “No. Not really. But those girls, Yerim and Hyunjin, they feel like life-time best friends and I- I don’t-” She takes a deep breath, seemingly getting her thoughts together, “I feel guilty cause I can’t really think of them like that- not genuinely, at least. And I really wished they could be that to me, it feels as if they should be that to me. As if they should be here right now, I want them to, but they’re...they’re not.”

Sooyoung probably understands Yeojin’s words more than anyone in the room.

That feeling of what should be, but isn’t. Of what feels like the truth, but yet is not a reality.

Yeah, she understands that all too well.

“I think it’d be weird if you felt any other way, to be honest,” Says Jiwoo, “Like, best-friends? Yeah, that’s what they are to you, you just can’t really remember it and that discrepancy is messing with you.”

“That makes sense,” Mumbles Sooyoung.

“Of course it does. Jinnie, it’s like your mind and feelings can’t decide what’s the truth or like, can’t accept it.”

Jiwoo’s word leave Sooyoung thinking. It makes her wonder- what is her truth? What is it that her mind and feelings are having such a hard time deciding on?

Is it that she has to let go, but refuses to? Or is the right answer to wait, even if its hard?

If Yerim and Hyunjin are meant to be Yeojin’s best friends...then what is Jungeun meant to be for her? 

She has way too many questions and zero answers.

“Ugh!” Sooyoung groans out loud, dramatically flopping her face into a pillow.

She feels a hand patting her head, it’s probably Jinsoul.

“Tsk, tsk, you too?” Yeah, it’s Jinsoul.

“You guys will be fine, I promise,” Says Jiwoo.

Sooyoung tries her best to believe her, but it’s rather hard at the moment.

*

It’s summer again and the past few months have been nothing but a blur for Jungeun. Being honest, she wouldn’t be surprised if time as she knows it had been affected by everything that happened. It just all felt like a constant dream. Like she’s been here, but not  quite.

There’s been entire portions over the last year that have felt like nothing but a hallucination to Jungeun. Yerim being the main character in one of them, for example. 

One day Yerim approaches Jungeun and starts talking about a confession, seemingly out of nowhere. There’s tears, and crying and Yerim asking for forgiveness. From who? Jungeun is not sure.

“I did it,” Yerim says in between sobs, “What happened to Yeojin is my fault.”

Jungeun is not shocked. All she can really do is listen and comfort her, she listens for hours; though can barely recall a single word of it now. She puts no blame on the girl, if anything she can totally understand why she did it. She would have done the same, if given the chance.

She lets Yerim get it all out.

They both move on.

She knows that hadn’t been a dream, even though it most definitely felt like one. Was that an effect of this whole multiverse thing, too?

Whatever the case is, she’s just glad summer has arrived and that she can finally catch a break from certain responsibilities.

“Please, no summer project this year!” Vivi had joked. Jungeun had laughed along and promised that it wasn’t even an option, though she couldn’t help but feel the comment sting a little bit.

Jungeun uses every second of her break. Mostly because Haseul prohibits her from spending all her days locked in her room. Sometime she’d get lucky, though, and get a couple of days in which she’d do nothing other than sleep for hours, only getting up for a much needed bathroom break here and there.

There’s not much to do in town, but it’s hard for a group of six to get bored that easily. Somehow they’d always have a packed schedule.

Jungeun is glad, she doesn’t like not having distractions.

They’re spending the afternoon in a mall one day. It’s a new one that opened a couple of days ago. It’s actually the only mall in town. It doesn’t have that many stores, Jungeun could count them with her hands, but at least it offers something to do. 

After losing a game of rock-paper-scissors Jungeun gets the task of taking the food tray with everyone's meal to the table. She rolls her eyes intensively as she leaves the group to fulfil her penalty, leaving everyone behind her acting like a giggling mess.

She’s walking back to the table ridiculously slow, too scared to spill anything, and taking the shortest steps imaginable. 

A snippet of some strangers’ conversation steals her attention for a second and she barely loses balance. Whoever’s talking is outside of her peripheral vision, so all she can really do is listen. Nothing particularly interesting is being said so it’s not like she’s trying to be nosy on purpose or anything. It’s the names being mentioned that catch her attention almost immediately.

“Hyejoo, stop doing that!” A small, soft sounding voice screams.

The name sounds familiar.

They go back and forth for a while, and Jungeun can’t help but think that she’s heard one of those voices before. She just can’t remember from where, exactly.

“Chae, relax!” Says the familiar voice. And that’s when it clicks.

It’s rain girl! Jungeun thinks. She’s too invested in these strangers’ conversation to notice the person currently walking backwards towards her. She only feels the impact of their two bodies crashing, and everything on the food tray spilling on top of her.

It’s a loud mess.

“Are you serious?!” Jungeun screams, the other person doesn’t even have the decency to turn around. They just stand frozen in place. “Watch where you’re going, what the hell!”

The other person finally turns around.

“Jungeun?”

Jungeun feels her breath hitch.

“Sooyoung?” She says in disbelief.

Junguen has no idea of who moves first- they probably both move at the same time, but suddenly she finds herself in Sooyoung’s embrace. She feels as if she’s melting into the older girl. Jungeun feels disoriented and overwhelment in the best way possible. She has no idea of what’s happening but now it’s not the time to question it.

Sooyoung’s grasp is firm, suffocating. Real . Jungeun wouldn’t want it any other way. The hug is a desperate one, but how couldn’t it be when it’s been a year in the making.

“You’re here,” Sooyoung speaks into Jungeun's ear, refusing to let go of her body. Her words are slow, almost as if she can’t quite comprehend the weight of what she’s saying.

Sooyoung’s imagined this moment so many times. In so many different ways, but nothing comes close to this. To the real thing. For a minute she fears that this is nothing but a dream. But when she feels Jungeun squeezing back, tighter than ever, she knows it’s real. 

The hug doesn’t stop. None of them know how much time they’ve spent like that, they just know it doesn’t feel like enough. “I’ve missed you so much,” Jungeun murmurs into Sooyoung’s neck. Her breath is warm, it’s what Sooyoung’s been needing.

Sooyoung pulls back a little, just enough to be able to look at Jungeun face to face but keep their arms in each other’s bodies.

One of her hands goes to Jungeun’s face, just like the first time they reunited- back then it had only been a few weeks apart, though. “I’ve missed you too,” With a gentle touch, she caresses Jungeun’s cheek, as if making sure that she’s really there, “So much.”

She’s home. Jungeun feels home.

*

They move apart from each other just so they can go sit in a table together. Only the two of them, their friends can deal well on their own…

Jungeun only has to look into Sooyoung’s eyes for a second to collect all her memories with the girl. There’s no way she could have ever forgotten about those, even if she tried.

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Sooyoung can’t help but talk with a smile.

Jungeun takes Sooyoung’s hands in hers, they rest them over the table and it doesn’t take long for Sooyoung’s thumb to start rubbing circles on Jungeun’s hand.

“I had my doubts, too,” Jungeun says quietly, almost ashamed at the idea of giving up.

“I’m glad we were wrong.”

Jungeun wanta to be happy, she does. And she is , it’s just that she can’t help but think about the fragility of their reunion. Who knows if they’ll be separated again, who knows how much time they’ll have together this time around.

It feels as if they’re running against the clock. Challenging the finiteness of it all.

“Do you think-” Jungeun stops when she feels her voice wobble. She pauses, and takes a deep breath, “Do you think this new mall works as a new portal between our dimensions, or something like that?”

Sooyoung tilts her head, frowning, “New mall?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jungeun says hesitantly, “This place? It opened like...two days ago.”

Sooyoung pauses for a moment, clearly preoccupied with something “This place’s been here for years.”

Jungeun’s eyes narrows, “I don’t think so.”

“Literally, yes.”

Jungeun shrugs, not understanding why that could be a big deal, “Not to me, it's whatever.”

“Wait,” Sooyoung speaks again but doesn’t continue the sentence. She pauses for a bit, considering to more detail whatever thought it is that she’s having right now, “Could it be- No…there’s no way, right?” 

She looks at Jungeun expectantly, as if actually waiting for an answer to that incomprehensible mess she just spluttered.

“Huh?”

Sooyoung stands up abruptly, making her chair screech painfully against the floor, “Come here,” She grabs Jungeun’s hand and starts walking away from their table, dragging Jungeun along, “I wanna try something.”

*

Jungeun and Sooyoung are standing outside of the mall. 

Neither of them are sure of what this means or of how they should react to it.

Sooyoung has the biggest smile on her face, making it obvious what she’s thinking.

Jungeun, however, is having a harder time processing everything, “Wait,” She says, “What is happening right now? Does this- does this mean what I think it does?”

Sooyoung walks towards her, once again claiming a spot between Jungeun’s arm, “I think it does.”

“Sooyoung...” She says quietly, so delicate that it’s almost impossible to hear, she’s scared of speaking  too loud and ruining the moment. She has nothing to say, no thoughts formulated at all, at least not in a way they’re able to be put into words.

Sooyoung is looking at her attentively, as infatuated as ever. As if Jungeun is the only thing in her world. Right now she is.

Their faces are a breath away now. Feeling closer than ever.

“You’re here ,” Sooyoung’s words are so close to Jungeun’s mouth that they practically become hers.

“I am,” Jungeun whispers back, “I’m really here, now.” 

What’s been said feels like a promise, a promise that they’ll keep. 

They let their words linger between the two for just a moment, quietly taking in each other’s presence.

Jungeun knows that now’s the moment, it almost feels like an urge.

She follows her body and it leads her to Sooyoung. They kiss and their respective worlds seem to fall apart at their touch. Everything in them becoming one, being as close as physically possible, and even more.

This is it, this is the feeling that they’ve been missing their entire lives. It’s the feeling of entire galaxies bending for them, and only them; millions of moments and lifetimes leading up to this one instant in space and time. They are at the center of the universe and it is now kneeling for them.

They’re finally meeting at the right pole.

*

It’s impossible to exactly pinpoint what originally belonged in Jungeun's world, and what belonged to Sooyoung’s. It’s like a venn diagram that, without anyone realizing, became a single circle. 

Some things stay the same, while others change without them even realizing it. All the changes feel natural, like everything finally makes sense. Most things feel as if they should’ve been that way the entire time. 

For instance, their town finally has a name, and now Junguen can’t even comprehend how she lived in a nameless town for two decades and never questioned it...Not even once.

The way things used to be get forgotten almost immediately. To anyone other than those who were already self-aware of the nature of the universe, the changes seem to go by completely unnoticed.

Said changes also reach Yeojin. Her memory seems to go through a similar phenomenon. Memories from her life in both dimensions merge and it sounds too good to be true and everyone is suspicious for a while because how is that even possible?! But it is. It’s true and as real as anything has ever been. 

The night of her disappearance doesn’t come back to her, though. It was never Yeojin’s to begin with. Something had taken over her at the time- someone. Yerim and Jinsoul are the one who change that and tell Yeojin what happened. It’s a lot to listen and even more to take in, but Yeojin just smiles and hugs them. She tells them that it’s fine. Everything is okay now.

Yeojin is able to go back home, her parents just accept the fact that she’s here again and seem to forget that she ever  wasn’t.

Yeojin cries when she sees them, and can’t even begin to explain them why.

They cry too, maybe there’s still some traces of what happened hidden somewhere deep in their unconscious. 

As the girls see the world around them change, they all try to understand it. No one can. 

They’ve formed a ridiculously big group of people when the different friend groups of each dimension joined. They’re twelve now….It’s a number that feels complete, somehow. Accidentally meant to be. Something that can only be result of some type of impossible miracle that turns two different moons into one.

It makes it all a tad more embarrassing as well, cause now they’ve got twelve brains trying to come up with an explanation, and yet still managing to tremendously fail at  it.

“It’s ridiculous!” Whines Jinsoul, “Nothing about this makes sense, nothing!”

Sooyoung shrugs, “The universe works in mysterious ways. Remember?”

Jinsoul shoots her a death glare. Even though the girl is partially mocking her, there is still some sense to her words.

Not everything has to always have an answer.

Jiwoo interferes the conversation, “Maybe there was some type of stupidly strong force pulling our worlds together.”

As if on cue, every head in the room turns towards Sooyoung and Jungeun, who are currently sharing a chair, even though there’s plenty of free spots in Yerim’s living room.

Needless to say, Jungeun’s face starts burning up to the point that it reaches her ears. Sooyoung finds it disgustingly cute.

“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous,” Says Sooyoung, sounding totally unaffected, unlike the blushing mess that sits next to her.

Jiwoo hums pettily, “I could still be right, just saying. I mean, look at you two.” She puts her hands up dramatically, and talks as if she’s pitching some movie concept, “Intergalactic soulmates, defying all laws and odds just to be together. It’s got a great ring to it.”

Jungeun screams at her to shut up in a painfully high pitched tone.

Jungeun and Jiwoo had clicked as soon as they met. Junguen recognized her instantly; the girl from her dreams. Jiwoo tells her she seems familiar, too.

Sometimes Jungeun gets confused, and talks to Jiwoo about something that happened in one of her dreams, mistaking it with a real memory. The weirdest part is that every time, Jiwoo knows exactly what she’s talking about.

The conversation moves on, but Sooyoung’s not really paying attention to it anymore. She only pays attention to Junguen, waiting patiently for her face to go back to a normal color.

When it finally does, Sooyoung angles her body so she can whisper directly into Jungeun’s ear, ready to mess with her again. “Maybe they’re right, you know,” She starts.

“Hm?”

Sooyoung backs away just for a second so she can see the confused expression that takes over Jungeun’s face, she smiles at it.

“I’m saying that I’d follow you anywhere. Even if that means crossing dimensions for you.” Her tone makes an incredibly public moment feel private. Jungeun forgets there’s ten other people with them.

“Oh my God!” She nothing but screeches, “Shut up, literally shut up!”

Sooyoung laughs, getting exactly the reaction she was hoping for. She wonders if Jungeun will ever get used to her incredibly cheesy lines, or if she’ll ever get tired of pretending that she hates them.

She tunes back into the conversation, but can’t catch anything more than a few sentences before she feels her side getting softly poked.

“Hey,” She hears Jungeun say quietly.  She turns her face to find the girl staring at her with a shy look in her face. Just like Sooyoung did, she moves to whisper something in Sooyoung’s ear.

“I'd follow you anywhere, too.”

Sooyoung smiles, it’s a soft one but it somehow manages to reach her eyes, “I know you would.”

Jungeun moves her face closer and kisses Sooyoung, it’s barely anything more than a peck, but it’s sweet and so incredibly mundane that she can’t help but feel that it is special in its own way. 

Jungeun smiles, so does Sooyoung. Jungeun sees that smile and knows that Sooyoung is feeling it, too. 

It’s not the first time she’s seen that smile; she’s seen it more times than she can even count or remember. She knows it better than anything; it’s practically engraved on not her mind, but her soul. The mind shifts, and changes. The mind forgets. The soul doesn’t, and Jungeun could never forget Sooyoung. No matter the when or how, or even the where. No matter the name she goes after or skin she wears. Jungeun will always know it’s her. Her Sooyoung.

Jungeun sees that smile and knows that Sooyoung is feeling it, too. 

The feeling of falling in love.