Today, was just another day to everybody. Get up, get dressed, go to school. It was the same routine for every student in high school, including SinB. Only, today, aside from all her homework, all her textbooks and writing utensils, she had an extra piece of paper that she had carefully tucked into a cute little envelope.

Just from the way the letter was colored light pink and the pretty print of the name of the recipient on the front, it was easy to tell that it was a love letter. SinB had scoffed at herself, who in this day and age still wrote love letters? Apparently this idiot, who had never been amazing with her words. Still, she just wanted to get the message across somehow, and if she couldn’t bring herself to say it, then at least she could write it and give it to her crush.

“E-Eunha unnie!”

SinB nervously called out to the other the moment she saw her standing by the gate to their school. They had lived in opposite directions and Eunha was a grade up from her, she didn’t need to come to school this early since it was the time when seniors had to take exams, their whole day was set around the exam and thus they took it from a later time until the end of the day. For her to come to meet her junior instead of studying at home, meant that they had a special relationship already.

“Eunbi ah!”

Eunha hugged her warmly, they had been friends since they were little kids, and as the older one, she had proclaimed herself to take on a nickname, for being more mature and letting SinB stay Eunbi. Her warm smile made SinB’s heart flutter and cheeks color a little.

“Unnie are you sure you don’t need to study anymore?”

“Mm, I’m confident enough in my memorization skill. Are you doing good in class? You haven’t come over to study with me in a while.”

It was a usual thing in between the two, that SinB would go over to Eunha’s house after school when they still had similar schedules to do homework or study. Eunha always bragged that she had the smarter brain but SinB believed that the only reason why Eunha was able to teach her all the time was because she had already learned it a whole year before SinB did, and her memorization skill was truly amazing.

“I’ve been doing alright, but instead of worrying for me you should really be worrying about your own exam. Isn’t today’s exam the one that decides whether you get into the college you want to get in?”

“Ah, now that you mention it, it is. I guess I missed it’s importance when I was preparing for it like all the other ones.”

“Sheesh! Go study!”

“Alright, alright. Walk me to the library?”

“Of course.”

They chatted lightly all the way to the library. Since they passed the locker hall, SinB had dropped off her things, but kept the letter in her pocket, even if she had been stupid enough to resort to a letter, she could at the least give it in person.

“Hey, Eunha unnie?”

“Yea?”

“I have something to give to you.”

Eunha smiled and held out both hands for SinB to hand whatever it was over. Struck with an odd sense of nervousness, SinB backed out and handed her other present.

“A charm for intelligence?”

“Y-yea. I went to the temple the other day with my family and saw it.”

“Thanks, Eunbi ah!”

Eunha hugged her again and turned into the library looking for a table to sit down at. SinB stood around a little longer trying to figure out how she was going to hand the letter over but the bell had warned her that class was going to start.

“Go to class Eunbi ah, I’ll see you at the gate after school!”

“Eh? Doesn’t your exam end earlier than me today?”

“Does it?”

“Yeah, go home first. I’ll come the day after.”

“If you say so!”

However, at break, she had missed Eunha’s break by five minutes, her teacher had held the class back to make sure they understood some math concept. Kicking the dirt, SinB felt along the edges of her pocket, tracing the edge of the letter. What if, she could never hand the letter over? Was she really that shy?

“Hufffff….do I really have to leave it in her locker?”

Slapping her cheeks lightly, SinB looked up at the sky, letting the breeze tickle her hair.

“No, there’s still lunch. I can do this.”

Taking a seat on a bench, SinB closed her eyes as she listened to the low murmur around her from her classmates chattering on and on about things she could care less about. She was never very close with the students in her class at all, mostly due to the fact that all they did talk about every single day was make up and boys. These things didn’t interest her and well, she disliked how they were ranking the boys and how the boys ranked the girls in her class for who was the best to be girlfriend/boyfriend with.

Talking behind people’s backs were never a good thing, so SinB just stayed away. It wasn’t like silence was lonely, she had Eunha in her heart.

“Two more classes to lunch.”

Here’s the thing. SinB didn’t make lunch happen either. Now, stood in front of Eunha’s locker, SinB stared at the pink envelope in her hand. At the rate she was going, she probably would never give her letter to Eunha, so her only option would be to put it in her locker, where she’d find it early tomorrow. Upon checking the calendar, Eunha should already be testing by the time regular class started.

“I really didn’t expect for someone else to learn of that letter.”

SinB huddled closer to herself, wrapping the blanket that Sojung brought, meaning it was Sojung’s blanket, tighter around herself, SinB sneaked a peek at Sojung who was sat next to her. She had been staring at SinB the entire time, so SinB had out of embarrassment, looked into space as she told her story.

“Everything was because of the letter spreading to your classmates?”

Sojung understood the Korean society, she knew what would happen when other people saw something that they didn’t like or were unfamiliar with. People hurt what they can’t understand because they’re scared of what they don’t know. However, with so many years of this topic ever since the 19^th century of everything suddenly becoming strictly set that homoual was not normal, Korea remains as one of the more conservative ones in the world.

“Yea….”

“Eunha, she scares you because you can’t ask her, can you?”

“No, I can’t.”

“I won’t ask about what happened next.”

“Thank you.”

Even if she learned of it, Sojung knew that she could do nothing to those stupid kids, all she could do was to help the survivor. Besides, talking about it, was almost like saying it into existence, and Sojung didn’t want SinB to relive any more painful memories. It was best to help her trap herself into the present and the future.

The past, is the past.

“SinB ah, is that why you want to be called SinB?”

“Mm…it…doesn’t sound like her…sweet calling.”

“If….the opportunity comes up, do you want me to ask Eunha for you?”

This had SinB stumped. She knew not to hold grudges, because they were too tiring to keep. But in Eunha’s case, she had to get ready for college at the time, it would make sense why she couldn’t meet SinB in the following months. It was also unconfirmed whether she was the one to leak the letter. If she hadn’t purposely leaked the letter, then, she was innocent and SinB could learn to forgive and hopefully silence all the voices that blamed Eunha for being mean to her. Maybe they could go back to being friends, though it seemed a little too far into the future. She still had to get over the way Eunha called her, she needed to stop shivering, and she needed to become strong enough to love her own name again.

“S-sojung unnie?”

“Yeah?”

“C-could you, from time to time, call me Eunbi?”

Sojung looked at SinB carefully, to make sure that she was serious, and that she was fully prepared for what was to come.

“Alright.”

SinB gave a small smile, she only now took notice that Sojung’s blanket smelled like Sojung, it warmed her up a little more than it already did.

“And unnie?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for coming back to me.”

“….I’m sorry.”

Sojung leaned back into the couch, her tension from listening to SinB’s past slowly slipping away.

“I really, really made a big mistake.”

“But you did come back, w-which is the most important to me.”

“Y-yeah.”

“I promise I will treat you like normal.”

“Thank you for that. Though, it does kinda sting when I think about it.”

“Hm?”

“You didn’t know who I was despite wanting to become a professional model photographer.”

SinB blushed and looked over at Sojung who was giving her the cutest pout she had seen on the other.

“I’m sorry!”

“Hahaha, it’s okay. All this means is that I need to work harder, right? I have to work hard to shine hard.”

SinB watched as Sojung grew a little starry eyed as she thought about what to do. It was a slight blunder on her part, having never learned of Sowon until Yewon had brought it up to her. In fact, if she had never been told of such a model, she probably would have never guessed that such a person would live such a modest life.

“Do you think you can sleep alone tonight?”

SinB looked at Sojung with wide eyes. The only reason why she had slept with Sowon that whole week ago, was because she was scared of the horror movie. Not only that, she had gotten into serious trouble and Sojung had ignored her for that long week.

“I mean, you might not be feeling sleepy, since you were out cold until earlier, but like, if it helps you, I don’t mind sharing a bed.”

“May I?”

“W-well, yeah, I offered it first.”

Sojung stood up awkwardly and looked somewhere, anywhere to avoid SinB’s gaze.

“Um, come on, let’s uh get cleaned up and head to bed.”

“Unnie?”

“Yeah?”

“It’s only 9pm.”

Right. After her call with Yerin, Sojung originally had three more hours of photos to take. Instead, she had rushed home to SinB, talked with her and listened to her for the last hour.

“….it’s healthy to sleep more.”

The soft giggle that came from SinB made Sojung scratch her cheek.

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why scratch cheek? cuz cheeks itching to smile duh

also, if you wondered why the week of ignoring/fighting is unwritten is because I know what I'm not good at writing, and will automatically avoid doing it.

hah. magic of time skip.

if you want a better explaination say so and I'll......maybe try again