Eunji doesn’t know when her gallery started getting filled with pictures of Chorong.

 

In her defense, it wasn’t really something she’d naturally notice. She just realized it one day, when she decided to tidy up and trash some unneeded digital content, thinking she could always use the extra space despite not really needing it at the moment.

 

She occupies a whole couch and lazily rests her head on the armrest. She starts scrolling from the oldest dated entry, the one from January with a row of pictures of random class notes, a small puppy figurine, a random baby on the street spreading his arms with a smile, and a cloud shaped like a small cup of jello. She deletes the notes and keeps the rest.

 

She scrolls some more, deleting every picture she decided she didn’t need anymore. Pictures she no longer found cute, pictures for a project, Namjoo and Naeun’s pictures they forced her to take, blurry stolen shots of bomi, her selcas and random pictures of their other friends and classmates. She deletes them all after making sure Namjoo and Naeun had copies of theirs.

 

She continues, not really paying that much attention when a row suddenly catches her eye. It’s a whole row of Chorong, pre-occupied and smiling as she played with Naeun’s pet kitten. Every shot combined shows how she was laughing and smiling at that time.

 

Eunji decides to keep it and scrolls down.

 

On another set, she mindlessly deletes more notes. She makes a mental reminder for herself to start properly writing down lectures. After all, she won’t be able to rely on Naeun’s perfectly written notebook in college.

 

When the pictures disappear as she presses delete, three pictures remained from the set. One is of her and Chorong, a selca the girl asked her to take while they were sitting down on a bench waiting for Bomi. The other two are pictures of Chorong after Bomi arrives— after Bomi decides to tease Chorong and she runs after her. Eunji laughs ate the memory and moves on.

 

It’s a few more rows later that Eunji finally notices that she has tons of pictures of Chorong. Whether the girl was smiling, frowning, napping, making that cute little scrunch she liked doing with her nose, or whatever the girl did, it was there. Eunji scrolls back to the sets she was already done with in surprise, and realizes that almost every set had pictures of Chorong. And generally, the numbers on each set grew as time came nearer to the present.

 

It’s at this moment that Eunji catches herself smiling too. The minute she realizes it, the big grin she unconsciously has on her face turns into a confused frown. Before she could think about it more, however, a pair of hands cover her eyes. It startles her and she finds herself quickly locking her phone as she flails.

 

“Guess who?”

 

“I’d know your voice anywhere, Chorong.” Eunji laughs softly. All other thoughts forgotten as Chorong removes her hands. When she opens her eyes and turns her head to the side, she’s greeted by Chorong pouting at her in pretend disappointment. Before her nerves unsettle her, she asks, “Bomi?”

 

“Probably asleep at the basketball court’s bleachers again.” Chorong answers, plopping down beside her. “Want to go get her?” she asks Eunji even though she’s already settling in with a tired grunt— even pulling at Eunji’s arm to use as a pillow, which the girl easily gives. She turns to face Eunji and slips a hand underneath her new arm pillow. She hums in content and closes her eyes.

 

“You don’t seem like you’d stand up even if I say yes.” Eunji chuckles as she points out the obvious.

 

“Give me five minutes.” Chorong groans. “I’ve been working all morning while you’ve been lazing around all day.”

 

“No one forced you to join the student council.”

 

“Shut up.” Chorong replies a little annoyedly and blindly hits Eunji on the face. “Shut up for five minutes. Please.”

 

Eunji easily obeys, and the room turns quiet.

 

A little too quiet.

 

Because now, Eunji can hear Chorong’s soft breathing that compliments the sound of her own heart beating. She looks down and chances a peek at Chorong, who looked like she was already asleep. It’s a little too close for Eunji’s comfort, and she quickly looks up again, staring at the ceiling as she feels her face catch fire and her heart speed up.

 

Of course she’d suddenly realize she had feelings when they’re a few weeks away from graduation, and Chorong is set to take a year abroad to participate in a special undergraduate program.

 

“It’s fine.” Eunji exhales quietly, trying to calm down and let the new information sink in. It’s a cruel joke when Chorong shifts and snuggles a little closer. Her loud sigh of content, Eunji realizes, as cheesy as it sounds, is music to her ears.

 

During that last week, Eunji doesn’t gather enough courage to confess, and Chorong leaves.

 

Eunji pursues a degree in music, and Bomi pursues a degree in dance. Both being similar forms of performance, they still stick together like glue. Nothing really changed after college, except Eunji hasn’t really been talking to Chorong now.

 

“I can’t believe Chorong’s coming back in a few days.” Bomi happily skips as they walk with Naeun, a friend who was an art major. Within a few months, they’ve solidified a good friendship with her and Namjoo, a fashion design undergraduate, and Hayoung, a programming major.

“And I can’t wait for you guys to meet her.”

 

“What is she like again?” Naeun asks with a smile as Bomi skips around her and Eunji as they walk.

 

“She’s really smart, and a little on the quiet side like you.” Bomi preens. “She’s nice to everyone. She nags and bosses Eunji and me a lot though.”

 

“Are you selling her or trying to get Naeun scared already?” Eunji replies with an amused laugh.

 

“I’m not! Besides, Chorong doesn’t need anyone to make people scared of her!” Bomi answers. “She can do that easily on her own.”

 

“That’s not helping either!” Eunji replies with a laugh as she lightly hits Bomi on the shoulder. She turns to Naeun and explains, “Bomi and I were real troublemakers during highschool, and she had to keep us in check all the time. I’m sure you’re all going to like her.”

 

“Is it bad that I actually believe you more than Bomi?” Naeun chuckles as she whispers loudly, making sure Bomi hears it. The girl turns around with a frown and replies. “I heard that!” making Eunji and Naeun laugh.

 

Just as promised, Chorong is on a plane a few days later, and Eunji finds herself and Bomi waiting at the airport. Bomi has a huge sign board that writes out Chorong’s name, and is excitedly waving it around.

 

Eunji sits at a bench and swallows. It’s been a whole year, and she knows Chorong is mad at her to an extent when she started talking to her less.

 

It’s not Eunji’s fault entirely. At least that’s what she tells herself. What else could she do when the day that she finally decides to tell Chorong her feelings while they were on video call, Chorong suddenly tells her that she met someone in the same program?

 

“Someone who felt like home.” Chorong described, and Eunji knows she can’t compete with that. “He’s amazing. And he’s been here for me. Honestly, I’ve never been this close to someone other than you and Bomi.” Chorong I have something to tell you,” Chorong says as she closes her eyes tight— something she does when she’s embarrassed or nervous. She’s about to tell Eunji she’s in love with this new person, Eunji assumes. Chorong catches her by surprise. Just a minute ago, she was prepared to bare her heart to her best friend, ready to take a gamble. But this changes everything. Now she’s sure Chorong’s going to reject her, and worse, she’s in love with someone else. In a daze from Chorong’s sudden confession added to the exhaustion from university and her lack of sleep, she accidentally falls out of her chair, pulling off the earphones connected on her desktop as she flails— just as Chorong speaks. When she peeks at her screen from the floor, Chorong is still talking with her eyes closed, smiling happily although she looks a little nervous.

 

Eunji doesn’t know what to do.

 

She pulls herself up from the floor and sits there and watches as Chorong finishes whatever she was saying, not even noticing Eunji fall from the chair. When she’s done, she opens her eyes and slowly peeks at the screen. She was smiling, and Eunji reads her lips say “Well?” and Eunji realizes that her earphones aren’t plugged in yet.

 

“Well? What do you think?” Eunji hears Chorong say as she plugs her earphones back in. “I need your answer.”

 

“I— …” Eunji stutters. “I have to go.” she ends the call and yanks out her earphones again. She leans on her chair and sighs as she feels the weight of regret. She had a lot of chances to confess, so why didn’t she?

 

After spending the rest of the day distracted and feeling sick, Eunji ends with a decision to move on, because the sooner she decides to, then the sooner she probably will. The next time Chorong calls, she uses the difference in time zones and being busy as an excuse to stop replying and ignoring her calls. Bomi fortunately doesn’t seem like she knows what’s going on. Chorong must’ve kept Bomi out of it too. Just like they always do whenever they fight.

 

“I just want you to talk to me. You haven’t talked to me at all!” was Chorong’s first message wherein the girl finally snapped. “If you’re going to be like that, then fine.”

 

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have put you in that situation.” was Chorong’s last message to her after she purposely ignored all of her messages. After that, Chorong ultimately stopped talking to her too.

 

That was six months ago. She hasn’t talked to Chorong for half a year now.

 

—

 

At the sound of Bomi’s voice calling out her name, Eunji removes her eyes from the floor tile she’s been staring at and looks at Bomi. The girl jumps in place excitedly, pointing at the huge boards that says that Chorong’s flight has just landed. She forces a huge grin, despite being more nervous than excited that her best friend, the girl she was in love with a year ago, was back and was probably, definitely still mad at her.

 

“It had to be done.” Eunji repeated to herself for the nth time today. She had to do it to move on. Her friendship with Chorong, she decided, was more important than her stupid crush that could ultimately destroy their friendship. Not that it wasn’t on the rocks right now, but Eunji would take a fuming Chorong over an awkward one any day.

 

She watches an impatient Bomi pace in front of her as the wait for Chorong for a half hour more, with Bomi complaining about how the immigration officers were slow. Eunji doesn’t mind though, it gives her more time to prepare herself for a couple of scenarios she can imagine happening on top of her head.

When people finally start pouring out of the gate, Bomi pulls her to her feet and they walk towards the glass door that separates the sections. And then Bomi spots her. The girl squeals and lets go of Eunji’s hand, running to where Chorong would most likely spot her, and begins waving the sign board again, this time chanting Chorong’s name shamelessly even after people turned around to look.

 

Eunji does the opposite and stops. She turns her back to the gate and takes a couple of slow breaths to calm herself down. She’s moved on; Iit wasn’t even a whole week that she realized she had feelings when Chorong had to go; It’s been a year; She doesn’t really think about Chorong now; She’s her best friend, that’s all she is; She’s ready; All facts, Eunji reminds herself.

 

She forces one final breath, and she turns back around. Just in time to see Bomi and Chorong approach her. Immediately, the smile on Chorong’s face turns into a frown.

 

“Hold on, I gotta pee real bad.” Bomi announces, and dashes to the nearest bathroom, leaving Chorong alone with her.

 

“What are you doing here?” Chorong scowls at her the minute Bomi is out of earshot. She did say she’d take an angry Chorong over an awkward one any day, but this is really bad too. So she stutters, thinking of the right words to say while internally cursing herself for thinking she could wing her apology. She should’ve prepared something to say, at least. Because Chorong is in front of her, and she looks mad, angry, and sad, and waiting for an apology or even just an excuse, and she’s absolutely gorgeous wearing that light brown coat, and Eunji knows she’s screwed herself over in more ways than one. As she fumbles over her words, however, Chorong suddenly breaks into a lovely smile, something Eunji definitely missed for an entire year. “Just kidding. I missed you.” she says, and pulls Eunji into a tight hug. “Let’s forget everything and start again, Eunji. You’re my best friend and I don’t want to lose you.”

 

And Eunji knows. She knows that despite everything she put herself through for a year, it was all futile the second Chorong smiled.

 

—

 

It only takes Chorong a month to settle back in their lives, easily making a permanent settlement in Naeun, Namjoo and Hayoung’s hearts in the process. Just a month of getting to know her has gotten them all attached to her like cute little kids holding on to their mom. Even Chorong’s nagging is taken well, and Eunji huffs at how Chorong looks proud whenever they listen to her. It’s how Chorong’s chin tilts slightly upward with a smile that’s almost unnoticeable when you don’t know her very well, but Eunji does, and she finds herself taking a picture for later.

 

“You’re right. She’s amazing.” Naeun tells her and Bomi one afternoon as they laid on grass over picnic sheets Eunji brought. Eunji turns to her left to look at Naeun curiously, to which Naeun smiles and points to where Chorong, Hayoung and Namjoo are standing a couple of feet away. From the parts of the conversation they were able to hear, it seems like Chorong was mediating for the two girls who were debating about which of two restaurants had the best pizza.

 

Eunji groans. “Not this again.” She says, to which Naeun chuckles. “Every month they argue about something stupid.”

 

“And Chorong is being really patient about it.” says Naeun. “If it was us, we’d be walking out of there already. She’s amazing.”

 

“That’s just you. I have the patience to properly mediate Namjoo and Hayoung’s stupid, petty debates.”

 

Naeun rolls her eyes. “You just called it stupid and petty right now.”

 

Eunji laughs and looks over to where the three were again and smiles at Naeun in agreement to everything she said. “Right.”

 

She watches Chorong cross her arms and scold Nmajoo and Hayoung, and she makes them shake hands to settle the argument. It’s cute, seeing a pouting Namjoo and Hayoung squeeze each other’s hands excessively tight as they grumble and shake hands in front of Chorong, arms crossed on her chest, watching them with a frown. Naturally, Eunji saves another photo for later.

 

—

 

At first, avoiding Chorong was definitely Eunji’s first plan. She’s been planning on using a busy schedule as an excuse not to hang out with her, but Bomi unknowingly destroys that by accidentally sharing Eunji’s schedule to their group chat when she sent her own schedule for the semester.

 

And of course the universe has forsaken her, because out of her seven subjects, only one coincides with Chorong’s own busy calendar.

 

“I’m glad you’re always free whenever I am!” Chorong replies in the group chat. And Eunji is sure that the smiley emoji Chorong uses was the universe mocking her.

 

Out of the twelve hours or more she has to spend on campus, Chorong makes sure she’s always with her for at least three hours. Eunji concedes to the cruelty of circumstances and gives up on her first plan.

 

—

 

“Let us eat, Namjoo.” Bomi whines for the rest of the girls. Namjoo ignores their complaints and continues taking pictures of their food until she gets the perfect shot. “I’m hungry.” Bomi says again, and sneakily reaches out to grab a nacho chip, only for her hand to get slapped away by Namjoo.

 

“Don’t touch it!” Namjoo almost snarls. “The placing of the chips are perfect!”

 

“You’re taking way too long.” Eunji agrees with Bomi. Even though the rest of them know that Namjoo won’t stop until she’s satisfied with a photo, she and Bomi are still too impatient to quietly wait like Chorong, Naeun and Hayoung.

 

“Oh, please.” Chorong says. “We always wait for you whenever you get distracted by anything cute and just have to stop to take a picture of it.” she points out.

 

The look of realization dawns on everyone’s faces and suddenly, everyone is complaining about her, Namjoo already forgotten.

 

“Right! Every stupidly cute dog on the street!” Bomi exclaimed.

 

“Exactly! Just the cute ones.” Eunji defends and frowns at Bomi, “Whose side are you on?”

 

“Every dog is cute to you.” Naeun points out. Earning nods from the rest.

 

“Because they are.” Eunji laughs, raising her hands in surrender and says, “I didn’t ask to be attacked like this.”

 

Everyone lists something she has found cute, as if they needed more proof, while Eunji laughs and looks away, trying to hide the blush on her face as she remembers the contents of her gallery.

 

She glances at the person who owns a big chunk of her phone’s memory ever since. She’s glad no one else has noticed, and hopes no one ever will.

 

At least until she moves on.

 

—

 

Oh, but they do.

 

Bomi is the first to notice, as expected. Despite being the most oblivious out of all of them, Bomi is her best friend (and Chorong’s) and Eunji gives her more credit than that.

 

So when Bomi sits down beside her one afternoon and tells her, “You’re in love with Chorong, aren’t you?” without beating around the bush. If this was any other person, Eunji would’ve coolly denied anything and easily say no with a practiced laugh. But this is Bomi, her best friend, and one of the handful of people she trusts. Eunji only takes a second to look at Bomi in the eyes before answering, “Unfortunately.”

 

“Since when?” Bomi asks her. “Middle school?” When she doesn’t answer, Bomi tries again. “High school?”

 

Eunji turns back to what she was looking at before Bomi arrived, and sighs as Bomi sets her eyes on it too.

 

“I don’t remember.” she replies. The both of them watch Chorong coming out of her building from a distance smiling as she pulled someone towards where Eunji and Bomi were. “I do remember realizing it the week before graduation.”

 

“Graduation?” Bomi frowns at the sad smile Eunji gives her, and wraps an arm around her. She rests a head on her shoulder, watching as Chorong nears. “Did you tell her?”

 

They’ve known each other since the first day they started school, and Bomi knows her inside out. She doesn’t explain anything else. Bomi doesn’t need it.

 

Eunji shakes her head.

 

“Guys. This is Changsub.” Chorong intro