The few weeks following their kiss was filled with nothingness. Silence and awkwardness were constantly present in their household, to the point where Yong-sun was almost convinced that she was living alone.

Byul-yi had never felt more distant from her, and she would honestly prefer the mechanical Byul-yi she met on her first day. She always quietly left home early in the morning, silently coming back home at night, occasionally saying 'good night' on rare days, before disappearing in her bedroom. She thought that maybe she could see her on weekends to talk about their situation, but she holed herself up in her bedroom, never taking a single step out of it the entire weekend,

It frustrated Yong-sun to no end. She wanted to talk about it, but the way her roommate was acting prevented her from doing so. She held her tongue because of their agreement, that she won't complain about anything, but the annoyance was growing rapidly, and about 3 weeks after their kiss, she had had enough.

"Hello," Byul-yi said quietly, closing the door behind her, not looking at Yong-sun at all as she turned towards her bedroom, Yong-sun jolting up from the couch, spreading her arms to block her from moving.

"We need to talk," Yong-sun said, making sure Byul-yi couldn't disappear into the damn hallway.

"About? We have nothing to talk about," Byul-yi said exasperatedly, rubbing her neck out of tiredness and annoyance.

"What do you mean we have nothing to talk about? We have so much to talk about, and that's mostly because you've been avoiding me for almost a month!" Yong-sun said in equal exasperation, the annoyance at her roommate's indifferent attitude building up.

"The agreement was that you stay here without complaining about my decisions. I said there's nothing to talk about, and that's my decision. Please move.," Byul-yi said, grabbing her shoulder as she tried to pull her aside.

"Then kick me out! The whole point I'm staying here is because I wanted a roommate! I was so happy that the roommate I got was you, but if you keep ignoring me like this, there's no point in staying anymore, is there?" Yong-sun snapped at her, grabbing her wrist as she yanked her arm off her shoulder.

Byul-yi's expression didn't change in the slightest, merely staring at her with the same lifeless eyes that she had for the past seven years. "How are you so passionate? Despite being told that what you're doing is wrong? Despite being told that you are not normal? You keep writing these magnificent stories despite being told that your skill is useless and your passion is irrelevant, being forced to do something else to kill off that passion you once had. Despite everyone you know and love being against you, you still manage to do what you want?"

"I–What?" Yong-sun asked, really taken aback as she felt Byul-yi's wrist go limp, completely relaxed despite being gripped so tightly.

"How do you manage to stay so passionate?" Byul-yi asked, the words seemingly jammed in as she looked at Yong-sun.

"I don't know, I just do what I want to do? When we were shopping, I told you that you don't have to listen to others. Sometimes it gets to you, it's inevitable, we all have days where we feel down and depressed, but it's not always down and depressing every day," Yong-sun replied gently, quietly shifting her grip from her wrist to her hand, feeling mild