Yong opened her eyes and found unfamiliarity in every object that she could see at the moment. So, in reflex, she screamed which woke Byul up in such a bad mood that she shouted at the older girl, “Yah!”

Both of them looked at each other. Yong wished she could find any question that won’t look stupid, while Byul just wished the other girl to disappear and let her sleep once again. 

As the awkwardness is getting worse, the alarm from Byul’s phone saved them. 

The younger one looked at her phone and groaned in frustration, “We have like 30 minutes to clean up. I’ll go first, okay?”

Yong is still giving her a questioning stare, so Byul got up from the floor and tried to find her towel on the balcony. She walked through the corridor of the studio apartment without looking at Yong and mumbling, “I’ll explain it later in the bus.”

---

Byul lent her purple sweater and ripped jeans to Yong which unexpectedly looked quite good on the girl. After Byul’s incapability to tell Yong about the complete story of last night in a nice way, the older girl simply gave up and just let it slide. 

So, both of them sat besides each other in silence on the bus until Yong spoke in a small voice, “Thank you.”

Byul is quite shocked to hear that, but finds it as an improvement, “You’re welcome, Yongsun-shi.”

---

“For the first assignment, I want you guys to make a film with love as a theme. It’s an individual task, but you could ask your classmates or film club friends to help you out. So next week, just bring three short synopsis of any idea you could come up with and I’ll choose it.” 

As a blond short-haired woman in her 30s named Jung Wheein who’s also their lecturer continued to explain the first task of her class called Directing 1, two types of groups with different reactions have emerged. 

The first one looked nervous, while the latter felt ecstatic. 

Yong’s part of the first group, meanwhile Byul who’s already excitedly flipping through her ideas book has shown where she stands. 

For the older girl, the scariest part wasn’t the writing love story part, but actually the directing one. Because, even though both of it as an art form has established their own formula called genre, but being someone that has watched so many films in many genres, including melodrama and romantic comedy, she has found one important aspect that any good directors have, which is experience. 

And, she has none of it when it comes to love. 

“Hey, you’re okay?” as Byul who’s sitting beside her asking in a concerned tone. It bothers Yongsun so much because one, she has no idea why Byul kept sticking around after they got off from the bus and two, she simply hated it when people could read her emotions. 

“Um, yeah. Just thinking.”

---

“God, you’re being over-dramatic, Little Yong. Where’s the confident Yongsun with a magnificent imagination running away to?”

A soft sigh slipped from Yongsun’s mouth, “Shut up. I know I’m being weird.”

“Where are you, now?”

Yong looked around at her surroundings. She was at the back of her University’s building where she sat on a bench that was located under some big tree that ironically formed a beautiful shadow over her. As spring winds breezed into her softly, she replied, “A great hiding spot on campus.” 

“So much for a writer that can’t even describe her location in poetic words.”

“Unnieeee, you should make me feel better and no-”. A shutter sound distracted Yong from the phone call. She turned around and found Byul standing near her while putting down her phone slowly. The younger girl gave her nervous smile, “Hi. Can I sit beside you?” 

Yong was staring hard at Byul while ignoring Yonghee’s voice that kept calling her name on the phone, “Unnie, I call you later” and ended the call. She kept staring at Byul, wishing the other girl could get the leave me alone message, but as soon as the girl walked towards her and sat comfortably beside her, she knew she failed. 

“I’ve been searching for you all over the campus.”

“Should I be thankful for it?” in an annoyed tone of voice. 

Byul questioningly eyed her, “Oh, it wasn’t allowed, huh? Well, I’m sorry for thinking that maybe we’re kinda friends.”

“Define kinda friends.”

“We’re kinda talking, we’re kinda slept in the same room last night, we’re kinda- ”

Yong gestured to her to stop talking, “Okay, okay, I get it. What do you want?”

The younger girl smiled and gave her some papers with handwritten words in it. “I want you to play in my film.”

Without even looking at the words on the paper, Yong instantly said no. Byul groaned in frustration, “You don’t even read it.”

“I have no obligation to do that. After all, I can’t act.”

“I can make you act. I’m a good director.”

“I never see your work so I can’t say the same but still, I don’t want to do it.” Yong got her bag and tried her best to escape from Byul but somehow, the younger girl succeeded to stop her. Byul pulled her back into the bench, “Listen, Ice Princess. At first, I wanted you to help me as a friend but knowing how rude you are, I want you to pay your debt to me.”

“I have no debt to you.”

“Oh, yes you are. My back is hurting so bad after carrying you last night.”

“You should just leave me at the bar. I’m not asking you to take care of me.”

Byul’s letting go of her grip and mockingly laughing, “God, you’re such an ungrateful .”

“You don’t know me so stop judging.” 

“How could I when you kept rejecting everyone?!” Byul talked in a higher voice which surprisingly silenced the older girl. Yong felt guilty when she noticed how frustrated the other girl was. 

Yong has always known that she’s difficult and the only person that could understand her is Yonghee, her sister who’s also her only bestfriend she actually considered. She couldn’t count how many times Yonghee had scolded her for being an . But, really, she’s simply wanted to be left alone. 

Yet, since she could remember, people kept forcing her to act normal and truth to the god, she actually did her best. 

When she was still a junior and highschool student, she always accompanied all of her not-so-close friend’s heartbreak parties. She would hug the heartbroken girl while worded out some dialogue from movies she had watched before. In consequence, all of her same age friends considered her as the mature one which made her to become a one-to-go-to kind of person whenever people needed good advice. 

Not only that, the fact that she went on many boring dates just so Yonghee won’t grumble at her had created a weird nickname on her, which is the love expert. No matter how much Yong tried to explained how stupid of them to attached that kind of nickname onto her, people chose to not believe in her. Because people just want to hear what they want to hear. 

So, even with heavy hearts, Yong let them. She let everyone believe in their own constructed image about Kim Yongsun. 

But, when she finally got into the first step of her own dream as a successful scriptwriter, she thought she could change it. She purposefully acted cold, so she could be her real self. Well, she’s wrong because somehow the universe kept pushing her to act based on everyone’s needs. Yongsun sighed as she finished her internal complaint to the world.

“Let me treat you some Ramyun, okay? I saw a convenient store near campus. While you’re eating, I’ll read your story.”

Byul suspiciously looked at the older girl, “Is this some kind of apologizing act?”

Yong nodded, “Yeah, and an invitation to start over as a kinda friend.” She stopped before deciding to try her luck once more, “Well, if you still want it.”

“Sure.” Byul answered quickly, 

Yup, no luck at all. 

---

Byul’s story revolved around a woman director that couldn’t choose the ending of her own film. So, everyone that was involved with the production, one by one decided to leave the set because the director kept telling them that it’s not enough. When the producer, who's also her own best friend, asking her what she actually wanted, the main character screamed, “If I couldn’t control the ending of my real life, why don’t you guys let me get my own happy ending through my film?”. In short, even her best friend leaves the almost mad director alone.

“Where’s the love in this story, Byulyi-shi?” asked Yongsun who’s actually confused about the story. It’s a good story, but it doesn’t seem fit with the ‘love’ theme.

“Just Byul.” Byul stopped eating her ramyun for a while. “The kind of love a director has towards her or his creation.” 

Yong hummed in agreement, “And, why do you think I’m suitable to act as this woman director?”

Byul entirely stopped eating and turned her body towards Yong. She raised her index finger right in front of the older girl’s face, “One, you have a unique personality that makes people easily hate you.” as she raised her middle finger, she continued, ”Two, even though you're such a pain in the , even a stranger knows you love films with all of your heart.”

She put down her hands dramatically and continued to eat her Ramyun again. 

Yong should feel offended but she wasn’t and actually found it funny. She laughed so hard as her iconic dolphin filled the quiet atmosphere of the small convenience store. Even the cashier girl tried to shussed her voice down, which was entirely a failed attempt, of course. 

Byul side-eyed her with a cute smile, “You look pretty when you laugh.”

But that, that successfully shut her laugh down. Yong calmly replied to her, “I know. People kept telling me that.”

“You used to smile and laugh?”

“Byulyi-shi, you do realize that I’m also a human, right?”

“Don’t treat me as a stupid person and it is your fault because for the last two days of knowing you, this is the first time I see you smile. And Byul, call me Byul.”

Yong sipped her banana milk and let the silence embrace herself as she considered whether to continue the talk or not. But as soon as she remembered her own words that said she wanted to start over the friendship with the younger girl, she decided to stick with it. 

“I used to smile and laugh a lot, you know? But I’m tired of it because I did it simply out of consideration for other people.”

“Oh. How about the laugh you just did before? It is from your own intention?”

Yong smiled, “Yes, it did.”

“Felt good?”

“Um.”

“Good.” The younger girl drank and finished her Ramyun's broth in one big gulp. “Yong. Can I call you Yong?”

“Well, you already did. So, it’s okay.”

“I just want to say that you’re one of the weirdest people I’ve ever met in my life. You act rude and the next second, you’re being the proper girl everyone likes. I find you interesting and I really want to try to be your friend. Will you accept my proposal?”

Yong blinked for a while and once again found it funny, so she laughed again. “ Sure, having a kinda friend in my life isn't a bad thing, I think.”

“So, act in my film, kinda friend?”

“Sure, kinda friend.”

---

The kinda friend thing escalated fast into best friend kind of thing in no time. From Yong’s perspective, the reason behind this was simply Byul’s way of handling her. 

After their convenience store’s lowkey heart-to-heart conversation, the younger girl decided to take a look at Yong’s place which is located near the campus. As weird as it sounds, Yong let her. But the turning point of this relationship was when Byul watched movies beside her in silence. 

Okay, it might not be a big thing for other people, but for Yong, who’s her entire life kept being bombarded by questions whenever she watched movies with other people, found this situation as rare and precious.

You heard it right. Precious. 

More than that, the small act that the younger girl did to her like wiped Yong’s full of Cheetos’s grain hand with wet tissue or suddenly put straw on Yong’s mouth to make the older girl drink something without distracting her from the tv screen was so geniusly tactical. Even Yong who opposed this relationship at first couldn’t help but totally let Byul stay in her life.

It’s not only meant figuratively but also literally because one thing for sure, this purple-haired girl was totally the clingy type. 

A month of their friendship and Yong has lost count how many times the younger girl has spent the night at her home. Today, like any other day, both of the girl laid down together on the bed and talked about their life. 

“How could you never talk about your own project, Yong?”

“I’m still working on it.” as the older girl tried to close her eyes so she could escape from this nerve-wrecking conversation.

Byul, who found it annoying, tried her best to push her best friend to share her worries. “Talk, will you?”

Yong sighed and felt defeated, “I never had a lover before.”

“I’m totally confused. What in the world are you talking about?”

The older girl rolled her eyes, “It’s just I don’t have any experience and I’m scared if I couldn’t visualize my script into film well.”

“Ah.”

“Yes, Ah.” She empahazid the newly found information of Byul over her on purpose to mock the other girl.

“But, love has a broad meaning, Yong. Just like what I did with mine. You could make a story about a girl that obsessively loves cinema that she actually died while watching one.” as the younger girl chuckled over her own joke. 

Instantly, Yong hit her bed, “It’s actually a good story, Byul-ah!” as she got off from her bed and got her laptop from the desk to walk out from the room. 

Right before she sat on the sofa, she heard Byul’s shout from the room, “It was actually a joke! Come back here now!”

Yong shouted back, “Shut up! And just go to sleep!”

Fifteen minutes of peaceful moments with only Yong’s noise of clicking her keyboard could be heard in the room, Byul suddenly popped out while hugging a blanket. She stood there while mumbling, “Weirdo.”

Yong replied to her with a smile. 

Suddenly, the younger girl sat beside her and put her head on Yong’s shoulder. As Yong wanted to complain, Byul snapped, “Shut up and do your job. Do not ever leave me like that again, okay?”

Yong found it weird but she let her do it. After all, she’s the one that broke Yong’s writer block, anyway. 

---

Author's note: 

Today is my birthday but with the world's condition that I believe everyone knew, I stayed at home and decided to just write the next chapter of this story. English isn't my first language so i'm sorry with the redundant words that I keep using over and over again and of course, all the errors in grammar is totally my fault hehe XD. 

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