NOTE: I swear, the number of times I rewrote this... Anyway, enjoy! :)

Having shared their stories that day, the two of them felt more comfortable and at ease with each other. After that day, they simultaneously decided, right there and then, that they would pick themselves up and get their life together, helping each other as they go. When one needed to talk, the other listened. When one needed to cry, the other stayed by her side. When one didn't feel like doing anything, the other was next to her, doing nothing as well. When one had nightmares, the other held her close, comforting her. Together like this, slowly, wounds began to heal and they started to move on from the incident. They started smiling and laughing more, and began to do things together. It started out small. They started to watch TV shows or dramas together on LE's laptop. They searched for recipes online and cooked together in the kitchen. Eventually, they grew to sharing clothes, and even bathing together. Knowing Solji's love and talent for singing, LE introduced her to the company where she works as a music producer, and Solji signed up as a singer. They had plans to debut as a duet in due time, with Solji singing and LE rapping. Things were finally starting to look up for them again.

"..." LE looked at the phone in her hands. For the past 8 months, ever since leaving her family, she and Solji had both kept their phones shut off, unwilling to talk to anyone else. Just talking to the company staff when they went to sign the contract a few months ago had taken up more energy than it should have and they had gone to bed the instant they returned home. And even after that, they continued to keep interactions with others to the bare minimum, even going as far to get a new shared work phone that is strictly for work purposes.

"What's wrong, Hyojin?" Solji asked as she sat down next to her.

"I was wondering if we should turn our phones back on." LE replied. "Now that we are slowly going back to work and trying to resume our normal lives, we're going to be needing our phones a lot more."

"You have a point." Solji said thoughtfully as she retrieved her phone as well.

"But..." LE's expression darkened. "...I'm wondering if it's bad if I block my family for now." Solji winced at the thought.

"I'm going to block mine too." She sighed. "I'm just...not ready to even think about them again. At least, not for now." LE nodded.

"Same." They the phones, and almost instantly, their phones almost exploded with notifications of unread messages, unopened voicemails, and missed calls. LE's expression hardened when she saw that some were from her family. Taking a few deep breaths to compose herself, she kept her expression neutral as she opened the messages.

"Hyojin, where did you go?"

"You're our daughter, Hyojin. Please come home."

"I know you're upset. But please, come home. We can just overlook that you're les- I mean, that you're, um, unique."

"Where are you, Hyojin? We're really worried about you. You don't have to come home if you don't want to, but please at least let us know how you're doing."

"I hope nothing bad happened to you. Please give us a reply so we at least know that you're still alive. I hope you're ok." LE felt...She didn't know how to feel as she read the messages and listened to the voicemails. She felt sick. She felt betrayed. She felt angry. She felt hurt. They were literally saying that they would ignore that she was lesbian just so they could have a daughter again. They were acting like their blatant ignorance of her existence after declaring that they love and will always support her didn't hurt her like a thousand knives driven into her heart. And what’s worse was that the date of the voicemail suggested that it took them days to even realise she was gone. Noticing her rapidly darkening expression, Solji reached out to hold her hand and give her a comforting squeeze.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm fi-" One look at Solji's face stopped LE in her tracks. Her eyes moved to Solji's phone, only to see the screen displaying messages from her family. Her father said that she could come home if she was over being lesbian, as though it was just a random phase she was going through. Her mother reiterated that it was wrong to like the same gender, but with no evidence to justify her point. Her brother informed her that he was 'talking it out with their parents', but whether he was supportive or not, he didn't mention. LE looked up to meet Solji's eyes, filled with tears. To any other person, she would've played it off as if she was fine. But this was Solji, who more or less was in the same situation as her. If anyone could understand how she feels, it was Solji. Solji understood exactly what she was going through. There wasn't a need for her to play strong. "No, I'm not ok." LE admitted as she returned Solji's grip. "What about you?" Solji looked down to her phone.

"Neither am I." She blocked the contacts, and looked back to her. "But I want to be." LE smiled to her as she blocked her family's contacts as well.

"And we will be. Together." Solji nodded, their grip on each other's hand tightening.

"Together."