A few weeks have passed since the two girls’ reconciliation. Both of them finally have the time to take a breath from intense emotions; Well maybe only one of them. Yujin thought that her friendship with Wonyoung would be stable again—if not stronger, she supposed—but no, she was horribly wrong. Okay, maybe she’s exaggerating this but guess what? The Jang Wonyoung has found a new best friend! How dare she! Wait, Yujin doesn’t mean that Wonyoung never had another friend since they’ve known each other—well, she has plenty actually—but never had she ever found someone else to eat lunch with, to go to the toilet with or to go back from school with! It has always been Yujin and Yujin only!

Now, here Yujin is, walking behind Wonyoung and her newfound friend that can’t stop calling her princess—it’s Yujin’s favourite nickname of Wonyoung!— whose name is Naoi Rei. Yujin never says anything about Rei to Wonyoung because unfortunately, Naoi Rei is too good for Yujin to complain about her. Rei has tried getting closer to her but after sending a few signs of refusal, Rei took them well and just casually talked to her from time to time. This Rei girl is actually one of the students—from Japan, obviously—for the exchange program both of their schools are handling for about 3 months—if she’s not mistaken—and as much as it looks like a short amount of time but only one week has passed but Yujin badly wants her to go back to her own school so that Yujin can play with Wonyoung again. She swears that if Wonyoung asks Rei if she want to sleepover at Wonyoung’s ho–

“Rei-chan, want to sleep at my house tonight?”

As if the world is strongly against her, Wonyoung just asked Rei for a sleepover and that’s the cue for Yujin to start acting out. Without waiting for Rei’s answer, Yujin slips into the conversation. 

“Is it really necessary, Wonyoung?”

Well, she might sound a little bit stern looking at Wonyoung’s confused and shocked expression on her face.

“What?”

“I’m sorry but didn’t you hear me the first time, Jang?”

Hearing Yujin calls her Jang makes Wonyoung realize that there’s something that upset the other girl, but what?

Rei, who is better at reading the room than the dense Wonyoung immediately gets what Yujin meant by that and she needs to agree that she has taken a lot of Wonyoung’s time with Yujin. Smiling ever so slightly, she just excuses herself with the reasoning that a certain cat-like friend needs her to help with her assignment and leaves quietly.

After making sure Rei’s body disappears from her vision, Wonyoung turns around and faces Yujin with displeasure written all over her face.

“What was that all about, An Yujin?!”

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

Yujin cups her face in frustration. Now, how the hell would she tell Wonyoung that she, the An Yujin, is jealous? As she rubs her face and sighs heavily, a pair of hands snatches her wrist, and—God, when did she come this close—Wonyoung’s nose nearly touches hers. Flustered, Yujin pulls away and stares at the other girl intensely.

“Tell me, what is bothering you so much?”

Yujin looks into Wonyoung’s eyes with clenched teeth and sighs. She’s sorry for being a coward but she really can’t find any courage to tell Wonyoung what is actually bothering her.

“Nothing.”

She breaks their eye contact first, trying to find something interesting to stare at.

“What do you mean nothing, Yuj?”

“It’s nothing.”

Yujin knows sooner or later the bubble of secrets she’s hiding is going to pop out if Wonyoung keeps pushing her like this but she has no absolute excuses to give anymore. She was about to run away before Wonyoung grips her wrist. Technically, she can just pull away again but the stare Wonyoung is giving her ultimately freezes her legs.

“Tell.”

“Me.”

Yujin swallows the nonexistent lumps in —why does suddenly feel so dry—and locks her eyes at the old pavement they’re standing on right now.

“Since when are we being secretive with each other?”

“Hey, don’t say that as if you didn’t hide the fact that you know Chaewon unnie is going to confess to Minju unnie from me!”

Yujin thought that was going to win this argument but she was wrong the moment Wonyoung opened again.

“And then what? Let you ruin it? You know you had no chance from the beginning! You knew it, An Yujin!”

There it goes, a fact that Yujin knew—as Wonyoung just said—but hasn't had enough time yet to completely acknowledge it. She stays silent for a moment, enough to make Wonyoung start to regret her choice of topic. Before she has the chance to spit some excuses, Yujin cuts her off first and Wonyoung can feel her heart breaks upon seeing tears falling down Yujin’s face.

“Y-you know what, I will just go to my home and y-you will go to yours too, and maybe we can talk about this later if I want to.”

Yujin couldn’t help the cracks in her voice as she stumbled along her words, pretending to be fine when she clearly isn’t. She couldn’t help the tears that gathered at the corners of her eyes and slid down her cheeks in an endless stream. She hates how vulnerable she’s feeling, crying in front of her best friend, who did nothing but stare at her in silence.

“Yuj, I—”

“Later, Wonyoung”

Wonyoung stood there, as she watched her best friend disappear into the house. She can just barge into Yujin’s house but the glimpse of Yujin’s teary face earlier stops her from doing so. Her heart is dying from curiosity as to why Yujin would ever react that way. Her Yujin is never the one who can be rude to people. She has always been the one with a lot of manners compared to her who always chooses to stay silent until she is sure the person will cause no harm. So why would Yujin act that way with Rei?

\\\\\\\\\

Yujin woke up and the sky outside was already dark, so dark that only the moon shines through the slit of her poorly closed curtains. She rubs her swollen eyes and hisses after feeling the sting.

Yes, she continued crying in her room after coming back home. She doesn’t know what exactly was the reason for her crying but she cried and cried until the heavy feelings in her heart were gone. Perhaps, it’s the way Wonyoung didn’t care about how sensitive the topic is to Yujin or perhaps it’s the building frustration on herself for not being able to tell Wonyoung that she is, indeed, jealous of Rei. 

Yujin stares at the ceiling of her room and sighs heavily. Now, she isn’t sure how to resolve this argument they had without revealing that she’s jealous. 

—

“Have you been crying?” 

Wonyoung’s first question in the morning startles Yujin. She looks at the newly arrived girl with her widened eyes. Widened puffy eyes, to be exact. Yujin eyes the other as Wonyoung takes her seat and shakes her head weakly, making a poor attempt to lie.

“No.” 

Yujin thought that a simple answer will make Wonyoung feel awkward which means that she will change the topic but no, Wonyoung is determined to talk through this.

“Please don’t lie to me, I care about you.”

Oh now, Yujin’s heart stings. If she cares, why would she bring up the sensitive topic? If she cares, why didn’t Wonyoung come to her house right after that, or maybe the next day, at least?

“You care about me?”

Oh, Yujin hates how annoying she sounds whenever she’s sulking but moves faster than her brain.

“W-what do you mean by that? Of course, I care about you, dummy!”

“Oh, really?”

Oh, can stop spitting out stupid words? Now she sounds so annoying. Wonyoung will probably take her cue and leave her stupid self for now. 

That, was what Yujin thought Wonyoung will do but instead, the latter grabs her hands and shorten the distance between them—which is already too close considering that they’re tablemates.

“I’m sorry, Yuj.”

Wonyoung has always told her that she has a huge ego and now she might believe in that as she let slips out words without thinking again.

“Do you actually know what you said the other day?”

Yujin starts to regret her annoying when Wonyoung’s grip on her hands loosens, only for her to grip them tighter—to the point that her hands are hurt but she’s stopping from spitting nonsense again.

“Yes.” 

Yujin stares at the slightly younger girl. After all, they’re bound to reconcile again so rather than dragging this out longer and causing their emotions to be unstable, she took a deep breath and decide to be a bigger person and just forgive her best friend—

“Okay, I need to admit I was so disappointed that you, out of all people in this world, decided to use that topic against me but it’s okay, I guess. People makes mistake. Even the Jang Wonyoung makes mistakes!”

Not before saying how disappointed she is first!

Yujin tries to lighten the conversation by chuckling but shuts almost immediately when Wonyoung looks up with tears threatening to fall down her face.

“Hey, hey, Wony—”

Yujin was about to panic before she was engulfed in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that to you. It was so insensitive of me. Sorry, Yuj.”

Yujin smiles bitterly as she caresses the latter’s back, trying to calm her down. 

It will be okay. I will be okay.

That was what Yujin thought so but she was wrong.

Wonyoung hurts her again.