August 24, 2014

My eyes fluttered open from my slumber, immediately turning to the girl huddling close to me. Taking a moment to examine her features, I snapped an internal photo of her sleeping face. Careful not to wake up the sleeping beauty, I pulled the blanket away from my body and discreetly exited the bed. Before exiting the room, I inspected the lower section of the bed. While the blanket had obstructed my view of her foot, I was contented with the ridge rising from the sheets, solidifying that SinB's foot was rested comfortably on top of the makeshift elevator. 

Exiting the room, I made my way down the flight of stairs for my normal coffee-in-the-morning routine. Unfortunately, fate didn't have the same plans. A knock came from the front door as I was entering the kitchen. With bewilderment taking over, I wondered who could possibly be visiting this early in the morning. Finally, setting my eyes on the clock to take note of the time, my eyes shot open to full awareness upon realizing that it was already early in the afternoon. Quickly shuffling to the door, I opened it with a small amount of hesitation. 

"You look like you just woke up." Sowon quipped before making her way inside impatiently.

"How is she?" She asked hesitantly before turning her body towards me. "She's fine." My tall friend immediately let out an exasperated sigh, earning furrowed brows from me.

"Why do you seem so panicked? She broke her foot yesterday fighting a training dummy. I thought I told you that." She shook her head and replaced her panicked expression with a troubling smile. "Eunha-yah thought it might be more serious than 'just a broken foot.'" A frown took place on my face, but it quickly replaced itself with a brilliantly faked smile. "Is that so? I'm certain she's fine. She definitely was yesterday." Her expression rapidly morphed into something I couldn't quite pinpoint. in a breath of air, she spoke, "Yerin-ah, don't play these games with me, I've known you long enough to know that isn't what you're thinking. I love you, Yerin-ah, so know that what I'm about to say comes from my heart. No matter how much it hurts, please listen." Staring at her confusedly as she haphazardly sat me on my own couch, I nodded hesitantly.

"Yerin-ah, you can't keep living in blissful ignorance. I know what you're trying to accomplish, but you have to face reality–maybe even fight it." My eyes searched hers, tears began to well up, stinging my eyes. Gently, my best friend placed a hand on mine. "SinB-ah did something incredibly brave for your birthday, don't you think you should give her a chance to explain? To open her heart up to you? I know you're scared. She's scared too. Eunha-yah's scared, we're all scared." Regretting my acceptance of her request, I turned my head away from Sowon to try and block her out, the tears wanting so desperately to fall from my sockets. She gave a gentle squeeze to my hand before continuing, "Sure, you can live like this for as long as you want, but if you keep it up this way, nothing will get better. Wouldn't trying to solve the problem be better than not doing anything at all?" Sniffing, I shabbily turned my head to face her. "The t