[past, present]

Wheein loved folding things. Origami, or the art of folding, was something that fascinated the girl. Oftentimes, you could see the little girl at home with scrap pieces of paper, following an origami tutorial on YouTube with her lips pursed and eyebrows furrowed in concentration. That was how the young girl loved spending her time, and in the short span of 3 years since the 11 year old started origami, she has learnt how to make various types from simple paper planes, before moving on to simple flowers and animals. But, there was one thing that she loved folding the most.

Folding paper stars was very much Wheein's hobby at this point. She would get random scraps of used or unused paper, and sit down wherever she might be, and start to crease and fold the papers into sharp crisp folds, trying her best to make no mistakes, and forming the most perfect star she could manage to. 

She didn’t really have a use for them, putting the unpopped paper star in her pocket and going about the rest of her day. When she gets home, the first thing the little girl would do would be to empty out her pockets onto the table, and pick out the stars that she had folded through, popping them into puffy stars, before placing them into a jar she kept beside her bed.

//

The jar was a plain transparent glass container she had found on the way back from school. It was just sitting there, by a bin, on the sidewalk, when Wheein was walking home from school. The little girl found it pretty, the way the light hit the jar, and the cork stopper that closed the jar caught her attention. So the girl gingerly picked up the jar and continued her way home, making sure that her jar was safe and would not break.

Upon reaching home, Wheein sat the jar on her table, seeing specks of dust littering around it. She tipped the jar here and there, examining every inch of it, before heading to her toilet where she dampened one of the cloths that she kept hanging dry for her art projects. Making sure the cloth was not dripping wet by wringing it one last time, she brought it to the table. Bringing the cloth nearer to the jar, she carefully wiped the outside of it, her lips pursing, before doing the same with the inside, treating the jar with utmost care.

There was one thing that kept repeating itself in her mind though, she could not help but wonder who would throw such a beautiful jar away. She figured that other people might think of it as too plain, but she thought that was what made it much nicer. That meant that you could fill it up with anything, and its beauty would be visible for the world to see. Wiping it dry with a piece of tissue, she put the cloth aside before she reached into her pocket, and pulled out a yellow star - made from a brochure she had gotten - and pinched its corners, popping the star to make it puffy, before dropping it into the jar. A huge smile drew upon her face, closing the jar and giving it a good shake, watching the tiny star roll all around in it. She was determined to fill the jar with many, many more stars.

The jar was already almost half full, after a mere 2 months since Wheein saw it on the street, as she has made it into a habit to fold at least one paper star each day, but more often than not, folding up to 5 stars a day just because she found paper and made full use of it. The stars she folded varied in colour, size, as it depended on the type of paper she found and used. She used these stars as a method of relieving stress, focusing all her attention on creating the most perfect star she could, temporarily forgetting about her stressors.

Another mundane 3 months passed by as Wheein continued on with her daily life, and her first year at middle school was about to start. The young girl is slightly nervous, but she is very much looking forward to making new friends and having new experiences. She already packed her school bag, full of new stationery and empty notebooks, placed by her door, and already has a few pieces of paper hidden in random places so that she could easily access them to fold if things got too much for the hypersensitive girl.

The first day of school has finally rolled around, and Wheein's eyes shot open at the sound of her alarm blasting through her phone, her head sharply turning over to the noisy device on her bedside table. Shutting the alarm off, the girl promptly sat up in bed, swinging her legs over the edge and hoisting her body off the comfort and warmth her body craved more of. “It’s today! It’s today! It’s finally today!”

//

“Hyejin-ah, your hair- ah never mind, just stand still.”

Wheein took a step closer to the slightly younger girl and raised her hand to fix the slightly messed up hair, taking her time when she noticed Hyejin just staring at her, her expression not telling Wheein the reason behind her staring at all. Not knowing what to do, she avoids the other girl’s gaze, instead focusing on making the latter’s hair neat again, her cheeks turning slightly warm. Hyejin's gaze did not falter, and Wheein could not help but let out a gasp when she felt the younger’s hands moving to rest on her waist, tugging her towards herself slightly. Well, Wheein’s cheeks were most definitely on fire now if they were not before.

“Hyejin-ah…,” Wheein let out, stuttering over her words and making the other girl chuckle. Wheein’s right hand remained frozen, floating above Hyejin’s head, now barely touching her hair, heck- the whole girl was frozen. The short-haired girl merely tilted her head, humming softly to tell the other she was listening, her eyes still fixated on the older girl. Present in it was a kind of depth that Wheein could not read, and it made the girl feel exposed, vulnerable, but also that every side of her would be accepted. If not for the hands that were still on her waist, her knees might have given way right there and then due to the hundreds of butterflies flying around in her stomach.

“Nothing hehe” Wheein laughed slightly, trying her best to maintain whatever little composure she still had left.

“Hmm? What is it baby?”

That just about did it, all thoughts of maintaining composure flying out of the window as Wheein let out a little whine, moving closer to Hyejin, where she hid her very red and warm face into the crook of Hyejin’s neck- arms wrapping around the other’s waist, very much like how the younger girl was doing to her now.

“You’re doing it againnn” Wheein drew out the last syllable, her voice slightly muffled into Hyejin’s neck, who questioned back,

“What babe? I’m not doing anything?” amusement laced in her voice. 

“You’re staring at me like I'm your everything… and you know what calling me baby does to my heart!”

Hyejin could not resist letting out yet another chuckle, before cooing at that, removing her hands from Wheein’s waist to move the girl’s head away from her neck until she could see her, and then cupping her face in her face before saying softly, “But you are my everything, and my baby, aren’t you?” before leaning in to capture the older girl’s lips in an equally soft kiss.

//

Wheein had to let go of her mother’s hand to wipe her sweaty palms on her skirt, part of the new school uniform that belonged to the middle school she was now attending. Her knees were shaking slightly, and she kept biting on her already dry lips, peeling off the top layer of the skin until she could faintly taste blood. She slipped her hand out of her mother’s grasp again, and reached towards the side pocket of her bag, pulling out a strip of paper.

Fold, crease, fold, crease, until in her hands was a strip of paper no more, and instead, a tiny unpopped star, and on her face was a tiny smile. This was what made origami interesting for her, the fact that a plain piece of paper could be transformed into something new, something slightly more beautiful, but how it also did not lose its core, what it is made of, because after all, it is still paper. Something could be moulded and shaped, in this case, folded, into something more beautiful, but it is still what it is, and can still be destroyed by the same things. And that, to the little girl, was an important life lesson- that she doesn’t have to change her core, who she was to be more beautiful. She just had to get people to view her in a different way. Reaching for another one, Wheein kept going, the stars in the pocket of the skirt increasing, the smile on her face getting bigger, until the shaking in her hands faded away, and the fast beating of her heart started to slow down.

And then, suddenly, she was in front of her new school. The building was slightly taunting, very big to a very small girl, way bigger than the elementary school she had come from.  but she was fine, she had her paper, and her first star of the day.She would be fine.

//

Wheein brought the tip of the pen to her lips and tapped it against her lips repeatedly, her mind searching for another cheesy pickup line to write on the strip of red paper in front of her. She was never good at flirting, or pickup lines, and did not have many of them on hand, so, she decided to do the next best thing. Setting the black pen on the table, she picked up her phone, which was hiding under tens of strips of coloured paper and typed in “good pickup lines” into her search browser. as she scrolled through them, her tongue would occasionally stick out at the really cringy ones, while some got a giggle out of her, making mental notes to remember those.

Her table was a mess, strips of paper scattered all over, and several black pens surrounding her too. Her jars of folded collectibles were on a shelf above her table, but her very first jar is placed separately on the upper right corner, the stars that once filled it now emptied out into a giant pile in front of it. That reminds her, she has to get another jar for them soon, but this would be their temporary home.

The girl paused her scrolling and looked all around her table to try and remember what she had to do, but the sight of her table was confusing her, doing more harm than good to her already slightly overwhelmed mind.

“Okay Wheein, pack your table first, at least a little you wreck,” she mumbled under her breath, her hands moving to clear the strips of paper. She tried to sort them out by colour, pulling out the reds first, as she knew that she was going to start with them. She had spent 2 hours prior to this sitting on the floor of her bedroom, repeatedly cutting the strips of paper out and putting them into a huge pile. colour-sorting it was then. it did not take much time for the papers to be sorted, and they were now neatly sorted into their respective colours in the order of the rainbow.

“Better,” Wheein smiled to herself in satisfaction. Then, she picked out another red strip, wrote down “are you [insert pickup line]” before folding the paper neatly into a star. After popping the tiny red hexagon, the newly formed star was dropped into her very first jar, the base already covered with several similarly coloured stars.

//

“Good morning class, before we start the lesson, there’s someone that I want to introduce to you,” announced Ms Kim to her class of middle schoolers, and whispers started breaking out in the room.

“Who’s she?”

“A transferee in the middle of the school year? Why did she transfer here?”

“She looks so fierce, I don’t have a good feeling about her…”

Meanwhile, Wheein sat in her seat, slightly uninterested in the commotion going on, but nevertheless, turned to look at the new student. “Oh wow.” The short hair, fierce eyes that seemed to scan everything in the room, and the way she had her backpack slung over only one shoulder, this girl screamed powerful. Wheein was now intrigued – although, she would never show it. She turned away and looked out of the window she was seated next to, looking out to the empty field. She pretended not to pay any attention, trying to hide her existence, just like she did every other day, but her ears were fully tuned to the words coming out of the new girl’s mouth.

“Hi, I’m Hyejin and I transferred here from a nearby school, nice to meet you,” Hyejin spoke loudly, the corner of her lips turning up into a slight smirk as she gave a casual bow to the class. Her voice was husky, quite unusual for a middle schooler, but it definitely fit the image of her very well.

“Alright, thank you Hyejin, ah, you can take a seat at the empty desk beside wheein. Wheein, could you raise your hand please?” Ms. Kim announced, giving a smile to both girls as Wheein whipped her head back to look at her teacher in panic. Her hand slowly raised, as she dropped her head down, feeling her cheeks start to warm up.

Wheein was still not good with strangers, and she felt intimidated by the new girl, and being a wallflower had its perks, she was comfortable. Now, she had to befriend the new girl, or at least make small talk, and she was not very confident in her ability to do so. The hand that was not raised snuck its way to her pocket, pulling out a slip of paper, which she held tightly in her fist, feeling the presence of the new girl draw near. Once she deemed her raised hand as unnecessary, she dropped her hand, and brought the strip of paper to her table, where she picked up a lying pen and wrote on the strip, new girl, nervous before she started to fold the paper into a star, the words slowly disappearing.

By the time she had a nicely folded star in her hands, Hyejin had settled down beside her and was looking at her curiously, while Ms. Kim had started lessons already.

Wheein could feel the new girl’s gaze constantly switching from the star to her face, patiently waiting until she was done, before asking, “Do you like folding stars?”.

The poor shy girl could only meekly nod her head, proceeding to pocket the star and taking out her textbook, busying herself with turning to the page her teacher was on.

“Aren’t you going to tell me your name, table buddy? I mean I could just read it off your notebook, but where’s the fun in that right?” Hyejin looked at her expectantly, still waiting for the girl to say something.

“… I’m Wheein. nice to meet you,” Wheein said, still keeping her eyes fixed on her textbook, the words barely loud enough for the other girl to hear.

That was when Wheein could feel the energy around the new girl change, suddenly, Hyejin seemed to be bursting with life, the energy buzzing uncontrollably around their tables as Hyejin tilted her head to meet the eyes of the shy girl. “Wheein huh? Pretty name for a pretty girl,” she boldly said, giving Wheein a wink before she sat back up and took out her own textbook, the remainder of the first lesson with the new girl in school spent with Wheein trying to hide her heated cheeks and Hyejin occasionally sneaking glances at her.

//

Wheein was starting to get blisters by this point. She was around 100 odd stars away from completion, with 4, the most important ones, left to fold, and the remainder stars left to pop. wheein liked folding stars more than she liked popping them, for popping them gave her bad blisters.

Furthermore, Wheein has never had such an ambitious project before, folding a thousand stars to be placed in a jar the height of her forearm, within a span of a week. The thousand stars did no justice to the 8 years she and Hyejin had spent together, 3 as friends, and the remaining 5 as lovers, inseparable, but she hoped that they were sufficient in conveying the depth of her message, and a romantic enough gesture for her grand event.

Call it bad planning on Wheein’s part, she had actually planned this weeks ago, or at least the brief outline of it. But time zoomed by unknowingly, and soon enough, it was a week to Hyejin’s birthday and Wheein now had 1000 unfolded stars, crucial for the event to take place, whoops?

The 4 most important stars were going to be the last she had to do and Wheein was confident that she could complete all of her stars within a day, so long as she stayed committed to it. And besides, that one week before Hyejin’s birthday was a mere 48 hours away now, and the puppy still had to convey instructions to her friends that were helping her with the event.

Pop, pop, pop, one by one, the stars were nearing the brim of the jar, and finally, she was done creating the puffy stars, safe for the unfolded ones. She then picked up her already prepared 4 wider and longer strips of white paper and looked at them, the true realization of her event dawning upon her. Picking up her brush marker, she did her best at calligraphy, writing the singular corresponding word on each of the strips before she folded them up. Grimacing due to her blisters, she popped these last 4 stars, and was proud at how perfect they seemed, although she would not have it any other way.

Last step, she thought to herself, picking up the 4 stars and gingerly placing them on the top of all the other 1000 stars, before she closed it, tying a ribbon around the rim of the bottle and sealing it shut.

Wheein felt her heart start to race, looking at the jar of stars, she could not believe what she was planning on doing, and she knew that the following day would be one filled with chaos and nerves, but she was determined, and was resolute in carrying her plan out to perfection.

//

Wheein was confused as to what was happening, why Hyejin had told her to meet up wearing something special when they were just meeting to go to the karaoke, as they do on an almost weekly basis.

Upon the request of the younger girl, Wheein was in a soft cream coloured turtleneck and some pale jeans, a mustard yellow long trench coat giving her outfit a splash of colour. it was significantly less drably compared to their school uniforms they normally hung out in, and Wheein felt quite happy with her choice of wardrobe.

She stood outside the coin karaoke place, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, puffs of hot air coming out of with each exhale as she rubbed her hands together in an empty attempt to gain some sort of heat. Hyejin was late, and that was very unlike her. Where is she, Wheein could not help but start to worry, her eyes looking out for any signs of the brown-haired girl.

Today had been a strange day, the slightly younger girl acting weird around her, and being suspiciously cryptic about their plans for the afternoon.

Each girl took turns to plan for their weekly afternoon outings that were their free time away from studying, and just to spend time with each other, something both have gotten especially fond of. They took this time as their own, their way of cherishing and treasuring the close-knit relationship that they possessed.

“Oh wheein! over here~” Hyejin was making her way to the puppy, out of breath from wherever she was coming from.

“Are you okay? Wait where are we going? Aren’t we going to sing to-“

“Hush child, just follow me,” Hyejin shushed the rambling girl, taking her hand and pulling her away from the entrance of the karaoke place- into the crowds of people on the road and leading her towards the city center.

Or so she thought, because moments later, Wheein was standing in front of Hyejin’s place.

“What are we doing at your place? Why did you ask me to dress up if we were just going to be here? Hyejin-ahhhh,” Wheein whined, allowing Hyejin to take her coat with a cheeky “M’ lady.”

Getting no response, Hyejin just continued dragging Wheein up the stairs of her house, and down the hallways until she was standing outside the door of Hyejin’s room.

“Wait here until I tell you to come in okay? And close your eyes before you come in,” Hyejin told her, before disappearing behind her door.

Wheein heard some rustling, but before she could even try and guess what was happening, she heard a quiet, “Wheein-ah, you can come in now.”

The girl placed her hand on the doorknob, before closing her eyes and turning the doorknob, stepping into the room.

“look at me, I can only shine if you’re here

hold me tighter so I won’t seep out”

Wheein’s eyelids fluttered open when she heard the soft voice of her best friend singing, letting out a gasp at what she saw.

The whole room was dimly lit, the polaroid wall of physical memories of the pair outlined in a heart with fairy lights, and Hyejin sitting in the middle of the room, a ukulele on her lap.

The song was unfamiliar to her, meaning that it was probably a song written by Hyejin herself, one of the girl’s many hidden talents, and as the song progressed, Wheein felt her eyes watering from the intense emotion behind the song’s lyrics.

“when you’re with me, everything is fine

you can cry if you wanna cry

you probably don’t know

how much I like you”

It was no secret that Wheein held special feelings for the younger girl, from the very first day, to each time Hyejin stood up for her when other kids called her weird, and then for every day that the 2 spent with each other.

“star wind flower sun and you

yes it’s all you

under the same sky on a day like this

i’m thankful for the fact that we can look at each other”

The 2 girls have been dancing on the fine line of friends and lovers for the last few months, both learning that the pining was mutual, but both too scared to make the first move. wheein could not say she expected for hyejin to be the one to do this.

“this is my heart

this is my song, only for you”

By the time the song ended, Wheein was still standing in the same spot, tears rolling endlessly down her cheeks, silently staring at the other girl through tear-filled eyes.

Hyejin looked up from her ukulele, and gently smiled at Wheein, placing the instrument on the floor beside her and standing up, walking to Wheein. she wiped off each fresh tear with her thumb, staring into Wheein’s eyes, before asking, “wheein, would you do the honours of being my girlfriend? I promise that I will try my best to make you happy as long as you’re with me.”

And all Wheein could do was nod wordlessly, before throwing herself into the arms of her new girlfriend.

//

“Yong, oh my god i’m so freaking nervous, what do I do, what if i mess up? What if I read everything wrong?”

Wheein was pacing around the café owned by Yongsun and Byulyi. The former was Yongsun’s best friend while the latter was friends with Hyejin before they got together. The café was a result of their unique meeting, involving subway sandwiches and unconventional anonymous therapy sessions via the dm function, long story, do not ask for details.

They had gotten together 2 years prior, and started Moon and Sunrise café, and the 4 girls started to hang out as a group more regularly, constantly arranging double dates.

“Wheein, pup, calm down. You’ve been planning this for the last 2 weeks and thinking about it for the last year. I would say you know what you’re doing, okay?’ Yongsun reassured the younger girl, affectionately petting her head before turning back to the decorations she had been putting up.

“I can assure you that you’re making the right decision wheein, I know my best friend!” Moonbyul added, walking behind Yongsun and sneaking in a kiss to the older girl’s shoulder, having just come back from the toilet.  

Wheein took in a deep breath before sitting down in a chair, watching the two older girls continue to run around the café for a little more when Yongsun suddenly stopped in her tracks and turned to Wheein, squinting.

“Hey miss, this is your proposal, shouldn’t you be helping with the decorations?”

Oops, Wheein got caught. She leapt to her feet, turning around and exaggerating her sped-up movements, picking up things and hastily pretended to paste them up and place them in random places, making the couple giggle at her.

she finally let a smile grace her face, her expressions loosening. hopefully today will turn out okay.

//

A couple hours later, everything was set up, and Hyejin was due to arrive any minute now. The lights were dimmed down, star wind flower sun quietly playing in the background. The decorations done by the three did not make the place overly romantic, but helped create a warm and intimate atmosphere, the kind that made the couple involved comfortable.

There were fairy lights draped along the windows and walls casting the room in warm yellow light, with polaroids stuck on the wall, depicting their entire journey together. There were also sprigs of white baby’s breath taped all around, their favourite flower. The café itself had a little bit of the rustic vibe, and all factors accounted for, wheein was very happy with how the location looked, and she only had to thank Yongsun and Moonbyul for that.

Most importantly though, the jar of stars she had been painstakingly working on for the last week or so, was placed in the centre of the café on a round table with rose petals and the rest of the tables pushed to the side to clear the middle. Tiny daisies and baby’s breath surrounded the jar and the sides of the table had fairy lights hanging off them.

Overall, the café reminded Wheein of when Hyejin had confessed to her, and it gave her a warm, fuzzy feeling in her heart.

Wheein’s palms were sweaty, and her lips kept drying out no matter how much she kept running over her lips with her tongue to moisten them. She had to force herself to stay in her chair, ‘cause if not, her feet would lead her to pace up and down the room. Her feet were, instead, tapping impatiently on the ground, her eyes repeatedly glancing over at the door of the café for any sign of her girlfriend.

A couple of minutes later with Wheein still glancing anxiously at the door, she heard something fall to the floor, and she turned around to find a couple of the pictures had fallen behind one of the tables pushed to the side, creating a tiny hole amongst the other pictures. she rushed to the table and bent down, reaching for the polaroids, when she heard the bell connected to the entrance of the café ring, indicating that someone had stepped in.

Wheein froze when she heard her girlfriend’s voice ring out, “Yong? Byul? baby? is anyone here?”

this was certainly not how she was expecting this to go, and wheein knew that she was perfectly out of view from Hyejin, her tiny frame completely hidden behind the table she was kneeling behind. Her body refused to work, head rid of all thoughts, the poor girl was basically holding her breath.

Judging by the sound of the girl’s footsteps, Wheein deduced that Hyejin was walking, specifically towards the table with the stars, the quiet “Stars?” confirming her thoughts. It seemed like Wheein was going to remain in this position for a while.

Wheein heard the jar opening, and the rustling of some papers, and she felt her heart rate increase.

She heard a tiny gasp from the other girl, and sniffles soon started, making Wheein panic and stand up.

“Ouch!” or so she tried, for she ended up hitting her head on the edge of the table.

She stood up – without any injuries this time, her hand going awkwardly behind her neck, an embarrassed smile appearing as her face started to heat up. What a way to make an appearance - especially for such an important event.

“Wheein?” Hyejin was wide-eyed, the tears evident in them, her voice cracking.

She sheepishly let out a laugh and said, “surprise?” before she rushed to the girl in wide steps, and gently asking, “Why are you crying?”

As though reminded about what she saw, the waterworks started again, with Hyejin asking, “Do you mean those words?” while looking over to the table she was standing at.

Wheein followed her line of vision to the note that read “open only the white ones, there’s 4 and open them in according to the numbers on them” as well as the 4 crumpled white pieces of paper that were stars. The singular words written as big as the paper allowed for stood out, “will” “you” marry” “me?”.

She turned back to the younger girl before she brought her hands up to cup her cheeks, using the pad of her thumbs to wipe off the tears occasionally rolling down.

“Do you mean it?”

“Of course, baby, I had a whole speech prepared, and this was not how I was seeing this happening at all. But I’m clumsy and we both know it hahaha”

“Really? You want to marry me?

“What do you mean? Of course I want to marry you. I want to spend the rest of my life with you, travel with you, sing with you, eat with you, sleep with you. I want to call you my wife and be there for you in times of need, be your shoulder to cry on when you have nightmares. I know we’re still young but having had you in my life the last 8 years, I have never been so sure about wanting to be with someone for a lot more. I would like nothing more than to be with you. So Ahn Hyejin, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”

Wheein pulled out a wooden ring box from her back pocket, decorated adorably by the girl herself, before she got down on one knee in front of the now sobbing girl, and opened the ring box in front of her. She waited for the girl to barely be able to get her affirmation out while crying before quickly putting the ring on Hyejin’s ring finger, and standing up, grabbing the younger girl in her arms and spinning her around before placing her back down, kissing her tears away, all while having a smile on her face.

She placed butterfly kisses all over Hyejin’s nose, cheeks, forehead – while tiptoeing – before she placed her lips on the other’s, sharing a sweet kiss before they pulled away, resting their foreheads against each other.

“You’re going to be my wife,” Wheein breathed out, still in disbelief from what had just happened.

“I will be, and you’re going to be mine,” Hyejin was still crying, burrowing her head into Wheein's shoulder before letting out more sobs.

//

The bond these two had was best depicted with the jar of stars Wheein had made and presented to Hyejin after the proposal was over. She explained that each colour corresponded with a different type of content, for Hyejin to open when she deemed fit.

the red for bad pickup lines

orange for Wheein’s favourite memories the both shared

yellow contained things Wheein wanted to do with Hyejin

green hid tiny secrets Wheein kept

blue stars held jokes for Hyejin to open on bad days

purple gave Hyejin coupons to use Wheein for different times and occasions

and lastly, indigo was a collection of the points of Hyejin that Wheein loves and would never change about her

Hyejin loved Wheein for all of her, her weird habits of origami, her flaws, and her strengths, and Wheein knew that she would have enough things to refill Hyejin’s stars whenever they would run out, for many years to come.

a/n: this is an au that really made me very happy while i was writing it and i hope it made you happy too :)