♫ Moonbit (문빛) - Every Moment With You

“Only you could do it. Only you could steal words from my tongue, heartbeats from my chest, colorful landscapes from my eyes. Only you could touch hidden places, fill the empty spaces and only you could whisper love rhapsodies into my soul.”

Anita Krizzan

Be careful?

Be careful of what?

Hyewon’s words kept echoing in Sakura’s head, even weeks after that day. Sakura didn’t understand Hyewon’s cryptic warning. No matter how much she asked her, she never elaborated on it. She always found some excuse to dodge the question.

“Maybe she’s telling me to be careful not to hurt Chaeyeon?” Sakura said to herself as she stopped writing in her notes.

“She has all of these rules for a reason. Maybe she was hurt by a past relationship so she made these rules up so she won’t experience anything bad again?”

Sakura continued to ponder as she got up to stretch her tired limbs.

Kang-chan won’t tell me anything, but it’ll be rude to ask Chaeyeon. I don’t want to bring up any bad memories if it’s true.

Speaking of which…..

Sakura paused her thoughts for a moment as she walked to her desk again and grabbed her phone. She sat down on her bed and looked at her phone. She pressed on her messages and went to Chaeyeon’s name. All of the recent messages were Sakura’s. There were no replies from Chaeyeon at all. Sakura hasn’t heard from Chaeyeon in the past week and they hadn’t seen each other either. Their spot in the library was always empty everytime Sakura showed up. Even when she waited all day, Chaeyeon never showed up.

“She’s probably busy studying for finals.” Sakura said to herself as she stared at her unanswered messages.

Even if Chaeyeon was a genius, Sakura was sure that she still had to study too. Plus, Sakura was quite busy herself with her own finals and thesis so she didn’t have time to relax. Sakura heavily sighed as she kept looking at her phone, especially at Chaeyeon’s name.

“... I want to see you.” Sakura quietly murmured to herself.

After staring at her phone for a couple of more minutes, Sakura decided it was time to get back to studying.

I should send Chaeyeon her goodnight text.

Sakura thought as she pressed on the message box, but before she could write anything, her phone started to ring. Her eyes widened as she saw who was calling her. She frantically stood up and cleared , taking in a few deep breaths before answering.

“Hello?” Sakura answered, trying to sound calm.

“What are you doing?” The voice on the other line asked.

“Uhh… I was just studying.”

“Oh, so you’re busy. I won’t bother you then.”

“No wait!” Sakura exclaimed before the other person could hang up.

“You’re not bothering me. I was going to take a little break anyway.” She added.

“Your break just started?”

“Eung.”

There was no reply after that. Sakura was a little confused so she quickly looked at her screen, but the call was still connected. 

“Hello? Are you still there?”

There was another bout of silence, but Sakura finally got an answer.

“You want to meet up for a bit?”

“Eh? Like right now? At this hour?” Sakura asked, feeling caught off guard.

“I guess this time is not a good time after all. Nevermind, forget I asked. I’ll just talk to you tomorrow.”

“No!” Sakura interjected again.

“Let’s meet. Where do you want to meet?” Sakura added as she quickly went to her closet to grab a jacket.

She was about to go put her shoes on, but then she heard something hit her balcony door.

“Look out your balcony.” The voice on the other line said.

Sakura quickly rushed back into her room and opened the door to her balcony. She looked down at the street and was surprised to see Chaeyeon standing below. Sakura gasped before hurrying down to meet Chaeyeon. 

“How long were you waiting here?” Sakura asked in between breaths.

“I just got here. I was in the area and was going to walk by, but I saw that your light was still on.” Chaeyeon replied.

“Well either way, let’s go in. It’s cold out here.” Sakura said as she pushed Chaeyeon into the apartment building.

The two settled down in Sakura’s room. After seeing how red Chaeyeon’s cheeks were, Sakura rushed to heat up some tea.

“Here.” Sakura said as she handed Chaeyeon a hot cup of tea.

“Thanks.”

“Babo-ya! You were definitely waiting for a while, weren’t you? What if I didn’t answer? What if you caught a cold?” Sakura scolded the younger girl.

“I didn’t wait though, really. My cheeks are just sensitive to the cold.” 

“Whatever the case is, just take care of yourself. Getting sick around exam times are really bad and a hassle.”

“Okay mom~” Chaeyeon playfully said. 

“I’ll be careful.” She quietly added.

Sakura couldn’t help but crack a smile. It was like all of her stress and worries she had earlier were suddenly gone as soon as she saw Chaeyeon.

You really are something, aren’t you Lee Chaeyeon?

Sakura thought to herself as her smile grew bigger.

“What’s with that creepy smile you weirdo?” Chaeyeon teased.

“Nothing.” Sakura pouted as she quickly went to her desk and sat down.

Chaeyeon cracked a smile and followed, sitting on the ground beside Sakura while leaning against Sakura’s bed. The room became silent as the two fell into their usual roles; Chaeyeon doing her own thing while Sakura studied. However, Sakura couldn’t focus again. How could she? They haven’t seen or spoken to each other in a while, but now all of a sudden, Chaeyeon shows up unannounced. Sakura didn’t mind, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there was some reason behind it. After pondering if she should say something or not, she decided to.

“Is there something you want to do or talk about?” 

“Huh?” Chaeyeon replied, surprised.

“Well, you asked to meet for a bit out of the blue. You must have something you want to talk about, right?”

There was a moment of silence before Chaeyeon replied.

“No, no particular reason…”

“Oh…” Sakura said, a little disappointed.

“... I just missed you that’s all.”

“Oh… wait WHAT?!”

Sakura did a double take as she thought she heard wrong.

“You-you-you missed me?” Sakura stuttered.

“Of course. We haven’t spoken or seen each other in a while now. So of course I’d miss you. What? Did you not miss me?” Chaeyeon replied with a pout.

Sakura was left speechless while her heart raced like crazy. She didn’t expect to hear those words coming from Chaeyeon first. She couldn’t help but stare at Chaeyeon incredulous with hanging. Chaeyeon seemed to have gotten annoyed at the silence so she gave Sakura an agitated look as she stood up.

“Fine then. If you didn’t miss me, I’ll just leave. Seems like you’d rather study anyway.” Chaeyeon pouted.

“No! I did miss you!.” Sakura exclaimed, quickly stepping in front of Chaeyeon before she could leave.

“Sorry, I just didn’t expect you to say that you missed me. It caught me off guard for a moment. I really did miss you too, even if you just showed up out of the blue. I’m really happy right now.” Sakura said as she convinced Chaeyeon to sit back down. 

“So you won’t mind if I just pop up every once in a while or out of the blue to meet you?” Chaeyeon suddenly asked as her voice returned to it’s happy tone.

“Huh? Uh…” Sakura paused for a moment as she was caught off guard again.

What the… is this going to be a rule now too? You suddenly show up out of nowhere after being MIA for a week saying things that are making my heart beat a million miles a second, and now you say this? What are you doing to me, Lee Chaeyeon? 

Sakura thought as a smile slowly formed on her face.

But even so, how can I refuse you?

“Yea, I don’t mind.” She happily answered.

“Fine. Rule number 5, you have to meet up with me at any time, anywhere and whenever I want.”

After agreeing, Sakura decided to extend her break a little more. She went to the kitchen to grab Chaeyeon more hot tea while she grabbed some snacks. As she sat next to Chaeyeon, munching on her snacks, her curiosity once again became too much to bear.

“Why were you gone for a week? You didn’t even answer my texts.” Sakura suddenly asked.

“Were you busy studying for finals?” She added.

There was a moment of silence before Chaeyeon answered her.

“No. Some stuff came up so I had to deal with that.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that. Hope everything is okay now.”

“Yea, it’s okay now.”

“Hmm, that must’ve affected your studying then. Are you going to be fine for finals? Are you going to ask the senseis if they’ll let you take their finals later?”

“No. I don’t have to worry about that.”

“Huh?!” Sakura exclaimed, bewildered.

“Are you not taking your finals then? Are they giving you a free pass?!”

“Of course not! I don’t think any school would let you pass without taking finals. I knew something like this would happen so I asked the senseis if I could take my finals early.”

“So you’re already done with finals?” Sakura asked with a twinge of envy.

“Yup. I’m free of tests until next semester.” Chaeyeon replied teasingly.

“Lucky…” Sakura said under her breath with a pout.

Chaeyeon noticed Sakura’s expression, causing her to snicker.

“You don’t have time to be envious right now, You still have your studies to worry about. You can be envious during winter break.” Chaeyeon teased. 

Feeling determined to study again, Sakura returned to her desk. But before she fully went back to studying, Chaeyeon mentioning winter break made her think of something. Sakura sensed Chaeyeon was going to leave soon though, so she decided to ask her one last thing.

“Chaeyeon-ah?” Sakura softly called.

“Hmm?” Chaeyeon replied while getting up.

“Are you going to go back to Korea for winter break to visit your family?”

Chaeyeon stopped for a moment before answering Sakura.

“No. My family is coming to visit me, actually.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” Sakura replied, surprised.

“Yea. They thought it’d be a hassle for me to travel back and forth. Plus, they get to travel for a bit so they didn’t mind coming here.”

“So they’re staying until Christmas too?”

“Unfortunately no. My dad has to go back to work and my mom has her cafe she needs to look after too, so they can only stay for a week.”

“Then, are you going back for Christmas?”

Chaeyeon didn’t say anything and just quietly shook her head.

“You’re not going back either?!”

“Nope.”

“So, you’ll be alone during Christmas this year?”

“Mmhmm. I don’t mind though. It’s only one Christmas and I want to see what Christmas is like here anyway.”

“Oh….” Sakura quietly said as the room fell silent.

Sakura couldn’t help but look at Chaeyeon with sad eyes. Even if Chaeyeon said that she didn’t mind, she looked somewhat lonely to her. Suddenly, a crazy thought popped into her mind. It may be out of the blue and Chaeyeon may decline, but there was no harm in asking. 

“If that’s the case….” Sakura paused for a moment before continuing.

“….Do you perhaps want to go home with me to Kagoshima for Christmas?”

“Huh?” Chaeyeon replied as she turned to look at Sakura.

She seemed to be surprised by the offer. Chaeyeon seemed hesitant to reply as she lowered her eyes. After contemplating for a moment though, Chaeyeon slowly shook her head.

“It’s okay. I don’t want to be a bother to you and your family during the holidays. I can just hangout at my dorm until the new semester starts.” Chaeyeon gently declined.

There she goes again.

Sakura thought to herself, agitated.

“You have to stop saying that you’re a bother to me. You’re absolutely not. I like your company and you’re my friend, so I don’t want you to be by yourself. Come and see what Kagoshima is like. It's 1000 times better than Tokyo, I promise you.” Sakura said with confidence.

Sakura could see that Chaeyeon was contemplating again after what she said. Chaeyeon’s eyebrows were furrowed and she was biting the nail on her thumb as she was thinking. After a few minutes in silence, Sakura felt bad for pressuring Chaeyeon into something she clearly was unsure of, so she gave up.

“Nevermind, forget what I just said. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable by pressuring you, so you don’t have to-”

“I’ll go.” Chaeyeon interjected. 

•~•

Chaeyeon seemed a little nervous to be meeting Sakura’s family. Sakura could tell as Chaeyeon was endlessly bouncing her leg and twirling the ends of her hair.

“Relax. You don’t ha