Wonyoung let herself feel the exhaustion from the two-day event as soon as they reached their home. She immediately went upstairs in hope to get a good nap before dinner.

“UNNIE~~” she ran to hug her older sister as soon as she saw her in the hallway to her bedroom.

“You’re home! How was it?” her sister hugged her back and patted her head with much affection.

“Fun,” Wonyoung said shortly. Her sister chuckled.

“Really?”

“No. It was hella draining,” the taller said before breaking the hug. But, yeah, I enjoyed most of it.”

“Aigoo. Go on and rest. I’ll call you when the dinner is ready.”

“Well, that’s the plan, my dear sister.”

“Tsk,” her sister playfully shoved her towards her bedroom door before turning to leave. Wonyoung chuckled as she opened the door. It felt like ages ago since her last step inside her room and she certainly missed the familiar sight of her den.

She dropped her bag in the floor beside her bed before snuggling to the warmth of her bed. Wonyoung was lying on her front as she took a good sniff of her seemingly newly changed bed sheets. She was touched at her mother’s thoughtfulness who was most probably the one who changed it while she was away.

Wonyoung became uncomfortable with her position after few minutes so she rolled over. Her new lying position gave a wider view of her pastel purple colored room.  The tired girl’s attention was caught by the beautifully decorated wall across her bed.

Steady tiny yellow lights surrounded the numerous hanging Polaroid pictures of her with her family, classmates, and of course, with Yujin.

She never bothered, or more like she never intended, to put her pictures with Yujin down. There were numerous pictures of them taken back when they were in middle school, and she’s very much aware of the pictures neatly tucked in the little box inside her closet and how much more pictures and videos of them fooling around she have saved in her Cloud Drive.

When did things between the two started to change?

Wonyoung can’t really tell.

***

It was her first day in middle school. Wonyoung was getting more and more anxious as she was walking down the corridors. At the same time, she was excited to meet other people at her age outside the circle of spoiled brats she was forced to meddle with whenever there was a family or her father’s work-related gathering.

Her father was a director in an automobile company while her mother was a former lawyer that quitted her job when her older sister was born in order to look after her. Although she was grateful for her mother’s decision, she can’t help but feel sad for her.

Her mother spent almost half of her life studying just to become a lawyer, only to quit after just few years of her practice.

Wonyoung would always ask her mother about her experiences when she was still a lawyer and those became her favorite bedtime stories. That one night when her mother shared the vivid memory of how one of her past client’s mother cried out of joy as she hugged her when her daughter was proven innocent and wrongly accused of murder, she started dreaming to become a lawyer too.

That’s why at her young age, she had read various books that kids at her age wouldn’t even bother touching. Thus, she bears undeniably large amount of knowledge.

It felt good to fill her curiosity about the things that interests her, but sometimes it felt a little sad too because she doesn’t have anyone else to talk to about these aside from her older sister and her mother.

Wonyoung admitted she didn’t have many people to consider as friends. In fact, she only had four friends- her sister’s best friend, the friend she made when she was six that she met when they visited her father’s hometown, and her loud neighbors.

She wouldn’t call herself an ‘anti-social nerd’ like how pop culture portrayed people with a little bit ‘unusual’ interest in academics was, but she wouldn’t call herself a cool kid either. Wonyoung would like to think she might lie in between.

 Wonyoung reached her assigned room. The room was big enough to cater 30 students at most. The desks were neatly aligned in six row, thin yellow curtains were hanging to shield the room from sun rays coming through the big, clear windows. There was also mini locker at the back of the room.

There was still time before the class starts and the students slowly filled the room. As expected, almost all of the students opted to choose the desks in the back or in the middle rows.  Wonyoung took the seat near the windows in the front row. She was the first one to sit in front.

She looked out of the window where the curtain was neatly tucked on the side, trying to calm her nerves. Her serene moment was cut off short when a tall, short haired girl dropped her bag to the desk beside Wonyoung before pulling out the chair rather loudly. She sat catching her breathe.

“I thought I was late,” the girl said to herself in relief.

Wonyoung went back to what she was doing. She noticed the green open field and made a mental note to go there later.

She overheard the three girls at her back talking about the newly released season of The Vikings. Then she heard the girl beside her perked up.

“Oh! Did you know that one of the first expeditions of the Vikings was most probably led by a woman?”

This caught her attention so she turned to look at her. Wonyoung swore the girl’s smile was so bright she could turn blind. However, her smile faltered as her classmates’ responses.

“Really? Cool,” one said indifferently as she pulled out her phone.

“So? I mean I was just watching it because the fight scene looked cool,” the girl with green highlights said.

“And the actors are hot too,” the last of them added.

“Yeah, and that too.”

”Oh. Okay,” the short haired girl turned to look at the front again. Wonyoung just stared at her for a minute until the girl catch her eyes through her eye glasses.

The latter smiled at her and Wonyoung smiled back before extending her hands.

“Hi, I’m Jang Wonyoung and I think I wouldn’t mind listening more about how a woman led a successful Vikings expedition.”

The other girl’s smile widened as she reached for Wonyoungs hands.

“I’m Ahn Yujin and I think I could use some ears.”

They talked and talked until their homeroom teacher came, signaling the official start of their middle school life.

…..

Wonyoung found out that Yujin shared the same love she had for English and Literature subjects. They exchanged reading lists and traded books once- until almost half of Wonyoung’s book shelf was slowly filled with Yujin’s.

Their common love and interests towards things became beneficial for the both of them. They would do their essays together and let each other read it to check and point out its strong and weak points both gaining them almost, if not, perfect marks.

“Da~da~da~,” Wonyoung and Yujin would sing in celebration as they waved their graded essays to show to each other after school as they waited for the bus, followed by their laughter.

“High five, man,” Yujin would always ask which Wonyoung would happily give before hopping their way towards the bus.

Bus.

On their first week of being friends, Wonyoung and Yujin would always go in separate ways as soon as they reach the school gate. Wonyoung would stop in the picking up area to wait for her mother, while Yujin would continue walking along with the wave of students rushing to get to the bus stop.

Wonyoung knew Yujin’s family has a car so she wondered why she would always take the bus home. One day, when they were talking over lunch, she asked Yujin about it.

“Just because,” Yujin answered nonchalantly.

Wonyoung rolled her eyes and snorted at her response.

“Yah, at least appreciate my effort to sound cool!” the short haired girl said.

Wonyoung playfully gave her thumbs-up, nodding her head. The two girls laughed. The short haired girl spoke again as they calmed down.

“Well, I just love riding the bus because….” Yujin hummed and tried to think. Ah, right! You know, when you were sitting there and you see people, strangers, you started to wonder what kind of day and life they had.”

She stopped for a moment, trying to find the right words with her hands looking like, she was squeezing something. Wonyoung just nodded for her to continue.

“Then you’ll realize how big the world really was, thousands of possibilities out there. Someday, you could be someone like that exhausted woman with eye bags who’s wearing office attire. Someday, you could be someone like that smiling man with camera hanging on his neck. I somehow found it comforting to be reminded of those possibilities.”

Wonyoung couldn’t help but admire how sincere Yujin sounded.

“And I think it was awesome how we’re different yet similar at the same time.”

There was a small smile lingering on Yujin’s face when she finished.

Then silence.

“I was waiting for the background music to start,” Wonyoung teased, laughing while covering .

“AH! That’s so cringey!” the other girl said.

Yujin covered her face and put her head down and Wonyoung couldn’t help but laugh when she started squeaking.

“Aww. That’s okay. It was cringey but it’s sincere. Sincerity isn’t something to be embarrassed about,” she tried easing her friend. Wonyoung patted her back in a playful manner before standing up.

“The last one to reach the room will buy bubble tea!” she started running as soon as she finished her sentence.

And just that, the two of them ran and fought their way through the corridors and into their room.

The next day, Wonyoung insisted to take the bus on her way home amid her parents’ protests- because she wanted to know what Yujin felt was about and maybe because Yujin loves to take the bus.

They started going home together when Wonyoung successfully convinced her parents. She and Yujin took the same route after all. Their daily routine of riding the bus was however almost cut short when Wonyoung enrolled to after school academy and Yujin started volunteering in the animal shelter.

Wonyoung’s classes in the after school academy ends late, and Yujin clocks out of her volunteer work, well, late too. They thought there would be no way for them to go home together again anymore until they happened to take the same bus again at particular hour.

Starting that night, Yujin would always try to save Wonyoung a seat beside her if it was possible since she was the first to get on the bus and there would be two stops before Wonyoung.

Sometimes, when it was really packed she would just let Wonyoung take her seat despite the other girl’s protest and stand beside her. There were lucky nights too when the both of them could sit side by side.

Wonyoung was not a big fan of packed public transport. But when she saw how serene Yujin looked as she stared out of the window of the bus after an exhausting day from school and her volunteer work, suddenly, she didn’t mind anymore.

They were more than fine throughout middle school, so when did things started to change?

……

Perhaps it was summer before high school, when the two were lazily lying in the ground of the said girl’s room after they successfully solved the puzzle with 1 000 pcs Wonyoung had specifically requested from her older sister as graduation present.

“AH! We aced this!” Yujin threw her right fist on air, celebrating. The taller girl could only chuckle at her antics. She rolled over and inspected the puzzle pcs they had put together.

It was a landscape picture of one popular old castle in Switzerland that she and Yujin promised to visit together in the future and bury their own time capsule to the ground as near as possible to it for the next generation to dig. They imagined them displaying IZ*One’s albums in museum and writing about its various contribution to civilization.

They had a good laugh while crafting their perfect plan.

“Wonyoung-ah!” Yujin called as soon as she settled at the other girl’s comfy bed to let her aching back rest.

“Hmmm?” Wonyoung was still looking at the puzzle.

“What time is it? I’m getting hungry,” the girl whined a little. Wonyoung turned to look at her for a moment then she suddenly perked up when she remembered that her sister baked an almost month-worth of brownies and cookies the day before.

She stood up from her position and dragged Yujin with her to the kitchen.

“Come on. Unnie baked something yesterday and it’s quite a lot.”

They found her sister and her best friend talking over the counter as they reached the kitchen. It was not awkward for them as her sister’s best friend, Haeyoon, was Wonyoung’s friend too and Yujin became close to her sister and her best friend too as she's actually quite good at befriending people.

“Hey, what’s up?” Wonyoung said as she reached the cupboard.

Yujin took the empty stool near Wonyoung’s sister while waiting for the other girl.

“Hey,” the two older girls greeted them.

“Unnie, why are you blushing?” Yujin curiously asked Haeyoon with a little trace of teasin