It was sweet, almost like candy yet had a bitter aftertaste. It was warm like the feeling she gave to her. She contained something that could open up iron walls in a snap. Sojung never liked the color bubblegum but things change. Right? Looking at her in the past: Eunbi hasn’t changed. Not a single bit. Sojung looked up at the iron walls and placed a hand on the metal. Her finger trailed over the large bolts, sighing softly. She’d accepted that they weren’t going to open up any time soon but she felt more closed off than ever.

Sojung blinked and found herself in the restaurant back then: Eunbi was in front of her while Yerin and Sinb chatted. She turned a bit to see Yuna and Yewon smiling at each other like lovesick children.

“I… wasn't expecting you here sunbae.” Eunbi laughed awkwardly, fiddling with her fingers to keep herself distracted from Sojung’s piercing stare.

Just from those words, her heart dropped into her stomach as she frowned. “You don’t sound so happy about that.”

“No—” The girl threw her hands up in defense with furrowed eyebrows. Sojung smiled at the sight. Was it weird to think she was cute? “—I am happy—I mean I’m just… no, I didn’t think you knew Yuna but ahah…” if she could, Eunbi would’ve ran out of there and away she went, never to appear again in front of Kim Sojung. How embarrassing.

Of course, Sojung didn’t mind her awkward speed—it made her heart flutter a bit. However, the mention of Yuna’s name caught her off guard. She watched silently as her surroundings blurred together, creating a mush of colors, and the chatters in the restaurant decreasing in volume. Staring at the girl in front of her, Sojung couldn’t help but think how mesmerizing she actually was. The stars in her eyes—it reminded her of a galaxy. Sojung’s fingers twitched as she examined Eunbi’s pink locks, a temptation washing over her and telling her to pat her head. She scoffed to herself. Holding a hand to her forehead, Sojung smiled through the uneasy feeling residing in her stomach.

“Yuna, huh?” She said simply. 

While Yerin did mention the pink hair of the girl Yuna was looking for but she was far too excited that her friend finally had an interest in someone. Though she didn’t expect her to be the same Eunbi she was swooning over.

“How do you know her anyway?” Sojung smiled, masking her scowl that tried so hard to replace it.

Much to her disappointment, Eunbi blushed.

“Well… I used her as a water shield.”

But that was not what she was expecting.

Sojung bursted out into laughter, holding her stomach as she leaned over and slapped her knees. Out of all things Choi Yuna could be, it was a water shield! She’d expected the very worst like… some princely save instead of being a shield! Sojung tucked her lips into but found herself laughing out of control.

“I’m—I’m sorry, I’m just… really a water shield?!” Sojung cackled as she threw her head back.

“Yah sunbae! Shouldn’t you be worried—wait did Yuna get sick that day? Oh my god, I’d be in another debt!”

Wiping the tears in the corner of her eyes, Sojung chuckled softly. Once the words 'that day' left Eunbi's lips, realization hit her like a car. Her smile slowly faltered. Pieces of memories scattered in her head and Sojung could hear the faint sounds of Yuna's voice. She couldn't help but scoff in amusement. That day was forgetful, in Sojung's opinion, but now that she knew that day was when Yuna and Eunbi first met, it felt more than important.

“Another debt?” Sojung inquired. Still as curiosity fills her, she was hesitant to hear the answer.

Eunbi smiled awkwardly and placed her hand on her nape. “Er… In short, I got her guitar wet and… um, had to get it repaired.”

Sojung made an ‘o’ with . She was wondering why Yuna hadn’t been playing her guitar and her gloomy mood but that’s not what concerned her the most.

“Really? She could’ve just gotten a new one,” Sojung said to herself. “Yuna’s rich as anyway.” Turning to glance at her friend, she was a blushing mess as Yewon held her hands tightly and rambled on about some song. Sojung smiled at the couple. It was nice to finally see some emotion on Yuna’s face—anything except a frown. 

With Yewon, Yuna looked more than happy.

of course, that wasn't true.

“Argh!" Sojung yelled out, startling Eunbi who flinched and yelped at the same time. “I wish Yuna would sing to me and Yerin more often.” She confessed. 

The girl didn’t sing to them—excluding the times she and Yerin barged into Yuna’s room when she was working on a song but very rarely they’d get the chance to hear her actually sing. All that despite going out on the street to gain money when Yuna didn’t even need it.

She pondered to herself: why did Yuna do the things she did? 

“She has a nice voice.” Eunbi blurted out.

Sojung's breath hitched. “She sang to you?” 

Eunbi simply nodded, a small blush rising on her cheeks as she avoided Sojung’s eyes.

But why? She bit her cheek, fighting off the sickness brewing in her stomach. As hard as it was, Sojung held in any expression other than happy and simply tilted her head.

“How embarrassing.” Eunbi mumbled as her blush deepened. “She was… breathtaking and… angelic. I don't think words are enough to describe how beautiful she is.” Eunbi took a deep breath, looking past Sojung to gaze at Yuna.

“I want her to sing to me again.”

Sojung’s face fell.

The look in Eunbi’s eyes made her queasy and the way she worded her sentence shifted a gear inside of her. Serendipity occurred between Yuna and Eunbi yet why does it feel so wrong? Yuna wasn’t the type to go out of her way and sing to a stranger. Was she just jealousy? Still, Sojung didn’t even know the full reason why she went to sing in the streets that day. There was no point! Unless Yuna wanted to show off her vocal abilities then great! Sojung shook her head. But that wasn’t the reason, she knew that at the very least. Her heart panged. Now that she thought of it: she could never find out what Yuna’s thinking. In a sense, her friend was very reserved compared to her and Yerin.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to be a nuisance.”

Sojung hummed softly. She suddenly wished she didn’t bring up her friend and now all these thoughts were running through her head. Did she even know Yuna anymore? Her legs wobbled as she balled her hands into a fist. 

You’re not the nuisance.

“You could never be a nuisance.” She smiled, gently tapping Eunbi’s forehead with her knuckle.

Eunbi smiled at Sojung, her eyes lighting up like they contained a million stars. “I’m glad you think of me that way.”

In simple words, she blushed. However to Sojung: it wasn’t just the blood rushing to her face or feeling bashful. It was almost awkward yet a flower bloomed inside in her chest and the iron door opened just a little bit more. Looking down at her hands, Sojung smiled to see a small flower stem growing from the palm of her hands.

She opened to say something but quickly shut her lips. It’d be too creepy to say something like: “I’ve been thinking of you ever since I knocked you on the ground. ” Filling the empty air with an awkward laugh, she mentally slapped her forehead.

“Hey um I don’t mean to ruin the mood or whatever but I gotta head back to the dorm.” Yerin slid into their conversation nonchalantly. “I got some… problems—yeah problems!”

And now was just the perfect time for Yerin to barge in her conversation. Sojung deadpanned the girl, who was only smiling but she couldn’t help and notice the sweat rolling down Yerin’s temple. She sighed. If only Jung Yerin could just disappear.

“Can’t you go back alone?” The older girl whispered.

Yerin immediately shook her head. “No! I hate being alone, you of all people should know that!”

“Yerin, just—“

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No!”

The urge to smack the girl made her hand twitch but Sojung held back as Eunbi watched them curiously. Faking a smile, she pressed her finger against Yerin’s chest which made the girl stumble backwards.

“Just walk with Yuna or something!” Sojung almost thought of begging her to leave but no, her pride wouldn’t allow her to.

Yerin frowned at the suggestion. “Yuna had to go to her afternoon class—“ she pushed Sojung’s finger off her chest. “—and before you say Yewon or SinB, they went to class too.”

“Yah what about you then?! You better not be skipping!” Sojung bellowed but Yerin only gave her a shy look.

Shy? No. That didn’t fit Yerin’s character. Confusion filled the girl as her friend began fidgeting awkwardly and sweat accumulated on her forehead. Sojung opened but Yerin quickly held her hand up.

“Something. More. Important. Than. Class.” Yerin breathed out in a staccato.

Sojung tilted her head. “Wha—“

“Also, I forgot my keycard.”

At this point, she didn’t even dare try to fight against her. Her eyebrow twitched at the girl, heaving a sigh—as much as she wanted to stay and talk with Eunbi more, Sojung couldn’t leave Yerin outside their dorm building… sweating and fidgeting or whatever was happening with her.

Brushing her hair back, she glared at her friend. “You could’ve just said that in the beginning.”

“Sorry, head full.”

Sojung didn’t even try to comprehend Yerin’s words and turned back to Eunbi with an apologetic smile.

“Sorry to leave so soon.” Sojung frowned. “Do you need me to walk you to… um anywhere?”

Eunbi shook her head, adjusting her cardigan and smiled. “It’s okay I have to get to class, thank you for the offer though.”

Pink dusted her cheeks. Sojung bit down on her lip as her heart pumped faster, jumping inside her chest while the three made their ways outside the restaurant. Eunbi looked too adorable when she smiled—she almost resembled a cheeky little bunny.  Sojung gasped as a thought popped up in her mind and quickly fished for her phone. Offering the device to Eunbi, she grinned.

“Let’s talk again soon?” 

The latter let out a soft chuckle. “You… want my number?”

Sojung’s heart pounded louder in her chest. The thumps could be heard in her ears as she nodded excitedly, acting like a child receiving candy. “I respect your decision if you don’t want to but I will say,” a smirk replaced her smile. “You might regret it Jung Eunbi.”

Much to her delight, the girl flushed red, silently taking her phone and putting in her contact information. As Eunbi handed back her phone, Sojung could’ve sworn their fingers brushed together and the blush on her cheeks deepened. Before she knew it, the flower grew taller and it’s green petals were finally blossoming to a soft white. Sojung watched the flower bloom with a smile. A bit proud of Eunbi's reaction, she gave the pink-haired girl a thumbs up and a big giddy smile.

“I’ll text you later~” Sojung laughed as her and Yerin walked separate ways from Eunbi. 

“Wow, Kim Sojung I must say I’m surprised.” Yerin whistled as she nudged the girl with her elbow.

She only laughed. “What can I say? I’m a charmer.”

The two walked in silence. The winds brushed against her ear—warm yet cool at the same time. Silence with Yerin was comforting but this time around: Sojung could only hear millions of questions racing in her head. It ran into the sides of her skull, rattling the bones in the form of a migraine as a wince covered her face. Countless thoughts passed by her like lightning. The words were barely comprehendable—she could only make out smudged and blurred words. Reaching out, Sojung bit her lip as her thoughts circled around her like a tornado. Time stopped. She inhaled sharply, gazing at the question in front of her.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Go for it.”

The tornado of thoughts vanished—for now at least, Sojung wasn't sure when it'd come back to overwhelm her. She looked down at the sidewalk with a sigh. Small plants grew in the cracks, dandelions and weeds peeking through like they had a chance to live. Sojung grinded her foot on the dandelions. The green pigment had rubbed off on the bottom of her shoe and stained the concrete.

Glancing down at her hand, Sojung's chest tightened at the sight of the flower crushed on her palm—just like the dandelion.

With a smile, she held her chin up. “Do you know what Yuna’s thinking?”

Yerin looked at her curiously. A question odd for a girl like Sojung to ask—in a sense, she was very straightforward.

A soft breath fluttered from Yerin’s lips. “Are you worried you don’t?”

Rubbing the sole of her shoe against the concrete, Sojung watched blankly as green marks appeared under her. “Yes.”

“You know, we're all very different from each other.” Yerin said. “To be honest, Yuna's hard to read but I want to comfort her when she's down so I guess I've figured out ways to read her and even Eunbi! She's like an open book." She laughed to herself. "Don't get me started on the maknaes: Yewon is definitely hiding something and SinB knows that yet she doesn’t say anything.”

Sojung raised her eyebrows. Yewon? SinB? That wasn’t important for now—instead she was curious about the girl Yerin purposely left out. “What about me?”

She gave her a cheeky grin. "Secret~"

No, she wasn't going to smack her. However, her hand raised up to slap Yerin's shoulder but the girl had already walked ahead of her. Sojung pressed her lips together. Cold winds blew past her. Yerin always seemed to have her back towards her. No matter how close she was, she kept a distance. And Sojung hated it.

“What about you?”

Yerin stopped.

“Me?” She looked backwards with an innocent smile. “I don’t really know.”

A knife struck her heart. The blade sliced through her chest as Sojung looked downwards in horror. Red seeped through her clothes yet the knife vanished into thin air. Her breathing fastening while Yerin hummed a random tune, seemingly to a song Yuna was recently humming, and walked ahead. The blood disappeared from her clothes but it still felt as if the knife resided inside her beating heart.

She shook her head and quickly followed after the girl. “What do you mean you don’t know?” Sojung asked, a bit hesitant to see Yerin’s expression.

“To answer your first question, yes.” Yerin said. “It’s easy to understand what you guys are thinking or feeling even when you don’t say it.”

“But…?”

Yerin smiled. “I’m sure you already know what I’m about to say.”

Her body went rigid. This wasn’t Yerin. The girl she knew was happy—always smiling with her eyes and shined like the sun. But the smile on her face right now didn’t nearly touch her eyes like it should’ve. Her gut flipped, a lump riding up as Yerin laughed. She did know what the girl was going to say but in all honesty, Sojung wished she didn’t.

She doesn't understand herself.

“Ah… Sojung where’s your car?”

Just like that, the conversation was over.

“We’re almost there—“ Sojung her chin.”—speaking of which, what’s wrong?”

Yerin cackled. “Is this because of my response, Kim? Nothing’s wrong.”

She didn’t realize it until, being too focused on her smile and all, but Yerin had become... strangely sweaty. The girl scrunched her eyebrows and looked as if she was constipated. Sojung shook her head. Knowing her: Yerin was overly dramatic and it was probably nothing. Probably.

Then the racing thoughts smacked against her head. What if Yerin wasn’t being dramatic? Their conversation earlier was evidence that the girl wasn’t always playful. Sojung gnawed on her lip. Was she trying to tell her something? A secret message? Something she could only understand? Sojung winced as the knife in her heart dug deeper, the organ desperately pumping blood through her veins. It twisted and turned yet she couldn’t care less. Why? Shouldn’t she care about pain? Sojung grasped her hair as giant iron doors grew from the ground. There were too many thoughts. The doors blocked the thoughts from coming any closer—sharp clangs on the opposite side as Sojung released her hair.

“Sojung—?”

“When did you start referring to me by my surname?” She breathed out, focused on the iron doors in front of her. Their footsteps echoed, the white ground pulsating with every step. “Hm?”

Yerin frowned. “No reason—but keep on talking, it was actually distracting me.”

Sojung quirked an eyebrow. “Distracting you—?”

The second a black car came into view, Yerin screamed and the iron doors created by Sojung’s subconscious vanished. A yelp escaped her lips as the younger girl grabbed her arm and began pulling her along the sidewalk towards her car. Sojung resisted the girl but she underestimated her strength and Yerin ended up squeezing her, sticking against her side like glue.

“Yah Sojung get your keys out now!” Yerin screamed out in frustration.

“ you scared the hell out of me!” Sojung gasped. “Why are you so eager to get back?!”

“Details are not important!”

Fumbling for her keys in her bag, Sojung watched as Yerin kept on trying to open the doors when the car was still locked. She smiled at the sight and unlocked the car. Yerin rushed in while she took her sweet old time climbing into the car.

“Hurry up! Drive fast!” Yerin begged, grasping her nails into her own thigh. 

“Hold on! I haven’t even got my keys in yet!”

It felt like ages before the car started up and speed towards the dorm—fast just like the girl said (of course, it was the speed limit; Sojung couldn’t risk hurting Yerin in a car crash).

As she drove along the roads, she glanced at her friend curiously who looked almost red at this point. “Seriously what the hell is wrong with you?”

Yerin let out a soft cough. “Sojung, Sojung hurry the up…” she mumbled as she leaned her head against the window. “I’m dying.”

Sojung swerved, the car rumbling to the right while Yerin screamed for her life.

“Dying?!” Slapping the girl’s shoulder, she shot a glare. “Don’t ing scare me like that!”

Yerin groaned. “Oh , it’s much worse than dying!” She held an arm around her stomach and writhed in her seat.

“What—?!”

A small puff made Sojung’s heart stop. She knew Yerin was just about to throw a fit and she could already see the redness growing on her cheeks. And lucky for them, another red light! Sojung cursed under her breath. What did she do to deserve this? 

“Um…” she whispered. “Yerin—?”

“Shut it.”

Looking over for a brief moment, Sojung gasped to see a red faced Yerin who refused to look at her. Out of all the possibilities Sojung was afraid of, Yerin only had a minor bloating problem. A sigh left her lips as the girl whined in her corner of the car. Sojung let a smile creep along her lips. At least she wasn’t dying but didn’t that mean she could’ve—Sojung slammed the steering wheel.

“I could’ve walked Eunbi to her class!” 

“No! No, you couldn’t because me, Jung Yerin, needed to get back to the dorm right ing—Sojung, the light’s green!”

“What?!”

mmm I feel like this is a messy chapter but it's mostly about how sojung sees yuna + wonha and wonrin :') + more about the metaphorical "iron doors"

anyway I want to thank y'all for commenting ;; even if it's one or two it makes me happy hehe

remember to stay safe and healthy and ofc stan gfriend !