The cold pavement slowly turned dark gray. It signified that the sky was crying again. Jeong Eunji, twenty four, rising bank manager was waiting for her best friend (if that’s what it’s called). It was seven in the evening, just as she was about to leave her office, she received a message from the older girl, asking her to pick her up because she needed a ride home.

When the rain poured, Eunji stood at where Chorong told her to meet. She couldn’t risk leaving because she could miss seeing the girl. Eunji stayed there, soaked under the rain, waiting for Park Chorong to arrive. For almost two hours, the rain was unforgiving but so was the cold. Wind blew and Eunji immediately shivered. She was still waiting for Chorong to arrive. She reached for her phone just as it buzzed.

From: Chorong ♥
Sorry for coming late. I’m on my way now, Meung.

All sorts of exhaustion left Eunji’s body as soon as she read the message. A smile automatically came to her lips. She probably looked stupid for smiling so widely after just a text. Her mind automatically disregarded the two hours of waiting under the rain just because Chorong remembered that she was there. That Eunji was waiting.

Eunji was always waiting though.

“Hey, I’m sorry, I got held up by my co-worker,” Chorong greeted her with a smile. It didn’t look unapologetic though. Eunji noticed how Chorong’s lips were swollen and her lipstick was a mess. The familiar pain in her chest was back but she didn’t mind. She shrugged it off and met Chorong’s eyes. It was still dark, dilated like how someone would look like after doing it.

Eunji wanted to be mad. She wanted to blame Chorong for being inconsiderate. She was tired. For the whole week, she was busy balancing everything at her branch and she wanted nothing more but to rest. But one message from Chorong and she’ll drop everything.

Always for Chorong.

“Meung, you’re soaked. Why didn’t you wait for me in your car? Where did you park anyway?” the girl removed her scarf and used it to dry Eunji. It was useless but the effort was there. Eunji ignored the marks on Chorong’s neck. She ignored how it looked fresh and how it looked like it was just made not longer than fifteen minutes ago.

She smiled at Chorong, “Let’s get you home, Rong?” Eunji took the girl’s hand and led her to where she parked just around the block. Yes, it was her fault for not waiting in the car but the last time that she picked Chorong up and didn’t go to where the girl wanted her to be, Chorong got mad because Eunji made her wait. She didn’t want the girl to be mad at her.

Inside the car, Chorong rambled about how her co-worker was doing this project and needed her help with some things. Eunji resisted the urge to throw up when she saw how Chorong her lips and blushed. Park Chorong is three years older than Eunji. At the age of twenty seven, the girl was already the country manager of a well known clothing brand. Eunji couldn’t be prouder.

Yes, she’s in love with her best friend. Eunji is in love with Chorong. Who wouldn’t? How could she not love the girl? Chorong was everything to her. Chorong was there when her parents died. Chorong was there when she was failing three of her classes. Chorong was there when her own friends turned her back on her. Without Chorong, she would have given up on life.

“Thanks for picking me up, Meung-ah. I was really worried about the rain because I didn’t have any umbrella with me,” Chorong said when they stopped in front of her apartment complex. Eunji looked at Chorong with tired eyes and forced a smile.

“You know I’ll always be here,” there was pain in her heart again but she chose to ignore it. What matters to her is Chorong was happy. Everything she did was to make sure that the older didn’t and would never experience any kind of pain.

Even if it meant more pain for her.

Chorong kissed her on the cheek and then exited her car, “See you later, Meung! Take care!”

Just like that, Chorong was gone. Eunji felt her lips linger a little longer than usual against her cheek. She felt the part where Chorong kissed burned. It spreaded throughout her body like fire that needed to be extinguished. Chorong always had that effect on her. Chorong always made her weak and she was pretty sure that the girl knew it. What Eunji was certain of was that Chorong didn’t care.

As soon as she reached home, her roommate and cousin caught her just before she passed out. “Ya, Jeong Eunji, you’re burning!”

Eunji nodded and smiled, “You can say I’m hot.”

“And you’re wet from the rain!” Bomi groaned and practically dragged her to where her bed was, “More like stupid. Were you waiting for Chorong again?!”

The girl hummed, “She needed a ride home.”

Bomi wiped her face out of frustration, “She needs to make up her mind if she wants you for real or she wants to keep you as a friend. Hell, just last week, you two had !”

Eunji chuckled weakly and removed her shirt, “Calm down, Bom. It’ll be fine. I’m gonna move on from her.”

“Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before,” Bomi threw her a towel and fresh shirt. Her cousin sat on the edge of her bed, “Seriously, Eunji, I’m really worried about you. You’ve lost weight since you two started doing that.”

“That what?”

“That! Whatever that is,” Bomi lost it and practically pulled out her hair. “Look, I don’t really care who you bang. It’ll be better if it’s that Naeun girl from the cafe but just please, stop torturing yourself with Park Chorong. She’s a walking red flag!”

With her eyes closed, Eunji hummed but said, “Well then I guess red’s my favorite color.”

It was hopeless. Bomi knew that her cousin was in too deep for her to redeem herself. She saw it. It’s been like that since senior year in college. Roughly four years ago, just as she returned from Germany, Bomi met Eunji again. The girl was in a pretty tight spot and so they were forced to go back to Korea. Not that Bomi’s family minded though. They were pretty close so it wasn’t really a problem. But since then, the problem was Park Chorong.

The girl was the typical It Girl of college. Every jock wanted to get into her pants, every nerd jacked off to a picture of her. Every girl had a crush on her. Park Chorong was everything. Of course, she was Eunji’s everything as well. Bomi was too late when she got back. Chorong already had Eunji between her fingers, wrapped under a spell, a toy to play with until she got tired and played with other people. Until now, it was still the situation. Bomi tried every possible intervention just to help her cousin but nothing worked. At the end of the day, Eunji would still go back to Chorong like the lovesick puppy that she was.

~

The next day, Eunji couldn’t go to work because she was burning up. Bomi had left her with enough food and medicines by her bedside table. Every time she tried to stand, she would feel dizzy, as if the world was spinning and she would fall back to bed. Giving up, Eunji slept again.

When she woke up, a cold towel was on her forehead, “You need to eat so you can eat and take medicines.”

Eunji weakly looked at the woman who spoke to her, wishing it was Chorong. But it was a far fetched wish because she saw Naeun smiling at her with sad eyes, “Hey.”

“Hey,” the girl took the bowl of rice with veggies mixed on it. “Can you sit? I’ll feed you.”

She sat up and mumbled an apology, She accepted Naeun’s help and ate until she felt like she couldn’t eat anymore. Afterwards, she took her medicine and rested on her bed again. Naeun remained mum and respected the silence Eunji silently wished for. But she was starting to be deafened by the silence so she broke it herself, “How did you get inside?”

Naeun looked at her, “Bomi told me that the extra key was hidden under the sixth pot from the right.”

“Right,” she should have expected that Bomi would be the one to call Naeun over to take care of her. She appreciated the effort to set her up with the girl but Eunji remained faithful to Chorong, “Naeun, about what happened…”

“I’m not stupid, Eunji. I know you’re perfectly hung up with whoever that lucky girl is but I’m not asking you to marry me, am I?” when Eunji shook her head, Naeun continued. “I just wanted to help you out today. I’m not heartless to leave a weak human to die alone in an empty apartment.”

“It’ll take more than a puny rain for me to die,” Eunji played along with the joke. A few weeks ago, she got so drunk and found herself on the girl’s bed. It was supposed to be a one time thing but the second came and then soon