Living in a vibrant port city for few years, laid out across ferry-filled harbors and rolling hillsides on the southwestern tip of the peninsula – Jimin would definitely miss living in Mokpo – minus the toxic and unhealthy relationship with her known remaining family; the calming sea surrounding the city, the fresh seafood and local delicacies, the pub, and more importantly, her friends; and yet here she was right now standing at the bus station in ungodly hours bidding her farewell to her friends.

“Unnie, I will miss you,” Ningning said in teary-eyed, while cupping her best friend’s face with her hands for the last time, taking a better last look, before the raven girl would go. “You better call or text us once you arrived in the art gallery in Seoul, okay?” she reminded for the nth time.

Jimin chuckled. “Yes. I will. I can’t count how many times you said that. Don’t worry about it.”

“How about Yeji? Are you going to be fine accompanying her? I mean, look at her. She looks more wasted than me,” Seulgi whispered as she pointed at the cat-eyed lady napping in a weird sleeping position on the bus station bench, who seemed to be partially knocked out from drinking too much alcohol.

Following what she was referring to, Jimin shrugged as she chuckled from the sight. “Yeah. It’s part of the deal so I better take good care of her on our way until we reach Seoul.”

Jimin and Yeji made an agreement after the cat-eyed lady shared the poem on the stage and before she got totally wasted at the pub. The said agreement was Jimin would make sure that Yeji would arrive safe and early at Seoul because the cat-eyed lady didn’t want to miss out the surprise fan gathering of Winter; in exchange for, Yeji would make sure that she could let Jimin sneaked in the said fan gathering without anyone noticing due to high security and exclusivity for loyal fans only.

“Here. Take this,” Irene reached for Jimin’s hand and put a small stack of cash on her palm.

“Oh. No… no unnie. I am going to be fine. You don’t need to,” Jimin rejected nicely but the oldest girl didn’t want to take no as an answer as she closed the raven girl’s hand into a fist with her hands, implying that she should take it.

“Please? It’s the least that we can do for you on your journey aside from the birthday and farewell party, and dropping you off here in the bus station,” Irene smiled, knowing that the raven girl didn’t save enough money and she only brought few clothes, the book, and some essential items in her backpack. “You need it. We insist that you should take it.”

“But unnie I–“

“Please?” Irene requested. “How about this, once you settled somewhere, how about you will treat us for lunch or dinner when we visited you there so you won’t feel bad?”

Jimin thought about it for a while because she didn’t want to make them feel that she was just using them for her friends did a lot of good things for her ever since; but seeing her friends being supportive of her no matter how rush her decision was enough for her, and she’s more than grateful. “Okay, I will invite you all once I found Winter and settle to a place somewhere,” Jimin smiled in defeat.

“Alright. See you soon, Jimin,” Irene hugged her as she took a step back to give way for Seulgi.

“Take care, Jimin. Remember to always stay alive because we will make you the godmother of my children in the future,” Seulgi joked, causing Irene nudged her with her elbow, as she gave Jimin a final hug.

Ningning came forward last after Seulgi, as she pulled her best friend for a bear hug. “You know what, I won’t deny that I still hate you for leaving us but as long as this will make you happy, I will support you no matter what. Stay safe and connected with us, unnie,” Ningning sniffled, as tears started to fall on her face.

Jimin patted the top of her head, smiling. “I will,” she freed a quick sigh as she looked at her friends’ faces one by one for the last time. “We shall go now. The bus is about to leave in five minutes. See you soon guys!”

“Make sure not to scare people out there in Seoul, especially if you see Winter! I know you hate all the cutesy rainbows and butterflies stuff. But please, try to smile sometimes! You look more prettier when you smile! Don’t be too intimidating!” Seulgi shouted in which the raven girl laughed from a distance, nodding in return.

The trio waved good bye where Irene was holding her tears back, while Seulgi was giving Ningning a side hug because the youngest couldn’t stop crying, as they watched the raven girl carefully assisting drunk Yeji to walk beside her as they went inside the bus. After they got seated, Yeji was seated by the bus window, immediately falling asleep while Jimin was sitting beside her, wide awake in her thoughts, mixed of nervousness and excitement. She didn’t know what would happen in Seoul but all she knew that her new life was starting to begin now.

“Where are we? Are we there yet?” Yeji muttered in her sleep with her eyes still shut as she searched for comfortable sleeping position in the small leg space inside the bus.

Jimin freed a sigh of uncertainty. “Nope. We just got seated and the bus is about to leave. You still have five hours or more to sleep until we arrived in Seoul.”

Yeji frowned as she asked weakly before completely dozing off. “How about you? Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“I can’t sleep,” Minjeong replied as she watched the plane’s wing gliding through the marvelous night sky as it passed through the thick clouds in the atmosphere by the plane window – even though she could only see vast portion of water flowing below them at the moment; she was hoping to see the city lights of Seoul in matter of hours which meant that she was finally home.

“Oh. Do you want me to ask the flight attendant for a sleep mask for you? Or maybe a bottled water?” Jennie asked again, still taking a peek at her cousin beside her by lifting up only one side of her sleep mask on her face; she woke up a while ago and she caught her cousin still awake.

“No, thank you unnie. I already have mine. I just can’t sleep,” the blonde smiled at her as she veered her sight back at her view by the plane window. “I don’t know why. I can’t explain what I feel. I’m– I,” she tried to do some hand gestures to explain what she really felt but even her actions failed her. “It’s… it’s like… I… I’m happy and yet I’m sad. I’m excited but also, I am worried. I don’t know. My emotions are all over the place right now. It’s weird, I know, since I’m just going home but ever since I posted the poem in my website, I started to feel… things.”

Jennie nodded in silence, trying to understand her cousin, as she reached for her hand and gave it a gentle pat. She reassured. “Whatever you are feeling right now, it is all valid. Allow yourself to feel things. It’s okay to feel things. We will never know what will happen once we arrived home but I think you already know that I am always here for you.”

“I know. Thank you Jennie unnie,” Minjeong smiled softly.

Jennie smiled back as she told her cousin. “Anyway, I hired a pick-up truck driver to pick up some of your personal stuff, most especially your manuscripts and books from your mansion in Gangnam. I told him to have a stop-over first at the basement parking at the location of your surprise fan gathering event so I can check the stuff first before he drops it off for your stay in Sokcho. Is there anything else would you like to bring with you there?” she asked.

“Nope. I think I’m good. All I need are my manuscripts and books. Thank you so much unnie for letting me stay in Sokcho and doing these stuffs for me. I know I can always rely on you,” Minjeong smiled gratefully.

“If we’re not relatives, I would probably demand higher fee for my service,” Jennie joked, causing the blonde to laugh quietly. “Anyway, we’re going to the art gallery first when we arrived in Incheon, right?”

Minjeong nodded. “Yup.”

“What time is the art gallery going to open again?”

“It will open around 8 am,” Jimin answered, sipping from a cheap hot coffee that they bought on the convenience store nearby.

They were sitting on the bench under the shade of a tree near the entrance of the art gallery because the doors were still locked and they still had an hour and half to wait for it to operate for the day; it was cool outside until the sun was perching high in the sky and became unbearable, and before the city was fully awake.

“We arrived too early. I wish I can get more sleep,” Yeji complained, pressing the cold can of her iced coffee on the temple of her head; she’s suffering from a bad hangover due to excessive partying last night.

“What do you mean you wish you can get more sleep? You already get enough sleep. We agreed last night when you’re still sober that we will go on our separate ways first and then we will meet again later for the fan gathering event after we reach the bus station in Seoul,” Jimin said bluntly. “But when we arrived, you’re still sleeping heavily and I can’t wake you up. I don’t want to leave you alone there in that condition so I dragged you here with me. And I’m not going to lie, you’re heavy to carry around,” she sipped from her coffee as she teased. “Just be thankful.”

“Oh. Shut up,” Yeji rolled her eyes playfully, laughing. “You’re really intimidating, aren’t you? No wonder many people in that bar wanted to hit on you but they were afraid because you’re so pretty yet mysterious at the same time, and your presence is just scary. Well, I just know it because I overhead some conversations from some customers last night. But I still won’t thank you because it’s part of the deal that you need to make sure I’m safe and… aww…. my head still hurts,” she pressed the can on her head, exerting a bit of pressure.

“You’re welcome,” Jimin smirked. “And that’s karma.”

Yeji shook her head in disbelief from a snarky remark. “No wonder one of your older friends told you to smile sometimes before we left Mokpo,” she bantered. “And yeah, I heard that too. When are you going to be nice to people?”

“Whatever,” Jimin scoffed. “I’m nice. I’m just selective because not everyone deserves my kindness, and obviously, you didn’t make it to my list,” she replied, subtly smiling as the cat-eyed lady freed a good chuckle. Jimin suddenly missed her friends back to her hometown which made her remember that she needed to leave them a message in a while that they arrived safely in Seoul.

“By the way, one of my friends lives here nearby – just twenty minutes away from here. I will just hail a cab to go there to visit her and rest for a while. Do you want to come?” Yeji asked.

“No, thank you,” Jimin politely declined. “I want to wait here.”

“Okay. Suit yourself,” “Yeji stood up, picking up her bag at the edge of the bench. “I’ll leave you now because I need to clear my head and create a plan on how I can sneak you in later without anyone noticing so they won’t ban me also for attending the future fan events,” she said as she wore her coat. “See you later, Jimin?”

Jimin smi