Miyawaki Sakura is not a hopeless romantic. She’s not even romantic at all. But, love has always found its way to her. She always found her way to Sakura.

Sakura is cold and passive, she always have been. 

Lee Chaeyeon was the opposite. She was warm, caring, and loving.

Chaeyeon never fails to find ways to surprise the Japanese girl. From grand gestures like the private firework show on their second anniversary— (yes, she did that and yes, she’s loaded)— to the most affectionate of all domestic deeds: cooking breakfast.

One could never be perfect and Sakura agrees because Chaeyeon is not perfect, definitely. She’s more than perfect. She’s the standard of love and beauty and selflessness and patience and everything good in this world. 

Sakura is not expressive, no. She lacks emotions and sometimes, just downright stoic. Chaeyeon is the right amount of expressive, and at times just way too cheery, but Sakura likes it that way, balanced.

So when Chaeyeon stopped jumping onto her lap whenever she found her idling on the couch, when she stopped waking earlier than necessary just to make her breakfast, stopped telling Sakura she loves her, Sakura notices. She notices, but does nothing to address it because Sakura is cold and passive, and she will always be. 

———

“Morning,” the voice was dry and lacked the usual cheer and Sakura, even without looking, knows that Chaeyeon also lacked her usual smile.

She bobs her head, not caring if Chaeyeon even acknowledged her greeting. She knew how observant the girl was, she would catch even the slightest movements.

Chaeyeon took a bowl and poured cereal in before the milk. Sakura does it the other way around.

Sakura waited for a bowl of cereal and milk to be placed gently on the marble counter and for the stool beside her to be occupied, but it took too long so she looked up and saw a broad back and a cascade of black hair.

“Do you have classes in the morning, Chaeyeon?” Sakura knew she didn’t, but she asks anyway because she sleeps with that same back faced to her for so long and she just wants to see Chaeyeon’s face before she took her leave for school.

Chaeyeon is respectful and polite, she faces the people she converses with. Or maybe she doesn’t.

“You didn’t care enough to check my schedule, why care now?”

Strange, Sakura thought. Chaeyeon never gets annoyed. Disappointed, maybe, but never annoyed. Not until now, Sakura guessed. 

Sakura contemplated whether or not she should tell the younger girl that she memorized her schedule for college as well as her schedule for her training in their company. But Sakura is passive, so she doesn’t.

“Is there something wrong?” She knew there is definitely something wrong, but again, she still asks.

“Nothing.”

Lee Chaeyeon loves her food more than anything. Well, maybe not more than Sakura. She never left with an unfinished plate. Sakura wonders if that also applies to bowls as she watched Chaeyeon’s long, dark locks sway when she walked away, leaving her cereal to sogg. 

———

Sakura came from an average family. She and her brother studied in a public school until she was in middle school because no average Japanese family would send their kids to private schools. She had a couple of friends and was popular amongst the male population of their school, but she was never interested in anybody. No one was interesting enough. 

When her father got a job offer as a supervisor in his company’s newest branch in Korea, he did not hesitate to grab the chance. Naturally, he dragged the whole family with him. 

During high school, she was enrolled to a private academy because one of the benefits of his father’s promotion was academic assistance from the company, considering that he was taking his whole family to a foreign land. There, she met the most studious yet outgoing junior she has ever encountered.

Lee Chaeyeon was the firstborn of Lee Chaejun, founder of a game developing company, Strike. Chaeyeon has always been enrolled to private academies and took private lessons on Maths, Science, languages, performing arts and music to broaden her skills set. She was popular among all genders as she was everyone’s dream girl. If not for her looks, her smarts, her charm, her athleticism and her many other talents, then for her money. But she was never interested in anyone. Not until the Japanese transferee.

It was odd, Sakura thinks, how they naturally gravitated towards each other. They were never meant to meet in the first place. They were from different sides of the building as Sakura was in high school while Chaeyeon was in middle school. But a chance encounter which included a volleyball, Chaeyeon’s fast reflex and multiple sorry’s that lead to a coffee