The rain poured down on the moving car. The flickering of red and blue lights flashed behind the car, the sound of a man talking through a microphone could be heard amongst the loud sound of a police siren.

 

“Choi Yena! Pullover to the side of the road!”

 

“Stupid dad,” Yena muttered. However, she smiled right after. A grin was on her face after she had robbed a bank and was now being chased by the police.

 

Yena pulled over towards the sidewalk. She glanced under the steering wheel and quickly slid her famous, polished, chrome desert eagle pistol into her back pocket.

 

“Step outside of the vehicle!” A police officer other than her father had stepped out of the police car.

 

“Of course he makes someone else do his job,” Yena rolled her eyes. Then she chuckled. “Am I just that dangerous that he values his own life more than that prick?”

 

Yena opened the door of her car and set a foot onto the ground. She lifted her head and was met with the cold winter breeze. She raised her hands to the air, already knowing the procedure of “getting arrested”.

 

There was only one police car chasing her. A lot fewer police cars than the last time she successfully robbed a place.

 

As the police officer approached her, Yena swiftly pulled out the loaded desert eagle pistol and shot the man. Her father rushed out of the police cruiser. He drew out his pistol and aimed it at his daughter. Yena laughed maniacally.

 

“You… you wouldn’t shoot your only daughter, right?” Yena grinned, brushing her finger against the letters C.YN she engraved into her gun. She glanced at her father, noting that he looked scared out of his mind. His hands were shaking, making the gun point everywhere except Yena.

 

“Y-Yena, please. Please, just turn yourself in,” Her father pleaded. Tears were forming in his eyes. The little girl he had watched grow in front of his eyes had turned into a supposed monster to the world, killing and committing crimes as a job.

 

Yena looked at her father with a look of surprise. A smile grew on her face as she began chuckling, the chuckling slowly turning into a burst of loud laughter. Yena held her stomach, in pain from the amount of time she had been laughing. Her father looked terrified. His mouth was hanging open, the gun he was holding fell to the ground.

 

“You want me… to turn myself in?” Yena asked in between laughs. She had tears forming in her eyes from laughing. More tears streamed down Yena’s face as her laughter turned into cries. “For what?!”

 

She was blinded by the tears that were forming and rolling down her face. Yena was breaking down. All those years told not to cry had finally caught up to her.

 

“You want me to turn myself in— to suffer even more?!” Yena’s voice cracked, the memories of the pain she went through as a child coming back to her. “You put me through hell as a kid, and now you want me to suffer more.”

 

“What do you mean ‘hell’?” Yena’s father asked, his voice shaking in fear. Confusion consumed him. What did his precious daughter mean by ‘hell’? He only remembers the happy days where they went to the park and to amusement parks. The parts where he was genuinely happy.

 

“Those horrible, terrible days when we went out together! Those days when you forced me inside the car when you saw I was crying. You saw how much I wanted to stay home with Mom, but you forced me to go anyway!”

 

His heart shattered. He didn’t know it was happening. He only saw her happy face, the bright smile she showed him when they ate at a bench together, the wide smile Yena forced after they got off a ride together.

 

“Then there were the times at home! Disregarding my feelings when I put them out there!” Yena hissed. Her lip quivered, a sign that she was also scared. It was her first time calling out her father on the torture he put her through. “There were the times when you threatened to hit me! You threatened to hit me and I was left alone in my room shaking, out of control.”

 

The man fell to his knees, too weak to stand up on his own. He had never realized it had gotten that bad. He always praised himself as ‘the best father in the world’. Getting told otherwise hurt.

 

“You know,” Yena smiled again, tears still streaming down her face. “Mom found me one time, shaking after you told me you were going to hit me.”

 

Yena began walking towards her father, her gun still in her hand.

 

“She gave me the most comforting hug I have ever been given my entire life!” Yena yelled loudly, chuckling a little afterward. “She made me feel better after feeling the worst.”

 

“Yena, please… I had no idea this affected you so much,” Her father looked at her, tears in his eyes.

 

“You had no idea?!” Yena shouted in disbelief.

 

“Yena I just wanted you to be successful! I wanted you to live your best life!” Her father shouted, trying to explain that she saw it a different way than he did.

 

Yena grabbed her fathers’ shirt collar, lifting him up from the ground. She faced him, furious that he was shouting when, to her, he was clearly in the wrong.

 

“You don’t have the right to shout at me,” Yena snarled. “Not after what you made me go through. Thanks to you, I had to learn how to show appreciation all over again, to show love.”

 

Her father was sobbing now. He should not have taken that path of ‘parenting’. In the past, he blamed Yena for miscommunicating. He now knew it was his fault for not communicating.

 

“Jo Yuri.”

 

He looked at her, confused why a name he never heard of was said.

 

“She taught me how to love. To show appreciation,” Yena let go of her father. A warm smile was on her face.

 

Talking about her lover always brought a smile to her face.

 

•~•~•~•

 

“Hey, Yuri-ah.”

 

Yuri turned around, afraid of whoever had snuck up on her. Her instincts were right to be afraid.

 

“Aw, did you get new glasses?” One girl spat, acting all sweet to her.

 

“Y-yes, I did,” She answered, her voice shaky in fear.

 

“They look ugly. We can help get you new ones fast though!” Another girl grabbed the glasses off of her face and dropped them to the ground. A third girl stomped on the glasses as Yuri stood there, too in shock and scared to do anything.

 

The glasses were in pieces. The frames were broken apart and the lenses were in shards. How was she supposed to tell her mother this? How was her family supposed to get the money for new after they spent most of it on these glasses?

 

“Hey! Leave her alone!”

 

Yuri turned to face the voice that came from behind her. She was met with a girl with dark brown hair. She looked angry to see what was going on in front of her, to see someone else suffering.

 

The girls looked at her, confusion and disgust written on their faces.

 

“Who are you?”

 

The girl that stood up for her grumbled and walked directly in front of her bullies.

 

“I’m Choi Yena. A new student,” Yena spoke in a voice just above a whisper. She held onto the bully’s collar, pulling her in close. “And if I see you messing with another student, I won’t hesitate to do something worse than what I’m doing now.”

 

The bully and her friends stood in shock. No one had ever stood up to them before. Never had they expected it to be this terrifying.

 

The girl pushed herself away from Yena and towards her friends. Nudging them slightly, she urged them to walk away.

 

“Are you okay?” Yena asked Yuri, who was shocked yet grateful.

 

“Yes, I’m p-perfectly fine,” Yuri answered, looking away to grab the pieces that remained from her, now broken, glasses. 

 

“That’s great to hear, um…” Yena started to say but didn’t finish as she didn’t know her name.

 

“Yuri. My name is Yuri,” Yuri informed the girl.

 

“Well then Yuri,” Yena grinned. ¨I’m glad you’re okay.”

 

•~•

 

“Yena,” Yuri said out of nowhere. The two friends were sitting under the old weeping tree on their middle school campus. The school where they met.

 

“Hm?” Yena hummed in response, signaling to Yuri that she was listening.

 

“Remember middle school? When we met?” Yuri asked, staring at the swaying leaves above her.

 

“Of course I do. I met my best friend at that horrible place,” Yena smiled, turning to look at her friend of five years. “Why are you asking?”

 

“Because I remembered the moment when we met. When you saved me from the bullies,” Yuri smiled at Yena, her eyes looking at the girl lovingly. She loved Choi Yena. “Of course, the bullying never stopped. I mean, you saved me from those other bullies just a few days ago.”

 

Yena grumbled. She frowned at the thought of Yuri getting hurt. Yena remembered how frightened she had looked when the bullies approached her. “Ah, those s.” 

 

“That’s beside the point,” Yuri brushed off the topic. “You make me feel safe. You have protected me since the beginning and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

 

Yuri sat up, preparing for the worse. Seeing that she was worried, Yena sat up with her. The girl put a hand on Yuri’s back, rubbing it in an effort to comfort her.

 

“What’s wrong, Yuri?” Yena asked. Yuri took a deep breath, raising her head to look Yena in the eye.

 

“You have made me so happy during the past five years, Yena. You’ve made me laugh and comforted me in times that I needed it,” Yuri gathered the last bit of courage she needed to say the words she had been longing to say for a long time.

 

Yena looked back at Yuri in the eyes, sensing that the girl wasn’t done. Yena gave her a soft smile, reassuring Yuri that everything was going to be okay even if she didn’t know what was going on.

 

“Yena, I’m in love with you.”

 

Love. A word that can take many forms. A word that can be defined in many different ways. A word Yena never considered feeling towards Yuri, but that now changed.

 

Yena has always felt the need to protect the younger girl. To save her and be there for her for anything. To comfort her and make her laugh, those were to make her happy. When Yuri was happy, Yena was happy. Seeing Yuri happy was enough for Yena.

 

Those times where Yuri randomly called Yena at three in the morning, asking for the older girl to come over with snacks because she “missed her best friend”. Finding random things while she was out shopping that reminded her of the girl. Did those moments mean more to them than they would to regular friends?

 

The constant butterflies Yena felt in her stomach when Yuri was around, those weren’t common in platonic friends? Yena didn’t know. Yuri was the only friend she ever had in her entire life.

 

Yena didn’t know what love was, platonically or romantically. However, she was sure of what she felt.

 

Love. A word that Yena never considered feeling for Yuri. Now Yena knows that she did all those things for Yuri because she too, was in love.

 

A grin grew on Yena’s face. The older girl tackled the younger into a tight hug, burying her face in the crook of her neck.

 

“You know, Yuri-ah,” Yena started, her voice a little muffled from hugging the girl. “I never thought that the way I felt towards you was love.”

 

Yena pulled away, cupping Yuri’s face and looking into her eyes. The eyes that Yena has always thought were enchanting. It was as if a spell had been cast on her to only think everything about Yuri was bewitching

 

“I love you too, Yuri,” Yena beamed with a smile. “I promise to myself and especially you that I will do anything to protect you and keep you safe. No matter what.”

 

•~•

 

Yuri was washing a cup she had used earlier when she felt a warm pair of arms wrap around her waist from behind. Inhaling the scent of honey and strawberries, Yuri leaned into the warmth. Reaching out, she placed her hand on her girlfriend’s cheek.

 

“Hi, Yena,” She greeted the girl who still had her arms wrapped around her.

 

“Hi, Yul,” Yena replied with a kiss on the latter’s neck. Yuri giggled at that.

 

The feeling of being loved was surreal. Like being wanted in a world that was so cruel, cruel enough to bring Yena to Yuri’s life after she would have needed her the most, but she didn’t care about that anymore. Yuri had Yena now and that was all that mattered.

 

“I actually wanted to talk to you about something,” Yena murmured to her girlfriend. She gave her a smile to assure her that everything between them was okay because over the years of knowing Yuri, Yena had learned to understand what was going through Yuri’s head. Yena knew Yuri best but at the same time, Yuri also knew Yena best.

 

Understanding everything was okay, Yuri smiled back at Yena and went over to the couch in their apartment.

 

“So, remember when I told you that my childhood wasn’t exactly…” Yena paused to think of a word. “Ideal?”

 

“Mhm, I remember. It was around the time we first kissed,” Yuri smiled, remembering the endearing first kiss they shared as a couple.

 

The kiss was warm and soft, from what Yena remembered. A kiss so soft an uncontrollable warmth burst from their chests as they were under the same tree where they confessed their love for each other. The feeling was beautiful, becoming  addicting in the matter of seconds.

 

“Well, you told me about your childhood, and now I’m ready to tell