Two months after camp and Lia knows this is a bad idea.

Even as she leans in and reaches to softly cup Ryujin's face, she knows she shouldn't be doing this. 

Ryujin's silent breathing and Lia's lips two centimeters away from the other girl tells her that there's no going back now. Ryujin's nose bumps into hers and Lia's chest pounded so hard she can hear blood drawing on her ears, because holy ing she is so close to Ryujin now.

Lia thinks it and dives into Ryujin's mouth, the brief touching of their lips felt like lightning hitting a metal bar. No,— it felt like when she was a kid and she accidentally touched an open wire with her bare hands. It's electrocuting, every little fiber in her being tingling with the vibrating sensation. Lia feels it before she hears it. She doesn't like girls.

"I don't like girls." Ryujin states. 

It stings.

Because she looks back to all the days Ryujin would come to her place after practice instead of walking home with Karina. Lia thinks back on the weekends the girl would ask if she can come over and watch Flipped with her, and even though she had watched it more than a dozen times now, she still laughs at how Bryce would throw Juli's eggs.

Lia thinks about how Ryujin would sometimes grab her hand to play with it while watching a random TV show, or how Ryujin would lean to her back and rest her head on Lia's shoulder. Or how she'd touch her knees when she keeps on rocking them every time she's anxious about something. 

Lia tried to count how many times Ryujin told her she adores her eyes. She lost track on the 48th.

Lia thinks back on the nights she stays way past her bedtime talking to the other girl on the phone, talking about everything and nothing. How she would laugh whenever Ryujin would rant about Yuna. How she would cry when Ryujin would tell her about her parents and how they fell out of love and every single day felt like hell for them. How she told Lia she's never falling in love because her parents showed her that love is superficial. How their parents taught both of them that love will break you into tiny little pieces.

She also thinks about how Ryujin would text her first thing in the morning, and call her last thing before sleeping. How the girl would sing songs to her and how one night she told her that did you know they write songs about girls like you?

Lia thinks about that one Saturday night Ryujin slept over because it was too late for her to go home anyway.

(She cuddled her during their sleep and pretended it didn't happen the next day)

"What the ? After everything, you'd tell me you don't like girls?"

— is what Lia wanted to say, but it's Ryujin, and Lia is always tongue-tied with Ryujin, so she settled with a hoarse "Oh, I'm sorry."

"I should probably go home now." Ryujin says instead, looking at Lia's door. 

"Yeah, I'm sorry again, Ryujinie."

"I'm sorry too."

-

So Lia sits at this ramen shop, exhaling loudly as soon as Karina comes in, ranting right away the moment her bottom touched the chair. 

"And she would smile at me at school, she would take my water bottles during her practice, she would sometimes join me for lunch."

Karina looks at the menu and orders a Tonkotsu Ramen.

"Then she'd call me as soon as there's something new about her, whenever she'd ace a Math quiz, or when she's chosen as an officer for this book club. Rina, she would dial my number as soon as she drops her bag once she got home!"

Karina asks for an extra glass of water.

"And she would come over during weekends and we'd watch movies and she would even tolerate watching all my Barbie movie collection. She'd sit too close to me on the couch and would wear my clothes when she's in my place and—"

"—and you're telling me all this because?"

"Because!" Lia sighs exasperatedly.

"She told you she didn't like girls." Karina shrugs.

"Then why the hell is she doing all those with me? Rina this is so damn confusing!"

Karina looks at her straight in the eyes. 

"You have to be patient with her. She's not sure what she likes. She's not sure what she knows. Maybe, talk to her and—"

"I kissed her, Rina. I kissed her and she didn't pull back right away, then she told me she didn't like girls."

Karina stopped, her own thoughts going straight to a certain blonde-haired girl's lips.

"Do you?" Karina asked instead, shaking the visual of the plump lips intoxicating her head.

"Well damn right I do, I was so ing obvious about it."

"Is she avoiding you?" Karina asked, thanking the waiter for the food.

"I don't know. I've been avoiding her."

"Continue that." Karina said, slurping on her ramen.

"Huh?" Lia asks confused.

Karina holds up her hand in the air as she asks Lia for few seconds for her to chew on her food.

"Continue avoiding her." Karina says. "When I told her I might have feelings for her, she didn't avoid me and we literally continued as to how we were. I was matured about it, that's why."

"And why would I do the opposite of what you did?"

Karina holds up her hand again, grabbing a mouthful of noodles. Lia rolled her eyes.

"Because it'll give her time to think of why she needs to stop pretending she doesn't like girls."

"Wait, back up, back up, YOU HAD FEELINGS FOR HER??"

-

Karina caught feelings for Winter.

Yes, she accepted that.

Is she going to confess to Winter? No.

Is she going to do something about it? Maybe.

Karina tries to weigh the risks of doing so. Besides, Somi is still in the picture, and as far as she knows (and as far as what she can read from both girls' thoughts) they're having a good time getting to know each other genuinely. 

So is Karina going to risk her friendship with Winter just to get her point across? 

Absolutely not!

So Karina drops by at Taeyeon's boutique holding Winter's favorite almond snacks, a box of walnut cookies, a large Taro smoothie, a watermelon shake for Taeyeon, and her homemade lasagna. 

(Not that Karina has noted everything Winter liked, no.)

"Wow! These are all my favorites!" Winter exclaims.

"How about my favorites?" Taeyeon whined grabbing the watermelon shake, warm fish cake soup with sweet potatoes in her head.

"Oh! I'll learn to cook warm fish cake soup for you. I'll even throw sweet potatoes in there!" Karina said, compromising. 

"Now I'm con