Ryujin, like the rest of the people, didn’t distinguish the moment when she passed from sleep to wakefulness. She took a deep breath, and the air brought a gift to her brain: orange scent. She slowly opened her eyes. Yuna had not varied her sleeping posture and neither had Ryujin. The maknae was curled up against Ryujin's chest, breathing slowly.

Ryujin had one arm draped over Yuna's body in a sort of embrace. Ryujin was leaning on the other arm, and she thought it was tremendously lucky she didn't have it asleep.

She settled on her back, taking care not to wake Yuna. She looked up at the ceiling, white. The room was illuminated by the muffled rays of sunlight coming through the only window in the room. Ryujin rubbed her eyes and sat up in bed.

She didn't want to get out of bed yet, so she detailed Yuna's room. The bed was spacious: enough for two people to sleep comfortably in it. The walls were marble white, like the ceiling. The bed was placed in the center and against the wall, leaving spaces on both sides. There were several shelves, inhabited by different things: one was filled with gifts that, Ryujin deduced, had to be from MIDZY; another was filled with pictures, though the darkness didn't allow Ryujin to make out much; on the last shelf were stuffed animals, though Ryujin only made out Cabbit, the Yuna character from WDZY. 

A grunt brought Ryujin out of her inspection. She looked at Yuna, who rolled onto her back. The girl opened one eye while rubbing the other. Spotting Ryujin, she smiled lazily.

“Good morning, Ryujinie,” she said in a husky voice.

Ryujin curved her lips upward. She reached out and Yuna's cheek, saying nothing. Then she squeezed her nose, causing the girl to giggle.

“Good morning, Yuna.”

She leaned toward Yuna and left a chaste kiss on her lips. She was about to sit up when Yuna's hand on the back of her neck forced her down again. This time the kiss lasted longer than it should have, but neither seemed to mind. Yuna let her go, and both pairs of lips elicited a faint wet smacking sound as they parted. Ryujin, however, did not pull away entirely. She let her face hover close to Yuna's, looking into her eyes.

“Did you sleep well?” asked Ryujin.

“Mhm,” Yuna said, looking into her eyes. “How about you?”

“Like a baby,” answered Ryujin. “I attribute it to your presence.”

“Wanting to make me blush so early in the morning, Shin Ryujin?” Yuna said, amused.

“Maybe so, Shin Yuna,” she turned away. “I'm hungry.”

“Then we'd better go out.”

Ryujin knew that, which didn't take away from the fact that she wanted to stay there for a few more hours.

---

Back at JYP, Ryujin headed to her room. Yeji wasn't there. She was with Jisu, Ryujin remembered. She then went to Jisu and Yuna's bedroom. Ryujin was surprised to receive no answer when she knocked on the door. Wondering where they were, she went back to her room.

On the way she met the two girls.

“Jisu, Yeji,” she said as she approached them. “Where were you?”

“Didn't you see the group messages?” Jisu asked.

“Not really,” Ryujin replied. She hadn't touched the phone so far that day.

Yeji rolled her eyes.

“Lost in space,” she said. “Anyway, we went to the cafeteria. By the way, Jisu offered me to stay at her home this Christmas.”

Ryujin ignored the spike.

“Seriously?” Ryujin asked, turning to Jisu.

Jisu nodded.

“My parents told me there was no problem. You can go home without worrying about leaving her here alone.”

“Great,” Ryujin said with a smile. “Here or there, she's still going to miss her roommate.”

Yeji stuck her tongue out at her and Jisu smiled sideways at the little scene.

Ryujin waved goodbye to the couple. She resumed walking to get her things and head for her home in the Gangnam district.

---

Ryujin had missed lying on the couch and watching a series or movie. Being absorbed by the plot and characters, having them become the only thing on her mind while she petted her cats, was priceless to her. It allowed her to forget about the stress she experienced during the busiest times of the year.

As the credits rolled on the movie she had just watched, Ryujin her phone. She glanced out the windows. The air had an orange tint to it, warning Ryujin that it would soon become dark.

She checked ITZY's group chat. There were several messages.

Yeji: “Jisu and I are having a good time hihi”

Jisu: “Yup, it's nice to have you with me”

Chaeryeong: “Oh, how cute”

Yuna: “It's true ㅎㅎ”

Ryujin: “I wish I was in your place, Yeji. I miss Jisu-unnie”

Yeji: “I don't think that would be funny to Yuna huhu”

Ryujin: “It's a joke. Yuna knows that my heart belongs only to her”

Yuna: “Aaaah, you can't get so cute all of a sudden, Ryujinie”

Chaeryeong: “They make me remember how lonely I am”

Ryujin and Yuna replied Chaeryeong's message with a "ㅋㅋ". Ryujin got a message to another chat.

Yuna: “Hiiiiiiii, Ryujinieeee”

Ryujin: “Yunaaa”

Yuna: “Hehe”

Yuna: “I miss you :(“

Ryujin: “It's barely been a week since we saw each other at your place ㅋㅋ”

Yuna: “Buuuuuut anyway”

Ryujin opened the camera app. She checked her face for anything weird, adjusted her hair with her hands and winked at the camera, smiling.

She sent the image to Yuna with the caption “So you won't feel alone.”

Yuna sent her several heart-themed stickers.

Yuna: “OOOOH NO MAKEUP BUT JUST AS BEAUTIFUL AS ALWAYS”

Ryujin: “You think so? I know someone who looks better”

Yuna: “Me?”

Ryujin: “Ding ding ding ding”

Next, Yuna sent her a picture. She was wearing glasses without glass, and her hair was falling down the sides of her face, leaving it uncovered.

Ryujin: “Jesus, what I said before”

Ryujin: “Beautiful, beautiful”

Yuna: “>.<”

Ryujin thought that, if Yeji saw her conversations with Yuna, she'd write them off as cloying beyond belief. She would be right.

Ryujin: “Now I miss you too, would you like to go out?”

Yuna: “Really? Because then yes”

Ryujin: “Cool. On the 20th? After that day the preparations for Christmas begin.”

Yuna: “Yeah, I can on that day”

Ryujin: “It's a deal, baby”

Ryujin looked for some other movie to watch. Their date would be in three days.

---

It was fortunate that JYP had allowed Ryujin to stay with a car during the December vacations. She had introduced the proposal through Yeji, who also wanted one. They both talked and convinced the people upstairs to lend them a couple of vehicles, arguing that, with their newly acquired driver's licenses, they would be quite useful.

“It's not like they're going to need them,” Ryujin said to Yeji.

Ryujin sent a message to Yuna telling her to wear sneakers. They would be doing a lot of walking that day.

During the drive, Ryujin was distracted by the music coming out of the car's speakers, connected to her phone via Bluetooth (bless technology!).

The taller Shin got out when Ryujin stopped the car in front of her house.

“Sneakers?” was Yuna's greeting as she got into the car. “I gather we'll be walking a lot.”

“I know you like walking,” Ryujin said.

“You know me well.”

Yuna leaned toward her. Ryujin looked at the door of her house. There was no one there, and no one around either.

“The windows are tinted, aren't they?”  Yuna said. “No one can see from the outside in.”

“I know,” Ryujin answered.

“Paranoid,” whispered a voice in her head, but Ryujin dismissed it. She was just being cautious.

She leaned towards Yuna, kissing her.

“Yuna,” Ryujin said as she pulled away.

“Where will we go, Ryujinie?”

“You'll see.”

---

“I've never been here before,” Yuna said when they reached their destination.

“The Seoul Arts Center is very interesting,” Ryujin said as she put on gloves and a face mask. “There are various art exhibits, archive rooms, music rooms, gardens... Something for everyone.”

Yuna let out an “oooh”.

“I guess that's why it's gigantic,” she said.

Ryujin and Yuna began their tour of the Center. They entered one of the facilities. It resembled departmental malls, full of stores whose storefronts displayed different things. Ryujin glanced at her companion out of the corner of her eye. Yuna's eyes moved everywhere, scanning the shop windows. Ryujin relaxed a little. If she had noticed her bored, Ryujin would have felt like crawling into a hole.

Yuna stopped in front of a bookstore. Ryujin stood beside her, peering through the glass.

“I only recognize Metamorphosis,” Ryujin said, pointing to the book that made Kafka famous.

“I read that one a couple of years ago in school,” Yuna said. “I thought I wouldn't like it, since it's not the genre I usually read, but I ended up reading it all in one sitting.”

“I read it for school too,” Ryujin said, and waved her into the store. It smelled of incense inside. “I felt quite sorry for the main character. He died alone and disowned by everyone.”

“I can't imagine the despair he felt in his last moments,” Yuna shuddered. “Agh, I'd rather stick to my romance novels.”

“I've read a couple of those too,” Ryujin said, scanning the shelves with her eyes. “My favorite is Pride and Prejudice.”

“A classic!” Yuna said excitedly.

“I read the book only once, but the scene where Darcy, was it? He suddenly proposes to Elizabet, I remember it clearly.”

“I don't know who was more surprised,” Yuna, “Elizabeth or me.”

Ryujin laughed.

“I think the same thing every time I remember the book.”

The couple spent some time looking through the different shelves. If either recognized a book, they told the other.

They left the bookstore and the facility. Behind the Arts Center rose mountains, green even at that time of year.

The couple's next destination was the Opera House. Yuna let out an exclamation of awe and Ryujin whistled, impressed, at the size of the hall. Rows and rows of seats stretched out before them. Above those rows were even more, spread out over several balconies. The sense of enormity was heightened by the fact that there was almost no one, just a couple of people strolling between the rows.

Although Seoul was not in danger (1.5 was the city's coronavirus alert level) and people could stroll around peacefully - wearing face masks - most of those visiting the Arts Center were foreigners, and with travel suspended, the influx of people was low.

“Do you like opera?” Yuna asked.

“No,” Ryujin replied, “but this place is impressive. I'd come to a concert just to see what this place looks like when it's crowded.”

“It'll be a long time before that happens again.”

“Yeah... Too bad.”

They lingered a bit to walk the rows. On their way out, they strolled around the outskirts of the various facilities. The sun was rising proudly in the west, knowing that it would still illuminate Seoul for an hour and some minutes.

“Is it five o'clock already?” Ryujin said, looking at her watch. “Then we'd better go to the courtyards.”

---

“Ice skating?” Yuna said, looking at the white rink that stretched out before her.

“Yup,” Ryujin said as she picked up a pair of skates.

“I don't know how to skate,” Yuna said, worried.

“Neither can I!”

“Why do you sound so happy then?!”

---

“This is not my idea of a ‘break’.”

Yuna reluctantly let go of the low wall surrounding the track. Hunched over, the girl swung her arms in front of her, her eyes wide.

Ryujin chuckled.

“You look like a giraffe with troubles.”

“What are you going to talk about, if you won't even let go of the wall! You coward.”

Ryujin laughed again. However, her laughter died as she moved away from the safety of the wall.

“Well... It's not that hard,” she said.

She approached Yuna slowly. Luckily for Ryujin, the younger Shin hadn't moved too far away. Ryujin slid forward. She felt like she was going to fall, so she started to fidget quickly. It was Yuna's turn to laugh.

“Oh, you shouldn't have spoken too soon,” Yuna said, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

“At least I don't look like a drunk giraffe,” Ryujin countered.

Yuna frowned. She propelled herself towards Ryujin, stretching out her arms. Ryujin hurriedly skated away, an action she wasn't ready for yet. She skated pathetically a couple of meters before falling on her . She let out a uf, feeling the impact go up her body.

Yuna pinned in place.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a chuckle. “Oh, God, you fell in too funny a way. And the uf," she let out a laugh, dropping gently on the track.

Ryujin scowled at her, but Yuna's laughter eventually made a dent in her. Ryujin laughed along with her. Ryujin thought she could listen to her laughter ten hours straight without getting tired.

“Let's see if we can skate ten meters without falling on our faces,” she held out her hand to Yuna.

---

By six o'clock, Ryujin and Yuna were out of the rink.

“That was pretty fun,” Yuna said as she walked back to the parking lot. “I don't know much about Seoul, despite having lived in the dorm for a year or so.”

“It just means there are a lot of places I can show you.”

“I'll look forward to it.”

Once in the carriage, Ryujin pulled down her mouthpiece, taking a deep breath.

“We'll get some real rest at the next place we go,” she