Hyunjung goes home a little early today. She goes straight to the living room only to see her girlfriend crying on the sofa head down

"Why is my Princess crying?" Hyunjung spoke in a soft voice

"Hyunjung?" Jiyeon looks up to Hyunjung smiling softly at her

"What's the matter, Princess?" The older approaches while slowly opening her arms, she sits next to Jiyeon and embraces her carefully

Her embrace warm and soft that it's making the younger cry even more. Hyunjung lifts Jiyeon and made her sit on her lap sideways

They stay at that position for a while, Jiyeon sobbing on Hyunjung's shoulder, while the latter caresses her back softly and planting soft kisses on her head

When Jiyeon stops crying, Hyunung still continues to rub her back, helping her breathe properly

"Do you want to talk about it?" Hyunjung's voice soft and careful. Jiyeon looks up to her, eyes and nose red, lips parted for air, it breaks the older's heart

Hyunjung cups her cheeks and wipes the tears on Jiyeon's face. Despite crying the younger still managed to look adorable so Hyunjung leans in to kiss Jiyeon's forehead, then her nose and her lips. The older's actions brings a broken but genuine smile on the younger's face, Hyunjung reciprocates it with a gentle smile

A smile that says 'you can take your time' 'i'm here for you' it warms Jiyeon's heart

The younger still doesn't say anything, instead she opens her phone and shows her girlfriend what made her cry

It's a picture of Jiyeon's so called 'family' on a fancy restaurant, celebrating her younger sister's college graduation, smiles on their faces are irritating that Hyunjung wants to punch them all away

Jiyeon wasn't sad over the family gathering without her, in fact she's used to it, she's numb to the feeling already. The case was Jiyeon graduated with the same course but all they gave her was nasty stares and 'this is why you'll never be successful' line

Hyunjung smiles sadly and removed Jiyeon's phone on her hand, preventing the girl to see it again.

"Princess Jiyeon, I'm no Prince Charming with a horse but I'm Kim Hyunjung with a car. Do you want to go on a ride?" She doesn't want to say anything about the topic, Jiyeon isn't ready to talk about it yet, so she distracts the girl instead, it works when Jiyeon chuckles and nods

The whole ride was quite. Hands intertwined while Jiyeon stares outside and Hyunjung drives

It was never this quiet when they're together, only quite when one of them is asleep or one of them are reading a book or they're watching a movie

Hyunjung's not used to this. She's used to Jiyeon talking about everything and nothing non-stop with a smile on her face that she loved staring at

She's used to telling Jiyeon about her day so she can add some silly jokes then hear her favorite sound in the world, Jiyeon's laugh

And when they don't have any topic anymore, she would sing and it would earn her a beautiful grin from Jiyeon, grin that makes her eyes crescent and gum shows, Hyunjung's heart flutters every time she sees it

It was never a dull moment with Jiyeon

Hyunjung wishes Jiyeon was smiling happily instead of a broken smile that holds a lot of meaning in it

 

When they stop infront of a convenient store, Jiyeon looks at her but Hyunjung just smiles

"I'll just go get something, wait here, okay?" Jiyeon nods and Hyunjung's smiles fade, she expected Jiyeon to ask something

Hyunjung brings Jiyeon to the park where they first met, the place that started everything.

// (Flashback)

Going to the park at midnight has always been something Hyunjung does. It helps her escape reality for a while, it helps her breathe

She walks through the park, like she have always done when she goes here. But this time she saw a woman sitting at one of the bench, Hyunjung thinks the said person was sleeping because of the weird position

The girl has her arms folded on her knees and her head laying on it

Hyunjung was wrong when the girl sit up straight. She wasn't sleeping, she was crying

It panics Hyunjung, so she approaches the girl

The girl didn't see her approaching so she flinches when Hyunjung hands her a handkerchief

"I want ice cream" is what the girl first said to Hyunjung.

"Huh?" It confuses Hyunjung, because among all the conversations she thought they would have, she didn't expect it to be like this

"Ice cream" The girl tells her once more with a pout on her face that has Hyunjung's knees weaken

"I-Okay? Wait here then" Hyunjung hands her the handkerchief and immediately goes to the nearest convenient store

Hyunjung doesn't know why she's buying all the ice cream flavor this store has. She doesn't know why she takes the mint chocolate flavor. She doesn't know why she bought a bottled water. She doesn't know why she's spending the rest of her salary. She doesn't know why she's doing all these things for the stranger.

It hit her when she's walking back to the park holding a bag of full ice cream on her hand. She thinks of what she would do with all the ice cream she bought, she thinks of giving it all to the stranger, she thinks of giving the mint choco flavor to Juyeon-if she doesn't 'accidentally' throw it away-when the stranger doesn't like it, she thinks of the stranger and how those broken but pretty eyes looked at her

A smile made a way to her face when she sees the girl waiting for her at the bench, eyes red, lips parted for air and sniffing from time to time. She had stop crying, thankfully

"Drink water first" She opens the bottle and hands it to the girl

The girl drinks it and points at the plastic bag

"I don't know what flavor you like so I bought everything" Hyunjung hands the bag and the girl chuckles

"Do you eat mint cho?" The pretty stranger asked. "Let's just share it" She added when Hyunjung didn't answer

"I-It's fine I can just eat the other flavors" Hyunjung sat next to her, keeping distance, she didn't want to make the girl uncomfortable

"How about we just share it all?" The girl suggested

"Can we finish all of that?"

"We don't have to finish it all, we can eat it next time"

"Next time huh?" Hyunjung raises her eyebrows before continuing, "Sure, why not?" her words brings a smile on the girl's face

The eat the ice cream in peace, Hyunjung finds out that the girl's name is Jiyeon-Kim Jiyeon, she also finds out that Jiyeon is a year younger than her

Jiyeon feeds her mint choco, Hyunjung tried to deny but when the girl pouted she immediately complies

Hyunjung didn't think her night would turn into this. meeting a stranger, to buying the stranger ice cream, to feeding each other ice cream. It was weird but she enjoyed it

Mid-conversation, Jiyeon tells her why she was crying while feeding herself and Hyunjung the mint choco on her lap. She tells her that her family is an , she tells her that she's tired of being constantly judged and she tells her that she wants to break free

//

"You have me" Hyunjung suddenly blurted while they're on their way to the bench where they first met. Jiyeon stops, so Hyunjung stops too. They face each other, Hyunjung smiles at Jiyeon, she sees the same eyes she saw when they first met, a beautiful but broken eyes

"I'm always here" Hyunjung says again, Jiyeon smiles and wraps her arms around the older's neck while Hyunjung circles her arms on her waist

"I know" Jiyeon mumbles on her neck and pulls her impossibly closer

 

"You bought mint choco? I thought you hated this"

"I do but I wanted to share it with you"

"You know you don't need to, I've fed you so many back then" Hyunjung just chuckles, remembering the time where she and Jiyeon would go on a date and the younger would always feed her the flavor, thinking it was her favorite too

"I still don't understand why you didn't tell me right away" Jiyeon added. Hyunjung shrugs, smile still on her face. She, herself, doesn't even know why she didn't tell Jiyeon that she despises mint choco, maybe it's because every time they ate it, the younger would always have the brightest smile that Hyunjung forgets she hated the flavor in the first place

Jiyeon finds out about the truth when Juyeon accidentally told her about it. Jiyeon didn't talk to Hyunjung the whole day, only reconciling when the Jiyeon comes to the older's apartment with ice cream (no mint choco). And let's just say Juyeon and Sojung didn't let Hyunjung live, she's still teased about being whipped for Jiyeon today

Nothing changed anyways, she's still Kim Hyunjung who's whipped for Kim Jiyeon, she's still the person who's willing to eat mint choco for her girlfriend, she's still the one who's ready to drop anything for Jiyeon. She had always been Hyunjung who gave the pretty stranger handkerchief and ice creams when they first met, except this time Jiyeon is now her girlfriend for 5 years

"I shouldn't be crying over them" Jiyeon speaks, breaking Hyunjung out of her trance

"It's been years, I shouldn't care about them anymore but why does it hurt so much?" Hyunjung opens her arm and let's Jiyeon lean on her shoulder

"They were a part of your life. Of course, it would hurt. Your feelings are valid, Jiyeon-ah" Hyunjung sees her girlfriend shoving a spoonful of ice cream on , it brings a soft smile on her face

Were. Jiyeon thinks of what her girlfriend had said. Hyunjung's right, they used to be a part of her life. They're not here now, and they won't be there for the future too

She never regretted breaking free from them. It's just weird to think about how she lost the only family she had, and how they're not going to comeback again

"I love you" Jiyeon says. She doesn't have her 'family', but she has Hyunjung

The tall stranger who handed her a handkerchief with a soft look on her eyes, the pretty stranger who bought her all the ice cream flavor that the convenient store has without hesitation, her cute date who hates mint chocolate ice cream but ate it with her, her girlfriend who holds her tight every night to show that she's never going to leave, she has Kim Hyunjung who gave her nothing but love, happiness and freedom in life

Jiyeon will always have Kim Hyunjung

And Hyunjung will always have Kim Jiyeon

Hyunjung uses her free hand to hold Jiyeon's face, caressing it gently before leaning in to take the younger's lips with her

Jiyeon's lips taste like mint chocolate but Hyunjung didn't mind, instead she deepens the kiss

"I love you" The older Kim whispers when they separate

"Forever" Jiyeon replies, she leans in to kiss Hyunjung again

Just like how the moon shines on them, Hyunjung and Jiyeon hopes for a bright future together