"Man, to think I'd meet you after visiting my girlfriend."

She took another shot of soju, her laugh nearly bursting my ear drums. Just my luck honestly. I mean, I wasn't planning on drinking either. I just feel like it because this piece of work is with me. She turned to look at Sakura and Chaeyeon, her finger wagging between the two of them. 

"So what's the deal here?" 

I could tell she was getting high as well. This was the rea-son I didn't want to have Moonbyul here. She just doesn't have the uhhh delicacy. I took another sip of my drink, my fingers tapping on the table out of anxiety. Sakura's head tilted to the back, making her lean against the chair's backrest.

 
'Well... This here... was my girl... Friend."

Sakura gestured at Chaeyeon who was next to her, in a grand gesture. She was definitely intoxicated. She then pointed to her finger, her ring finger to be more specific, as though trying to make a pun on the "was my girlfriend" joke. Moonbyul simply nodded her head in understand-ing. She picked up the bottle of soju and poured shots for them. Each of them raised the plastic shot cups up in the air, a simple cheers before downing the soju I could only lift my cup of cola slightly, drinking it sadly. They hit it off quite easily. Next thing I knew, they were talking amongst themselves, sharing stories of their rela-tionship and personal lives while I was there on a damn lollipop and trying to finish my 3rd can of cola. I couldn't even try to sneak in a drink. I have to drive later and I'm not one to drink and drive. Looking at the bottle of soju though... I was this close. The girls were laughing and drinking what was their third bottle of soju. I was surprised, seeing as they were not as drunk as I thought they would be. They were still pretty rational. They weren't sober but they weren't dead drunk. Guess they have pretty strong alcohol tolerance. Moon-byul's obviously a drinker. She just seems like someone who'd drink all the time. But I was more surprised by Sakura. She only had blush in her cheeks but she was still pretty level headed. Her speech was mildly slurred, but she was still speaking sense. At least they weren't as loud as before. They had moved on from telling each other funny stories, and instead were opening up to each other.

"Ya know, my girlfriend is such a great singer. I wish she would just go and become a singer like I know she wants to but she keeps on saying she wants a proper job to sup-port us."

"Oh man I feel ya!"

The two girls high fived at discovery yet another similarity between both their relationships. Sakura gestured at Chaeyeon using her head, about to reveal her own com-plaint about her partner.

"This girl right here. She could have been a professional dancer. Hell she could have been an idol. But nooooo, she wanted to work a normal job. Even when I went back to japan to be a dancer myself, she still won't do what she wanted to. She was so goddamn stubborn. It took so long before she even went for her first audition. Too bad I wasn't around for that." 

She rested her chin on her hand, locking eyes with chae-yeon. She had a smile on her face, the blush on her cheeks not the result of the alcohol this time.

 
"So you did manage to convince her?"

"I did. We had a huge fight over it at first but... Eventually she came around." 

Moonbyul leaned back, her arms crossed. She wasn't smil-ing like she used to though. She was trying to keep a poker face for some reason. 

"So what happened?"

When Moonbyul asked that question, I could hear a hint of... something... in her voice. I couldn't recognise what it was, but it just didn't sit right with me. 

'Well, she got in! First try. I always knew she was talented." 

Sakura damn near shouted it out loud. She was bragging about it, crowing about her partner's talent. She was smiling, her eyes almost disappearing behind all that glee. And yet it felt... Heavy. She slumped back into her seat, her eyes roaming Chaeyeon's face. Her hand slowly touched Chaeyeon's face, caressing her cheek. Her touch was soft and delicate, as though caressing air. 

"Too bad I couldn't watch it. Or any of her performances. It's a bummer really, being so far away from her."

The regret was heavy in her voice. Her fingers trailed down Chaeyeon's cheeks, all the way to her jawline. She traced the outline of her jaw, Sakura's fingers just slightly hovering over her skin. I looked over at Moonbyul, who seemed to have sobered up as she listened to Sakura. She had a look on her face, as if it dawned on her.

"Must have hurt huh." 

Sakura kept quiet, simply staring at the woman next to her. 

"It was... It took a while to get used to it. Being away from her was probably one of the toughest things I've had to go through in my life. The dance practices were nothing com-pared to the loneliness."

Sakura lowered her hand down, picking up her cup of soju again. She took another sip, letting the burning drink linger in . 

"Sometimes, you don't realise what you have till you lose them. And the pain doesn't hit you as hard at first. It comes as a shock. That's probably the most daunting. It'll subside, eventually. But then the pain, it stockpiles. It builds and over time, it just comes back and hits you harder. IT goes away, and it builds again. It's almost a cycle of endless loneliness and pain really. You want to meet them so badly, but you can't. There was just no possibility. So it hurts and it hurts, and when you do finally meet, it just..."

She looked up, leaning back all the way. Her eyes tried to look for stars, wandering around aimlessly. I turned to look at Moonbyul. She had her face buried in her knees, her arms slightly wet from her tears. She was hiding her face, but I could hear the stifled sobs. I guess she's feeling a little bit guilty.

"The sky's beautiful tonight huh. Full of stars."

I looked up, staring at a black blanket in the night.