Hanni didn't like cigarette smoke, sometimes she even felt sick. But when, in the dazzling Seoul night, through a faint haze of smoke, she observed the perfectly outlined profile of her most precious man, she smelled cigarettes differently. He drugged her mind, filled her with desire. She was amused by the fact that Minji seemed to be addicted to cigarettes, but Hanni considered her dependence on the girl incomparable.

 

They have known each other for a long time: from the first grade of high school, right up to the moment when both graduated from universities and live their own, distant lives from each other. Even though they were as far apart from each other as the Moon is from the Earth, but they were attracted by something that they did not have time to say.

 

— How are you doing with the guy? Hanni nodded weakly towards the room while they both sat on the balcony and watched the sleeping city.

 

— I'm happy. In confirmation, Minji smiled the way she could only smile for Hanni. Before and only for her. Something in Hanni's chest scratched.

 

— I'm glad. — And she was really happy for Minji. In the best sense of the word.

 

They were silent for a while, continuing to look somewhere into the boundless emptiness of the black sky. Their faces were illuminated only by the previously intoxicated Moon. Hanni often imagines moments like this. When they don't talk and enjoy being just around. The fleeting bitterness was flooded with a warm feeling comparable to the blanket hugging her when her consciousness fell into the best sleep in the last month. She rarely sleeps well, but at the moment she felt as if she had been defeated by a dream about a perfect night, and she did not feel that she was sleeping at all.

 

— You know how important it is for me to talk to someone at the end of the day, right? — Minji looked at Hanni for the first time in several minutes, which took her breath away. "Is she talking about me now?"

— He and I talk about stuff every night. I really appreciate such moments in our relationship.

 

Disappointment again.

 

— You're in save hands.

 

Minji laughed loudly, lifting her head. Her silky slate-colored hair fell back, opening up a bigger view for Hanni's eyes. The distinctly dark skin in the moonlight seemed completely snow-white and porcelain. Hanni resisted the reflex to touch that skin. But before, touching was commonplace for them, even necessary.

 

— No, Minji, I'm serious. If you had told me that you were being mistreated, I would have been able to decide to kill. — But of course she wouldn't have killed anyone. Minji wouldn't forgive her.

 

— I appreciate your special care for me. — Minji put out her cigarette, but did not get up. Her eyes fell on Hanni. — You've always been something.

 

Hanni couldn't find the words, just sighed heavily. The deeds of the bygone days did not leave her heart after even so many years.

 

— My life would be a little more boring without you. — Minji turned back to face the city, the light of the metropolis lit up in her eyes. Or something else. Hanni saw right through Minji, it was clear to her that she wanted to say something else. Hanni often feels this — that Minji is silent. But the understatement is their treasure. Nothing will really change if they say the same words to each other. And why? They understood the reasons. If you are silent, you are doing the right thing. You talk too much — words into the void. But why did Hanni suffer so often from the fact that she wanted to say these unnecessary words to anyone. It was as if their rules were strangling her. Minji was one of those who didn't break the rules, but Hanni was different. She broke into Minji's life, broke the old rules and set new ones. But when will the moment come when these rules will become obsolete? However, Hanni was tired of thinking.

 

— You know I still love you, right?

 

Minji didn't say anything, just reached for another cigarette. She didn't think to run — it's good.

 

After the first puff, Minji leaned back against the brick wall and her head turned very slowly towards Hanni. A gentle look, which has not changed over the years, filled Hanni's heart with care and comfort. Hanni knew she was always at home with Minji.

 

— How much I liked you in the first grade. — A smile, a little lazy from how tired she was on Monday, still graced Minji's face. — Later, too. How strange that we didn't say that.

 

— It seemed to me that it should be so.

 

— You're right. Everything was always right.

 

Hanni expected something different when she imagined this moment. Surprisingly, her world did not turn upside down, the ground under her feet did not collapse, and her heart did not break, before pouring with sincere happiness. They continued to just sit there, furtively exchanging glances that can say more than the greatest words in the world. But goosebumps ran. Hanni shivered as if she had been hit by an icy winter wind.

 

— Do you want to go inside? — Minji noticed.

 

— It's great here too. — "If I'm with you" — flashed through her thoughts and remained somewhere on her tongue.