Yujin carried the bags, placing them on the kitchen counter and routinely guided Minju towards the bathroom.

After drying their feet on the rug, Yujin rummaged through both their bags, gathering the clothes that needed washing before heading to the laundry area.

"You're not leaving?"

"I will once this is done," Yujin said, closing the lid of the washing machine. She sets the mode and time as if she has been living here. "And that is forty-five minutes." She turned to Minju with an accomplished smile on her face.

The brunette chuckled and moved into the kitchen. "Hungry? You should eat something before your meeting."

"You're cooking?" Yujin stood next to her with her hands on her hips.

"You'll go hungry if the meeting goes on longer than intended." Minju peered onto the top shelf and spotted some packets of ramen. Attempting to reach them, she found Yujin had already grabbed them with her height advantage.

"Aren't you glad you have a tall girlfriend like me?" Yujin teased, holding the ramen above her head, out of Minju's reach.

The older girl lightly poked her stomach and retrieved it. "You're—" She paused. "Quite," she said, taking the pot that hung off the wall.

Yujin smiled, observing as Minju set the pot on the induction stove, and filled it with water. "Is there anything I could do to help?" She doesn't want to sit still while Minju does everything.

"Do you want eggs?"

"Can't live without them." Yujin opened the fridge, taking two off the door's shelf. "You're not eating?" She realised the girl only took one pack out.

"I'm not hungry."

Yujin grabbed an extra packet of noodles from the shelf. "This is for me," she said, knowing the brunette would, in any way, infiltrate and eat some of hers.

"You're that hungry?" Minju increased the heat and waited for the water to boil.

Yujin nodded. "I have two stomachs." Literally. "I'm a growing kid," she claimed.

Minju ruffled her bangs. "Didn't realise I had a kid with me." She coos, getting reminded about the boiling water.

The younger girl passed her the open packets of ramen, tearing any sauce packets in advance. And soon enough, they found themselves sitting at the coffee table with a pot in front of them.

Minju watched Yujin scoop some soup into her bowl, transferring noodles over. "I should go to the mart soon," she said, instant noodles not being the best meal option.

She couldn't help but smile, witnessing Yujin's eyes light up at the sight of food, soft gasps and compliments escaping the younger girl's lips. Nothing excited her more than food.

"You seriously don't want any?" Yujin tries tempting her, letting the aroma diffuse into the air. "Just one bite?" She prepared a spoonful, making sure to get the broth. She gently blows, cooling it down for her.

Minju couldn't reject the spoon that came her way, entering .

"Oh yeah." Yujin softly celebrates, an endearing sound to the older girl's ear. She eats deliciously, slurping the noodles and seeing Minju stand.

Her eyes follow the girl up to the loft as Minju comes back down, holding the wrapped box Yujin gifted her a while ago. The younger girl smiled with a mouth full, quickly swallowing her food.

"I thought you would've opened it," Yujin said, taking a piece of tissue to wipe her lips.

"You told me not to."

"You took that quite seriously," Yujin said.

Seated on the couch, Minju's excitement was palpable. "Can I open it now?"

Yujin lets a smile peek past her lips and nods. She watched as the girl carefully pried the individual tapes, avoiding tearing them abruptly when Yujin thought she would.

"Remember when I told you I thought of many ways to ask you?" Yujin probes, earning a brief glance from Minju who managed to see a box. "This was, initially, how I wanted to do it. But someone got drunk, messed it up and decided not to do it because it didn't feel sincere."

"You mean you?" Minju chuckles.

"Yup." Yujin flattened her lips, guilty as she lived through the memory. "But this is okay. I couldn't have done it better."

As Minju lifted the lid of the box, she found a photo frame with wooden edges inside. It didn't hold a photo but anyone could tell it was an image of a sun rising beyond the abundant sea.

However, it wasn't hand-drawn nor captured by a camera. The fact that it was all made out of tiny coloured paper cranes, meticulously folded and arranged to depict a sunrise, astounded her.

"Our first date," Yujin said, gesturing at the sunrise. "The sunrise we never got to see but saw later on." She glanced at Minju.

"I went with a wooden frame because I thought it would match your walls if you want to hang it up." Not hearing a word from Minju, she asked, "Do you like it?"

Taking hold of the frame, the older girl drew it closer, her fingers delicately tracing over the clear glass, exploring the intricately folded origami cranes.

She was lost in the beauty of the meticulously folded origami birds, each one a different shade and size, creating a stunning gradient of colours that perfectly mimicked the hues of a real sunrise.

Yujin wondered what Minju might be thinking but could sense her taking her time to absorb everything. She remembered the effort it took, enduring harmless paper cuts along the way, but those were inconsequential.

A whispered "wow" escaped Minju's lips, her gaze fixed on the artwork, absorbing every minute detail. The younger girl's heart swelled with happiness, watching her girlfriend's reaction.

Finally, the brunette looked up from the frame, her eyes meeting Yujin's with a soft, overwhelmed smile. She in a snippet of air, tilting her head slightly and settling the frame on her lap. "You want me to hang this up?" She asked and saw the latter furrowing her eyebrows.

Minju scooted onto the floor, right next to her. "At this rate, you'll turn my place into an art museum," she said. "I love it."

"You love it?"

"I love it."

"Really?"

"How did you make this? How did you even think of making this?" The older girl was now tilting the frame to see it from all directions.

"You really like it?"

"No, I love it," Minju spoke with sincerity in both her eyes and voice. It let Yujin feel all fuzzy hearing her assurance and appreciation for the gift. "I want to hear it."

"Hm?"

"The meaning behind this." Minju knew there was a meaning behind everything the younger girl did, no matter how small or big the gesture was.

"You know me," Yujin mutters. "This..." She pointed at one of the paper cranes, resting her arm on Minju's thigh. "They don't only keep my hands busy."

"I figured."

Yujin chuckles. "It could mean a lot of things. Paper cranes, that is. Hope and peace. But to me, I only fold them when I'm in a good mood. I wouldn't bother otherwise. I mean, no one would be in their right mind to fold something like this pathetic little thing when they're mad or sad or whatever," she said and continued, "In other words, I only fold them when I'm happy."

The corner of Minju's lips lifted slightly. "When you're happy?"

Yujin hums. "When I'm happy," she said. "It's like a mood tracker. This is my way of tracking happiness. Genuine happiness." She spoke clearly.

"But somewhere along the way, it developed into something else. I no longer folded them just because I was feeling happy. I started folding them whenever I think of you," she delivers sweetly. "And that...got tiring because you've never really left my mind. You just kept coming and going, entering whenever you liked, making my head your own hotel. It was impossible to continue doing so, to keep folding, so I did this to settle everything at once."

Minju gently rubbed her chin out of affection as Yujin held onto her wrist.

"Because I wanted you to stay and never leave my mind, make it your house just like how you've entered my heart and made it your own. You do know you own my heart, right?"

"Like you never declared yourself to be mine."

"I am yours," Yujin insisted and claimed like her life depended on it. "And these thousand paper cranes allow me to make one wish and I wished, really hard, that I'll be yours one day."

Minju softly gasps. "You told me your wish."

"It already came true so it's fine," Yujin assured.

"Why yours and not mine?" Minju asked. "People usually go You're mine and not I'm yours." The older girl has always known that Yujin's the only person who does the opposite of what was deemed as the norm.

"Well, the way I think of it is, me being yours makes me feel wanted by you. To be wanted by someone feels like I'm a choice they made not because they need me but because they want me. If I'm being needed by someone, that day will come when I'm no longer needed anymore. However, being wanted by someone tells me, Whatever change happens, decisions made, whatever it is, I want you to be there. I wouldn't die if you weren't there but I would very much prefer you to be there to go through it with me."

There Minju knew she had a lot to learn from Yujin, about Yujin, and the way she expresses herself like no one else. And that was what Minju had been wanting to see, to feel. Yujin being able to be herself around her was an accomplishment, an achievement no one else would get to experience, but Minju.

She wondered if Yujin knew that she could make it to this day because of her. Everything, healing, is a long process but the younger girl wasn't very much afraid of it and is willing to fight along with it.

"So this is what jealousy feels like," the brunette utters, nodding slowly.

"Hm?"

"To know that six other people had you in the palm of their hands, hearing every word you say."

"Hey." Yujin put her hand on Minju's crown. "As a matter of fact, this is the first time I'm saying all this. I could never say it until I found you. Like, actually saying it.