“Come and take a picture here, Jimin!”

 

The voice resonates faintly across the wide landscape, travels through to her by the frigid winds that brushed softly against her increasingly reddened ears. Not even the thick bush of a hat can conceal her hair from the freezing frost. Everything is turning red, her nose, her cheeks. Her warm blood fights the cold air. She turns to where the voice came, then her feet head in that direction. With her clothes white from snow and left shoulder slightly sore from wearing an arm sling for too long, Jimin strides towards her beckoning sister.

 

It’s been three weeks since the plowing accident that befell (quite literally, a tree branch really did fall on top of her and Aeri) Jimin. It left her incapacitated, right arm broken and a constellation of wounds on her face. 

 

As eventful as it was, the first few weeks of January went by in a daze. The gang can attest to that.

 

Jimin’s and Aeri’s hospitalization went fairly smoothly, their families and close friends stick to their sides like glue 24/7. The two were left unsupervised once, (in that day’s caretakers, Haruto’s–Aeri’s little brother– and Chaewon’s defense, one went to the vending machine and the other went to get extra blanket in the car and there were no communication whatsoever!) and ten minutes later, the nurses found Jimin going over to Aeri’s room to play UNO ‘cause Haruto and Chaewon took ing forever (the vending machine turns out to be busted and Chaewon forgot where she parked her car).

 

Jimin and Aeri were given medical leave for at least three months from the school that they’re teaching in, and imagine how utterly baffled Jimin is because days before, she just finished marking all of her student’s math tests (“THEN WHY DID I MARK ALL THAT GODDAMN TEST TWO WEEKS BEFORE DEADLINE FOR???”).

 

But all was well after two weeks and a half of therapy and medication, Aeri can at least carry a cup of coffee and a bag of mini croissants and Jimin has one and a half functioning arms now. Aeri still does sloth-like movements to carry things—because she fractured her collarbones—, and Jimin still has a cast on her forearm and still needs to use thin strips of bandages for her wounds, but they’re well enough to go home.

 

Most of their friends flew to their hometown a little over a week after the NYE accident scare, after making sure that the both of them are well enough to go on with their days without extra assistance. Chaewon, Yeji, and Minju said their goodbyes on Jimin and Aeri’s day 10 in the hospital, wishing their two best friends a speedy recovery.

 

Like everyone else, Jimin was supposed to go on a vacation for the holidays with her family. Though unlike the usual Christmas to New Year’s itinerary, her plans were to go from the first week until at least the third week of January, because her family are also a bunch of overzealous VIPs who love to work on the holidays. They had to delay the vacay of course, ‘cause Jimin got a literal tree branch falling all over her.

 

(Chaewon joked about it one time beside her hospital bed, saying how even trees are falling for her. Jimin smacked the back of her head–with her fully functioning left arm, Chaewon must’ve forgotten that she still has one–whilst her family and Minjeong just watch and laugh in the background).

 

But now here she is, in the superbly freezing Sapporo, enjoying the cold weather and the hot ramens with a frosty smile on her face and an arm sling on her left shoulder. After a two-week delay on their plans, Jimin and her family finally are able to spend time together after the hospital scare.

 

Jimin approaches her sister who is standing cold in front of some heavily snowed vending machines, “here?”

 

“Yes,” Jeongyeon takes off Jimin’s arm sling then carefully puts down the casted right arm, “it will look aesthetic.”

 

Jimin rolls her eyes, but complies to stand in front of it nonetheless. As absurd as it sounds, her sister does have a good photogenic eye. She’s a heart surgeon, after all.

 

The Yu family have been spending a frostbitten week in a villa that Mr. Yu built long ago in Sapporo. It is a place the family holds very dear to heart, especially Jeongyeon, since her wife works in a hospital nearby which is also the place where they first met. They will continue to spend time there until the early February, until the Lunar New Year and it’s time to start the working season again.

 

A vacation is very much needed for Jimin, after the emotional whirlwind that December turns out to be for her. Her thesis needed revisions, end-of-the-year school assignments, tons of residences to plow, had an existential crisis, broke things off with the love of her life, closure with her longtime ex, a tree branch falling on top of her that panicked everyone, then got back together (???) again with her girl. It reeled her head senseless in multiple directions, she wished she could just shout “TIMEOUT!!” to the Almighty.

 

But now here Jimin is, standing in front of a freezing vending machine with a red nose peeking whilst her sister stands back to snap some photos. She can already imagine a Rudolph the Reindeer pun for her Instagram caption. It’s simple, but it is the one thing that brings tranquility to her heart, mind and soul. Sapporo, how you have been a savior for Jimin’s sanity.

 

 

 

Meanwhile, Minjeong is enjoying her warm, sun-kissed vacation on the other side of Japan.

 

Okinawa, a beacon of warmth and comfort in the common, piercing Japanese winter. A much needed change of pace for Minjeong, the swell of warmth radiating her pale skin. Sweat formed immediately the moment she stepped out of the Naha airport, shedding off the thin layer of cold resistance that Yangsan had made her grow from her being.

 

It is a family vacay slash birthday trip. They always go somewhere to celebrate the start of a new year for mother Earth and Minjeong after celebrating it at home with the extended family. This time, the family of four decides to go to Okinawa.

 

Minjeong is fortunate enough to enroll in a campus that gives winter breaks until the end of January, so her family and her always utilize it to the fullest. Her brother, Jungwoo, used to enroll there for the same major and the same reason too, and Minjeong suspects he is still a proud member of that frat house she visited the night she first engaged in shenanigans with Jimin.

 

Damn, everything reminds her of Jimin. 

 

Even her brother’s incessant complaining beside her reminds Minjeong of how Jimin would complain about the amount of dirty dishes her friends would leave at her sink.

 

“How long will this ramp last? I swear to God,” Jungwoo grumbles, his white long-sleeve tee drenched with sweat. The hotel they’re staying up the ramp, according to Google Maps, is only a fifteen-minute walk. It has only been half the duration, but the ramp is exhausting.

 

“We should’ve gone with the taxi mom and dad went,” Jungwoo pulls the two big suitcases behind him, “they probably have already arrived and are enjoying the free cocktails for all we care.”
 

Minjeong rolls her eyes, her brother would always craze for the booze.

 

She likes it this way, however. Enjoying the longer way home, the breeze hitting her fading red tresses as she trails. She loves these long walks that lets her freeze time and just enjoy the moment. She often goes on long walks with Jungwoo when they get together in Yangsan (they go back and forth from Busan to Yangsan during the holidays), and they enjoy that type of sibling quality time. 

 

Even if it’s winter, she can freely wear crop tops ‘cause it’s Okinawa. When a cold wind swings by, she has her brother’s zip-up tied around her shoulders. Maybe it’s Jungwoo’s fault for wearing long-sleeves, now he’s sweating like crazy.

 

But she knows, with or without big suitcases and endless ramps, her brother enjoys the time with his little sister whom he doesn’t see much. He’s the one who suggested walking instead of going with the taxi their parents took, and she appreciates the thought of the idea. A good quality time just between a brother and a sister.

 

“Look,” Minjeong points at the building in front of them, “the hotel’s just there.” Jungwoo huffs a breath of relief, thanking the Gods numerous times. Minjeong chuckles as she can only imagine how numb his arms are from pulling the suitcases through a ramp so tedious. She appreciates Jungwoo though, always the loyal company for her. 

 

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

 

 

 

Jimin and her family have explored Sapporo countless times from the years before, but its beauty and just how eminently marvelous it is attracts them back like moths to a flame. They know every street, every marketplace, every ramen shop, every hill, every snowbed by heart. It’s solace after long days of work. It’s home in a faraway land. 

 

Sapporo is excruciatingly cold for first-timers, but a gray wool hoodie, a white fleece jacket, and denim jeans are enough for Jimin to sustain the weather. She left her arm sling in her room at the villa, it’s not like she can bend her forearm to hurt it anyway.

 

Jimin’s been here a few times before, this log cabin housing residence, a couple years back when her teenage spirits were fiery and Jeongyeon was blooming in love, all over the hills to tell her parents she met the love of her life. She remembers Jeongyeon coming home all smiley and gooey from love after going over at Jihyo’s parents’ house to ask for their permission to ask their daughter out. A couple years later, she goes over to the same house to ask Jihyo’s parents if she could marry her. 

 

In her childhood years, she escaped her mom’s soft grip around her wrist to flop on the thick snowbed. When puberty hit, she pretended as if she’s acting in a super sad emo music video as the snow falls. When she first turned twenty along with her first job as a plower, she chats endlessly to her dad how she would take hours, probably days to plow and clean the entire log cabin complex off of snow, well, because the snow got nowhere to go. 

 

Now she’s back, casted right arm in her jacket pocket and nose red and runny, she sits down on one of the snow mounds just at the front yard of a log cabin. She doesn’t care the way the cold seeps through her denim jeans, too content to move away from the snowy bliss. Jeongyeon flops beside her with a portable stool that she bought in the same manner, hair white from the snowfall. Her wife and their parents adjacent to them, portable stools also sling around their shoulders. Jimin probably left hers back at the villa.

 

“How’s your hand, honey?” her mom asks, disturbing her own bubble of nothingness Jimin was in seconds ago. 

 

Jimin checks her right arm, turning it around gently to examine it, “feels better, ma.”

 

Her mom smiles, mirroring her daughter’s meep grin. Sapporo is doing wonders to her well being.

 

Or is it really Sapporo?

 

“How’s that girlfriend of yours?” Jihyo, Jeongyeon’s wife, nonchalantly asks. Jimin chokes at her own breath, from her peripheral vision, she can see her sister, her sister in law and her father sharing fist bumps.

 

Jimin kept mum, but her mother nudged her shoulder to encourage her to answer. It seems the whole family is very nosy.

 

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Jimin wipes , she was so startled she drooled a bit.

 

Jeongyeon chuckles as she quips, “yet.”

 

Her mind takes Jimin back to the previous three weeks, when she was still bedridden because of that goddamn tree branch with her family and friends by her side accompanying her.

 

And Minjeong. Right, Minjeong.

 

The Minjeong that Jimin introduces as a friend to her family, due to lack of a more suitable term that her parents can understand without spilling too much deets about their previous…. situationship. 

 

(Jeongyeon and her wife snort, finding the fact that innocent dorky Jimin turns out to have a friend–with benefits–hilarious.)

 

The Minjeong who spoon-fed her congee because Jimin’s jaw still hurts if she has to chew solid food, the Minjeong who helped Jimin change into comfortable clothes rather than the usual hospital dress because it’s too unpleasant to wear, the Minjeong who complies with red cheeks when Jimin who is high on medication asks to cuddle her, the Minjeong who Jimin’s family teases from time to time because Jimin relies on her more than she does to her family.

 

She never left her side once, only when Chaewon brought her home to her place at times so she could wash up and change her clothes. She’s always present to help Jimin eat her food and medicines and to tuck her in every night to bed when her family can’t because of work. The only time she was absent was when Minjeong was in Chaewon’s place to freshen up, only to receive the news that Chaewon left Jimin unattended for so long she went to play UNO with Aeri in the next room.

 

Even until the day of discharge, she’s still there with her, helping her change into brand new band aids and putting on the arm sling over her shoulder. Minjeong helps with every single thing Jimin needs, even Jeongyeon and her wife who are the real doctors sit back in the background with amused smiles. They only separated with half-assed goodbyes at the hospital lobby, Minjeong with a suitcase in tow waving goodbye to Jimin who had the backseat window of her dad’s car turned down so she could wave back.

 

That got her thinking, how is Minjeong?

 

They didn’t talk about themselves during the times Jimin was still in the hospital, it would’ve been awkward anyway because Jimin’s family and friends are almost always with them in the room. The only time they had privacy was when Jeongyeon was buying coffee from the cafe in the lobby, and Jimin was high off paracetamol. Their time together didn’t even last ten minutes, because before they knew it, Jeongyeon’s back with two coffees in her hands. After that, they never really talked about the fallout, or their conversation during New Year’s Eve, or even Minjeong’s confession.

 

Oh , Minjeong confessed.

 

Jimin really did forget, maybe she should text her. But what to say?

 

Before Jimin can register the panic forming in her mind, her dad sits beside her on his portable stool, “Do you really think we believe that friend thing, kid?” her dad’s belly moves with him as he laughs, “I may be old, but I’m not stupid.”

 

Of course he’s not stupid, he was once one of the finest architects in the country, probably even in the continent.

 

None of them are, including Minjeong. She was smart enough to have some courage and confess like normal people do, instead of giving a self-deprecating monologue just because she’s afraid of love. Well, there’s none of that now. Chaewon would probably break her other arm if Jimin is still inferior to herself.

 

Oh , Minjeong confessed. What should she do now? She confessed too, kinda. It wasn’t as romantic as Minjeong’s whole speech though, she only muttered a sentence out of shyness. Who isn’t? A girl as beautiful as Minjeong turns to have an interest in her, of course her mind would short-circuit. 

 

But what to do now? It’s not like they’ve established anything. There wasn’t any time for that, Jimin was too occupied with her medications and Minjeong knew well enough to sort of step back and focus on Jimin’s health first. It wouldn’t have been a bad thing though if they did become official. Damn, who is Jimin kidding? That would’ve been the best thing to happen in her life. Finally being able to date her crush since middle school? Get out of here.

 

Her family has always been accepting of whoever Jimin and her sister brings home, as long as they’re good people with reputations untarnished by delinquency. The many girlfriends the two Yu children brought home, their parents welcome with open arms. Probably not so much for that one ex Jimin had during high school before she dated Minju, but that’s a story for another day.

 

Jimin, with the help of her friends, has come to the realization that her family would always love her no matter what. She could become a celebrity or a freaking sheep herder for all they care. It’s never her fault that she doesn’t grow up with a career so prestigious as her family’s, but that’s okay. At the end of the day, she’s still baby Jimin to them.

 

“But it’s true though,” Jimin says with a thin smile on her face, “she’s not yet my girlfriend.”

 

Jihyo taps her shoulders encouragingly as her dad says again, “then you better go get her, champ.”

 

Jimin appreciates that one quality about their family; their non-judgy characters, always seeing the good in people. She can guarantee that her family will adore Minjeong, probably more than any of Jimin’s previous lovers that they claim they adore before. She’s her adorable ball of sunshine that lights every room she enters no matter how dark or gloomy the atmosphere is, she’s seen that when she introduced Minjeong as her ‘friend’ before in the hospital.

 

“You should bring her over for dinner some time,” her mom suggests, fluffing the snow off of Jimin’s bun, “maybe you can properly introduce her as your girlfriend then.”

 

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