Written in English

This is a one-shot converted to jmj. A shot written while listening to Jake Miller's 'Ross and Rachel'.

"Soooo, how did it goooo?"

Winter chuckled at the tone of the voice on the other line. It's her friend—Ryujin, calling her after the blind date the girl set her up to. Winter heard the elevator ring and saw the floor number "4" on the monitor.

Ryujin had been telling her to go on dates, she's already in her mid-20s and unlike her friend, who's already on the verge of getting engaged soon once Ryujin proposes to Lia, Winter is nowhere near the entrance of the "Wholesome Romantic Life" plaza. She shakes her head as she walked out of the elevator.

"It was fine.. and you're right, she's amazing, sweet, intelligent, and good lord; so is beautiful. Her name is pretty too, Yeji Hwang. You didn't tell me she's Miss Tiffany's sister." She heard Ryujin humming from the phone, Winter pictured her friend smiling from ear-to-ear while listening to how she will describe the date. Miss Tiffany is a senior of them who used to help when they need resources for review.

"And then, we went to the park, had some ice cream.. She told me stories about her med-school life. She has a pretty great playlist." She continued while walking, she spots her unit from the end of the hall but Winter decided to walk slower.

"Ohhhhh! Ohhh, do you like her now?" Ryujin asks, excitedly. It made Winter laugh a little even with how exhausted she felt at that moment. She was almost drained because she and Yeji went to five different places; Winter has a car so it was easy.

"Shut up, I only met her once."

"But you have her number! You can go on another date."

Ah..

"Wait, you did ask for her number.. right?" With the emphasis on 'did', Winter sighed knowing she actually 'didn't'. And she knew Ryujin was gonna scold her again.

"Sorry, I forgot." Ryujin did not accept Winter's excuse—her excuses were always not convincing.

"HUH? IT'S NOT SOMETHING YOU FORGET AFTER AN AMAZING DATE!"

Winter had to pull her phone away slightly from her ear after she heard Ryujin's shrieking scolding on the other line. Just in time, she's right next to her room that says "4-4". Winter takes her backpack to her front and starts fishing for her keys while holding her phone using her left hand.

"Sorry, I just.. you know.."

"Why didn't you get her number?" Ryujin asked, calmly this time.

Then, Winter realized, that her keys were not in her bag. She was scared she might lose it this morning—because she was meeting with a stranger (although the date went well, she was still cautious). Winter had asked her unit neighbor to keep the keys while she was out.

The woman who lives right across her unit. "4-5" is owned by Karina Yu, a good-looking woman whose hobby is to sit on her favorite spot of her couch: the corner most of it, and read her books.

"Winter? Why didn't you get her number?" Ryujin asked again, from the other line. She heard her clearly.

Winter turns around to see—peek through the slightly opened door. There she saw the woman she's been pining for since she first step foot here. The reason why she couldn't ask for the number of a person who was like.. Winter's dream soulmate, the perfect girl, the girl who matched Winter's ideal mate. She couldn't ask a Yeji.. because what she wants is a Karina.

---

5 years ago, Winter moved apartments because this one is closer to her part-time job and classes. She did not have a hard time packing and moving because she's pretty much good at adjusting and the neighbor was very welcoming back then.

"Hi! You're the new neighbor, right?"

And there she was, Karina with cooking gloves, holding a still smokey pie on her hands.

"It's uh.. a welcome gift?" Karina tells her awkwardly when Winter did not respond. Almost immediately did Winter realize she was staring at the girl—she quickly put the box she's holding down on the floor between them to open her unit's door.

"Yes. Thank you!" Winter is a Mechanical Engineering student, she knows her stuff, she can get really good at learning and applying her knowledge to real life situations. Apparently, it didn't occur to her that the fact that Karina was using gloves meant that the pie was hot (yeah, she didn't have the time to notice the little smoke from the top of it to realize it's still hot). What did Winter do? She just tried to take the pie from Karina with her bare hands.

"-"

---

"Sorry, it's the first time someone's welcoming me—I mean, given me a welcome pie." Winter sighed and leaned back on her couch after Karina finished wrapping bandage all over Winter's hands.

Smiling at her, Karina stood up and picked up the empty boxes on the floor before she began unpacking more of Winter's boxes.

The box she opened was filled with Winter's kitchen stuff. It wasn't that heavy but Winter wished she could help. After all, it's her stuff. She should be the one doing these. Karina was so nice to volunteer to help her. The girl was even apologizing for what happened when it was clearly Winter's fault.

Thank goodness, the pie was unharmed—only Winter's hands.

---

It's obvious. Winter developed a crush on Karina although they're only interacting once or twice in a while, and those interactions are mostly nodding, smiling, and waving at each other when they see or meet in the hallway.

"Come on, Winter! You need to try it too! I can't be the only one tiring legs here." Ryujin was going on and on about encouraging Winter to jog every morning like what her routine with Lia is. Right now, the couple visited Winter's apartment after their morning jog.

"Hey—it's not me who's dating an athlete-wannabe." Winter responded, placing her cup of cereal down the table—not forgetting to give a little smile to Lia before she continued. "And please finish your meals, I want to sleep again, it's too early."

"It's not our fault that your friends are 'us', you'll be waking up early like today anyway because we'll be here so why don't you jog too?" Lia is reeeaaaally good at explaining, and convincing. Winter was almost going to say yes, but then, she's lazy.

So.. no, she shook her head and spooned two pieces of her cereals, eating faster to distract herself from her two nosy friends about to mess up her daily routine.

"We'll fetch you every morning if you want!" Ryujin insisted, Winter chuckled sarcastically and pointed at Ryujin's feet resting at the footrest because she was pushed hard today.

Lia has become a good runner after two years of practice and constant exercise. Ryujin must've tried catching up.

"How chivalrous, I'm good. Thank you." Winter tells her, hoping they'd stop.

None of the two spoke a word anymore and let Winter eat her cereals quietly. It was like that before a door opened, the one across Winter's unit, and Karina entered the room. Winter has been keeping her door open, one is because she doesn't use her air conditioner that much so she needs the temperature constant for the room temp and the second reason is that she wants to see Karina; whose door was always open too.

"Oh?" Lia raised her eyebrows, eyes following the girl into her unit. Winter drank from her bottled water and finally gave her attention to her two friends.

"What? You know her?" She asks them. Ryujin smiles, nodding.

"She's the girl we see everyday. She jogs in the same area where we do."

Starting the next day, Winter decided she will jog every single day, early in the morning.

She got herself ready at 4 AM, plain shirt, jogging shorts, extra bandage patches on her pocket, a face towel and another towel for her back, and running shoes. She's waaay too ready for a first-time jogger. 

At 4:05 AM, Winter heard Karina's door clicking. It meant the unit owner was heading out so Winter did the same. Of course, she acted like everything was casual.

"You jog too?" Karina asked as soon as Winter opened her door. The smaller of the two just shrugged, so casual, so embarrassing.

"Yeah, I guess I do now," Winter replied with an awkward chuckle. She was thinking of telling Karina about how her two friends kept encouraging her to exercise but Karina went walking ahead of her after they exchanged smiles.

Unlike what Winter wanted, the two of them did not jog together like how she thought Lia and Ryujin did it. Winter was not ready, it's been years since the last time she actively used her legs. Karina was consistently jogging. Winter assumed it must be because she does this regularly so after an hour of trying to catch up, Winter gave up and walked instead.

It happened again, and again and again, and again. Winter can't catch up, no matter how hard she tries—well, she's not at that point where she'd gonna push herself so she just gives up every day. Winter sometimes wakes up late and when she gets out of her unit past 4:05 AM, Karina had already left. Karina is just fast and consistent and Winter ends up walking back to her unit because she's tired and sleepy.

That goes on for a month and a half until one day, when Winter walked out of her room at 4:10 AM, Karina was there by her doorway, waiting.

"Oh hey, ...why?" Winter asked, it's unusual to have Karina right here by her doorway.

"Do you wanna jog together? I'll be slower this time."

Karina is just very, very adorable.

From then on, they jog together and eat something after. It became their routine. There would be times they would see Ryujin and Lia around and those times came often that the couple got to know Karina as Winter's athletic neighbor. Karina and Lia hit it off the first time they talked when the four of them had ice cream together.

---

After some time, almost seven months after, Winter got busier with her classes and jobs taking over her daily routines so she stopped jogging. She still sees Karina going out for a jog and eventually soon, she comes back with a girl in her unit. Winter was jealous at first but she did not see the girl again after that day so she thought maybe that was just some classmate of Karina.

Anyway, thanksgiving came and Winter thinks she deserved it when Karina came knocking and ringing her door with a box in her hand. It was a gift, it's a small, wrapped in a blue ribbon box enough to fit a picture frame inside. Thankfully, it wasn't a picture frame.

"Thank you.. wow, I didn't know we're supposed to exchange gifts." Winter says while looking at the shirt Karina gave her. A black long-sleeved full-buttoned shirt.

"Oh no, no. You don't have to give me anything! That's just um, my gift to you."

Winter will be putting this shirt in a museum.

She spent the afternoon looking for something to give Karina. Winter was not really good at picking stuff for someone so she asked Google and luckily, she got a great idea of giving Karina a customized mug.

"Smile before you drink because I love your smile.." Karina read the quote on the mug and it just came to Winter that what she wrote was cringe and too obvious. In another lucky moment, Karina seemed unaware of how Winter's heart thumped. "Aww, thank you Winter! I love this, really." Karina giggled and hugged her.

That was their first hug. Unfortunately for Winter who was scared that Karina would figure out how she feels, Karina did not feel how fast her heart was nervously beating as they hugged.

After the thanksgiving episode, Winter and Karina—even with their separate schooling lives and jobs or hobbies, still found something to thank each other for.

---

There's this suspicious thing going on between their units and it all started when Karina knocked on her door, asking if Winter can help fix her broken sink.

Despite living for more than half a year across Karina's unit, Winter still hasn't seen the full interior of Karina's home until that day when she came to check Karina's broken sink as asked. Winter is a mechanical engineering student and also happens to know her way about this stuff because she usually helps her parents back at home too.

"What have you done here after it got clogged?"

"Nothing, I went straight to you."

"Okay good."

Karina's place looked really nice. It's clear that Karina is a very organized person. She must be cleaning a lot too. Though most of her stuff are grayish, the place still looked cleaner than white, her living room was pleasing on the eyes and nose. Yes, it smells good too. Meanwhile, Winter's unit would only smell like something when she cooks something that has a strong scent, or when she sprays disinfectant all over her body, or when she uses perfume. Karina's place smells like something familiar and welcoming. The more she thinks about it, the more she falls for the kind of person Karina is. Winter's heart fluttered knowing Karina needs her for something-- even if that something involves getting soaked and sweaty while fixing the sink.

"Hey Winter?"

Winter turned the flashlight on and checked which pipe was damaged or if there's anything interesting there while Karina talks to her. "Yes?"

"What do you study?"

Ah yes. They've been interacting many times before but they never really got the chance to talk about personal stuff. All Winter knows is that they are going to the same school and that Karina studies Sanitary Engineering.

"Mech. E." She responded and heard Karina humming. Before Winter sat down to check the sink, she saw Karina leaning on the counter while watching her.

"I knew I came to the right person." Karina says and Winter chuckles as she pulls herself up to her feet from peeking down the sink.

"Mechanical Engineer at your service." She heard Karina laughing, Winter couldn't help smiling.

"Sorry. I know you study a lot more than just a sink."

After Winter's done inspecting, she turned to face Karina again. "It's okay. I can handle the sink."

Winter fixed the sink flawlessly. Karina made sure Winter would be assisted at all times and of course, the assistant is none other than Karina herself.

"You're in Sanitary Department, right?" Winter asks while they eat pancakes, the one that Karina prepared to express her gratitude towards Winter.

Winter appreciates it, and loves the thought of Karina