Ara is the first to throw a punch, metaphorically that is. She says in a sturdy voice, I loved you, with all my heart, and then she asks but you never loved me, did you, unnie?

Alice forces a smile, she’s good at forcing things and Ara wants her to force herself to love her. She explains to her how much she loves her, like jumping waves in the summer heat, or the night sky that let’s the star shines. She caresses her cheeks with her right hand and laces her left hand with Ara’s.

Ara wishes that every time Alice bathes her in her warmth her knees wouldn’t buckle, or her cheeks would turn a rosy shade – or her lungs wouldn’t constrict, making it impossible for her to escape from Alice's grasp. Ara wishes that Alice wouldn’t invite herself into Ara’s mouth, marble tongue grazing her lips, leaving her traces everywhere she moved.

Although if there was one wish she’d have, it was for the name that Alice cried for in her dreams was not Park Choa.