‘Ssul, this is ridiculous!’

 

The taller girl clearly wasn’t paying attention – or at least was paying no heed to the maknae’s cries as she continued to stack newly delivered pillows into a barrier, dividing their dorm’s living room in two.

 

‘Ssul!’ Krystal says exasperated, still unable to believe that Sulli indeed was serious about the “barrier idea”.

 

‘This is crazy.’

 

The youngest Jung rolls her eyes and shakes her head as she rubbed her temples.

 

‘This is insane.’

 

This time, Krystal gets a response from Sulli; the older of the two snorts, but still continued to take pillows out of their plastic bags and stack them between her and Krystal.

 

‘This is absurd,’ now this one came out of Krystal’s mouth in actual English, even more further frustrating the group’s Big Baby like one tiny stone tipping an already fragile hamster dam.

 

Sulli stops, looks up at Krystal and placed her hands on her waist.

 

‘Don’t speak in English when I’m in this state!’

 

‘Oh, so now I get an answer?’

 

‘Who knows you’re plotting something evil again!’

 

Krystal’s jaw opens, wanting to retort but no words came. She scoffs.

 

Sulli raises an eyebrow a little too high, like pointing at her eyebrow to show her frustration was the only thing left for her to do to make her already seething rage more obvious.

 

‘Why would I plot anything?’ Krystal finally exclaims.

 

‘Don’t ask me that now after what happened yesterday!’

 

The other three girls of the group were in one of the rooms. They didn’t even bother locking up to kill the disturbance of peace the two youngest members were causing. They behaved like how they normally would on a normal day.

 

Yep, normal day.

 

‘Which particular event from yesterday, Ssul?’ Krystal asks with the same amount of annoyance she had earlier.

 

‘That part that—that—‘ Sulli’s fair complexion was now turning into seven different shades of red, and, as soon as her face was level-eight red, she huffs and tried her best to frustrate the scream that welled up in , even stomping her foot on the floor like a child throwing tantrums.

 

Krystal raises her brow and gestures for Sulli to speak up and clarify what it was that she did wrong.

 

Sulli turns away from Krystal still making little annoyed shrieks that she herself stopped not even three seconds soon.

 

And then it hits Krystal.

 

‘Sulli,’ she sighs, ‘is this about the k—‘

 

‘—NEVER SPEAK OF IT!’ Sulli suddenly blurts out, now fully facing Krystal again.

 

‘Okay, okay, geez,’ Krystal raises both hands in defeat.

 

She stays quiet, expecting Sulli to say something else but nothing came. The taller girl refused to even look at her now.

 

‘Like this barrier will change that. We can always pretend it never happened if it disgusts you that much.’

 

Those were Krystal’s final words before she stomps toward the door.

 

‘I’m going home.’

 

.

.

.

 

As soon as the other three members heard the main door to their apartment click, they poke their heads out at the doorway, with Victoria speaking first.

 

‘So,’ she began, ‘she didn’t like the idea?’

 

‘I understand her,’ Amber pipes in, walking across the room to the couch, throwing the pillow barrier a curious look on the way, ‘I mean, I think this is ridiculous too.’

 

‘Me too,’ Luna agrees, coming out of the room completely. ‘She wasn’t even angry at you for k—‘

 

‘—NEVER SPEAK OF IIIIIIT!’ Sulli yells, hands on both ears stomping around like a child being forced to listen to her pet hamster being killed. ‘Why am I being tortured!’

 

‘You know,’ Victoria began as she comes out of the room as well, ‘she doesn’t find this awkward—at all.’

 

Sulli whines and plops into the couch as well, making sobbing sounds as she curled up.

 

‘So why are you very affected by this?’ Victoria adds.

 

‘I think the questions is,’ Luna joins the girls on the couch, ‘why did you—‘

 

Another earsplitting, high-pitched and very girly scream from Sulli drowned Luna’s words.

 

‘Would you stop that please?’ Victoria scolds, yet still sounding polite.

 

‘But really, why?’ Amber nonetheless continues Luna’s question for her.

 

‘I don’t know!’ Sulli finally answers, pulling herself up from burying her head in the couch, ‘lately I can’t be around her anymore!’

 

They all look at her expectantly, encouraging her to press on.

 

‘She gets three feet from me, I can’t breathe!’

 

‘And?’

 

‘And she reaches out to fix my hair, I practically hyperventilate!’

 

And then, there was silence—

 

—one that Amber broke with a very awkward line.

 

‘This is a problem,’ but she sounded more amused than she was genuinely taking the situation seriously.

 

Sulli looks at all of them and they didn’t seem bothered. It was as if, they all expected her answer to be along those lines.

 

‘Well?’ Sulli asks, frustration still evident in her voice.

 

They shrug their shoulders nonchalantly almost all at the same time.

 

‘Wow,’ Sulli says sarcastically and tucks her head back into the cushions of the couch. ‘Very helpful.’

 

‘Because there’s nothing to help you with,’ Victoria answers for the other two, which they agree to with nods.

 

‘It’s very obvious, Sulli,’ Luna adds.

 

‘What do I do?’ Sulli whines.

 

‘Just tell her you’re sorry and you’re trying to sort things out,’ Amber answers simply. ‘I mean, it’s the truth.’

 

Sulli keeps her head there, in the cushions.

 

.

.

.

 

The afternoon of the following day, Krystal came to the dorm to pick up her laundry and a couple of things she forgot to take home.

 

On her way to the room, she caught sight of the pillow barrier in the living room and rolled her eyes as she stops to take a better look at it.

 

‘Childish,’ she mutters under her breath.

 

She was about to do what she went to the dorm for when she hears someone clear from the other side of the barrier.

 

She didn’t even have to guess who it was.

 

‘Having fun on the Sulli side?’ Krystal asks with her arms folded, all the underlying venom in her statement as intended as ever. ‘Or are you planning to barricade the bedroom too.

 

There was no answer, but Sulli emerges from the side of the barricade and reveals her guilt-stricken form. She was fumbling with her fingers and looked everywhere but Krystal.

 

‘What?’ the younger girl asks impatiently.

 

‘Y—you’re not angry I kissed you?’ Sulli asked so quietly it almost came off as a whimper.

 

‘Ssul,’ Krystal sighs. ‘It was nothing okay? I know you didn’t mean it and it was just a spur of—‘

 

And before she could waste her breath on the remaining three seconds she needed to complete her statement, Sulli grabbed both sides of her face and completely obliterated the space between them, pulling the youngest Jung in for a kiss.

 

Krystal’s eyes widened—

 

And remained wide when Sulli parts from the kiss, panting.

 

‘I’m not disgusted—‘ the taller girl began, ‘the barrier is not for you.’

 

Krystal remained stunned, but she at least managed to blink just once as she ever-so-slowly tried to register the words of Choi Jinri.

 

‘It’s for me,’ Sulli finally says, head bowed. ‘I can’t seem to control myself around you lately.’

 

Silence.

 

Sulli turns around and slowly makes her way back to the other side of the barrier.

 

‘C—control yourself?’

 

Krystal wondered out loud.

 

‘I don’t know!’ Sulli shouts in shame from the other side, ‘one day, I’m lying beside you like we do normally and, the next day, I wake up and you’re suddenly the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.'

 

Krystal blinks, breaking out of her stance.

 

‘This is—surprising.’

 

‘No—it’s surreal.’

 

Sulli waits for Krystal to at least comfort her and tell her that it’s alright and they’ll be back to normal perhaps in the days to come.

 

But no answer came from the other side of the ridiculous barrier.

 

Sulli sighs and walks to head for the room and maybe sulk in there.

 

However, as soon as she gets to the open end of the barricade, Krystal firmly grabs her around the wrist and pulls her in for another kiss.

 

It was surprising for the other girl, but nonetheless found herself responding to the kiss.

 

And when they parted, they found that looking at each other was going to be a problem.

 

‘I don’t think I understand this—‘ Krystal began, making Sulli look the other girl’s way. ‘—but I’d like to try.’

 

Sulli laughs lightly as she shook her head in amusement.

 

One moment, she was confused. The next—

 

—she couldn’t get over the grin that made its way into her features.