The sun is slowly seeking cover over the horizon and the people on the shore are starting to go back to their cottages. She mindlessly dragged her feet, which are soaked in water on ankle-level, as she followed the path of the shoreline that she didn't set a foot on for seven years. Coming back here is a suicide, as her best friend had deemed. But for her, it feels like home. 

Her grip on her camera that hung around her neck tightens as she neared the little pier made up of rocks that connects the shore to the sea. She stops walking and stares at the long pier she used to walk on every day. Relief has always been something she finds when she takes the path towards the edge of the pier but today is different. She isn't expecting to be relieved. She expects something else. Longing. Pain. Love.

The sky has turned purple and grey by the time she is able to step a foot on the pier. She closes her eyes and let herself sink with the coldness of the air brought by the sea breeze on a spring evening. The familiarity of those rocks brings a sting in her eyes. She gulps and tries to gather herself to try to walk across the pier and win over the impending surge of memories that are threatening to weigh her down. She can't let herself break down at this point. Not when she hasn't even reached the edge of the pier. The edge where she thought she found happiness. The same edge that broke her.

With heavy steps, she walks along the rocky surface towards the edge, relishing the feelings she has every time she comes here. She blinks back the surge of tears that are threatening to fall by the corner of her eyes. Every step is a jab of pain straight to her heart. Every step feels like a gush of memories is starting to crowd her head, waiting for their turn to be picked and reminisced. Every step is a fragment of the moments she tried to bury past her. And with each step, those fragments are slowly assembling together as a whole, pinning her to the ground. Helpless. And crying. 

She continues to walk. Ignoring her subconscious telling her to turn back, run away, and never return.

But she can't. She just can't. Just like her.

Then she reaches the edge.

The breaking point.

She let herself loose. She let the memories catch up with her. She let herself be engulfed with the feelings. Images of them start to cloud her mind. Images of her.

And so, she cries.

"Yah! TaeTae! Stop crying! It doesn't suit you. Though I must admit that you're cute when you're crying." the girl flashed her eye-smile that the shorter crying girl loved so much. "Oh c'mon! I'm supposed to be the cry baby here! Where did my tough best friend go?" then she shoved the sobbing girl on her side.

"She died the moment you told her you're leaving."

"C'mon! It's just for a few months! Your fault for not taking your term paper seriously. We could've been leaving to Seoul together."

A sob.

The taller girl embraced the crying one by her waist and leaned her head on her shoulder. Staring across the horizon, where the sun was slowly setting.

“You know, home is where the heart is. You are my home, TaeTae. You have my heart.”

She leaned back, planted a chaste kiss on the sobbing girl’s cheek.

“I love you, TaeTae. We’ll always be together.”

With the recurring memories, her sobs become harder until she choked. It’s funny, she thinks, how someone can take your breath away. Even when you’re crying. Even when that someone’s long gone.

Her tears doesn’t seem to stop anytime soon, as well as the surge of memories that are continuously flowing.

Then she found herself alone again. In the same spot. At the same time.

“I-I’m sorry, TaeTae.”

“You shouldn’t be leaving me if you’re that sorry.” sarcasm evident with her voice even when she was in the verge of choking from crying.

“I just can’t do this anymore.”

“What can’t you not do anymore, Fany-ah?” she raised her head, looked her in the eyes, then her tone softened.

“This. Us.” a fresh gush of tears spilled from her orbs.

“Am I not making you happy anymore? Am I not enough?”

“T-TaeTae, you know you’re more than enough for me.” her eyes avoided the questioning girl’s gaze.

“Then why, Fany-ah?”

“I-I’m so-”

“Don’t you love me anymore?” a tear rolled on her left cheek.

“Tae..” she whispered with her head still hanging low.

“Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t love me anymore. Then I’ll let you go.” she gripped the hem of her shirt tightly, preparing herself not for an impending temporary separation, but a permanent one. And all she could do was cry because that’s the only thing she’s good at: crying.

Tiffany locked her eyes with Taeyeon and both wished that each stare could convey the feelings that they couldn’t put into words. That somehow, things were different.

She raised her hand, caressed Taeyeon’s damp cheek and wiped her tears.

“I-I’m sorry, TaeTae.”

Then she left.

It was already dark when her sobs quieted down. She always thought that memories, like moments trapped forever in a photo, fades with time. And wounds, if unscathed, heal. But now, she isn't so sure anymore.

There are just memories that becomes clearer with time, no matter how hard you try to smudge it. And there are just wounds that you don’t know didn't heal because your heart unconsciously sealed it with a band-aid. Wounds, like memories, become scars. A reminder of the pain of the past that no amount of time could erase.

“Unnie!” a shout coming from the opposite edge of the pier, on the shore.

She closes her eyes and sighs.

“Taeyeon unnie!” she hears it again.

She stood up. Turns to look back and squints her eyes to find the owner of the voice.

A girl waves her hand and shouts again “Unnie! Here!”

She recognizes it as her sister. She smiles as she watch her run excitedly towards her with arms flailing on her sides.

She holds her camera with both hands and places the viewfinder eyepiece on her right eye. She can’t miss to capture moments like this. Happy moments like this.

“Unnie! Watcha think? Can I be your muse now?” the younger girl asks, grinning shippishly.

She just smiles. Ruffles her hair and put her arms around her shoulders.

“You should stop doing this, you know. Putting your arms around me, I mean. You’re embarassing yourself.” the taller girl teases.

Again, she just replies with a smile, staring across the long gone sun, and leaning her head on her sister’s shoulder.

“You seem happy. I swear I could’ve seen you cry a while ago.” the younger one said.

“I am happy.”

“Why?”

“Home is where the heart is. I am home, Seulgi-ah.”

I am finally home. My heart is here. Left with you, Fany-ah.