Seungwan inspected Seulgi closely. The past few days had been particularly quiet and Seulgi didn’t seem to be her usual self. Although she wasn’t sure, Seungwan knew what it might be related to. She couldn’t quite remember the name but Seulgi had briefly spoken to her about a girl that she had met while working one night. When she brought it up to Yerim and Sooyoung the two just shrugged seemingly having no idea what she was talking about. Currently, Seulgi was sitting down across from Seungwan while they ate lunch. The plastic picnic table was incredibly uncomfortable and with the amount of people who decided to join them for lunch today it was also quite busy and loud. Seulgi had put her head down some fifteen minutes ago and closed her eyes, flinching any time her phone lit up with the sound of a notification. Each time, Seulgi would look at the notification and let out an irritated huff of air before going back to her previous position.

Seungwan was getting quite tired of this and decided it was time for them to have a talk. If Seulgi didn’t want to open up then Seungwan would just have to force it out of her for Seulgi’s own sake. There was no way she could stay the way she was the past few days.

“Hey guys, Seul and I have to go work on a little project so we’ll catch you soon!” Seungwan said as she stood and grabbed Seulgi’s arm and pulled her away before anyone could notice the confused look on her face. Seulgi just managed to grab for her backpack and tripped over her own feet in order to keep up with her friend.

Seulgi let Seungwan drag her around campus and finally into the engineering building. They stopped in front of a classroom and Seungwan peeked inside to check if the room was occupied. After ensuring that it was empty, she opened the door and pushed Seulgi inside before following her in and turning to lock the door and shut the blinds. Her best friend pushed herself up onto a desk and swung her legs back and forth, simply waiting for the next part.

“I know something’s wrong, Seulgi.” Seungwan started, watching for the other girl’s reaction to her words.

Per usual, Seulgi kept her emotions well under wraps and smiled briefly. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about?”

Seungwan let out a sigh and approached the girl, hopping onto the desk across from her. She looked out the window to find that the sun was hiding behind the clouds making their campus look just a little darker than it had a few minutes ago. The two sat in silence for a few minutes. Seulgi did so because she wasn’t ready to tell Seungwan about the girl she liked and Seungwan, who needed the time to gather her thoughts. Slowly, the sun came back out from behind the clouds and shone through the windows. It easily blinded the two dummies who were staring directly at it and they both shut their eyes and turned away, blinking through the bit of pain.

Seungwan took in a breath before speaking, “You know, I always call you my best friend but it feels like sometimes you don’t share enough with me…”

Seulgi stopped swinging her legs back and forth and turned to Seungwan. However, the girl had gone back to staring out the window and could not directly see the intense stare that Seulgi was giving her. Before Seulgi could say anything, Seungwan continued and so she found it best to allow her to speak her mind before commenting.

“I know so much about you and yet I know nothing, at least nothing that you tell me directly. I understand that you feel more comfortable hiding it all but-” Seungwan pushed herself off the desk and finally turned her head to meet eyes with Seulgi, “-but you’re someone I care about a lot. I know this sounds selfish but I want, no need you to share your pain with me…”

Seulgi considered Seungwan for a moment before nodding slowly. She wasn’t the type to share emotions often and felt like a burden because everyone seemed to have bigger problems. But seeing the hurt in Seungwan’s expression made Seulgi’s stomach churn slightly.

Seulgi watched Seungwan walk towards the window and slid off of the desk to join the girl. “Have you ever had your heart broken before?” Seulgi asked innocently, ignoring the questioning look that Seungwan gave her.

The other girl shook her head slowly and opened to speak but Seulgi beat her to it, “I got mine broken the other day...and I don’t know whether it’s worth trying or just giving up at this point.”

“Do you know why you were rejected?” Seungwan asked.

“No.”

Seungwan held back a smile at Seulgi’s quick, cold answer. The girl still had some ways to go in terms of sharing emotions but they finally seemed to be going somewhere.

“Well, I think you should find out that reason so you aren’t questioning it and from there on you can talk to the person and decide whether to give up or wait for them.” Seungwan responded, putting a hand on Seulgi’s arm.

The two stood for a moment and Seulgi nodded. “That’s a good idea, maybe I’ll do that...thank you, Seungwan.”

The rest of the day continued on as it usually did with Seulgi slowly returning to her normal, smiley self (with Seungwan only of course). Seungwan seemed to be proud of herself for finally sharing her own feelings and created a better bridge for communication between the two of them. She mentally patted herself on the back and promised that next time something was bothering her she would bring it up sooner.

***

Joohyun stepped into a small, cozy office with low lighting and a sofa and chair. She took her seat on the sofa and got comfortable while she waited. There were voices from outside the door but she disregarded them and tried to get into her own headspace for the time being. She had a lot of things on her mind and almost immediately after her talk with Seulgi she had called her therapist to ask for the earliest appointment she could get. This happened to be just a few days after the incident and Joohyun couldn’t be more grateful because she really needed some kind of mental and emotional stability in her life right now. Her heart was aching and every second that her mind spent on Seulgi, the weaker and stupider she would feel. After about five minutes, the door opened slowly and a young woman walked in to sit across from Joohyun on the cushioned chair. She gave Joohyun a smile and a soft hello as she opened up her notebook and gathered her own thoughts.

“So...Joohyun, you called me quite troubled the other day, we must have a lot to get through today hm?” The therapist joked lightly receiving only to receive a forced smile in return. She cleared and continued, “Tell me where this all began.”

Joohyun liked it best this way. Her therapist would let her talk to her heart's content and wait until she was done before addressing any of it. Sometimes Joohyun would be interrupted for clarifications but that was all. She looked up at her therapist and took a deep breath before starting,

And she didn’t stop.

For an hour.

Finally, Joohyun took a deep breath in and leaned back into the sofa. Her therapist was scribbling something into her notebook before closing it shut. She uncrossed her legs and sat up straight, gesturing towards Joohyun.

“So, this ‘Seulgi’, what is she to you?”

Joohyun squirmed a bit in her place and shrugged, lowering her eyes to the floor. “Like I told you, she’s just a friend…” She said quietly.

“But you have feelings for each other?”

“I guess…I mean, yeah but they aren’t that deep and it hasn’t been that long that we’ve known each other,” Joohyun paused and slowly brought her eyes back up to make contact with her therapist. “What do you think, Jisoo?”

Joohyun and her therapist had always been on a first name basis. So when Joohyun called the woman by her name, there was no surprise. Her therapist glanced down at her closed notebook and hummed. “I think you aren’t giving yourself credit, you mentioned earlier that you don’t deserve happiness through romance, why?”

“I…” Joohyun paused, unable to answer the question for a moment as she collected her thoughts. “I don’t think there’s anything particularly interesting about me, I feel like her interest in me isn’t real or genuine because all I am is your below-average young adult with nothing going for them-”

Joohyun stopped suddenly and cleared as she felt the tears build up. She raised her arm to cover her eyes and wiped quickly. The effect was the reverse of what she wanted as her eyes became irritated and red from the material of her sweater. Jisoo watched Joohyun calmly and whispered something that the girl didn’t quite hear before getting up to leave the room. She returned moments later with a box of tissues and sat next to Joohyun, putting a comforting arm around her shoulder and setting the box onto the girl’s lap. Although her head was lowered and her breathing was erratic, Jisoo still managed to make out the quiet “thank you” that came out of Joohyun. She rubbed her back for a little bit longer before getting up to settle back in the chair.

Joohyun took a few more minutes to fully calm herself down. Once she did, she gave Jisoo a sad smile, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to break like that…” she said, putting the box of tissues on the small coffee table.

Jisoo raised her hand and waved it, dismissing Joohyun’s apology. “Don’t be sorry, Hyun. This is what I’m here for.” Jisoo crossed her legs and looked at Joohyun as though she was analyzing the girl closely.

The latter shifted uncomfortably and scratched at the back of her head while waiting for Jisoo to say something. However, the room was silent except for t