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It was barely morning. Perhaps Kahei gets the worst ideas when it’s barely morning.
“H-hey,” Kahei mumbled out when the call connected, her heart thumping loudly in her ears. The night surrounded her in an urgent silence and at this point it was starting to scare her, but she felt both relieved and anxious that Haseul picked up.
For a moment, the line is silent, but then Haseul lets out an airy, unexpected laugh. “Kahei?”
Kahei can’t help smiling. It’s been a while since she’s heard her voice. “H-hi, um, good morning?” Kahei looks up to the night sky and wonders if it’s really morning or if it’s just really late at night. “Did I wake you up?” Panic sets in at the realization that she should've waited and-
She holds her breath when she hears Haseul shift around. “It's fine, you can call me whenever you want… Even if you don't have a reason to.”
Kahei takes a moment to breathe because oh no her heart is thumping really loudly right now and oh no, can Haseul hear it through the phone? That’s not possible, right? “I do have a reason!” she says in a cheery voice that’s too bright and too loud and too everything. Perhaps she’s starting to regret this.
“Oh?” Haseul answers. “I’m here, what’s wrong? Is something wrong?” There’s this urgency in her voice, something like fear, and Kahei just wants to hold her and tell her it isn’t serious.
“It’s just- It’s dumb, I know, but I just really miss you…”
“You called me to tell me you miss me?” Haseul asks and her voice is a bit higher than usual, like she’s not sure if she heard right.
“Yeah.” Kahei bites her lower lip. She wants the ground to open up and swallow her whole, to somehow pretend this never happened and that she wasn’t in front of Haseul’s house so early in the morning. “It’s a problem.”
“W-what’s a problem?”
“The fact that I miss you.” Kahei paces a bit. She’s trying to push forwards instead of backing out but she’s so afraid. “I shouldn’t miss you so much, but I do.”
Haseul stays quiet, perhaps trying to take in what Kahei said.
“It’s a problem,” Kahei repeats and stops pacing, staring up at the closed door and debating whether or not she’s really going to do this.
“Why is it a problem?” Haseul laughs and she sounds so joyful somehow. “That’s a good problem to have.”
“No, no it isn’t.” Kahei tries to will herself to just say it out loud and confess why she’s really here. Or, at the very least let Haseul know she’s standing right outside and that it’s kinda cold. “I did something I probably shouldn’t have done.”
“What is it?” Haseul moves around again, and it sounds like she got up from her bed.
Kahei sits down in front of the door, staring up at it as she answers Haseul. “I felt really lonely and I keep pushing people away. A-and I really missed you and I wanted to be here on Valentine’s Day.”
“Hey, babygirl, it’s fine,” Haseul comforts her. “You don’t need to worry about that.” A pause, it sounds like she’s holding her breath. “And you should spend Valentine’s with someone you love anyway.”
Kahei hugs her knees to her chest. The pet name makes her feel better. “I want to do that,” she admits. “I really want to. I hate being alone.”
“I wish I could see you before school,” Haseul tells her, voice soft and it's sending Kahei's heart all over the place. “Then we could both be alone together.”
Kahei smiles. Perhaps it hurts, but she's too lost in love to think too much about it for now. “I have a surprise for you, but I know you’re gonna be angry at me.” She chuckles lightly.
“Kahei…” Haseul warns, “What did you do?”
Kahei stands up and dusts herself off. “Can I come in?”
~
“Sorry again for waking you up,” Kahei repeats as she walks into Haseul’s room. It’s a bit messier than she last remembered it. She sits on the edge of the bed and Haseul sits next to her. “I know you study a lot at night and if you're really sleepy then we can talk later, it's really not that important-”
“Kahei,” Haseul stops her. “You got on a plane—even though you don’t like to fly—because you needed to see me. I doubt it’s not important.”
“Still though, I don’t want to be a burden or anything…”
“You’re not a burden, Kahei,” Haseul slaps her arm playfully. When Kahei doesn’t react, Haseul continues. “If it helps, it was nice that your voice was the first thing I heard today,” Haseul tells her with that lovely soft voice that made Kahei fall for her in the first place. “Now, tell me what’s wrong?”
“Do you remember the first time we kissed?” Kahei isn’t looking at her. “Before I left?” She looks at the pictures on the walls instead. There’s a polaroid of them together, and it brings a fond smile to her face.
“Are you really worried about that?” Haseul laughs, thought a bit awkwardly. She starts to play with her fingers.
Kahei nods slowly, still looking at the photo of them. “It’s hard to forget how it felt.”
Haseul’s eyebrows furrow and she turns towards Kahei. “How did it feel?”
“It felt like time stopped and like we were the only two people in the world.” Kahei finally looks at her. “It felt like so much and I didn’t know how to handle it. I’m sorry I didn’t text you, I’m sorry I was ignoring you. It was really shitty of me to do that, and you deserve someone who won’t try to avoid it.”
Haseul bites her lower lip. “Can I ask you for a favor?” she asks all of a sudden.
“Sure?” Kahei turns herself fully towards her.
“Can I kiss you? Just once more?” Haseul asks, not daring to get closer. “And if it doesn’t mean anything, then we can forget about it for forever this time and we can text each other and we can talk like we’re friends.”
“What if it ends up meaning something?” Kahei asks, and she seems so scared and small.
Haseul’s heart is in her throat, eyes glancing at Kahei’s lips, wanting nothing more than to close the gap between them. “Then please don’t run away.”
It takes a moment for Kahei to answer. “Okay.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
Haseul closes the gap, turning her head to the side and pressing her lips on Kahei briefly before pulling back. The simple peck makes her heart a mess.
“It means something to me,” Kahei confesses immediately—it’s what she’s been wanting to say since she landed. “It always does. It keeps meaning something to me. Whenever I’m close to you, and whenever I see you, and even when I see your name when you text me. I’m always scared to answer because I don’t know where this is going and I don’t know what I’ll do if I’m without you.”
Haseul caresses the side of her face gently with her thumb. “You don’t have to be without me, babygirl.”
“Are you really talking to your girlfriend on the phone this early?” a sleepy voice interrupts them, knocking on the door. The door is pushed open, revealing a very sleepy Yeojin who becomes more confused the more she stares at Kahei. “She’s… here?”
“Hello.” Kahei awkwardly raises a hand in greeting. “My name’s Kahei.”
“You’re Kahei?!” Yeojin practically screams. “You’re so pretty!! Why are you with my sister?? You could do so much better!”
Haseul narrows her eyes. “That’s rude, Yeojin.”
“It’s a compliment.”
“It’s rude to me!”
“Oh.” Yeojin bows down. “My apologies, princess.”
Kahei lays her head on Haseul’s shoulder, amused with Haseul’s little sister.
“Were you guys making out?” Yeojin asks bluntly, genuinely curious.
“OUT!” Haseul throws a pillow at Yeojin, aiming at her face.
Yeojin closes the door quickly to avoid being hit. “That’s rude,” she says offhandedly and seems to walk away.
“You’re really pretty,” Kahei tells Haseul as soon as Yeojin leaves.
Haseul’s cheeks redden a bit. Just a bit. No big deal, just a teeny tiny bit. And maybe Kahei stares at her face too long that she notices these details easier. Wait, am I staring for too long- Haseul’s definitely noticed, shit shit shit-
“Like, really pretty,” Kahei continues to ramble so that she can play off her weirdness. “You know those times when I didn’t say anything for a while? It was because I get lost in how beautiful you are.”
“T-that’s a funny way to admit you stare at me.”
“The first time I met you, I fell in love with your smile,” Kahei continues to ramble, and at this point it's becoming a competition of who gets embarrassed the most.
Haseul brightens red even more. “Kahei, you weren’t even answering my texts a few days ago, please give my heart a chance to breathe!”
Kahei smiles proudly.
~
“What’re you thinking about, babygirl?” Haseul asks after watching Kahei be silent for about a minute and a half. “You’ve been quiet for a while.”
Kahei smiles shyly. “Is it bad that I kinda want to sneak into your school so I can meet your friends?”
Haseul giggles. “I’m pretty sure that’s not legal…”
“I look like I could belong, though…” Kahei tries to convince her.
“Oh, fine,” Haseul shakes her head but hugs Kahei tightly. “I guess it’s worth a try.”
“I was also thinking, would it be too cliche if we matched clothes a little?”
Haseul smiles widely and perhaps Kahei’s heart melts. “That’s a good idea! Oh, actually a bought this the other day…” Haseul trails off as she opens her closet door and searches for something. “Here it is!”
She pulls out two sweaters with a matching heart pattern, one pink and one red. They look disgustingly romantic and it’s doing bad things to Kahei’s heart.
“These days have been really chilly and I thought it looked cute, but it also reminded me of you so I got two,” Haseul rambles. “I kept thinking about how cute you would look with it on and then I bought it without thinking twice, but then I realized I wasn’t really going to see you until summer so that was dumb of me, but I couldn’t bring myself to take it back because it looks like it suits you really well.” Haseul’s voice becomes higher the more she rambles. “Don’t you think so, babygirl?”
Haseul trails off when Kahei starts to put it on, squirming into it until it’s over her uniform shirt. The sleeves are a tiny bit long, but it just gives an added cuddliness charm to it. Haseul stays quiet for a noticeable moment, fingers playing with the fabric of her own sweater.
“What do you think?” Kahei asks, trying to snap Haseul out of it. “Does it suit me?”
“You look really cute in that sweater, unnie,” Haseul says while looking away, seeming embarrassed about something. She puts on her own sweater, pinching the sides down when it hugs her chest.
“I think we look really cute,” Kahei tells her, giggly and smiling widely.
Haseul attacks her in a hug. “I’m so glad you’re here.”
~
The teacher stares quizzically at Kahei.
“Hello, professor Jeong,” Kahei says while bowing slightly.
“Hey, Kahei?” he asks more than says. “You’re still in this school?”
Haseul sweats next to Kahei, worried that they’re going to get caught even though they’ve come this far.
Kahei smiles as if nothing is out of the ordinary. “Yes, I have a free period right now but I didn’t have anything to do so I decided to come with Haseul to her class.” Kahei tilts her head towards the girl at her side, who had an arm around her. “I hope that’s fine with you?”
“Yeah, it’s fine,” the teacher smiles, though still a bit confused. “Just don’t distract any of the students, okay?” he warns. “That includes Haseul.”
Kahei laughs. “Of course, sir.”
~
Since it was Valentine’s Day, the only interesting things happening had to do with it. Kids getting their hearts broken and random drama here and there.
Unfortunately, that meant that most of Haseul’s friends were running around with their own confessions—and some were running away from confessions—at lunchtime so that meant that Kahei didn’t get to properly meet all of them.
The only one Kahei talked to for a good amount of time was Hyunjin, who was actively trying to forget that today was Valentine’s for whatever reason.
“Hyun, do you know where Heejin is?” Haseul asks her. “She hasn’t said hi to Kahei yet.”
“Oh, I don’t know where she is,” Hyunjin answered and smiled uncomfortably.
“How many friends do you have?” Kahei asks jokingly. “You’re friends with like three different friend groups!”
“I like collecting friends!” Haseul says cutely.
Kahei can’t help but laugh at Haseul’s attempt at being cute. “Oh my, you make me feel so damn gushy.”
“Gushy? ” Haseul laughs.
“That’s a word! I think!”
“Gushy!” Haseul laughs even louder.
They knew that their time together was limited, that sooner rather than later Kahei would need to leave again. And yet, laughing over dumb little things made it seem sweeter than bittersweet, and that they were making memories that they could keep in their hearts forever, rather than something to think back to and miss. It seemed like the future was only a step away for their happy ending.
Haseul hugs Kahei tightly after she finished laughing. “Gosh, I love you a little bit too much.”
“Love me a little less!” Kahei tries to say, being choked by Haseul’s too tight hug.
“Nah,” Haseul answers while loosening her grip, but she’s still so giggly and cute and happy that it makes Kahei’s heart feel warm and bubbly.