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The city is exhausting. Behind the glory and beauty of the twinkling lights and the spirit of life, there is a toll of competition and ingenuity that dulls the soul.
Nayeon used to be so bright. She used to be a young and hopeful woman with her dreams in her hand, a mind full of inspiration, and the will to create stories for others to sing. Making a name for herself in the industry proved to be a hefty obstacle to climb and heaving herself up to a notable platform was sapping all of her hope away. The words she scribbled onto paper no longer carried the magic it used to. The echo of passion and emotion was lacking and leaked away from her along with her inspiration. All of the expectations, the tiring hustle, and the lack of humanity weighed on her shoulders like a heavy ton of trucks.
She needs to escape, to run away from the city lights, the honking of cars, and the endless eyes watching her every move. She needs to find her inspiration again and to look for any hope that lingered in her heart. Underneath all of her exhaustion is still her burning dream to share her heart with anyone willing to listen.
Buying a transit ticket to Damyang-gun and renting an Airbnb, Nayeon took to recovery. The first morning there, it is not the sound of running cars, the chatter of pedestrians, or the pounding of construction that wakes her. Instead, it’s the warm cast of light from the risen sun and the whistling song of the birds outside of her window that flutters her eyes open. Even the air itself carries a different feeling. Instead of the stifling smog-filled air in the city, the one in the countryside feels lighter and cleaner. Being in the city, it felt like everything rushed by while Nayeon stood at a still. But, there, in the bed she lie on, life is going at a pace she craves.
She could just breathe and that was something she could not afford in the city. Always on the move, always preoccupied with what to do and how to survive, fretting about her job, and fitting in with society, Nayeon took this breath of fresh air with the greatest appreciation. Rolling out of bed and getting ready for the day, Nayeon slips outside to take a walk and explore. There along the road, is the most green she has ever seen. Vibrant trees that lightly swayed in the air brought along slotted areas where the sun would bleed through. The serenity of it all brought tears to her eyes. The desperation to escape was getting fed with each step she took further into the countryside.
Walking further down the bamboo groves that littered Damyang-gun, a farmers’ market lies on the side of the street. The people of Damyang-gun move and go about life with a sense of peaceful ease. The market carries a low murmur of residents talking to sellers, amongst themselves, and to their company. There is no rush in how they walk, no desperation to leave and move to another destination. Along the banks, farmers present their goods with pride in their eyes. Everything laid out on the tables comes from their own hands, their own soil. Amongst the faces of more matured residents, a particularly young looking face stands out to Nayeon. The woman looks around her age with bright and lively eyes, long brown hair that sits tied in a ponytail at the top of her head, and a joyful smile. Looking along the sea of people and helping those that stopped by her stand, she gazes in pride at the flowers that she grew at her own farm at home. Stopping at the stand and smelling a bundle of white flowers, Nayeon feels the peace of nature settling into her body and into her heart.
“How much is it for this, Miss?”
The woman’s voice is high and light, refreshing to Nayeon’s ears, “One bundle like that is 3,000 won.”
Keeping the bundle of flowers with her and choosing two more, she hands the bills of money to the florist. Accepting the money with a kind smile, Nayeon feels the woman’s genuine appreciation in how her eyes twinkle and how she waves goodbye as Nayeon delves further into the market. Right next to the flower stand is a fruit stand. A young woman as well operates the stand. She looks even younger, although, not that much younger. A mole adorns the lower left part of her face, right under her full lips. Nayeon finds it charming, especially when the woman’s lips lift to greet her with a beautiful smile. The dimples that dip at her cheeks kicks Nayeon’s heart into acceleration. Bowing in greeting, Nayeon surveys the fruits in front of her. The bright red of strawberries catches her eyes. Packaged neatly and labeled with a sticker on top, Nayeon finds the logo endearing. A sun-like face with circle eyes, a line for a nose, and an upturned smile, Nayeon figures the woman herself designed the drawing.
“The season for strawberries has arrived. The batches around this time are always a bit more sweet and vibrant.”
Her voice is soft but commands attention. When Nayeon looks up to the farmer and her eyes find her dark brown ones, it feels as if everything and everyone around her disappears. There in the populated farmers’ market, Nayeon finds herself alone with the strawberry farmer. Her heart likes the comfort she finds there.
Her voice brings Nayeon out of the magical revere she was in, “We also have jam made from the same bunch.” Shaking her head and bringing her focus back to reality, Nayeon decides to grab two packages of strawberries and a jar of strawberry jam. In the haze of attraction, she pays for the food, her eyes consumed with tracing every part of the woman’s face in hopes to etch her in her memory. The farmer graces her with a gentle, yet, bright smile as she parts and Nayeon entertains the thought of returning once more.
When Nayeon returns home, she writes a song that feels more like her heart and less like the false manufacturing her mind forces onto paper. Beside the journal that houses her words and attempts at storytelling, a bowl of cut strawberries is continuously picked at with a silver fork.
The farmer was right. Its flavor was bright and pleasingly sweet, just like how the woman’s smile felt.
~.~
The next morning, Nayeon returns to the farmers’ market. She buys flowers once more from the girl with the joyful smile, debates buying another package of strawberries despite having two packages from the day before.
“Doesn’t Chaeyoungie have the greatest strawberries you’ve ever tasted?”
The florist stands at the area between her stand and the strawberry farmer’s. Her tone is friendly and welcoming. “Chaeyoungie” blushes at the florist’s compliment and shrugs it off, “It’s all in the soil, Sana unnie. We’re just lucky that it rained a lot before strawberry season came.”
“Well, Chaeyoung, another farmer could grow strawberries on the land next to yours, hell, even on your land, and I would still buy yours because it’s not just the soil that makes the strawberries so appealing. I think this woman here could agree with me.” Before turning away to tend to her customers, she sends a wink to Nayeon with a coy and teasing smile.
She couldn’t have been that obvious? But then again, who returns to buy strawberries when one already has two perfect packages sitting in their fridge? When Chaeyoung settles her eyes on her with an eyebrow slightly raised, Nayeon feels her cheeks warming to a pretty pink color. She flusters at the attention. Before scrambling away in embarrassment, Nayeon murmurs an admission of truth, “She’s not wrong. It’s definitely not just the soil.” As she hustles away with her head hung and her cheeks burning, Chaeyoung’s lips lift into a bright and beaming smile as she lingers her eyes on the retreating figure.
Looking beside her and making eye contact with Sana, “I hope you didn’t scare her away, unnie. She was cute and had a pretty smile.”
Sana just giggles and bumps her shoulders against the strawberry farmer’s, “I think it’s going to take more than just me to scare her away from you, Chaeng.”
A moment passes and the woman who rushed away rushes back with her cheeks still rosy, her lips pulled into a timid smile, “I took a package and forgot to pay.” She places a couple of bills in Chaeyoung’s hands that were laid out instinctively to receive payment. Mumbling a million apologies and bowing repeatedly, the woman backtracks quickly, slightly trips over a crack on the ground, and almost runs away from the fruit stand in burning embarrassment.
Chaeyoung feels her heart softening at the arrival of the strange woman in her life.
She hears her grandma’s words echo in the back of her mind, “Be kind; be soft to the world.”
Chaeyoung abandoned softness when the world turned a cold shoulder towards her.
Chaeyoung thinks that Nayeon might be the one to help her rediscover vulnerability.
~.~
When Chaeyoung returns home once the market closes, Sana joins her after she returns the flowers at her stand to her house that was not too far away from Chaeyoung’s. However, at her arrival, two other people accompany her. Mina who often caters to the financial side of Sana’s business and Tzuyu who usually tends to the acres of flowers with her tags along. It is a usual occurrence for Chaeyoung to see the trio together once the market would end. Sometimes Tzuyu or Mina would be the one tending to customers like Sana had been the two days before, but, the two strongly preferred to stay at home and work there. Tzuyu claims that as great as people can be, they could never beat her dog that resided at their home and Mina claims that her voice would tire from the constant talking but Sana and Tzuyu knew that Mina just preferred not to talk at great lengths for long periods of time. It was a team chemistry that flowed along smoothly.
As the four arrive to Chaeyoung’s home, Momo and Jeongyeon’s voices are audible once the farmer pulls the door open.
“Momo that is your fifth slice of bread. Don’t you think that’s a little too much?”
Tzuyu interjects before greeting the company at her friend’s house, “There is no such thing as too much bread, Jeongyeon unnie.”
Momo brightens at Tzuyu’s presence and teases Jeongyeon before snuggling into her arms, “If Tzuyu says there’s no such thing, then, there’s no such thing.”
Momo’s smug smile warrants another scolding from Jeongyeon, “You know, just because your girlfriend is super fit and and healthy, that doesn’t mean everything she says is right.”
“Maybe so, but, she’s my girlfriend so she’s always right.”
Jeongyeon knows she will not win this fight and surrenders with her arms held up in resignation.
She fake gags when the two kiss and moves on towards Chaeyoung who is focused on getting her strawberries back into the commercial fridge that stands beside their modest one that holds the house’s food.
“So, I overheard Sana telling Jihyo and Dahyun about Cute Strawberry Girl coming back to your carts today.”
“And?”
“And how was it?”
Chaeyoung turns around with a raised eyebrow and shakes her head at how Jeongyeon looks at her with all of the interest in the world.
“Nice.”
Jeongyeon stays quiet in hopes of further elaboration only to be met with silence.
“Just nice? That’s it?”
“No. But, does it necessarily concern you?”
Jeongyeon lightly bumps at the farmer’s butt with her knee, “Yah, Chaeyoung. I am starved of entertainment and I am dying from boredom. Would you please indulge in my selfish desires and tell me more?”
The younger girl laughs at the exaggerated pleading Jeongyeon performs as she drops below Chaeyoung’s face with a pout and big eyes. Chaeyoung ruffles Jeongyeon’s hair before she sighs and gives in, “She was so much cuter than I could have ever expected. She came back and bought another package even though she already bought two yesterday. She was all blushy and stuttering and nervous. And, I don’t know, Jeongyeon unnie, she feels so refreshing.”
Noticing the tonal shift from joking to serious, Jeongyeon lays a hand on Chaeyoung’s shoulder, strokes the broad expanse of it with her thumb, “Don’t be afraid to let yourself feel, Chaeng. Even if she’s here today and gone tomorrow, it’s better to have felt than not at all.”
Jeongyeon had been there when Chaeyoung fell from the top of the world to the floor of it. She had been there to support her as she rose from her knees and dusted the disappointment layered on her shirt off, to be the friend that she needed when Chaeyoung’s grandma fell ill while she was away in the city pursuing her dreams.
Before being a farmer, Chaeyoung was a fairly notable composer in the music industry. Her sound had infiltrated the music scene and her work could be found in several artists that had succeeded. Reasonably happy in the city and moving along well with the hustle of the industry, the girl found no reason to return to her home in the countryside. When Chaeyoung heard about her grandma falling ill, she abandoned everything she had in the city to accompany her. Her grandma had been the one to encourage Chaeyoung on her journey towards her dream. She had assisted in paying for all of her piano lessons, bought a guitar that Chaeyoung still presently uses, motivated her to study music theory, no matter how excruciating it was to memorize and learn the scales of notes.
Chaeyoung knew to keep a humble heart; her grandma had taught her that too. Chaeyoung knew loyalty and she would not allow for her grandma to be alone in days that dragged on, in days where her body would not cooperate, and her mind would falter in hope. While her grandma fought the illness, Chaeyoung promised to be beside her. Nonetheless, illness is sometimes a matter that cannot be fought. When she passed, Chaeyoung moved back to the city but could no longer find the magic that she used to seek as she watched people walk along the street. She no longer found the twinkling lights beautiful, the blinking of street lights calming, and ached for home.
During a particular night where Chaeyoung cut a bowl of strawberries for her to eat and found them too sour, and after pouring sugar into the bowl and mixing, faint memories of her grandma filtered in. And for once, after a fairly long time, Chaeyoung found peace and a semblance of happiness. Maybe home was back in the countryside where her grandma resided; maybe her heart longed to be there instead of the city.
Packing a bag and buying a ticket to Damyang-gun, Chaeyoung retired to the place that used to be home for her. There, she reconnected with Jeongyeon who had been her childhood friend. The same night when she returned, she cried into the older girl’s arms and allowed for herself to be vulnerable in front of her friend. The next day, Chaeyoung wakes up to find breakfast on the table with a bowl of strawberries beside the rice and water. There, Jeongyeon was washing dishes and Chaeyoung felt that this was home, not her apartment in the city. Before parting, Jeongyeon runs a hand through Chaeyoung’s hair and leaves her number on the table, “If you need anything, even if it’s just needing someone to sit with you, text me and I’ll be right there.”
Chaeyoung impulsively calls a moving truck and arranges for permanent relocation back to the countryside. Since then, Chaeyoung joined Jeongyeon in tending to the farm that her grandma once tended to. There, she meets Jihyo who Chaeyoung faintly remembers as Jeongyeon’s friend, now girlfriend, that would sometimes join them on their escapades. As time went on, Chaeyoung befriended Dahyun who had assisted her grandma while Chaeyoung was away and in the city. Dahyun had been a cornerstone in Chaeyoung’s healing. The older girl would tell her stories about her grandma, relay her wisdom, and her wistful knowledge. Through her, Chaeyoung found the spirit of her grandma.
But, Dahyun on her own is a pill of happiness.
Chaeyoung fondly recalls a memory where she had proved herself to be a significant figure in her life. It was when Chaeyoung first moved and was settling into her new life. She had strawberries simmering in a pan to make jam for the upcoming farmers’ market and Dahyun had occupied her to take a break in the shade after picking her quota of packages for the weekend.
“So, you leave the city where you make jams for people to dance to for the countryside where you still make jams. Jars of them. For people to consume.”
Chaeyoung laughs a boisterous laugh. She can’t remember the last time she erupted in laughter like that. Wiping the tears away that leaked from her eyes, Dahyun’s chittering laughter and bright smile brought happiness to her heart.
This was home. With Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun. When Chaeyoung meets Sana and her ragtag group of friends, they become another home for her to find comfort in.
Home, Chaeyoung finds, is anywhere her friends are.
They remind her of what being soft feels like. Chaeyoung still struggles with opening up to the world and being soft too.
She’s working on it.
Being kind is easy. Being unconditionally kind to the world and to herself is another battle.
~.~
Nayeon decides to extend her stay for another two weeks.
The thought of returning to the city seemed so displeasing. She couldn’t help but want to retreat from the place that she viewed as damaging, putrid, and ugly. Being away from the pressure of expectations, Nayeon felt the peace she had been aching so earnestly for. Being able to wake up past twelve, having the leisure to just stroll about with no place in mind to end up in, the chirping of birds in the daytime and grasshoppers at night, and the genuine conversations residents would engage in with her made her feel as if life was meant for more than just surviving.
It is an odd Tuesday afternoon when Nayeon decides to explore the groves of bamboo trees so infamously known in Damyang-gun. There, she takes pictures of the towering plants that provide shade from the sun, inhales the fresh air, and allows for her mind to ease into the serenity of the groves. That is, until a high shrieking voice brings her out of her peace. The voice is familiar and as she looks to her left, the florist is sat on a blanket with another girl. At the sound of movement, Sana lands her eyes on Nayeon who looks a bit like a deer in headlights.
“Oh! Strawberry Girl! Hello!”
Nayeon blushes at the nickname and lifts a shy hand in greeting, “Hi, Sana? Right?”
Before Sana can confirm, the girl beside the florist whips her head around and the sight of her makes Nayeon laugh in a way she has not laughed in for awhile. The girl was cute, by all means, with wide and bright eyes, a pleasing facial structure and composition, but what got to her was the sight of baby carrots precariously stuffed in her nostrils. Nayeon wasn’t sure she would be quick to snack on carrots so soon but she appreciated the humor that presented itself in front of her. Nayeon tries to stifle her laughter to appease politeness. The girl throws the carrots from her nose to the floor with swift embarrassment but her chittering laughter breaks any tension or awkwardness around the three.
This is what Nayeon loves about the countryside. The ability to just let go—let go of any pretense, any sense of normality.
Sana waves her over with her ever-joyful smile and introduces the girl beside her, “Let me introduce us properly. I’m Sana and goofball over here is my girlfriend, Dahyun.”
Dahyun’s cheeks are colored bright red as she still recovers from the first impression Nayeon gets of her.
Before Nayeon moves to bow, Sana is quick to interfere, “You don’t need to bow to us. It feels so stiff and unnecessary when we’re probably close in age.” In replacement, Nayeon waves and introduces herself.
Before Nayeon turns around to leave, Sana taps at her shoulder and regards her with innocent curiosity as her head tilts in thought.
“Am I wrong to think you’re not from here? I’ve never seen you around and Damyang-gun is a pretty small place. I’m used to most of the faces here and I’ve never seen yours. I definitely would remember a face like yours.”
Nayeon blushes at how the florist makes her admission sound like a compliment.
“I’m not from here. I’m just taking a vacation, of sorts, away from everything.”
Dahyun wiggles her eyebrows in light-heartedness and coos in excitement, “A city girl?”
Nayeon smiles at the bright interest in the girl’s eyes and nods.
“The city got to be too much? Chaeyoung once told me about how she’d go through bouts of feeling like that when she lived in Seoul.”
Chaeyoung. The girl that had been running around in Nayeon’s mind makes an appearance once more. Her dimpled smile and her charming mole and her sweet eyes that swept Nayeon off of her feet reminds her of how much better the countryside seemed in comparison to the city. The countryside had Chaeyoung. The city used to have her.
Nayeon sighs and nods her head again, a noticeable pull of exhaustion pulling it down. Dahyun continues on, “Well, I think you’re in the right place. A whole lot of everything and nothing happens here. It’s peaceful.”
Before Nayeon parts from the two of them in respect to their date, Sana invites her to a get together her friends were going to have later on in the night. Apparently Jeongyeon, a girl that Sana quickly glosses over as one of Chaeyoung’s friends that help with her farm, was going to attempt strawberry shortcake. Nayeon accepts the invitation. She finds it odd as she is one who is typically extremely guarded and cautious. Perhaps it was Sana’s genuine eyes that gleamed in hope for her attendance, or perhaps, it was how Dahyun nodded eagerly in agreement with Sana’s invitation. Something about the two women seemed so pure and wholesome. In a city, with their genuine dispositions, they would stick out like a golden needle in a mess of silver ones. It’s hard to find such innocent and unconditional comradery there.
When Nayeon leaves her house for Chaeyoung’s, in which Sana provided the address for, Nayeon knocks on wood to hope for her safety, figures a prayer to the high heavens would be unnecessary.
~.~
“What do you mean you invited the extremely cute strawberry girl to my house?”
Sana pauses to think of another way to inform Chaeyoung of the newcomer’s invitation but finds no other way, and just nods her head, “I mean exactly that. I invited cute strawberry girl to your house, the house in which our extremely talented friend, Jeongyeon, is going to attempt strawberry shortcake with the strawberries you grow on your very own farm.”
Chaeyoung scoffs at the girl’s smart answer, “Okay, respectfully, smartass, I understand the words you meant, but, what the fuck? I am not ready to meet her and talk with her. I am a mess! I’m sure I still have dirt on my cheeks from working, my clothes looks like tour guides’ who show children around through acres of land, and I am completely unprepared with the thought of interacting with this pretty girl.”
Jihyo, who had been in the kitchen with them snacking on some fruit tarts that Jeongyeon had made the night before, interjects, “Well, you better shower and prepare yourself then because she’s coming.”
Chaeyoung huffs at the task ahead of her and exclaims into the open air about her frustration as she storms to her room and hustles for a shower, “I cannot believe my own friends are throwing me into the fire only for me to probably embarrass myself in front of this girl who I think is really cute and this is going to be a complete mess and I am going to blame all of you when she never comes back!”
Jihyo and Sana shout back a reaffirming cheer of support as the farmer disappears into her room.
The younger of the two leans her head against the other’s and sighs, “She must really be hung up on this girl if she’s this stressed out.”
“You know Chaeyoung. Not a lot fazes her. Her house could literally fall apart and all she would mourn is the odd doll, her art supplies, and her music stuff. Something about this city girl is making our Chaeyoung feel more than she would allow herself to.”
“She’s something significant, isn’t she?”
Sana reaches up to caress at Jihyo’s hair and nods against her head, “She’s definitely someone who is going to change the tide our little group has.”
Jihyo, with her eyes closed in relaxation nuzzles further into Sana, “Let’s hope the change is good then.”
~
True to her words, Nayeon appears in front of Chaeyoung’s house, a bottle of wine in her hands. She wasn’t sure what would be appropriate or polite to bring as a guest so she resorts to what she knows and brings some fancy wine she bought at the grocery market a mile or so away from her house that she was renting.
Her heart pounds in anticipation. Nayeon wonders if it was in anticipation at meeting a bunch of strangers? In anticipation of seeing the girl that sent her heart racing at the mere thought of her? In anticipation of the expectations she had for the night? Nayeon figures that it’s all of the above. Unsure on whether to knock or ring the doorbell, Nayeon takes to texting Sana about her arrival. Quickly after, the door pulls open and a girl she has never seen before appears.
She was tall, had medium long brown hair, and a small face. She was very easily one of the most beautiful people Nayeon had ever seen.
Sana’s face pops out behind the girl’s back and her eyes gleam at the sight of Nayeon and the bottle of red wine in her hands. Welcoming the girl in and swiftly taking the bottle away, Sana eases some of the nerves that festered in Nayeon’s stomach.
“Hi Nayeon! You brought wine! This will be gone by tonight!”
Another voice joins Sana’s, “City girl brought wine? She’s already in my good graces.”
As Sana and the girl who introduces herself as Jeongyeon walks Nayeon further into the house, more voices reach her ears. In the kitchen where Sana and Jeongyeon’s tour ends, five other girls were sat at the dinner table or littered around the kitchen counters.
Sana quickly introduces them all.
“Sickeningly cute couple eating bread together is Momo and Tzuyu, Tzuyu being the taller one. The one who already opened your bottle of wine and is currently having a glass now is Jihyo. Mina is the one who is enjoying her dinner. Aren’t her puffed out cheeks the cutest thing? And of course, my lovely and beautiful girlfriend who you met earlier today is stealing food from Mina’s plate.”
Nayeon tries to take notes and make hints on whose names matched with which faces. She finds that she couldn’t explicitly note either of these women as just pretty as they all were devastatingly gorgeous.
“Chaeyoung’s getting cleaned up. She’s been in the fields pretty much all day tending to her fruit.”
Sana then calls for their attention with her startlingly loud voice, “Everyone! This is Nayeon; let’s try not to overwhelm her tonight! We’d like to keep her company!”
The group welcomes her with their smiles, their waves, and their warm greetings. Nayeon is quick to see how the group of friends all carried a similar heart. Their eyes are genuine, the countenance of their faces loving and warm. Nayeon thinks that the sight ahead of her is something akin to art.
A sudden rushing of footsteps grabs Nayeon’s attention, “Is she here? I got all cleaned up and I smell like cocoa butter and vanilla instead of dirt and sweat!”
Jeongyeon ruffles the hair that Chaeyoung so cautiously styled. The younger girl exclaims in panic and rushes to fix her hair again using her phone as a mirror.
“If you look away from your phone, you’d see that she’s standing in your kitchen, dummy.”
Suddenly freezing, Chaeyoung lowers her phone and finds the most beautiful girl in front of her kitchen table dressed in jeans and a comfy sweater. Quickly pocketing her phone and waving at her, Chaeyoung rushes a greeting towards the girl, “Hi! It must be odd for you to come to my house and meet literally everyone else in it before the actual owner. I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to shower for so long but it felt so nice to shower since my muscles are so tired and I’m now realizing that I’m rambling and this is probably really awkward and, oh my God, I don’t even know your name and I’m telling you my life story and-”
Chaeyoung stops herself and heaves a breath of air before quickly exhaling.
“I’m sorry; let me start over. I’m Chaeyoung, welcome to my house, and I hope you aren’t so put off from my introduction that I will never see you again.”
Nayeon aches in devastation at how heart shakingly cute the girl in front of her is. To ease the girl’s very obvious tension, Nayeon breathes a smile that she thinks her own nervousness leaks through, and holds her hand out in greeting.
“Let’s start over then. I’m Nayeon. It’s a pleasure to meet you and your friends and I think your introduction was perfect.”
When Chaeyoung shakes her hand, the two find it hard to part their hands. Nayeon’s hands were so soft, larger than hers, but still, felt so perfect in them. The older girl finds the other girl’s fingers to be callused but welcomes the feeling, figures it might be due to the endless hours she spends farming.
Chaeyoung’s friends in her kitchen all look amongst themselves with curiosity and wonder in their eyes. This is a side of Chaeyoung they have never seen before and it is a sight to behold.
They are definitely going to tease her about this later on.
~
The night goes on without a hitch. Nayeon affirms her thought that the chemistry between the eight girls is an art. Something about the balance between them feels so natural and fated. While some are more quiet than others, there is a balance in how one would be expressive and loud and the other would laugh in reaction and give them the attention they called for. Despite the group already having an established solid bond, Nayeon finds herself seamlessly fitting in with their conversations and their jokes.
Whilst Jeongyeon shuffles around the kitchen preparing the dry ingredients, Jihyo sits at the table cutting the tops off of strawberries and dicing them. Nayeon is keen to notice how Jeongyeon kisses her in thanks before doting a spot of flour on Jihyo’s nose and running away before a messy flour fight could ensue.
Dahyun and Sana are constantly moving, whether it be individually or as a unit. The two are such bright orbs of happiness and light that the sun would be envious. The two would make jokes or roll about on the floor to bring laughter to their friends. Nayeon sees how they work so well together. They play off of each other’s happiness; their hearts in harmony.
Momo and Tzuyu seem like an unlikely pair when Nayeon sees how they are individually, but, she sees how well they click together as time affords for more observation. While Momo is more obviously expressive and affectionate, Tzuyu is plenty affectionate and expressive on her own. Her arms stay glued around Momo’s waist and her smile is large and genuine when Momo laughs at something Mina says.
Mina, Nayeon notes, is more faceted than she appears. Seemingly put together and mature, she surrenders the thought when she sees Mina spontaneously jump into an impromptu ballet performance, in which Momo unlocks Tzuyu’s arms that were around her, and joins her with a flare of hip-hop instead of ballet.
And Chaeyoung, Nayeon thinks that she is the glue that bridges all of these people together. She could be quiet enough to compliment Tzuyu and Mina, but also rowdy and bouncy enough to compliment the remaining part of their group. The way her friends regarded her made Nayeon’s heart feel warm. In a singular connection of friendship, such genuine love resonated between them all for this girl. They are more than art; they are a unique existence to the world.
Nayeon hopes to be a part of such a thing.
She thinks she could be when they include her in their teasing and conversation. When Sana is the first to pull her into a hug after she tells an embarrassing story, she thinks that this could be her new home, with the eight girls beside her.
After drinking too much wine and getting full on delicious cake, Chaeyoung invites them all to crash at her house. Momo and Tzuyu take to the guest room, Jihyo in Jeongyeon’s room in which she is not foreign to being in, as well with Sana and Dahyun since the two already had rooms for them, and Mina, the couch.
Nayeon doesn’t think she will forget Chaeyoung’s timid smile when she offers her her room, “I can sleep on the floor and you can take my bed. It’s super comfy and warm and it has enough pillows to barricade yourself in.”
Nayeon refuses to let the girl sleep on the floor; this was her own house after all.
“We can just share the bed. It looks big enough and you shouldn’t have to sleep on the cold floor. And you said your muscles were tired. It’s not good for you to sleep without any support for them; especially when you have a long day ahead of you tomorrow.”
In chivalry, Chaeyoung tries to rebuttal but finds it hard to make a good argument against Nayeon’s.
In exaggerated resignation to hide her surge of nervousness and her beating heart, Chaeyoung sighs with a slight smile on her face.
Nayeon compliments her smile with her own gentle one, “We can even put pillows between us if it’ll make you feel better.”
Chaeyoung blushes as she mumbles under her breath, “It wouldn’t make me feel any better.”
Hearing her shy admission, Nayeon prepares for bed with the spare toothbrush Chaeyoung provided her with. After changing into Jeongyeon’s clothes, which she graciously offered because Chaeyoung’s would have been too short for her, Nayeon settles into bed and abandons the pillow barrier.
At the start of the night, the two fall asleep on their own designated sides. The next morning, Chaeyoung wakes up to find Nayeon’s arm slinged across her stomach and her steady breath of air wisping against her neck.
As the birds sing and signify the start to Chaeyoung’s day, the farmer decides to ignore the chirping and allows for her eyes to shut once again to retreat back to her dreamland.
Morning calls fall deaf to her ears when Nayeon’s arms are providing a comfort Chaeyoung can sink into.
The next time she wakes, it’s not the chirping of birds that calls for her consciousness. It is, instead, the hushed whispering of her friends at her door peering at the sight of the two cuddled together. Catching a phone in Momo’s hands, Chaeyoung glares in threat to ward them off from capturing pictures of them. Momo waves her phone in her hand with the picture of them already taken to mock her. Chaeyoung has half of the mind to chase her until she remembers she has the difficult task of untangling Nayeon’s arms around her.
While she wished to stay there, her strawberries were calling for her. Carefully maneuvering herself away from the comfortable hold, the girl is able to leave without alerting Nayeon awake. Brushing her teeth and sliding her slippers on, Chaeyoung leaves to the kitchen where her friends were eating a breakfast of toast and strawberry jam. Before exiting her house to start tending to her crops with a piece of toast in tow, she glares at Momo before making an “eyes on you” gesture. The girl just smiles smugly and waves her phone once more.
Slipping out and feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin, Chaeyoung smiles at the thought of her grandma doing the same thing in the past at the call of the sun.
~
Nayeon wakes when she hears muffled chatter. When she walks out of Chaeyoung’s room with her unruly hair and sleepy eyes, the group of seven people greets her with the sight of toast and strawberry jam. Once again, she finds herself eased into their dynamics smoothly, as if they had known each other their whole lives.
While Sana, Mina, Tzuyu (and thus Momo), retreat to Sana’s house where they resided to tend to their own plants, Jeongyeon, Jihyo, and Dahyun start to clear up the table to get ready for the day as well.
Before going into her room, Jeongyeon tells Nayeon that Chaeyoung had already taken to tending for her crops outside. After brushing her teeth and changing back into her clothes, Nayeon searches for Chaeyoung in the wide expanse of her property. While casually walking around and surveying the area, she finds Chaeyoung bent over, picking strawberries, and humming to a song. Careful to not startle her, Nayeon purposely scuffles her shoes against the dirt to warn the farmer on her appearance. At the intrusion of sound, Chaeyoung pops up and turns around to identify what it was. Upon finding Nayeon, a sweet smile stretches on her lips.
“Good morning, Nayeon.”
Nayeon feels her lips doing the same.
“Good morning, Chaeyoung.”
A strand of hair that did not make it to Chaeyoung’s hair tie falls to her face and Nayeon instinctively brushes it away with gentle fingers. A blush settles on the farmer’s cheeks and the older girl finds the sight awfully endearing.
“How’d you sleep?”
“Peacefully well.”
Chaeyoung nods again, her cheeks coloring an even brighter pink, “Good.”
The silence around them is comfortable; being around Chaeyoung is serene.
“My grandma used to do this. She would wake every morning, take care of the fields, and when the time was right, she would come home with baskets of strawberries. She would cut them for me and mix sugar with them because I always liked my strawberries extra sweet. And while I would eat them, she would talk to me about everything and anything. Even when I was a kid, when I could barely understand what she was saying, she would talk to me intelligently, seriously, and I always felt capable around her. She said that even if I wouldn’t understand her, I would understand her heart. She’s the reason for all of this, for who I am today. She’s one of those people who changes lives.”
Nayeon thinks Chaeyoung must have learned from her grandma on that one. She is single handedly changing her life. With her genuineness, her honest heart, her hopeful eyes, her blend of friends, and her life here, Chaeyoung is showing Nayeon the beauty of change. Nayeon thinks that even if she were to be so unfortunate as to be separated from the girl, her perspective on life would be different. Chaeyoung, with how she is, is teaching her how to find peace and consolation in every single outlet of life. There is a silver lining everywhere, even in the city that Nayeon wanted to run away from. There are the acts of humanity, the unity in diversity, the beauty in watching life meeting spirit when others are kind to those around them despite the cutthroat need to succeed. Although, Nayeon concludes that the city lacks in one thing: Chaeyoung. She is more than a sliver of hope; she is hope itself.
Ever since meeting Chaeyoung and getting to know her more, Nayeon feels herself brimming with inspiration and a need to write, to depict what her heart feels. It is an innocent attraction with an overwhelming urge to know more, to feel more, to be around her more. The song Nayeon wrote when she first met Chaeyoung was met kindly with recording artists. The same night she emailed her lyrics to her manager, they had already appealed to a multitude of people.
Nayeon thinks to plan a bridge between the city and countryside. Her manager, a flexible and understanding woman, is resourceful enough to aid her in making a smooth transition.
The future is looking bright. Nayeon feels her heart is at peace.
Everything is okay and when Chaeyoung raises a strawberry to her face to praise the vibrancy of its color, Nayeon thinks that it compliments the color of her lips.
Everything will fall into place and Nayeon thinks she’ll be more than okay with how life will unfold with her, especially when Chaeyoung takes her hand after disposing of her gloves to give her a tour of her farm.
~.~
Time flies when dread doesn’t drown the days that go by. Nayeon settles into the countryside a mere three months after moving to a place not too from the farmers’ market where she first met Chaeyoung and Sana. When Nayeon transitioned from the city into the countryside, the group was eager to help her with whatever needed to be sorted out. Tzuyu and Jeongyeon were kind enough to lend their generous reach when putting up lights or wall decorations. Sana and Jihyo had helped Nayeon with the placement of furniture while Momo and Chaeyoung moved most of the hefty pieces. Mina and Dahyun had stuck around to wire whatever needed to be wired.
As each gathering passes by, Nayeon feels herself becoming more embedded within their dynamics. There is a more natural flow of conversation and she finds herself able to interact with each of them without feeling nervous or awkward. It's safe to say that the eight girls welcomed her with opened arms and hearts.
During a sleepover at Chaeyoung’s, Dahyun pulls out the piano chair and starts playing a melody that softly rings out into the air. “Affections Touching Across Time” pulls the group together around the piano and as the player would change songs, Chaeyoung ends up sitting beside the girl playing songs as well. She had always been a natural at composing. Melodies would just swim around her mind and she would know how to piece them together. With Dahyun’s startling perfect pitch and Chaeyoung’s knack of composing, the two play as if they share one mind. There, Nayeon discovers an even greater love for music. Pulling out her phone and typing lyrics as she settles in the back with Mina’s head on her shoulder, she feels herself slipping into her element. Her heart’s words are genuine and raw and she clutches onto the immense pride she feels in what she writes.
The night passes on and slowly the girls settle into their own bubbles. Nayeon is beside Chaeyoung at the piano seat. Sitting shoulder to shoulder, sharing their love for creating music, Nayeon sees in her heart a great yearning for the girl next to her. It is an understatement for Nayeon to say that she likes her. Caught between like and love, all the songwriter knows is that she wants to be around her. She wants to listen to her opinions, to bounce questions off of her and create fruitful discussion, to hold her tight, and kiss her once the day ends. She wants to share nights with her where Chaeyoung would spend hours talking about her grandma, share mornings with her outside picking strawberries, and quiet afternoons just lying beside her and letting the world pass by without any care or urgency.
Chaeyoung is not far off from that sentiment either, if not, she feels mutually the same. With Nayeon, the girl feels her defenses crumble to dust. Vulnerability is easy when Nayeon is the one to protect her through it. She is second to know the depth of her grieving, how painful mourning over her grandma was, Jeongyeon being the first. However, Nayeon is the first to hear the insecurity and fear Chaeyoung keeps locked down in her closet of skeletons. She is the one who reassures her and gives her heart company in its moment of raw honesty.
Being soft around Nayeon is an impossible phenomenon to stop because once Chaeyoung felt what it feels like to be protected, to be needy and catered to, it became a feeling she didn’t want to let go. And she wouldn’t let go of Nayeon if she had the ability to keep her.
~.~
It is a warm and breezy day when Chaeyoung kisses Nayeon. The infection of life that the arrival of spring harbored always permeated into her soul. This spring is no different. She wakes up with a sprite spirit, the morning a pleasant reminder that she goes on still able to appreciate life. Chaeyoung calls Nayeon to her fields as the girl had promised the songwriter she would notify her when she would pick strawberries.
At Nayeon’s arrival, Chaeyoung finds herself having the perfect morning. With spring at her doorstep, ripe strawberries to be picked, and the girl that Chaeyoung knew she was falling in love with, there could not be a better way to spend her time. Except, Nayeon holds a berry to her lips and says, “I think this compliments the color of my lips.” Then, all the farmer can think about are those plump lips and how strawberry red would look good on them. Nayeon’s lips are like magnets. Her eyes cannot stray to another place, her mind keeps going back to how soft they look and wondering how they might feel between hers.
Chaeyoung practices self-restraint by steeling herself and stopping herself from grabbing Nayeon’s arms and just kissing her right then and there. Chaeyoung knows better, holds respect at a high moral standard, and Nayeon’s comfort at a top priority. If Chaeyoung wanted to kiss her, she would rather put herself through the ringer of anxiety and nerves to ask her than to just force one on her lips. The girl who lurks in her heart deserves at least that. So, at the porch bench where Chaeyoung’s grandma used to tell her stories, she wrings her fingers and tries to look Nayeon in the eyes. Her heart lodges itself in her throat and she feels like she might pass out but she asks anyway.
“Can I- May I, may I kiss you?”
Nayeon’s eyes are gentle and soft, just as Chaeyoung’s heart is being with hers, and instead of replying, she presses her lips against hers. It’s a little clumsy and too short for her liking but it makes Chaeyoung’s heart race. Nayeon’s lips are just as soft as they look and they feel so perfect up against hers and Chaeyoung finds it hard to not want more.
“I really like you.”
Nayeon’s giggle rings out like a baby’s, “I figured you do. And I’m really glad that you do because I like you a lot too. Like, a lot a lot.”
Chaeyoung giggles as well because what a relief it is to know that the person in her heart holds her in the same place as hers.
“I could see myself loving you. In fact, I see it being a very easy thing to do.”
Nayeon cuddles into Chaeyoung’s shoulder, her lips pressing against the temple of her head, “I could see myself waking up with you every morning to watch the sunrise or to pick strawberries or to set up at the farmers’ market. I can see us making dinner every night, inviting our friends over just because, and falling asleep every night with you in my arms. Loving you, I think, is something I’m meant to do. Like how I’m meant to write songs, I’m meant to write all of the ones about love with you in mind. I might not love you yet, but I know, that when I do, I don’t think I would ever stop.”
Chaeyoung reaches up once again to kiss the lips she has been wanting to kiss and caresses the soft cheeks underneath the pad of her thumb, “When you love me, I don’t want you to stop because I don’t think I will be able to stop loving you either.”
With a basket of strawberries on the floor and their fingers interlocked, they watch the sun set, eager for what is to come.