Archive of Our Own ^beta

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly a month ago. 

Rei is from Japan. Rei has pink hair. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class.

That concludes everything Jiwon knows about Rei.

But while Jiwon might be happy with the prospect of never having to engage in dreaded small talk with strangers, or worse, being acknowledged by anyone she doesn’t trust to respect her privacy when it comes to being left to read in peace, she doesn’t get the feeling that Rei is of the same sentiment. Call it simple intuition, her fine tuned senses for finding another fellow introvert, or just the fact that she has eyes and can see the way Rei frowns and sighs when everyone walks past her on the way to their seats like she’s invisible, but Jiwon can tell that this likely isn’t how she hoped transferring to a new school would go.

So, despite herself, Jiwon takes a deep breath as she steps into class in an attempt to muster up as much courage as possible. Once her eyes lock on Rei’s pink hair, something she could recognize almost anywhere, especially given the fact that having her hair dyed something other than a natural color is blatantly forbidden by school rules, she swallows thickly and walks timidly to the unoccupied desk next to her.

The chair grinds against the floor as she attempts to pull it out, drawing Rei’s attention away from the notepad she’s mindlessly scribbling on. Her gaze is preening as she scans her up and down while Jiwon rubs the back of her neck awkwardly after sitting down, but she thinks she can see something vaguely resembling a smile on Rei’s lips at seeing someone occupying the desk next to her.

“Hi.” Jiwon manages, using all the remaining courage she has left in the tank after burning most of it just sitting down.

“Hey.”

Were it any other conversation, at any other point in time, Jiwon would expect to call it quits with just those two words shared between them,and allow Rei to go back to her art. But once more, despite herself, Jiwon puts on a smile and pushes forward, extending a hand into the void of space between their desks. “I’m Jiwon, but you can also call me Liz if you want.”

“Liz?” Rei questions as she lets her pencil slip from her fingers, which must be a good sign that she isn’t a complete annoyance.

“Yeah, It’s short for Elizabeth. Some of my friends back home used to call me that.”

“You aren’t from here? I just assumed everyone in this town was born here.”

“I think that’s pretty much the truth for nearly everyone here, but I’m from Jeju.” Liz smiles, finding herself absentmindedly fiddling with her pen as a means of keeping herself from going into full blown panic as the conversation starts to approach an unprecedented length for her.

“Oh, that’s cool.” Rei smiles in turn, and Jiwon can say for certain that it’s a very welcome break from her usual glum demeanor. “I guess that makes us special then; we’re the only two people to ever move to Samgyo.”

Before Jiwon can relish any further in the monumental progress she’s made in establishing a common bond between the two of them, the door to their classroom slides open once more as their homeroom teacher walks into class with a thick stack of binders tucked under his arms. Pulling out her pencil case and her notebooks, Jiwon starts to busy herself with getting her desk set up and ready for the day, when she first hears Rei mutter something, presumably in Japanese – and from her tone – presumably not something she’d repeat to the class, before turning to her and trying to get her attention with a subtle wave.

“Psst, Jiwon. I forgot to bring a pen, can I borrow one from you?”

Without giving much thought as to which one to pick, Jiwon takes a pen from her case and holds it in the space between them, before dropping her voice to a whisper. “Here.”

Jiwon hears a snicker fall from Rei’s lips as she lets out a suppressed “Heh.” Confused, Jiwon looks over to her as her eyes and brain begin to sync up and finally process what pen she gave her.

The majority of it is nothing but expected, with black ink and a transparent casing that runs up to its button. But where Rei’s eyes seem to be locked, and in turn her own, is on the my melody charm dangling down from the clip. In mild embarrassment at the mortifying ordeal of having someone know one of her most basic interests, Jiwon winces, desperately hoping Rei wasn’t casting judgment with her laughter.

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago. 

Rei is from Japan. Rei has pink hair. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her. 

That concludes everything Jiwon knows about Rei.

After unpacking her lunch for the day on her desk, Jiwon pulls out her phone and starts mindlessly scrolling through her webtoons in search of something she hasn’t already read. But at this point, the app’s entire catalog and her completion list are a venn diagram that looks like a circle.

In exacerbation as she once again comes up empty for something new to read even after delving all the way down to page five in her search, Jiwon lets out a sigh and sets her phone down in favor of some chopsticks. Just as she resigns to the fact that she’ll be forced to eat without anything to occupy her thoughts, however, she hears the legs of a chair scraping their way across the floor beside her.

Before she has time to fully process what is even happening, Rei sits down across from her, with a chair positioned at the other end of her desk. “You mind if I sit here?” She asks, already beginning to reach into her bag before waiting for a response.

“I think you already are.” Jiwon responds, completely devoid of emotion while her brain is still lagging behind her mouth. Although, in reality, as surprised as she is by the sudden invasion of her privacy, and as strange as it is to admit, Jiwon almost welcomes it. 

At the very least, she won't be bored anymore.

“Cool.” Rei smiles, until the gears in her brain start to turn and her face shifts to something more uncertain. “Wait, was that a bad thing?”

“No, no. You can stay.” Jiwon sputters out, waving her free hand out in front of her in a panicked frenzy. “Sorry, I was just surprised that's all.”

The corners of her lips creep up as Rei chuckles, but whether that’s at her words or her actions, Jiwon can’t be too sure. “That’s good, because I don’t know who I would talk to otherwise. Everyone in this class is so weird, you know?”

Unwilling to admit that she actually has never talked to anyone in any of her classes to either confirm or deny what Rei is saying, Jiwon covers her mouth with her chopstick hand and stifles her laugh, knowing full well how loud she can get if she doesn’t. “The people in this town are a little weird, yeah. I think all towns are like that though, everyone starts to lose their mind when there’s nothing to do.”

“Doesn’t that make you feel weird, though?” Rei questions with a tilt of her head, and Jiwon can see there’s something more inquisitive to her gaze that almost makes her shudder. “Like, don’t you feel like you’re too different from everyone else?”

“A little?” Jiwon responds, unsure herself how much she believes her answer. “But Jeju is pretty laid back too as long as you stay out of the tourist areas, so it’s not that different here, I suppose.”

“Huh, I guess that makes sense. Nagoya is about what you’d expect, so being here is just really strange. It just feels like nothing ever happens.”

For a moment, Jiwon tries to come up with some response that might disprove Rei’s statement, but no matter how hard she tries, when the most interesting thing to happen on her street in the past month was one of her neighbors getting an air fryer, she’s really in no place to talk.

“So how come you live here?” Rei asks as she pulls a sandwich wrapped in plastic film out of her bag. “Sorry, if that’s too invasive you don’t have to answer.”

“No, I don’t mind. It’s nothing special anyway.” Jiwon lets out a wistful sigh and sets her chopsticks down on top of her lunch box. “My dad got a job in the city, but rent there is too expensive, so we picked Samgyo as the nearest commuter town. How about you?”

Rei’s face hardens like steel, as all discernible emotion disappears in an instant, leaving nothing but a deadpan stare. “I got banished.”

“B-banished?” Jiwon stutters out, having to cover her mouth to keep any food from flying out.

“No, just the regular kind.” Rei smirks, but despite how desperately confused Jiwon is, she refuses to elaborate.

“You can’t just say that. Like, what do you mean you got banished?”

“Oh, you know how it is.” Rei starts, waving her hand around in a circle nonchalantly as she speaks like anything she’s about to say will be remotely normal. “You get a few bad test scores followed up by a couple detentions and your family starts to get on your case. Then you end up dying your hair without their knowledge and somehow that’s the final straw that makes them decide to banish you to another country to straighten you out. These things happen, I think.”

“They don’t-” Jiwon deadpans, sinking her face into her palm. Of course it’s the pink hair, she just knew the pink hair was going to come up somewhere. “They really don’t. But what’s being banished like? Like, who are you staying with?”

“Oh, just with my aunt.” Rei responds, sounding just as laid back as she has been the entire time. “I never met her before moving here, but she’s cool I guess. Although, there is one thing I gotta say that I miss.”

A preemptive smile creeps onto Jiwon’s lips. Given how nonsensical everything else Rei has said has been, whatever is about to come off of her lips is bound to be good. “Oh yeah, and what’s that?”

“Sushi.” Rei simply states, and at this point, hearing an answer so normal coming from someone with that kinda backstory is harder for Jiwon to accept than if she said she had a third eye. “I know you can get it anywhere, but most days my mom would make me sushi when I went to school. Now all I have are these strawberry jam sandwiches I make myself because my aunt leaves for work before I wake up.”

“No, I get what you mean. I think I’d miss my family’s cooking if I left home too, even though none of us are the best at it.” Jiwon says with a smirk, thinking back in reminiscence about all of her countless failed cooking escapades. “It must be hard for you, though.”

Rei’s eyebrows tighten together with the hint of a pained expression. Evidently, despite how carefree she might act, some problems don’t bounce off of her so easily (and even if it’s only little by little) being away from home seems to be eating away at her somewhat. But just as Rei opens her mouth – no doubt to bury her feelings underneath a mask– she’s cut off as the school bell echoes throughout the hallway.

“Ah, shit.” She murmurs while hastily packing up her things into her bag. “I’ve got to go now. But this was fun, I’ll come by again sometime.”

“Don’t you have class in here now?” Jiwon questions wholeheartedly, with her eyes narrowed in confusion as Rei throws her bag onto her shoulder.

“Nope, I’ve got gym next…I uh-” Before she can say another word, the mental calculations in her head finally complete. With her eyes bolting open in shock, Jiwon can only guess she’s realized just how badly she’s messed up. “I’m never going to make it, am I?”

“Good luck.” Jiwon simply offers as a smirk involuntarily creeps onto her lips. “Running across the school will be a good warm up, at least.”

“You’re not funny.” Rei deadpans, dragging her chair back to its original place as she prepares to leave.

But before making her way out of the classroom, Rei stops at the side of her desk and takes one of her pens off of the side. Without a word, while Jiwon stares blankly at her in confusion, Rei quickly scribbles something down on the corner of one of her notepad’s pages, before setting the pen down once more with a smile.

“What’s this?” Jiwon questions, while the gears of her brain become lodged together, desperately in need of some outside assistance.

“It’s my number, I’ll text you if I need anything. Bye.”

Without another word, Rei hoists her bag up onto her shoulder and jogs out the classroom, and Jiwon watches as she breaks out into a full sprint once she makes it into the corridor, as a suppressed chuckle slips from her lips.

Once Rei is firmly out of sight and on her way to terrorize some other poor soul in their school, Jiwon looks at the number left for her perusal as the gears of her brain start turning once more. Without being prompted, Rei gave her her number, but somehow that’s far from the strangest thing she’s experienced in the last few minutes.

If Rei has gym class, then there’s no reason for her to be spending her lunch time in a science classroom. If she wanted to eat somewhere quiet, there’s plenty of seats outside in secluded areas, and if she wanted to go somewhere more sociable, she could have eaten in the cafeteria with everyone else. But for Rei to specifically decide to walk all the way across the school to eat in an otherwise random science room, the only thing Jiwon can think of is that she came to see her.

Or maybe she’s just overthinking things.

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei has pink hair, which she dyed in an act of rebellion.

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago, after being banished.

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her, and sometimes chooses to eat lunch with her too, despite the inconvenience. 

 That concludes everything Jiwon knows about Rei, although, even in such a short span of time, the list has already expanded far more than she could’ve imagined.

Jiwon lets out a sigh as she unfurls her umbrella under the entrance of the school, careful not to accidentally curse herself with any bad luck after how well things have been going for her recently. Rain continues to pour down, flooding all of the nearby drains as it trickles downhill towards the school. Given that this happens at the same time every year, it’s anyone’s guess as to why no one on the district council has done anything to make their lives easier.

If there’s one silver lining at least, it’s that Jiwon doesn’t have far to walk, and going uphill to the nearby bus stop means she won’t have to deal with any more flooding. But still, with how large the pools of water are starting to become, she can’t imagine a possibility where she makes it home without her shoes getting soaked through.

Resigning herself to her inevitable fate, Jiwon pulls her bag tighter to her body so that any rain trickling off her umbrella won’t end up ruining her books, when she feels a vibration in the pocket of her blazer. She takes a step back, putting herself safely under the concrete cover of the entrance way so she can lower her umbrella and take out her phone instead.

As the screen lights up in her palm, Jiwon notices a message notification from Rei and instantly unlocks her phone to read it in full.

Rei:

idk if you’ve left yet but if you’re still here can you help me study

i’m uhh

having trouble with some of the words

A light giggle bubbles from Jiwon’s lips as she reads through Rei’s messages. In the past week or so since she got her number, most of their conversations have been limited to Rei asking what room she’s in so they can eat lunch together, and asking where certain rooms in the school are. More often than not the two questions come in quick succession. But even with a limited sample size of messages, Jiwon has already learnt a few things about both Rei herself, and the way she types.

The most obvious is that Rei is someone who knows what she wants, and doesn’t seem to care much if people tell her to do otherwise. Case in point being her hair; she’s sure that a countless number of people, including part of her own consciousness, told her not to dye it. 

But at the end of the day, if Naoi Rei wants to dye her hair pink, her hair will be pink.

Another example of this is reflected in the way she texts; Rei doesn’t ask for things, per se. Instead, Rei will propose what she wants to do and leave it up to her whether or not to accept the agenda. For some people, it might come across as standoffish, abrasive even, but for an introvert like Jiwon, making a decision between two options is a strenuous ordeal that can take hours, but a yes or no question is far, far, more manageable.

 To: Rei

Nah, I’m still here.

Give me five minutes.

True to her word, it only takes Jiwon a few minutes to make it to the library, and if nothing else, she’s just thankful to be out of the rain. Maybe if she’s lucky, it’ll stop by the time they leave. As she looks around the normally barren room, filled with nothing but posters advertising school clubs and youth groups, much to her surprise, she doesn’t seem to be the only one hoping to wait out the rainstorm.

Even without her waving to signal for her attention, it doesn’t take long for Jiwon to find Rei sitting at one of the tables off in the corner with her bubblegum pink hair and glowing smile. She returns a grin of her own once their eyes lock, before making her way across the room.

Once she’s close enough to the table that no one can sneak in, Rei takes her heavy bag off the chair next to her and sets it down on the floor. “Hey, I saved a seat for you.”

“Thanks. So what were you having trouble with?” Jiwon asks as she sets herself down next to Rei and starts pulling out her own textbooks.

Rei lets out a heavy exhale, as if trying to expunge all of her pent up stress and frustration at once. “It’s just some math problems. The actual math part of them is easy but those scenarios are so weirdly worded that I don’t know what I’m even looking at.”

“Phew, that’s lucky.” Jiwon smirks as she breathes a sigh of relief. “For a second I thought you wanted me to help you with algebra. But sure, this works. I can work out the questions and you solve the equations, we’ll have this done in no time.”

“Isn’t that cheating, though?”

Completely taken aback, Jiwon lets out a gasp of shock so loud it feels like all eyes in the library become fixed on her. Although that feeling is hardly welcome, given how hard she actively goes out of her way to avoid people. “I didn’t expect you to care about something like that.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Rei glowers, placing both her hands on her hips as her face hardens. Despite how hard Jiwon tries to analyze it, she can’t tell whether she’s being serious or not.

“W-well, it’s just…” Jiwon stutters out, rubbing the backing of her neck as a bead of sweat trickles down her forehead. “You know, you dyed your hair without anyone’s permission. I guess you just seem to me like the type to not care about what anyone else thinks.”

“I suppose you’re half right.” Rei responds with a calculating hum, before pausing for a minute to collect her thoughts. “I don’t care what other people think of me, yes. But at the same time it’s not like I don’t think about right or wrong, I just live by my own moral compass. If a rule is stupid then I won't follow it.”

Jiwon can’t help but chuckle a little at Rei’s explanation. She knows that she’s perceptive, but Rei is on a whole other level of calculating, like she has the answer to every possible question anyone could ever ask her already planned out in her head. “And cheating is wrong?”

“In this case, I suppose so. Like, if I cheated here, I wouldn’t learn anything, which really just defeats the whole purpose of doing homework in the first place.”

“Oh, so you’re a teacher’s pet with a god complex?” Jiwon lets slip, before instantly covering her mouth with both hands as her eyes bulge open once she realizes that she was thinking aloud.

But while her mind is busy thinking about entering into a self imposed banishment of her own to avoid Rei’s judgment, although even then she doesn’t doubt the possibility of Rei hunting her down to the ends of the earth and beyond, Rei seems to take it in stride. With a chortle, Rei suppresses her laughter by giving her a gentle slap on the arm, a punishment far lighter than she was expecting. “Well okay Jiwon, I didn’t know you had that one in you.”

“Sorry, I didn’t-”

“No, keep doing it.” Rei encourages with an ear to ear smile. “I can’t be the only one teasing you.”

Although a part of her feels like she’s making considerable progress with becoming more comfortable around Rei, the other half of her, the one that wants nothing more than to bury herself in a hole never to return, eventually wins out for control of her mind. “So did you want to help you or not?”

“Sure, but how about I try and do as much as I can on my own, and only ask you for help when I get stuck?”

“If that would make your goody two shoes-” Jiwon jumps suddenly, losing her train of thought in an instant as Rei slams her bag on the table with an earth shuddering thud that surely has everyone in the library turning towards them for real this time.

Before she can recalibrate her thoughts and continue speaking, Rei has already unzipped the bag and shoved something in her face. “You want some?”

“I-” Jiwon barely manages, her brain thoroughly disoriented as her eyes dart from object to object as Rei continues to pull more things out of her bag without signs of stopping.

“Oh, I get it, you don’t like sour stuff.” Rei shrugs, putting down the bag of candy she was waving in her face in favor of a caramel bar. “I figured as much, so I got you some chocolate too, just to be safe.”

“You got this for me? There’s so much.” Jiwon questions, thankfully finally able to form short sentences as her brain gets closer and closer to being back to full power.

“It’s not all for you, obviously.” Rei remarks, once again as if anything she’s said or done has made remotely any sense, which seems to be a theme that’s come up more times between the two of them than Jiwon could’ve expected. “Just take whatever you want, as long as it’s not…” She darts her eyes across the desk, until her eyes land on a small brown paper bag. “The raspberry bonbons. They’re my favorite, sorry if you like them too.”

Feeling as though she’s as close as she’ll ever be again to fully operational, Jiwon scours her eyes across the desk, and completely spoiled for choice, she ends up picking out a bag of chocolate buttons, just about the most basic thing she can imagine. “But why do you have all these?”

“I can’t focus without something to chew on.” Rei answers earnestly, shrugging her shoulders in nonchalance. “So I always have gum or something in my bag to eat.”

As she pops open her bag of buttons, Jiwon fully soaks in just how abundant Rei’s collection of confectionery goods is, not even wanting to think about the possibility that there are still more lurking in her bag. She doesn’t even want to think about how Rei can carry them all, let alone afford them. “This feels like a lot more than something.”

“Well yeah, but I felt like I had to repay you for agreeing to help me. I uh-” Rei pauses and scratches her head, as if the absurdity of the situation is only just now catching up with her. “I might have gone a bit overboard, huh.”

“Maybe just a little.”

☼✿☼

With the last question on her homework sheet answered, Jiwon lets out a relieved sigh, one that might have been a lot happier if she hadn’t spent so much time suffering through her questions while Rei refused to help because of her absurd moral code. Truth be told, she has no idea how long she’s been studying for, the library is almost exclusively illuminated by the harsh lights hanging from the ceiling, with very little natural light coming from outside, but they haven’t been kicked out yet, so it’s probably some time around seven.

Rei too, seems to be at her wits end, as she stretches her arms above her head and heaves a tired sigh, before turning to look at her. “Hey, you wanna get out of here already?”

“I’ve been waiting for you to say that.” Jiwon groans while trying with all her might not to crash onto her pile of books. “I feel like my head’s about to explode.”

“Come on, it wasn’t that bad. What, are you scared of numbers or something?”

As she pushes herself out of her seat and starts piling her books back into her back, Jiwon pauses, turning to Rei with a sudden deadpan expression. “I am actually, thanks for outing me like that.”

Once Rei finishes packing up her own bag, she starts walking towards the door, when a devilish smirk creeps onto her lips that makes Jiwon shudder. “So, what’s more of a punishment, talking to a stranger, or algebra?”

As the question fully starts to worm itself into Jiwon’s brain and combine with her preexisting mental exhaustion, she physically stops on the spot in the corridor's doorway while her brain has to reboot. “Can I die instead?”

“You’re so dramatic.” Rei chortles while leaving Jiwon in the dust, leaving her with no choice but to jog to catch up to her.

As the duo make it out of the school gate, Jiwon lets out a whimsical sigh while breathing in the cool night air, as it mixes with the smell of the grass, still wet from the rainstorm. It’s an odd smell, but one that she’s come to love over years, it certainly beats the library’s musty scent, that’s for sure.

“You know, I think a lot about leaving this town at some point, but I don’t know how I’d live without the smell of petrichor if I was in a city.”

For the longest time, she was unable to even identify why petrichor never fails to bring a sentimental smile to her lips. It was only after a rainstorm Jiwon witnessed when she was back home in Jeju last summer that made her realize the scent reminded her of home. There’s something beautiful about the fact that no matter how far from home she ends up, her brain will never lose that connection.

As she takes her turn to properly breath in the blissful scent, Rei’s face scrunches up in discomfort, like she’s just bitten into something sour. “You like this? It smells so…damp.”

“You’ll get used to it.” Jiwon smiles while stifling back a laugh as Rei tries to get her expression back under control. “But I guess it probably isn’t something you’ve experienced before, I can’t imagine there are many fields in the middle of Nagoya.”

“Nope. I’m not used to rain smelling of much. And if it does, I’d probably prefer it if it didn’t.” Rei chuckles to herself, and Jiwon can assume it must be an inside joke that she isn’t aware of.

“I’m…not even going to ask what you mean by that.”

Rei lets out a wistful sigh, placing her hands behind her head as she walks. Yet again, Jiwon can see straight through her disguise. Being away from home is definitely eating away at her, even though she’s trying her best not to show it. “I think that’s for the best.”

While it would be far too invasive to just ask Rei straight up what's wrong, and Jiwon is self aware enough to know that she is vastly lacking the courage to do something like that, she knows it isn’t right to let her suffer in silence. At the very least – even if it’s only minor – it wouldn’t hurt for her to try and understand exactly what it is that Rei is finding hard.

“So, I know the petrichor is still new to you, but are you getting used to living here?”

“I’m getting there, I think.” Rei shrugs, sounding sure of herself, although Jiwon is sure that’s just part of the facade. “I know I said this before, but I just can’t help but feel like nothing happens here. And this might sound weird, but even though this place is so much smaller than Nagoya, I feel like it’s so much harder to get around, like I can count the number of bus routes on one hand.”

“That’s a city thing.” Jiwon says as she looks over to the road next to them as they walk through the empty evening streets. It takes a while of waiting for a single car to pass, and while that might be completely normal to her, it’s strange to imagine that being a culture shock to someone like Rei. “Things are a lot slower out here. Most of us just walk everywhere we need to, since nothing is really that far away.”

“That’s so weird though.” For a moment, Rei grimaces, before suddenly turning to her with a scheming, inquisitive smile. “But seriously, I refuse to believe that nothing happens in this town. I’ve seen enough movies to know that there’s always something going on. Don’t you think all the locals here have some conspiracy going on?”

“Well…”

“Well?” Rei echoes back, as the determination in her eyes becomes even more fiery.

“I- forget I said anything. I don’t think I’m allowed to tell you.”

Jiwon flinches at the sudden contact as Rei grabs a hold of her arm, turning her around to face her and staring deep into her eyes, all the while ensuring she can’t escape the incoming interrogation. “You can’t just say that and not tell me. What is it? A cult? Ghosts? Or uhh…you need to help me, I’m running out of ideas.

With a heavy sigh, pretending that Rei has tried far harder than she actually has to get the information out of her in hopes it will end the questioning quicker. “You can’t tell anyone this, but An Yujin lives here.”

Thoroughly confused, Rei raises an eyebrow and lets out a confused breath. “Huh? Is this An Yujin a ghost?”

“No. What? I-'' Jiwon responds as her eyebrows start to furrow together, becoming equally as confused as she imagines Rei is. “Do you not know An Yujin? Look her up quickly.”

Without another word, Rei lets go of her and hastily pulls out her phone. After tapping furiously against the screen and waiting for the page to load with the awful countryside reception she’s getting, she lets out a sudden gasp, causing the corners of Jiwon’s lips to creep up. “She’s an idol! But it says here she was born in Seoul.”

“That’s a lie we all made up.” Jiwon explains as Rei puts her phone away and continues walking. “This town isn’t very big, and you know what fans are like. If she said she was coming back here there would be people swarming this place all over and there just isn’t enough room to hide. But this way she can get her peace and quiet when she wants it.”

Rei crosses her arms and pouts, as if being let in on Samgyo’s biggest secret doesn’t even rank in the top ten most interesting things she’s found out today, which is saying something, given that she spent her evening solving math problems. “That is so much more boring than ghosts.”

“Well, it’s the only secret we’ve got, I’m afraid.”

As they turn another street corner, and Jiwon notices her house at the end of the road, she stops to say goodbye to Rei, knowing that this is where they’ll go their separate ways for the night, as they always do when they walk home together. But as if channeling all of her confidence that she’s gone the day without spending, a sudden idea worms its way inside Jiwon’s head, and after deliberating on it for a second, rocking back and forth on her feet, she finally gets the courage to speak up.

“So, we don’t have school tomorrow. I don’t know if you already have plans, but do you want to go to the city tomorrow? I figured it would be more your speed than being out here, and I can show you some of the cool places.”

Just as quickly as the words leave her lips, Jiwon kicks herself, unable to feel like she’s made a complete fool of herself in both the hypothetical scenario that Rei is busy (and the one where she’s actually secretly hated her the entire time.) But thankfully, the Rei standing in front of her belongs to neither of those fictional timelines, and instead, a wide smile forces her cheekbones to show.

“Sure, I’d love to. Anywhere has to be more interesting than here.”

“Great. I’ll, uh- I’ll let you know what time we need to catch a train. See you later.” Jiwon hurries out as her tank of courage burns up in a single moment, leaving her with no choice but to turn and run the rest of the short way home as her cheeks start to turn a slight shade of pinkish-red, just to save herself any added embarrassment from facing Rei.

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago, after being banished. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her, and sometimes chooses to eat lunch with her too, despite the inconvenience. 

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei has pink hair, which she dyed in an act of rebellion. 

Rei likes food a lot and can’t study without it, but she seems to like sour things and her mom’s sushi the most.

Rei does not like the smell of petrichor. 

That concludes everything Jiwon knows about Rei, although it's starting to feel like she knows more about her than she does herself.

As they leave the train station and begin to walk through the bustling Saturday city streets, Jiwon can’t help the smile that starts to creep along her face as Rei’s eyes light up, and she thanks herself for not chickening out after making the offer last night.

The look on Rei’s face is one of an indescribable feeling of bliss after going without something for so long. While the smell of petrichor might be what makes her think of home, to Rei it’s clearly the smell of big cities. Similarly, just as she’s never been quite able to get used to how quickly cities move, with hundreds of people rushing across every street, Rei can’t fathom the meandering pace of country folk.

While she’s still busy adjusting her eyes and ears to the sudden rush of bright lights and a countless number of conversations all occurring around her at once, Rei has already adjusted like a fish to water. By the time she’s even fully processed what’s going on, Jiwon can already feel herself losing her to the crowded streets.

“Hey, wait up!” Jiwon shouts, before running up to Rei’s side and grabbing her arm gently to keep her from disappearing again.

“I’m not going anywhere.” Rei scoffs, but nonetheless doesn’t shed herself from Jiwon’s grip as they start to walk together. “I don’t know this city. Where are we even going?”

“Uhm…”

Rei turns to her, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. “You don’t know where we’re going either, do you?”

“Well, I uh-” Jiwon awkwardly starts, rubbing the back of her neck with her free hand as she tries to avoid Rei’s piercing gaze. “I didn’t figure you’d want an itinerary, so I thought we could just walk around. There’s a bookstore nearby if you want to check it out.”

“Is this you telling me that you want to go to a bookstore?” Rei asks with a sudden raised eyebrow.

Jiwon barely manages to stifle her laughter long enough to get her laugh out. “Yeah, I learnt that trick from you.”

“Touchè.”

They both break down into laughter as Jiwon starts to lead Rei throughout the busy city streets, just hoping that she still remembers where she’s going with all the bright lights that try to distract her. Rei seems unphased though, and Jiwon can only imagine what kind of light shows she’s used to seeing back home.

Eventually, even though it requires Jiwon taking them on three skillful right turns after getting lost that she decides not to tell Rei about, just on the slim off chance that she hasn’t yet realized how unfamiliar she actually is with the city, they end up out front of the bookstore. As they step inside, Jiwon is greeted by the far more welcome smell that only comes from rows and rows of inky pages stacked up on every shelf in the small store.

As if moving on reflex, Jiwon makes her way over to the comics section, and whether she’s lost, or simply disinterested in looking for a book of her own, Rei follows behind her. Once she finds the shelf she’s looking for, Jiwon crouches down and runs her finger across the spines of the book.

“Jeez, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this excited.” Jiwon hears Rei chide from above her, and as she momentarily pulls her eyes away from the books, she sees her standing over her, with both arms crossed over her chest as she watches intently.

She chooses to ignore Rei’s playful jabs in favor of returning her focus to the bookshelves. With each passing volume number her heart rate builds in anticipation before suddenly crashing as the numbers flat line, and she’s left with nothing but a row of sevens.

As a pout forms on her lips, Jiwon pushes herself up out of her crouch and lets out a disappointing huff. The eight volume was only released a few days ago, and the chances are all of them have already been bought out. Living in a city might seem like it has more downsides than benefits, at least to her, but Jiwon wouldn’t mind having easy access to a bookstore with far more diversity than the two that exist in Samgyo.

“What’s wrong?” Rei asks, and Jiwon can’t quite tell whether her tone is mocking or comforting. “You look like one of those crying cats.”

“It’s nothing, don’t worry about it.” Jiwon huffs once more as she waves her hand dismissively, hoping she won't have to answer any more questions with her heart in such an irreparable state. “A manga that I’m reading just got a new volume, but I think they’ve all sold out already.”

“You want me to help you look?”

Jiwon shrugs, already starting to make her way towards the door while Rei remains glued on the spot. “No, it’s really fine. I’ll just try again some other time.”

“And I’m really serious.” Rei insists, refusing to back down even as Jiwon gives up. “What’s it called, I’ll go ask for it.”

“There’s really no-”

“Jiwon.” Rei deadpans. As her voice becomes stern, like that of a mother, Jiwon almost feels too afraid to talk back anymore in fear of being scolded like a child.

“It’s volume eight of Blue Blood.”

Without another word, just a victorious smirk on her face, Rei marches over to the counter and does the unthinkable in striking up a conversation with the store owner. Jiwon isn’t even too sure what they’re saying as she stares on stunned in abject fear, but after not too long, the man behind the counter nods and disappears into the back room briefly.

By the time she’s fully regained her senses, the man has returned from the back, and after exchanging a few more words, Rei turns around with a smile before walking back over to her on the way to the entrance, brushing a hand over her shoulder as she does. “Ok, let’s go.”

Jiwon’s eyes dart from Rei to the book in her hand, but before she even gets the chance to fully process what is happening, Rei has already left the building, leaving her with no choice but to jog out of the store in an attempt to catch up to her. “Hey, don’t I need to pay for that?”

“Jiwon, what are you talking about? Obviously, I paid for it. Now here, take it.” Rei says with a slight smile on her lips as she holds out the book with a delicate grip, and Jiwon snatches it up, wary that it will fall if she doesn’t.

“You did? I mean, thank you, but why?” Jiwon asks as her eyes stare at the cover in awe. A small part of her almost wants to open the book now and start reading, but as someone who is  technically a participant of society, she knows she’ll have to wait.

Folding her now empty arms together across her chest, Rei shrugs languidly. “I like buying things for people, is that wrong?”

“Well, no, but did you at least buy yourself something?”

“I didn’t really see the point, not gonna lie.” Rei moves her hands around absentmindedly as she speaks in a manner that reminds Jiwon of an old teacher she had. “I mean, everything they had would’ve been the Korean translations, right? If I wanted to get any manga to read I’d probably just get it sent over from back home. But anyway, what’s Blue Blood about? I haven’t heard of it before”

Normally, Jiwon would shy away from ever answering a question about her interests, even the most mundane and ordinary feelings still make her feel weird when she shares them. But since Rei did go out of her way to not only find the book for her but also to pay for it, she knows it’s the least she owes her. So, Jiwon takes a deep breath, knowing that it’ll be a while until she gets another.

“Ok, so there’s this big city, it’s kind of like prohibition America, with gangs and everything going around, but a lot of people have angel blood in them, which is where the name comes from. Now, people with angel blood can conjure their wings at any time, and since they pretty much run the city, everything is designed with being able to fly in mind, like some places aren’t even accessible without doing it. But the problem is that not everyone has wings, and they’re called the fallen. It’s like, they aren’t actually kept from being with angels, but they physically just can’t get there, you know? Anyway that drives pretty much all of the conflict of the story. The main character doesn’t have wings though, but along with some of her other fallen friends she builds her own and tries to sneak around the city by flying places and then taking them off, and eventually she falls in love with one of the angels, all the while turf warfare is happening. It’s a lot, there are seven volumes worth of content.”

“That…” Rei stops to take a moment to think as she’s completely unable to think of a single other thing to say in response. “Did you really say all that without even needing to breathe?”

Jiwon awkwardly picks at her nails while catching up on all her long overdue breaths, as a nervous chuckle falls from her lips. “I guess so, yeah. Sorry, I guess I’m just a little-”

“No, don’t be sorry.” Rei insists as she cuts her off. “It’s fun hearing you talk about the things you like, just remember to breathe next time. That sounds cool though, I might have to borrow your collection some time.”

“Really?” Jiwon asks, her eyes bulging open suddenly in shock. If people had this kind of reaction to hearing about her interests all the time, she might actually do it more often. “When we get back to town I can literally run home and get them for you.”

“Jiwon.” Rei starts, before taking a pause, waiting until she has her attention before continuing. “I don’t mean for this to sound rude, but you don’t have many friends here, do you?”

“Well- I uh,” Jiwon looks around in search of anything to distract her that doesn’t involve staring into Rei’s eyes, and eventually decides on just looking straight ahead at the street as they walk around aimlessly. “I guess you’re not wrong. I still talk to a lot of the people I knew back in Jeju but yeah, I suppose I’m a little lonely when it comes to Samgyo.”

“I never said it was a bad thing, I get preferring your own company but,” Rei stops in the middle of her sentence as her eyes become suddenly transfixed on a nearby store. “Not to interrupt, but do you want to get some coffee, it’s kinda cold out today?”

“Oh, uh-” Jiwon mutters as her expectations for how Rei was going to finish her sentence are completely thrown out the window, although she’s sure it’s only a brief respite. “Sure. What do you want, I’ll pay this time?”

“Are you sure?” Rei asks in mild disbelief, as if she didn’t go and buy an entire book for her earlier, before shaking her head, giving in and accepting the gesture. “I’ll just get an iced americano, thanks.”

“Don’t wander off while I’m in line.” Jiwon smiles before stepping inside the coffee shop, mentally preparing herself for how long the line is going to be.

As she enters, Jiwon is greeted by an immediate, welcome warmth that makes the hairs on her arms lie flat. She would’ve hoped that the weather would’ve warmed up by April, but the spring showers seem to have had other ideas in mind.

Even as she stands in the line, which thankfully is far shorter than she was expecting, she can already taste the roasted coffee beans on her tongue just from the aroma wafting through the air. Coffee isn’t as much of a mainstay in her life as she imagines it will be once she finishes high school, but she’s still come to love the taste of it far more than she ever could’ve imagined a couple of years ago.

After getting through the line and placing in an order for her and Rei, Jiwon steps aside to let the line pass while hanging around the counter for when her number gets called. Without much else to do, she stares out vacantly at the street, watching a countless number of faces go by before she even so much as has the chance to process them. Her eyes eventually land on Rei, waiting patiently for her like she said she would, and Jiwon can’t help but think back to what she said.

It’s true that she doesn’t have too many friends in Samgyo, in all honesty it would be hard to say she really has any, with the lone outlier to that coming from Rei herself. But although it might be embarrassing to admit, making friends is hard, especially when so many other friend groups stick to themselves. By the time she even arrived after moving from Jeju, everyone from Samgyo in her classes had probably already known each other for nearly a decade. In a town so small, everyone knows everyone, and everyone has all their social needs fulfilled already, very few people feel the need to add the new kid to their friend group.

But perhaps that’s why she gravitated towards Rei when she arrived from Nagoya, and perhaps that’s why Rei gravitated towards her too. Just like Rei said the first time they ever met, they’re both special. They are among what must only be a minuscule handful of people to ever move to Samgyo, and as outsiders, they can both fulfill each other’s needs for company.

Before Jiwon has the chance to dwell on the topic any longer, the barista behind the counter calls out her order, and she hastily collects up both her and Rei’s coffees before heading back out onto the street. Holding both of the drinks at once feels strange, with her right hand being occupied by the comforting warmth of hot coffee, while the fingers on her left feel like they’re about to fall off from the ice cubes clattering around inside the plastic cup.

“Here,” Jiwon says as she holds out Rei’s coffee, desperate to get it out of her hands as quickly as possible. “I seriously don’t understand how you’re drinking that right now.”

“Oh, thanks.” The corner of Rei’s lips creep up into an appreciative smile as she takes the cup, holding it with both palms as if she’s trying to give herself frostbite. “I don’t know, I guess I just like cold things.”

“You’re so weird.” Jiwon scoffs, cupping her vanilla latte in both hands in an attempt to regain the feeling in her fingers. “I like cold things too, but there’s a time and a place. Lemonade on a summer's day, not iced coffee when it’s snowing, you know?”

“Doesn’t ring a bell.” Rei chides, taking a sip of her drink without a care in the world. “Besides, you’re exaggerating, it isn’t that cold.”

“It’s cold enough.” Jiwon protests, but decides not to go any further, unwilling to undertake the nightmarish task of trying to unravel the inner machinations of Rei’s mind.

“Skill issue.” Rei shrugs before breaking out into laughter, cracking up at her own joke while Jiwon stares on unamused.

“You’re insufferable.”

Unable to think of a witty enough comeback, or perhaps just unwilling to unleash the one she already has in mind, Rei goes quiet for a moment as they continue walking, before turning to face her with a soft expression on her face. “We can drop it if you want to, but is there a reason why you don’t really talk to basically anyone else, besides you being introverted, and everyone else being kind of weird?”

Jiwon lets out a heavy sigh and closes her eyes for a moment to brace herself. She’s gotten lucky twice with avoiding the real answer to the question, but she supposes she owes it to her to know, and perhaps she also owes it to herself to say it aloud. “No, it’s fine. I guess I just feel a little guilty.”

“Guilty?” Rei questions with a subtle tilt of her head.

“Yeah, guilty.” Jiwon echoes back, nodding her head slightly as she does. “I don’t think I ever expected to be living in Samgyo for this long, although I suppose that’s on me, and I still think I want to go back to Jeju when I can. You can probably relate to this, but I have all my friends back there from growing up, and I don’t know, I’m worried that I’d forget them, or they would think that I’d replaced them if I started making a bunch of friends here.”

“I’m sorry, I really can’t relate, that sounds ridiculous.” Rei admits earnestly, not wasting a single ounce of energy sugarcoating her words. “Real friends won't think you’re abandoning them just because you found another friend group. I’ve gone years without talking to people I know, but we’re still friends. Honestly, I don’t think you believe that either, why would you be friends with me if you know there’s a good chance I go back to Japan once I finish school?”

“Well I- I don’t know…” Jiwon trails off, entirely unable to think of a response as Rei’s words completely stump her. “I guess I didn’t think about it with you, this just sort of happened between us.”

Even Jiwon isn’t too sure whether or not she believes her own words. On that first day, when she chose to sit next to Rei in class, that was entirely intentional. There was nothing random or unplanned about their first meeting, and Rei is probably aware of that fact too, but everything else after that has happened by accident. She didn’t even know that Rei would say hi back, and she certainly never expected to ever get to a situation like this, where they’re hanging out outside of school in a whole other city, but up until now, she’s never thought about how their friendship happened or where it’s going.

“Exactly, friendship is something spontaneous. If you have to think about it, then you’re doing it wrong.”

“Huh, I guess you’re right.” Jiwon pauses to take a sip of her coffee, when another thought rises to the surface. As much as she loathes to even think about it, and wishes to bury it deep beneath the surface with all her other fears and worries, now feels like the one time she’s brave enough to actually admit it. “Honestly, I think I’m not very good at friendship either. Like, I’ve lost contact with most of my friends that I had back in Jeju; they’ve moved on to other friend groups, and, I don’t know, I guess it just makes me wonder whether I’m not good enough.”

“Of course you’re good enough, stupid.” Rei quickly insists before Jiwon can dwell any further on her spiraling thoughts, and gives her a gentle shove on her shoulder just to make sure she got the point across. “That’s a them problem and besides – I’m the only friend you’ll ever need.”

There’s something almost pained in the way Rei says ‘friend’, as if the word doesn’t taste right, and there’s something she’d rather say still sitting on the tip of her tongue, but Jiwon can’t be sure why. Or maybe she’s just imagining things again.

“Well, you’re the best friend I’ve ever had.”

☼✿☼

“Jiwon, question.”

“Yes?”

“Um, where are we?” Rei turns to her and asks, and all of a sudden, Jiwon starts to feel a lump form in her throat.

In fear, Jiwon casts her eyes around her, trying to discern an answer to Rei’s question, but with little success. She knows they’re in a park currently, but that much isn’t impressive, even a dog would be aware of that fact. To her left, she sees what looks like some office buildings, and as she looks to her right, she finds some even taller office buildings. After spending a few more seconds pondering, desperately hoping that her brain will miraculously make a connection and work out where they are, but none ever comes.

While Rei continues to look into her hopeless eyes as they sit on a park bench somewhere in the city, wherever that might be, she pushes once more, adding a whole new set of problems to the mix. “Ok, so follow up question. When is the last train back to Samgyo?”

On the bright side, this question is far easier for Jiwon to answer, not only does she know the train times fairly well off the top of the head, just to be sure, she pulls up the app on her phone to confirm. The bad news comes as she reads the time on screen, as her eyes suddenly bulge open in fear and she shoots herself off the bench. “Uh, thirty minutes. Ok, we really need to go.”

“Oh, I agree. But we’re lost, aren’t we?” Rei smirks, with both her arms and legs crossed as she looks up at her like they have all the time in the world.

“How are you so calm!?” Jiwon questions with her eyebrows furrowed together as she waves her arms about like she’s stranded on an island and signaling for help.

“Oh, I’m not. You’re just fun to mess with.”

In exacerbation, Jiwon feels her eyes starting to twitch while the rest of her body freezes up, arms stuck in place and her jaw hanging slack. She’d hoped from Rei’s nonchalance that she had a plan all along and was simply teasing her, but apparently Rei is even more of a psychopath than she gave her credit for and just wanted to revel in her misery for a moment while on the same sinking ship as she is.

Once she eventually regains control of her body, and puts herself back upright with her jaw where it’s supposed to be, the rational side of Jiwon starts to take over, remembering that she’s nearly an adult so she can handle things like this. Whether that’s true in reality or not is something that she’s regrettably about to find out. “We should ask someone for directions.”

Without breaking eye contact or unfolding her arms, Rei gets up from the bench and points with her chin to something behind Jiwon. “Ok, go ask then. There’s a guy over there.”

“Well- I uhh. Can’t you ask instead?” Jiwon desperately pleads with her eyes, as she clasps her arms together, just hoping that Rei will listen.

“I’m sorry, my Korean really just isn’t that good.” Rei smirks devilishly, and if she wasn’t both so afraid and so conflict averse, she might have tried to wipe the smile off her face herself.

“You are not seriously playing that card now of all times.”

As the smile on face cracks, noticing Jiwon’s increasingly serious expression as she begs that looks somewhere between a kicked puppy and a crying cat, Rei can’t help but laugh and give her a playful flick on her ear to bring her crashing back down to reality. “Well, It’s a good thing we have phones then.”

With a long sigh of relief Jiwon wipes the embarrassing look off her face and stares at the screen of Rei’s phone while she pulls up her maps app. It takes longer than Jiwon would like to admit of Rei pinching her fingers to zoom out the satellite map before she can spot a single discernible landmark, but eventually she finds one and points on the screen.

“There!” She shouts in a mix of desperation and joy at the prospect of finally finding something to save them. “That’s the bookstore. I know where that is and we can find the station from there. How long will it take us?”

Rei pauses for a moment to check the distance between them and the station. Jiwon holds a breath while the GPS tries to work out the quickest route, and once it does, she feels her heart sinking into a pit deep in her chest.

“Thirty-five minutes.” Jiwon says aloud as she reads the number off the screen, as if she’s the automated voice of Rei’s phone.

She peels her eyes off of Rei’s phone, and they both end up meeting each other’s gaze simultaneously. After a moment of confused hesitation, Rei nods and slides her phone back into her jacket pocket.

“I think we better start running.”

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago, after being banished. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her, and sometimes chooses to eat lunch with her too, despite the inconvenience. 

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei has pink hair, which she dyed in an act of rebellion. 

Rei likes food a lot and can’t study without it, but she seems to like sour things and her mom’s sushi the most. 

Rei does not like the smell of petrichor. Rei is already on volume seven of Blue Blood. 

At this point, Jiwon thinks she knows so many things about Rei, it would take far, far too long to list everything individually.

After that first day out together, her and Rei have fallen into a steady, consistent rhythm for the past month or so, built on four main things.

First, as always, they share some classes together, and try to sit together whenever the seating arrangement allows. Thankfully, Rei even managed to convince their biology teacher to let them partner up together for a group project, knowing that neither of them wanted to work with anyone else.

Second, during the time in-between classes, unless one of them has to do something else, or, as has been happening more frequently, Rei gets put in detention – which she insists every time wasn’t actually her fault – they’ll eat lunch together.

Third, which has been happening more often now that exam season is close to starting up, they’ll organize study sessions after school and then walk home together once it gets dark. Rei still brings her bag full of snacks, and Jiwon isn’t entirely sure if she’s ever actually replaces any of them, or if the contents of the backpack magically never goes down. Either way, Jiwon tries to bring her own snacks for them to share on occasion, since she imagines Rei must have spent so much on candy she could’ve paid for a flight back to japan, but sometimes she’s just happy to eat what Rei gives her, knowing that she likes to buy for her friends.

Fourth, and finally, on the brief respite from school that comes on the weekends, Jiwon has been showing Rei around Samgyo some more, although admittedly, there isn’t too much to see. They haven’t been back to the city very often since narrowly avoiding disaster in their first excursion, but Jiwon thinks Rei is finally starting to get more used to the countryside. Rei still hasn’t admitted that petrichor is a pleasant smell, but she doesn’t complain when she takes her out hiking, so it’s hard for Jiwon to say progress isn’t being made there.

But the problem is, despite how happy Jiwon is with their new routine, now finally having someone she feels like she can fully connect with, Rei’s been down lately, and the hard part is that she just can’t figure out why.

Signs of it have been showing from the start, whenever Rei talks about home, there’s always a sad glint in her eye that Jiwon has never been able to fully understand. Rei talks fondly of her family, especially so of her grandparents, but Jiwon can’t help but feel like their relationship is somewhat strained, although that’s unsurprising, she imagines she would feel the same if her family banished her to another country to straighten her out.

It hurts to see Rei’s emotions wearing her down, and it hurts even more that Jiwon just doesn’t know exactly what she’s working with. Trying to help Rei with whatever’s on her mind is like trying to solve a math problem when you’re missing too many variables, and Jiwon has never been the best at algebra to begin with, despite how hard Rei has been trying to tutor her.

“Hey, Rei. Is everything alright?” Jiwon asks straight up as they walk home from school on a temperate April night. A slight wind blows past every now and then, but the weather might as well be non-existent. It makes the atmosphere feel hollow, which is ironic, because Jiwon imagines that must be how Rei feels.

Truth be told, while she knows asking Rei what’s eating away at her head is a surefire way of having the topic danced around and underplayed, at this point Jiwon is simply out of options. A part of her feels guilty, worried that she’s prying too deep to force the information out of Rei, but the rest of her is aware that straightforward is the way Rei likes to do things.

“I’m fine. Just a little tired, is all.” Rei answers, putting up another mask as she proves Jiwon’s hypothesis right on both counts, even though for once she almost wishes her hunch didn’t come true.

“Rei, please. You don’t need to lie to me.” Jiwon insists, unsure whether or not she’s treading on unstable ground, but knowing that she can’t simply leave it be, not after having already opened Pandora’s box.

Her words seem to hit Rei all at once as she turns her head away, unable to face her while the soft glow of a street lamp illuminates the side of her cheek. After a brief moment of silence, with not even the sounds of crickets in the distance to fill the void, one where Jiwon assumes Rei is having a lengthy internal debate with herself, she finally speaks up, letting all of her masks shatter on the ground. “To be honest with you, I don’t know exactly what it is, but I think I’ve been missing home lately.”

Unsure where else to start with finding a resolution to Rei’s troubles, Jiwon leads with the one thing that always helps her when she’s missing everyone back in Jeju. “Have you called your family recently?”

“Yeah, that doesn't do anything, though.” Rei sighs before casting her eyes up to the stars, looking for an answer from up above. “I can’t explain it very well. It’s not like I miss home – as in Nagoya – it’s like the abstract concept of home. But the problem is, I don’t even know what that is, so I have no idea where to start.

“I’ll help you.” Jiwon insists with a comforting smile, even going so far as to give a quick fist pump for encouragement. “I’m sure if we put our brains together, we can figure something out.”

“That’s so like you.” Jiwon hears Rei mumble underneath her breath, before letting out a quiet, humorless chuckle. “You really don’t need to, though, I’m sure I’ll get over this soon.”

Were it any other time, Jiwon might find herself laughing, but she just can’t bring herself to anymore. Rei would give the world to someone else, spend every last won on her friends until she has nothing left to give, but when the roles are reversed, she acts like she’s already indebted to the entire world. But Jiwon knows from experience that Rei doesn’t take no for an answer when it comes to paying for things, so now, if only this once, she’ll go against Rei’s wishes and spoil her rotten.

As the familiar street corner that always signals for the two of them to part ways comes into view, Jiwon realizes that she’s nearly out of time, and still hasn’t come up with a single thing they can actually do together to help cheer Rei up. Surprises have never been for her, as countless traumatic childhood birthday parties that she’d rather not dwell on have taught Jiwon, but perhaps if she does something for Rei that she has no idea about, it’ll show her that she cares. If she can help Rei get over her homesickness and finally work out what ‘home’ means to her, that’s a definite bonus, but if nothing else, cheering her up is a solid start.

“I’m gonna take you out somewhere tomorrow, okay? It’ll be a surprise, and I’m sure you’ll feel a lot better afterwards.”

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago, after being banished. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her, and eats lunch with her nearly every day. 

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei has pink hair, which she dyed in an act of rebellion. 

Rei likes food a lot and can’t study without it, but she seems to like sour things and her mom’s sushi the most. 

Rei does not like the smell of petrichor. Rei is already on volume seven of Blue Blood. 

At this point, Jiwon thinks she knows so many things about Rei, it would take far, far too long to list everything individually.

But the one thing she still can’t figure out is how to cheer her up.

“Ta-da!” Jiwon singsongs as she waves with her hands, gesturing towards the small store entrance in front of her.

Rei’s eyes follow her directions, slowly eyeing the building up and down with a vacant look on her face. “What’s this?”

“What does it look like? It’s a restaurant, obviously.” Jiwon rebukes playfully, before giving Rei a gentle shove on her shoulder. “Come on, I’ll explain more once we’re inside.

Without another word, Jiwon interlocks her fingers with Rei’s and guides her towards the door of the restaurant. Physical contact with just about anyone has always felt weird, and she isn’t even sure when that changed with Rei specifically, but recently she’s started to take notice of how much they instinctively hold hands like it’s nothing.

A bell above the door chimes as the enter into the small, quiet restaurant. It’s still early in the afternoon, so the floor is almost entirely empty, excluding a small group of people sitting off in the corner, and a young waitress leaning against the bar who hastily looks up from her doom scrolling to greet them, likely relieved to finally have something to do.

The girl gives a quick bow to the two of them as she approaches and puts on her best customer service smile before speaking. “Hey, you can sit wherever you like, everywhere’s free.”

“Oh, thank you.” Jiwon smiles in return before leading Rei over to the nearest available table, gesturing for her to sit down opposite her.

“I still don’t understand what’s going on.” Rei admits as she casts her eyes around the fairly space restaurant interior, until her gaze eventually locks upon a series of pictures mounted on to one of the walls. Once it finally clicks with her, she lets out a quiet, understanding “Ah.”

“You said you were missing home, and although I don’t know much that I can do to help you, I know you like food a lot. Then I remembered all the times you’ve talked about your mom’s sushi, so I assumed that food makes you think of home. So then I-”

As she starts to speak far faster than she intended, to the point, as she so often does, Rei interrupts her with her soft voice. “Jiwon.”

Jiwon’s lips part in confusion at the sudden interruption, as her frantic speech comes to a sudden, crashing halt. “Uh, yeah?”

“You’re speaking too fast again. Also the waitress is here.” Rei explains with her arms crossed across her chest as she motions with her chin towards the young girl standing off to the side of their table with a notepad and pen in her hands.

“Oh, hi.” Jiwon awkwardly mumbles out, barely able to meet eyes with the girl.

“My name’s Hyunseo, just give me a shout if you need anything. I assume you two are here for our lunchtime special miso katsu?”

“Are we?” Rei turns to her and asks as she hunches an eyebrow.

“We are.”

“I see.” Hyunseo hums as she starts scribbling on her notepad. “And can I get some drinks for you two?”

“Pepsi for me.”

“And I’ll get a lemonade, thanks.” Jiwon smiles as Hyunseo finishes writing and slides her pad back into the back pocket of her jeans.

“Ok, I’ll just be back in a minute with your drinks.”

After watching Hyunseo disappear off into the kitchen again, Rei turns back to face her with a warm, thankful smile that makes Jiwon think everything has been worth it. “Thank you, Jiwon, I really appreciate this.”

“Wait, wait. Can I finish my story.” She hurries out, waving her hands in front of her before she loses her train of thought.

With a light chuckle and a shake of her head in disbelief, Rei rests her head in her palm and prepares to listen. “Just remember to breathe.”

“No promises.” Jiwon smirks, before taking one last deep breath to be on the safe side, just in case she doesn’t get another for a while. “Ok, so yeah, I thought that I’d try and find a restaurant that could remind you of home. I did some research because I don’t really know what Nagoya is famous for, and everything recommended hitsumabushi, but I couldn’t find anywhere that served it without going back into the city, and I really don’t have the money for eels, so that was automatically crossed off the list.” She pauses, remembering to take a moment to catch her breath, and the corners of Rei’s lips creep up as she notices. “But then my mom came into my room and told me about this place, which is apparently run by someone else from Nagoya, so here we are.”

Rei leans forward slightly to reach across the table, before taking one of Jiwon’s hands into her own and absentmindedly drawing circles on her hand with her finger. “I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve you.”

“You haven’t done anything.” Jiwon smiles earnestly as she warms to the touch. “I know you’ve been feeling down, and I can’t just sit by and do nothing while one of my friend’s suffers.”

With a slight click of her tongue, Rei shakes her head dismissively. “I think you’re exaggerating by calling it suffering.”

“And I think you’re trying too hard to be strong.” Jiwon rebukes. If there’s one person related thing she’s better at than Rei, it’s her ability to understand what’s going on beneath the surface with just a glance. But even then, her skills still haven’t been enough to get to the bottom of what’s wrong with Rei.

“Look, I know you’re just trying to be nice, and I really appreciate this, but do you mind if we just focus on something else.” Rei looks down, and pulls her hands away, as she starts fiddling nervously with her palms underneath the table. “I know it won’t make them go away, but I don’t really like dwelling on my problems too much.”

Jiwon gives Rei a gentle, affirmative nod, before tilting her head to the side slightly. “Sure, what do you want to talk about instead?”

“Your food’s here!” Hyunseo singsongs as she appears at the side of their table so suddenly it nearly makes Jiwon jump out of her skin, but thankfully she’s able to avoid letting out a scream, lest she have to deal with Rei calling her a scaredy cat again. With one tray of food in each of her hands, Hyunseo sizes up the dishes before setting them down in front of them. “I have the cola here, and the lemonade for you. I hope you two enjoy, give me a shout if you need anything.”

Just as quickly as she appeared, Hyunseo disappears behind the counter before Jiwon can so much as get a single word of thanks out. A ‘tsk’ slips out from between her lips as she sees the reflection of her phone screen illuminating one side of her face, and Jiwon no longer has to wonder why she works so efficiently.

As she casts her eyes back to their table, Rei does the same, and for a brief moment their eyes lock, before Jiwon turns her attention to her food, looking for any distraction to hide her awkwardness.

“Well, I think we found our answer.” Rei giggles quietly as she snaps her chopsticks apart.

Rather than taking a bite straight away, despite how tempted she might be to do so, Jiwon watches patiently as Rei picks up a piece of the katsu, making sure it gets thoroughly covered in the miso sauce. Rei savors the bite, and as the umami taste envelops her tongue, she opens her mouth to let out an approving hum, before quickly covering it with her palm.

Jiwon can’t help but chuckle, before asking a question she’s sure she already knows the answer too. “Is it good?”

“Mmh!” Rei hums while making a thumbs up with her free hand, before swallowing down the last of the bite. “But I don’t know why you’re asking me, try your own.”

Without hesitation, Jiwon lathers a piece of chicken in so much sauce she can no longer see the breadcrumbs on the outside before popping it into her mouth. Within seconds, her eyes bulge open at the taste as a satisfied grunt escapes from her lips that she’d rather she kept inside, but as long as Hyunseo isn’t lurking somewhere close enough to hear it, she doesn’t mind too much.

“It’s good, right?” Rei smirks as she hastily grabs another bite.

“Yeah.” Jiwon says as she finishes her piece, before drawing her eyes away from her food to look at Rei, making sure she can gauge her reaction as she speaks. “But does it remind you of home?”

With a sigh, Rei sets down her chopsticks momentarily and intentionally avoids her gaze, even though Jiwon can see everything written plainly across her face. “I’m sorry, Jiwon.”

☼✿☼✿☼✿☼

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago, after being banished. 

Rei does not talk to anyone in class, except her, and eats lunch with her nearly every day.

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei has pink hair, which she dyed in an act of rebellion.

Rei likes food a lot and can’t study without it, but she seems to like sour things and her mom’s sushi the most. 

Rei does not like the smell of petrichor.

Rei is finally caught up on Blue Blood so she doesn’t have to hide spoilers any more. 

At this point, Jiwon thinks she knows so many things about Rei, it would take far, far too long to list everything individually, but the one thing she still can’t figure out is how to cheer her up. Miso katsu isn’t the answer, she knows that much at the very least.

The rain beats down heavily against the worn roof of the library, crashing against the metal as the sound reverberates throughout the building. Jiwon has always found that she studies best when it’s raining; the quiet trickling of droplets against the drainpipes provides the perfect background noise to keep her focused, but when the spring showers pour down this heavily, the sound is so deafeningly loud she can hardly hear herself think.

With a sigh, Rei sets down her pen with a clatter as it falls against the table, before pulling her head up from its resting place on her notebook. Jiwon wants to laugh at the way the binder has imprinted itself onto her cheeks, especially so considering the fact that she probably didn’t even feel it, given how pinchable her’s are, but as she looks into her tired eyes, she just can’t bring herself to in good faith.

Even without the unresolved feeling of missing home that continues to eat away at her, despite how they agreed not to talk about it, the impending exam season has started to pile stress onto everyone. The teachers haven’t helped in that regard. Every year they’re told that finals are a life of death situation, but given that they’ll potentially be going off to university soon, this year the pressure has felt far more real than ever before.

“I don’t think I can stare at these textbooks for any longer today.” Rei groans as she flips the cover of her notebook shut, as if seeing a single more math problem will cause her brain to spontaneously combust. “Do you mind if I head out early?”

With a brief moment of respite from studying, Jiwon enviously watches Rei as she neatly organizes her books into her bag. If she was as diligent of a student as her, maybe she could be leaving early too, but unfortunately, Jiwon has never had an aptitude for memorization. “Go ahead, but I think I’m gonna stay here for a little while more, I still have some brain power left in me.”

“Good luck with that, I’ll see you tomorrow.” Rei smiles as she finishes packing up her bag. But before she seals it shut, she pulls out a small paper bag filled with candy and drops it in front of her eyes, before giving her a quick wink. “Can’t study without snacks, right?”

Jiwon jumps in surprise as the brown bag suddenly enters her vision, but just as quickly, she feels a smile creeping onto her lips as she gazes inside. Without waiting a single moment longer, she takes one of the small green balls out and pops it on the tip of her tongue, letting herself savor the taste as the sugar starts to melt, staining her mouth with its color.

“Are these for me?”

“Do you know anyone else in this room whose favorite candy is watermelon bon-bons because back when they lived on Jeju, their grandma would always buy them for them on the way home from school?” Rei smirks with a devilish grin completely unfitting of her heartwarming gesture, but Jiwon knows that treating her friends is how Rei gets her supposedly twisted kicks. “Of course they’re for you.”

Despite how used she is to Rei remembering the tiniest little details of their conversations, at least when it comes to food, Jiwon still feels her cheeks warm uncontrollably every time, and now is certainly no exception. Rei cares for her in a way she’s never experienced before, it’s unlike that of someone with a motherly instinct, nor does it remind her of protective upperclassmen. No matter how hard she tries, Jiwon has never been able to place her finger on what exactly it is, or where it stems from.

“Thank you,” Jiwon says while covering her cheeks, as if Rei hasn’t already had a chance to witness the way they’re burning red. “I’m sure I’ll be able to focus now.”

“Don’t mention it.” Rei chuckles, before turning her eyes to the window momentarily and letting out a mumbled curse beneath her breath and looking back towards her. “Hey, stupid question, but you wouldn’t have a spare umbrella, would you? I just realized I forgot mine.”

“I don’t think anyone carries two umbrellas on them, but you can take mine.” Jiwon jokes as she fishes around inside her bag. Rei’s eyes seem to be tinted with remorse, as if realizing that taking her umbrella just means condemning her to face the storm in her place. Even without Rei saying any words verbally, Jiwon knows exactly what’s going through her mind, “Don’t worry, my mom’s coming to pick me up later, so I don’t need it anyway.”

“You’re the best, Jiwon.” Rei cheers, before briefly wrapping her hands over her shoulders to bring her into a delicate hug from behind. After a moment of the gentle hold, where Jiwon feels her cheeks burning hotter than ever before, Rei lifts one of her arms off her to take the umbrella from her hands, while using the other to push herself back upright. “Thanks again, I’ll make sure to give you this back tomorrow.”

As Rei starts to make her way out of the library, Jiwon watches with an absentminded stare while her mind runs circles around her. At this point she’s used to Rei hugging her; even if she’s far from a touchy type of person, things are different when it comes to Rei. But while Rei’s hugs have always made her feel soft and fuzzy inside, that back hug felt unmistakably different, in a way that just like her other gestures, Jiwon just can’t properly describe. Instead, it only leaves her wondering.

☼✿☼

Do hugs always feel this warm?

Truth be told, no matter how hard she’s tried, ever since the question first entered her mind a couple of hours ago, Jiwon hasn’t been able to think of anything else, let alone return to studying. It’s an equation harder to solve than anything she’s encountered in a math paper, and a topic so complex she could write a whole essay on it without ever coming to a solid conclusion.

But thankfully, she’s saved from falling any further down the spiraling rabbit hole of trying to find an answer, at least for the time being, by a sudden buzzing from her phone.

Mom:

I’m really sorry, but are you able to make your own way home tonight?

Something happened at work and I need to stay late.

Love you.

As she draws her eyes away from her phone and comes back to reality, Jiwon hears the sounds of crashing thunder as the storm outside continues to rage on, and a pained sigh falls from her lips. The smell of petrichor might be waiting for her once the storm subsides, but even Jiwon isn’t sure if that’s remotely worth having to walk home in. Then again, if no one is coming to pick her up, it isn’t really like she has much of a choice.

While everyone else starts to clear out of the library, with it being close to closing for the night, Jiwon packs up her books, just hoping that her umbrella will do its job to keep them from getting soaked through, before slipping the remained of the candy that Rei gave her into the pocket of her blazer. A smile creeps onto her lips as she does, and Jiwon knows she’ll be able to make it home with the bon-bons for moral support. But after digging through her bag twice, as well as taking everything out just to be certain, no matter how hard she searches, she can’t find her umbrella anywhere.

It’s just her luck that the one day she forgets to bring her umbrella with her to school is the one day her mom isn’t able to pick her up to keep her out of the rain. Once more, as she steps out to the entrance of the school, the last bit of shelter from the storm she has between here and home, Jiwon watches as the rain sweeps downhill, filling the drains and flooding the entire street in front of her. She’s always wondered why the local government has never done anything to stop the flooding, especially when it happens at the same time every year as if on schedule, but tonight it just feels personal.

Entirely out of options, although she has no one to blame but her own forgetful self, Jiwon takes off her blazer and raises it over her head, hoping that it will at least shield her from the rain for a few seconds before the rain soaks through the fabric, and after drawing one last deep breath, Jiwon starts to run.

Within moments, she can feel her shoes start to fill with water as she has no choice but to pass through a puddle before going uphill, but as much as she hates it, Jiwon has no choice but to push on. Thankfully, she doesn’t even have to make it all the way home herself, just so long as she can make it to the bus stop at the top of the hill, she can catch a ride the rest of the way home where she can be kept both warm and out of the rain.

Running uphill takes more effort than she’d like to admit, especially with the weight of her clothes doubling as they become waterlogged, but Jiwon eventually makes it to the top, where the lone bus stop waits for her. But just as quickly as she felt her spirits starting to rise at the thought of escaping the rain, they plummet to the depths of her stomach, just like the water cascading down the slope, as she reads the message displayed in red on the departure board.

All buses canceled due to unsafe road conditions.

Jiwon knows that she should pick herself up and continue making her way home, knowing that there is nothing waiting for her at the bus stop any longer other than the promise of her clothes getting even more wet. The storm doesn't cease just because she wants it to, but after being dealt a hand wrought with endless bad luck, Jiwon is unable to will herself to do anything else but hug her knees into her chest and cry as she sits on the cold metal of the bench.

While her teardrops coalesce with the droplets from the atmosphere, Jiwon feels herself starting to shiver. She can’t even call someone, knowing that the sheet of water that pools on the tips of her finger will completely prevent her from interfacing with her phone screen, so she sits for a moment longer, accompanied only by the sounds of thunder, while she mentally prepares herself to complete the rest of the walk home through the storm.

But then, as if some merciful deity has finally decided to smile upon her, the rain suddenly lets up. A slight smile of relief creeps up to Jiwon’s lips, but no more than that, before she extends her palm out, just to check if everything is too good to be true. Unsurprisingly, given the run of fate she’s been experiencing, the rain continues to soak through her fingers, and she figures her mind must be playing tricks on her.

When she pulls her hand back however, the rain stops once more, and Jiwon realizes that it can only mean one thing.

“Holy shit Jiwon, what are you doing out here? You’re drenched!”

“R-Rei?” Jiwon mumbles, as her words words come out shaky from the chattering of her teeth

“No, I’m just an apparition in your stupid mind.” Rei chides as she tugs on her wet hand, pulling her further under the umbrella. “Of course it’s me, now get under matchstick girl, before you die from the cold.”

With her body pulled tight against Rei’s, Jiwon feels herself slowly starting to warm back up. Rei’s hands might not be warm at the moment, and if Jiwon’s being honest, they almost never are, with all the iced coffee she drinks, but compared to her frostbite ridden self, she might as well be holding hands with the sun.

While it’s an awkward maneuver to perform, Rei juggles keeping them both dry under her umbrella, and taking off her jacket so she can drape it over Jiwon’s shoulders to help stop her shivering. She eventually manages it, only letting a few droplets of water slip past the cover, before placing her free arm over her shoulder and pulling Jiwon tighter into her gentle hold.

“What are you doing here, I thought you’d left already? Jiwon asks as she sinks her head further into the crevice of Rei’s shoulder, and she can only hope she doesn’t mind having her wet hair brush against her neck.

“I did, but then my aunt asked me to pick up some extra groceries for dinner.” Rei answers, jostling the plastic bag in her umbrella hand as they start to walk. “But I have a better question. What are you doing here? You said your mom was coming to pick you up.”

“I- Yeah.” Jiwon sighs before letting out a sniffle as she feels a cold starting to come on. “She got held up at work. I thought I would be fine getting back on my own, but I forgot my umbrella. I just feel so stupid right now.”

“Yeah, you are stupid.” Rei chuckles, and for a moment, Jiwon’s lip turns to a frown, for once not appreciative of Rei's teasing, instead only feeling like she’s reveling in her misery. “Don’t you recognize this umbrella?”

Without moving her head from Rei’s shoulder, Jiwon uses all her energy to look up at the lone umbrella keeping them safe. But while she might recognize the familiar black nylon with white polka-dots interspersed across it, her brain goes into a frenzy trying to understand why Rei would have her umbrella, before finally just reaching the far more simple conclusion that two people can own the same style of umbrella.

Eventually, however, Rei supplies a far more concrete answer in her stead. “You lent it to me when I left the library. Did you seriously forget that already?”

“Sorry.”

“What are you saying sorry for?” Rei scoffs, and Jiwon imagines that at any other time she would give her a flick on the head too. “I’m the reason why you’re this wet in the first place.”

Through the reflection of a puddle that forms around an overflowing drain, Jiwon sees a soft, red glow, with letters that she can’t quite make out, with how the rippling surface distorts the image. As the rain around them stops, she assumes that Rei has brought her under a cover, and feels safe to finally lift her head up and actually pay attention to her surroundings.

They’re under the entrance way of a small convenience store not too far from the school, Jiwon remember’s how Rei has mentioned several times that this is where she goes after sneaking out of school to buy more snacks on the rare occasion that she starts to run low.

With the coast finally clear, Rei lowers her – or rather – Jiwon’s umbrella, and gives it a few forceful shakes to try and shed as much excess water as possible before stepping closer to the automatic sliding doors of the convenience store.

As Jiwon follows Rei inside, after being let go from her hold, she tries to wipe her feet dry on the mat by the door, despite knowing that her shoes are far too soaked through for it to do anything. The moment the sliding doors close shut behind her, Jiwon can feel her shivering starting to ease up, and she’s more than grateful for the climate controlled environment of the store.

Once as much of the water as she can shed is on the mat beneath her, where it won't cause someone else to slip up, Jiwon realizes that Rei has already disappeared to somewhere else in the store. Thankfully though, despite how many shelves there are, the store is small enough that she finds her after not too long, standing next to an automatic coffee machine with one hand on her hip, and the other fiddling around with the menus.

“Isn’t it a bit too cold for iced coffee?” Jiwon jokes, threading her arm in between the gap between Rei’s arm and her waist, as she thinks back to what she said to her the first time they went out to the city together.

“It’s for you, obviously. You need to warm up before you die of hypothermia.” Rei chides, and from the combination of her posture, her words, and her tone, Jiwon thinks she reminds her of her grandma back in Jeju. “Single shot vanilla latte, right? Because you don’t like the taste of strong coffee too much.”

“That’s right.” Jiwon giggles softly as her neck starts to sink to a resting spot on Rei’s shoulder.

She can’t help but laugh when Rei’s maternal instincts, if that’s what they really are, start to kick in. Even though she's used to remembering small details about people, like their social cues and ticks so she knows whether or not to avoid them, more often than not her sensors tell her yes, whether or not she has a personal bias at play in the calculation is anyone’s guess. But while Rei might lack her overall social awareness, she remembers the most specific details of people scarily well, especially so when it comes to food.

“Ok, while I wait for this to finish, go try and find a hot pack. We need to get you warmed up.”

With a quick, affirmative salute, Jiwon disappears into the aisles of the convenience store before Rei gets the chance to flick her forehead to shut her up. Now so more than ever, being sent on an errand to fix her mistakes, she’s never felt like so much of a child. But despite the absurdity of the situation, Jiwon does her duties diligently, eventually managing to find a small pack tucked away in the corner of one of the shelves.

As she starts to make her way back to the counter, now that keeping herself from freezing to death is safely off of her mind, Jiwon’s other survival needs start to kick in, as her stomach starts to rumble. Instead of making her way back to Rei right away, remembering that her mom won't be back tonight to cook, Jiwon grabs a small pack of pre-made sushi from one of the nearby refrigerators, before heading over to the counter.

While the cashier starts to scan their items, Jiwon drops her backpack from her shoulder and starts to fiddle around in search of her purse, while trying to pay no mind to the wet paper that brushes against her skin, deciding to leave that problem to a later Jiwon. But the moment she starts to take her hand out after finally getting a hand of her card, as if with some freakish sixth sense, Rei slaps her hand away, causing her to drop it all the way down to the bottom, without so much as even turning her eyes away from the cashier for a single moment.

“I buy things for people I like.” Is all Rei says to her, a single, curt reminder that she’s heard a hundred times over at this point. It makes her feel guilty every time, since she knows she can afford things as cheap as coffee from a machine and supermarket sushi, but at a point it just feels rude to throw Rei’s kindness back in her face by protesting. So, despite how she might truly feel, Jiwon zips her bag back up and mutters a quiet thanks as Rei hands her the warm coffee and scoops the rest into her arms.

After making their way back out into the cold, albeit with coffee and a hot pack to lessen its severity, Jiwon takes a seat on one of the few dry benches underneath the cover of the store, while Rei sits down opposite her, as they wait for the rain to finally subside. With a smile on her face that Jiwon recognizes as the one she always wears when gifting something to her, Rei hands her the small box of sushi from across the table.

While at this point Jiwon has learnt not to reject Rei’s kindness, since she derives her own fulfillment from giving things to others, a sort of selfish selflessness, in the best way possible, she’s found her own ways of navigating around her bizarrely oriented moral compass. So, as she pops the plastic lid open, breaking the air tight seal with her fingernail, before taking a piece of her own, she tilts the box in Rei’s direction and holds it out for her.

Instead of taking a piece from the box, or even simply saying that she’s not hungry, Rei stares at the box of sushi for a moment like she’s never seen anything like it before, as if the entire concept is foreign to her, before turning her gaze back up to her.

“You know, I haven’t actually eaten sushi once since coming to Korea.” Rei starts, before taking a brief pause to collect her thoughts about…something. Jiwon really isn’t too sure where she’s going with her point, but remains silent, curious to find out. “Which is weird, right, because I used to eat it all the time in Japan, like my mom would make it for me most days of the week before school. But the thing is, I’ve never been able to stomach supermarket sushi. It’s so obviously mass produced in the way it looks and tastes that my brain has never been able to mistake it for the real thing. So, when I tried to eat supermarket sushi to get rid of my cravings, it only replaced that craving with one for the real thing - the way my mom used to make it. Because of that I haven’t eaten it since coming here, because I know I can’t go back home and eat my mom’s later.”

Although she drinks in the sincerity behind every one of Rei’s words, understanding most of the sentiment she’s trying to convey, Jiwon sees the chance for a once in a lifetime joke served up on a silver platter right in front of her. After a brief moment of debate with the angel and the devil on her shoulder, she gives in to the latter, as a scheming smirk creeps onto her lips.

“Jeez, you know you could’ve just said no.”

Unfortunately, however, with how close they are, Jiwon has no room to maneuver away as Rei delivers a fierce flick to her forehead that she completely deserves. “Shut up. Is this how you feel when I zone out for all of your rants?”

“You aren’t paying attention to them!?” Jiwon shouts, her eyebrows knotting together as any aspect of joking around vanishes into thin air.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Rei chuckles, waving a hand dismissively in hopes of calming Jiwon down in her rage.

A brief bout of silence falls between them once Rei’s laughter subsides, and with the storm finally starting to let up, Jiwon feels like she can finally hear herself think once more. She pops a piece of sushi in her mouth, and while she can agree with Rei that the taste can’t compare to the hand rolled stuff, she still gets enough fulfillment out of the imitation to be satisfied.

As she finishes swallowing, the silence between them becomes increasingly thick, and Jiwon can’t help but notice that Rei looks down once more. So, after mustering up all her courage, she decides to be the one to finally cut through the awkwardness. “Hey, are you alright?”

“Yeah, I-” Rei shakes her head like it’s nothing, but evidently, despite how much a part of her wants to, she decides not to put on another mask. “I think I finally worked out what’s got me down.”

“Oh?” Jiwon gasps inquisitively, before pumping her fists for encouragement while desperately hoping that they’ve finally gotten to the bottom of what feels like an endless mystery. “What is it?”

“I think the way I feel about you is like supermarket sushi.”

Although it seems to be a profound resolution to Rei, Jiwon is left with her jaw bouncing confused like a fish. “I- uh, what?”

“You really weren’t listening to me, were you?” Rei laughs humorlessly before pausing once more to think. Although Jiwon can’t see into her mind, despite how much she wishes she could at times, she imagines Rei must be running through everything single thing she plans to say in her head, just in case she decides to take it back. But after a moment of deliberation, she closes her eyes briefly, and begins to speak when they open up once more.

“You’ve always shown me affection, which is weird, because just by looking at you I can tell you aren’t a touchy person, but I’ve never been able to work out what that means. I’ve tried, don’t get me wrong, but you’re so painfully oblivious that I don’t know if you’ve ever even noticed, and I’ve been too afraid to just say what I want to straight up, in case I ruin everything.”

Rei takes another deep breath, before nodding, as if trying to psyche herself up, as she continues. “So, I guess here I am, doing the things I’ve always been too scared to do. I love what we have between us, but the affection you give me, I can’t help but crave more. I don’t just want things between me and you to be superficial, I want the real thing, and I’m not about to say something corny, like how you’re my home, but I think the feeling I’ve been craving wasn’t home, it’s you, Jiwon. And I suppose what I’m trying to say is, the affection you give me tastes like supermarket sushi, I’ve always been left craving more.”

Thankfully, Jiwon had the foresight to not be eating when Rei started talking, if she did, she imagines her reaction would be wildly different. But as it stands, Rei’s words launch her mind into such a profound state of shock she can’t even formulate a verbal response. Instead, she only stares blankly at Rei while hoping her brain fully reboots before things become awkward between them, although knowing her, nearly everything ends up feeling awkward anyway.

“Shit, I blew it didn’t I?” Rei curses as she turns her head anyway in anger, although Jiwon knows it’s only directed at herself. “Look, forget I-”

As Rei goes to push herself up from the bench, no doubt to run home in the rain like she had planned to earlier in the night, Jiwon stands up and grabs her wrist, ushering for her to stay. “No, please. I just…I don’t know what to say. But I- hang on, I have an idea.”

Jiwon lets Rei’s arm fall slack as she takes a few steps away and turns her back to her, desperately trying to clear her head of any and all distractions as she pulls out her phone. But by the time she’s even gotten to open her contacts page, she feels Rei trying to close the distance.

“Jiwon, what are you-”

“Can I just-” Jiwon groans internally, but tries to push on despite how embarrassed she feels. “Look, I know this is stupid, but I think I can tell you how I feel better if I type it to you.”

She imagines Rei knows exactly how ridiculous her gesture is too, and at any other time, she would probably be blatantly laughing at her. But with the trust she has in her, Rei only nods and takes a step back, allowing Jiwon all the space she needs to do whatever she needs to do.

So, after drawing in a long breath through her nose, breathing in the fond smell of petrichor as the last droplets of rain starts to fall, and exhaling, watching as the clouds of water vapor pools in front of her, Jiwon looks down at the dimmed screen of her phone and starts typing.

To: Rei

I have no idea how to start this, but you probably know that already, so I guess I’ll just say whatever’s on my mind as it comes to me.

I’m sorry I’m so oblivious, I missed so many signs you must have given me that I don’t even know where half of them are, but I think deep down I was afraid too. Every time you did something that made my cheeks blush or my heart race, every time you ever showed me kindness beyond what you give to strangers, I never knew what to make of it.

I was so afraid of reading the signs wrong, that I insisted I was making things up, or that it was all too good to be true, but I guess that was only because I wanted it to be real.

The truth is, I’m lonely a lot of the time, moving here has been hard on me, and I’ve never really known who I was ever since coming to Samgyo, but through you, I found myself, and I think I finally know what I want now. I want to be by your side. 

I suppose what I’m trying to say,

Is that I was just a girl from Jeju, until I met you.

Letting out one last sigh, albeit this time one of relief, Jiwon puts her phone back in her pocket as silence falls once more, but only for a brief moment. She figures Rei must have seen the typing bubble disappear from the bottom of her messages, and after finishing reading through the last of them, Jiwon hears three footsteps splashing their way over to her.

Before she so much as has the chance to process what is going on after turning back to face her, Rei bends her knees slightly before wrapping her hands on the bottom of her skirt and lifting her into the air. As her already overworked mind suddenly switches to what must be the fifth life altering event to take place in the last thirty minutes or so, Jiwon’s body can do nothing more than throw her hands around the back of Rei’s neck, just on the off chance her new found, freakish strength gives out and she loses her grip on her.

Thankfully, however, Rei doesn’t falter, despite the slippery ground, as she starts to excitedly spin around like a rag doll with her holding on for dear life in her arms. “This is the best day of my life! You’re so stupid, but I love you Jiwon!” She shouts, hopping up and down a few times as if the roller coaster ride she’s already putting her through isn’t nauseating enough.

But rather than dwelling on the fact that she feels like she could throw up at any moment, and choosing to ignore the fact that Rei called her stupid, at least until she’s in a position advantageous enough to punch her without risking her own health, Jiwon simply looks down at Rei in awe. Once her eyes land on the ear to ear smile of glee written across her perfect face, Jiwon feels the same rapidly working its way across her own.

“I love you too, Rei. I’m so glad fate brought the two of us together. I don’t know how I would’ve lived if I never met you.”

As she feels the same warmth she felt when Rei hugged her from behind earlier in the evening, Jiwon doesn’t falter. No longer does she have to wonder why Rei’s touch makes her feel so warm, and no longer does she have to rationalize her assumptions as anything other than what she now knows as the truth - what her heart knew all along.

Rei moved to Samgyo at the start of the second semester, roughly two months ago. 

Rei is from Nagoya, Japan. Rei looks beautiful with her pink hair, even in the rain. 

Rei loves her, and that’s all Jiwon needs to know about Rei.