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The sun has almost sunken down the horizon when the bus reaches the terminal. The beach is a solid fifteen-minute walk from the stop, but with all the months Seulgi spent searching and waiting, she takes her time getting there.
She forgoes the paved path and takes the route she knows by heart. The sand dips with her every step, warm with what’s left of the setting sun’s light. She’s almost tempted to take her shoes off.
Nothing much has changed, yet somehow, everything has. For one, her hair is longer now, reaching just above her elbows. Eyes are heavier but with a certain... gleam.
It’s almost funny, now that she thinks of it. How the beach once took everything from her. And now she’s here to take everything back.
A lone figure stands at the far end of the pier when Seulgi arrives. She fights the instinct to run, keeping her feet firmly planted on the ground. She’s made her wait for months, after all. She could do a little bit more of waiting.
The figure didn’t turn when Seulgi reaches her, eyes trained on the undulating waters in front of them. A skateboard sits flipped to the side, the paint chipping off from constant use.
Then, Jaeyi finally turns. There’s a small smile on her face. Seulgi doesn’t know if it’s contentment or relief. She does know, however, that it’s still a sight to behold.
Contrary to Seulgi, her hair is shorter. Her cheeks also have fullness to them now.
“You came,” Jaeyi says. Her hand comes up to brush her wind-tousled hair. Seulgi internally swoons. “I was starting to think you wouldn’t.”
Seulgi chuckles despite herself, despite the itch in her eyes. “Why, are you mad I’m late?”
A grin blooms on Jaeyi’s lips as she recognizes the words, and Seulgi’s knees buckle. “No, people just forget about me easily these days.”
“I didn’t,” Seulgi thinks. She doesn’t say it. It isn’t the script they’re following. Because this is Jaeyi and her little semantics.
Instead, she takes a step closer. Her fingers brush against the sleeves of Jaeyi’s jacket, reaching. “I can’t speak for others, but I keep my promises.”
She tugs lightly on Jaeyi’s thumb. Jaeyi gravitates closer like the ocean tides and Seulgi is the moon.
“So just keep waiting for me, okay?”
Closer, then. Fingers closing around Jaeyi’s wrist. Foreheads almost touching and breaths mingling in the space between them. Jaeyi swallows.
“I might be just a little late.”
Seulgi tastes salt the moment their lips meet. She doesn’t know if it’s the sea breeze or the tears down her cheeks.
Jaeyi kisses her like she’s telling her a secret, hands coming up to cup her face. Implicitly. Like she’s scared the world might know. And Seulgi, with all her years in seclusion, has mastered the art of secrecy. She grabs at Jaeyi’s jacket and kisses back her confession.
Her mind reels when Jaeyi's mouth starts moving against hers. Desperately, this time. Truthfully. As if she knows nothing else. Her fingers slide down, caressing the skin just under her ears, and Seulgi almost falters, almost melts against her touch.
Jaeyi pants when they part. “Looks like you got some practice when I was gone.”
Seulgi chuckles. “None of them came close to that.”
Jaeyi’s brows furrow. “Wait, you really did?”
Seulgi laughs harder at what could be the beginning of a pout on Jaeyi’s face. “No, silly.” She brushes the stray hair away from Jaeyi’s eyes. “I didn’t… I couldn’t.”
The other girl immediately sobers. She feels Jaeyi’s arms tighten around her. I’m sorry, she wants to say. “I had to,” is what comes out.
“I know.”
-
They make a stop to the local market to buy ingredients for dinner, during which Seulgi learns that Jaeyi now goes by the name Woo Jaehyun after moving. She tries not to blush at the implication.
Jaeyi makes her hot chocolate when they make it to her cabin. It’s humble and packed, lived in, and sheltered by the surrounding woods. It’s a short walk from the docks and accessible by the path leading to the market.
“Should I stop calling you Jaeyi then?” Seulgi asks as they wait for dinner to cook.
Jaeyi hums. “Up to you. But I like the way you say my name.”
Seulgi never called her Jaehyun after that night.
-
They wouldn't say the words for a long time. Even after Seulgi sleeps over that night. Or the night after. At times, her stay would extend for days, and then weeks, and they wouldn't talk about it. Seulgi would simply tell Jaeyi she's grown bored of the city, and Jaeyi wouldn't question it.
Instead, there would be the random dinner dates arranged by Jaeyi. The nightly movie marathons. Grocery shopping every end of the week. Seulgi does not miss the friendly greetings Jaeyi gets from her distant neighbors. Or the occasional but bold arm touches from the young storeowner, or the extremely enthusiastic smile from the bagger boy.
“Jaehyun noona,” he often calls her in a sweet voice.
Seulgi wouldn't say anything about it, but Jaeyi would look at her longer then, would hold her hand tighter than usual.
Some days, when the breeze is a tame gust of wind, they would go to the nearby skatepark. Jaeyi's supporting hold on her waist would throw Seulgi off balance more than the board would. And they would laugh it off, but not without a knowing look from one to the other.
In late July, Seulgi would come back to the cabin hauling her old yellow suitcase.
"Just for the summer break," she would tell Jaeyi.
"You should start paying me for the accommodation," Jaeyi would say. But Seulgi hears the gratitude loud and clear. I’m glad you’re here.
They would go for late afternoon swims, when the sun no longer scalds and the water is soothing to the skin. Jaeyi would try her best not to gawk at the sight of Seulgi in her swimsuit. Seulgi, on the other, would try her best to be subtle.
"Do you ever miss your short hair?" Jaeyi asks while they stroll at the beach, almost reaches out to run her hand through Seulgi’s wavy locks.
"Sometimes I consider cutting it back.” Seulgi chuckles.
“You should.”
Seulgi thinks Jaeyi just wants them to match. Jaeyi knows it’s because Seulgi looks crazy beautiful with short hair.
-
It’s been months, but the affections still don’t come easy for Seulgi despite what occurred during their reunion. Instead, there would be searching eyes and lingering touches. Words would be muttered under the covers and would be forgotten in the morning.
It becomes their language then. The silence and serenity. On days when the skies are particularly looming and the ocean currents are raging, when the guilt overpowers the long unspoken forgiveness, warm arms would find their way around rigid bodies. Hushed I'm here's and I got you's would be breathed in privacy, and the truth would slip in chaste forehead kisses.
Jaeyi would one day come home with a lemon cake, much to Seulgi's confusion. It doesn't come from the fact that Jaeyi came home bearing a cake, but that it was a birthday cake. Seulgi would know from the bold white lettering on top.
"What's this for?"
Jaeyi pretends not to hear. She goes on to set the table with a smile that could only mean she knows something that Seulgi does not. She tugs the other girl to sit and she lights some candles, Seulgi's favorite ones. And at this point, also hers, because they cast such beautiful warmth and glow on Seulgi's face.
"Happy-not-birthday," Jaeyi says. Unceremonious. Like it's the obvious.
Seulgi only stares. "Not... birthday?"
"Unfortunately. Because you wouldn't tell me your birthday." Like it's singlehandedly the most disappointing thing Seulgi has done.
"Because I don't know when it actually is."
"Same thing," Jaeyi waves her hand. "But I'm happy today, and this is the only cake they have left. So. Happy not birthday."
And Seulgi would look at her crazy. Would ask her what the point is. But Jaeyi, with such damning laughter of a child, would then scoop the icing with her finger and wipe it on her nose.
That's when Seulgi would realize the point.
Their second kiss would taste of sugar, lemon, and vanilla. This time, it wouldn't be desperate, but tender. Intentional. (And they would go on to celebrate her not-birthday on the same day next year.)
“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Jaeyi asks her when they finally settle in bed.
Seulgi hums in askance, but Jaeyi doesn’t respond.
She sits up to look at her. The room is bathed in silvery moonlight from the open windows, but Seulgi doesn’t need it to see the telltale of a frown on Jaeyi’s face. “What is it?”
Jaeyi makes a vague movement with her head, chin tilting up and eyes glinting in expectance.
Seulgi doesn’t move. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Jaeyi does it again, as if that should be enough of an explanation for Seulgi to know.
“Jaeyi, just tell me.”
Unsurprisingly, Jaeyi harrumphs and crosses her arms. She pulls the covers up to her chin and turns her back at Seulgi. “Forget it, go to sleep.”
Seulgi exhales in exasperation, but doesn’t prod further.
But later, when Jaeyi’s breathing has seemingly evened, Seulgi would turn her over and pull her closer. Jaeyi would grumble but wouldn’t move away. Hands would make their way around her, knowing but still searching. Seulgi’s breath would brush warmly on her neck. The girl would nose at her, in places she knows would tickle the most. Seulgi would kiss her shoulder. And then her cheek. Her temple. Soft and unhurried.
“Good night, grumpy cat.”
-
After a few months, and after much debate, mostly from Jaeyi, Seulgi would deliver the news to Kyung and Yeri. Seulgi would see Kyung begrudgingly hand a wad of cash to Yeri, and Yeri would chuckle smugly.
"So you knew,” She says, unimpressed. “And you've been betting on it."
Yeri laughs. "I don’t think Kyungie did."
Jaeyi would allow them a visit, so long as they would bring Jaehyun with them. Not that it would be much of a dispute.
The ball of fur would come bounding in joy. And it would be like Jaeyi found another missing piece she lost. Because Jaehyun might’ve been late, but Jaehyun didn’t forget.
“So you’ve been babysitting all this time?” Yeri asks Seulgi as they watch Jaeyi chase after Jaehyun at the beach, the two embarking on a spontaneous hunt for seashells.
“Yeah.” Seulgi sighs. “Babysitting a giant toddler.”
Yeri laughs. “I hope you’re getting paid well.”
Jaeyi’s voice echoes from the distance. “Seulgi-ya!” Her grin is blinding as she waves yet another shell the size of her hand.
Seulgi nods and gives her a thumbs-up. “Yeah…” She turns to Yeri. “It does pay well.”
Yeri’s smile is no longer teasing. “Then that’s all I need to know.”
She leaves at the call of Kyung, and Jaeyi comes back with Jaehyun bearing a handful of seashells she’s decidedly gathered in her soaked T-shirt.
“Six. Big. Shells!” She says proudly as Seulgi wraps a towel around her. “We found shix sells – wait. Shi- six sells? Six… she-“
When Jaeyi looks up at her with her eyebrows furrowed and mouth open, it’s a brief moment of epiphany for Seulgi. As if she’s been submerged underwater all her life, and had only – finally – broken through the surface.
Jaeyi, her ultimate saving grace. Her first breath of oxygen. Gleefully and amply taken in.
“– I love you,” Seulgi blurts out.
“Six- huh?”
Realistically, the world does not stop then, does not pause to bear witness to Seulgi's sudden moment of salvation. Instead, she could only look, breathless despite her emergence. On the other hand, Jaeyi is watching her with wide eyes, waiting patiently. Always patiently.
Seulgi sucks in a breath. “I love you, Jaeyi-ah.”
Normally, the quip would come easy. And she could almost see the moment Jaeyi considered it. But the girl only swallows this time. “Really?”
Seulgi finally gives in, couldn’t help but chuckle at Jaeyi’s bewildered face. “Really.”
A smile starts spreading on Jaeyi’s face, and before Seulgi knows it, she was being tackled into an embrace. Jaehyun barks at the little commotion, tail wagging in delight. They stumble a little on the sand, and their friends could only look with resigned amusement.
Seulgi lightly swats at Jaeyi’s shoulders. “Stop it.”
Jaeyi laughs and lets her go. She then scoops the seashells into her hands and lifts them up for Kyung and Yeri to see.
“SHIX SELLS! I’ve got six sells, you hear that!?”
They all burst into a fit of laughter, and Jaeyi almost reels in ecstasy.
She turns back to Seulgi. “I love you too, by the way. So much.”
Seulgi shakes her head, but not without a big smile on her face. “Alright, you go back to collecting your shells.”
Jaeyi hums, and Seulgi knows then, what’s about to come. “I don’t know about you, but I’m no longer interested in shells right now.”
Oh how it pays really well.