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All walking through Times Square reminds Yunjin of is the time during the Easy, Crazy, Hot tour when Kazuha tried to get someone to do a dance challenge with her while wearing a dinosaur costume. It’s a bittersweet memory now.
Five years removed, the billboards feature faces of groups Yunjin isn’t familiar with and movies she isn’t interested in. One of them flashes by, displaying her recent Vogue ad after the release of her third solo album. Her polished face and glamorous outfit stare back at her, betraying her current appearance—no makeup, a hoodie she has her hands inside the pockets of, and comfortable jeans.
Music was always her passion, but recording in a studio in New York is lonelier compared to Seoul. She misses having one of her members right on the other side of the booth or even in the booth with her, recording a harmony or duet part. The group chat they share becomes less and less active until the only time they message in it is wishing each other happy birthdays and support on their individual projects when they come out.
Her phone vibrates in her jacket pocket as her hand ghosts over it. Pulling it out, she sees a message in the Fimmies group chat. It’s a picture of one of her billboards in another part of Times Square. But none of them are even in the US, as far as she knows. She looks at who sent it. Kazuha. With the message that she’s proud of Yunjin and misses the group. She follows it with a photo from that tour in that costume, saying she kind of wants to recreate it. Chaewon responds first, saying she missed them too, asking how Kazuha’s filming was going.
Kazuha’s filming something? Yunjin guesses Kazuha had her reasons for not telling her, considering everything that had happened between them. The members knew why they cried the hardest for each other at Incheon airport when they walked in opposite directions. It was a secret from everyone but them. From the moment they shared a kiss in a hotel room in Busan during their first trip alone together to the silver ring Kazuha slipped off her finger and onto Yunjin’s palm when she left, their relationship differed from the rest of the group’s.
Chaewon knew it best. They were roommates after all. Being a perpetual third wheel was not a job for the faint of heart. She witnessed how Yunjin and Kazuha shared a similar sense of humor and taste in food, the way they implicitly understood each other’s needs, and the way they were almost never out of sync with one another. The occasional arguments they had after a long day were often resolved just as quickly as they started.
At least, it was that way until they went their separate ways. This was not something they could resolve with a few simple words and a quick kiss. They were about to be on the other side of the world from each other, and this time it was a goodbye, not a see you soon. Something final. Something they couldn’t come back from.
Still, Yunjin waits. For what, she doesn’t know. Maybe for fate to work its course again like it did the first time they met or something else entirely, but there’s a hole in her heart where Kazuha belonged that she doesn’t care to cover up with anything else. So, she pours it all out into songs that she sings alone in an apartment too big or a booth too empty and walks the streets of the city that never sleeps, hoping for miracles.
Nostalgia stings in the crowded street. Yunjin thinks that’s a good lyric if not for the shock that wracks through her at seeing Kazuha’s face on a movie poster that goes by above her. It’s something of an action film—an explosion in the background, Kazuha wearing all-black, holding a gun. Yunjin looks at her hands, sporting a ring on each. Hers, and the one Kazuha gave back to her.
Opening Instagram, she does something she hasn’t in months, clicks through the members’ profiles. She lingers a little too long on Kazuha’s most recent post from a couple of days ago, the background song being one from Yunjin’s most recent album. The comments are about what you would expect, many asking and theorizing about a reunion based on the use of the song. Kazuha responds to a comment asking if she misses Yunjin, to which she replies: every day.
Yunjin slides her hands over her face, feeling the cool silver of the rings on her cheeks. “What am I doing? This is stupid.” She closes the app, turns off her phone, and continues walking to a small bakery tucked away in the corner. “Thank God,” she whispers to herself as she walks in, grateful to be away from the street’s overstimulation.
Someone in front of her orders an almond croissant and an iced americano to go. They look like they’re in a hurry, not realizing they dropped their card after paying, rushing to leave after receiving their food. She bends down to pick up the card, checking the name on the back.
“Is the world playing tricks on me?” Yunjin mutters.
Bolting out of the bakery, Yunjin runs after the person who dropped their card, squeezing through the droves of people. It proves harder than the rom-coms make it out to be. Her athleticism’s no match for the person she’s chasing, even though they worked out together countless times.
“Kazuha Nakamura!” Yunjin cries out.
Kazuha stops in her tracks, turning around. They stare at each other for a few moments, as if they are not on the bustling street, but back in that quiet bakery. Time stretches as they both stand in silence, unwilling to break whatever this is.
“You dropped your card,” Yunjin finally says, holding it out for Kazuha to grab.
Kazuha takes it from Yunjin’s hand. “Oh.” She scratches the back of her neck, like she doesn’t know what to do with that information. “Thanks.”
“I miss you too.”
Kazuha wraps Yunjin in a hug that Yunjin immediately melts into. Yunjin doesn’t want to let go, lest she forget the way their bodies meld together so perfectly. Kazuha steps back first. Yunjin already misses the warmth.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were going to be here?” Yunjin asks.
“I thought maybe you didn’t want to see me. After…you know,” Kazuha says.
Yunjin takes off the ring on her right hand and gives it back to Kazuha. “I always want to see you. I love you.”
Kazuha puts the ring on. “I love you too. I’m sorry it had to happen the way it did.”
“I get it. We went in different directions.”
“Let’s say I take this back to the director.” Kazuha holds up the croissant and coffee. “Then I take the day off and we can be together for a while.”
“I’d like that.”
Yunjin will take “for a while”. After all, she has been waiting that long.