Slow Journey || 2KIM

Chapter 2

It's almost Christmas holiday season. Everyone can tell, by the Christmas decorations around the window displays, by the Christmas spirit around the atmosphere, by students singing nonstop Christmas songs. Everyone could tell, by the Christmas trees everywhere in every single shop out there as well as every place and store being way more crowded than usual, people actually being possessed by consumer frenzy, buying everything they could find at this point, expensive or not, beautiful or not, useful or useless. Everyone can tell that it's Christmas by the extreme cold outside. It's been raining half of those days, a few others it's been snowing while the rest, even is has been sunny outside, the cold is still unbearable. Anybody can tell that it's cold, by the freezing on their bodies, by how warmly everyone is dressed but also by the thick white cloud coming out of everyone's mouth every time they breathe out.

"I'm cold!" Hitomi grumbles a little. And that's not even the first time she does that. Complaining about the cold has been Hitomi's new habit for the past ten days. And not just Hitomi's. Everyone is cold. And no matter their complaints, college can't warm up every single corner of every building.

"I know Tomi ah." Nako mumbles softly before turning to look towards her girlfriend, her cold, tiny and covered in gloves hands reaching out for Hitomi's thick, big scarf, fixing it for her by raising it even higher, covering Hitomi's mouth and nose that has been uncovered for the past few seconds. Fixing her scarf has been a thing she has been doing for more than twenty minutes now. Her hands then reach for Hitomi's skull cap, dragging it lower to cover more of Hitomi's forehead and ears, that have already been covered by that cute, warm thing that looks like headphones.

"You guys are so extremely cute I might vomit." Yena exclaims.

"And you're foaming with jealousy I might be too happy about that." Yuri tease Yena who scoffs saying,

"Don't burst from too much joy. Will definitely not be there to catch you when you pop like an over inflated balloon." Yuri scoffs back, annoyed.

"Jeez guys. Hitomi and Nako are about to leave and you're like this? What kind of friends do that?" Eunbi scolds the two bickering girls softly.

That's right. Everyone has gathered at the train station —the biggest one in town— to bid the two Japanese girls goodbye. They are going to get the bus that would lead them at the airport, in which they would take the airplane and get back to Japan and stay there for the holiday. They are leaving Korea a week before college officially closes for the holiday season since it will be too hard to book tickets by the end of the week. After all, none of the two cares that much about the classes they're going to miss out, but even if they do, even to the slightest, they have too many friends left behind to give them their notes.

Their big group of friends is for the first time about to bid goodbye to of its members and not see them for a month... it's new, and Minju doesn't know what to think or it or how to feel about that. Especially since Nako and Hitomi have been her friends a bit longer than some other girls in this group like Chaewon for example. Why did she think of Chaewon of all people though? Minju is confused and she's even more confused as she catches herself already looking at the girl who tries to bid the girls goodbye in a cool way but ends up failing since both short girls tugged her in a warm, big, tight hug. Minju almost smiles at the sight in front of her. She's definitely going to miss those two. They might be short, but they have so much energy in them. Then again, she knows it won't be for that long and maybe she won't be able to miss them that much since she will also return back to her hometown to spend the holidays with her family. And now that she thinks about it... she's not looking forward to that at all...

"Minju!" Nako exclaims before she hugs the girl tightly, her short self struggling to reach Minju's shoulders so she has to tip toe in order for her to fully reach Minju. As soon as her arms are tightly and securely wrapped around Minju's shoulders and neck and lets her feet land back down on the pavement completely, dragging Minju down with her. Minju lets out a huff as she feels her lungs bight squeezed too tightly by the sudden tight hug but soon relaxes in the warmth and comfort Nako's hug provides her.