the world is too small for us, yet so large to get lost in with you.
---
Jinsol is singing under her breath again. Soft hum, something she's composed no doubt – a lilting, jolly thing that makes Yoona want to dance. Then again, everything about Jinsol makes Yoona want to dance. The urge to enfold the other girl in her arms and dance with her, to get as close as possible and then, to get even closer.
"We're opposites, but we fit, somehow," Jinsol had said wonderingly.
Now though, Yoona knows better. She's drawn to Jinsol, not just because Jinsol gets it, but because Jinsol is Jinsol.
Jinsol sings as she works, she does maths calculations mentally and fixes Yoona's sums for her. She models for Yoona when Yoona asks, sitting in the sun with a stillness nobody would've expected from Jinsol as Yoona gets out her paints.
Jinsol laughs too loudly at people's jokes, tells everyone what's on her mind, forgets the timetable weekly, loses her notebooks and stationery with alarming frequency, and when Yoona looks at her she sees someone who's her complete opposite, someone who she would do anything for.
Yoona draws Jinsol everywhere; in her notebooks, on paper napkins, in old magazines, in the margins of newspapers, even in her textbooks. And Jinsol watches her, and smiles, something startlingly soft in her expression each time.
And when Yoona forgets things and Jinsol remembers, Jinsol saves her ass each time, telling her when they have homework, helping her with a last minute science project, carrying her bag between classes, whatever the situation calls for.
And Yoona's collection of drawings and paintings of Jinsol grows and grows. And Jinsol hums and skips and laughs more than ever, and sometimes she looks at Yoona with a question in the corner of her smile.
Yoona isn't used to feeling like this; like she's sunbathing in a pool of love and it's the best feeling, but the anguish of not knowing what Jinsol feels, not knowing if Jinsol would follow, not knowing how to say it.
Surprisingly, it is one of their classmates who does the thing that results in Yoona's dilemma being solved.
It is just an average Saturday, and Jinsol and Yoona are lying in a secluded spot full of greenery. Yoona's head is on Jinsol's lap, and one of Jinsol's hands is in Yoona's hair, playing with strands of it. Jinsol is talking about music theory, about the chords she changed and fixed in a sad song to make it happy, about beats and scales and other things Yoona only knows a little about, but is ready to listen if it's Jinsol talking.
A classmate chances upon them, and turns up her nose, scowling. "What, are you lovers, or something?" she scoffs.
"What, are you jealous?" Yoona says, doing her best to sound cheerful, and they stalk off, clearly annoyed.
"Alright there, Seol?" Jinsol asks her.
"Sure," Yoona says, shifting a little, wriggling her feet, trying not to draw too much attention to herself, not looking at Jinsol's face as if afraid of what she will see there.
"What they said...." Jinsol begins.
"Doesn't matter," Yoona says.
"Really?" Jinsol asks, and there's weight to it, so much said through what she isn't saying.
"Well, of course it matters," Yoona amends, getting up, brushing the grass off her uniform and realizing too late (damn it to hell) that she'll have grass stains down her back. "It matters so much."
"Then why would you say it doesn't?" Jinsol asks, quietly.
"Didn't want to pressure you," Yoona says, softly.
Jinsol gapes at her. "Yoona, your feelings aren't an act of coercion. They're just feelings. Feelings that are reciprocated, incidentally."
Yoona blinks. "What?"
Jinsol leans forward, kisses her cheek. "I wasn't sure how you felt, whether you were even attracted to girls, or to me, you know? I would've said something earlier, otherwise. I'm sorry."
"Pfft," Yoona says, feeling lighter than air. "Don't apologize, it's fine. Now you know."
"Now I know," Jinsol says. "So. Do you want to prove our classmate right, for once?"
Yoona laughs, delighted.
"Don't make this about them," she says, "but yes."
They walk back to the towers hand in hand.
"By the way," Jinsol says, suddenly bashful. "The love song I've been composing, it's for you."
Yoona feels warm at the admission. She gives her girlfriend a soft smile. "I really appreciate that, Jinsol, I have no words for how much this means to me, you have no idea, I – "
She's cut off by an exclamation from a girl she's never seen before.
"Hey, you! Yes, you both. Aren't you supposed to be in class by now?"
"Fuck," Jinsol says under her breath, and Yoona giggles, grabs her by the hand, and they both make a run for it, laughing together, giddy on their youth and their love and everything else that makes them who they are; everything that they are.
