BETWEEN LOVE || BBANGSAZ (21+)

..10..

Minji blinks slowly, feeling like the breath has been knocked out of her. She had hoped that she would one day see Hanni again and the whirlwind of emotion behind her eye would finally give way to the words she had wished for months to hear. Words that she could never say out loud herself until she'd hear them from Hanni.

After so long she had given up hope.

hyein told her about the exhibition, having heard about it from haerin, because her sister knew that Minji avoided walking by the gallery now. She had only told herself she wouldn't go for half a day, but by nightfall knew that she couldn't stay away. Still, she had delayed going until the very last minute and even then her nerves almost stopped her from walking through that door when she saw Danielle and haerin walk out.

Hanni looked as gorgeous as ever. Maybe even more, because there was a lightness to her now that Minji had never seen in their months together.

Minji never went a day without thinking of Hanni. She missed her and craved her like life wasn't complete without her and seeing her only made it much worse. She had thought that going to the exhibition would maybe help her finish a chapter, close the book. Had though that maybe Hanni had moved on by now, with Sungjin, or someone new and if she could just see that, it would make moving on herself so much easier.

But she was alone, looking gorgeous and somehow incomplete and it took all Minji's willpower to it go over immediately and offer to make her complete. Minji knew then that moving on was a lost cause.

From their very first time together, Minji was done for. It took Hanni no time or effort at all to pull Minji into her orbit and every moment they spent together only made it worse. There would never be another person for Minji, ever again.

She has resigned herself to that fact very early on, had accepted that even if she was sometime so sure Hanni felt a sliver of the same way, they would never be together.

But then...

"I'm in love with you."

She's breathless, unsure if she'd even heard it right, unsure if she's imagining things. But Hanni looks confident in the wake of her confession, patiently waiting for whatever Minji's response would be.

And for another few moments Minji is contemplating it, wondering what the appropriate response would be, until she gives up. Until she decides to hell with appropriate and common sense and she does, unrestrained and freely, what she has wanted to do for months.

She closes the gap between her and Hanni, cups her cheeks in both hands and finally, after too long, brings their lips together again.

________

Time passes in a blur after that gentle first kiss in the gallery and before Minji has even properly processed what's going on, Hanni is pulling her inside the apartment again. Their lips never leave each others, except for the occasional few seconds they need to breathe or change the angle, but after so long of denying themselves this, they are both somewhat afraid they'll lose each other again if they part.

Minji doesn't mind though. She comes alive under the soft pressure of Hanni's lips. So soft and so demanding and for the first time wholly hers. She doesn't have to hold back anymore, doesn't have to think of any lines she might be crossing or boyfriends she might be indirectly betraying. For the first time she gets to kiss Hanni without having to apologise and she's not planning on stopping any time soon.

Somehow the door closes behind them and Minji pushes Hanni up against it, their bodies pressed so tightly together she's not sure where one begins and the other ends, but she needs to be as close as possible. She needs to know that Hanni is really there with her in this moment
But Hanni holds Minji's face in both hands, kissing her frantically and without rhythm and it's nowhere near perfect, but it's hot and it's just what she needs. It's a physical confirmation that Hanni really wants her, just as much as she wants Hanni.