in the quiet sanctuary of a small-town church, two souls from different worlds collide. yunjin, a gay girl with a vibrant spirit, finds herself navigating the rigid expectations of her conservative family. each sunday, she seeks solace in the church...
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chapter twenty seven ʚ ✮ ɞ
yunjin carefully walked back into chaewon's apartment, eyes fixed on the floor beneath her feet. the silence felt heavier now, thicker, like the walls themselves knew something had shifted. each step echoed softly, and she didn't dare look up, afraid that if she did, the dam inside her would finally break.
she still clutched the envelope in her hands, fingers trembling around the edges. it felt like it didn't belong to her—like it was something out of a life she hadn't asked for.
the atmosphere was tense—thick with everything left unsaid, the kind of silence that curled around the room and made it hard to breathe. it was familiar by now, this quiet unease that always seemed to follow after her mother came around.
chaewon sat on the couch, shoulders tense, her eyes slightly damp as they stared out the open window. the wind moved gently through the curtains, but it couldn't ease the tightness in the room.
"are you going?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, yet it cut through the silence like glass.
yunjin froze mid-step, her fingers tightening around the envelope. "you heard?"
chaewon didn't look at her, just blinked slowly, still watching the world outside. "walls are thin."
and that was all it took to make yunjin's heart feel like it might collapse in on itself.
"i—" yunjin mumbled, her voice trembling as she stared at the envelope in her hands. "i don't know. after everything that's happened... with yeonjun lying, your father doing this to you—" her voice cracked as her eyes flicked briefly to the stitches on chaewon's side. "it won't stop until i leave. i know that now."
chaewon's jaw tightened. she bit down hard on her lower lip, so hard it split beneath her teeth, the sharp sting of blood rushing to her tongue. but it was easier to focus on that pain than the one swelling in her chest. she didn't say anything—just kept her gaze on the window, on the world that kept spinning no matter how much theirs had come undone.
and in that silence, yunjin felt like she was already halfway gone.
"i stayed for you," chaewon whispered, the words barely audible over the breeze slipping through the open window.
yunjin's breath caught in her throat.
chaewon finally turned her head, eyes glassy but steady as they met yunjin's. "i could've run. i could've disappeared the night he first hit you and you told me. but i didn't. because you were still here. because i thought... maybe if we stayed, we could fix it. maybe whatever this is we have would have been enough."
