hold me tight tonight, please ∘ mihyo

one

"Here you are finally!" an eager Jihyo exclaimed as soon as she opened the door and saw her best friend on the other side, bag in one hand and a grin that could make the sun envious.

"I'm just two minutes late, Hyo," an amused chuckle escaped from Mina's lips; the girl didn't waste any time and entered the house that had easily become a second home to her. "Didn't think you'd keep track of the time, to be honest."

A faint tint of red made its way upon Jihyo's cheeks.

"I wasn't!"

Although it was clear that she was lying, Mina was too occupied making her way towards the older's room to realise it.

After comfortably settling down on the spare bed Jihyo had purposely prepared for the occasion, she looked up to see her best friend staring at her from the doorway.

"Won't you come in?" Mina asked her, trying to hide her shyness. "It's your room, after all."

Suddenly awaken from her daydream, Jihyo became a blushing mess under her best friend's stare and hurriedly sat down next to her, trying to regain her composure in vain.

"Uh, so, what do you want to do?"

She was looking everywhere but at her in shame, and Mina, understanding so, placed one of her hands on hers, showing her that gummy smile which the girl loved so much.

"First of all, I want to thank you," she started timidly and, when she saw the way Jihyo suddenly furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, she had to restrain herself from giggling. "I know you say it's not a problem, but I still want to make sure that you're okay with me staying over the whole week."

The first time Mina had gone over to Jihyo's house, she was only seven years old. Her family had just moved from Kobe, Japan, to Seoul, and Mina had yet to get used to the new, still unfamiliar place, as well as the foreign language whom she couldn't seem to grasp that well.

Her parents often had to leave for business-related trips for days, if not weeks. Usually, when they still lived in Japan, Mr. and Mrs. Myoui would leave their young daughter at one of their relatives' house.

However, as they had just settled in South Korea, they didn't have any relatives there to leave Mina with; so, they had believed that the wisest choice would be to let her spend a week at their neighbours' house who had talked to them only once.

The mere thought of having to survive a whole week in a house full of strangers, without her parents or anyone she could easily speak with, made her dread her parents' leaving.

Nevertheless, during her stay at the yellow house on the corner of the street, Mina was glad to find out that her neighbours had a daughter who was the same age as her.

At first, she had been way too shy to start a conversation with the other girl seeing as her Korean still needed improvement; yet, she soon realized that Jihyo, her neighbours' daughter, was the sweetest person she had ever met which meant the girl was not going to judge her in any way and Mina could trust her.

This way, with Mina always going over to Jihyo's house when her parents would leave for work, the two girls became almost inseparable, growing up together and confiding in one another.

That's how Jihyo became Mina's safe place, someone, she could always rely on and that she was glad she could call her best friend, even though sometimes she wished they could be something more than just friends.

"Mina, you know it's not a problem for us," Jihyo replied with a reassuring smile, holding Mina's hand tighter to let her understand that she meant what she had just said. "Plus, my parents love having you over. Sometimes I think they'd prefer having you as their daughter rather than me."