keep the rose

hold on to it, will you?

"Chaeng, how come you don't put another spoon of sugar in your coffee anymore? You always put three but now you only put two." Jisoo suddenly pointed out one Sunday morning. They were still in bed, both having their backs resting on the headboard, hair still unkempt, lower bodies hidden under the covers. It was cold, the freezing air swirling inside the closed room even though the heater was on and all of the windows were closed. So they find their warmth by sitting side by side on the bed, arm pressed on arm, a hand holding the handle while the other warmed itself on the side of the mug, legs tangled together.

The younger girl turned to the older as she calculated her answer, a soft smile gracing her face as she took a sip before answering her lover's question. "Because realized that three spoons of sugar is too sweet." She shrugged. "I don't know. l just woke up one day, made myself a coffee, took a sip and then sensed that it was too much even though I have grown accustomed to the three spoons of sugar." She hummed as she took another sip. "Maybe that is how life is. It changes one day. Nothing ever stays the same."

"Does it?" The question was left in the air for sometime.

"Does what what?" Chaeyoung asked back, a bit of a giggle slipping out of her mouth when she saw Jisoo being burned by the coffee, the girl sticking out her tongue as a consequence.

"Does everything change?" Jisoo turned her head with her scrunched up face and stared at Chaeyoung, waiting for an answer from the clever girl.

Chaeyoung pressed her lips into a thin line, thinking hard. "I guess."

Jisoo turned and put her gaze towards the girl she had met in 3rd grade, the girl who stole her burger with a defiant smile, the girl who managed to make her heart beat faster than a spider could. "Then that means our love can change too?"

Chaeyoung let out a sigh and shrugged. "Probably." She turned her head towards her girlfriend and smiled before pressing a kiss on Jisoo's forehead. "But I know, it will change for the better. l just know it." She grabbed Jisoo's coffee and put it on the bedside table along with her own before turning back around and engulfing the older girl in an embrace. "You are stuck with me forever." Jisoo answered to this by giving Chaeyoung a peck on her cheek and snuggling her close.

"We should do something." Jisoo suggested as she lied beside the chipmunk, an arm draped over Chaeyoung's shoulder. The girl chuckled at the older girl's idea, quite amused at Jisoo's brazenness.

"Jisoo unnie, you do know it's cold outside."

"I didn't mean outside. We can do something here, inside the house! I am bored." It was a good thing Chaeyoung did not get to see Jisoo's pout or else she would have succumbed to any idea the older girl might blurt out.

"Let's build a fort?" That pulls out the chipmunk from being eaten by the covers, nodding her head enthusiastically. Jisoo knew Chaeyoung loved that kind of stuff and sometimes she uses it to her advantage.

"I want lots of pillows in it! And you because you're my favorite bunny rabbit to cuddle to sleep!"

Jisoo wished for Chaeyoung to never lose that smile.  Nor her bubbly personality. Jisoo wished Chaeyoung would keep being herself all the time. Whatever it costs.

And they both went to work. Well mostly, the work was done by the older girl, she didn't want the chipmunk to tire herself out, she always tend to get tired very easily when it's too cold that's why she really preferred summer than winter. The older girl worked on the fort, while the chipmunk prepared the foods, frying up chicken as she knew that it was Jisoo's favourite food.