A Sky Full of Stars
A/N: Seulgi falls like a shooting star for her best friend, Joohyun.
“Unnie!”
A little girl looks up to see a slightly younger girl come running through the blade of grass towards where she sits.
Twenty feet behind her, the grass thins and the earth ends, diving fifty feet below into thundering ocean waves. The sun was sinking into the water, casting hues of vibrant color over their tiny seaside town. In the distance is a small humble home where two couples were having tea and watching their children play.
The girl gets up and runs to hug her friend.
“Seulgi! I missed you!”
Giggles fill the early autumn evening as the two young hearts finally meet after three months of separation.
“Unnie!”
Seulgi pants, excitement and adrenaline coursing through her little body.
“How was Cah-na-- ka-nah--”
She stumbles over the word, trying to recall how to wrap her tongue around the foreignness.
“Canada!”
The word rolls of Joohyun’s tongue as smooth as the gentle waves roll against the cliffside.
Seulgi mumbles the word to herself as Joohyun excitedly recalls her memories of never ending green trees and a mild, friendly sun.
Joohyun pauses from her story when she notices the bright twinkling lights that start to pepper the darkening sky.
“Oh Seulgi! My cousins taught me a song. I’ll teach you too!”
Joohyun sits down and pats on the grass next to her. Seulgi joins her and Joohyun points to the sky, admiring the thousands of crystals across the night canvas. She murmurs to her friend.
“It’s called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Her tiny voice creates a soothing tune that fills Seulgi’s ears. The waves dance along gently while a quiet breeze tickles their skin, carrying the laughter of their parents in the distance.
It was in this moment that Seulgi fell in love with the stars.
///
“Joohyun unnie.”
Joohyun looks up from her chemistry homework and sees Seulgi staring at the waves. The stress of preparing for her final year at school is evident on her face but Seulgi seems at peace. She waits for Seulgi to continue.
“Do you think we’ll ever leave this place?”
Seulgi continues to look on as the waves roll and crash against the cliff side. The sound of the wind and the sea envelopes them.
Joohyun bites down on her pencil. Worry creases her face when Seulgi finally turns to her.
“Seulgi, you know my situation at home…”
She trails off and looks down at her homework. She can’t focus especially with her blurry vision.
She wipes her eyes and packs her items away.
Seulgi understands.
But it still hurts.
///
Two little girls, the eldest barely older than 11, were lying side by side on a beach blanket. Below the cliff they lied upon, the ocean hugged the edges of the rocky base. Crickets chirped as fireflies danced around the pasture.
“Joohyun unnie, when do you have to go?”
The slightly taller girl shifts as a light breeze flutters against the grass blades.
“Mom said I could stay out because it’s summer.”
The other girl perks up at the news. Elevated, she laces their brushing fingers together.
“Great! Papa taught me all these cool constellations!”
With Joohyun’s hand still grasped in her right one, Seulgi uses her left to point towards a cluster of stars.
“Why does your mom let you stay out so late?”
Seulgi pauses from her rambling about the stars and lets her arm fall. She jerks up and pulls Joohyun with her.
“Mama said I could do anything as long as I’m with Unnie!”
Joohyun shyly smiles at that and shifts her gaze towards the sky. Seulgi’s bright smile was too much to handle sometimes.
Eight years later Joohyun thinks back to this moment and wonders if Seulgi would have smiled as brightly if she knew she was wrong.
She didn’t need Joohyun to do anything.
Seulgi was just fine without her.
///
Two teenaged girls are stargazing as usual with Seulgi to the left of Joohyun The ocean seems angry tonight, beating against the cliff with force. The wind is strong as well, chilling the girls despite their jackets.
Something feels off but Seulgi couldn’t quite make out what. Next to her, Joohyun was rigid. Concern sweeps over Seulgi and she grasps Joohyun’s hand, hoping to transfer some warmth to the poor girl.
Unaware of Seulgi’s intense gaze, Joohyun speaks the first sentence of the night.
“Seulgi, why do you like the stars so much?”
Seulgi tears her gaze from the other girl and blinks, trying her hardest to come up with an answer. The usually smiley girl is solemn. Joohyun turns and stares at her for a while. As she starts to turn away, Seulgi’s voice breaks the silence.
“When I was younger, I saw a shooting star fall from the sky. It was so amazing and beautiful watching it streak across the night sky, leaving bits of itself behind. My mom told me that it was an angel falling for their true love.”
She falls silent again. Her finger twitches against Joohyun’s palm. Tracing random patterns, she continues.
“But that’s not the other reason. Remember when my grandfather passed away? I tried to hide it from you because you were so focused with school but --”
Her voice breaks and Joohyun squeezes her fingertips, trying to swallow her guilt. Seulgi doesn’t seem to notice as she continues.
“I was really close to him and I was devastated. I really didn’t know what to do. But then I read a poem one day while hiding in the library. I can’t phrase it exactly but it said something like, ‘The stars above are your loved ones watching out for you.’ If I thought of it like that, then my grandpa wasn’t really gone. He was just far away, taking care of me as usual.”
Seulgi blinks and realizes that for the first time she didn’t cry while thinking about her grandfather. She actually feels at peace. She looks over at the girl that makes her feel so relaxed and sees that while her eyes were dry, the girl she loved was in tears.
Joohyun wipes her eyes and speaks, her voice breaking with the weight of her tears.
“Seulgi, my mom is gonna be a star.”
Seulgi’s mouth dries with her eyes. She licks her lips and manages a whisper.
“What?”
The wind picks up even more and Joohyun looks down as her fingers graze across the blades of grass.
“My mom is dying.”
///
“What’s your favorite star?”
The girls are lying on Joohyun’s bed. Outside the window was the moon hanging high above the cliff, overlooking the town. Seulgi answers without pausing from her sketching. It’s a portrait of Joohyun with a necklace with a star shaped gem dangling from her neck. Seulgi thinks it can’t even compare to the girl lying next to her.
“Joohyun.”
Joohyun laughs and hits her.
“No seriously. What’s your favorite star?”
Seulgi closes her notebook and sits up. She walks over to the window and points out a star.
“Sirius. It may not be the biggest but it’s the brightest. Yours?”
“Seulgi. It may not be the brightest but it’s the sweetest.”
Seulgi blushes before the realization settles in.
“Hey!”
Seulgi grabs a pillow from the bed and hits her. A pillow fight ensues before both girls tire out. They’re lying side by side when Joohyun speaks.
“One day, I’m going to buy a star and name it after you. Then I’ll be telling the truth.”
///
“So are you moving to Canada?”
The two teenagers are walking through the local market stands, buying the groceries needed for Joohyun’s dinner tonight. Seulgi was tagging along because “I had nothing better to do.” Joohyun had blushed at her reply.
“The city doctor said the plane ride might be too stressful. And Mom said she didn’t want to intervene with my studies with graduation so near.”
Joohyun’s voice softened with each word as she mindlessly looks through the carrots. Forcing a smile, Joohyun changes the subject as she pays for the carrots.
“Seulgi, are you graduating early?”
Seulgi looks up from where she was and inspects some onions.
“Well, the school said I can because of my grades.”
Joohyun beamed with pride. Seulgi was always the smarter one of the two despite their age gap.
“That’s great! You should do it.”
Seulgi looks at her for a bit before averting her eyes. She makes her way towards the potatoes.
“Maybe. I’ll think about it.”
Seulgi doesn’t tell Joohyun about the scholarship letter sitting on her desk.
///
“Unnie, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Joohyun creases down on her paper and then flips it over.
“I haven’t really thought about it. What about you? What do you want to do?”
Seulgi taps her pencil against her math homework, disregarding the trigonometry problems for a second.
“I wanna be an engineer like Grandpa was.”
Joohyun gives a small smile at that. She understands.
“As expected from the mathematical prodigy.”
They fall into silence. Seulgi’s pencil scratches resume while Joohyun continues with her folds.
“Seulgi.”
Seulgi stops writing and looks up to see Joohyun holding a paper crane.
“Hmm?”
“I want to be a doctor.”
///
“You’re going to the city.”
It’s the first thing Joohyun says when she finds Seulgi standing near the cliff edge, her back to her. Joohyun wonders when did little Seulgi grow to be taller than her.
“No, I’m not.”
Seulgi doesn’t turn when Joohyun stands beside her.
“And why not?”
Seulgi’s answer is quick but she still refuses meet Joohyun’s eyes.
“You aren’t.”
“You know I can’t, Seulgi. But you can. You have to.”
Seulgi finally turns towards her. Her eyes narrow with frustration.
“You can’t be a doctor here.”
“And you can’t be an engineer!”
Joohyun’s voice echoed across the pasture, getting caught by the wind and carried away to the sea.
The electricity around them fizzles out. Joohyun looks down at her feet. The weight of the world too heavy for the girl that once always had her head in the clouds.
“Just because my dreams are dying with my mom doesn’t mean yours are too.”
Another pair of feet enters her blurry vision and a pair of arms wrap around her waist.
Seulgi’s lips touches Joohyun’s temple as Joohyun’s tears soak her shoulder.
///
“Hey, I got you a graduation present.”
Seulgi pulls out a red velvet box from her pocket and opens it. Joohyun gasps.
“Seulgi. It’s a star.”
The diamond twinkles in the moonlight as the ocean rocked against the shore below.
“Yeah, well it’s just something for you to remember me by. Here, turn around. I’ll put it on for you.”
That night they exchange their first kiss.
///
They send letters to each other daily.
Joohyun writes about the town and her family. She’s decided become a teacher. If she can’t help the sick, then she’ll help the young. Maybe one of them will grow up to fulfill the dreams she never got to chase.
Seulgi tells her about the rigorous course work and hectic city life. She’s thinking about dropping engineering for architecture instead. Truthfully, she loves drawing more than numbers. She’ll lose some of her scholarship but she’s found a nearby ice cream shop that’s in need of help.
Seulgi tells her she misses her but bus tickets are expensive and she really can’t afford to miss a day of school or work. Her scholarship was strict and her boss even stricter.
Joohyun touches her necklace.
She understands.
But it still hurts.
///
The humid summer air chokes her mother’s lungs while heavy tears chokes Joohyun’s breath.
The dry winter air takes her mother’s breath away while Joohyun’s dreams withers in the wind.
Hundreds of miles away, Seulgi’s heart aches.
///
There are times when Seulgi really misses everything. The city can’t hone up to the bright sky by the ocean.
During these times she goes to the roof, closes her eyes, and pretend the city lights are like stars.
She wonders if Joohyun knows she’s not fine without her.
Tonight she breathes in the crisp autumn breeze and quietly sings to herself.
“Twinkle twinkle little star…”
///
Seulgi and Joohyun were sitting together under the stars as usual.
But this night, Seulgi is plagued with indecision. Earlier that day, her teacher asked her if she was interested in an engineering program in the city. She was young but very talented. Her teacher had smiled gently and said to think about it.
Seulgi lifts her hand and gazes at the stars through her spread out fingers.
“Joohyun unnie.”
Seulgi’s voice is soft and distant. Joohyun looks at her with curiosity. This isn’t the usual smiley kid she knew and loved.
“Yeah, Seulgi?”
Seulgi takes a deep breath and puts her hand down, never looking away from the night canvas.
“The sky is so big. Do you think the stars get lost too?”
Joohyun relaxes. She understands.
“Angels have wings. Not maps, doofus.”
Seulgi laughs at that. The weight in her chest flying away in the breeze.
“And what if I get lost?”
Joohyun smiles and laces their hands together.
“You have me.”
///
Seulgi walks up the stairs to her small apartment having just gotten off of work but she sees a familiar figure by her door. Her breath catches.
“Joohyun.”
The figure turns to her and Seulgi can’t remember seeing a more beautiful person ever in her life.
“I’m here. And oh my god you’re blonde!”
Joohyun closes the distance between them and runs her fingers through the light color. Seulgi’s heart pounds in her chest and her voice shakes in awe.
“Wh-What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you…and the city. I haven’t been here since-”
She trails off and Seulgi understands. Seulgi takes her hand and intertwines their fingers.
“How long are you here for? Have you eaten yet?”
Joohyun giggles at Seulgi’s eagerness and brushes her fingertips against the back of Seulgi’s hand, enjoying the familiar warmth.
“Yeah I ate an early dinner with my dad before coming here.”
Seulgi’s smile softens at the angelic sound. Her heart leaps at the sight of her necklace around Joohyun’s neck.
“Ah okay. Then, have you ever heard of karaoke?”
Later that night after sending Joohyun off to her bus, Seulgi falls asleep peaceful to Joohyun’s soft beautiful voice playing in her heart.
///
Seulgi comes home one day to a package at her door. Setting her keys on the counter, Seulgi opens the package to find a small jar filled with small colorful paper stars with a letter taped to the lid.
Her name is in the middle of the light pink envelope in Joohyun’s neat handwriting. The letter contains a simple sentence.
“Whenever a lucky star is made, a falling star is saved. Congrats on graduation!”
Seulgi smiles through her tears and begins to count.
One hundred and one stars.
///
Joohyun stands near the edge of the cliff looking at the moonlight shimmering amongst the waves. She shifts her gaze up and finds Sirius shining bright and strong in the dark night sky. She sighs and closes her eyes as her hand reaches to touch the diamond necklace on her chest.
A touch on her shoulder startles her out of her thoughts. She opens them to find familiar almond eyes staring back at her. Her throat catches and she can barely whisper out a name.
“Seulgi.”
A soft smile.
“I’m home.”
A/N #2: Apologies for any weird characterization. I'm more of a casual RV fan but this one potato loving weirdo likes Seulrene so yeah. Actually apologies for anything that doesn't make sense lol
“Unnie!”
A little girl looks up to see a slightly younger girl come running through the blade of grass towards where she sits.
Twenty feet behind her, the grass thins and the earth ends, diving fifty feet below into thundering ocean waves. The sun was sinking into the water, casting hues of vibrant color over their tiny seaside town. In the distance is a small humble home where two couples were having tea and watching their children play.
The girl gets up and runs to hug her friend.
“Seulgi! I missed you!”
Giggles fill the early autumn evening as the two young hearts finally meet after three months of separation.
“Unnie!”
Seulgi pants, excitement and adrenaline coursing through her little body.
“How was Cah-na-- ka-nah--”
She stumbles over the word, trying to recall how to wrap her tongue around the foreignness.
“Canada!”
The word rolls of Joohyun’s tongue as smooth as the gentle waves roll against the cliffside.
Seulgi mumbles the word to herself as Joohyun excitedly recalls her memories of never ending green trees and a mild, friendly sun.
Joohyun pauses from her story when she notices the bright twinkling lights that start to pepper the darkening sky.
“Oh Seulgi! My cousins taught me a song. I’ll teach you too!”
Joohyun sits down and pats on the grass next to her. Seulgi joins her and Joohyun points to the sky, admiring the thousands of crystals across the night canvas. She murmurs to her friend.
“It’s called Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Her tiny voice creates a soothing tune that fills Seulgi’s ears. The waves dance along gently while a quiet breeze tickles their skin, carrying the laughter of their parents in the distance.
It was in this moment that Seulgi fell in love with the stars.
///
“Joohyun unnie.”
Joohyun looks up from her chemistry homework and sees Seulgi staring at the waves. The stress of preparing for her final year at school is evident on her face but Seulgi seems at peace. She waits for Seulgi to continue.
“Do you think we’ll ever leave this place?”
Seulgi continues to look on as the waves roll and crash against the cliff side. The sound of the wind and the sea envelopes them.
Joohyun bites down on her pencil. Worry creases her face when Seulgi finally turns to her.
“Seulgi, you know my situation at home…”
She trails off and looks down at her homework. She can’t focus especially with her blurry vision.
She wipes her eyes and packs her items away.
Seulgi understands.
But it still hurts.
///
Two little girls, the eldest barely older than 11, were lying side by side on a beach blanket. Below the cliff they lied upon, the ocean hugged the edges of the rocky base. Crickets chirped as fireflies danced around the pasture.
“Joohyun unnie, when do you have to go?”
The slightly taller girl shifts as a light breeze flutters against the grass blades.
“Mom said I could stay out because it’s summer.”
The other girl perks up at the news. Elevated, she laces their brushing fingers together.
“Great! Papa taught me all these cool constellations!”
With Joohyun’s hand still grasped in her right one, Seulgi uses her left to point towards a cluster of stars.
“Why does your mom let you stay out so late?”
Seulgi pauses from her rambling about the stars and lets her arm fall. She jerks up and pulls Joohyun with her.
“Mama said I could do anything as long as I’m with Unnie!”
Joohyun shyly smiles at that and shifts her gaze towards the sky. Seulgi’s bright smile was too much to handle sometimes.
Eight years later Joohyun thinks back to this moment and wonders if Seulgi would have smiled as brightly if she knew she was wrong.
She didn’t need Joohyun to do anything.
Seulgi was just fine without her.
///
Two teenaged girls are stargazing as usual with Seulgi to the left of Joohyun The ocean seems angry tonight, beating against the cliff with force. The wind is strong as well, chilling the girls despite their jackets.
Something feels off but Seulgi couldn’t quite make out what. Next to her, Joohyun was rigid. Concern sweeps over Seulgi and she grasps Joohyun’s hand, hoping to transfer some warmth to the poor girl.
Unaware of Seulgi’s intense gaze, Joohyun speaks the first sentence of the night.
“Seulgi, why do you like the stars so much?”
Seulgi tears her gaze from the other girl and blinks, trying her hardest to come up with an answer. The usually smiley girl is solemn. Joohyun turns and stares at her for a while. As she starts to turn away, Seulgi’s voice breaks the silence.
“When I was younger, I saw a shooting star fall from the sky. It was so amazing and beautiful watching it streak across the night sky, leaving bits of itself behind. My mom told me that it was an angel falling for their true love.”
She falls silent again. Her finger twitches against Joohyun’s palm. Tracing random patterns, she continues.
“But that’s not the other reason. Remember when my grandfather passed away? I tried to hide it from you because you were so focused with school but --”
Her voice breaks and Joohyun squeezes her fingertips, trying to swallow her guilt. Seulgi doesn’t seem to notice as she continues.
“I was really close to him and I was devastated. I really didn’t know what to do. But then I read a poem one day while hiding in the library. I can’t phrase it exactly but it said something like, ‘The stars above are your loved ones watching out for you.’ If I thought of it like that, then my grandpa wasn’t really gone. He was just far away, taking care of me as usual.”
Seulgi blinks and realizes that for the first time she didn’t cry while thinking about her grandfather. She actually feels at peace. She looks over at the girl that makes her feel so relaxed and sees that while her eyes were dry, the girl she loved was in tears.
Joohyun wipes her eyes and speaks, her voice breaking with the weight of her tears.
“Seulgi, my mom is gonna be a star.”
Seulgi’s mouth dries with her eyes. She licks her lips and manages a whisper.
“What?”
The wind picks up even more and Joohyun looks down as her fingers graze across the blades of grass.
“My mom is dying.”
///
“What’s your favorite star?”
The girls are lying on Joohyun’s bed. Outside the window was the moon hanging high above the cliff, overlooking the town. Seulgi answers without pausing from her sketching. It’s a portrait of Joohyun with a necklace with a star shaped gem dangling from her neck. Seulgi thinks it can’t even compare to the girl lying next to her.
“Joohyun.”
Joohyun laughs and hits her.
“No seriously. What’s your favorite star?”
Seulgi closes her notebook and sits up. She walks over to the window and points out a star.
“Sirius. It may not be the biggest but it’s the brightest. Yours?”
“Seulgi. It may not be the brightest but it’s the sweetest.”
Seulgi blushes before the realization settles in.
“Hey!”
Seulgi grabs a pillow from the bed and hits her. A pillow fight ensues before both girls tire out. They’re lying side by side when Joohyun speaks.
“One day, I’m going to buy a star and name it after you. Then I’ll be telling the truth.”
///
“So are you moving to Canada?”
The two teenagers are walking through the local market stands, buying the groceries needed for Joohyun’s dinner tonight. Seulgi was tagging along because “I had nothing better to do.” Joohyun had blushed at her reply.
“The city doctor said the plane ride might be too stressful. And Mom said she didn’t want to intervene with my studies with graduation so near.”
Joohyun’s voice softened with each word as she mindlessly looks through the carrots. Forcing a smile, Joohyun changes the subject as she pays for the carrots.
“Seulgi, are you graduating early?”
Seulgi looks up from where she was and inspects some onions.
“Well, the school said I can because of my grades.”
Joohyun beamed with pride. Seulgi was always the smarter one of the two despite their age gap.
“That’s great! You should do it.”
Seulgi looks at her for a bit before averting her eyes. She makes her way towards the potatoes.
“Maybe. I’ll think about it.”
Seulgi doesn’t tell Joohyun about the scholarship letter sitting on her desk.
///
“Unnie, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Joohyun creases down on her paper and then flips it over.
“I haven’t really thought about it. What about you? What do you want to do?”
Seulgi taps her pencil against her math homework, disregarding the trigonometry problems for a second.
“I wanna be an engineer like Grandpa was.”
Joohyun gives a small smile at that. She understands.
“As expected from the mathematical prodigy.”
They fall into silence. Seulgi’s pencil scratches resume while Joohyun continues with her folds.
“Seulgi.”
Seulgi stops writing and looks up to see Joohyun holding a paper crane.
“Hmm?”
“I want to be a doctor.”
///
“You’re going to the city.”
It’s the first thing Joohyun says when she finds Seulgi standing near the cliff edge, her back to her. Joohyun wonders when did little Seulgi grow to be taller than her.
“No, I’m not.”
Seulgi doesn’t turn when Joohyun stands beside her.
“And why not?”
Seulgi’s answer is quick but she still refuses meet Joohyun’s eyes.
“You aren’t.”
“You know I can’t, Seulgi. But you can. You have to.”
Seulgi finally turns towards her. Her eyes narrow with frustration.
“You can’t be a doctor here.”
“And you can’t be an engineer!”
Joohyun’s voice echoed across the pasture, getting caught by the wind and carried away to the sea.
The electricity around them fizzles out. Joohyun looks down at her feet. The weight of the world too heavy for the girl that once always had her head in the clouds.
“Just because my dreams are dying with my mom doesn’t mean yours are too.”
Another pair of feet enters her blurry vision and a pair of arms wrap around her waist.
Seulgi’s lips touches Joohyun’s temple as Joohyun’s tears soak her shoulder.
///
“Hey, I got you a graduation present.”
Seulgi pulls out a red velvet box from her pocket and opens it. Joohyun gasps.
“Seulgi. It’s a star.”
The diamond twinkles in the moonlight as the ocean rocked against the shore below.
“Yeah, well it’s just something for you to remember me by. Here, turn around. I’ll put it on for you.”
That night they exchange their first kiss.
///
They send letters to each other daily.
Joohyun writes about the town and her family. She’s decided become a teacher. If she can’t help the sick, then she’ll help the young. Maybe one of them will grow up to fulfill the dreams she never got to chase.
Seulgi tells her about the rigorous course work and hectic city life. She’s thinking about dropping engineering for architecture instead. Truthfully, she loves drawing more than numbers. She’ll lose some of her scholarship but she’s found a nearby ice cream shop that’s in need of help.
Seulgi tells her she misses her but bus tickets are expensive and she really can’t afford to miss a day of school or work. Her scholarship was strict and her boss even stricter.
Joohyun touches her necklace.
She understands.
But it still hurts.
///
The humid summer air chokes her mother’s lungs while heavy tears chokes Joohyun’s breath.
The dry winter air takes her mother’s breath away while Joohyun’s dreams withers in the wind.
Hundreds of miles away, Seulgi’s heart aches.
///
There are times when Seulgi really misses everything. The city can’t hone up to the bright sky by the ocean.
During these times she goes to the roof, closes her eyes, and pretend the city lights are like stars.
She wonders if Joohyun knows she’s not fine without her.
Tonight she breathes in the crisp autumn breeze and quietly sings to herself.
“Twinkle twinkle little star…”
///
Seulgi and Joohyun were sitting together under the stars as usual.
But this night, Seulgi is plagued with indecision. Earlier that day, her teacher asked her if she was interested in an engineering program in the city. She was young but very talented. Her teacher had smiled gently and said to think about it.
Seulgi lifts her hand and gazes at the stars through her spread out fingers.
“Joohyun unnie.”
Seulgi’s voice is soft and distant. Joohyun looks at her with curiosity. This isn’t the usual smiley kid she knew and loved.
“Yeah, Seulgi?”
Seulgi takes a deep breath and puts her hand down, never looking away from the night canvas.
“The sky is so big. Do you think the stars get lost too?”
Joohyun relaxes. She understands.
“Angels have wings. Not maps, doofus.”
Seulgi laughs at that. The weight in her chest flying away in the breeze.
“And what if I get lost?”
Joohyun smiles and laces their hands together.
“You have me.”
///
Seulgi walks up the stairs to her small apartment having just gotten off of work but she sees a familiar figure by her door. Her breath catches.
“Joohyun.”
The figure turns to her and Seulgi can’t remember seeing a more beautiful person ever in her life.
“I’m here. And oh my god you’re blonde!”
Joohyun closes the distance between them and runs her fingers through the light color. Seulgi’s heart pounds in her chest and her voice shakes in awe.
“Wh-What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you…and the city. I haven’t been here since-”
She trails off and Seulgi understands. Seulgi takes her hand and intertwines their fingers.
“How long are you here for? Have you eaten yet?”
Joohyun giggles at Seulgi’s eagerness and brushes her fingertips against the back of Seulgi’s hand, enjoying the familiar warmth.
“Yeah I ate an early dinner with my dad before coming here.”
Seulgi’s smile softens at the angelic sound. Her heart leaps at the sight of her necklace around Joohyun’s neck.
“Ah okay. Then, have you ever heard of karaoke?”
Later that night after sending Joohyun off to her bus, Seulgi falls asleep peaceful to Joohyun’s soft beautiful voice playing in her heart.
///
Seulgi comes home one day to a package at her door. Setting her keys on the counter, Seulgi opens the package to find a small jar filled with small colorful paper stars with a letter taped to the lid.
Her name is in the middle of the light pink envelope in Joohyun’s neat handwriting. The letter contains a simple sentence.
“Whenever a lucky star is made, a falling star is saved. Congrats on graduation!”
Seulgi smiles through her tears and begins to count.
One hundred and one stars.
///
Joohyun stands near the edge of the cliff looking at the moonlight shimmering amongst the waves. She shifts her gaze up and finds Sirius shining bright and strong in the dark night sky. She sighs and closes her eyes as her hand reaches to touch the diamond necklace on her chest.
A touch on her shoulder startles her out of her thoughts. She opens them to find familiar almond eyes staring back at her. Her throat catches and she can barely whisper out a name.
“Seulgi.”
A soft smile.
“I’m home.”
A/N #2: Apologies for any weird characterization. I'm more of a casual RV fan but this one potato loving weirdo likes Seulrene so yeah. Actually apologies for anything that doesn't make sense lol