jungeun finally reached her own home after a night out with her best friend, kim jiwoo. an outing at a simple bar that they usually went to every saturday on their days off from their own respective lines of work. always the same seat, but it never got boring—at least to jungeun. saturdays were the highlight of her week. sometimes jiwoo would even stay over, and vice versa. it was a time to themselves where they talked about anything and everything.
that night in particular, they reminisced memories from their past. jungeun sighed. her back leaned up against the door as she began to think about those times. she then brushed it off to get out of the uncomfortable feminine clothes she wore, but she always wore them when going out on those fridays because she knew that's what jiwoo likes on her. she always loved the compliments that jiwoo gave her.
about an hour later jungeun is sitting on her bed. a towel around her neck to keep the damp hair from making her uncomfortable. her laptop resting in her lap. she began to feel the topic of past come back up, making her look at the night stand that stood beside her bed, a framed picture of jungeun and jiwoo from their highschool graduation. and a smaller wallet sized picture slipped into the corner of the same pair at their middle school mock graduation. jungeun started to rattle at a memory she would never dare forget, the day she met jiwoo.
in 3rd grade during recess, jiwoo sat in the sand. minding her own business in the box alone as the other kids preferred the swings or the playsets provided. she was building a hill out of the grain, her reasoning supposedly being 'to give the tiny ants a home cause the other kids keep stepping on their houses.' but as she turned to peer over the plastic edge of the sandbox find a suitable stick to top off the home in the grass, she heard steps and a group of people. she wasn't too bothered figuring they wanted to pass the sandbox to get to the monkey bars, but as she turned around she felt rough grains of sand hit her face and rush down her clothes, which was just a flowery dress and stockings.
she looked up to see three boys towering over her sitting stance. "what are you doing?" said the boy in the middle. the dinosaur shirt he had on said he really meant business. jiwoo looked down at her now destroyed ant house "nothing." and that's when one of the boys on the side pushed the dainty girl down "well its stupid." he said blowing a raspberry at the girl who was getting specks the boys spit on her from his obnoxious act. just then, someone pushed one of the boys down. following that with punching the one who pushed jiwoo. the last boy who was simply a follower ran off, not wanting anything to do with it anymore. jungeun in overalls and a white tee reached her hand out to jiwoo to help her out the sand after the 3 boys scurried away to probably tell some teachers. jiwoo got up without words looking at jungeun with teary eyes, thankful for her. "im jungeun. those boys should know better." the more tomboyish girl had said with a small smile. "im..im jiwoo. thank you!" the smaller girl had said on the brink of happy tears before she wrapped jungeun in a tight embrace, causing jungeun to blush. "its... nothing. ill protect you from any bully! i promise" the girl said looking away slightly hoping jiwoo didn't know what it meant or notice how red her face was getting.
jungeun realized from that young age she started to like jiwoo. she knew for sure in middle school. they played a game of spin the bottle and ended up sharing a kiss. in that moment jungeun's heart spiraled. and jiwoo was just ready to spin again leaving jungeun the only one incredibly flustered. For that long, even after college, she still couldn't muster up the courage to confess to the younger girl. she felt so pitiful in that moment. 'how much of a fucking coward do i have to be? is it that hard? why cant i just do something right for once' jungeun thought to herself, her brain getting the best of her. her chest started to heave lightly as she started to sob slightly. but then remembering all the chances she had and how many missed opportunities she broke into tears. her hands immediately going up to her face. jiwoo never liked jungeun's face when she cried. but she always sat their to soothe her when she did. sometimes joining her in her tearful fits. but this was a battle the older girl had to face alone.
but as she cried and the only thing she heard was herself but she started to hear light sparkling once the sounds of her sobs decreased. like the sound you hear from a fairy type wind chime. jungeun removed her hands from her face, knowing she lived alone and shouldn't be hearing anything. but her hands didn't feel as light as before she cried. she looked down into her cupped hands to see sparkling objects shaped as stars that emitted a faint glow. her eyes widened in shock and in realization she wringed her hands out quickly in panic and in hurry. once the sparkly stars hit the carpeted floor it vanished. jungeun couldn't believe her eyes at that point. yeah maybe she thought aliens were real once upon a time but she didn't think she was one. the girl bolted up and went to the bathroom to see herself in the mirror. instead of the first thing she would notice being how puffy her eyes were, she noticed the stars that painted in streams down her cheeks. just like tears would.
in panic, she bent down letting some cold water run, frantically splashing it up on her face. when she looked back up the stars also somehow vanished. without a trace. but soon enough her vision became blurry and she swears that when she looks into the mirror that was clouded from her vision being so, there was a star replacing her pupil. but once she rubbed her eyes her vision was clear. she dried her face with the towel she had around her neck in shell shock mouth agape and eyes wide. soon after the first wave of shock the girl went to her bed and opened a default search engine on her laptop. 'why am i crying stars?' she typed in, cause of course the internet had the answer to every problem. it took a minute or two until she found an article that seemed professional enough. something worthy of believing. "star tear disease?" she read aloud faintly... then she took her time reading the reason it comes about, the answer could only be one thing. the answer so odd it stroke a need for verbalization from jungeun. "kim jiwoo."